Christianity and national transformation (4)

Pope John Paul II (1920-2005) was a man of tremendous moral courage. Like Bonhoeffer, he too embodied the resistance of Christian faith to totalitarian regimes. Through his instrumentality, the walls of atheistic Communism crumbled in his home country of Poland in the 80s, largely as a result of his strategic infusion of Christian values into the social and political spheres. In his 26 years as a Pope, he cast a long shadow over world politics through his powerful writings and moral standing.

With the great civil rights activist and Baptist minister, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968) we saw how Gospel principles came alive during a period of moral crisis. Rev. King became the moral conscience of the American nation on the most important question of human dignity because he chose not to be indifferent on an issue that was already settled in the Declaration of Independence, that “All men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights.” His Letter from a Birmingham Jail is an indictment of the religious establishment in his days that would rather love him to keep silent than to upset the status quo.

The South African Anglican Archbishop and Nobel Peace Prize Winner, Desmond Tutu (b.1931) stood fiercely against apartheid in South Africa and has continued to stand against injustice wherever it exists and whichever guise it assumes. Against his resolve to quit the global stage, only last week he wrote a letter to his Burmese Peace Prize compatriot, Aung San Suu Kyi, asking her to rise up and speak out against the persecution of Rohingya Muslims. We can also speak about the great Albanian missionary and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Mother Teresa of Calcutta (1910-1997) who became the world’s symbol of love for the poor and destitute, or the Charismatic Filipino Cardinal Jaime Lachica Sin of Manila (1928-2005) who applied Catholic Social Teaching in his home country in the 1980s. He was instrumental in the 1986 People Power Revolution, which toppled the corrupt government of President Ferdinand Marcos, and in the 2001 EDSA Revolution that brought down the corrupt government of President Joseph Estrada.

These are just a few of the powerful Christian leaders of the twentieth century who became champions of social justice at different times, when their societies were in desperate needs of faithful disciples of Jesus Christ. Their lives and ministries challenge our complacency, our lukewarmness, and our indifference in the face of oppression, violence and injustice in our own society.

If contemporary Christianity is to become a force for national transformation in Nigeria, then all Christians must begin by shunning the culture of indifference. We must feel really concerned about what is happening around us. In his 2016 Message for the World Day of Peace (January 1, 2016), Pope Francis says that the reason our world is suffering from lack of love and compassion is because the cobweb of indifference is growing in our hearts. Many Christians are just insensitive to what is happening around them. We close our hearts to the needs of others and close our eyes to what is happening around us. We have no sense of involvement in what is happening to others. We don’t feel bothered. The sight of suffering never moves our hearts. If it does not touch us directly, it doesn’t concern us. Almost without perceiving it, we grow incapable of feeling compassion for others and for their problems. We have no interest in caring for them. We feel that their troubles and sufferings are their own responsibility and none of our business. When we are healthy and comfortable, we forget about others. Our hearts grow cold and hard like ice. Even the most touching sight of human suffering is unable to melt our frozen hearts.

Jesus passed a very strong message to us about this culture of indifference when he narrated the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus in Luke 16:19-31. The parable contains a profound message about putting the needs of others before our own greed. There are many Lazarus-es before our gates, waiting to eat the crumbs falling from our tables. We cannot turn a blind eye to their needs. In the Parable, it was not so much the abundance of his riches that was the problem but rather the fact that the rich man could not see the need of a poor man who had been strategically placed within his reach. There is nothing in the parable that indicates that the rich man was dishonest in his dealings. Neither did the Bible say that he maltreated the poor man called Lazarus who was at his gate. There was also no issue about the source of his wealth. The main problem really was that he just could not be bothered about Lazarus or his plights. This is the reason why the rich man failed to make heaven. Whether we want to admit it or not, far too many people around us that we know are going through hard times but do we care?

In the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Lk. 10:25-37), Jesus teaches us that our neighbour is anybody who needs our help, anyone we encounter on our way. My neighbour is that person who has no one else to help him but me. He is that person who may never get help if I do not help him. A neighbour is not to be defined by religious, cultural, or social origins, but by compassion for the other. Thus, Jesus teaches us to open our hearts and be moved to do something when we come upon someone in need of help. That person who needs my help, whoever the person is, is my neighbour. There is no question of nationality, tribe, creed, language or social status. He is simply a child of God. He is therefore my neighbour.

In the story of the Last Judgment (Matt. 25:31-46), Jesus highlights the crucial connection between attending to the needs of the poor and our eternal salvation. Those who enter heaven will be those who give food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, and clothes to the naked; who shelter to the homeless and visit the sick and imprisoned. Those who will hear the words, “Depart from me,” will be those who fail to carry out these acts of love and mercy.

Sometime ago, I found a very inspiring video on Facebook. It was about the Albanian missionary, Mother Teresa. Speaking at her award ceremony for the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1979, Mother Teresa narrated how on one occasion she brought a girl child from the street to her home for destitute children. Mother Theresa narrated: “I could see on the face of the child that the child was hungry. God knows how many days she had not eaten. So I gave her a piece of bread and the little child started eating the bread, crumb by crumb. I said to the child, ‘Eat the bread. Eat the bread.’ She looked at me and said, ‘I am afraid to eat the bread, because I’m afraid when it is finished, I will be hungry again.’”

This is the reality before us today. There is a remarkable quotation from Mother Teresa of Calcutta, which depict the criteria for our eternal judgment: “At the end of our lives, we will not be judged by how many diplomas we have received, how much money we have made or how many great things we have done. We will be judged by: I was hungry and you gave me to eat. I was naked and you clothed me. I was homeless and you took me in. Hungry not only for bread but hungry for love. Naked not only for clothing but naked of human dignity and respect. Homeless not only for want of a home of bricks but homeless because of rejection. Only in heaven will we see how much we owe to the poor for helping us to love God better because of them.”

Father Ojeifo is a priest of the Catholic Archdiocese of Abuja.