The immediate past provost of the college of education Gindiri, Msgr, Prof. CLETUS T. Gotan Msgr, has lent his voice to the issue of threat on the Bishop Kuka of Sokoto dioceses. The priest who spoke at the Requiem Mass of Lady Anna Jang (LSM) on the 15th January 2021, at St. Michael’s Catholic Church, Nassarawa Gwong, Jos. says that “While these days people make efforts to stop us, Priests, from carrying out our prophetic roles of condemning the abuse of power and denouncing what is not going well in the society, which they see as a threat to their interest, it is hard not to agree with the many who are saying that things are getting worse by the day in our nation”

This alter call is coming in the wake of calls and counter calls from many interest group on the Christmas message delivered by the Bishop of Sokoto titled “The middle grounds of optimism have continued to shift and many genuinely ask, what have we done to the gods? Does Nigeria have a future?”

full text:

A sermon delivered by Msgr, Prof. CLETUS T. Gotan during the Requiem Mass of Lady Anna Jang (LSM) on the 15th January 2021, at St. Michael’s Catholic Church, Nassarawa Gwong, Jos.

Readings were taken from: Wis. 4:7-15; Rom. 8:14-23; Lk 12:35-40

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

One Julie Callaghan, from Manchester, was once called during the night to go to a hospital where her mother was being treated for breathing difficulties caused by pneumonia. Julie and her family rushed to the ward, but they were told that they were too late to see their mother as she had died suddenly. When they were shown the body, they realized that she was not the one. Turning to the next bed, they saw their mother chatting with someone else. Commenting on this news, someone wrote: “I wish this had happened to me twice when I lost my parents, but on both occasions the news was true.” When I received the news of the sudden demise of Mrs Anna Anap Jang from her brother and the SGS, Plateau State Sir, Abok Danladi Atu KSGG, I wished it were not true, that it would turn out to be the story of Julie Callaghan’s mother. Unfortunately, ours is true.

I wish to express our sincere and deepest condolences to her aged father Atucop Azi Akabe Arin, her brother Prof Abok Danladi Atu and indeed the entire family for the loss sustained in her death. These past days have no doubt been hard times for the family and also for each one of us. I do not know what words of man could adequately console you on this great personal loss of a dear daughter, sister, mother and colleague. But I know that, like Martha and Mary in the Bible, true faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, whom Anna loved and served so much with passion and commitment, will give you consolation. I invite you to briefly look around to see the multitude of people here this morning. They represent just a small fraction of those who were impacted by your daughter and sister and it’s a sign of several things: of how much she was loved by so many; of how many people she reached out to and helped; how much we all want to be with you in this time of loss; and it’s a sign of how much we want to be close to Jesus together as we say goodbye to her and surrender her to the Father, who is kind and merciful, and who, as the Word of God assures us, He has prepared a place for her and everyone in the Family of God.

We also express our heartfelt condolences to the entire members of St Jerome outstation, Tina Junction which the late Lady Anna helped us so greatly to acquire, when I was here as the Parish priest and indeed the entire St Michael’s church community. St. Paul, the Apostle, reminds us in his Letter to the Romans 14:7-8 that: “None of us lives for himself only, and no one dies for himself only. For if we live, we live for the Lord, and if we die, we die for the Lord; so then, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.” Many of you knights and ladies of St Murumba here are her contemporaries and friends. I am sure, you had amazing memories and remarkable experiences with our sister. I pray that you will all be consoled and may the Lord Jesus grant you the strength and wisdom to console others. Amen.

On a day like this, we all need to pause and reflect deeply on the first reading – from the Book of Wisdom 4,7-15. That Ancient book contains deep spiritual insights and an unblemished understanding of the theology of Christian death. It says: “The upright man even when he dies before his time shall be at rest”. Brothers and Sisters in Christ, we are pilgrims on earth on a journey towards an end, and that end is “to rest in God our Creator”! Many of us are, however, so occupied with the distractions in the world; so preoccupied with the vanities on the way, that we have forgotten that we are on a journey, a journey that leads back to God, our resting place. Your age, your colour, your time, your profession, your wealth, your status is not the end; the only end is ‘to rest in God’. That is why, your time (be it morning, afternoon or evening) or your age (5, 10, 20, 25, 99) are not the most important things. What is more important for us as Christians are that we are on the right path to our Rest.

While the funeral Mass is not usually a place to list out the achievements of our sister Anna, we have here a wonderful woman who was a loving wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother who loved everybody and went out of her way to express her love to all. She no doubt ran a good race, fought a gallant fight and kept the faith, her crown of glory is secure. I have no doubts that the Lord has taken note of all her labours and He will surely reward her most adequately for all her good works. The funeral Mass is rather an opportunity for us to do two things. First, to thank God for the life of Anna and secondly, to pray for the repose of her soul, all in the context of this Eucharistic celebration.

First, we thank God for her life even if by every standard, Mrs Jang at sixty, did not live a very long life if, as the Bible tells us, the sum of our years is seventy, and eighty for those who are strong”. But again, she epitomized the saying of Abraham Lincoln that: “It is not the days in your life that matter so much as the life in your days”. Our daughter, sister and mother Anne packed a catalogue of sustained effort and achievements into the length of days that were given to her. May she rest in peace as with her, and for her, we thank God that she has run the race of life well, and kept the faith to the end. Her crown of glory is secure, as promised by the Lord Jesus for all those who love his coming and serve him well.

Every funeral challenges us, who are on this side of life, to think about our end. It will come, sooner or later, when and how, we do not know. It is foolishness to go through this life as if it will never end. Our lives in this world have importance and meaning only to the extent that it prepares us to a life that never ends. May God grant us wisdom to count our days well. We must heed the advanced warning of Jesus in the gospel passage today that “the Son of Man will come when you least expect Him.” (v. 40) and so that “you too must stand ready. Speaking about the coming of the Lord at the end of the world and how to prepare for it, the Word of God uses two images to make the point. One is the flood which overtook the unprepared people of Noah’s time. The other is the analogy of a thief in the night who always comes unannounced. We are warned that the Lord’s coming and the end of the world, as we know it, will occur suddenly and unexpectedly. It will come unannounced, springing a surprise on an unsuspecting world. Like a wise householder, therefore, we are urged to be watchful and ready.

But what does it mean to be watchful and ready? It does not mean to go about listening to and getting excited over the end-of-time prophecies and visions that have multiplied in our day. Rather it simply means to be more hard-working and faithful at our duties as responsible children of the world and God. To be watchful and ready in the words of the prophet Isaiah is “to go up to the mountains of the Lord…that He may teach us His ways so that we may walk in His paths.” To be watchful means to be vigilant. And what does it mean to be vigilant? “Be vigilant” means many different things. It could be: to grab the opportunity when opportunity knocks; not to waste time; to prepare for the coming of our death and the Second Coming of Christ and the fulfilment of the establishment of God’s Kingdom. But what are those things that we should be vigilant of at all times and pray for?

To be vigilant means to watch out for our death which is more certain than anything else in this world. All of us will experience death, as our common destiny. But also there is nothing more uncertain in this world than death itself in the sense that no one knows the day or the time that we will die. Death is like a thief that comes in the night, unexpected and so sudden. St. Paul advises us: “Realize what time it is. It is high time to be awakened from sleep. Your salvation is nearer than when you believed.”

When we look around us, it is clear that you and I are not disturbed about the warning of the Master, we are not awakened from sleep. What! with all the rough, tough and bad times innocent Nigerians are passing through, with loss of dear lives being experienced today? While these days people make efforts to stop us, Priests, from carrying out our prophetic roles of condemning the abuse of power and denouncing what is not going well in the society, which they see as a threat to their interest, it is hard not to agree with the many who are saying that things are getting worse by the day in our nation. This is not to deny that there are indeed some people, lucky they, who have not had it so good. But even their prosperity gets lost in the wider and deeper sea of the misery that is engulfing the vast majority. Basic human needs, the security of life and property, minimum level of peace and harmony in the land: these are not luxuries but the necessities of life that one should expect of any true government. Our land never knew the type of bloodshed experienced from religious extremists, political desperadoes, ritual killers, armed robbers, kidnappers, internet scammers, university cultists, and lynch mobs. The country is seemingly daily sinking into religiosity to the detriment of godliness. Our land is sick and needs healing. “If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves, and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land” is still a saying that is germane to our current situation.

As if this is not enough, Nigerians are now evolving culture of brutality unparalleled in the history of this nation. We seem sad to have learnt nothing from the Nigerian civil war which was a monumental disaster responsible for the loss of millions of innocent lives. What about the Maitatsine crisis which took hundreds of lives, the Miss World contest controversy which resulted in the loss of more innocent lives just as the Sharia crises created not only serious inter-religious tension but also loss of so many lives? Everyone is joining in the madness as militants/avengers, armed robbers and kidnappers and have not spared us moments of tranquillity. Criminals continue to attack and get away with all sorts of murders and destruction, in most cases never traced. Our roads, most of which are often constructed in a substandard manner due to corruption and compounded by zero maintenance culture, are theatres of death, especially during festive periods. The question is how who and what can stop all these violence and anomalies?

I find the message of a survivor from the catastrophic and extremely destructive Atlantic hurricane Harvey which took place some years ago in America quite instructive and very apt in the face of the welfare of all our citizens, the allegations of marginalization, hate speeches and confrontational postures which have led to threats and given an ultimatum to people to quit from certain regions. The man said: “Hurricane Harvey made me realise more that we are nothing on this Earth and the material things that we lose sleepover, we fight over, we lose a friendship over IS NOT worth it. The position, the status that we want everyone to know we possess, CANNOT save us. In minutes Barbuda lost 95% of its infrastructure. In minutes, people lost their houses, their businesses, their crops. Thank God, we have life. Let us be thankful that we have life and a chance to make things right with God, with family, and with friends. Let us love more, smile more, help more, and make peace with each other instead of fighting over things that are here now and could be gone in a matter of minutes. Our life is simply a breath; when that breath goes, life is over. Whatever we have accomplished in life was permitted by God who can take it all back in minutes. Let us acknowledge Him.

A funeral of a young woman of 60 like Mrs Anna Jang should call us to order and make us look back over all that is happening in our country to learn from the past and move on to the future with a renewed vision. It should be an opportunity to remember the past events and repent for the faults committed; redeem what is lost and return to the spirit of the founder, to the family; to rejoice for the graces received; receive the freedom of the children of God, recognize God’s mercy towards his people and re-dedicate and look forward to making ‘the Kingdom of God which is at hand’ (Mk.1:16).

We must be “witnesses to Christ in our society. In our homes, we should be parents who really care about their children, who spend time with them, and who still care for them even when they disappoint them. In our schools, we should be teachers who know their pupils and who take a personal interest in their well-being. In our hospitals, we should be doctors and nurses who care about their patients and who do not treat them as objects. In public life, we should be people who care about the welfare of others rather than their selfish interest. And last but not the least of all, we should be men of God who are willing to give a loving service to all including parents, teachers, doctors, nurses and civil servants.

To be vigilant means being awake for the Second Coming of Christ. On that day we will make an account of our lives. And I hope that this final day should not catch us by surprise. Let us be aware that we have to return what God has given to us as gifts but of course with fruits. Let us spend our limited time wisely in the service of God. Let us follow the advice of Jesus in today’s gospel, namely not to “become drowsy from carousing and drunkenness and the anxieties of daily life”.

The Bible gives us a clear example of people not being ready for the coming of the Lord – the people of Noah’s day. They weren’t ready to be whom God created them to be. Consequently, they weren’t ready for the flood. They were too busy with their lives to be concerned about God’s will and his Way. Like during Noah’s time, on the Day of the Lord, Jesus’ Second Coming, only one of two men in the field and one of two women at the mill will be ready for him. The others will be too busy. The Bible story does not say that the people, before the flood, were evil. It just says that they were unconcerned. This is the attitude of so many that we rub shoulders with every day. While most people may not necessarily try to be evil themselves, they are just unconcerned about having a place for God in their lives. The number of people of all faiths who worship regularly is far less than those who do not worship at all or who attend a Church, synagogue or mosque only a few times a year. Will they be ready when it is time to give an accounting of their lives on how well they have served God? We pray that they will return to God and live. We also can get so busy doing things, that we just don’t take time for the only thing, the only person who matters. We don’t make time for daily prayer because we are too busy. We attend Mass when it is convenient, but seldom change our schedules so we can go to Church. We all need to ask ourselves, “Am I ready for the Lord?”

“Don’t get caught napping,” the Gospel says. The Lord will come to complete his restoration of creation to God’s original plan. How will he find us? What will he find me doing when I least expect his arrival? What will he find you doing?

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Bish. Kuka’s Saga: “priest under the threat for carrying prophetic roles” -Gotan says