Shikrot Mpwi - Sunday Synopsis with Fr. Justine J. Dyikuk
Sixth Sunday of Easter, Year, A – May 21, 2017
Readings:
Acts 8:5-8,14-17; Responsorial Psalm Ps 66:1-3,4-5,6-7,16,20;
1 Pet
3:15-18 & Gospel John 14:15-21.
Theme:
I Will Not Leave You Orphans!
In April 2015, the Cable News Network, (CNN)
published a heartbreaking news about the seamless ease with which children, orphaned
by Boko Haram insurgent attacks are being sold by the administrators of
makeshift Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) Camps in Yola, the Adamawa State
capital. By 2016, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that over 49,000
children were orphaned by Boko Haram crisis in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno
State. On February 13, 2017, Premium
Times reported Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State as saying: “We have
an official record of 52,311 orphans who are separated and unaccompanied”
during the annual Murtala Mohammed Memorial Lecture at the Shehu Yar’Adua
Centre, Abuja.
Such grim and staggering statistics prepare
us for a reflection on the plight of orphans in the light of gospel. Being an
orphan is one of the worst human tragedies. Whenever you talk about orphans,
those who wear this robe cry ceaselessly. The fact that nothing can replace the
love of parents shows the vulnerability of children who grow without father, mother
or both parents. For most orphans, the thought of having to grow without
parental care comes with the feeling of rejection and inferiority complex. The
pain of being an orphan is both personal and real.
I remember Fr. Gabriel Gowok of Pankshin
Diocese asking me, “which orphanage do you belong to?” just as we were about
processing for the requiem Mass of his late Father, Baba Thomas Gowok. Perhaps
he was saying that to calm his nerves but the question reminded me of the fact
that I am also an orphan – I lost my father on the May 19, 2007 and my mother
on January 3, 2017. The ten years my
parents gave each other were an admixture of trials for the family but now that
I and my 6 siblings are complete orphans, the saying of Jesus in the gospel, “I
will not leave you orphans” makes meaning to us.
To put our reflection in perspective, we must
understand that although the disciples of Jesus were overjoyed at his resurrection,
they were nonetheless disturbed because was ascending to the father. They were
perplexed and had many unanswered questions, much as they had when He was
crucified – Was He going to leave them as orphans? How would life be when their
Lord and Master returns to the father and is no longer physically present with
them? These troubling questions made the apostles sick as they struggled to
understand the events that would unfold.
