By Fr Pat Amobi Chukwuma
The harvest time is a period of joy. The Holy Scripture says that those who sow with tears will sing with joy when they reap (Psalm 126:5-6). Harvest is the enjoyment of the fruit of one’s labour. A woman in labour is bound by grievous pains. Harvest is not associated with pains but with joy. Okonkwo in Things Fall Apart always enjoyed a plentiful harvest each year, unlike his father, Unoka, who was a loafer.
Once upon a time Unoka went to the shrine to sacrifice to the gods and to enquire why he always made a bad harvest. He offered a cock, tubers of yam and kola nuts to the gods for appeasement. The chief priest of the shrine came out boldly and instructed Unoka that he had neither offended the gods nor his forefathers. Then the chief priest asked him to take back his offerings and go back home and work like a man. Unoka departed home sorrowfully.
Humanly speaking, death is not a harvest but a painful period of bereavement of a loved one. It is a period of mourning and sorrow. The loss of a departed member is always painful. The obituary poster of a youth is normally captioned: “Painful Exit” or “Sunset at Dawn.” If it is an elderly person it is captioned “Glorious Exit” or “Transition to Glory.” Of course death is not the end of human life.
It is the temporal separation between the living and the dead. The living can communicate with each other physically, virtually or through phone call. There is a deep gulf between the living and the dead. When one of my siblings died, I tried to call him on phone but there was no picking. I was wondering why he couldn’t pick his phone any longer. It seems that the living and the dead remain incommunicado.
Why is it then that some modern caskets are installed with television sets, air conditioners and mobile phones? Perhaps the dead change phone number at death. Some time ago, I dialed the phone number of a deceased friend. It was picked and I was filled with joy that I can communicate with him again.
The voice at the other end replied, “It is not the voice of your deceased friend but the voice of his brother.” I sighed and dropped the phone. Are the dead not capable or allowed to receive phone calls over there? Are the dead no more aware of what is happening on earth? What is the distance between heaven and earth? I need urgent answers to these questions.
On Easter Sunday 2025, the sick Pope Francis came out in wheel chair to salute his usual audience and to impart on them his Papal blessings. He lifted his right hand painfully as he was imparting the blessings. He even read the text held before him. The audience was filled with exceptional happiness to see the sick Pontiff once more.
The joyful crowd was immersed in gladness as they received the 2025 Easter Blessings from the sick Vicar of Christ. Hardly did the people know that it was his last pontificate on earth. At the end of the colourful Easter event, he was wheeled back to his sick bed.
Unfortunately on Easter Monday morning, there was breaking news that Pope Francis has gone back to his Creator. The audience who was filled with gladness the previous Easter Sunday was thrown into mourning. Pope Francis has transited from temporality to eternity in question of hours. His body has become lifeless.
A medical doctor came and confirmed him clinically dead. He was waving to the world as death was capturing him. His remains were simply preserved against decay and were laid in state for days for public last respect. I am glad that his face was not gloomy but smiling. The Saints smile unto death while the damned depart in sorrow.
Whenever you pay the last respect to the departed while lying in state, observe whether the corpse is smiling or gloomy. Smiling is the sign of hope while facial sadness is the sign of hopelessness. The last moment in one’s life matters. Please when death knocks at your door, open without delay and welcome him with smiles.
The Parish Priest of Immaculate Catholic Church Uga in Aguata Local Government in Anambra State of Nigeria, Reverend Father Chukwuma Philip Ofojebe, announced to his parishioners the demise of the Pontiff on Easter Monday. The parishioners were grieved and prayed for his happy repose.
He was healthy and full of vitality. After three days, the parish priest performed his routine daily spiritual and social activities and ended the day with household evening prayer. Later he retired to his room on that fateful Thursday night being 24th April 2025. Around 11.00p.m, he felt uneasy and his breath was failing him. Courageously he descended downstairs and attracted his sleeping household.
All rushed out and saw him wreathing in pains. He asked them to rush him to the hospital immediately. Luckily his vicar was available on the ill-fated night. He helped Father Ofojebe to enter his vehicle. He drove with unimaginable speed to the said hospital. Unfortunately, the sick priest couldn’t make it. He bowed downed unconsciously at the hospital gate and gave up the ghost. What could have caused his sudden demise?
Death, why are you so wicked to snatch an exemplary priest and a committed clinical psychologist without any premonition? You left trouble-makers roaming the streets to snatch a good man and a worthy priest of God without any chance of saying goodbye to his parishioners, deanery members and patients waiting for him in his psychological clinic? The late Father Chukwuma Ofojebe invited me for 6 days Lenten retreat in his parish in April this year.
He told me that the Holy Spirit instructed him to tell me that I was commissioned from the throne of glory to preach the retreat for the adults in his parish. Since I must not disobey the Holy Spirit, I obliged. We ended the annual retreat on Friday 11th April. It was really fruitful. On that memorial Friday morning, after morning Mass and retreat blessing, Father Chukwuma Ofojebe expressed his gratitude for my pastoral assistance and spiritual uplifting of his parishioners.
He gave me a big purse which I lifted with my two hands due to its heaviness. As I was driving back to my parish on that farewell Friday Morning, Father Chukwuma Ofojebe waved at me with exceptional smiles. Hardly did I know that would be our last physical contact on earth. Exactly two weeks after, being Friday Morning 25th April, the news of his sudden demise reached my ears. It seemed like a dream. I rushed to his parish at Uga to confirm the veracity of the sudden departure to eternity.
On reaching his rectory, I saw his cook sitting on bare floor and was crying profusely. The reality of the sad news became clear. I wept myself. After some hopeless moments, I walked upstairs to see the vicar who conveyed the dying priest to hospital. He narrated to me all that transpired.
I fell into a trance instantly and saw the ghost of the late Father Chukwuma Philip Ofojebe hovering around but I couldn’t touch him. A deep gulf has separated the two of us. I went around and glanced over the things he left behind. The small fishes in his fish pond were swimming gallantly without the knowledge that their breadwinner has gone to world the beyond.
In the chapel, his daily prayer books were lying idle. His vicar, the cook and his two houseboys were wondering what next. The parish catechist and secretary stood speechless outside their office block. The catechist cried and told me that such a sudden demise of their parish priest has never happened since the parish was created many years ago. I talked heart into him. Then he walked sorrowfully away.
Still in the same Octave of Easter, three priests from Ikot Ekpene Diocese died respectively on 21st, 22nd and 24th of April. Yet another priest from Nnewi Diocese also died within the same Easter week. One of Ekwulobia diocesan priests in diaspora wondered thus: “Quite unbelievable. Fr. Philip, what happened? What is even happening this week? The Pope died, 3 priests from Ikot Ekpene died (21st, 22nd & 24th).
Msgr Gab Onuorah died today also. God rest your souls.” One jovial priest said that they are not dead; rather they volunteered to carry late Pope Francis heavy luggage and accompanied him into heaven. Whatever is the matter, we are mourning their group departure. May God grant them eternal rest and console their bereaved ones still sojourning on earth. We shall all join them over there when the time comes. God be with you till we meet again!
