By Fr Pat. Amobi Chuwkuma
From the biblical account of the creation of the world as narrated in the Book of Genesis, Chapter one, we learnt that everything created by God was good. Therefore, wickedness is not a creative act of God. He created an excellent world and everything in it within five days. On the sixth day God said, “Let us make man in our own image and likeness” (Gen. 1:26).
The image and likeness of God are no other thing but perfection. Wickedness is not an attribute of God. In a junior primary school class, the teacher taught her pupils that God is Father. Surprisingly, one little girl in the class objected by raising her hand. The teacher gave her audience to express her objection. She frowned and stated categorically, “Anti, God is not a father because my father is very wicked.
He beats my mummy every day.” She started crying. There was confusion in the class. Some were sympathizing with her while some were laughing. The teacher pacified the pupil by saying, “Your father is a weak and wicked human being. But God is the supernatural perfect Being.
He is not a wicked Father. He is the ever-loving Father who looks after his children from his throne in heaven. Please be patient. I shall come and advise your father to stop his wickedness.” The religious class continued.
God made man as male and female. As pure Spirit, God is an infinite Being. On the other hand, man is an animated finite being because he possesses body and spirit. The human body is liable to corruption while the spirit is immortal. God gave the first male and female human beings this mandate: “Be fruitful and multiply, subdue the earth” (Gen. 1:27). In essence they were not mandated to subdue each other. Subduing each other is wickedness at work.
The act of wickedness manifested later when Cain killed his brother Abel as recorded in Genesis Chapter four. He did so out of envy. Instead of subduing nature, he subdued his sibling. Thus wickedness is personified in Cain who later became a fugitive. He got married from nowhere and raised up wicked children.
Anyone who is wicked comes from the generation of Cain. On the other hand, any good person must have originated from the generation of Abel. Are you a descendant of Cain or Abel? The Holy Writ is right when it says, “A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit” (Mtt. 7:17). My Igbo People say, “Ihe agwo muru aghaghi ito ogologo. Ihe egbe muru aghaghi ibu okuko.” The literal meaning is that the offspring of a snake must grow long while the offspring of a kite must devour innocent chicken.
There is never a smoke without fire. Also the frog does not run about for nothing during the day time. It is the wickedness perpetrated by unknown persons in the evening of Divine Mercy Sunday, 7 April 2024, that gave birth to this write-up. It was around 8.00p.m on that fateful evening that the bruised body of a young girl between 16 and 18 years old was discovered by an eagle-eyed passer-by who alerted the Villagers of Obinikpa, Achina in Aguata Local Government of Anambra.
It was very close to the church where I am looking after God’s flock. Immediately, security men condoned the scene and kept Vigilance throughout the night. The murdered girl’s head and face were hacked probably with a small axe. Blood was all over her head and face. The assailants chopped her head and face like firewood. She was mercilessly killed on Divine Mercy Sunday.
The merciful Father was watching when the heinous crime was being committed. There were no traces that the bastardly and bloody act was done at the scene where the gruesome lifeless body of the girl was lying. Probably the wicked act was performed somewhere else and the bleeding body was inserted into the booth of the assailants’ car. Since it was dark the murderers drove to a lonely place and dumped the body, not far from the road under construction. I envisage that the spirit of the murdered girl would not allow them to sleep that night because blood is thicker than water.
Even though I cannot prove the innocence of the gruesomely murdered girl, the Divine Law forbids willful and wicked killing of any human being. I suspect that the late girl might have walked into her death. She was a victim of wickedness. Someone, after watching the gruesome and lifeless body of the girl, exclaimed, “What a wicked world!” Thus, I picked up from there.
Another person asked, “What is this world turning to be?” Yet another commented, “Nawa ooo! What is this? God have mercy on your children.” A popular Catholic priest after watching the gruesome face of the late girl stated, “Wicked people all over the place. What has this girl done to those wicked people? God of mercy, please save us!” Ironically, the wicked act was perpetrated on Divine Mercy Sunday. While God was manifesting his act of mercy on his sinful creatures on earth on that day, the merciless killers displayed their wickedness on the same day.
This barbaric act is not the first and the last. The problem of humanity is that he fails to learn from History. Hence, history continues to replace itself. The scooping of petrol from fallen tankers has sent many people into their untimely graves. Despite this, wherever tankers fall, many stubborn persons rush to the accident spot to scoop petrol. Unfortunately, they face the same fate of being roasted alive.
In a similar way, greedy girls meet their unfortunate deaths from the hands of their purported wicked boyfriends and associates. Many girls meet their waterloo by being lured with money and other ornaments. Some go to hotels to sleep with unknown men who murder them at last in cold blood. Many girls have been lured through phone calls to come to so and so places for fortunes.
Unfortunately, they meet their bloody end. Some girls who failed to disclose their destinations have rotted where their lifeless bodies were carelessly dumped. Some girls who visited their wicked classmates or friends are on the missing persons’ list. I advise their families to give up searching for them. Their funerals should be organized and performed immediately.
In fact there shall be wonders on the Resurrection Day. All those men and women declared missing will be located on that futuristic all-important day. Many girls and young women stand by road sides looking for lifts. Most often they are freely lifted by unknown drivers who descended from the tribe of Cain. Some of them are used for rituals. Girls/women, it is safer to spend money and board vehicles from known motor parks. Many girls or women who were offered lifts from the road sides have been transported into the land of the dead.
One of my local proverbs states that a fly without an adviser perishes with the corpse in the grave. Likewise a dog that is destined to get lost ignores the hunter’s whistle. Some of the so-called boyfriends and yahoo boys have wickedness implanted into their hearts. Many girls and women have gone and are still going.
We must shine our eyes to read the handwriting on the walls. It is an age-long statement that the love of money is the root of all evils (1 Tim. 6:10). Money cannot buy human life. Indeed, human life has no duplicate. Every human is unique. Any life lost is gone forever.