By Rev Fr Robert Anagboso
Amid the celebration of World Day of Consecrated Life by the Catholic Church, Sunday 2 February 2025, the Catholic Bishop of Awka, Most Rev Paulinus Ezeokafor, has urged consecrated men and women in Awka Diocese to become faithful witnesses in today’s world by faithfully living out the evangelical counsels of chastity, poverty and obedience.
The World Day for Consecrated Life, celebrated annually on February 2, takes on special significance this year, as the Church prepares for the Jubilee of Consecrated Life scheduled for October. The celebration coincides with the feast of the Presentation of the Lord and is marked by the symbolism of light.
In his homily during the Holy Mass marking the celebration at St Patrick’s Catholic Cathedral in Awka, Bishop Ezeokafor emphasized how the evangelical chastity liberated the religious from undue attachment to worldly pleasures, setting them as the beacon of example to the world.
‘The people of the world cannot understand how healthy young men or women have chosen to deny themselves the rights of conjugal intimacy,’ declares the Prelate, who maintained that ‘Our relevance to the people of God stems from our faithfulness to the sacred celibacy where we have voluntarily given up marriage and other pleasures of the body, which many people pursue as a way of life, for the sake of the kingdom of God,.’
Bishop Ezeokafor noted that consecrated chastity, rooted in the Blessed Trinity, offered a powerful witness in a world often marked by unfaithfulness in relationships, even in the sacramental married life.
‘We swim against the current but that is what we are called to do, to set and live by example for others to follow and get encouraged to pursue the holiness proper to their own vocations in life,’ Bishop Ezeokafor said, insisting that ‘the religious could not afford to fail God, the Church and the world.
‘All over the world, the Catholic Church is respected today, largely because her clergy and religious embraced the evangelical counsels. Everyone knows that it is very difficult to faithfully live them out. But the Church is also fiercely attacked on account of the unfaithfulness of some of her clergy and religious in living out what we have publicly undertaken to embrace,” the prelate said.
As a panacea, Bishop Ezeokafor called on the religious gathered at the Cathedral to model their lives after whom they followed.
‘Jesus is our model. Our lives must be patterned after his, otherwise there is the risk of being swept off by the counter current.
‘Failure to imitate the Master can lead to a life of rascality, where even the people of the world will be shocked by the scandalous life of the religious,’ the Prelate further said, warning the religious against damaging the image of their various congregations or institutes.
‘When a religious goes against the rules, regulations and guiding principles of his or her particular congregation, that religious brings bad name to the congregation and destroys the image of the group.
‘It is painful that the action of one single person can destroy the entire integrity others have been making effort to build,’ lamented the Bishop, even as he called on the religious to live not only by the commandments of God, but also by the rules and regulations of their particular congregation.
Bishop Ezeokafor equally counselled the religious that every vocation in life had the grace of God attached to it which amply enabled the person to faithfully live out the demands of their vocation.
He urged the religious to find happiness and fulfillment in their religious life and calling, noting that God had given them sufficient grace to be happy and fulfilled in their vocation.
‘Do not seek or wish for any other life contrary to the religious life you have already chosen at the time of your profession or ordination,’ the Bishop concluded.
