CATHOLIC IDENTITY AND SOLIDARITY

LETTER TO THE PEOPLE OF GOD

CATHOLIC IDENTITY AND SOLIDARITY

My dear People of God,

Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ! I wish to reflect with you on the implications of being members of the Catholic Church. I am doing so because I have experienced the disastrous consequences of lack of true communion and commitment that go to make a truly Catholic community. We need to reflect together on the characteristic notes of a true Catholic Christian community and see how we can become truly who and what we are: members of the Body of Christ, members of the household of the living God, members of the Family of God, members of the community of faith, hope and love, indeed, “ a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God” (1 Peter 2:9).

Our people believe strongly in the solidarity of the family. We say, “Ikwu ka na nne” (The bond of association is stronger among blood relatives). The membership in a given family, both nuclear and extended means a lot to the average Igbo person. He or she will do everything possible to maintain the membership of the family and to ensure his or her solidarity with the family. The importance of this family solidarity is expressed by Igbo people in their sayings and proverbs. Umunna bu ike (The extended family or clan is the strength of anyone). It is evident that the large or extended family has numbers. Gwuru gwuru bu ugwu eze (A large retinue shows the grandeur of the king). The sense and feeling of belonging and the efforts to express concretely that belonging ensure the solidarity of the clan or umunna.

The most painful punishment on anybody is ostracism, cutting off relationship of a person with other members of his or her clan. It is for the Igbo people a type of death. Igbo people aware of the need for kinship solidarity dread this punishment. They do all in their power to avoid ostracism. They say, “onye ya na umunna ya akwuro, o nwuo, o ga-eli onwe ya. O buru na olie onwe ya, aka ya ga-aputa”. The terrible spectre of a person who is not with the members of his extended family becomes real at death when the dead person might have to bury himself or herself with the telltale of the hand sticking out, something simply inconceivable. The result is often the tyranny of umunna. The members exploit the dread of ostracism to impose the collective will of the clan or extended family and lately, of the village or town on every member.

It is true that the family identity and solidarity function positively to ensure the safety and security of the members. They provide support in time of difficulties and need. Members of the family have a strong sense of the community and help one another. At bereavement, they come together to share out task and responsibilities, often contributing money and material to assist the persons directly affected. Assistance among members of the family or clan ensures social cohesion and provides the needed help to access education, learn trade or start off a business. People are available and indeed, their presence is required on the occasion of marriage and other events of rejoicing and feasting. This sense of belonging and solidarity is a concrete expression of what St. Paul urges: “Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another” (Rom 12:15-16).

Indeed, the Igbo family identity and solidarity provide a paradigm for our reflection on the Church in our place as the Family of God. It calls to mind the paradigm of the early Christian community in which the believers “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to breaking of bread and to prayer… All the believers were together and had everything in common” (Acts 2:42, 44). The unity and harmony among the members of the early Christian community were outstanding: “All believers were one in heart and mind” (Acts 4:32). St. Paul made a passionate appeal for unity to the Christians in Philippi: “If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose” (Phil 2:1-2). Unity and solidarity are the hallmarks of Christianity. This unity and solidarity flow from the Christian identity.

A Christian believer, reborn of water and the Holy Spirit has become incorporated into Christ and becomes one with other believers in Christ. He or she becomes a member of the Mystical Body of Christ. He or she becomes a member of a new clan, a clan of those who through baptism are new beings in Christ and are expected to live a new life (see Rom 6:4). The new state of the Christian flows from the transformation wrought by baptism, which is not only washing away of the dirt of the old being but also a regeneration of a new person configured in the image of Christ, the Son of God. This new situation is compared and contrasted with the identity and unity of the Igbo clan. Archbishop Albert K. Obiefuna at the First Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops for Africa made the resounding declaration that the water of baptism should be more powerful than the blood of natural family kinship. The Christian is incorporated into a strong network of relationship that is mystical and real. How real this identity and unity are to most Catholics is a matter of concern.

St. Paul even in prison for the faith urged Christians to live a life worthy of their calling: “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit – just as you were called to one hope when you were called – one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and father of all, who is over all and through all and in all” (Eph 4:1, 3-6). The new reality is a body of which the believers are members. This analogy is given by St. Paul and urged strongly by him on all Christians: “The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were baptized by one Spirit into one body – whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free – and we were all given one Spirit to drink” (1 Cor 12:12-13). This unity is further stressed in his letter to the Galatians: “You are all sons [and daughters] of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave or free, male or female, for you are all one in Christ” (Gal 3:26-28).

The Christian understands himself or herself as a part of a universal brotherhood [and sisterhood] as people belonging to the family of God. The relationship in this family is supposed to be stronger than the bond that comes from blood relationship. The English proverb states that blood is thicker than water but it should not be thicker than the water of baptism. The water of baptism has been transformed by the Holy Spirit to be more potent than blood. Jesus said: “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit” (John 3:5-6). He continues in another place: “The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life” (John 6:63). Christians call one another “brothers” and “sisters”, and this is real.

The teaching of St. Paul emphasises this family relationship. We are all members of God’s family. St. Paul was able to inculcate this lesson in the case of the runaway slave, Onesimus. This slave belonged to a Christian called Philemon. Onesimus had escaped from his master and became a believer in the meantime. In sending him back to the master, St. Paul was aware that the usual punishment for Onesimus was death. But he relied on the new relationship existing among them and sent him back to his master with this moving words, “Perhaps the reason he was separated from you for a little while was that you might have him back for good – no longer as a slave, but better than a slave, as a dear brother. He is very dear to me but even dearer to you, both as a man and as a brother in the Lord” (Philemon 15-16). The slave had become the brother of his master because they share one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all (see Eph. 4:4-6).

One wonders why it is difficult for us to accept this relationship based on the water and Spirit of our baptism! Christians and Catholics at that still hang on the status which are based on traditional ideas. The strongest influences come from the traditional societal structures. For the majority of Catholics, blood is thicker than the water and Spirit of baptism, leading to very unchristian attitudes of discrimination and sometimes downright rejection of people who do not share blood relationship with the group even when they had lived together for centuries. Such people are regarded as strangers by the traditional society. But how can Christians call fellow Christians strangers and behave to them like strangers? We need to have that radical transformation to understand ourselves and one another in Christ. We must overcome the divisions and discriminations of the traditional society based on the narrow and localised concept of humanity and embrace the universalistic view of humanity given us by Christ. Consequently, we have to join the new humanity in which there are no foreigners and aliens, but all are fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household (see Eph. 3:19).

Similarly, the unfortunate categorisations of people according to the practices derived from African Traditional Religion still exist and are blots on the Christian community. How can a Christian still discriminate against another Christian because his or her forefather consecrated himself to a deity or idol as its slave or osu. Christians do not recognise idols or deities and should not accept any categorisation based on any relationship with idols or deities. Unfortunately, the contrary is the case. This is one thing that challenges our adherence to Christ in whom there is no slave or freeborn. Any Christian who continues to accept and act on the osu or ohu social stigma is not a true Christian. Igbo Christians should put on Christ and live and act as people born to a new form of existence in which there is no discrimination or division based on race, ethnic origin, sex or social status. We Christians must realise our common identity.

This common identity calls for solidarity in all aspects of life. The believers in the early Christian community cared for one another such that there was no one in want among them (see Acts 4:34). Why is there no such solidarity among Christians, especially Catholics in our area? Not only do people not care for one another but they persecute one another, especially on their position towards traditional institutions that are tainted with idolatry or fetish practices. In some communities, Catholics join pagans and non-Catholics to ostracise fellow Catholics who refuse to have anything to do with ofo, or who refuse to participate in mmanwu ozoebune, who do not join in traditional cleansing or oath taking or similar aberrations. Such Catholics are only Catholics in name. They do a lot of damages in the Church, and to fellow Catholics who are struggling to live by the strict tenets of the Christian religion as taught by the Catholic Church. It is clear that the greatest enemies to the Catholic faith are Catholics who do not realise and cherish their Catholic identity. The umunna, village, town and other identities are more important to them and they are prepared to jettison their Catholic identity if this comes into conflict with their other identities.

It is also a sad fact that Catholics go to court against one another contrary to the wise counsel of St. Paul. It is a shame to the whole Catholic community that there cannot be found anybody in the Catholic community wise enough to judge disputes between believers. Rather Catholics will take their disputes to civil courts or to iba where people who do not share our beliefs and morals sit in judgement over saints. In some instances, swearing on juju or pagan idols is prescribed by umunna or the elders (Ndichie). For St. Paul and for any true believer in Christ it is unthinkable that one brother in Christ will go to law against another – and this in front of unbelievers (see 1 Cor 6:1-8). In the spirit of our common faith, we should be ready to submit our disputes to arbitration or adjudication before the Lord, either to our bishops, priests or Christian elders. Similarly, Catholics must be prepared to submit to wise counsels of the elders of the Church in politics and other matters. Nobody should be selfish or divisive in these matters.

Another area in which many Catholics fail to live up to the brotherhood which we share in Christ is in our relationship with one another with regards to material possessions. Some Catholics defraud one another. In the market and offices, some Catholics exploit others and do not consider that in doing that they are wronging their brothers and sisters. What of those Catholics who seize the property of the poor, or take advantage of widows and orphans, depriving them of their inheritance and property! True religion in the words of St. James is “to look after orphans and widows in their distress” (James 1:27). The early Christians cared for widows (see Acts 6:1; 1 Tim 5:3-16). God commands fundamental option for the poor, widows and orphans. They need our care as our weaker brothers and sisters.

We Catholics need to recognise our common identity as Catholics. O Catholics, acknowledge your identity! Recognise the power of the water with which you were born again by the Holy Spirit in the baptism of salvation! Rejoice in the fellowship which you have in the body and blood of Christ! St. Paul calls us to realise the deep and strong communion which we have in being members of the one Mystical Body of Christ and in sharing in the Eucharistic body and blood of Christ. “Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we partake of the one loaf” (1 Cor 10:16-17). Let us come to our senses. Let us learn from other Christian groups. They stand together on issues when we go each his or her way. They encourage and support one another, when we tear one another to pieces and fight against one another. The saddest thing is that we all go to Holy Communion but still continue in enmity, conflicts and divisions! Let us know who we are and recognise whom we receive in the Holy Communion and live the unity and solidarity required of believers in the one Lord Jesus Christ and of communicants in His Most Holy Sacrament of unity and love!

As the whole Church prepares for the Second Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops for Africa on the theme: The Church in Africa in Service to Reconciliation, Justice and Peace, ‘You are the salt of the earth… You are the light of the world (Matt 5:13, 14)”, we have to work on ourselves and our Catholic communities to bring about a renewed sense of identity and belonging flowing from our baptism and the word of God. We have to work assiduously for Catholic communities that are vibrant and united in heart and mind and devoted to the apostles’ teaching (unity of faith), to fellowship (unity and solidarity in love), to the breaking of bread (sacramental unity) and to prayer (unity of worship). May the light of Christ shine anew in the lives of all believers so that others can see in our lives and communities the radiance of love and unity through which Christ was recognised in the early Christian communities! Standing together both in joys and sorrows, especially under persecutions, Catholics should witness to the love of Christ in us and in our Church!

“May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all” (2 Cor 13:14). Amen!




Most Rev. Hilary Paul Odili Okeke
Bishop of Nnewi