“RISE, TAKE THE CHILD AND HIS MOTHER”

HOMILY FOR THE SOLEMNITY OF OUR LADY QUEEN OF NIGERIA

Rev. Fr. Ezekoka Peter Onyekachi

Whenever God wants to acts, he prepares the ground. During the preparatory stage, things may go rough, tough and unbearable. But we must realize that the roughness, toughness and the unbearable state is to make the ground fertile, just as the tilling of the soil makes the land arable for farming. This is the situation we find in the Gospel of today (Matt. 2:13-15.19-23) whereby Joseph, Mary and the little Child Jesus witnessed some roughness with the society they found themselves. God was protecting the little Child Jesus for the singular purpose of salvation which he has come to accomplish. But this protection however must involve a divine mandate of rising and travelling to another country which actually would not be easy for the nursing mother and the man due to the stress and burden involved in having to relocate to another place. And so, there was a divine mandate to relocate. The action of God many a time comes with a mandate. This is the mandate of guidance and protection. It is a mandate that projects deliverance and safety. Rise, take the child and his mother. The child is Jesus, the mother is Mary and the receiver of the mandate is Joseph.

Joseph was wonderfully instructed. The family of Jesus noticed the first danger which was the plot to find and kill Jesus. Herod had become very upset when he heard that a child king was born. We can imagine how difficult it is harming a child, especially to kill it. Yet, it happens if we grow so wear the cloak of pride and envy. Joseph was then miraculously warned to flee into Egypt. God knows all and rules over all. He knew Herod’s plot when no one else knew. So, God moved to protect the life of his son and the mother. Egypt was a place to seek refuge. From the beginning of Jewish history, many had sought refuge in Egypt. For instance, the large city, Alexandria had over a million Jewish emigrants. God’s grace can be seen in the traumatic movement of Joseph and Mary into Egypt. He led them to flee into a country where they could easily settle down and find friends. And exegetes have made us to know that Jesus was in Egypt for six to seven years. The flight to Egypt prevented Herod from getting a hold on the child.

We must then work to identify the evil that rushes to strangulate the good in us. That evil knows that when the good is actually fully blown, it will become totally victorious. The evil in Herod knew that if the child Jesus is allowed to grow, he will destroy it totally. That evil was hiding under and playing on the selfishness and pride of Herod, but Herod never saw it. He was thinking in terms of political leadership. The fear of Herod was unfounded and really ridiculous; how can a child become a threat to a ruling king? Can the child initiate a coup d’état? And because of this singular fear of losing the grip of leadership, Herod slaughtered many children. What an abominable act; an infanticide that left many homes in agony for years. He did not comprehend the message of the First Reading of today (Isaiah 11:1-10) that the root of Jesse shall stand as an ensign to the peoples; him shall the nations seek and his dwellings shall be glorious. He never knew that the message had a spiritual connotation not political one.

 

Today, we celebrate Nigeria at 57. Is our country like a nursing mother to us just as Mary was to Jesus?  Can we really borrow a leaf from the situation in the Gospel and apply it to Nigeria? It is true that the plans of God may meet some opposition at the earlier stages of development due to the tendency of the devil to clamp down the good, more especially during the nascent stage. Can we really say that the roughness and toughness the citizens of Nigeria still experience after 57 years of existence enters this module? Can we regard Nigeria to still be at its nascent stage? Personally, I am inclined to allude that the founder fathers of this country, which can actually not be regarded as a nation did not work well to fight against the evil which came to destroy Nigeria when she was still nascent. That evil came to destroy, and none of them dictated it on time, and so, the patriotism which the citizens ought to have for the country was murdered in the hearts of even the unborn Nigeria. They did not listen to the voice of God that was calling them to rise, take the child and his mother and run to Egypt.

That call to run to Egypt was a call for protection, of deliverance, and of safety. It was barely few years after the Independence that the Country witnessed a civil war, the war which took the lives of millions of people. There was an accord which was meant to be followed; and that was the aburi accord. It was on the 4^th January 1967 that a two-day meeting of the supreme military council was held in Aburi –Accra Ghana which was summoned by the General Ankara of Ghana. This was held to resolve the tension and the crisis of confidence which had arisen in the Country.  There was conflicting interpretations of this accord by Colonel Ojukwu and by General Gowon. Ojukwu had claimed that it was agreed that the regions should move slightly apart adding that only by moving apart could the regions co-exist. He contended that Nigeria needed association not unity. Gowon on his part rejected Ojukwu’s interpretation adding that it would lead to the end of Nigeria as a country. Those leaders allowed their selfish desires to affect the interpretation of this accord.

That accord was the call of God to rise and take the child and his mother. It was the call to be on the alert as against the impending danger of the civil war. But since the hearts of the leaders were so filled up with unfounded fears of losing the grip of power (just as Herod had the fear), the devil made use of their vices and caused a civil war to erupt which took the lives of millions (just as the innocent babies lost their lives in Israel during the time of Herod). If they had listened to the divine mandate voiced out in the aburi accord, those lives would not have been lost. If they had sub-pedalled their selfish whims, caprices and aggrandisement, the lives of the millions would not have been lost.

The leaders then were unable to avert this homicide which was actually genocidal. They directly or indirectly allowed it to continue for some selfish reasons, without looking at the greater package of saving the lives of the people they were meant to protect. Ever since this war, ethnic rivalry was widened, patriotism became merely a concept, and nation building became ethnic building, to the extent now that the federal character of leadership emphasized in the constitution is no longer considered a guiding principle for appointments. The insecurity, lingering problems of ethnic wars and underdevelopment all can be linked to that war which would have been averted by dialogue and justice in nation building.   

After their stay in Egypt, another message came. Joseph and Mary needed again to rise now and return to their homeland because Herod had died. When we obey the mandate for protection, then we are placed on the pedestal of receiving another mandate of possession. They were patient, waiting for God’s direction, and in God’s time, He moved and directed them back to Israel. They possessed back their land. After the safety and protection already assured by the flight, there can now be possession. They lived to fight again, because the time for fighting back had not come yet. The child was still humanly unprepared and humanly powerless. They were protected because they had to listen to the divine mandate that called on them to protect themselves by the flight to Egypt. Matthew sees this flight as a fulfilment of the word spoken by Hosea in 11:1. Egypt became the place of safety and protection.  

How often have we failed to listen to the divine mandate that calls on us to rise and protect those realities that are dear to us; realities like our families, our Church, our businesses, our life with God, our life aspirations? Many times, we are called to the place of safety but because of disobedience, we allow ourselves to get killed. Many a time too we look unto the roughness of the travel involved in our rising for protection and do allow what we must actually have protected to be killed at the nascent stages. For instance, many crises witnessed today could have been prevented long ago if we had listened to the divine call.

Today, there is a call on all of us to rise and protect our families, our societies, our world, our life aspirations, and any other thing which has been entrusted into our care. We are called to toe the line of this family who struggled to protect the life of Jesus and to see that the divine will is not affected by any person or evil. We must protect others spiritually and physically. The spiritual protection is to ensure that we do not lead others astray or into sin or scandalize fellow Christians by the way we live our lives. We must pray for one another for liberation as against the devil’s possession. The physical protection is to work as our faith directs us for the presence of God’s kingdom on earth in the various spheres we find ourselves. And this is why we entrust Nigeria to the maternal care of Mary who together with Joseph protected Jesus when the devil was prowling round seeking for whom to kill (cf. 1 Pet. 5:8). In our days, may justice flourish and peace till the moon fails (cf. Ps 72:7). As the queen, we continually ask her to protect the lives of the people living in this country as she did the live of her son, Jesus. May we experience this protection now and always. Amen. God bless you.