By Godwin Utuedoye,
Directorate of Social Communications
Says Mary Mother of God Remains Effective Instrument For Holistic Development Of The World
Catholic Archbishop of Benin City and President of the Catholic Bishop Conference of Nigeria CBCN, His Grace, Most Rev. Augustine Akubeze has that Holiness comes from our services to others, stressing that the Virgin Mary is the most effective instrument for holistic development in the world.
In a homily at the grand finale of the annual meeting of the Catholic Women Organisation of Nigeria CWON, held at the Mother of Redeemer Catholic Church Warri, Delta State, Most Rev. Akubeze noted that, in the Blessed Virgin Mary, we discover authentic holiness of life that sanctify the world.
He said the theme of the celebration points to the significant role the holiness of Catholic Women can affect in the holistic development of the world, adding that the more Holy Women like Mary we have, the better for our society.
He adds that holiness of life leads to development, while righteousness leads to growth that spreads to everyone.
Archbishop Akubeze stated that holiness of the citizens of nations will necessarily lead to justice and peace, this he noted; made it apt as the women focuses is on holiness.
He charged the women, on holiness as through holiness they will sanctify their families; the society and transform the nation.
Speaking on theme; “Catholic Women Called to Holiness to Sanctify the World for Holistic Development“, The archbishop draws his reference from the Gospel of Matthew chapter 5:48, where he stated that Christ invites us to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect. This he said is an invitation to a life of holiness. Referring to the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council, in Lumen Gentium, no. 4, he said it explained the Universal Call to Holiness as thus;
“The classes and duties of life are many, but holiness is one—that sanctity which is cultivated by all who are moved by the Spirit of God, and who obey the voice of the Father and worship God the Father in spirit and in truth. These people follow the poor Christ, the humble and cross-bearing Christ in order to be worthy of being sharers in His glory”.
With this he charges that; “Every person must walk unhesitatingly according to his own personal gifts and duties in the path of living faith, which arouses hope and works through charity”.
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI spoke on the Universal Call to Holiness during his General Audience of Wednesday, 13 April 2011, reiterated the fact that holiness is not an exclusive possession of a few. Everyone is called to a life of holiness. To live a life of holiness is to allow Christ to permeate our lives. To see with the compassionate eyes of Christ. To abhor sin because Christ gave his life to save us from sin. To live a life of sanctity is to love others the way Christ has loved us.
Pope Benedict XVI in his Encyclical Letter Caritas in Veritate On Integral Human Development in Charity and Faith outlined the principles that should guide the holistic development of the human person.
The Holy Father denounced the situation of technological development without significant impact on human life. Any technological improvement that does not further the growth of the world is not meeting the true meaning of development.
Today, we hear of growth in GDP, Growth in the IT world, the world is now a global village, you can reach a person in Russia live, you can speak directly using video call to someone in Denmark or South Africa. From Calabar to Sokoto, From Ibadan to Onitsha, the world is so close because of the development of technology. At the same time we know that more and more people are entering into poverty. The income disparity between the wealthy and the poor is growing wider. Can we truly say we are developing when we are literarily growing in poverty?
The Encyclical letter Caritas in Veritate, noted the teaching of Pope Paul VI on holistic development. For the Pontiff, development is to be judged based on how many people are lifted from hunger, deprivation, endemic diseases and illiteracy. Economic development is to be recognised as such only when it produces real growth that is beneficial to everyone (see Caritas Veritate, no. 21).
In our time, the world’s wealth is growing in absolute terms, but inequalities are on the increase (see Caritas Veritate, no. 22). If we want to contribute to a true holistic development, we must work to bridge the economic inequality in our society. You can start this from your family. To achieve development require you to be concerned about the progress not only of your direct biological children. It requires you to think of how you can help the children of your brothers, your cousins, relatives, and friends to complete their education.
He stated that there are some of us who have sent our children out abroad to very expensive schools, and yet we are not ready to help any of our nephews, or nieces to even complete education in a public Nigerian University.
“Wealth that is not shared never leads to development”.
Mary the mother of Jesus gives us a good example of how to contribute to development of the society through our personal sanctity. She left in haste to help Elizabeth her cousin during the latter part of her pregnancy. It is therefore worthy to praise the parents of Mary who inculcated these caring values into her.
Referring to the parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saints Joachim and Ann, Archbishop Akubeze said, they are true models of sanctity who transformed the Society.
He urged all to teach their children and grandchildren the Catholic faith, the value of patience, perseverance, contentment and the need to avoid the temptation of getting rich quickly and by any means. He also call on parents to teach their children to know that success is not judged only by financial power but more importantly by good name and by a blameless life.
He further charged mothers to also teach their children and wards that money gotten from yahoo yahoo boys, or girls befriending yahoo yahoo boys is a mark of failure and not success and that such lives do not lead to holiness and consequently does not lead to true development. “Teach them that traveling illegally to Europe is not the way to success in life”.
“Teach them that allowing themselves or engaging in trafficking of drugs is not the way to success. Teach them that trafficking themselves for sexual prostitution is not the way to success in life. Teach them that cheating to get good grades in school is not the way to success. Teach them that copying illegal short ways to material wealth is not success. Authentic success is only found in a life lived in holiness”.
All those who acquire wealth through illegitimate means, either by armed robbery, or by embezzling public funds, or kidnapping people for ransom, or ritual killing, can never have joy, peace, happiness in this world; and if they do not repent, will live a miserable life in the world to come.
Reiterating importance of Mothers in development of every society, Most Rev. Akubeze said; if Catholic Women in Nigeria decide to change our society they can do that through their individual families. He told them to be close to their children and never allow the pursuit of material wealth make them renege from your maternal duty as no one can replace the role of a mother in the house and no house help can take the place of a mother.
He also admonished the women that no father can take the place of a mother nor a school can take the place of a mother in the formation of child.
He warmed, “never forget that the children observe you and copy your examples much more than what you tell them, and so urged them to call on Saints Joachim and Ann to help them in raising the children so that the values inculcated into them can bear fruits like it did in the life of their daughter Mary.
Buttressing his charges, the archbishop also draws inferences from the readings of the day taken from the book of Exodus 20:1-17 and the Gospel of Mathew 13:18-23. He said in the first reading, Ten commandments of God were given and all of the commandments are meant to help us live lives of sanctity. He said the commandments are not burden placed upon us but help given to us to be on the part of salvation. And so he cautioned that we must not be selective of which of the commandments to observe.
He noted that there are some of us who never worship other gods, but they cannot keep away from gossiping which is a violation of the 8th commandment. We are not to bear false witness against others. He admonishes them to always be the one to break the chain of gossips in the parish, in the society, in your CWO whether at parish level or at Deanery or Diocesan or Provincial or National level, maybe this occasion is good for us to draw your attention to the too many in-fightings we hear among some of you, he said.
This he disclosed comes up especially during elections and handing over among you. There have been many petitions and counter petitions written against each other. Sometimes the wordings of these petitions scandalize the ordinary faithful. Why are some of you making election into offices almost like a do or die affair? Some have moved away from their parish just because they lost election. Some have stopped going to Church just because they didn’t get the position they wanted. There are some who are scheming and peddling falsehood about other candidates running for office. They spread all sort of lies just to ensure the person does not win. There are some who never feel that they owe it to the members to give financial account. Some cannot account for the money entrusted to them. Some misappropriate the fund for the organization. “Is this the way of God? Is this the way of Mary? Is this how to succeed through Mary our Mother? I call on all those involved in these practices to stop today”. Come to the way of our mother Mary through whom you will succeed. I call on all those who have been lied against to forgive. I call on all those who specialize in telling lies to come to Christ the Truth. I call on all those who seek offices to know that it is only meant to serve others, the archbishop charges.
Holiness comes from your services to others. I will also like to point out that humility is the mother of all virtues. As leaders of CWO you must be humble. Do not look down upon others. Learn to allow respect for you to ensue. Never command respect. Respect for you will come naturally and it comes much faster if you are humble. Never use your office to oppress others. For those who were in office before, never make it difficult for your successors to succeed and as members of the CWO, you are involved in the work of evangelization.
Spend more of your time on spiritual programs and maybe less on meetings. In Nigeria we seem to love meetings so much. We meet too many times, argue, leave with bitterness and we have less time to reflect and execute plans.
Therefore, I urge you to have more time for retreats. Prayerful retreats where you are expected to pray in silence and contemplate the face of Christ through the life of Mary the model of sanctity for all of us.
He later commend the involvement of the CWO in corporal works of mercy. These he is good and continue to improve in this area. These are ways of growing in holiness.
He however challenged the women to work hard in helping women suffering from domestic violence in their marriages. It is still a thing of shame that we still have husband and wife who fight during the week and come to Mass on Sunday, he opined. Some of them are even occupying leadership positions in the Church. As women, you can support one another to help bring an end to domestic violence against women. You start by educating your children, especially the male ones that any man who beats his wife is not following the way of St. Joseph the husband of Mary. Even when Joseph thought Mary was pregnant outside marriage, he never wanted to disgrace her. We must raise children who are unwilling to disgrace their wives. Remember your son today is going to be a husband sometime in the future. If you inculcate respect for women in him, he will treat your future daughter -in-law with respect and your grandchildren will be raised in a home of love.