Homily at the vigil mass for the burial of Bishop Joseph Ajomo
I have tried to reflect upon the suffering and intense pain that my friend and bishop, Joseph Ajomo endured for over four months before he finally succumbed to death on June 21, 2003. Today I like to share with you some of these thoughts. Human life after the fall of Adam and Eve appears to be a cursed existence, a nightmare (see Genesis 3:19). It is characterized by emptiness, toil, pain, sweat and tears. Human life is often full of frustration, anxiety, restlessness, disappointment, disenchantment, betrayal, wars, accidents, natural disasters, sicknesses and diseases, violence and death.
The author of Ecclesiastes summarized this dilemma of human existence in that famous phrase, “vanity of vanities, all is vanity.” Classical Novelist, Thomas Hardy comes to a similar conclusion in the book The Mayor of Casterbridge when he writes that the human story is such that “moments of joy and happiness are only interludes in (life’s) general drama of pain.” But while discussing the resurrection within the context of the reality of suffering and pain, and the humiliation of physical death in this world, St. Paul says in I Cor.15:19, that if Christ has not risen from the dead, or if there were no resurrection of the dead, and if our hope in Christ were for this world alone, then of all creatures, we Christians are to be most pitied.
Why did Bishop Ajomo have to go through the agony and distress of a very painful cancer? Why did he have to watch his body wasting away while his mind was still very much alert? Why did we, his family and friends, have to watch our friend, our father and our shepherd humiliated by some malignant tumor and finally die at only 65? If the Lord wanted to take him, why didn’t he just go to sleep (perhaps after a Sunday high mass), and not wake up again? I have no other answer to these questions than the cross of Jesus Christ. The answer is in the form of another question: Why did the Son of God Most High, the holy one who did all things well, why did he have to suffer so? But quickly we are reminded by St. Paul in Romans 8, that the sufferings we shall have to undergo in this world are nothing to compare with the glory that awaits us in Christ Jesus.
The cross of Jesus brought salvation to the whole world. And like the suffering of Jesus, the suffering and pain of a Christians ought not be useless. United with the cross of Christ, the suffering of the believer can be immensely fertile and immeasurably fruitful. God who turns all things unto good for his loved ones, has the capacity to bring saving grace out of the suffering and pain of Bishop Ajomo, for his own eternal benefit, and for the eternal and temporal benefit of his friends and relations, his diocese and the entire Church of God. We thank God that he bore his pain gallantly, and until the very last few weeks when the pain became evidently excruciating, his response to “how are you” was always “no trouble.”
Bishop Ajomo struggled to live. Like all human beings who find themselves in such critical conditions of ill-health, he fought the cancer gallantly in Lokoja, in Abuja, in Enugu and in Rome. He fought hard and sought the help of the best professionals available. He prayed hard and we all joined him in praying that the lord will let this cup of sorrow pass by him. But eventually, like the Lord Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, he surrendered to God’s will. He answered the call. Barely an hour before he died, Sister Osheiza Otonoku in whose arms he died, constantly heard him praying: Jesus, give me courage; Holy Mary, give me courage. Then he said to her a number of times: “Sister, let me go. Sister, let me go.” Because Sister was still praying that he survives the illness, whereas he was now prepared to meet his Lord and God.
Dear friends, the death of Bishop Ajomo challenges us to take another look at the meaning of life and the implications of our faith in God, our commitment to Christ and his message of love. The death of Bishop Ajomo challenges us to listen seriously to all Jesus has to say about love, love, the only possession that will go with us beyond this life. The death of Bishop Ajomo calls us to appreciate once again the vanity of our achievements and attachments, and our passions and ambitions in this life. As we pursue power and more power, as we pursue money and more money, as we pursue pleasure and ever more pleasure, the death of Bishop Ajomo challenges us to reflect upon those famous words of the preacher who says about all of life’s struggles, “vanity of vanities, all is vanity.”
Bishop Ajomo achieved a lot in life by all standards. He was a first class brain in school. He was always at the top of his class from elementary school to his doctorate degree. As a teacher and principal of schools, he distinguished himself in the then Kwara State, rising to the level of “Principal Special Grade” before retiring from the public service in 1989. And though he was fully immersed in his work as school administrator, his commitment to the priestly vocation and exemplary life as a catholic priest did not go unnoticed, which is why he was fished out of CCHS, Ogori in 1989, and made dean of students and later Rector of the St. Augustine’s Seminary, Jos, thus charged with the very sensitive responsibility of training future priests. Then finally he was made the bishop of this diocese. So in terms of achievement, Bishop Ajomo could be counted among the first 5% of human achievers anytime and anywhere. Yet today he is dead! All those achievements mean nothing. As he faces his God today, the only item that matters is the love he cultivated, the love he had in his heart for God and for his neighbour.
Bishop Ajomo was aged 65. He lived a meaningful and fulfilling life. At 65 his life was not cut short. He did not die an untimely death. His life was not cut short by the invisible hand of some evil machination, some enemy, some witch or some agent of the devil. No. He was always under the care of God most high right up to the time he breathed his last. So though he died at 65, I believe he had completed his journey here below. But why did he have to die of a painful cancer? I don’t know. But he had to die of something anyway. Some people die of hypertension, some of diabetes, some of kidney failure, some of heart attack, some of HIV/Aids, and others of accidents of one kind or the other. But on the whole, some terminal illness or some sudden malfunction shall precipitate the death of most of us. Ajomo’s own was cancer.
Death is definitely a painful experience which brings about the undesirable separation of loved ones. That is why people refer to death as wicked, cold, callous, awful and dreadful. Death nevertheless brings about ultimate healing, especially for the believer. Bishop Ajomo suffered the physical pain caused by a malignant tumor in his body. He put up with the emotional pain of seeing his own body being wasted away by sickness and disease. He experienced the psychic pain of imminent danger of death. He offered masses, clutched his rosary beads and pored through his breviary endlessly. The rest of us joined him and prayed fervently. He nevertheless died. But all those prayers are not in vain. Instead with his death, our prayers for his healing have now been heard. Bishop Ajomo has received his ultimate healing from God. He has been healed not only of cancer, but also of all the aches and pains, the anguish and anxieties, and the distress and debilities of life in this world. And he has been healed of all these definitively. He is no longer subject to the weaknesses and failures of life here below.
There is a lesson here (in Ajomo’s ultimate healing) for all those who have to go through a period of trial in this world. It is as St. Paul says to the Romans, that the troubles and trials of this world are nothing to compare with the glory that awaits us in Christ Jesus. That is why I like that chorus which says: Sooner very soon, we are going to see the king… There is no crying there, we are going to see the King… May the Lord now give our Bishop the eternal joy and peace which he had looked forward to since his baptism. May he now join the company of saints in the unceasing chorus of heaven. May his sickness and death challenge us clergy, Religious and laity in this diocese and elsewhere to live our lives here below with our gaze permanently fixed on God’s kingdom which was inaugurated in the passion, death and resurrection of Christ. Amen
