Religion

Catholic Knights and the defense of faith

The very last commandment given by Jesus Christ to His disciples is for them to go out and make a disciple of all nations. In other words, Jesus Christ was admonishing them to spread the gospel and minister to people everywhere with themselves having been ministered to. 

The need for all faithful to adhere to this injunction was brought to the fore recently  when the Knights of the Order of Saint Mulumba, Lagos Metropolitan Council held a seminar with the theme: Catholic Knighthood: A call to witness to Jesus. 

The seminar master Rev. Father Anthony Okoro, in his presentation reminded the Knights that before his ascension, Jesus gave his disciples a missionary mandate- to go and make disciples of all nations as recorded in(Matthew 28:19).

 The Priest identified the mandate as 'a mission to bear witness to him (Jesus) and his good news', adding that the disciples were faithful and committed to the mission of being witnesses to the gospel. The same mission he stated is also the mission of all Catholic faithful, to stand for Jesus. 

Expounding on the theme, he defined a witness as one who has a first-hand experience of an event and is ready to testify by giving a detail account of the event. He said, 'in our own parlance, the testimony we give is by word and action-more of action because, modern man is not in need of preachers but if they listen to preachers, it is because they (preachers) are witnesses…' 

According to the Priest, becoming witnesses involves three basic stages, 'the first stage is when one is called. Each of us has been called by God at our baptism. There are other calls within the call, there is a primary call and a secondary call. Being a member of Knights of St. Mulumba is a secondary call, a call within a call. It is a specific call for a specific mission.' 

'The second stage is the period of being a disciple, the stage of learning. It is a period of catechetical instructions. It is a time to learn, to study, to have knowledge of the faith and of the mission, a period to equip ourselves for the mission while the third stage is being an apostle, one who is sent out to preach, to witness to the life of Christ. It is a phase of defense of the truth-the truth handed down to us by Jesus Christ and the apostles. It is the truth that we are all called to bear witness to' he said. 

Father Okoro decrying the present situation lamented, 'it will interest you to note that the truth is now distorted, refuted and those who adhere to the truth are called all kinds of derogatory names such as old fashion, traditionalist adding that truth has become relative with men and women as sole determinants of truth.

Charging the Knights to always fight and stand for the truth, he said 'St Mulumba lived and died for the truth, we cannot call him our founder and not fight and stand for the truth. The history of knights in the church was that of total loyalty to the church and complete defense of the truth. For years, it was physical defense but now a defense of the faith.' 

He identified Christian marriage as a key component of Catholic faith that is in danger of going into extinction in terms of rationalization postulated by secular humanists, legislation from government among others. The Catholic cleric explained that marriage exists as a contract, covenant, sacrament, partnership and vocation.

He said, 'As a contract, it is an agreement between a man and woman who give consent to the covenantal law. It is a mutual agreement to surrender oneself freely to the other and to accept themselves certain rights and obligations. It is a contract that is inseparably bound to its sacramentality. 

Other key components of Catholic faith under threat he identified include; human family and its core values, worldliness and materialism, legalization of unorthodox practices such as gays and lesbians, triumph of social evil and political ills.

 Describing human family as a sacred institution ordained by God, he lamented that this institution is seriously endangered with its sacred nature being down played by policies that are injurious to family values. Such policies range from extra working hours for young couples, shortened or removal of maternity leave which indirectly dissuade couples from procreation, lack of family prayers and meals. 

On worldliness and materialism, Father Okoro said 'the rate at which men and women go after wealth is alarming. The drive for wealth is deeply rooted in us to the extent that we can sacrifice anything such as morality, values and integrity in order to acquire wealth. We should not forget the biblical injunction that says what does it profits a man if he gains the whole world and suffer the loss of his soul.' 

He said that legalization of practices such as gays and lesbians calls for sober reflection as it is a calculated attempt to redefine traditional truth such as marriage and sexual orientation.

Proffering solutions to the challenges, he reminded the knights that they are called to be the salt of the earth. He said ‘as knights of St Mulumba, as revered Sirs and Ladies of the sacred Knighthood of the Catholic Church, you must be instruments of positive change. As men and women called to be witnesses to the gospel, as sons and daughters of God sharing in the general priesthood of Christ, you have the duty to influence the world, to claim for Christ.’ 

He explained that as salt is connected with purity while the world is lowering standards of honesty, diligence, morality, a catholic knight must be a person who holds the standard of purity in speech, conduct and thought. ‘Salt is preservative used to keep things from going bad, you are called to preserve things from corruption, to have an antiseptic influence on life. You must by your presence defeat corruption and make life easier for others. The greatest and most obvious quality of salt is that it lends flavor to things’ he added.

He called on the knights to pray always as prayer enables one to maintain a close union with God. According to him, the principal cause of evil in the world and the falling away of souls is the lack of union with God in prayers, ‘in order to be a good witness, we must have a close link with God.’

As a strategy to ensure that laws against Christian faith are not made, he urged knights to participate in politics to enable them have an input in making good laws for the governance of the country.

Father Okoro called for the promotion of strong catholic institutions noting other Christian denominations have strong institutions of learning while Catholics have few due to lack of money. 

He counseled the knights to invest in their sons and daughters to have the same zeal and commitment as their parents. His words ‘we need to invest in our children by encouraging them to participate in church activities, by sponsoring them on pilgrimages to holy land. You must instill the same zeal you have for the church in them.’

Concluding, he charged them to study the bible as no Christian can be a true disciple of Christ if the bible does not form an essential part of his daily life.  He said that they should incorporate the reading of the bible within their families. 

He charged the Knights and Ladies of St Mulumba not to feel intimidated by the enormous task but exercise courage in their defense of the faith.  ​