20/04/2023
HOMILY NOTES GIVEN BY MOST REVD. MATTHEW MAN-OSO NDAGOSO ARCHBISHOP OF KEDUNA AT THE WAKE-KEEP MASS OF REVD. FATHDR FRANCIS KURA KUBAI AT OUR LADY OF APOSTLES CATHOLIC CHURCH, INDEPDNDENCE WAY, KADUNA ON APRIL 17, 2023
“Out of the depths I cry to you O Lord! O Lord hear my voice. Let your ears to attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy. If you O Lord should mark our iniquities, O Lord who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness that you may be feared” (Ps. 130: 1-3).
The one thing that one never gets used to or become friendly with is death. No matter how many deaths one has witnessed or Seen, each one is unique, each one surprises, each one shocks. If death were something one gets used to or become friendly with, our Presbyterium would have by now gotten used to death and become friendly with it. But no, each time it happens we are surprised and even shocked and become more afraid of it.
At the last Chrism Mass I was cracking jokes with one of our Priests and asked him whether he a prophet or a man of God? He said that he is a man of God. I said to him, do you know that Fr. Kubai was known as a man of God? He replied, do you mean I am the next to die? During lunch in the hall he told everyone who cared to listen about what the Archbishop told him.
I remember saying at one of the wake-keep Masses of one of our Priests that at death a person’s life is led bare at an unexpected depth; it becomes an open book, open to all kinds of readings and interpretations. Both virtues and vices are placed on display thus making the point that each person, each human being is a farrago or mixture of good and evil. Put in other words, each human being is a mystery. Be that as it may, only God has the full picture and knowledge of each human being and therefore the only one who can justly judge. And as someone has rightly observed, God is the only biographer whose accuracy we can trust. Only God sees what is in the human heart and in these hearts he sees our wounds and sorrows, our scars and handicaps, our hopes and longings. No wonder when Jesus looked at the good thief hanging on the cross beside him, he saw the tatters of his life, was moved with compassion for him and we know how the story ended for the good thief – a promise of Paradise.
While it is very tempting and easy to pass judgment on a dead person, good or bad and draw conclusions with our limited human knowledge, experience has shown that most people or most sane people, I should soy, recoil or avoid passing judgment on the dead because of what the Psalmist said “If you O Lord should mark our iniquities, O Lord who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness that you may be feared” (Ps. 130:2-31). For this reason, when a person dies his/her virtues are more at display while the vices are put in the shadows, and rightly so because of the dead you talk no ill.
Therefore, treading the path of what most people or the sane say about the dead, I wish to share three positive things I know about Fr. Francis Kura Kubai in the last 43 years that I have known him.
(1) Fr. Kura was a man with a lot of goodwill. He had an abundance of goodwill. He always had the desire to do good and often made best efforts to do the good he knew. But like St. Paul, he often found himself saying, “…I am a creature of flesh and blood sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand my own behavior; I do not act as I mean to, but do the things I hate. While I am acting as I do not want to, I still acknowledge the law as good, so it is not myself acting, but the sin which lives in me. And really, I know of nothing good living in me -in my natural self, that is- for though the will to do what is good is in me, the power to do it is not: the good thing I want to do , I never do, the evil thing which I do not want , that is what I do. But every time I do what I do not want to, then it is not myself acting, but the sin that lives in me...that for me, where I want to do nothing but good, evil is close at my side. In my inmost self I clearly love God's law, but I see that acting on my body there is no different law which battles against the law in my mind. So I am brought to be a prisoner of that law of sin which lives inside my body” (Rom .7:14-23).
Like St. Paul, Fr. Francis Kubai always knew what was right and wanted to do it and yet, somehow he never could. He knew what was wrong and the last thing he wanted was to do it, and yet somehow he did it. He found himself turn apart, a split personality.
Dear brothers and sisters, this kind of tension was the reality not only of Fr. Kubai’s life but the human reality that affects all of us whether we are conscious of it or not. The good thing for Fr. Kubai was that he was very much conscious of this Pauline text and very much identified with it in his life. In my so many encounters and interactions with Fr. Kura especially as his local ordinary, I saw that inward struggle in him especially in the last couple of years. Many times especially when the going got rough he worried about himself not doing the good things he desired, instead, he often found himself doing the things he hated, the opposite of what he desired to do.
(2) I found Fr. Francis Kubai to be a man of great hope. He believed things will always work out well and end well. His faith and hope became pronounced in the last few years of his life. Where you saw darkness Kura saw light. Where you saw a dead end Kura saw an opening and a light at the end of the tunnel. He believed that all situations, no matter how bad and challenging are redeemable and surmountable. And we all know that this is one of the great lessons of the Easter season we are in, namely, that no matter how bad a situation is it is not beyond God. He always believed that God is able and does bring good out of evil. In other words, he tried to live out the central Easter message of the eventual triumph of good over evil. That hope and faith kept him going especially when the going got tough.
(3) Thirdly, Fr. Kura was a sprinter not a marathoner. He was like the fastest land animal, the cheetah with very quick success stories but no stamina. Two instances to buttress this. The Kufana and St. David’s, Romi New Extension incidents. We hope and pray that the grace of God will sprint Fr. Kura into heaven through Christ our Lord.
Dear brothers and sisters in the risen Lord, we all know that baptism initiates the neophytes into the Christian way of life which is new life. In the same vein death initiates believers into the eternal life that Jesus won for us at his resurrection which the promise of baptism gives us. St. Paul made this point when he said “When we were Baptized in Christ Jesus we were baptized in his death; in other words, when we were baptized we went into the tomb with him and joined him in death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the Father’s glory, we too might live a new life” (Rom. 6:1f).
Fr. Francis became one with Christ at baptism because he was baptized in his death and joined him in death. And because Christ was raised from the dead by the Father’s glory and lives a new life, by the same token Fr. Francis now lives a new life by the Father's glory. This new life which is union with God is the reason for which each human being was created because as the simple catechism teaches us, God made us to know, love and serve him and be happy with him forever. This is our hope and prayer for Fr. Kubai: That he is now united with his Creator who found him worthy of the ministerial Priesthood.
More so, Jesus tells us that anyone who eats his body and drinks his blood he lives in the person and the person lives in him (cf. Jn. 6:56). Unless and until we live in Christ and Christ lives in us we cannot live the life of God. Fr. Francis not only ate and drank of the Body and Blood of Christ; he also made it available to others through his priestly ministry which he carried out with enthusiasm, zeal dedication and commitment. It was because he lived in Christ and Christ lived in him that he was able to carry out his priestly duties in a Christ-like manner.
At this juncture, I wish to renew my appeal to all the priests of our archdiocese and indeed all of us to form the habit of frequent and periodic medical checkup especially those in the region of half a century years old, I mean the over fifties. This is where our Salus Trust health insurance scheme comes in handy. Please use it for frequent checkup. In ji Mallam Bahaushe, “rigakafiya fi magani”.
Finally, I am sure that given the chance, Fr. Francis Kura Kubai would like to say this to us:
“I haue got mg leave.
Bid me farewell, my friends
I bow to gou and take my departure
Here I give back the kegs of my door,
and I give up all claims to my house
I only ask for last kind words from you
We were neighbours for long,
But I have received more than I could give.
Now the dag has dawn
And the light that lit my dark corner is out.
A summons has come and I am ready for the journey.”
Are you ready for your own summons? Am I ready for my own summons?
MAY THE SOUL OF FR. FRANCIS KURA KUBAI AND THE SOUIS OF ALL THE FAITHFUL DEPARTED THROUGH THE MERCY OF GOD REST IN PEACE. AMEN.
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