FUNERAL ORATION PRESENTED BY THE ONITSHA ARCHDIOCESAN MAJOR SEMINARIANS ASSOCIATION AT THE GRAVE SIDE OF LATE MR. DAMIAN IFEANYICHUKWU IFEDIORA ON WEDESDAY 26TH NOVEMBER, 2014. “When mens deeds have been brave, they should be honored in deed only, and with such an honor as this public funeral, which you are now witnessing.” This statement of Pericles brings to reality the motivation of our gathering here as you are laid to the hands of mother earth. As it were, many have said and surmised many things about the world beyond, yet not many are courageous enough to embrace it; having been this courageous, we consider you, O Damian, a hero. You have so bravely embraced life and its innumerable challenges. And it is this brevity of yours that we acknowledge in these few lines of our oration. Brother Damian, the news of your cruel mode of escaping this existential space was as cruel as the death that took you away from us so suddenly. Some ignored the news as fictitious, and many doubted its veracity, yet here we are being stared in the face by the reality the treacherous news that is better unannounced. We raised many questions, and found no answers; we wept yet our weeping seemed inaudible; you are gone and gone forever, somewhere far away from this plain. We will never miss you enough for each moment the ideals which you left behind are noted, you come to mind. Damian, you were a seminarian in whom resided all the virtues that the priestly vocation demands. Your attitude to material things is simply holy. Jim Reeves in one of his sensational songs sang: “the world is not my home. I am just passing through. My treasures I lay down, somewhere beyond the groove….” You knew this truth of the transitory nature of our life and lived up to its demand. You were so detached from material things in a manner that allowed many to say that your journey to God would be swift and unhindered. You never allowed the materialism that seems to characterize youths of our age to draw your attention aside. Simplicity, says St. Pope John XXIII, is a gift of the soul. You were so simple in your outlook and approach to life. That is why no one who knew you, both your superiors and inferiors, needed any hermeneutics to understand you. You have the simplicity which is childlike and which our Lord praised in children when he says: “unless you become like little children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven” (Mtt. 8:3). This assurance and what we have known of your simplicity has given us hope of your blessed state over there. Your benignity has an unquenchable saintly aroma. It was barely three months since you took up your new assignment at St. Charles Borromeo hospital, yet all the staff have perceived this great charism of yours. I recall a lamentation made by one of them shortly after your remains were taken to the mortuary. She mournfully cried: “O bughi etu mmadu si eme ka e si emere ya. O buru na ndi ahu maara gi, ha agaghi egbu oge ibute gi n’ulogwu ozigo ihea mere” (if people are treated the way they treat others, those people who witnessed the accident would not have tarried in rushing you to the hospital). One who knew you would not be surprised to get this kind of affirmation of your kind-heartedness for you respected everyone that you knew. In an incident that preceded your demise, you struggled with everything at your disposal to see that the young seminarian of All Hallows Seminary (where you lived) who was gravely injured during a training session survived the injury. Though he did not make it, if there was any glimmer of hope of his survival it was thanks to your good heart and duty-consciousness. Tagboo, be sure that your good deeds here are not interred with you bones; they accompany you to the throne of the Most High. Ifeanyi, you had the faith that can only be found in the early era of Christianity. This informed your spiritual subtlety. Those who worked under you at the hospital call you “MONK” not only because of your recollected outlook but also because of your usual assertion that you can only give them instructions when you receive them from the Spirit of God. What more can we say. On the 5th of January this year, you made a post that I find revealing on Facebook. On that post, you wrote, if only I will be holy. And on the 23rd of April, you wrote again, those who sow in tears will rejoice when they reap. To this, a fellow replied, some sow in tears without reaping at all, you responded in a manner typical of our Lord: man of little faith, offer every suffering to God, and He will glorify you. Death has proven once more that it is no respecter of dreams, skills, and even age. You nurtured great dreams and were not of much age in human reckoning. A day before your last birthday (May 21) you also wrote: Thank you Lord for what I was yesterday, what I am today, and what I will be tomorrow. Damian, these hopes of yours are surely not conquered by death. For the little years of your life you have lent to the service of humanity and died in this active service. Christ assures us that those who give more receive more. You have given more and we believe you will receive more; you have sown in tears, yet your reaping is in abundant cheers. Even as we mourn your sudden and untimely exit from our company, our weeping is not without hope. It is in the assurance of this hope that we would not say “Good Bye”. We don’t have a good word with which to bid you farewell for the lack of such words in English. The best is au revoir – we’ll see again. Rest in peace, Damian till we meet at the lighthouse of eternity; there and then we would share the sweet and bitter melodies of this life, not in nostalgia but in a farce of the folly with which we matched its path. Rest in peace – Tagbo Rest in peace – Monk Rest in peace – Damian Till we meet again!!! Mr. Ekwosi, Cletus Olisaeloka For and on behalf of Onitsha Archdiocesan Major Seminarians.
Posted on: Wed, 26 Nov 2014 20:07:37 +0000