WRITTEN BY REV. FR. JUDE ONWUASO
According to a philosopher, Steve Jobs, life is eternal, and love is immortal, and death is only a horizon and a horizon is nothing, save the limit of our sight. Certain words we use have meanings deeper than what we originally intended.

For instance, one who leaves his house for Sunday Holy Mass may say to his neighbor; ‘I am going to the house of God’. We all understand that to mean going to the Church. But that sentence has a deeper meaning than the speaker intended. The “House of God” qua tale is heaven, our true home. This means that life and death are one, even as the river and sea are one. That home is where we all, as believers, aspire to be.
Serenity is the balance between good and bad, life and death, horrors and pleasure. Life is, as it were, defined by death. If there was not death of things, then there would not be any to celebrate. Thus, on Sunday, August 6, 2017, some of our brothers and sisters left their homes for the house of God.
They surely intended going to Church to participate in the Eucharistic celebration but God took the deeper meaning of the word for them. He took them to His Real Home, where we shall also all depart for one day. 
Though we might sorrow, but God is glad for choosing His people to be with Him. Who are we to question God? Human experience resembles the battered moon that tracks us in cycles of light and darkness, of life and death, now seeking out and now stealing away from the sun that gives it light and symbolizes eternity.
The only flight that takes one to this House of God is death. It is obvious that death comes, most of the time, through the agency of “the enemy” not “the friend”. Even Jesus was physically killed by His enemies. All the Apostles, except John, were killed by the enemies. There are more martyrs than any other group of saints in Heaven. To die a martyr can thus be said to be natural to us Christians. The tyrant dies and his rule is over, but the martyr dies and the rule begins.  No doubt, martyrdom does not end something, it is only a beginning.
To be martyred in the Church is a special privilege, only for a few. This is because the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. The martyr cannot be dishonoured as every lash inflicted is tongue of fame, every prison a more illustrious abode.
We may ask, what has violence ever accomplished? What has it ever created? No martyr’s cause has even been stilled by an assassin’s bullet. No wrongs have been righted by riots and civic disorders. A sniper is only a coward, not a hero, and uncontrolled or uncontrollable mob is only the voice of madness, not the voice of the people.
Therefore, be not afraid. Serve God in holiness and truth. Any day, anywhere and anytime He wants us back home, may we be bold to race home with joy. If a man bridge the gap between life and death, if he can live on after he is dead, then he was a great man.
Those who are close to God know that when confronted with two alternatives, life and death, one is to choose death. However, death is not something you can get over, but it is rip that exposes life in and before and after chasm. All we can do is try to exist as best we can in and after.
Let us all be brave enough to die the death of a martyr, but let no one lost for martyrdom. May our brothers and sisters martyred on August 6, 2017 keep resting in the House of God. Amen.

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