ZEC hails people's advocate Duffy

ZEC hails people's advocate Duffy
By Mwala Kalaluka in Mongu
Thu 08 Sep. 2011, 14:00 CAT

ZAMBIA Episcopal Conference president Bishop Ignatius Chama says only the unwise would describe Bishop Emeritus Paul Duffy's death as a disastrous lost cause.

In his homily delivered during a vigil mass at Mongu's Our Lady of Lourdes Cathedral in honour of the former Mongu Diocese Bishop who died of leukaemia in San Antonio, Texas on August 23, Bishop Chama said on Sunday night that the prelate's death was neither annihilation nor a disaster as some unwise people may think just because the ‘voice of the voiceless' lies silent.

"Let us thank God for giving us victory over death through our Lord Jesus Christ. On the 23rd of April this year, you remember most of you gathered in this church. There was a vigil in this very church, which is dedicated to Our Lady of Lourdes," Bishop Chama said.

"It was very much a vigil like the one that we have tonight. The only difference is that the Bishop who lies here now silent is the one who was presiding over that vigil. Also that vigil was about waiting for the victory of life over death. It was the Easter vigil."

He said most probably, this was the last vigil which many in the Church had with the late Bishop Duffy.

"...And which you will never have again. You came out of that vigil rejoicing and praising God for giving us a victory of life over death through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. What about the vigil of tonight? Do we also see the victory of life over death?" Bishop Chama asked.

"With all the signs of death among us, the body of the Bishop, Bishop Duffy with us here, it is very hard to imagine and accept that this vigil is the waiting for the victory of life over death. It is as one would say a disastrous vigil with all the signs of annihilation, signs of defeat, signs of a lost cause, the voice of the voiceless has been silenced by death."

Bishop Chama said the Catholic Church in the country thought Bishop Duffy would come back from the US to celebrate the vigil of victory of life over death.

"But see what we get instead of a vigil of victory over death...Bishop Duffy is gone and his going is real, it's a disaster," he said.

"Yet, in the book of Wisdom in which we read the first reading of today, we are told that to think that his going away is a disaster is to be unwise. It is only in the eyes of the unwise that his going can be described a disaster. For the wise, the souls of the greatest are in the hands of God, no torment shall ever touch them."

Bishop Chama said those who truly said God was their Shepherd will live with him as mercy awaits those He had chosen.

"Their death is a real victory of life over death. That is why St Paul says death is swallowed up in victory rendering it harmless. He even concludes by telling us that we should give thanks to God to the victory of life over death through Jesus Christ," he said.

"Thus even in signs of death and disaster our vigil still is a vigil of triumph of life over death. This victory is not that death is taken away but that death is no longer the final end of human life as being demonstrated through the death and resurrection of Christ."

He said when Christ died, the power of evil triumphed over human life as the unwise may see in the death of Bishop Duffy.

"But in a twinkling of an eye, Christ rose triumphantly over death," Bishop Chama said.

"Yes, just as the Easter vigil was a vigil of moving from the darkness of the power of death to the light of the power of life, our vigil today is also a movement from thinking Bishop Duffy is going to annihilation."

Bishop Chama said the life of service to God and His people like the one that Bishop Duffy lived would not cause anyone to be turned away from Christ.

"Such then is the reason why our vigil is a celebration of life, a celebration of victory of life over death to the life of Bishop Duffy. A life that was spent to the service of God and his people. A life that was drawn to Christ and will never be turned away," said Bishop Chama.

"So then my brothers and sisters, let us mourn Bishop Duffy but also let us rejoice too for his life is in the hands of God who chose him and called him in Christ. Let us then console and support one another."