…Holds Mass for victims of Abule-Ado pipeline explosion

By Constaincia Uruakpa

The Vicar General of the Catholic Archdiocese of Lagos, Most Rev. Monsignor John Aniagwu has advised Catholics to always give thanks to God in every situation that they find themselves. Monsignor Aniagwu gave the charge while delivering his homily at the memorial Mass held for Rev. Sr. Henrietta Alokha and other victims of the Abule-Ado pipeline explosion. The Vicar General also urged the people not to stop celebrating the life of the Reverend Sister and other victims of the explosion, despite the circumstances that led to their death. He said: “One year ago, on March 15 2020, a violent explosion in the Abule Ado area of Lagos state shattered not just buildings, but the lives of many innocent children of God as well. Our sister, Henrietta Alokha was among those whose lives were brutally cut short by that tragic event. “We gather here today, to honour her memory and those of the other persons who lost their lives on that day.

We are not here to mourn Sr. Henrietta. We mourned last year, and for many months. Now, it is time for us to celebrate her life. “I know that she was quite young when she died. I know that she died as a result of an avoidable accident. I know that we would have wished for her to live to a ripe old age, and die peacefully at home or a hospital bed. But none of these has been the case. That should not stop us celebrating her life. Our faith teaches us to always give thanks to God, even when things don’t go our way, even when we encounter painful events, like the death of a loved one, as in the case of Sr. Henrietta. I believe that we have many things to thank God for in her life. Among other qualitiess, Monsignor Aniagwu urged the people to be thankful to God for creating, and giving the late Reverend Sister a beautiful and selfless life.

In his words: “First of all, we should thank God for her life, the very fact that God created her, God gave her life, God brought her into existence, thereby making it possible for us to know her and interact with her while her earthly sojourn lasted. “We should thank God for her beautiful life, short as it was. She may not have lived long, but that does not take anything away from the beauty of her life. I believe that those who knew her well enough can testify to the beauty of her life. The students of Bethlehem Girls High School and her parents can certainly do that. “We should thank God for her religious vocation, and for what God used her to do in the lives of more people than we shall ever know. I was told that Sister lost her life while seeking to save the young girls entrusted to her care.

In other words, she died so that those girls would not die. Therefore, her death was a heroic one, like those of countless martyrs of our Christian faith.” Quoting the gospel of John 11:26 and 1COR. 15:53, the cleric noted that those who live and die believing in God, would change mortality for immortality, as he said that he believes Sr. Alokha is with God. “Most of all, we should thank God that Sr. Henrietta was a child of God, a Christian, a disciple of Christ. That is what gives us the reason to hope and believe that she must be with God, our Father right now”, he said. Echoing the thoughts of a writer on the Church being the only society on earth that does not lose a member through death, he said the Church is not only here on earth, but also beyond the grave. “When a member of the Church dies, he or she merely transits from the pilgrim Church to the Church Triumphant. “We have not lost Sr. Henrietta. She is still very much with us in the Church, still very much a member of the Church, our Church.

She has only gone ahead of us to claim the room that Jesus promised his followers would get in his Father’s house in heaven (John14:2-3)’, he said. He urged the faithful to pray to God for the forgiveness of the sins that the deceased sister must have incurred as a human being. “At the same time, we cannot forget that sister was only human. As human being, she might have incurred one imperfection or another. Therefore, let us pray that God will forgive her sins, wash her clean with the precious, saving blood of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, so that she can take her place in the communion of the saints of God in heaven. Amen’, he prayed.