KNIGHTHOOD AS A GATEWAY TO HEAVEN

It is my pleasure to be in your midst to present this lecture or rather to talk to the worthy members of the Order of the Knights of St. Mulumba (KSM), Nnewi Sub-Council. I thank all the worthy officers and members for the honour done to me as their guest lecturer. May God use this brief audience to enlighten and protect us. Although, a lecture, my template is customized to accommodating traditional and exotic modes of lecture: steadfastness to written paper and appealing to instantaneous rationalized thoughts. In all, it is belief that the audience will cherish and relish this lecture session. Like all thematic intellectual cum spiritual endeavours, this lecture will elicit interests, renew commitment, evoke sentiments, raise fears, enumerate problems and challenges, and above all, assure of a blissful future. The Knights of St. Mulumba (KSM) is a group of dedicated Catholics whose main concern is to live life of holiness and use their resources in furthering the missionary mandate in their homes and in the larger society. KSM had a humble beginning but with focused attention to the belief that its future would be as bright as constellation of stars. Ever since its establishment, the association had witnessed and continue to behold great men with their wives entering their gate and contributing their quota to the spiritual/temporal growth of the Church. The important questions are: Do the members see KSM as a platform for going to heaven? Does KSM possess the structure and resources required leading members to heaven? What inherent-worth has the KSM to champion common cause for going to heaven. The focus of this paper is not an historical account of the beginning of knighthood but suffice it to say that knighthood as is understood today owes its developmental origin to Cataphracts and Sarmantians of the Iranian people in the medieval age. From these two groups evolved structures that eventually spread to Europe. Of note among the prominent orders in the world include Military-Monastic orders of knighthood: a) Knights of Hospitaller (1099), b) Knights Templar (1118; disbanded 1307), c) Order of St. Lazarus (1100), d) Teutonic Knights (1190); Chivalric orders: a) Order of St. George (1325/26), b) Order of St. Michael (1469), Order of the Most Holy Annunciation (1346), etc; Honorific orders: a) Knight Bachelor, b) Order of British Empire, c) Order of the Niger, etc; At that period, knights were drawn from the military and with the following strict instructions: “Protect the weak, defenseless, helpless, and fight for the general welfare of all.” Knighthood in the Catholic Church had its beginnings as early as the planting of the Christian faith in nations around the world. The defence of Christ by Peter has cited as knighthood-in-the-making though Christ warned Peter to desist from such act in the future. The crusades against the various enemies of Christianity in the Middle East and Arab world offered are typical examples of the origin and exploits of knighthood in the Catholic Church. Countless brave men and women shed their blood in defence of the Church in those periods. After the crusades, through papal bulls or acts, different orders of the knighthood (honorary) had been established such as: a) Supreme Order of Christ, b) Order of the Golden Spur, c) Order of Pius IX, d) Order of St. Gregory the Great, and e) Order of St. Sylvester Pope and Martyr. Besides, the following orders are associated with the Holy See: a) Order of the Holy Sepulchre, b) Sovereign Military Order of Malta, and c) Teutonic Knights. At the inception of the Eighteenth Century the Catholic Church had witnessed the establishment of: a) Knights of Columbus (USA and Canada), b) Knights of Peter Claver (USA), c) Knights of St. Columba (UK), d) Knights of St. Columbanus (Ireland), e) Knights of Southern Cross (Australia), f) Knights of Dagama (South Africa), g) Knights of St. Mulumba (Nigeria), h) Knights of St. Gabriel (United Nations), i) Knights of St. Thomas More (Belgium), j) Knights of the St. Thomas the Apostle (Pakistan), etc. The order established on January 14, 1953 by Late Rev. Father Abbot Abraham Anselm Ojefua (A Catholic monk from Illah, in the present South-South geopolitical zone of Nigeria). The Catholic Church needed a society of Catholic Elites that would counter-balance the effect of the secret societies, especially the Lodge, the Ogboni, etc. He confronted the secret societies in articles in the Catholic Herald and Catholic life dailies. He later wrote two pamphlets Plain Talk on Communism and Calling all Catholics to attract the attention of Catholics to the dangers of the secret societies. In the initial Constitution, the aims of KSM were briefly: (1)The counteract harm done by many secret societies to the church and arrest the influx of the Christian enlightened members to those harmful secret groups totally opposed to the Catholic faith and moral (2) to bring the Catholics together in fraternal association for the good and progress of the Church, for the welfare of the country and well-being of Nigeria generally and of its members in particular. The above aims and objectives remain the guidelines for all present and future members of KSM. Like all human organizations, the order would be updating itself in the face of local and global dynamism. As already cited in the brief historical development of knighthood in religious and secular planes, its humble origins were rooted and founded in achieving common good. But like any human endeavours, likelihood of abuse would not be ruled out from its dossier of actions. Still focused on this lecture’s topic, the present section continues with the earlier questions raised at the preamble of this paper. Do the members see KSM as a platform for going to heaven? Agree sequitor esse(being acts in tandem with its nature). Concerned with this cited principle is the question: Do the members see KSM as a platform for going to heaven? This enquiry is against the backdrop of two key elements in human behaviour, namely, intention and act. An intention is either good or evil; an act could be right or wrong. Viewed from these, it is believed that members of KSM ought to their order as a platform for going to heaven – at least, members must have read and integrated the biography and status of the father founder of KSM. The presumption is that members desiring to make it to heaven must have had good intention of joining the order and would have continued with right actions within and outside the order. A KSM member must be a man or woman whose good intention matches up with the right action to bring about a circle of good behaviour (or virtuous life). Furthermore, members of KSM who deliberately relish evil intention and consciously effect wrong actions are far from the gateway to heaven. The rule is simple: discard evil intention and never allow such materializing into wrong actions. Every member of KSM is bound in conscience to examine one’s conscience on daily basis because time flies and death is the closest neighbour to all terrestrial beings. KSM members must be men and women whose desire is to allow a correspondence between good intention and right action taking place in their private or public space. A knight of St. Mulumba must be a good knight, a good person, a good civil servant, a good businessman (or businesswoman), a good Catholic, a good neighbour, etc. In all things and at all places, KSM members must conquer their evil intentions and avoid wrong actions. Any KSM member who perceives the order as a means to achieving social status has tacitly become an apostle of evil intention and already in the neighbourhood of wrong actions, for the end does not justify the means. If there were such members in this order, repentance and resolution to see and accept KSM as a core Catholic society aimed at going to heaven is the candid counsel to such member or members. Does KSM possess the structure and resources required for going to heaven? The first aim and objective at the founding of KSM by Rev. Fr. Anselem Ojefua was: “The counteract harm done by many secret societies to the church and arrest the influx of the Christian enlightened members to those harmful secret groups totally opposed to the Catholic faith and moral.” KSM is an order in the Catholic Church whose membership is drawn from baptised men and women who are in good standing with the Church. The order takes its structure from the Church and is nourished from the sacramental life and mystery of the Church. KSM is structured in the Church that received her missionary mandate from Christ’s words: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the ages” (Matthew 28:16-20). The great commission is the basic structure that informed the intention and action of Rev. Fr. Ojefua, the founder of KSM. From this structure, the Church carries out the missionary mandate through the efforts of the clergy, religious and laity of the people of God. In all, every member of the Church through unity and love strives to accomplish the Lord’s sacred instructions. The spiritual resources of KSM are chiefly drawn from the Sacramental life of the Church. The seven Sacraments are the doors from which God imparts his graces. KSM members should oblige the saving-graces obtained from the Sacraments, especially the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation, and the Anointing of the Sick. Every knight is expected to treasure the Sacraments and other liturgical actions of the Church. Dedication to and worthy reception of the Sacraments of the Church remain the right way to heaven without prejudice to other requisites for social relationships. KSM members should mirror the faith, hope and charity of the Christian tradition in their intention and in their actions. Each new day beckons on members to internalize the mission and vision of KSM through faith, hope and charity in their private and public engagements. Members must be men and women whose faith is solid, whose hope is unassailable, and whose love is selfless and pure. No member should compromise faith, hope and charity for whatever reason or condition – knights are men and women who believe in good cause for common good. Also, KSM has social resources accrued from the order’s constitutional or conventional prescriptions like annual fees, donations, insurance schemes, etc. Judas was in charge of the social resources of the apostolic community but he did not go to heaven because of immersion in materialism and conspiracy. KSM members must eschew the sins of Judas by seeing temporal goods of the earth as means other than ends to human endeavours. KSM officers and members are equal partners in the dispensation of those goods of the order. All should remember that “Love of money is the root of all evils.” What inherent-worth has the KSM to champion common cause for going to heaven? KSM is an order in the Catholic Church that draws its worth from the foundation of the Church. The Church is holy, catholic and apostolic in character; the Church was founded by Jesus Christ who is value par excellence! Therefore the same Church is rooted and built up in value – her members are valued and the same valued members are called to promote value across the globe. Christ puts it succinctly: “I am the way, the truth and life” (John 14:6). The Church is participating in Jesus Christ’s priestly, kingly and prophetic office through the Sacrament of Baptism. From the foregoing, KSM has an inherent-worth to champion common cause for going to heaven. KSM is primarily a lay people’s association in the Church charged with earnest call to participate in Christ’s priestly, kingly and prophetic office in and through their programmes and events. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) (1995:901), in these matters, advises thus: “And so, worshipping everywhere by their holy actions, the laity consecrate the world itself to God, everywhere offering worship by the holiness of their lives.” Lay people (including KSM) also fulfil their prophetic mission by evangelization, that is, “the proclamation of Christ by word and the testimony of life” (CCC: 905). Finally, the laity’s role in Christ’s kingly office is “to cooperate with their pastors in the service of the ecclesial community, for the sake of its growth and life. This can be done through the exercise of different kinds of ministries according to the grace and charisms which the Lord has been pleased to bestow on them” (CCC: 910). Equally, KSM can prepare for heaven by engaging or liaising with allied Catholic and non-Catholic organizations in promoting the Culture of life and fighting the Culture of death in Nigeria and elsewhere. The Culture of life is a behavioural pattern that practices and promotes goodness, holiness, sacredness by embracing what ought and avoiding what ought not in all places and at all times. Sadly, the Culture of death is the conscious and insidious behaviour to initiate, accomplish, glorify, promote and bequeath what ought not by allowing a correspondence between evil intention and wrong action. The Order of the Knights of St. Mulumba remains a veritable gateway to going to heaven if the members are men and women of the Culture of life. For John Paul II (1995), the Culture of death spells doom for mankind whereas the Culture of life is the only route to salvaging the already morally battered world. Fortunately, KSM can and should embrace the Culture of life by taking the following steps: 1) Pro-life programmes 2) Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).3) Initiating and sponsoring bills that promote transparency, rule of law, credible election, good leadership, etc. 4) Supporting the poor (including KSM members 5) Fighting corruption and indiscipline 6) Taking advantage of KSM’s spiritual resources 7) Judicious administration of KSM temporal resources 8) Creating equal playing fields for all KSM members 9) Sponsoring vocation and education of indigent persons 10) Witnessing to Christ’s gospel 11) Loving and caring for all human persons 12) Any other intentions and actions that are good, noble, sacred, holy and beautiful. KSM must fight the Culture of death by the following steps: 1) Avoiding sexual promiscuity 2) Not engaging or supporting contraceptives 3) Not loving money 4) Not fighting against the Church or other good organizations promoting love, justice, peace, equal good rights, etc 5) Not becoming a member or encouraging others to join occult societies 6) Not practicing or promoting racism, ethnicism, segregation, etc; or promoting hatred, arson, assassination, kidnapping, adulteration of goods and services 7) Not involved or promoting electoral fraud; scam activities, tax evasion, etc 8) Not practicing or promoting money laundering, examination malpractices, or any other criminal or sinful activities 9) Avoiding any evil, criminal, ugly and insidious intentions and actions. Finally, the Order of the Knights of St. Mulumba is a Catholic organization and its members must be dedicated Catholics committed to serving the Church and the society with spiritual and material resources. By sticking the mission, vision, aims and objectives of the establishment of KSM coupled with the sacramental life of the Church, there is every assurance that holy members of KSM will make it to heave upon death. All for one and one for all through the embrace and practice of the Ten Commandments, the Laws of the Church, the Culture of life, and every law leading to holiness of life. Thanks for the audience and may God bless you!