The life of Monsignor Lawrence Nwafor Madubuko reveals a powerful echo of silence and recollection. In truth, it proclaims what love of God inspires; it resonates with a non-discriminatory love for all and a preferential option for justice, fairness and brotherhood. Spartan or Christian in the face of challenges, the life of Msgr Madubuko is a testimony that relativizes and indeed, discloses the emptiness and impotence of power. His mind is always an invitation to thought, to scholarship – he makes everything fresh, profound, stunning and new. Even without flowery expressive power, the sagacity of his idea and profundity of his thought attenuate the value of orotund and florid oratory and counterbalances the elocutionary capitals.
Monsignor teaches and lives the truth that the terminus ad quem of worship is communion through reconciliation for a ‘reconfiliation’ to the glory of God. He embodies the ‘reconfiliation’, which Christian worship engenders and accentuates Christian brotherhood as a direct effect of faith in Christ, and instrument for the reconstruction of the household of God. According to him, whoever prays ‘Our Father’ as a son is a brother/sister with whom to share the same heavenly motherland.
Madubuko appreciates Jesus’ mission and the Christian vocation as an invitation to ‘confiliaton’ (shared brotherhood) with Christ so that we are made sons by the Holy Spirit to be co-heirs of the heavenly motherland – a place of peace and happiness. He lives the earthly sojourn amidst struggles and victories, disappointments and achievements, joys and pains, and stresses and hopes with all their attendant challenges and consolations as a pilgrimage with all those who have become brothers in Christ. Hence, he treats his colleagues, wards and elders as co-heirs of the Kingdom, ‘di anyi’. As such, he is kind and gentle, and embraces wisdom in his dealings with others, all within the limits of his ability. He savours the privilege of being made a co-brother with Christ, who gives him so much hope of sharing the same inheritance with him in heaven. In effect, Msgr Madubuko surrenders his life to Christ trusting in his providence while eschewing any allurement to wannabe syndrome.
His profound friendship with Christ, which progresses with a new level of depth glows with so much wisdom that liquidates the pathologies of the two ideological divides of conservatism and progressivism. Msgr Madubuko is not limited in conservatism, and neither is he imprisoned in progressivism; he is simply a Christian. According to him, the sky is always blue, but no two mornings are the same. This statement reveals a lot about his perception of reality that resists any ideological reduction. At a time when many experience religious fire as heat that suffocates them in the midst of religious confusion, Madubuko’s religious fire produces spiritual light, making him both a luminary and a beacon of inspiration. We cannot be grateful enough for his contribution in illuminating the dark paths of life and alleys of history with the light of Christ.
Fr George Adimike
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