Christianity is an inclusive religion. The church seeks to provide and protect the interest of all. The interest of the poor has always remained one of the principal concern of the church. In fact, the Second Vatican Council Fathers in defining the church in the modern world began thus: “The joys and hopes, the grief and anguish of the people of our time, especially of those who are poor or afflicted, are the joys and hopes, the grief and anguish of the followers of Christ as well.”154
Thus, catechesis which is the greatest instrument for transmitting the Christian faith cannot pretend to be robust without giving great attention to the poor.
The Gospel of Luke even presented the poor as if he has the exclusive prerogative to the gains of the Church:
Then Jesus went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath, he went as usual to the Synagogue. He stood up to read the scriptures and was handed the
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book of the Prophet Isaiah. He enrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has chosen me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind; to set free the oppressed and announce that the time has come when the Lord will save his people.’ Jesus rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. All the people in the synagogue had their eyes fixed on him, as he said to them, ‘this passage of scripture has come true today, as you heard it being read.155
That is to say that according to the Prophet, the coming of the Messiah (Jesus) was to bring liberation to the poor. And Jesus understood himself as fulfilling this prophecy. In fact, when John’s disciples came to Jesus to ask him whether he was the one to come or they had to expect another; he answered them in the affirmative with his ministry of liberation of the poor as proof. “At that very time Jesus cured many people of their sicknesses, diseases, and evil spirits, and gave sight to many blind people. He answered John’s messengers, ‘go back and tell John what you see, the lame can walk, those who suffer from dreaded skin diseases are made clean, the deaf can hear, the dead are raised to life and the Good news is preached to the poor. How happy are those who have no doubts about me.”156
The poor and the sinners have always been in the focal point of Jesus and the Church. Jesus’ miracles of healing the sick, curing the blind, the lame and lepers were often executed on behalf of the poor and marginalized. Glileas reflecting on the Beatitudes said:
For it was the possessed, the blind, and the lepers who were for the most part the pariahs, ‘the outcast’, of this society. Lepers and the possessed were considered subhuman, despised and shunned. The blind, according to both Judaic and Eastern tradition were under suspicion of sin: blindness was not only a physical evil, but also a moral evil; ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, for him to have been born blind?’ Jesus’ disciples had asked him when he was on the point of curing the person who has been born blind (Jn 9:2). In
155 Luke 4:18-21
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restoring all these persons to health, Jesus liberated them from a bodily misery and a social slavery at the same time.157
The Holy Eucharist which is at the centre of the church’s life today stimulates a conscious need to care for the poor. In the words of Lussier, The Eucharistic celebration under the sign of a meal has special significance for our times, when millions of people go without sufficient food daily. Christ’s love of us was expressed in a meal at the Last Supper; if we are really animated by his love, we must learn to express it in the sharing of what we have, with our brothers. Like the first Christians we must remain faithful to the teaching of the apostles, to sharing with our brothers, to the breaking of the Eucharistic bread, and to prayer (Acts 2:42).158
The Church in Igbo land just as in every part of the world is bedevilled by poverty. Worse still, there seem to be no respite in the future. Just in the year 2002, G. Ehusani describing the Nigerian socio-political and economic status-quo rightly said: “There is almost a cause and effect relationship between the declining socioeconomic well-being of Nigerians and the high rate of crime. The Structural Adjustment Programme embarked upon by the Nigerian government in the last nine years has been a principal cause of violence in the land. The programme has only succeeded in making the rich richer, and poor poorer. The programme has reduced the multitude of Nigerian people to a life of near destitution.159 Fifteen years later, the crisis has deteriorated in geometric progression. Catechesis in this atmosphere cannot pretend to achieve any success without a conscious effort to provide option for the poor.
History shows that the option for the poor and the suffering in Igboland was one of the greatest reason for the success of the early missionaries. Describing this task as carried out by the early missionaries in Igboland, Obi C.A. et al, wrote:
157 Glileas Segundo, The Beatitudes: To Evangelize as Jesus Did, New York: Orbis Books, 1984, pp. 17-18.
158 Lussier Ernest, The Eucharist: The Bread of Life, New York: Alba House, 1977, p.46.
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It is most probably in the area of providing food, medicine, clothing and shelter to hundreds of thousands of refugees, as well as the sick and other victims of the civil war, as it lingered on that the Catholic Church here, together with other Christian and voluntary agencies met her greatest challenge and, perhaps, left very deep and lasting impression on the people, especially in Biafra. Indeed, war on hunger and malnutrition could be rightly described as the Church’s ‘war-front’ during the civil war.160
Accordingly, effective catechesis in Igboland of Nigeria must presuppose an agenda for the poor. Catechetical structuring must include practical strategies aimed at alleviating the people from the bondage of poverty.
1.4 Catechesis in Germany