By Fr. Michael Nsikak Umoh
In a deeply moving and spiritually comforting Vigil Mass held at the Holy Cross Cathedral, Benin-City, Most Rev. Alfred Adewale Martins, the Archbishop of Lagos, offered a profound message of hope and consolation to the clergy, religious, and lay faithful gathered to honor the memory of the late Most Rev. Augustine Obiora Akubeze.
Reflecting on the dark, uncertain moments that surround the loss of a beloved shepherd, Archbishop Martins reminded the grieving congregation that Christian mourning does not demand the suppression of human emotion, nor does it yield to despair. Rather, true faith creates a space where real pain and unwavering hope exist side by side.
Addressing the suddenness of Archbishop Akubeze’s passing, which occurred while he was on vacation and shortly after completing a new Bishop’s Residence, Archbishop Martins acknowledged the heavy questions lingering in the hearts of many: Why now? Why this way?
Drawing from the Biblical witness of Job, who had been stripped of every earthly certainty, the Archbishop highlighted that faith does not provide cheap answers or erase the weight of grief. Instead, it anchors the soul in a divine Person.
“Job did not say, ‘I understand everything or even anything’… He said, ‘I know that my Redeemer lives.’ The certainty of Job is not about the circumstance in which he found himself; it was about a Person, the Redeemer who lives,” Archbishop Martins stated, urging the faithful to bring their weariness and unanswered questions directly to Christ.
Turning to the Epistle of St. Paul to the Thessalonians, Archbishop Martins emphasised that Christianity is not an exercise in emotional denial. The Church does not ask believers to pretend that death does not hurt, for the weight of absence is felt most acutely where presence mattered deeply.
“We grieve precisely because we loved,” he observed, making a clear distinction between despair and Christian hope. While death marks a profound earthly parting, St. Paul instructs believers not to grieve like those who have no hope. Because Christ died and rose again, the grave is not the final chapter, but a threshold toward the promised morning of resurrection.
Reflecting on Archbishop Akubeze’s episcopal motto—Ut testimonium perhibeam veritati (“That I may bear witness to the truth”), Archbishop Martins noted that a life lived for Christ cannot be measured by worldly standards such as titles, offices, or visibility.
From his early years as a young man devoted to the daily Eucharist, through his years of priestly and episcopal ministry across Uromi, Benin-City, and national leadership within the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria (CBCN), Archbishop Akubeze’s life remained centered on directing hearts away from himself and toward Jesus, the Truth.
The Archbishop concluded by calling on all present, Bishops, priests, civil leaders, and families, to let the reality of death serve as a moment of self-examination and spiritual readiness. Ultimately, the Gospel does not ask how much one accumulated, but who ruled one’s life and whether one remained faithful to the charge entrusted by God.
While Archbishop Martins gave the homily, the Chief celegrant at the Vigil Mass was the Most Rev. Valerian Okeke, the Metropolitan of Onitsha Province.
At the beginning of the Holy Mass, Most Rev. Donatus Ogun, OSA, the Apostolic Administrator of Benin-City Archdiocese, had welcomed all guests and thanked them for their prayers, presence and support.