No life is superior to another

No life is more superior to another. Those who derive pleasure from maiming and killing are sick and need psychological evaluation. Equally in need of evaluation are those in vantage positions to safeguard human lives, but choose to look the other way because of political expedience.  

There is a saying that one does not deeply understand or appreciate the pain a bereaved person faces, until one is also at the receiving end of fate.

Heaven sheds tears each time innocent lives are lost. The angels and saints grieve at the sudden arrival of ‘unannounced guests’ at the gates of heaven; souls whose task on earth were left uncompleted because they were forced back home to their Creator by the wickedness of fellow-men.

Oh, how painful it is for a Creator to watch his creature being torn apart by evil without fulfilling his destiny. If men were God!

The cries of innocent lives being slaughtered across the country by herdsmen on daily basis are atrociously on the rise. Their bloods are boiling with rage, bitterness and anguish, calling for justice. But no one seems to care. And so, everyday, thousands sleep with eyes wide open. Many of them trek hundreds of miles away from their homestead in search of safety.

Their means of livelihood are no more, and they have no idea of where the next meal would come from. Widows and orphans now roam about in search of succour, crying and wailing. Is anyone hearing them?

What if they were your own brothers and sisters; what would you have done differently? You sit in the comfort of your home and office sipping coffee and thinking all is well. Have you not heard that what goes around comes around? Has it ever occurred to you that complacency can be dangerous?
That your refusal to show empathy to those in need can boomerang one day? You may ask what can you do? So much!

For one, pray for the repose of the dead. Reach out to the living, particularly those in need of succour around you. Put smile on the face of one person each day. For those in power, unleash the military on the culprits.

If we do all these, there will be respite and relief will spread all over. Evil thrive because good men and women refuse to respond appropriately. By remaining silent, we allow evil to continue to breed and multiply till it eventually engulfs all of us.

Let those at the top, who feel they are properly secured be cautious, because no one is truly safe, as long as arms are in the custody of criminals and murderers.

The right thing to do is to fish out the criminals and all those that facilitate their evil agenda, so that the roots can be purged. Until this is done, all of us – the rich and the poor, kings and commoners – would perpetually live in fear and uncertainty.

Remember, you are not truly safe until your fellow man is safe. You are not truly happy until your fellow man is also happy.

You are not truly rich until you are able to empower your neighbours not to depend solely on your handouts. For in the end, we are all passengers in the same ship called life.

• Very Rev. Msgr. Osu, Director, Social Communications, Catholic Archdiocese of Lagos.