TRIBUTE TO AN ICON OF JOY, PEACE AND KINDNESS: BEIGN A FUNERAL
ORATION PRESENTED ON THE BURIAL OCCASION OF SR. HELEN ONYIUKE BY
THE RELIGIOUS VOCATION ASSOCIATION OF NIMO (REVAN).
There is no experience of pain in life that is as heart rending and deep, as the death of a beloved.
Unfortunately, life has made it that as many as we receive the gift of friends, associates and lovely
people; just exactly so will be the enormity of our pain at the forceful separation that death imposes.
Today, the death of Sr. Helen challenges us with such unimaginable sorrow.
It was not easy to swallow the news of your death, Sr. Helen, because of what you stood for, what
you lived and died for. It was in your life the words of William James is properly understood, when
he wrote that “the great use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it.” And we can say
that you spent your life on earth for eternal life. Your actual death is to us a birthday for you into
eternal life. May heaven open hands today and add to the number of the holy men and women in
God’s heavenly home.
Your life is ended but you live on in the hearts of all Nimo religious, priests, seminarians and
aspirants. You were indeed an Icon of Joy, Peace and Kindness. Any time you learnt that a sister,
seminarian or priest is from Nimo, you would never fail to start exhorting and advising the person
on the need to maintain the good qualities and legacies for which Nimo religious and priests are
known, namely: holiness and good works. Because of this you became an exemplar for all, old and
young alike. That, without any exaggeration gave you the mother figure over all Nimo priests,
religious and seminarians, more than the very fact that you are providentially the second Nimo
daughter to embrace the religious life and live it with great thankfulness and joy. At every meeting,
we looked forward to your kind words and most especially your usual way of calling us ‘Umu m’
which means ‘my children.’ But now, we will miss that gentle voice of yours forever, and it is really
tear-arousing. You loved Jesus Christ, you gave your entire life and energy for his good news and
works, and you died in active love and service for the Church and humanity. Your death confirms
what D. H. Lawrence said, that “death is the only pure, beautiful conclusion of a great passion.”
At this point, we wish to apologize to you now at your grave side, because we believe that you are
living-on in the bosom of God whom you loved so well. We are deeply sorry for not showing
enough solidarity to you as an association during your Golden Jubilee celebration which you
lamented terribly, unknown to us that you were spending the last days in our midst. We were still
planning to initiate a move for this apology before your sudden death struck. On this day, we expect
your blessings and maternal forgiveness.
A Russian proverb rightly said, that death is for the ripped and not the aged. It is against this
backdrop that we are consoled that your death is nothing less than the full time of your lifetime. God
called you to himself because it is time for you to go home. St. Ambrose says that the foolish fear
death as the worst of evils, the wise desire it as a rest after labours and the end of ills. You were a
sign of that joy that only God gives, a paragon of peace and an ambassador of kindness. We miss
you so much and we will always miss you. But we are consoled by the words of Psalm 116:15 that
“precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his faithful servants.”
Good bye Sr. Helen.
Good bye our luminary.
Good night our pride
Rest in the Lord, until we meet to part no more!
(Okafor JohnMark on behalf of all the members of REVAN)