The Tragedy of Life

 Why this tragedy? No! No!! No!!! Nothing in this world has a meaning at all. A good man just dying quietly like that and they waved their hats in the air. Anyway, the whole of this world is a mere outwork; ones existence itself is already an enigma. They have removed justice and morality and we are reaping corruption on a large scale. Just say the truth, either you lose your job or you die.

The truth! What is the truth? Just because she said, “No it is a sin”, the Boss became infuriated. Did he employ her for pleasure? I don’t know. May be I am the one who misconstrue it. Sometimes I ask myself why good people can't get such job or lose the job after some days.

What of some of Nigerian Lawyers and Judges? Truth does not matter for them but what matters is how logical you are. Yes, I know that it is not “what people do” that matters but the propositional analysis involved in it and its truth-value. Who told you? They will use those logical terms to make truth false. They work behind the scene and behind the bar and discuss people’s cases and come out with result before the D day. Money first before any other thing, not You First. Just say the truth, either you become very poor or you die early.

What of some of our politicians? They turned our women into lesbians and prostitutes. They made our boys criminals, kidnappers and lawless people.  They made almost all beings crazy engaging in online business. They did not ask any questions about their future. Tell them the truth, and you will suffer. I think we should think about this particular issue because if we do think about it seriously, Nigeria may be better may be in ideal world.

What of Nigerian Police?  I thought earlier that their main function is specifically that of enforcement, control and management of crime and to protect the citizen but that is not true. 90percent of all the police officers I had encountered look for 50Naira first.  I don't know if there is problem in collecting 50Naira but it has become legal for them. Bribery has become synonymous to Nigeria police, I think, just like corruption and Nigeria. Or recession and…

What of some of Nigerian Pastors? They have failed to uphold truth as an essential component in addressing their congregation because they are afraid they would not come back. Of course, truth-telling is important. Don’t tell them what they like always. Tell them the truth.

It may seem to us that good people may die too young, but know that God takes soonest those he loves best. Tell the truth first.

In today’s gospel reading, Herod laid his hands on John because he said the TRUTH but that did not stop the work of God. (Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand cf. Matthew 4:17)  Happy 3^rd Sunday in Ordinary Time.  IZUNWAONU

It is to be dead, to live without God; for life without God has no meaning, no purpose and no utility.

PUSH

You don’t need to cry, it has happened to many other people. I am not saying that you are culpable – I am saying that you cannot be exculpated if you don’t learn from your mistakes. I have realized that everyone in the world has one or more problems yet no one in the world has no problem. Even though everyone has problems, not everyone is ready to solve the problems. The world has faced many challenges before, and will continue to face more challenges and people have always coped—sooner or later.

You walked up to a door and think it’s locked, have you PUSHed it? You continue to stay there only to see a friend come and then push the door open. Even if it is locked, have you tried it?

Yes, it has happened to me also. I saw a door closed thinking it is locked but it was not locked. What I needed to do was to PUSH but I did not PUSH.

Many are used to having doors closed, so when we see a door closed, we simply give up and decide to stand outside and watch.

For all you know, it’s not locked; you will only find out when you PUSH.

It’s not in the multitudes of words today, but I bring you a reminder: the door of opportunity may seem closed, ignore that and PUSH; you will be surprised to see it open.

Don’t take no for an answer. Sometimes, the world needs to know who really wants it; if you do, then you will PUSH.

Just because someone said no, just because you were rejected, because you lost once, because you failed, so you refuse to PUSH. Reflect on it: not all closed doors are locked; PUSH!

Do you know how to PUSH? It is very simple. P-U-S-H.

P = Pray

U = Until

S = Something

H = Happens

Pray Until Something Happens for you to open the door.

No one in this whole world is responsible for your success or failure. You have to take responsibility of your life. You cannot exchange your problem, you cannot run out of your problem. For you to remove yourself from your problem is for you to make it unsolvable.

P U S H.

Psalm 50:15 the Lord said, “Then call on me when you are in trouble, and I will rescue you, and you will give me glory."

Jeremiah 33:3 “Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.'

Psalm 91:15 “When they call on me, I will answer; I will be with them in trouble. I will rescue and honor them.”

 

Read more IZUNWAONU

Could life be a dream?

THE ADVENT

Could life be a dream? The minute I parked my car in front of Protea Hotel Ikeja, I saw four ladies coming directly towards me as if they knew me before. They stood with their face tilted looking at mine with such a loving smile. They dressed half naked in silky and transparent cloths, with tattoos over their skinny bodies. I was wearing a bulky sweatshirt, leaning on the side of my car facing Isaac John Street. I made calls that had lasted for five minutes yet they waited till I finished. As I turned to face them, one of the ladies had crossed her legs, and her dress, which had slipped up to her knee, revealed shapely slender legs, in artificial colours. Another lady quickly showed me flowers hanging in her chest. I let my eyes drift over the flower appreciating it, then I looked back into her eyes as if I knew the symbol of the flower and then recalled when I was driving to the hotel from the city centre, about 3km from Murtala Muhammed International Airport when I thought to myself that it would have been better to drive home to see my family first than to the hotel.

Imprisoned by the emotions, I reached out my hand and held the two of the ladies, feeling the coolness of their hands in my hands, I took them to the swimming pool in the hotel, taught them how to shoot a 22 rifle and even instructed them how to swim. With ice cream in our hands, we returned to the hotel hall to eat and watch a bit of television.

When we were settled in the hotel hall, one dance hall girl bearing the number “2” came from the other side of the stage still in her nightgown held my hand and then took me to the stage to dance. She started dancing before me. Her body was young and boneless, she seemed scarcely to be holding me at all, but we melted together and danced as if we practiced prior to the time. We talked, sang and danced, took photos and promised to write each other as we descended the stage with standing ovation emanating from the hotel hall. I did not mind spending my time and my money in the hotel because I was on cloud nine. After spending hours enjoying with them, I decided to take those four ladies to my home.

On entering my car, those ladies were already seated and immediately I started the car, double check all the mirrors, turn  head behind to revise, I heard a very familiar voice of Nnadi Faith calling me, “Izunwaonu, please tear two sheets of paper for both of us, I have written something in the centre of mine…

Without realizing that I was dreaming, I momentarily closed my eyes again and actually delayed opening my eyes for just a fraction to make sure it was not actually happening. The last thing I remembered was when the lecturer entered the lecture hall. I did not hear when he said that he was going to conduct a quiz after teaching but Jane Ijeom averred that he did say it.

Even though I wrote the quiz, I failed it because what he set was what he taught that day and no way I could pass it when I was sleeping throughout the class period.

This was what I would have prevented but allowed myself to be imprisoned by “sleep”. The sleep that always remind me of the season we are. The season I always term as the end time reminder.  Just like in today’s Gospel, Jesus challenged us to watch and pray at all times, so that the day of the Lord (QUIZ) does not come upon us unprepared. Every day is a new opportunity for us to draw closer to God and we should not allow ourselves to be imprisoned by the things of the world.

After reading BenedictAgbo’s Friday 25^th November homily which he titled “MY WORDS WILLNOT PASS AWAY!”  It became certain to me that the end must surely come that we should not allow ourselves to be lulled into slumber rather be prepared for the “end”.  “…The most important message is the glorious triumph of the children of God at the end of time.” Ben Agbo said.

We may forget the need to wake up because of the things of the world that would pass away, as I was captivated by my dreamscape. Our physical lives have many similarities with our dreams when we sleep. They are both temporary: while dreams may last minutes or an hours our life span may just last for some years. For the youths who think that the end time is for the old people… sorry, if you look at how things happen now, you find out that the youths die more than the old.

When I was dreaming where I was spending money with women, riding cars… I never remembered that I had not paid the lecture’s hand-out N200. So my brothers and sisters, everything in this world is temporal. Let it not deprive us our main goal which is to return to our creator. Happy First Sunday in Advent.  

 

 

 

 

Is Jesus Christ really a King?



CHRIST THE KING

A king whose Mother was an ordinary woman and His father a mere carpenter. A king who was born in a manger instead of hospital. A king who had no Nurse or Doctor around when He was given birth to. A king who had no body guard unlike the so called kings and men of God of nowadays. A king who did not build any house even when He was thirty. A king who had no donkey that the king of his time use to have rather He borrowed donkey that he rode at Triumphal entry into Jerusalem as King. A King who humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal's death on a cross. A king who had no grave of His own. A king who was buried in another person’s grave.

Look critically at the kings we have, you will see that they are exactly opposite of the king we are talking about. Look at our men of God, the traditional rulers, the LG Chairmen, the governors and the presidents (politicians); the wrist watch they wear and the shoes they put on will tell you how a  worldly king should look like. Look at how some of them care for only themselves. They only measure success from the amount of money they amass from people thereby making the poor poorer.

Then why do we call Jesus king?

A king should be servant who serves his people. A king should be humble as well sincere. Jesus emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death — even death on a cross. Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place, and gave Him the name above all names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.… Philippians 2:7-11

Conclusively, Jesus Christ is not only a King but the King of all other kings.

HAPPY CHRIST THE KING SUNDAY.

 

 IZUNWAONU AND AMADI BRENDAN After the celebration of CHRIST THE KING at BMS Enugu on 20/11/2016

IZUNWAONU AND AMADI BRENDAN

 

 

 

 

HAPPY NEW MONTH

IZUNWAONU

The sun rises in one spot but its ray travels round d world,
so shall your glory burst forth and spread beyond what you ever thought or imagined this month.
Happy New Month

 

Keep the Smile,

 Leave the Tear,

Think of Joy,

Forget d Fear,

Hold the Laugh,

 Leave the Pain,

Be Joyous Because.

It is new month.

 HAPPY NEW MONTH

 

Life is not by Grade but by Grace,
not by Labour but by Favour,
not by Merit but by Mercy.
THE GRACE, MERCY &FAVOR OF GOD
shall locate you as you step in dis new month.
HAPY NEW MONTH

 

What lies behind you and what lies before you are small matters compared to what lies within you.
Keep discovering what lies within you as you journey through this month.
Happy New Month!

 

Nothing much to write than just to wish you a happy new month
may God fulfil his purpose concerning our life and perfect all that concerns you.
Happy new month.

  

 

IZUNWAONU

 

Happy Birthday (Onuh Faustina Kosisochukwu and Onuh Immaculata Chinazaekpere)

...and we had to wait for her to come back. After a moment of silence, I remembered not seeing my mom for one hour. “If you still need food let me go to the kitchen and bring more ugwuta.” Said Mama Patience Oluchukwu. I was not interested in the Ugwuta but in my mom’s presence.  I could see myself in the mat outside the room closing my eyes but was not sleeping. Mom said she would be back immediately after meeting the nurse yet “immediately” seemed to have passed. I hear somebody speak to me with her voice, then opening my eyes I could not see her. No one was coming, and it was completely dark. I looked up to the sky, I saw glimpses of the glistening water, the stars and moon obviously dressing it with luminance. As the trees rustled all around me, the first tear ran down my cheek.  After a moment, I thought I could hear her voice. The sound of her voice was indelible in my mind. I imagined her protrude stomach as I climbed back to the mat again, trying to see her now in my mind's eye. I thought she was calling and I murmured “mom please come back now I want to sleep.” I saw Mama Patience Oluchukwu in the room putting Onuh Evaristus Tobechukwu into bed, brushing her hair out of her eyes. I heard Onuh Jude Nwanna’s voice at the gate, whispering mom’s name and then whispering mine. I tried to ignore them but could not.

Five munities later, I began to hear a resounding cry of joy in every street advancing from Amuna. Suggestions start forming in my mind about the noise and vibration that has been growing. People trooped into our house because the gate was open, passing through the passage, about four inches away from where I was lying on a mat. Some women were all singing, sometimes in unison, other times in harmony, “Mama Olynwaonu amuma ejima. s;m;-s;m;-;d;r-;r;t;-;d;-;-;-;-  Meaning Olynwaonu’s mother has given birth to twins. They were all together singing and moving towards the gate swaying together in unity and with a great zeal about the new born twins. As they were singing in unison they start moving out to a location of the place where they were born together in a line with other children dancing.

When my mom came back, people started asking me, “why are you not rejoicing? Don’t you know what is happening?” I ignored them, but when I looked at mom’s face, with every breath I took, I began to smile more and more until my smile stretched across my face and I began laughing to myself. When Mom looked at me, tears of joy began to roll down again my cheeks again…

When I woke up the next morning, the answer seemed so clear: as I hear their cry every day, then I began to sing. 'Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you!

Every year by this time 30 of October, I am indebted to sing for you “Happy Birthday to you.” But I guess since you are not with me now… I'll just sing it to myself. Happy birthday!” Hahahah… Smiling. “Do you want me to sing to you again?” Happy birthday my Beloved Ejima (Onuh Faustina Kosisochukwu and Onuh Immaculata Chinazaekpere). I wish you God’s choicest blessing. From your Brother Izunwaonu

 

I LOVE YOU By Onuh Justus Izuchukwu

‘I LOVE YOU’ is a clause that continues to lose its meaning every time. The clause has different meaning to different people regardless of race and culture.

I am always generous with the clause and I have received different reactions from different people. I was 100% sincere when I said to her "I love you". She was not the only person I ever told that, however, she became annoyed. If it were some people, they would say "are you sure?” Some others would say, "What do you mean?" While others would respond with ecstasy, "I love you too"

 I was raised in a family where my parents always told me whenever I was doing well "Izu Jisie Ike, we Love you". Even the letters they send me in school always carry, "remember we love you".  

The conception of love from my childhood was never what so many people take it to be. The real meaning of ‘I LOVE YOU’ is not found in the words themselves, but in the intention behind them. Thus, it could mean something different each time it is used.

When your intention to love is very conscious and clear, even the people you love will feel more loved by you.

My confusion about ‘I LOVE YOU’ is very complicated by the excessive casual use of the word ‘LOVE’. I am now afraid of using it on people because some people’s level of understanding it is quite different. 

The real meaning of love is God. “God is madly in love with us” said by saint Catherine of Siena. It is only when we understand this that we will discover that love is irresistible and therefore begin to make judicious use of the word ‘LOVE’.

  

TRUTH IN LIES By Onuh Justus Izuchukwu

Do you know that you can travel from Nsukka to Enugu in 10mins? I know it is 1hr drive but I consider it a magic.

On that beautiful day, I was only sitting alone in the front seat of Peace Mass Transit bus with bus number 1432. I was observing people going to and fro in the park. I have never seen her and I was sure she never knew me. “Izunwaonu is anyone sitting with you in that front seat?”, she inquired and continued, “What a wonderful coincidence, your phone number and mine are the same except the last two digits”. Who could have told her my name? Does she see vision? Where did she get my phone number? I had wanted to say yes that somebody was sitting with me but I was not sentient enough when I mumbled, “No!”

Beyond doubt, a young boy was sitting at the seat before her advent but my reasoning was imprisoned by emotion immediately I saw her. Before our bus left Nsukka for Enugu, the young man came back. However, the only thing I could do was to confuse him when I was unable to convince him.

 
She was talking but I never understood what she was saying. Though I was hearing her, I was interested in observing her face in the rear mirror. She painted her face as though the sophists were at work. Her eye lashes stood erect and gave a gorgeous stance. The conjunctiva that covered the cornea of her eyes was very eye-catching. The paint on her lips had the same color with those of the shoes and pinging trousers she was wearing. I had wanted to take pictures with her when she turned on the selfie camera of her smart phone but I was afraid. She gave me the smart phone and inquired if the pictures she took were beautiful. I wondered if she were the same person because I could not find spot, the zit which I knew she had. “But you are not the same here” I responded. She accepted it was artificial, that she used an App called BeautyPlus. The app according to her makes anyone who uses it beautiful. No wonder everyone post artificial and unreal photos on social networks. If she had thought critically, she would have known that I lied to her when I claimed not have any account in social networks.

I had wanted the driver to reduce the velocity by which he was driving although I was not the only man in the bus. I wished I had paused the time in order to spin out more conversation with her.
I had wanted to know her name but never wanted to ask her. The sharp corners at Opi Agu budged our bus in a direction I never liked. I felt the contact of her body in my heart and then on my skin.

The music emanating from the speaker in the bus never changed the sensation. The movement of her lips electrified and made the hairs on the back of my neck stood up.
The mirage on the coal tar provided the solution when it started appearing and disappearing. I began to think beyond appearance. This cannot be original product. Then I asked her how she knew my name and phone number and she averred that she saw it written on the manifest. “Okay! How much did it cost you to appear gorgeous?” I asked. I never expected lectures from her and she started listing what she applied to become beautiful. "My hair took me N2300, Eye Lashes N900, Conjunctivae N1400, Nails N500, Pomade N3700,..." She had wanted to continue but I asked her to stop. I learnt that she used a colored powder that made her to appear as though she was fair in complexion. I never expected such answers from her nevertheless she taught me a great lesson.

The most troubling thing in this new generation is the inability to distinguish between appearance and reality. Some women have made it easier for me to understand philosophy better. There is a reason for this assertion because every event has a cause. We live in a world of objects whose existence and behavior are independent of our knowledge of them. This particular experience is not an exception. Women know what they can do to trigger men off because some men cannot reason beyond our sensory perception.

 
Now you know that you can travel from Nsukka to Enugu in 10mins only when you stay with such deceptive beautiful women in the same seat in the sane bus. Read more at IZUNWAONU

DOES GOD EXIST? By Onuh Justus Izuchukwu

 When Pope John Paul was preaching to the communist, he said, "with faith even as small as mustard seed, one can move mountain". “If we want to move mountain, we do not need faith. We have our machineries to move mountain or create way via mountain”. They responded.

It is obvious that because we can create things then we begin to compare ourselves to God. Who is fooling who, God or man? We do not have time for God any longer. Let God be; if He exists, and let us be. We can do without God and for that we do not need God’s interference. Nevertheless, even if God exists why does he allow certain evils to happen?

Why do I go to church; to pray? If I have everything I need or if I can do anything I wish to do, I think I should not attribute my success to God.

A German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche in “The Gay Science”, 1882, Section 125 wrote, “God is dead”.

"God is dead" does not mean that Nietzsche believed in an actual God who first existed and then died in a literal sense. Rather, it conveys his view that the Christian God is no longer a credible source of absolute moral principles.

The death of God is a way of saying that humans are no longer able to believe in any such cosmic order since they themselves no longer recognize it.

Nietzsche believed there could be positive possibilities for humans without God. Relinquishing the belief in God opens the way for human creative abilities to fully develop. The Christian God, he wrote, would no longer stand in the way, so human beings might stop turning their eyes toward a supernatural realm and begin to acknowledge the value of this world.

May be he's afraid of us and is hiding, as stated by madman in the Gay Science

Just take a cursory look on what is happening in the world now. If God exists, why do we especially the Christians live as though He is dead? No wonder Gandhi wrote, “I love your Christ but hate Christians”.

What of THE TITANIC? The largest ship of that day, It was one of the fastest ships of that day.  It was the most luxurious ship ever built.

After the construction, they said, “that even God cannot sink it”. And what followed?

"Gentlemen, I regret to say that the Titanic sank at 2:20 this morning." This announcement was made by Philip Franklin, vice president of the White Star Line in New York. He referred to the sinking of the luxury ocean liner the Titanic, which sank in the North Atlantic on the morning of April 14, 1912, after hitting an iceberg. Of the 2200 people on board, over 1500 of them died. Yes they claimed they can do without God.

Furthermore, Herod in the Bible (Acts 12:23)  wanted to make himself a God and Instantly, an angel of the Lord struck Herod with a sickness, because he accepted the people's worship instead of giving the glory to God. So he was consumed with worms and died.

There are many other who either claimed to be God or removed God in their lives.

Even the so called philosophers whom we think disregard God also proved the existence of God. Heraclitus said that God is that change who changes everything but does not change. Plato called God unmovable mover; that which moves everything but does not move.

Let us stop fooling ourselves, if we ignore God, probably God will ignore us. Let us go back to him, he will accept us back. Believe it or not, He knows your whereabouts and He is waiting to accept you back. 

Read more IZUNWAONU

FORGIVE ME. By Onuh Justus Izuchukwu

I was the man who misunderstood her intentions. She saw a Rose (flower) in my computer bag and she insisted in knowing who it is meant for. "This beautiful flower is meant for a beautiful woman right?”,  She inquired. "I am not saying that She is not beautiful but if She is not, nothing else is beautiful and nothing illuminating could be said about her without mentioning beauty and love!", I responded. Benita Michelle was never a Catholic and the only day she attended Catholic Church was the day my birthday fell on Sunday at St. Theresa’s Cathedral Nsukka. 

 After group studies on that fateful day 15^th of August 2012 at University of Nigeria Nsukka stadium, I told her that I was going to Chapel in Bishop Shanahan Hospital. Every effort I made to refuse her from following me was futile. Was it because of the rose? Does she know anything about Chapel? Even if she knew, she would have known that her dressing code was enough to disqualify her. "Yes we are going together but do you know it is very far from Hill top; your residence?”, I asked. I knew that no excuses could change her mind as she stood near me.  If I had put forward any other reason; she was ready to refute it.

The inscription, "SALUS IMFERMORUM, ORA PRONOBIS" was boldly written so that even a man who has no particle of understanding could read it.  Benita Michelle is good in foreign languages but I knew she was not interested in knowing the meaning, but interested in the wisdom of the sophist who constructed the Marian Grotto.

I had wanted to pray but could not because she was so close to me that even her heavy breath was drizzling on me. Her body touching me was so luscious and on edge. I felt so many things coming into my mind, things that made me change my direction. I wish I could think about that, which brought me to the Marian shrine. 

 Izunwaonu has never had this type of experience before, but was only thinking about something different from what Benita was thinking.

 I left the scene and preceded to the Chapel with my Chaplet in my palm. A cloud of silence was wrapping both the indoor and outdoor of the Chapel. People were going in and coming out of the Chapel in silence and she entered before me. I was wandering where she was going to and what she had planned to do there. She stood beside the door to observe where I would sit. I slipped off my slippers at the entrance door and went straight to the statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary and immediately dropped the rose at Her feet.

I never knew Benita was watching my movement until she asked me in a shrill voice why I kissed the feet of Blessed Virgin Mary. Now she broke the heavy silence and distracted those who were praying. I looked around, every eye was on me, and I felt a heavy weight around my temple in the temple of God. I wanted the ground to open up and swallow me but the worst came forth when she said, "this place is comfortable for reading". At this point, I had to leave because my purpose which was to give beautiful rose to a beautiful and loving woman was already completed.

It seemed we had stayed there for a long moment, but it might have been only seconds. I was heavily annoyed that even my face only, could express that. I did not consider. I did not even consider considering that she is an Anglican.

She reached out and held my hands and began to ask me litany of questions;

Who is that woman?

Why did you give her the rose and

Why did you pray to Her because I felt you spoke more with your spirit than with your lips before her?

I needed to be more critical but the shadow clouding her eyes made me to understand that she was serious even dough I could not tell if she was serious when she said that the Chapel was good for reading.

Hence, I began to answer her questions, "The woman is the Mother of God and my Mother; the woman behind my success". Benita knew I excel in everything I do yet she did not believe the Woman was the person behind it." But she is just like an envelope who has already delivered the massage by giving birth to God and for that we should not honor her  ", said Benita. I had wanted to answer the question immediately but I remember that she had won many times when we engaged in quoting Bible.

On the preceding day, I went to group studies with my New Jerusalem Bible. I asked her to read from Luke 1:28...; " And the Angel said to her, Hail, thou that art highly favored, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women". She stopped at verse 48, where Mary states, "because He has looked upon the humility of his servant. Yes, from now onwards all generation will call me blessed".

I had wanted to give her more chapters to prove to her that Virgin Mary is the Ark of the New Covenant but she was already raking her mind over, "ALL GENERATION WILL CALL ME BLESSED". I should have been the one to explain the verses but the reverse became the case. She kept a stiff upper her mouth for sometime before she started repeating the clause, " THE LORD IS WITH THEE: BLESSED ART THOU AMONG WOMEN". After a while, she kept mute. I thought I had begged the question but I knew I rode on the crest of the wave.

Three days later, she requested that we might go back to Chapel and she promised she was not going to make noise. She wrote something on a paper, folded it and gave to me to hand it over to Virgin Mary. She wrote in a beautiful handwriting but did not allow me to read it. "I love your handwriting, it is beautiful", I said.  "The beautiful writing is a beautiful expression from a beautiful thought by the essence of beauty itself to request for a beautiful intention from a beautiful lady", she responded.

Seven days later, I was coming out from Ifeanyichukwu hall; still Shanahan hospital Nsukka. I saw her coming out of the Chapel with Handout and Text book. I became annoyed when my friend Ikechukwu averred that he has been consistently seeing her going to Chapel with books.

A hand that is meant for blessing became an instrument of war when we reached her. I am sure I was not aware when I slapped her. The bead of tears rolling down her checks was nil to me. I felt I could say sorry but I was full of myself that I could not take heed to my friend’s advice to apologize. This not only separated our friendship but made me to delete her number from my phone.

Three years later, I received a massage from her but before I could read it, I deleted it thinking that MTN had started to send unnecessary massages. Her best friend, Nnadi Faith, called to infer if I would go together to Benita's wedding at Cathedral Basilica of the Most Holy Trinity Onitsha, Anambra, Nigeria. I would have hesitated but because she was going with her private car, I decided to go with her.

I was sure the handsome man holding her hand at the altar was not me. Though I thought I was in dream, I never dreamt of that. I sat at end pew drawing a cloud of confusion around me. I knew she never noticed my advent until the time she was asked to give vote of thanks. She had wanted to start from talk but when she beheld me, no sound came forth her throat.

I noticed her gesticulation, signaling one of the bridesmaids to bring her a pen and a paper. I was circumspectly watching her; she folded it and forwarded it to me through the bridesmaid.

I never wanted to read the content of the letter but the more I resisted it the more my spirit sank. When I opened the letter, I gave her birds’ eye view, and then I noticed she was looking forward to see my reaction.

The content of the letter reads:

I was never a Catholic and you made me one.

You taught me your secret and never cared to know how I applied it. 

You gave me way and turned away from me.

The first problem I encountered in the University was that I was unable to understand my Stumpf. I took it to the Chapel, I never read it but presented it and other books before God as a problem to me. The problem was later solved. I also prayed for a husband and successful life and today is the manifestation of that prayer. Matthew Obiefuna is a Medical Doctor at National Capital Region Hospital of Manila in Philippines. We shall be going back to Philippines in two week time.

I never noticed the presence of cloud of people around me till the beads of tears started rolling down my cheeks. I never knew her intention and I could not inquire before taking action. I had wanted to write back immediately but I could not. Her so called husband has noticed that her mood has changed and stated that no present should be brought again. That would have been the only time I could have taken my written apology back.

Benita!!! Any where you are now, please accept my humble apology, I was the man who misunderstood your intentions.