2016 Christ The King Celebration: A Brief Narrative Of My Personal Experience
BY REV. BR. KENNETH CHIGOZIE ALAMEZIE(KCG), BSS

From a distance I could see some cartons filled with empty green bottles. Those look like beer bottles, I said to myself. Gradually I drew closer to find out. I wasn’t wrong after all; those were already emptied beer bottles. Could it be that these guys- now the worshipers--carried them over to this place? I asked myself. But what on earth could cartons of beer be doing in such an occasion as this? What in the world has crates of beer to do with the Lord’s Kingship and adoration? What message is this dastardly act passing to onlookers of other denominations? Is this not the reason some of them call us Catholics “ unrepented Christians?’’ I continued to ask myself in anger.
Amazement seized me as my gaze shifted from the empty green bottles to the obviously filled fellow Christians. One could easily tell they weren’t filled this time with the Spirit, but with something else—liquor, of course. Seeing them leaping interminably like overfed calves, I needed not a Nostradamus to tell me what manner of anointing was behind their action. They had anointed themselves with beer, preferring rather to be filled with wine, and that’s against Scripture’s advice against such. Perhaps, they were never there for the celebration, you may say. You know, initially I thought as much, not until they proved otherwise. Each time the singer, James Arum lets loose his blessed voice, they were the first to back him up, though uninvited. They’d echo back in such a deafening tone as though the sound of a loaded Truck.
As the crowd became much, I decided it was time to seek solace under a tree within the compound; and that I did at once. From there I was able to see things more clearly and participate fully in the annual occasion. I was taken aback by my observations. Hitherto, I used to think the gathering, to all the faithful, was all about celebrating the kingship of Christ. I used to think it was all about praising and dancing to the glory of the soon coming King, like the saintly David did when he provoked one of his wives, Saul’s daughter, to jealousy. But I guess I was wrong. Yes, now I know better: some people, although they bear the name Christian, have different motives of attending this annual event; and this I learnt last Sunday.
From where I was seated I observed there were two categories of people in attendance at the event: the children of Mary and those of Eve’s household. I am not playing the Judge here, please; just narrating my experience. Mary’s kids, though few in number, did exactly like the Blessed Mother would—kept their heads straight and their eyes fixed on the Eucharistic Lord while opening their ears to get words they’d treasure in their hearts. But not so with the broods of Eve; the restlessness in them kept their feet busy. They were almost everywhere in the compound, gallivanting around as though seeking for whom to share their mysterious apples with. You could tell they were there on a mission. The males amongst them were the ones clinging tenaciously to the green bottles mentioned earlier above. Rascality was written everywhere in their faces as they sprinted unrestrictedly up and down like a mad horse, singing, in a mob-like tone, sundry preposterous war-like chants. And the females, they weren’t any different, only that they took the ground for another Garden of Eden—wriggling their body in a snake-like movement as they persistently moved about, which best described their base but not hidden intention to seduce any unwise offspring of Adam. I wondered the whole time what could be going on in the mind of Christ as he watched from his heavenly throne this funny but depressing drama.
Ours is a godless generation which promotes rascality with impunity and obvious insensitivity. Ours is a generation which glorifies and glories in mere religiosity while denying the life-changing spirit of religion. Ours is a generation which Christians have sold out their own culture in their bid to promote enculturation, the latter turning out a nemesis rather than a blessing; a generation seeking happiness in the mundane and upholding what’s vile as sacred.
It’s heart-rending the kind of mix-up we get now in church, especially in this clime. The body has become more or less a gathering of scoffers, and the trend keeps increasing by the day. No doubt, the church as we are taught is a combination of saints and sinners, but the fear is the manner of conversion now going on among the duo, how the so-called sinners are unceasingly converting the saints to their manner of life, thereby practically growing in leaps and bounds on a daily basis. The Groom himself had expressed fear that he may not find the bride in a solid faith condition at the time of his return, and this I think is playing out quite hard before our very eyes. The condition of the bride we can tell has grown past pathetic, as those that make her up are becoming more wordly than the world itself. Although the trend may look quite complicated and irreversible, considering how far we’ve strayed, yet in our respective ways each of us can choose to play the role of the three young Jews in Babylon whose insistence on doing the right thing brought about tremendous positive change in the era. While hoping to be around to witness the coming year’s Christ The King celebration, I pray you will be around also, and that you will have adopted a new leaf, should you be among those Eve’s kids scandalizing the Church at each time of the celebration. God bless you.