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...CONSUMED IN THE FIRE OF LOVEAn Enquiry into the theological Psychology of Christian Sacrifice and Martyrdom: The Case of Chinedu ChukwunekeBeing a Paper Presented at the Memorial Ceremony of the Death of Nine Burnt Students of Medicine at The College of Health Sciences, Okofia Campus in 2001, This 9th Day of May 2012 ByGabriel Uchechimezie Emeasoba (Rev. Fr)INTRODUCTIONThe Provost, College of Health Sciences,The Deans of Faculties,The Sub-Dean, Students Affairs,Heads of Different Departments,Other Academic and Non-Academic Staff present,Members of the Clergy,Invited Guests,Students,Ladies and Gentlemen,

We all are gathered here today to memorialize once more an event of very grave consequence in the history of this great institution. Exactly eleven years ago (precisely on the 9th of May 2001), in a very odd and unexpected sorrowful melodrama, this institution lost nine young vibrant future doctors whose service in the medical profession would have added a lot of value to different medical departments in this country by now. Even though it is true that so many of us sitting here today may not have been part of the life of the institution by 2001, and so may not have had a tacit historical connection with the events of those days of great intensity, as an institution, you have chosen never to forget that fateful day on which suddenly the night interrupted the day at noon and refused to be pushed away.

For so many of the classmates of those deceased apostles of life sitting here looking at me, that event still seems so fresh; you still remember waking up that peaceful morning not suspecting any unrest or the knock of any sudden inferno; Some of you here would remember seeing Chinedu Chukwuneke climbing the staircase carrying a gas cylinder that later became the instrument of their extermination. I know that as I speak to you, the scenery of that unquenchable fire that gutted the school hostel that day and aroused an alarm of heavy proportions in the whole school environment, is unrolled before you like a filmstrip that you can hardly now withhold your emotions. You may remember how you all pulled solidarity together carrying their scaring burnt bodies that would in hours become cadavers from Nnewi to Enugu. And I know you still remember how you all felt when the news of their death filtered in. The pains of those days are better not recalled. Sometime in 1959, Dr Victor Frankl, An American Jew who escaped from the Nazi concentrations camps wrote a book he titled Mans Search for Meaning. In that book, he narrated his experience of the cruelty of the Nazi soldiers and exterminators and the story of their escape from the death camps. And when he recalled his very many friends who died in the camp, he said: the best of us did not return. Recalling the memory of the lives and stewardship of these our great fallen friends, Victor Frankls statement better captures our feelings even at this moment, especially for those of us whom God has offered the privilege of eventually being medical doctors: the best of us did not return; the best of us did not make it. You lost almost the best. And so, if you wouldnt mind, may we stand up and observe a minute silence for the souls of these fallen comrades who symbolized excellence and determination.

We have gathered here today therefore not to mourn their demise but to celebrate their gift to this great institution, their lives, creativity, talents, values and virtues; their character, their courage and faithful stamina, their belief in God and their spirit of sacrifice; their generosity and their ability to share their pains and most especially, the inner strength with which they found meaning in suffering which made them sing as they were burnt. In this little paper therefore, I just hope to interrogate the basic theological rationale for every Christian sacrifice and martyrdom. If this little presentation will contribute in shaping the way you evaluate your service as medical doctors and healthcare practitioners, my work here would have been done.

ON THE PAPER

I have titled this little paper: ...Consumed in the Fire of Love: An Enquiry into the Theological Psychology of Christian Sacrifice and Martyrdom (The Case of Chinedu Chukwuneke). The ordinary definition of Psychology which many of us may be aware of is that it is the science of human behaviour. Before the advent of modernity, the study of Psychology as a science of human behaviour was not as well developed as it is today. The reason for this is very clear. Before the modern era, there was never a time the human person was at the centre of intellectual concern. In the ancient era (Cosmological era), the attention of great scholars and philosophers were fixed on the cosmic reality; they gazed into the stars and the sun and raised many questions justifying the existence and sustenance of the physical world. No wonder the natural sciences developed earlier than the human sciences. With time, attention shifted from the contemplation of the physical world to the contemplation of divine realities. That was why men and women of the medieval world (theological era) argued on such topics like God, the angels, heaven, hell. Not much concentration was placed on the human person. The consequence of this was that, the human person in those days was understood through a cosmic interpretation or a theological interpretation. But things have changed today. We live in the modern age which many scholars address as an anthropocentric era. In our time, there has been much attempt to understand the human person in his being, nature and actions. Human behaviour is no longer attributed to the gods or cosmic powers; we have come to see that there is a reason for every human action and that this reason can be discovered objectively. And this is the labour of Psychology. Psychology therefore answers the question: why are people the way they are? Why do they behave the way they do? The answer to these questions is valid for all conditions of life and service, whether one is a lawyer, a medical doctor or a Catholic priest.

To be frank with you, since my days in the theology faculty, it has been an issue for me to really understand the psychology of Christian sacrifice and martyrdom. Listen, it is easy to speak about sacrifice from the pulpit but it is difficult to sacrifice in real life experience. It is easier to narrate the beautiful stories of the martyrdom of courageous Christians in the first three centuries of the persecuted Church to catechism class children. I wonder if any of you have taken time any day to reflect on how you would have felt living at a time when to be a Christian meant to be a criminal. Do you think you would have given yourself up to be burnt at the stakes? Would you, like St Ignatius of Antioch have offered your body to be mauled by the lions and the beasts for the sake of your faith? I am asking you, do you think you would have had the courage to surrender like the Martyrs of Uganda to a course you have scarcely understood, even when you have the opportunity to be saved? Let me tell you, I am not sure you would.

Some years ago, Abraham Maslow developed what he called the hierarchy of human needs. In that hierarchy, one sees that self preservation is the first need of every created human being. That instinct of self-preservation is the first and basic instinct in every human person. By the way, there is the profession of medicine just because of the need to preserve human life. In the face of the above considerations, the question that consistently begs for an answer is: why would somebody offer himself to be killed in the first place? What is the basic motivation that can answer the question of life sacrifice and martyrdom? These questions are very necessary, especially when we remember that there are people today who feel that those we call martyrs are people who have been frustrated with life and who have caught in on the opportunity of death to escape from the responsibility of life.

The Psychology of MartyrdomIt is good for us to make the clarification from the very beginning that in seeking to discover the motivation for life sacrifice and martyrdom, we are not interested here in making any moral judgements yet, that is on whether it is good to offer ones life or not at any point. Our enquiry will depend largely on a phenomenology of the cases of martyrdom which experience has to offer us. Secondly, martyrdom at this level would be given a large understanding to include all situations in which people give up their lives to be killed regardless of moral conditions and situations.

There are around five situations in which people offer their lives or call it reasons or motivations for which people embrace martyrdom or life sacrifice. These are:

Extreme Physical PainPsychological FrustrationSense of DutyReligious FanaticismChristian Martyrdom

1 Extreme Physical PainOne reason why people prefer to offer up their lives and be aided to death is the experience of extreme physical pain and agony, especially during ill health. Many of you here are either doctors or health care practitioners. In your professional practice, I am sure you may have come across patients who feel they would no longer continue to bear the pains of living in the agony of degenerated bodily conditions. Think of patients who would have to undergo series of chemotherapy or dialysis, without a 100 percent assurance of survival. At some points, some of these patients simply lose hope, practically begging for euthanasia. We also see instances of this in battle fields when war lords get seriously injured. Instead of languishing in the pool of their own blood or waiting to be killed by their own enemies, they easily offer their lives to be terminated by their own countrymen, and by so doing believe themselves to have died, men of valour and nobility.

In analysing this kind of offer of life, one sees that the person who offers him/herself to be killed in this condition scarcely has any other alternative. Indeed, he/she would have loved to live had the situation been better, had life been more enjoyable. He/she dies with nostalgia for life and regret for not being able to live longer. Such a patient submits his/her life in hopelessness and utter despair and even hatred for God. Death is not induced by the future or any other value. Avoidance of pain is the only motivation for death.

2 Psychological Frustration:Apart from submitting ones life to avoid physical pain, there is another situation in which people have delivered their lives to death. This is seen in the case of psychological frustration. Victor Frankl was able to discover the central problem of psychologically frustrated person. According to him, People become frustrated when they lose meaning and a sense of responsibility in existence. He called this noogenic neurosis. If I must borrow a phrase from Prof Chinua Achebe, when the centre can no longer hold, things fall apart. When the will-to-meaning is lacking, life becomes meaningless. The will-to-meaning harbours the why of peoples existence. And when people are no longer sure of this why, then life seems to lose value because their foundations of existence will get toppled from the root. Quoting Frederick Nietzsche, Victor Franklin said: he who has a why to live can bear with almost any how. We see examples of psychologically frustrated people among many youths and people of the middle age who experience emotional depression due to failed relationships, rejection by the community, life of dependency, economic emptiness, feelings of worthlessness. When it is found among the aged, it is often due to regret of an unfulfilled life.

Whenever people offer their lives in this condition, they are not motivated by courage. Rather, they are pushed to death by the fear of facing the challenge of life. Their death is a form of escapism. They have neither hope on the past, present or the future. They are people in a psychological cul-de-sac.

3Sense of Duty

Apart from the above, there are people who also offer their lives because they have a sense of duty, maybe to the State or to fellow countrymen. Think of soldiers who enter into the battle fields knowing about the possibility of death just because it is their duty to defend their fatherland. At this moment, I remember those fire fighters who died in the twin towers of the World Trade Centre in the United States, not because they were in the building at the time the terrorist plane crashed into it, but because they went into those buildings just to do their work. These people are to be distinguished from all those men and women who ran into the fray out of charity just to save and who may have lost their lives in the bid. Trust me, those fire fighters were not led by charity; they were led by their sense of duty to give their lives. This is not strange to conceive, after all, a German philosopher called Immanuel Kant once developed an Ethics of duty.

The person who offers his life out of duty is not the same with a Christian Martyr. Make no mistakes about it, when you stop at duty, you do not connect to the other person; you serve the self. You hope to enhance the self and for such a person, the minimum may just be enough. For that kind of person, medicine is just a profession through which people get their livelihood. Is it therefore surprising that people with a high sense of duty will be seeking out for risky jobs like rescuing those being burnt by fire, just because they aim at honour, whether in life or after death? Or have you forgotten that most of those fire fighters who died at their duty posts were duly rewarded post mortem?

4Religious Fanaticism

It is not only people who feel a sense of duty that give their lives to death; some people deliver themselves because they are religious fanatics. They have been brainwashed to believe that there are some material benefits one can gain killing oneself and they do this in the name of religion. In all cases of religious fanaticism that lead to death, it is either that the present world is not considered a great value or that there is hope for some great gains and achievements, most of which are not often Transcendent. Recently, this text message was recovered from a Boko Haram suspect in Jos: do a deed which Allah by His grace and mercy will save you from the punishment of the grave, make you pass Sirad (a dangerous bridge) with a speed of light, save you from the greatest fear, save you from hell fire and save 70 members of your family, marry you 72 virgins in paradise, give you a crown of respect which even the prophets will be impressed with, keep your soul in green birds of paradise and make you wish to return to the world and die as you died because of the good blessings and rewards you encountered after such a noble last deed. I pray for such a noble deed. You can be sure that such a death is a project for the self. The person who dies in such a way plans and executes this project, not out of charity but out of immature religious ambition. 5 Christian Martyrdom

This is the last motivation one can have in letting go his/her life. Christian Martyrs right from the first centuries of the Church have been known to be people of great courage. In the first case, Records have shown that they were men and women of balanced character, who even though were faced with difficult times, appreciated their lives and their contributions to the world of their times. Surely, I dont need to tell you that they did not hate life themselves and neither were they frustrated with life. They saw every reason to live and even appreciated their lives. So many of them even had their own life ambitions before the event that occasioned the offer of their lives took place. This was the story of St Maria Goretti and the great Bishop of the See of Antioch, St Ignatius. The only striking thing about them was that while they appreciated this life, they did not take temporal existence to be an absolute value to the extent that the desire to live would make them denounce virtue. They knew that life has both a temporal and an eternal dimension and that temporal life is meant to lead one to the eternal world.

No Christian martyr ever died just because he/she was under the pressure of any duty. They had no catalogue of expectations behind them and neither were they expecting to be remembered either in life or in death. Theirs was not a self-project or ambition. They stood to gain nothing visible or material from the offer of their lives. Their lives were that of utter generosity and when the time came for them to offer their very lives, not holding their lives as ultimate values, they did not hesitate. Faith in Christ and love for him were the only motivations that led all Christian martyrs to accepting death. The life of the Christian martyr is centered on Christ, in life and in death. For example, when St Ignatius of Antioch was arrested and was being taken to Rome from Antioch for his martyrdom, he wrote these words to the Church in Rome: I beseech you that you shew not an unseasonable goodwill towards me. Suffer me to be food for the wild beasts; by whom I shall attain unto God. For I am the wheat of God; and I shall be ground by the teeth of the wild beasts, that I may be found the pure bread of Christ....Then I shall be truly the disciple of Christ. (Romans, Chap. ii, 2, 5) Every Christian martyr is filled with great love for God and man. This love is the sure foundation for his or her sacrifice.

LOVE: THE FOUNDATION OF EVERY CHRISTIAN SACRIFICE AND MARTYRDOM

My dear friends, it is my conviction that love is the sure foundation upon which every Christian martyrdom and sacrifice is anchored. Without love, every sacrifice becomes a burden and summarily overbearing. Let me tell you what love does to the Christian. True love in the heart of the real Christian makes the Christian reach out to others to seek their good. This love is at once directed to God fundamentally, and then to fellow human beings. In the heart of the Christian with true love, there is this pressure to serve God in the other. In serving the other and loving the other, the true Christian derives great joy. The power of this love is so great that it cannot be intimidated by earthly pains or danger; it walks through wild fire, not fearing being burnt. It sees beyond the moment to the resplendence of life that cannot end with death. According to Fr George Ehusani, love is the antidote to every psychic pain.

See what true love does for the receiver it lightens the heart of the receiver with the shalom and joy which is akin to the joy of the apostles in the Upper room when they listened to Christ tell them after the resurrection peace be with you. During the World War II, in the Nazi German Concentration camp at Autchwitz, a Polish Conventual Franciscan friar did something that reveals to us the quality of Joy love can bring to the heart of the receiver. His name was Maxmillian Kolbe. He was arrested and imprisoned together with others during Hitlers totalitarian regime of the 1940s. That fateful morning, some prisoners escaped from the camp, and in punishment, around 10 prisoners were marked for death. One of the prisoners marked for death wept profusely and begged to be spared for the sake of his young family. Looking at that young man with compassion, Maximilian Kolbe stepped forward and offered to die in his place, since, according to him, he was a priest and had no biological family. Maximilian Kolbe died on the 14th of August, 1941 in the dark underground chambers of the camp and was canonised a martyr of charity by Pope John Paul II on 10 October 1982. He is an example for us today.

To those in pain, love means com-passion. According to Blessed Pope John Paul II, com-passion means passion shared by two people in love. The pain in such passion immediately is overcome. See, this kind of love is not a form of distance solidarity. No, this love is not on the fence. It is a love that is involved. It assumes the condition of the loved in order to save the beloved. In reflecting about the mission of Christ to the world, the Sacred Fathers of the Church said that in order to save fallen humanity, Christ needed to assume humanity because it is only what is so assumed can be saved. What is not assumed is not saved. That was why Christ became man in order to save man. Otherwise, he could have saved us by an eternal decree from heaven without coming to receive the insult of the cross. In being human, in suffering with man, Christ demonstrated that Christian sacrifice and martyrdom cannot be successful if it is not involved; if it does not assume the condition of the other. After all, what is Christ doing in the Eucharist? Or is the Eucharist not a place where love became sacrifice by taking flesh? Only in sacrifice can true love be proven and only the logic of love can render sacrifice reasonable.

BEING INSPIRED BY THE SACRIFICE OF CHINEDU CHUKWUNEKE IN THE MEDICAL PROFESSION

In this little paper, we have been able to see what Christian martyrdom is and how love induces the Christian to move beyond the self to the other in order to assume the others condition of pain and anomaly. I would like to end this paper by taking your mind back to the experience of Chinedu Chukwuneke and eight other students who died on that 9th day of May 2001. I believe that their experience can offer us moral recipes for a healthy practice of medicine in our present circumstances.

From all clear reports, Chinedu was not necessarily attached to the eight girls that died in that fire incident, either through blood or emotion. In fact, his classmates knew him to be a young man steeped in generosity of service. Could it have been that he was helping people to get paid or to be helped through academic difficulty? No, he was not a pauper or a dunce. One of his classmates told me plainly that he simply derived joy from serving people. His love never died. On that day, he saw a young lady carrying a gas cylinder and offered some help, without intending to be paid back either in cash or in kind. Those who were close that day said that when the cylinder caught fire in the hostel, he had every opportunity to escape but he did not. He did not escape not because he was planning to die but because the pressure of love could not let him go. He had sacrifice in his blood stream and he knew that love becomes sacrifice only when it is involved. Seeing that others were helpless females, how could such a martyr have run away? He remained, trying to force the cylinder out of the window. He remained trying to do something to save others. He remained, not caring that fire was coming up his sleeves. Held by love, he did not fear death. And so he died loving and caring; he died giving and sacrificing. May God accept the oblation of his life and service in his eternal kingdom. Amen

The life of this great young man is a very big challenge for all of us here, professionals and students. He simply tells us that the minimum is not enough. I can assure you, with a little more sacrificial love, medicine becomes the highest miracle of the modern world. The Christian in the medical line and in heath care institutions is called to love with the love of a martyr a love that is involved, a love that assumes the condition of the sick and the suffering. You must not shed your blood in red martyrdom, but you can sacrifice a lot like a white martyr. In 1971, Malcom Muggeridge had an interview session with Blessed Mother Theresa of Calcutta which came out in a book he titled Something Beautiful for God. In that book, Mother Theresa made this touching comment:

without our suffering, our work would just be social work, very good and helpful, but it would not be the work of Jesus Christ, not part of the redemption. Jesus wanted to help by sharing His life, our loneliness, our agony, our death. Only by being one with us has he redeemed us. We are allowed to do the same; all the desolation of poor people, not only their material poverty, but their spiritual destitution, must be redeemed, and we must share it, for only by being one with them can we redeem them, that is, by bringing God into their lives and bringing them to God.

I hereby challenge you my revered doctors, nurses, health care practitioners, students, and other people involved in the service of life, do your work with that kind of love that is involved. Show com-passion to the sick. Your compassion can be the highest assurance you can give the sick that life is worth being restored. You are called to be wounded healers. Do not just heal by the dosages of drug; also heal by the gift of your persons. I tell you the truth, I rather die in the house of a doctor who mixes drugs with love that live in the hospital of a doctor who keeps drugs on my bed with harsh words that make me desire to die. By assuming the condition of the sick, I do not mean that you should lose your carefulness to contact their communicable diseases; I mean that you can give them more through your assuring words, loving presence, patient listening, sometimes human consideration and charity. You may like to listen to what Mother Theresa of Calcutta said in another occasion: at the end of our lives, we would not be judged by how many diplomas we have received, or by how much money we have made, or by how many great things we have done, but by the quality of love we have put into mens lives. My brothers and sisters, may your profession strengthen the faith of the sick that come to you. May the goodwill of Chinedu Chukwuneke remind us that without love, medicine may never restore true life. May God give us the kind of courage He gave Chinedu to plunge ahead to see the face of God in others, especially in the face of the sick, those in need and those in pain.

CONCLUSIONI thank you immensely for giving me this unique opportunity and I appreciate your generous audience. May the grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1 Burt, Donald, Reflections on Augustines Search for God. Mumbai: Better Yourself Books, 2008.2 Frankl, Victor, Mans Search for Meaning. Mumbai: Better Yourself Books, 20033 John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Ecclesia de Eucharistia. Nairobi: St Pauls Comm., 2003.4 Mausolfe, A.J.M & Mausolfe, J.K., Saint Companions for Each Day. Mumbai: St Pauls, 1986.5 Mondin, Batista, Philosophical Anthropology. Bangalore: Theological Pub., 1985.6 Muggeridge, Malcom, Something Beautiful for God. London: Collins, 1971.7 Paul VI, Encyclical Letter, Humanae Vitae. Nairobi: St Pauls Comm., 1986.