I was an average Nigerian born into an average Nigerian home and living in the village of Enugwu ukwu. My parents were Catholics, pious ones and that was how I was conscripted into the Christendom fromRead more… birth and schooled into believing that salvation was no where else but my church, the Catholic Church, Just like every other person was made to believe that salvation was in their church and their church alone. No one of us knows for certain where the true Salvation actually lay or if in fact there was any salvation, not even my pious parents, but then all we did was capitalize on the faith sold to us by our holy book, that the last day shall come and all we have to do is believe and we shall be salvaged.
I lived with my parents and 3 other brothers and a sister at the last floor of a two-storied building, our compound was a very big one and housed many other tenants. On the second floor lived my friend, Emmanuel with his family. The both of our families had lived in there for over 23 years. I could remember that number of years so well because I was given birth to the following year.
My friendship with Emma had been more of a relationship between two people of conflicting interests. He was an introvert while on the other hand, I was the glimmer in the dark. A lot of people associated his reserved nature to godliness and my outspokenness to irresponsibility as is always the case in our part of the world. My traits earned me friends easily, friends of the opposite sex mostly while my friend had few friends.
We went to the same primary school and I was always around for Emma, I was his best friend and anytime I wasn't around, he goes into solitude and his mouth could decay from not speaking for a long time.
Adaeze was undeniably the most beautiful girl in our primary six class. Every boy wanted to know or be noticed by her. She was a shiny chocolate skinned girl and her dimples added a glow to her already shinning smile. I had won her over with my mouthedness and every body left her for me.
Now, Ada, as she was fondly called, had an equally easily likable sister that was in primary 5. I wouldn't have known anything about her if Emma hadn't fallen in love with her, after series of teasing and cajoling from me, he owned up to the fact that he had a flair for her. The short of the long story was that I helped him, Ada and I convinced Juliet to have a try with my very introverted friend. I wasn't much bordered with how the relationship went.
We left the primary school and took our different paths. He went into the seminary, his parents and everyone believed him a living saint, his solitude earned him that. For me, the seminary would have been a prison for me. I went into a Government Secondary school. Life moved on great.
My very good friend became more refined and more open than he used to be, I, well, I just got remained me.
Things happened that made me feel less of a man when compared with my seminarian friend.
One of such happened in our ss2 class. My bond with Ada never broke, she got finer with the years and I got more attracted to her. Emma, well Emma and Juliet still had their thing and the two of us would often visit them together. On a day like any other day, we went visiting, their parents weren't around and so the liberty was unlimited. We rounded up our visit and they saw us off. Emma kept the front with Juliet, they barely talked and that hastened their movement, I and Ada always saw something to talk about. We would hold hands, laugh and fall against each other and things like that made us drag along. In the far distance, their mother trudged towards us, tying and retying her wrapper.
"My mother" Ada gasped on seeing her.
"You can't go now, she has seen you already" I said.
She walked up to Emma and Juliet and I saw the smile break out on her face. From where she stood, we could hear the conversation.
"Semi good evening o" she said, smiling at the two of them.
"Good evening ma" Emma greeted back.
Their discussion was brief and their mother reeked of respect for my friend. She had greeted him first, said she was glad to see her daughter with him and had begged him to take good care of her in the ways of the lord.
She left them and walked towards us, I could see the smile freeze on her face when she saw me.
"Adaeze" she called out ignoring my good evening ma.
"Ma" Ada answered.
"What are you doing here? Have done everything at home?"
She asked questions that showed how much displeased she was on seeing me with her daughter. In the end, Ada had to leave me and walk home after her while I escorted my seminarian friend and his girlfriend home.
He moved into spiritual year after his 1 year apostolic work and I spent 3 years at home seeking admission into the University and getting screwed by jamb each time. Emma wore white gowns as a seminarian and that increased the love mothers had for him. They admonished their sons to be like Emma and advised their daughters to associate with him to get a brush of his holiness. I was the irresponsible boy, if not, why have not been able to get admitted into the University after 3 years of secondary school? I only go to church on Sundays and I'm always at the back seat with Ada and my goons.
A lot of girls thought seminarians were cool and was drooling over my friend, they all called him "My Semi". A lot of mothers were cool with that, at least, he will teach them the ways of the lord and furnish them with the word of God. Emma furnished them quite alright, but this time, only that he did that the other way round, don't ask me how. I was the dumping ground for his escapades tales.
I was cool with all these, I never blinked or got angry the fact that people saw an innocent me as a man off less worth to my seminarian friend who had probably tasted all the choir girls in our church. I was cool with it all until my friend walked up to me one day for a heart to heart talk.
"Paschal, why don't you like coming for morning masses?" he asked me as we stood outside the church gate on a given Sunday.
"How, is it a must?" I was getting ready to get angry at his hypocrisy.
"No my friend, but the thing is that masses are necessary for us Christians to make heaven, you see, it makes you holy before the lord and before the people around you".
I couldn't wait for him to continue, I mean, this was Emmanuel my Friend.
"Oga come" I started "Don't give me that crap, that you went to the seminary doesn't make you any better than I am, I am a student, you are a student, the two of us are pursuing our various career. I will get admitted soon, I will study medical Engineering and I will graduate. You will become a reverend father, I will work and earn my pay, you too will work or preach or whatever your course of study requires you to do and earn your pay too, you are here in the church everyday because that's where your destiny lies, mine is somewhere else, so my friend don't see yourself as better than me because you wear some Uniform. In the end, we are all career chasers, we work for money"
Yes, I told him that and more, I was probably tired of the hypocrisy.

Now, that's the case scenario in our world today. You start out a seminarian and I start out a doctor or whatever I want, in the end, we are just serving humanity for pay to survive. You spend approximately 17 years becoming a priest and I spend approximately 17 years becoming whatever I intend to be. My friend, if you are a seminarian or a priest, you are no better or holier than I am, You work and get paid and I work and get paid and you probably have sex more than I do, so, so what?.
Why are they [Priests] regarded more than the other man. You see a 60 old woman greet and stoop to greet a 26-year-old priest, and when a 35-year-old man forget to greet, they term him spoilt and full of himself. Why??
After all, we are equal before God, except he runs an ANIMAL FARM..

https://talesbychi./2017/02/12/why-do-people-regard-clergy-men-more-than-other-men/

You are right but these people must be respected on the other hand..... so sound as if you know them all, don't judge them with the behaviour of your friend

No mind dem jare. Dey c dem as small gods.


Slave mentality