Homily for Ruby Jubilee Mass for Rev. Father John Bintum
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ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST’S PARISH, FONCHA STREET – BAMENDA FRIDAY, 26 APRIL 2019 T   The following homily was delivered in St. John The Baptist Church Foncha Street Nkwen, Archdiocese of Bamenda, during the Ruby Jubilee celebration of Rev. Fr. John Bintum's Priestly ordination. The preacher was the eminent Rev. Father Zephyrinus Yem Mbuh. My…
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ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST’S PARISH, FONCHA STREET – BAMENDA

FRIDAY, 26 APRIL 2019

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The following homily was delivered in St. John The Baptist Church Foncha Street Nkwen, Archdiocese of Bamenda, during the Ruby Jubilee celebration of Rev. Fr. John Bintum’s Priestly ordination. The preacher was the eminent Rev. Father Zephyrinus Yem Mbuh.

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

We gather here at Saint John the Baptist Church, Foncha Street, in union with

Father John Bintum to celebrate the 40 Anniversary of his Priestly Ordination or

Ruby Jubilee, as the 40th Anniversary is also called. On this occasion, it would have

been fitting to take the Prayers and Readings of Mass for Giving Thanks to God

for the many blessings he has bestowed on Father John and on all others, whose

spiritual needs he may have attended to for the past 40 years. However, in union

with the Roman Catholic Church, today we take the Prayers and Readings of Friday

within the Octave of Easter, since Liturgical Law asks us to do so. In the Order for

the Celebration of Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours for the Liturgical Year 2018-

2019, we would see that no other celebrations are permitted on the eight days

following Easter Sunday, except funeral Masses. However, given the importance

of the occasion that has brought us here today, we have chosen a second reading

from the Readings provided in the Lectionary for Mass for Giving Thanks to God.

We may have noticed that all the readings of this Mass are taken from the New

Testament. It is no error. As far back as Saint Cyril of Jerusalem (315-386),

the practice of not reading the Old Testament at Mass during the Easter Season

was already in place. On the weekdays of Easter, in fact, the Book of the Acts

of the Apostles is read in a continuous way, till the end of the Easter Season.

On Sundays of Easter, the second readings are respectively taken from the First

Letter of Saint Peter in Year A, the First Letter of Saint John in Year B, and

the Book of Revelation in Year C. The Gospel readings are for the most part

from the Gospel according to John. The logic of this arrangement is based on

the practice of looking forward from the Resurrection, after looking back on

our salvation history during the Easter Vigil. All of this helps to focus our

attention on the celebration of the Resurrection and to keep us looking forward

from the Resurrection Event to our present day.

As earlier mentioned, we have come here today as family and friends of Father

John Bintum, in order that together with him we may celebrate his Ruby Jubilee.

It may be important for us to look briefly at the word jubilee. To look at the origin

and meaning of the word jubilee, we cannot avoid going back to the Book of

Leviticus, even if it is the Old Testament and we are here at a Eucharistic

Celebration during Easter, a context in which the Old Testament is not officially

read. In the Book of Leviticus 25:8-13, we read:

“You will count seven weeks of years – seven times seven years, that is to say

a period of seven weeks of years, forty-nine years. And on the tenth day of

the seventh month you will sound the trumpet; on the Day of Expiation you

will sound the trumpet throughout the land. You will declare this fiftieth year

to be sacred and proclaim the liberation of all the country’s inhabitants. You

will keep this as a jubilee: each of you will return to his ancestral property,

each to his own clan. This fiftieth year will be a jubilee year for you; in it you

will not sow, you will not harvest the grain that has come up on its own or in

it gather grapes from your untrimmed vine. The jubilee will be a holy thing

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for you; during it you will eat whatever the fields produce. In this year of

jubilee, each of you will return to his ancestral property.”

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From this text it is clear that for the Israelites the fiftieth year was significant and

special. God himself decreed that the Israelites were to observe the fiftieth year as

a year of jubilee, a sacred year. The significance of the fiftieth year did not end with

the Israelites. It has come down to our own times and we call it ‘golden jubilee’.

However, the question remains: What is a jubilee?

The origin of the word jubilee is not very certain. However, some scholars have

suggested that it derives from the Hebrew jobel, which literally means the horn of

a ram. From the horn of a ram, which the Israelites used to declare the year of

jubilee, a certain idea of rejoicing developed. Whether we look at the Hebrew jobel

or at the Greek iobelaios or iobelos or at the Latin jubilo, jubilatio and jubilaeum,

which most European languages have adopted, we need to realise that the idea of

joy runs through all of these concepts.

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For the Israelites, the Year of Jubilee was in any case pre-eminently a year of joy, a

year of remission or universal pardon. Remember the text of Leviticus 25:10 that

says: “You will declare this fiftieth year to be sacred and proclaim the liberation of

all the country’s inhabitants“. How would people be free if their debts are not

cancelled and their sins forgiven? Every seventh year, like every seventh day, was

always seen to be holy and set aside for rest, call it a sabbatical year; but the year

which followed seven complete cycles was to be kept as a sabbatical year of special

solemnity. In the year of jubilee every household recovered its absent members,

Leviticus 25:8-13 [The New Jerusalem Bible. Pocket Edition]

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Cf. CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: “Holy Year of Jubilee” at http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08531c.htm

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the land returned to its former owners, the Hebrew slaves were set free, and debts

remitted.

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The Christian Jubilee has taken up the content of the Hebrew Jubilee and made it

Christian. Pope Boniface VIII instituted the first Christian Jubilee for the entire

Roman Catholic world in the year 1300. However, the idea of solemnizing a fiftieth

anniversary was already familiar to medieval writers, through their knowledge of

the Bible.

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We have come to know jubilee as the twenty-fifth anniversary (also known as silver

jubilee), fortieth anniversary (also known as ruby jubilee), fiftieth anniversary (also

known as golden jubilee), sixtieth or seventy-fifth anniversary (also known as

diamond jubilee). In the Roman Catholic Church, a jubilee is simply an appointed

year or other period in which a plenary indulgence is granted upon repentance and

the performance of certain religious acts. This is ordinarily celebrated every 25

years, for instance, the fiftieth anniversary of the conclusion of the Second Vatican

Council. This is an ordinary jubilee. It could also be a period of time declared by

the Holy Father as a time of rejoicing, when a plenary indulgence is granted upon

repentance and the performance of certain religious acts, for instance, the Year of

Priests. This is an extraordinary jubilee.

Our concern today is the 40 Anniversary or Ruby Jubilee of Rev. Father John

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Bintum. The first thing that comes to mind when someone thinks of celebrating

his or her anniversary is gratitude. Today, in union with Father John, we thank

God for the blessings he has bestowed on him thus far. From his mother’s womb,

Cf. CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Ibid.

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Cf. CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Ibid.

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God chose him and consecrated him to be a prophet (cf. Jeremiah 1:5). I am sure

Father John is thanking God today for his parents, who are both of blessed

memory, and asking God to grant them eternal rest in his kingdom. He is thanking

God for his teachers in primary school, in Saint Augustine’s College Nso, in Bishop

Rogan College Soppo – Buea, and for his formators in Saint Thomas Aquinas’

Major Seminary Bambui. He is thanking God for Father Paul Verdzekov,

Archbishop Emeritus of Bamenda, who focussed on the strengths and prospects

of the young John Bintum and decided to ordain him as a Priest of the Roman

Catholic Church for the then Diocese of Bamenda on Thursday, 19 April 1979.

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Father John Bintum happens to be among the first batch of Priests trained in Saint

Thomas Aquinas’ Major Seminary Bambui, with the Very Rev. Father Christian

Wiyghan Tumi as their pioneer Rector. It is worth noting that in 1978 the Very

Rev. Father Christian Wiyghan Tumi was appointed Bishop of Yagoua and in

1988 he was created first and lone Cardinal of Cameroon. Of the nine candidates,

who became Priests from the pioneer batch of Bambui, Father John Bintum was

ordained along with Father Joseph Akem, Father William Tardze, Father Anthony

Viban, Father Patrick Adeso, and Father Joseph Veranso for the then Diocese of

Bamenda. In 1982, when the Diocese of Kumbo was erected Father Patrick Adeso

and Father Joseph Veranso chose the new Diocese of Kumbo. Father Edward

Ngalame and Father Moses Tazoh were ordained for the Diocese of Buea and

Father Gerard Toumagni was ordained for the then Diocese of Garoua. This first

batch of Priests from Bambui celebrates 40 years in the Priesthood in the absence

of Father Patrick Adeso, Father Joseph Veranso and Father Gerard Toumagni,

who have been called to eternity at different times. I am sure that today Father

John is also praying for their eternal repose.

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Father John thanks God today for his family and friends, people who have

journeyed with him for the past 69 years of his life on earth. His call to the

Priesthood exposed him to all kinds of people in the Archdiocese of Bamenda

and beyond. Some of these people have been a source of great encouragement to

him. I am not going to attempt any listing of such persons, for fear I leave out those

who deserve to be mentioned. However, I wish to draw Father John’s attention to

those who made life very difficult for him, right from the early years of his priestly

ministry to this day. You may have felt bad about them, as you should humanly

feel; you may have felt hated, discriminated against and sought different ways to

defend yourself; you may have felt discouraged and asked, ‘Why me?’. I guess

most of such persons may not have been aware of what they were effectively doing

to you. For them you can and should pray the prayer of Jesus on the cross: “Father,

forgive them, for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34). Those of them who

were aware may have had the intention to make life impossible for you, but

ironically they contributed to strengthen you, to make you develop the kind of

resilience that would keep you afloat on the troubled waters they created for you,

to make you a more holistic person.

A Priest does not bear grudges! In fact, he is called to annul grudges. It is in the

very essence of his ministry to reconcile conflicting parties. Father John, I hereby

invite you to look back at the past 40 years and why not at your entire lifetime,

identify those persons who may have hurt you most. After having identified them

and the impact of their hurt, then embrace the challenge to forgive them from your

heart. It is only after you have forgiven them that you will be better placed to ask

them for forgiveness, for being a no-nonsense person as you have always been,

there is no doubt that you would have sometimes intentionally stepped on others’

toes. Remember the conclusion to the parable of the unforgiving servant:

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“‘You wicked servant! I forgave all your debt because you begged me.

Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had on

you?’ In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured,

until he should repay all that he owed. That is how My Heavenly Father

will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.”

(Matthew 18:32-35)

A Priest is fondly called Father. Somebody has jokingly observed that the best way

for son to punish his father is to become a Priest, so his father can call him Father.

There is no punishment in calling a Priest ‘Father’. Rather, the Priest should see

in the title of ‘Father’ an invitation to realise that as Father, he assumes

responsibility for the community put under his pastoral care; he assures the unity

and smooth functioning of that community; he promotes a true spirit of love and

family in the community; and he allows himself to be groomed into a real father.

A father worthy of the name has the humility to apologise and to ask for

forgiveness. A real father is always willing to forgive and be forgiven. A real father

is at the service of his family. The Priest, too, is called to serve after the example

of Jesus himself, who came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a

ransom for many (cf. Matthew 20:28).

Father John, 40 years down the line, you have worked really hard to minister to

others in season and out of season. Imagine the entire territory from Nkoine to

Bum, which you handled alone in the early 1980s as the young and vibrant Parish

Priest of Saint Jude’s Parish Fundong. Imagine all other territories and institutions

in which you have worked till date. Very often, some of us Priests think we are

great when we are everywhere, every time, attending to everybody else. We are so

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busy working for God that we tend to forget the same God who has called us and

assigned us to work for him. There is a story told of the donkey on which Jesus

rode during his triumphant entry into Jerusalem. The story goes thus:

“It was the morning after the great event, and the little donkey was still full of itself

for all the songs, praises, dance, jubilation, and people spreading palm branches

and even their garments on the road for it to walk on. As the sun rose and the day

grew warmer, the donkey decided to take a walk into the village and meet the

people. It simply wanted to relive the glory of the previous day’s event.

The donkey met the first group of people at the village well. As the donkey strutted

towards them, the people simply ignored it and went on filling their pots and jars

with water. The donkey cleared its throat (M-mm-m!) to draw attention, but no one

paid attention to it. It stamped its hoofs impatiently, but no one looked up. It

thought to itself: ‘These fellows do not seem to know who they are dealing with

here’. It stamped its hoofs again, this time rather angrily, and broke a pot. One

well-built fellow gave it a sharp slap on the back and said, ‘Get out of here, you

dirty beast!’

The donkey ran off, thinking to itself, ‘These people must be so ignorant. Let me

get to the market square’. Even there, everyone was about their business and no

one paid the donkey the least attention. This made the donkey really mad and it

shouted: ‘Hey fellows, where are the palm branches? Spread your garments on the

road! Don’t you see who is coming?’ Some children playing nearby stopped and

started laughing at the donkey that was stomping around as if it had been stung by

bees. They chased it with sticks and stones.

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The donkey went back to its mother, quite disappointed, and said: ‘Mummy, they

chased me with sticks and stones, they completely ignored me. Yesterday was so

different.They adored me; they spread their clothes for me to walk on. What is

wrong with these people?’ Its mother said: ‘There is nothing wrong with the

people, son; but there is everything wrong with you. Yesterday, they were not

adoring you; they were not singing, dancing, and spreading their garments and

palm branches for you. They did it for Jesus. Look, son, without Him, you are

nothing; without Him you can do nothing.’”

A Priest is like the donkey, in the story above, that must always carry Jesus in order

to be effective. Without Jesus a Priest is nothing; without Jesus a Priest can do

nothing. This is beautifully put in the Gospel according to John, when Jesus says:

“Iam the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will

bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5).

On the occasion of the ordination of four diocesan Priests in the Cathedral Basilica

of the Immaculate Conception in Northern Colorado on 17

May 2014,

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Archbishop Samuel Joseph Aquila of Denver said something, which I would like

to borrow on the occasion of the Ruby Jubilee of Father John Bintum. He said:

Every Priest or Bishop knows the truth: that it is God who has chosen

him. For he knows his own weakness, he knows his own sinfulness, and

yet, just as Jesus spoke to each of the Twelve the words, ‘Come, follow

me,’ so too does he speak to every Priest or Bishop. And, in responding

to that call, the Priest or Bishop must do so with a total gift of self. As

Jesus tells us, if you wish to be my disciple, you must leave everything:

mother, father, brother, sister, home, etc. and follow me. Jesus must be

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the first and best friend of the Priest or Bishop. This is true for every

disciple of Jesus. The Priest makes himself a total self-gift to Christ and

to his Church. Jesus himself has laid down his life for you and for every

human being. He has made of himself a total self-gift and calls you to

imitate that. Not only do you leave home and family to serve Christ and

his Church and to exercise pastoral charity as Christ himself did, you also

embrace the gift of celibacy for the sake of the Kingdom. You imitate

Jesus Christ in doing that. You say, ‘he is the first priority,’ as is your

ministry. It is only with deep prayer that you can enter into that gift.

Hopefully, over the years of your formation, you have encountered Jesus,

you have received him as your friend and you have learned to love as he

loves. Jesus reminds us that we are first loved by him, ‘as the Father loves

me, so I also love you. Remain in my love’ (John 15:9). He then reminds

us: ‘if you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I

have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love’ (John

15:10).

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Today, we celebrate Father John’s Ruby Jubilee in the context of the Easter Octave,

that is, the period of 8 days following Easter Sunday. The readings assigned to this

Fifth Day of the Octave focus directly on the Resurrection of Jesus. Had the

Resurrection of Jesus taken place in this our android age, social media would have

been flooded with so many ‘happening now’ videos that many phones would

simply have run out of storage in a few hours. It happened in such a way that even

science could not record its details. However, we learn something of the empty

tomb and the first appearances of the Risen Lord from the women, who out of

Cf. https://archden.org/archbishops_writing/homily-priesthood-ordination-mass-may-17-2014/#.XMCxevZFzIU

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their usual love and concern for Jesus go to the tomb early in the morning to anoint

his body. It is such a wonderful thing that the love of the women for Jesus leads

them to be the first witnesses of the Resurrection of Jesus. It comes across as a

reward given to the women by Jesus for their love and concern for him. This is

something that women can and should be proud of. They are bearers of the

wonderful news of the Resurrection of Jesus.

It is thanks to the women that the chicken-hearted men, whom Jesus had chosen

to be his Apostles, who had not only disowned Jesus but had also abandoned him

to his fate on the cross, are able to come out of their hiding in an attempt to verify

the unbelievable story of the women. It is said that seeing is believing. When the

men see the scene of the empty tomb and encounter the Risen Lord, they believe

in the Resurrection so much so that from chicken-hearted men they become bold

and fearless preachers of the doctrine of the Resurrection.

In the first reading of today, the Apostles face the rulers and elders of the people

without fear. Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, takes up his role as first among

equals and tells the rulers and elders of the people that they have failed in their

mission. They had killed Jesus with the hope of silencing him and his followers.

Unfortunately for them, God has raised him to life and miracles are being worked

by his followers in his name, contrary to their expectation. Remember that in the

Gospel passage of Easter Monday, taken from the Gospel according to Matthew

28:8-15, we are told of a meeting between the guards who were kept to watch the

tomb of Jesus on the one hand and the chief priests and the elders of the people

on the other hand; a meeting whose conclusion is a resolution on the official

version of the story of the Resurrection of Jesus. After having given the guards a

good amount of money, they were instructed as follows:

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“This is what you must say, ‘His disciples came during the night and stole

him away while we were asleep’. And should the governor come to hear

of this, we undertake to put things right with him ourselves and to see

that you do not get into trouble’.” (Matthew 28:13-14)

The chief priests and the elders of the people are not the only ones to have this

kind of agreement on an official version of a story that completely contradicts

reality. We do that sometimes on a daily basis. By so doing, we choose to bear

false witness instead of bearing witness to the truth as Jesus would want us to do.

At his trial, Jesus said he came into the world to bear witness to the truth. We, who

have opted to be like Christ, by becoming Christians, ought to bear witness to the

truth in the same way Christ did.

From the first reading of today, we learn that the chief priests and the elders of the

people were extremely annoyed because Peter and John were teaching the people

the doctrine of the resurrection from the dead by proclaiming the resurrection of

Jesus. We can understand their frustration and anger. Things are working contrary

to their made-up story. How could a dead man whose body has been stolen from

the tomb be causing so much confusion among the people? More so, his disciples,

who were so afraid that they ran away, abandoning him to the shameful death of

the cross, are now so bold to preach the doctrine of the resurrection and convert

thousands of people! When Peter and John are called up to explain their conduct,

Peter does not fear; neither does he hesitate. He tells them clean and clear:

“… I am glad to tell you all, and would indeed be glad to tell the whole

people of Israel, that it was by the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, the

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one you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by his name and by

no other that this man is able to stand up perfectly healthy, here in your

presence, today. This is the stone rejected by you builders, but which has

proved to be the keystone. For of all the names in the world given to

men, this is the only one by which we can be saved.” (Acts 4:8-12)

The message of Peter to the rulers and elders of the people invites you and me to

draw closer to Jesus, because it is by his name and by no other name that we can

be saved. Union with Jesus necessarily implies union with our brothers and sisters.

We are gathered here as family and friends of Father John Bintum, who hails from

Nkor – Noni. The Noni have a saying: “Kintashi nu mngai”, meaning “Unity is

strength”. There is some essential balm that is made in the United Kingdom but

“For export only!” I have always had the impression that the “Unity is strength”

saying of the Noni is also for export. This is because in every Noni Village, no

matter how small it may be, there are two Fons. Our unity would be strength if it

ceased to be a thing of the lips and became a conviction of the heart of each one

of us. Then, our union with Christ would truly be union with our brothers and

sisters.

Father John, out of love for Jesus and his brothers and sisters, you have chosen to

use the proceeds from your Ruby Jubilee to cater for the internally displaced, who

reside in this parish. This is your own concrete way of making sure that your union

with Christ translates into union with your brothers and sisters. May Jesus, the

Risen Lord, touch the heart of each one of us in this church so that we may

generously and joyfully support you in this great act of charity!

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May the Lord also keep us and strengthen us so that in the next ten years, we may

come back to celebrate your Golden Jubilee of Priestly Ordination. Ad multos

annos!

Zephyrinus Yem Mbuh, SD,

SENECA-CENC, Yaoundé.