The Church grows strong despite naysayers’ talk of its end

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Fr. Ivan Mukalazi of Strathmore University, Nairobi is not an ordinary priest. He uses wit and imagery to bring the point closer to home of the significance of faith and its practices, particularly in this Lenten season.

Invoking the dry wit of legendary American humorist Mark Twain, Fr. Mukalazi, in a chat with The New Vision, delivered a befitting rebuttal to secular critics who claim that religion is a dying institution.

Speaking on the enduring relevance of the Lenten season, Fr. Mukalazi recalled the famous incident where Twain, upon reading his own obituary in a U.S. newspaper while touring London, cabled back: "The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated."

Fr. Mukalazi suggested that the modern Church could easily taunt its "nemeses" in a similar fashion.

He noted that for over a century, cultural commentators and pundits have "sharpened their pencils" to write the final obituary of faith, dismissing it as a relic or a "crutch for the weak" destined to fade into the twilight of progress.

"But if you look around churches today—if you look at the long lines of people, young and old, willing to have dirt smudged on their foreheads," Fr. Mukalazi observed, "you have to wonder how all these would be oblivious of the obvious. If faith is on its deathbed, someone forgot to point this out to throngs of people waiting to receive their ration of ashes."

Penance is a Biblical tradition

The priest explained that the persistent attraction to Ash Wednesday lies in the deep scriptural significance of ashes. Far from a mere "superstition," the use of ashes is rooted in ancient biblical expressions of mourning and repentance, often paired with the wearing of coarse sackcloth.

Fr. Mukalazi highlighted several key biblical precedents for the practice:

• The Suffering of Job: After being stricken with calamity, Job "sat among the ashes" (Job 2:8) as a sign of his affliction.
• Tamar’s Lament: Following her violation by Amnon, Tamar placed ashes on her head as an outward cry of her inner devastation (2 Samuel 13:19).
• National Crisis: In the Book of Esther, Mordecai and the Jewish people donned sackcloth and ashes upon learning of the decree for their persecution.
• The Repentance of Nineveh: Most famously, the pagan king of Nineveh responded to Prophet Jonah’s warning by removing his royal robes and sitting in the dust, commanding his entire kingdom—and even the beasts—to do the same.

By connecting these ancient narratives to the modern-day queues at church doors, Fr. Mukalazi argued that the Lenten fast is not a fading ritual, but a vibrant testament to faith.