What ‘Epiphany’ Reminds Me – Valentine Obienyem

Epiphany is synonymous with the visit of the three wise men. It reminds us of many things in line with its spiritual symbolism. Besides what father said about epiphany in his sermon in Church today, it reminds me of an additional encounter revolving around the three wise men.

As our then Rector at St. Domnic Savio Seminary, Akpu, in 1985 in my JSS 3, Fr.  Joseph Nwana was also our teacher in religious studies. A consummate formator at home with the psychology of child‘s  upbringing, he is still acclaimed as one of the best Rectors  nationwide.

Many years ago when I encountered him at the first episcopal mass of Bishop Ezeokafor at Nanka, I respectfully asked where he was, having been posted to schools for the most part of his priestly apostolate. He answered: “akam nokwa na Skol, ebe nna ehe nwa.”

Honestly, you need to see the sizes of those in school to imagine  our sizes then. Only on this would you understand that being posted to schools is “ihe nwa.”

I remember him  with many incidental events, especially fallout from his classes. He was the one who introduced us to Islam by teaching us  about the religion. I still remember some of the things I crammed from his teaching. Shall I recapitulate them? “ Islam means submission to God. One who follows  Islam is a Moslem. A Moslem is one who submits to God. We have three pillars in Islam, namely: belief in God, praying five times in a day, going to Mecca, alm-giving and fasting during the month of Ramadan.”

Father went as far as telling us that “people are called to prayer by a caller called or named Muezzin, who says: ‘come to prayer, come to good, prayer is better than sleep. We have only one God and Mohammed is the prophet of God’”

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In one of his classes, father asked if we knew what the three wise men that visited Christ were called. He said he would give 2 Naira to any person that would get the answer right. The closest we came to the answer was  “The three  wisemen.” At last, Fr. answered : “The Magi”, which was the first time to hear that.

As we grew in age, we also grew in knowledge like Fr. Nwana. In 2008, somebody walked into my office and introduced himself as Caspar. I immediately retorted: “One of the three wise men.” As he was expressing surprise that I knew that, I mentioned the other two to him as Melchior and Balthasar. I think he was pretty surprised.

Come to think about it, their names, just like the two thieves  crucified with Christ – Gestas and Dismas – are not in the Bible. They were handed to us by tradition, which knows everything. As Catholics, this is part of the proof of the potency of apostolic tradition in the life of the Church. Not everything that happened are contained in the Bible.