Exercising our Baptismal Responsibility with Courage
THE BAPTISM OF THE LORD; YEAR A, 11TH JANUARY, 2026. HOLY CROSS PASTORAL AREA, KUCHINGORO, ABUJA. HOMILY BY ARCHBISHOP I. A. KAIGAMA.
1st Reading Isaiah 42:1-4.6-7; 2nd Acts 10: 34-38; Gospel Matthew 3: 13-17
Theme: Exercising our Baptismal Responsibility with Courage
My pastoral visit today turns an emergency pastoral searchlight on your faith community in Holy Cross Pastoral Area, Kuchingoro. I suspended all my engagements for this Sunday to come here in solidarity with you; to pray with you in your “church” without walls or roof, since the building that served you for decades as a church has been demolished.
Please be assured of our fraternal closeness and pastoral concern even as you endure the pain of the loss of your place of worship, which served you all, and especially, the indigenous people of the Gbagyi ethnic group, an ethnic group that has long existed before the advent of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). The worship house in question has served you for over 30 years. Allow me, please, to commend your effort in helping your priest, Fr. Moses Akuhwa, to secure the Church’s belongings and some useful parts of the church structure before it was brought down.
Just a few days into the New Year, 2026, when many were still celebrating the joy of the New Year, you were busy trying to salvage your place of worship, to save what could be saved before it was destroyed. Do not feel so sad. You did your best.
This is a test of your faith. After joyfully celebrating Christ’s birth, it is time to prove your faith and defend it. It is not a time to run away. You are not the first to suffer such.
Allow me, please, to trace a bit of the history of your church of Holy Cross Pastoral Area, Kuchingoro. It began as a small Catholic community in 1993 near Kuchingoro junction. It was originally established as an outstation of Sacred Heart Parish, Airport. Over the years, it became an outstation under various parishes, including St. Augustine, Lugbe; St. Linus, Chika Alieta; St. Michael, Piwoyi; and Our Lady of Fatima, Karonmajiji. In 1995, the small church building was demolished by the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA). The faithful continued to worship in the residence of Mr. Anthony Ogbonna. In their determination to secure a permanent place of worship, members approached the indigenous Gbagyicommunity, who generously donated a parcel of land of 1.5 hectares. It was on this land that the now-demolished church was eventually built. Holy Cross Kuchingoro was formally elevated to a Pastoral Area on 4th February 2023, by me, following my pastoral visit of 11th December 2022. Rev. Fr. Moses Akuhwa was appointed as the priest-in-charge, who assumed responsibility on 24th February 2023. He was officially installed by the Vicar for Pastoral Areas, Very Rev. Fr. Francis Kale, on 5th March 2023. Since then, Fr. Akuhwa has, together with the effective collaboration of all of you, built a modest residence which serves as the priest’s house.
The church demolition notice was issued to the Church by the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) on 3rd November 2025. Efforts to engage the developer were unsuccessful. Since the church stands on a land freely given by the indigenous Gbagyi community of Kuchingoro, the village chief intervened by writing formally to the Director of Development Control, FCT, confirming that the land had been allocated to the Church to serve the spiritual and social needs of the native community. Despite the receipt and acknowledgement of this letter by the Development Control office, preparations for demolition continued. These efforts were resisted by the Gbagyipeople, who insisted that the developer must first engage them and provide proper relocation and compensation.
After a protracted struggle, the community’s representative, Hon. Dalamin, informed the priest on 3rd January 2026 that all negotiations had failed. The developer insisted that the Church had no legal documentation for the land and stated that the only compensation available would be four million Naira. The Church was then given a three-day ultimatum to remove its belongings or risk losing everything to demolition.
To the glory of God, the community came out en masse to rescue everything of value from the church. For this, I commend you all. You have shown determination and resilience by standing strong to protect your humble place of worship. You have exercised your baptismal obligation of promoting and defending the faith and your Church. You have exhibited your confirmation mandate to be witnesses, ambassadors, and soldiers of Christ (not by the use of force) by collectively working to gather anything of value from your old church to be kept for use in the future when providence allows you to start another place of worship.
One would have imagined that the authority responsible for moving you away from your former church would help you by either allocating a new land to you or compensating you substantially in order to buy another land and begin a new church on it.
The first reading today contains some of the most tender words of the scripture: “Comfort, comfort my people”. These words are addressed to people who are weary, exiled, broken, and unsure of their future. They feel abandoned, punished, and forgotten. Yet God sends a message not of anger, but of reassurance: “You are still my people.” This message is for you, too, in Kuchingoro, who have lost your worship house.
Brothers and sisters, our faith does not assure us of a smooth journey all the way. And if challenges come, St. Paul asks in Romans 8: 35: “Then who will separate us from the love of Christ? Tribulation? Or anguish? Or famine? Or nakedness? Or peril? Or persecution? Or the sword?
Jesus himself warned His disciples: “Beware of men: they will hand you over to Sanhedrins and scourge you in their synagogues. You will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them and the pagans” (Mt 10:17). He goes on to say in verse 22, “And you will be hated by all for the sake of my name. But whoever will have persevered, even to the end, the same shall be saved.”
Dear brothers and sisters, challenges to your faith in different forms will always come. Be strong!
The people of Israel spent sixty years in exile, as captives of the Babylonians, from about 600 B.C.E. to 540 B.C.E. The second part of the book of Isaiah, chapters 40-55, is a prophecy of the end of this exile and the return of the captives to their homeland. Isaiah says that God has told him to tell the exiled citizens of Jerusalem that their “sentence” is at an end, that their exile is over! Their displacement will be over (cf. Isaiah 40:1). I hope someday, somehow, some good Samaritan, a benefactor, will come to your assistance by supporting you to construct a befitting place of worship. Just as the Jerusalem Temple was destroyed, but a magnificent one was built after, in its place, God, in His providence, will help you to build a more befitting place of worship.
As we celebrate the feast of the baptism of the Lord, the second reading calls us to renounce worldly passions and to live godly and upright lives in the world. We can only achieve this by staying away from sin, seeking God’s face daily, and reconciling with Him who has come to redeem us and make us whole. We are anointed to live differently in the world – to reject injustice, to speak truth with love, to serve rather than dominate, to be light in places of darkness. Our Christian life is not meant to be a private or hidden affair, but a public witness.
Today, as we celebrate the feast of the Baptism of the Lord, we pray the Lord to touch our hearts to be able to keep our baptismal promises by rejecting the activities of Satan, whose agents in the form of human beings are going around looking for people to devour (cf. 1 Pt 5:8).
Let that voice spoken of Jesus by the Father be heard again today about each and every one of us: “This is my beloved Son, [this is my beloved daughter] with whom I am well pleased.”
May this celebration renew in us the grace of our baptism, help us to keep the promises we made on the day we were baptized, console us and give us the courage to begin anew as we navigate our own wildernesses, be it financial struggles, health challenges, family crisis, unemployment, challenges in your studies and so on. Remember that God is near, stay positive.
May our political leaders endeavor to bring justice, be attentive to the needs of the poor and needy and use our resources to put smiles on all Nigerians in this new year, 2026, and beyond.
Peace be with you.
