Believers have been challenged to ensure that they leave good legacies behind even as they thrive to make heaven.
This charge was given by the Catholic Bishop of Bauchi Diocese, Most Rev. Hilary Nanman Dachelem, CMF at the Requiem Mass for Pa Patrick Ogbe Agada which held on Thursday 28 July at St. Agatha’s Catholic Church, Chito Gana, Otukpo, Benue State.
According to him, the Agada family must strive to fit into the big shoes left behind by their late father who was a committed Christian who tried to please God while he lived.
He assured the family of prayers for the sick widow and her children just as he urged members of the family, friends and other mourners to take solace in the resurrection.
He used the occasion to condole with the family even as he expressed gratitude to his counterpart and host, the Catholic Bishop of Otukpo Diocese, Most Rev. Michael Ekwoyi Apochi whom he described as “a mentor and a leading voice in the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria.”
Earlier in his homily, Bishop Apochi had lauded the deceased for being “a true legionary” who took the devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary seriously.
He challenged priests, religious and members of the laity to emulate Pa Patrick in praying to God through Our Lady bearing in mind “the hour of our death.”
“We thank him for donating one of his sons to the Church in the person of Rev. Fr. Moses Agada and pray that God rewards his generosity with the gift of eternal life” said he.
According to him, Christians must use their time well by being close to God and avoid living a reckless life.
In their separate remarks, Chancellors of Otukpo and Bauchi, Rev. Frs. Joseph Aboyi Itodo and Gregory Mundi Zungdet seized the opportunity to offer the condolences of the people of God in the two Dioceses while pledging to pray for the family that God grants them the fortitude to bear the irreparable loss.
Responding on behalf of the family, Fr. Moses Agada thanked God for the gift of their late father and the magnanimous support they received from the Bishops of the two Dioceses.
He singled out priests and religious for worthy mention even as he expressed gratitude to all who supported the family in cash and in kind towards the funeral of their father saying, “Your generosity has lighted our burden.”
At the funeral rites where 21 priests from Bauchi Diocese alongside a good number of priests, religious and laity from Otukpo, Bauchi, Abuja, Makurdi, Minna Dioceses who came out to pay their last respects to the father of one of their own.
In their tribute to their late father, the children wrote, “We love you Dad and would have wished you stayed more with us but God our creator love you more. We shall all miss you.”
They also committed his soul to “Our Lady of perpetual help and the saints to continue to intercede” for him while entrusting his spirit to “God’s perpetual light.”
Born to the family of late Mr. and Mrs. Agada and Enyi Ominyi with Omorkwo and Oluba as step mothers, late Pa Patrick who hails from Ade-Igu, Orokam in Ogbadibo Local Government Area of Benue State was the seventh child of nine children.
The erstwhile farmer later joined the Nigerian Army in 1966 and served in Biu and Bauchi amongst other places until he retired in 2004.
He then returned back home to Otukpo where he settled with his wife until he answered the home-call on 1 July 2022 after a brief illness.
The 78th-year-old is survived by eleven children, twenty-two grandchildren, nephews and nieces.
His mortal remains were interred at his family compound in Ade-Igu, Orokam in Ogbadibo Local Government Area of Benue State after prayers at the graveside.
