The pain of losing someone close or dear is personal and deep. It is even worse when that person is a good priest – it takes a decade to produce a priest and a lifetime to forget one who lives an impactful life.
When bad things happen, words seem inadequate to expresss how one feels. This one hurts differently – deeply as a sharp knife. But what do we do except to resign to the will of God – the author and finisher of our lives.
The news of the demise of Very Rev. Fr. Stephen Achuf Attawal came to me as a rude shock. One would expect everyone to survive “a brief illness” – But, No! In your case, God thought differently.
I can only say, “you came, you saw and you conquered.” You were a Priest Par Excellence. You were everything one would look for in a priest- gentle, soft, kind and humble.
You approached life with a high sense of humour and equanimity. “It is not easy ai” you would always say. Yet, you accepted whatever the ministry offered with deep faith and exemplary discipline.
You gave me the first oil stock I started using as a priest. Your days at the then Holy Cross Parish Pankshin, now Cathedral and Fatima Cathedral, Jos stood out for me. You treated us – Seminarians and Deacons with dignity. We could eat on the same table with you at a time it seemed a taboo to do so.
You were convinced that the priestly life is not about the office or power. Your life demonstrated that the priesthood is about people, associating with the lowly and finding people were they are in order to lift them up.
You mentored us to be good priests ‐ it is tough but we are trying. Your huge smiles provided a soothing balm to all who came around you. My pain is that good things don’t last. You would have been 40 years a priest in November.
My sincere condolences to your immediate family and the Archbishop/bishops, priests, religious and laity of Jos Archdiocese and Bauchi, Shendam and Pankshin Dioceses where you ministered tirelessly until death. Adieu, humble and gentle servant of God.
Fr. Dyikuk writes from St. Andrew’s Metropolitan Cathedral, Glasgow, Scotland, UK.
