By Fr Gabriel Dolan
On Tuesday April 22, Mombasa came to a halt as the church and
public bade farewell to retired Archbishop Boniface Lele who passed away on
April 09.
Yet the simple, gentle soul from rural Kitui would most
probably be embarrassed by all the attention and speeches.
Boniface was a rarity among public figures: humble,
approachable, gentle, unpretentious and very uncomfortable with all the
trimmings and trappings of his position.
Born into poverty, he died a poor man too: no overseas
accounts, no profit making plazas, no property that his family will quarrel
over.
When my colleague Nicky browsed his wallet for his ID to
acquire a burial permit, he found a mere fifty-bob note, his total legacy.
That was typical of a man who would dispatch his monthly
stipend by M-Pesa in five minutes. There were always pressing needs: hospital
bills, school fees, seeds for planting.
He was generous to a fault as he would often remain with
nothing to pay his own bills. He had the ‘Francis effect’ before anyone knew
about the man from Argentina.
He was a shepherd that ‘smelled of the sheep’ long before the
Pope exhorted his colleagues to do so.
His mercy firstly extended to women and children and was best
illustrated when he became the first and only Catholic bishop to advocate
condom use for discordant couples to avoid infecting each other with HIV.
He withstood the criticism and was very supportive when I
revisited this important issue three years ago.
He will also be remembered for informing ICC indictees Uhuru
Kenyatta and William Ruto in 2011 that their prayer crusade would not be
welcome in any Catholic Church in the coastal region.
He spoke openly about his own illness that forced him to
retire early after being diagnosed with dementia.
He did not demand special care but chose to move to Changamwe
where he bore his illness without complaint, in the company of friends and the
occasional malt beer!
Boniface Lele was no saint but when you peruse the passion
narratives of the man from Nazareth you find a lot of similarities.
Nothing quite moves us like authenticity. Jesus too was
stripped of friends and clothing as he died humiliated and naked on the cross.
We have been covering up his nakedness and concealing his
humanity ever since as preachers present a plastic Jesus that guarantees you
prosperity in this life and salvation in the next, provided you top up their
M-Pesa account every Sunday from the comfort of your armchair.
The prosperity and glitzy gospel seems far removed from the
man crucified among thieves in Golgotha.
Being truly human is not about gathering possessions but
rather letting go of illusions, attachments, embracing people and the truth and
being willing to suffer and die for what is right and true. It is about being
faithful to your conscience.
It is also walking gently on the earth, leaving small
footprints for that is what humility really is.
That and the fifty-bob note is Boniface Lele’s enduring
legacy to the people of Mombasa and Kitui.
May he rest in peace.
(Adopted from the Saturday Nation)
