The Lord’s Prayer is obviously a cornerstone of Christian devotion and worship; offering a powerful and meaningful way to connect with our Creator.

Part of it instructs, “forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

Without mincing our words, we’d like to put it to Archbishop; you’ve disappointed our nation….you’ve let the Lungus down, let alone a bad example to the Christian community that we even wonder why the Pope is still tolerating your presence in that prestigious office.

As we are not in the habit of speaking from without, we shall give you a practical example. Somewhere within the borders of this nation, there was a fairly affluent man who happened to have disowned his biological son for unbecoming behaviour, and expunged him from his WILL! He had reportedly bequeathed all his earthly possessions to the church.

As misfortune would have it though, death came knocking on his door. As his dear life precariously hung on a thin thread in a hospital, some important visitors called on him.

“It would be ideal for you to make things right with God…” one of them suggested, solemnly.

“What do you mean Father?” he wheezed and coughed, struggling to draw a breath. “I attend church every Sunday…..more over I contribute to the parish, generously.”

The priests were at pains to make him understand he stood no chance of making it to heaven if he went to his grave pregnant with bitterness and grudges, particularly for his son!

“We’re urging you to consider forgiving your son….” they pleaded with him. “Revise your will…..leave everything with your son, and apportion something little to the church you love.”

Now, this is where the Catholics dwarf ‘ba pente’ to greater extremes as they tend to practice true religion.

Anyway, the rest as they say is history. The man patched up things with his son before the cold hand of death could take him away. And today, his son stands tall as a “big bwana” employing hundreds of people!

This brings us to the impasse surrounding former president, Edgar Lungu who, as we all know, passed away on foreign soil a while ago. Archbishop Banda was obviously close to the former president. The current gridlock as to where he should be put to rest is a serious indictment on the part of the Archbishop; he has lamentably failed in his duties. As a believer, a senior cleric for that matter, we expected him to prevail upon the family or convince them to have a change of heart from the Biblical point of view.

Family spokesman cum lawyer, Makebi Zulu keeps on reminding us that ba Lungu left a WILL he never wished President Hichilema anywhere near his coffin! How is ba Lungu expected to approach the gates of heaven with his heart pregnant with bitterness and hate for a fellow human being?

Matthew 6:14-15 say, “For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”

One would only guess the path ba Lungu has crafted for himself if we are to go by what the Bible teaches us. Worse still, his family and, of course, his lawyer aren’t helping matters. Recently, Zulu shocked the nation when he insisted the family of the former has vowed to challenge government in court over the burial of the former president, even if its takes a year.

Where’s the heart of God in this? Did ba Lungu even leave behind such a strong wishe or this is simply the work of selfish individuals hell bent on abusing his corpse for political expediency. Archbishop Banda, you can definitely do better than this!

Untill next time…..

Prince Bill M Kaping’a
Political/Social Analyst