JUSTIFICATION (Part II –Leopard)

By Odon Bulamba (21 March 2003)

The Leopard is nice to see. When you see a leopard you feel joy in you. When it walks, it’s beautiful. When it climbs a tree, it’s beautiful to see. Every painter and everybody wants to draw a leopard. You will see leopards everywhere in pictures because it’s a beautiful animal. But the leopard has a secret. Its secret is hypocrisy. When you come face to face with a leopard it will never attack you but if you turn around then you’ll see what it is. This is where you’ll see what its secret is. He will have claws and he’ll show you how high he can jump. As Christians we are not leopards. If we have claws it’s now time to find a nail clipper and cut them. If we are here to jump on people’s lives it’s now time to stop. If we have teeth to destroy it’s now time to pull them out.

As you know the leopard is an animal that doesn’t forgive. One day I was watching TV and there was an animal, it was a like a wild rabbit - a hare. It gave birth. They had little babies. One day the hyena attacked the Mum and the Mum died and the young ones were alone. Not far from where they were was a stream. One of them went close to this stream to drink. A leopard was on a tree and saw the young one. The leopard came down and its claws were out and it ate the baby hare. This little animal tried to flee but it was in shock. For the leopard it was food and it ate it up.

A few years ago my mum was sick, very sick. It was after my father died. She was so sick that she couldn’t walk. We tried everything but we couldn’t help her. Physically we could see she was okay but deep down she suffered a lot. One of my uncles disturbed everyone. He disturbed my mum when she was suffering. She used to say to my uncle, “you must understand because I suffer a lot”. He said, “that’s not my problem”. He wanted to joke and joke to the point my mum decided to leave that place, to the point that she said, “no I can’t bear it anymore”. It got worse and worse and it got to the stage she was about to lose her life. My uncle and all the people around would find it as nothing.

Ten years later this uncle fell ill. The same one who used to say, “you behave like a baby”, or “Just get up and do what you have to do, why are you like that?” When my mum would say, “no, I can’t”, he would just laugh. 10 years later he fell ill, and he was seriously ill, to the point that listening to the radio when he was there was a problem, and when a child would drop a fork he would get angry easily. Sometimes he would punish a child for doing that.

My mum went to visit him and she said, “Remember when I was sick. You would say to me, get up and do what you should do. So get up, you too, it’s now time for you to get up. See at that time you had no mercy on me. You had no mercy when I was suffering. You suffer today and you are not doing anything”. It was a time to say forgive me. “I didn’t know what was happening in your body, so forgive me”.

As Christians we must be careful. Sometimes some people are going through very difficult situations. They are sick spiritually or physically. We must forgive and give life to others. We must not say go away this is not my problem; die if you want to die. Remember, the measure you use for others the same one God will use for you. If you have no mercy on people God will never have mercy on you. If you have no mercy for your brother or sister’s soul God will have no mercy on you. If you have no mercy on Paul’s studies God will have no mercy on your studies. This is why we are called to live in unity. We must bear each other; we must bear the loads of each other. This is how God will be manifested among us; your actions will justify you. My brother and my sister you are not a leopard. You are the image of the living God.