UNCONDITIONAL CHARITY

Nwanyanwu Chris

Man ontologically is a product of charity. The creation of man is born out of God’s unconditional love for man. His life was never bought by the parents but was freely given to them by God without any condition in the strict meaning of the term. From birth, the parents take care of him. They provide all his needs as much as they could. The ones they were unable to provide, it makes them feel sad. But all things being equal, the child’s needs are met.

As man grows, God adorns him with some qualities and gifts. God gives him the gift of beauty, intelligence, material possessions, etc. Although man on his part does his best to develop these gifts, the strength and all it takes to do that are gifts from God, which were given unconditionally. Thus, we can say that all that man has are gifts from God which are based on the unconditional charity of God.

Ordinarily, having received freely all these gifts, it follows that they be given out freely to others just the same way God has given them. The various gifts God has given to man are meant for distribution to others freely and unconditionally. Hence, all those who in one way or the other lack some of these gifts should be assisted to have them or make use of them. Besides in the field of profession and occupation, the gifts of God ought to be distributed unconditionally.

Unfortunately, outside the ambience of profession and occupation, the gift of God is sold in the name of charity. Before one is assisted with his work, he must make a promise of what he will give in “appreciation” for the work that will be done. If he cannot make the promise, then the whole process of rendering assistance will never begin. Even when it has begun and completed, it will never be received by the owner; because the promise has not been kept. And if he fails to keep to the “forced agreement” with the one helping him, he loses the whole thing. Why do some students offer conditional assistance to their colleagues? What a Conditional Charity!

Charity based on concrete condition is never charity! An act of assistance to any one can only qualify for charity if and only if it is done without any condition. What can man actually call his own? What can he say that he has provided for and by himself alone? Why will one sell the gifts that are by nature “Not For Sale”? Any form of assistance that is conditional is never charity but business.

Charity in its real meaning is void of conditions. Our gifts must be used for what they are. They are gifts from God to us and from us to others. The gift of God remains a gift and should be treated as such. We must reciprocate the charity we receive from God and other people; by extending our unconditional hands to others. This is required of every human being. As Catholics, the season of lent expects more of this from us- Unconditional Charity.

PEOPLES’ ATTITUDE TO TIME

Nwanyanwu Chris

          The word “time” is a slippery one and of which a universal definition may be difficult to produce. One thing about it is that it is a very important concept of our existence such that it helps us to know and manage the environment very well. Time may be described as the measured or measurable period during which an action, process, or condition exists or continues; an appointed, fixed, or customary moment or hour for something to happen begin or end, etc. Man cannot do without time because whatever he did, does and will do happens at one time or the other. One peculiar feature of time is that it has always been and will continue to be.

The people of every age made use of time then and while they lived in time, they died in time and left us in time to manage the world and her affairs in time. This shows that people have always known time to exist even before them and as such interacted with time to make their life better. This is a general consciousness under which everybody acts. But just as there has been time in the world which will continue to be, the attitude of people towards it is very funny and though differently taken by people, it is believed that we all have personal attitudes towards time. This attitude could be classified into positive and negative attitudes to time.

On the positive side of time, the peoples’ attitude towards it is that of complete consciousness of time such that they order their live activities very well regardless of space. This is shown in how people despite their various commitments are always not found wanting in any of their duties. It is never magic and cannot be; instead it is the result of the consciousness of the passing time and the desire to make good use of it. For people here, they are always conscious of their time which they intend to utilize very well.

On the negative side of time, peoples’ attitude to time is that of total unconsciousness of the ever passing time. This is very evident in people’s mismanagement of time. They find it very difficult to plan their life activities and as such cannot meet up with the expectations as they are often found wanting in their responsibilities.

Consequent on the above negative attitude towards time, people find it extremely difficult to make a choice of values with regards to the time they allocate for their different daily activities. Particularly young people these days, are so much engrossed in frivolities than important things, such that the time they spend on those frivolities is more than that they spend on important things.

We all are aware that most students spend more time in engaging in fruitless ventures and then spend little time on their studies. This is shown when a student during the academic session spends more than two hours on the screen with the football matches being displayed whereas he devotes less than an hour to his studies. And at the end of the day, he is found wanting in that part of his life. What about those of them that can afford to interact with their friends late in the night but will never pick up their books to read and where they tried to, they begin to sleep immediately. What about those of them that can never visit the library but will definitely be at the café always.

Apart from the example above, most people have lost the sense of religious worship such that they are always in a hurry to leave the church or other religious places. When they stay in the church for almost one hour, it seems to them that they are wasting their time there. But they spend closely four to five hours in the beer parlour and other places. The funniest part of it is that some people now have lost the sense of good use of time as they take the time for spiritual exercises for some other things which most often is very unimportant.

Another negative attitude to time is that of being in a hurry all the time, or to rush things at the dying minute. This is the case with some of our reckless drivers who are always in a hurry at the expense of both their lives and that of the passengers. Of course we all are well aware that this has lead to so many accidents on our roads. People no longer plan their activities in such a way that there will be no clash. This attitude has made people forget so many things that would have been useful to them especially when set out on a journey.

In essence, our attitude to time should be that of strict consciousness, so that while we manage it very well, we may be able to order our lives very well. If this is done, procrastination will be removed from our thought, hurriedness and other negative attitudes to time will never be part of us. And this will make our living better.

 

THE VOCATION OF THE BLESSEDVIRGIN MARY

                                         Her Role in Redemption

Nwanyanwu Chris

God has always loved humans from their very first existence. In his love, he created the first set of humans and kept them in the Garden of Eden filled with every good things of life to sustain them. In this way, he entered into a relationship with humans with the intention that this good relationship will last forever. Unfortunately, this relationship was broken by our first parents as a result of their disobedience.

When this relationship was broken, God never abandoned humans; instead he sought another way of reconciling them to himself. He sent many prophets to prepare his people for the day of salvation when he will free them from all their sins and restore that broken relationship with them.

When the fullness of time came for this purpose, God sent his son Jesus Christ into the world, to come and redeem the world from sin and death. Thus, True God became true man. God’s salvific giving of himself and his life in some way to all creation but directly to man, reaches one of its high point in the mystery of the incarnation. It is from this mystery of incarnation that the vocation of the Blessed Virgin Mary is seen, and at the same time, it helps to understand her role in redemption.

Hail, Full of Grace, the Lord is with you... The Angel Gabriel came to Mary to tell her of her vocation. The Angel’s announcement revealed to Mary her task in the world, the key of her whole existence. The annunciation was for her a most perfect light that filled the whole of her life and made her fully aware of her exceptional role in the history of mankind. Mary is definitely introduced into the mystery of Christ through this announcement by Angel Gabriel.

Mary was chosen to give her consent to this mystery of Christ’s life on earth. She consented to the mystery of incarnation. She was free. She freely consented to this mystery, thereby becoming the mother of God. Her response can be characterised as a generous and total readiness, a full consent to God, who realises in her the mystery of the incarnation, calling her to be the Mother of God.

At the announcement that she will give birth to the son of the Most High without knowing a man, by the power of the Holy Spirit, She responded with the obedience of faith, and abandonment to God, certain that with God nothing is impossible: Ecce ancilla Domini; Fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum. Thus, in giving her consent to God’s word, she becomes the mother of Jesus Christ.

This abandonment of Mary to God is what makes Mary’s soul good soil capable of receiving the divine seed. She joyfully agrees to have no will or desire other than that of her Lord and Master, who from that moment on became her Son-who has been made man in her most pure womb. The Second Vatican Council, Lumen Gentium, 56 says:

Thus, the daughter of Adam, Mary, consenting to the word of God, became the mother of Jesus. Committing herself whole-heartedly and impeded by no sin to God’s saving Will, she devoted herself totally, as a handmaid of the Lord, to the Person and work of her Son, under and with him, serving the mystery of redemption, by the grace of the Almighty God. Rightly, therefore, the fathers of the Church see Mary not merely as passively engaged by God, but as freely co-operating in the work of man’s salvation through faith and obedience.

A perfect understanding of the role of Mary in redemption is to be found within the mystery of incarnation. Christ truly became man, like one of us. He received his human nature from the immaculate womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Just as God prepared a good and fitting environment for the first man which was the Garden of Eden, so also did he prepare a very fitting and worthy environment for his Son. This worthy environment is no other but the body and soul of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Mary’s role in redemption is closely related with that of her son Jesus Christ. We find Jesus very closely united to Mary. When the blessed Virgin said Yes, freely, to the plans revealed to her by the Creator, the divine Word assumed a human nature: a rational soul and a body, which was formed in the most pure womb of Mary. The divine nature and the human nature were united in a single Person: Jesus Christ, true God and, thenceforth, true Man; the only-begotten and eternal Son of the Father and, from that moment on, as Man, the true son of Mary.

This is why Our Lady is the is the Mother of the Incarnate Word, the second Person of the Blessed Trinity who has united our human nature to himself for ever, without any confusion of the two natures.

The incarnation of Christ was a manifestation of God’s love for his people. Christ took the human nature to save man from sin and death. This human nature was formed in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Her fiat made the mystery of incarnation possible and hence, she became the Mother of God- her vocation.

Finally, this vocation of Mary reveals her role in redemption which is that she became God’s collaborator in giving human nature to his Eternal Son. Hence, she was the instrument that linked Jesus with the whole humanity. This is Mary’s role in redemption as fully expressed in her vocation.

 

 

THE VALUE OF SCEPTICISM

                IN HUMAN KNOWLEDGE
Nwanyanwu Chris

The preoccupation of man with regard to the reality at his fore and even beyond is to come to grasp with the nature of such reality. The knowledge of the nature of the reality is not just an ordinary knowledge but an accurate and reliable knowledge; such that the bearer will not only be sure of what he has as knowledge but also will be able to disseminate it with pride and confidence.

Knowledge as it is cannot just be any belief that is true. It goes beyond this into providing a standard and an unshakeable foundation for what can be regarded as knowledge. This foundation which must be very strong in its strictest sense is the justification we all clamour for whenever we ask the question of “how come?” This question in itself is not just an attempt to deny the truth of what is being communicated. Rather, it is a question that paves way for the sufficient grounding of what has been communicated.

Like we said earlier, the purpose of inquiring into reality is to come to full, strong and reliable grasp of it. It is in this light that we shall come to recognize and possibly appreciate the role of doubt in human knowledge; for while it does not deny what is regarded as knowledge, it makes sure that both the knowledge giver and the receiver are very certain of what they are taking in at any point in time.

Knowledge of anything cannot be neglected for without it, one is lost in any scenario he finds himself of which that which he has not would have helped a great deal. That is why our beloved ancestor Francis Bacon will say that knowledge is power. To those who have it, they are powerful and the contrary becomes the lot of those who do not marry it. But then in as much as knowledge is power and we all desire it and ought to, it does not give room to accept that which cannot out rightly be regarded as knowledge. That is why there is always a scrutiny before acceptance of any true belief. This scrutiny is done by the seat of justification of what is given. It is worthy of note to mention here that justification could be rationally-based as well as empirically-based depending on the type of matter at hand. Significantly, this justification is brought about by doubt or scepticism.

The word doubt has often being used by many people without a clear understanding of what it really means. Besides whatever meaning the nearest dictionaries could afford us, doubt has a very peculiar nature. Doubt is just like an intermediary between believing and not believing. As a go-between, it is neither in support of believing nor not believing. Instead it stands at the middle in order to have sufficient reason why it will fall on any of the side it eventually does. To doubt does not necessarily imply a total or absolute non-agreement of matters. Instead it implies that for it (doubt) to fall on the side of believing, it must have gathered sufficient reason for such.

Another worthy note to be made about doubt is that, it is not permanent but temporal. It is within the ambience of its temporality that doubt finds its value by really investigating the matter at hand so as to establish what the case - the truth really is. Doubt really searches the basis for its concord with the given and this is done with the aim of determining the truth.

Taking Thomas the Apostle as a case study, he doubted not just because he did not want to believe the resurrection of Christ, but because he wanted to be absolutely sure about what he may believe in. In other words, he wanted to ascertain the truth of the resurrection of Christ. In this case, something is rather commendable about the act of Thomas. This is because he was not going to surrender himself to any kind of man except Christ. While remembering what Christ said about false prophets and teachers who will come and claim to be Christ, he could not submit himself to any other person except the real and pierced Christ. He knows too well that it is possible for a false Christ to come and present himself as the risen Lord. Of course, that will be very easy for the Apostles to believe in him since Christ promised to resurrect from the dead and the Apostles are looking forward to see the risen lord. Hence, Thomas not only insisted on seeing the pierced Christ but also to put his hands in those pierced holes in the body of Christ.

Consequently, Thomas’ doubt was totally turned to belief immediately he saw the proof. If the resurrection of Christ was merely an illusion, the touching of the body of Christ, the putting of the finger into the hands as Thomas did would certainly have cured any such illusion. Furthermore, when Christ appeared to his disciples after His resurrection, he ate food, they saw the food vanish; he took bread, they saw the bread break. On another occasion, he gave them bread and fish and they were satisfied of their hunger.

The above experience does not happen when there is only a dream or an illusion. None of the Apostles expected a resurrection at least from their human perspective, so they had to be convinced the hard way as Thomas was. Even Christ himself knew that it is not really the best to believe without convictions that was why he made several appearances to the Apostles after his resurrection to prove to them that he has truly risen. We can still make an allusion to our beloved ancestor Descartes who doubted just to believe certainly in the things he postulated later wards. As re rightly said, he doubted in order to believe. These examples and many other go a long way to reveal to us that doubt has a role it plays in human knowledge.

Doubt is of great value to man in his daily relationship with fellow human beings as regards knowledge acquisitions. This is the case with the many beliefs we hold on in life about one thing or the other. We should not just swallow whatever we receive; instead we should sprinkle the sugar of doubt on that matter and then take time to ascertain the truth of the matter. Unfortunately, most of us have received false knowledge claims and then have acted wrongly on that basis.

Although we must know and we strive to know, we should not be in haste to accept or reject what is given to us. Instead, we should take our time to justify what we may hold on to or discard. The period of this important action is the period of doubt and since the outcome will be something better, it therefore demonstrates the value of scepticism in human knowledge.

THE SAME STREETS…

Nwanyanwu Chris

On the last Sunday of the liturgical year, the church celebrates the solemnity of Christ the King, as if to crown all the celebrations of the entire year. The full title of today’s celebration is the “Solemnity of Christ the Universal King”. What that means is that Christ is the king of the entire universe, the cosmos, (John K.Aniagwu Breaking The Word p.306). The supreme Law in the kingdom of Christ is love, love of God above all things and love of one’s neighbor as oneself. In the words of Second Vatican Council, it is “a kingdom of truth and life, of holiness and grace, of justice, love and peace”. This is the kingdom Christ came to teach humanity about, so that the people on earth will establish and maintain it here on earth and be able to join in the eternal Kingdom of Christ.

The universal church celebrates the kingship of Christ this week as she concludes her liturgical year. An important feature of this celebration is the Eucharistic procession that takes place after the mass. This procession is aimed at proclaiming to the whole world the Universal kingship of Christ and equally the eternal Kingdom of Christ which begins here on earth. Hence the procession in most cases covers a long distance as the people of in various groups sing and praise Christ the universal King and through it proclaim the eternal Kingdom of Christ.

Ordinarily, one will expect that with this celebration which was started over many years ago, the kingdom of truth and life, of holiness and grace, of justice, love and peace would have been established here on earth at least to a large extent. Unfortunately, the reverse is the case. The evidence of this is the growing destructive humanism and the ever growing rate of secularism and immaterialism. This thus leads to corruption, injustice, hatred/discord, enmity, etc. All these are clear contraries of the make-up of the Kingdom of Christ which Christians particularly Catholics proclaim on the solemnity of Christ the King.

No one can claim not to know the exact reason why this Kingdom of love, justice and peace has not come to stay significantly in the world today. The simple reason is that we have not really proclaimed the Kingdom of Christ beyond our lips. In fact on those streets that we proclaim the Kingdom Of God, we also mock that kingdom. What a great and heavy iron!

One funniest thing about the issue is that we are not only mocking the Kingdom of Christ after proclaiming it, but that the proclamation and the mockery of the Kingdom of Christ is done on the same street and to the same people. That is, we proclaim to people about the Kingdom of Christ on the same environment and still come later to mock what we have earlier proclaimed.

We proclaim of the justice of the Kingdom of Christ and we come back to cheat one another in the market and other situations. We proclaim justice in the Kingdom of Christ and yet tribalism, favoritism, etc influence our actions in life.

We proclaim peace and love of the Kingdom of Christ; but we are living in very strong enmity with people around us. We fail to forgive wrongs done to us and as such hatred and discord has taken roots in our lives. That is why people assassinate the other who they consider as obstacle to their selfish joys. Envy, jealously, revenge, etc are features of the human society. These and many other acts that are contrary to the composition of the Kingdom of God are happening in ALL the aspects of the society.  We see them in the church, in Government, markets, business house, hospitals and all other places that human beings occupy.

Honestly we all are not unaware of all these of which we are all guilty of. If this is the case, why do we contradict our selves by proclaiming the Kingdom of Christ and yet mock it? Why do we find it very difficult to make our words correspond with our actions?  The interesting part of it is that this mockery of the kingdom of Christ is consciously and unconsciously done by the chief singers and announcers of it. Even when they behave that it is not the case through their appearances in public, the careful study of their private lives confirms the mockery.

And so with the situation before us, should we continue to proclaim the kingdom of Christ? Since we have failed to strengthen people’s faith in God, should we go about and make it known? Since we have only succeeded in mocking this kingdom of Christ, are we to preach about it to other people?

These questions and similar ones are very fundamental and necessary to us in our lives. They are so because we have not actually proclaimed the kingdom of Christ beyond our lips as our actions are in great enmity with our words. Where then does the problem lie?

The problem simply lies in our inability to make serious and genuine efforts to rise above our limitations and put ourselves in the vehicle that leads to the Kingdom of Christ. We are all frail naturally, but we still have the grace of God enough for us to manage our nature very well. Although this may not be an easy task, we all must be able to live out what we proclaim about the kingdom of Christ.

Of what essence is the proclamation about the kingdom of Christ when it has not existed first within our hearts? We all must know that proclaiming the Kingdom of Christ alone cannot take us to that kingdom. Instead it is the proper and complete application of the principles of the Kingdom of Christ that will make us worthy to be part of the Kingdom. And again, this Kingdom has to live in our hearts, practiced in our actions and then proclaimed boldly before here on earth before we can talk about the eternal Kingdom of Christ.

Anyone who cannot practice what he proclaims should not even proclaim at all; for proclamation is never complete without examples by the one that proclaims.

 

THE PRIEST AS KING

Christ the eternal king came to establish his kingdom here on earth so that man can be able to practice here on earth what is in the world to come. The mission of the establishment of the eternal Kingdom Christ carried out through his actions of evangelization, working of miracles, prayers, etc. A king is vested with the responsibility of leading the people entrusted to him. He leads them on the right part of life, protects and cares for them and finally shares in every situation of the subjects, be it that of joys or sorrows. This was exactly what Christ did while he was on earth. He cared for the sick, led the people on the right path of life by teaching them good attitudes of life and then protected them spiritually by establishing the sacraments which will assist the people in this regard. His sole aim in all these is to prepare man for the membership of the eternal kingdom.

 

However, because he could not carry out this mission alone, and given the case that his time is almost coming to an end here on earth, he instituted the sacred priesthood as an office that will continue to carry out his mission work. The priests since they share in Christ’s priesthood are also kings who are obliged to spread the news of the Kingdom of Christ and prepare people for that eternal kingdom. This is basically what the priests are called to be. Also they are kings because they are the leaders of the faithful through preaching the Word and celebrations of the sacraments. These they do so that the people are not only well –prepared for the eternal Kingdom, but are made very fit for the membership of the Kingdom of God.

 

As a leader, the Priest is expected to lead the people on the part of righteousness. He is expected to be an example to the people in the practice of the virtues which of course he teaches always. Hence, the people look up to him in matters of morality and most often are ready to follow his footsteps. It is taken for granted that the leader must know it all and must be a perfect example to the subjects, in that case, the Priest is called to do this so that his followers/subjects will learn from him.

As a guardian, Christ made sure that the people are on the right path of life. Hence he taught them good conducts of life always. And so the priest as another Christ is expected to preach fearlessly to the people of God about the right attitudes to life. In other words, the priest must tell the people what it takes to be part of the eternal kingdom of Christ. Also he must be ready to celebrate the sacraments faithfully for the interested faithful. The Priest is expected to be ever ready to celebrate the sacrament of penance for the faithful wherever he finds himself. By so doing, he is guarding the people so that they will not be excluded from the eternal kingdom of Christ and this was exactly what Christ did while he was on earth.

 As a king and leader, one is ordinarily expected to share the joys and sorrows of the subjects.  This is what the priest must do because he too is a divinely instituted king and leader of the faithful. The priest must be close to the people he is leading and be able to know their problems and then offer possible help to them. He cannot choose to isolate himself from his subjects because a true leader never isolates himself from the subjects.  Hence he must be ready to celebrate the sacrament of anointing of the sick and then visit the aged and sick faithful. This attitude alone will be an encouragement to the faithful who will not only love their leader the Priest but also be ready to listen to his words.

 However, in the process of being a true king and leader, the priest will face many challenges. These challenges which may come from different means and areas are meant to test the faith of the leader. And so the leader cannot afford to lose his faith because if he does, to whom will the faithful look upon?

Thus the Priest is called to be a true and faithful leader and king. He must attract people to Christ the eternal King. He must be conscious of all he does as many people are looking up to him. For those who are aspiring to become future kings and leaders as Priests, they must also encourage people to be in union with God. This will be done if through their life styles, they are able to encourage priestly vocations among people.

 A Priest is one especially consecrated to the service of a divinity and through whom worship, prayer, sacrifice, or other service is offered to the object of worship, and pardon, blessing, or deliverance is obtained by the worshiper. He is a king and a leader and is bound to be faithful to his responsibility. Anything contrary to the above makes him a fake and false king and leader.

 Nwanyanwu Chris

 

 

THE PRAGMATIC PREACHER

 Making the Good News Effective for the people of today

Nwanyanwu Christopher

The Good News is the message of the Lord which has been commanded by him to be passed on to all generations. It is good news because it contains good information. Not just good for the now or for the then, but eternally good. It is eternally good because it contains those pieces of information that will help us to commune with God not only here on earth, but more importantly in the life of the world to come. This Good News is meant for the people of God whom God desires to save by bringing them closer to Himself. In view of achieving this purpose of disseminating the message of the Gospel, God chose special people whose work is basically to carry out this message to all the peoples of the world; for God wants all men to be saved. Thus, we have preachers of the Word of God whose duty is to bring the Word of God to God’s people wherever they may be.

Consequent to the above injunction to preach the Word of God to all peoples, preachers are sent to various places and in various times to preach to the people. In doing this, they adopt different methods or ways of passing this message to the people. For some preachers of the Gospel, they preach the Word of God in the Churches during different gatherings and celebrations. Some of them adopt the method of organizing retreats, crusades and conferences and other public gatherings to deliver the Word of God. For some others, they disseminate theirs through the media; while some preach through the   Radio stations, some others the television, others through the internet, and other social networks. Another method preachers use to spread the Word of God is through writings, some write books, others articles, other journals, etc. Besides these methods, others carry out theirs through house to house visitations where the message is brought to the door posts of people. These and other means are used to deliver the message of the Gospel so that wherever one may be the Good News will be made available to him or her.

 However, since this message is supposed to be effective to the people in terms of making meaning to them as they comprehend it and then translate it into their lives, it is very necessary we begin to think of how the message of the Gospel can be effective to the people. The first thing we must know as regards the effectiveness of the message is that there is a correlation between the effectiveness of the message and the effectiveness of the process or avenue of delivery. This correlation is expressed in the manner the gospel is expressed. This is because if the message is delivered effectively, the people will understand it effectively and translate it into practice. In other words, should the gospel be effective, the delivery must be effective as well.

Therefore, the effective delivery of the message can only be achieved when the message is delivered according to the intellectual development of the audience. Besides other development such as social and spiritual, the intellectual development is very essential. This is because the intellect being a vital tool for knowledge harnesses what has been received through the senses and then passes it to the brain who collaborates with other tools/factors in the process of applying them in daily life. It follows therefore that the language in its nature and structure must be such that is comprehensible to the people. For this reason, preachers of the word of God must be in the swing of things with the local languages of the local audience, so that they too may understand the message before putting it into practice. Also, people including the children must be spoken to in the way and manner they can understand. This is very important because in some cases you find the preacher addressing the primary school pupils as if they are undergraduates. Sometimes you find the preacher using very complex words to deliver the message such that it is either the audience avail themselves with a dictionary or they just stare at the preacher. In this case can you say the Gospel has been delivered when the audience never understood the message presented to them?

Besides the intellectual development of the people, their type of life should also be considered in the delivery of the gospel. This is because when the gospel is delivered in the way they detest, they will never grab what is being said. This is the case when preachers preach for very long period of time such that the people will become uninterested with what is going on as they either sleep or do other things even while the message is going on. And at the end of the day, nothing is taken home. In this case, can the preacher claim that the message has been understood by the people? If all these are addressed, I believe that there will be effective delivery and in turn the people will reveal the effectiveness of the message in the way they live after receiving the message. 

Furthermore and more significantly, for the message to be very effective or rather more effective to the people of God especially the people of our time, there is another factor that must be considered. This is all about the correlation between pragmatism of the preacher and the effectiveness of the Gospel. The relationship between the pragmatic preacher and the message of God lies in the fact that the message received must be sustained by the people. The message is not just for that moment, but one that should remain forever as they live their lives. The world today is full of problems and hardships and in the midst of all these, it is expected that the message will be lived out. If this is the case, it therefore means that the people of God will need another help for consistency in the application of the message received.

Consequently, as the people of today (just as it has been in the past though not pronounced) demands for the participation of the preacher in the application of the message given, it therefore follows that the practice of what is being preached becomes a conditio sine qua non in this regard.  If the message is all about sacrifice and the shunning of materialism, the people need examples of such a practice from the preacher; for it will make them understand and accept that it could be practised. To this end not only must the preacher practice what he preaches in the secret, but more importantly publicly so that the people could see for themselves the application of the message proclaimed. It is only when the preachers of today practice what they preach that the message of the Gospel received becomes not just a wine but a delicious and festive one to and for the people as they translate it into action.

Arguably, the preacher is a human being as well who has his limitations. Yes this is very true. But if he must tell people to make effort, people should see him making such effort. Also, even after the practising the message by the preacher, the people can decide to shun the message. This is true. But then, the application of the message by the preacher determines to a great extent the effectiveness of the Gospel received; for if he practices what he preaches, the people will be encouraged to follow him; but if he does not practice what he preaches and the people notice it, they are discouraged from applying the message in their lives. The people of today need a pragmatic preacher of God’s Word!

THE HERODS OF CHRISTMAS:

             WHO ARE THEY?

 

NWANYANWU CHRIS

There are so people by the name Herod, and there are also those who have lived with the name. Also the world of history many “Herods” are known and they are all popular for one thing or the other with regards to the society there influences were felt. But among these Herods, there is one who Christians and the world will never forget. The reason why this particular Herod will never be forgotten is because of his great influences to Christianity and the World as a whole. This Herod is the famous king Herod the Great.

 

Herod the Great was one of the significant rulers of the Jews. Historians describe as Roman-backed king of Judea (37-4 bc), portrayed as a tyrant in Christian and Jewish tradition. Biblically we associate him with Christmas because we come to know about him as the ruler of Judea during the birth of Christ. He was a great king who wished that he remains in power even at the grave. When his wise men and soothsayers told him that a prophecy is about to be fulfilled with regards to the eternal King who will be born into the world, he was distressed. He was because it entails that someone will rise up to become great king and will rule forever which he had stupidly taught he would be the person for such endless rulership.

In a bid to make sure that the prophecy will never come to reality, he tasked his soothsayers to find the exact place where this would be eternal king will be born. Fortunately for him, at the birth of Christ, the magi who were on their way to worship the eternal king had a brief stop at his place to pay homage to the mortal and limited king. Upon revealing to him their mission, he encouraged them to come back to him and tell him where this king is so that he will go and worship him as well. When the magi never returned to him, he orders for the killing of about 2,000 innocent children so that in covering a wide range of children he will succeed in killing the eternal king.

With these actions of his, he showed very clearly that he is absolutely against any good thing since the birth of Christ was really a good thing for humanity. With the punishments of his actions during his time of death, he ended his life with very bad reputation and with little or no good record; which shall be evergreen in the world. What a life?

Herod has died so many years ago but there are still other Herods who are doing exactly doing what the first Herod did. These Herods are those people who in one way or the other are fighting against anything good in the world. Just as the first Herod was against the great good revealed in the birth of Christ, so also do these Herods fight against the “goods” in the human society. These they do by words and actions. We have these Herods under different manifestations in the society.

From the angle of the Christmas celebration in advance, so many people are so much interests in mundane things than the spiritual. They don’t have time to recollect within themselves how they could prepare for the birth of Christ. Just as the first Herod  who never hid to the words of John the Baptist about preparation of the advent of the Lord, these people’s thought are elsewhere. Not only that, there way of life in actually against the person of Christ. These people are the Herods of Christmas. It then means that anyone who has not been making spiritual preparation is either the coming of Christ or not interested. Any of these is enough evidence to show that they are behaving exactly like the first Herod.

Moreover, there are so many acts of injustice and social inequality in the land which is very clear to even the blind. Those of them who by suggestion, planning, advice, and execution in any other way bring these maladies to existence is a Herod; for they are antagonists to the good of the people in that society. That is, they are against peace, justice and love.

Also those of them that cause confusions in any form in any gathering are also Herods of Christmas; for they are against the better organization of the group. Most people who out of envy and jealousy cause problems to members of the group mostly the leaders are the Herods of Christmas

In addition, those people who slander their neigbours jus to win stupid favours are also the Herods we are talking about. Their action depicts them as those who are against the good image of their neigbour; and as such negatively affects that person’s dignity and integrity.

More so, the Herods of Christmas can be seen as those people who through their life-styles had scandalized people and lead they astray. Just as the first Herod wanted to obstruct the birth of Christ, so also do these people unknowingly or not deprive people of intimate union with God. As they share in the qualities of the life of first Herod, so also could they be taken as Herods.

From the foregoing instances, it validates the claim that there are so many Herods in the society and their presence and activities have made life unbearable and uneasy to most people in the society. Unfortunately all these continue to happen in the world, which is an indication that Herod is still alive.

However, as Herod the great did not go without a punishment so also will all these Herods receive their punishment for there is always a  reward for every action of man and no sin goes unpunished. History has it that the wickedness of Herod lead him to order the death of five hundred (500) prominent Jews at his death, so that people may not weep when  for him when he dies, they will weep for the death of the prominent men he has in custody. This is to show how wicked man is and has been with regards to similar activities happening in the society. He started decaying while alive and finally died.

If this is how the first Herod was punished  will the punishment of the later Herods not be much since after knowing what happened to their leader they still persist in their ugly acts. Examples abound to show that this has been the case. The people of Abia state will confirm these with the events of the death of the hardened armed robbers like Jango, etc and other similar cases around 1999 and 2000. Hence all the Herods will meet their grave waterloo either here or in the hereafter.

In essence, human beings have been Herods in the past, at present and likely in future. You can fall a victim of it by your way of life which may totally against love of God and neighbor. Our actions can make us Herods we don’t check them. For those of us who cherish slander, gossips, chaos, and always act in these regards either secretly or publicly, they should return to normalcy before it is too late. If not, the lot of the gone Herods will be their lot.

Yes most of us may think that they are not guilty of acting against love. This supposition should not be held strongly because anything we do that makes others genuinely uncomfortable means acting towards love of the good and then turning us into Herods of different situations since this was the offence of the first Herod.

Anyone who acts against love of God or neighbour is a Herodian of which shall be punished. We all must make sure that we are not guilty of it. Let us try!

THE EBE Ọ KWỤ OF THE ASCENSION IN THE LIFE OF THE APOSTLES

Nwanyanwu Christopher

The ebe-ọkwụ of the Ascension in the life of the apostles already leads us (by the euphoria of this period in the life of the Church) to no other ascension but that of Christ which we just celebrated. Going further, we all know that there is a correlation between the Ascension of Christ into Heaven and the descent of the Holy Spirit. Beyond this fact, there is also a quiet correlation between the Ascension of Christ into heaven and another event which is all about the transcendental movement of the Apostles into heaven. This later correlation as a whole has a correlation with the “what comes after” of the Ascension. Thus, the question of the how of this becomes very significant here.

However, we cannot fully enter the mkpụrụ-ihe of this work without first introducing to us the invited guest of this show who is not just here for its sake, rather, it is here for the purpose of our stay here. The invited guest is no other but ebe ọ kwụ. This compound word is a wedding ceremony of three Igbo morphemes namely ebe, ọ and kwụ. Ebe means Place, Ọ means it/he/she and Kwụ means stand. By way of proper transliteration we have place it/he/she stands. And so the ebe ọ kwụ of anything simply means the place it stands in a thing. Having giving this very important introduction of our guest, we shall quickly move into the mkpụrụ-ihe of this work as could be suspected from the gate of this work.

It is quite important to understand that Christ wishes that all men be saved as they come to the knowledge of the truth. He mandated the Apostles and Disciples to spread his good news to the ends of the earth. After faithfully carrying out this task, he will reward them with the heavenly inheritance. This also has a link with his ascension into heaven. This is because while on earth, Christ promised the Apostles that he is going to prepare a place for them in Heaven.

Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust in me. In my Father’s house, there are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. I will come back and take you to be with me that you may also be where I am. (Jn. 14:1-3).

This statement of Jesus was given during the moment he was consoling the Apostles over the news of his death and burial. Already, he has commanded them to spread the message of the gospel to the ends of the earth. Now if it is the case that he will eventually die as he kept on informing the Apostles, it means that ordinarily, they will be afraid or rather confused. The confusion arises when they try to reconcile the death and burial of Christ and their reward for being with him all this while and the supposed obedience to the final injunctions. Hence, at this point Christ deemed it necessary to assure them of their place in heaven which he will prepare for them when he goes back to heaven. And so coming from this background, we can say that the Ascension of Christ into Heaven was a hope of eternal inheritance by the virtue of the fact that it is only when he goes back to the father that he Christ will prepare their various “rooms” for them. And so the Ascension of Christ into heaven is an event that brings hope to the Apostles, the hope of heavenly inheritance.

More so, the above, by implication of the above too, Christ’s Ascension into heaven assures us of our heavenly inheritance as well; for he said while on earth that whenever he goes up to heaven, he will draw all men to himself.

“And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself”. The lifting up of Jesus on the cross signifies and announces his lifting up by his ascension into heaven, and indeed begins it. Jesus Christ, the one priest of the new and eternal covenant, “entered, not into a sanctuary made by human hands… but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf”. There Christ permanently exercises his priesthood, for he “always lives to make intercession” for those who draw near to God through him”… (CCC 662)

However, the ebe ọ kwụ of the Ascension in the life of the Apostles does not end with the hope of heavenly inheritance and its implication on the life of Christians. In fact, there is a more significant ebe ọ kwụ of the ascension in the life of the Apostles. This significant ebe ọ kwụ has a correlation between the first ebe ọ kwụ of the Ascension and its implication. The more significant ebe ọ kwụ of the Ascension event expresses itself in terms of the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles. The correlation between the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles and the assurance of heavenly inheritance for the Apostles and that of all Christians is effect of the message in the life of God’s people. And upon getting and accepting the message from the Apostles, the people of God through their life styles will draw themselves close to Christ who will finally intercede on their behalf. Now since the delivery of the good news will gain heaven for the Apostles and for the people of God, and by virtue of the fact that as at the time of these events, the Apostles were not fully ready for the work, it follows that they needed a motivator, an encouragement (Acts 9:31; 20:23; 21:4), a helper, a divine assistance and guidance (Acts 15: 28; 20:28). This was no other but the Holy Spirit whom Christ had already spoken about. And this coming of the Holy Spirit has a correlation with the Ascension of Christ into heaven, because we can say from the scriptures that it was Christ’s Ascension into heaven that brought about the Holy Spirit on the Apostles.

“Now I am going to him who sent me…Unless I go away, the Counsellor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. (Jn 16:5-7)… But when he, the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth (Jn 16:13).

 

This goes on to reveal the relationship between the ascension and the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles; for from the above we can say that the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles depended on the Ascension of Christ into heaven, since as Christ had said, he will send the Spirit of Truth only when he leaves the world to join the Father in Heaven.

When Christ is finally glorified, he can in turn send the Spirit from his place with the Father to those who believe in him: he communicates to them his glory, that is, the Holy Spirit who glorifies him. (CCC 690)

 

From the foregoing it becomes very clear that the Ascension of Christ into heaven was a hope of the descent of the Holy Spirit. This is even the case because following the injunctions of Christ before he ascended; they remained in the upper room in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit came down on all of them which triggered off the courageous spread of the gospel by them. Finally, from this piece, the ebe ọ kwụ the event of Ascension in the life of the Apostles is first that it gave them the hope of getting a place in the Kingdom which all Christians by implication of it share as well. Secondly, it gave them the hope of the descent of the Holy Spirit on them which finally came upon them ten days after the ascension event.

 

THE BURIAL OF RELIGION

Nwanyanwu Chris

The burial of anything presupposes the death of that thing. The death of that thing presupposes the existence of that thing at a point in time. Talking about religion, while some are saying that religion will die, some others are saying that it is dead and buried at least in some part of the world and others at the extreme say that religion is still alive and will continue to be alive.

The question of the death of religion is derived from the situation in our world today especially in some parts with regard to the way people are abandoning religion and doing away with religious practices and properties. A closer observation with what is going on in some parts of Europe shows that within the nearest future, there may not be religion or its practices even of the minutest level. This is because as science tries to answer all the questions available, solve people’s present problems and provide a life of comfort to people, there may not be any need for religion since religion was because of some of these lacks.

However, I do not think that the claim above is true. The why of my non-agreement with the claim above is due to what religion is. Religion is the belief in the Supreme Being and the worship of this Being. This belief stems from the fact that people recognise that a being must have made the world as it is; for nothing can come out of nothing. Being that the world came from somewhere means that that somewhere or the person must be greater than that which is made. Hence, human beings believe that this Being can influence the world and as such respect and honour is given to it. The various ways of relating with this Supreme Being manifested in the various religion show that people are at home with this communion. Thus, the various religious institutions in the world today are used to foster this worship with the Supreme Being in one way or the other. This is the true nature and structure of religion. Therefore going by this, religion can never die unless deep within the consciousness of all human beings, the idea of the Supreme Being is scrapped out. Can this be possible?

Following the arguments of the antagonists of religion like Feuerbach who say that religion is created by man and the Supreme Being is equally a creation of man, which is just to fill in some the gap of psychological doubts / problems and lack of human desires, can we say that religion can die?

First and foremost, if we claim that people created the idea of God just to fill in the gap of unsatisfied desires, can we say that religion will die? I do not coincide with this because there has never being a time when human desires were met completely. This is because they come after the other; at times in group and other times individually. An example of this is the experiences we all share in our everyday life where the moment we meet what we need, another one reappears. Thus, going by this argument, religion will not die; for in the words of Adams Smith human wants are insatiable and the consolation/explanation people get for them is religion. How then can religion enter into the coffin eager to go home when these are true?

Another, role religion plays in the human society is that of explanation of the happenings in the society. The human mind is so limited that even when it abandons sense-experience for pure reason in a bid to answer all the human perplexing questions, it ends up with a contact with some confusions; for at that point in time, nothing can be understood. And so in other to gain at least a temporal answer to the problem at hand, the object of understanding in the world of religion which is faith is employed. Thus, faith is used to answer some of those “high-mountained” problems. This goes on to show that religion is always the last resort of human beings when the human intellect becomes inadequate. Arguing form this background and as science is yet to answer all the questions about reality for those who believe in it, and as human bewilderment continues to take place individually and collectively, human beings will always rely on the interaction with the Supreme Being for answers. This interaction is religion.

In relation to the above, as people continue to seek answers to their problems by being open to any kind of contact especially in the Christian world, and in connection with economic insecurity and the rush for social status, religion will continue to live. This is true when we imagine the number of the churches we have in the Christian religion. In fact religion is seen as a money-making business as people assume the power of ordination and the call of the Holy Spirit to minister unto the people whom they exploit through several buried means.

From the foregoing, we have been trying to base our attack on the bases of the antagonistic attitude to religion where it is said that religion is because human beings have unfulfilled desires. What we have tried to show is that if at all science could answer all the human problematic questions, religion will live on; for new human problems emerge when old ones fade away.

Besides that line of our argument, we can equally show that religion will never die. This is due to the need to always make reference to the a historical principles or the eternal in whatever that happens here. Metaphysics will always tell us about the universals that give rise to the particulars and whom the particulars must refer to. Although the post-positivists like Rorty will argue against the eternal and the a historical,  the point remains that for those who believe in God and still want to relate with him in all they do, their practice of religion will not die.

At this juncture we are left with a very peculiar case of two different directions with regard to the death and burial of religion. The first direction belongs to the group of people who are religious for what religion can do for them and the second direction is for those who are religious for the sake of religion. While the former group is likely to carry their own religion to the grave as far as they can solve their problems, the later will never carry or even allow theirs to be sick talk less of death and burial. Also, while in the former group as the human problems remain unsolved completely, they are will not abandon religion, the members of the later group will always remain attached to their religion.

Finally, religion is too young to die collectively. It can die individually. But the greater percent from the foregoing has the fact that religion will never die!

Subjectivism and Truth

Nwanyanwu Christopher

The question of truth has been an age long object of quandary, because it is a stakeholder in the palace of human knowledge. In the words of Uduma, it is a question about the quality of a statement or proposition when they are assessed as conforming to what is real. Truth signals the attainment of a statement in situations of probability. It is the conditions under which a particular proposition has to satisfy before it can be considered to be true/real.

The hold of truth in any proposition has been a problem right from the time of the biblical experiences between Jesus Christ and Pilate. Of course, we could remember that the question of what truth is was never unclothed by Christ and the why of it remains hidden. This spiced the problem on the question of truth. How can we know that a claim to knowledge is true? Where lies the truth of a proposition? Meanwhile before we continue to present our problematic presentation, it is worthy to still bring to the fore the sole reason why the nature and structure of truth has been controversial. The very reason why we are interrogating truth is that as human beings we want to be very sure that what we are having or taking is the real and the correct.

Moreover, the problem on the question of truth becomes significant when we bring to the fore again the debate between the objectivity of truth and the subjectivity of truth. In relation to the “above before now” we now have a situation whereby a group says that truth can be known objectively while the other groups says that truth is subjective. But from the way things are going, it seems that truth is all about subjectivity although it may transcend that level and then in the swimming pool of agreement with other subjective views we have an objective truth; but at the first instance, it is subjective. The objectivists group will never agree because they claim that truth is foundationally objective. In view of the above immediate claims, few major views about the nature and structure of truth have been proffered to determine whether truth is objective or subjective.

The first account of the nature and structure of truth is the Correspondence theory of Truth. According to this account, the truth of any claim or proposition lies in its correspondence with what it is speaking of. Put differently, it says that the truth of statement is determined by its agreement with the facts it is speaking of; such that if it corresponds with the facts out there, it is true and if it does not, it is false. The objectivists hold on to this claim as they aver that it is all about going out to verify the statement that has been made to check its correspondence with facts outside it. Relegating the nature of this claim as denying the reality the non-empirical reality, this claim has a major fault for which the objectivists like Wittgenstein may be unaware of. The problem with this theory is in love with the problem of sense experience. This is the case when we realise that the correspondence theory of truth presupposes the use of the senses as the object of verification. By extension, just as the senses are given individually and independently and filled and surrounded by emotions and feelings, the judgment of the senses according to the bodies is going to be different. We cannot actually say that because it is a matter of verification with the senses, individuals are going to taste, see, feel, hear and smell the same way. In fact it was for this very reason that our beloved brother Karl Popper asserted that we cannot have objective data experience because we all come from different worlds of emotions and feelings which he popularly called conjectures. For him, the judgements we make stem from this already biased mind.

I strongly agree with Popper (though not absolutely for now) over his postulations, because in the case of sight, we can view differently and there is no algorithm to check the real seeing of a particular object. In such a scenario, what we shall have is a divided opinion over the matter at hand. And it is good to note and in reference to our daily life experiences that the group who claim to roast the other group over the object of perception does that on the tribunal of their different individual but similar perception. In such a case like this, can we have an objective perception of reality with the senses? In most cases what we have as the objective truth of the object is the similar subjective results arrived at by those involved in that encounter, and in allusion to the post positivists, who is sure that the outsiders of that scenario will agree with what has been arrived at?  In some other cases, it is the result of the group with the greater weight that is taken as the general result. In all these cases, can we say that the correspondence theory of truth as an objective account of truth is adequate?

Consequent, upon the inadequacy of the correspondence theory of truth to unveil the objectivity of truth, another theory was delivered. The Coherence theory of Truth says that the truth of a statement lies in its agreement with the system of statements. The coherence theory says that it is the relation or coherence of a particular cluster of proposition that establishes the truth of any propositions. In the minds of the mothers of this theory, objective truth is given in the coherency of statements. Whether they were aware or not, their theory preaches on consistency instead of truth. This is because perhaps they never considered where a lie can be told yet it is consistent with its system of proposition. How then given such a case can consistency void of truth be adequate enough to account for objective truth. Unfortunately for this theory, it lacks in most cases truth at the subjective level; in those cases whereby a statement is regarded as true under this house, right from its genesis the proposer is well aware that the statement is a lie. How can what is false from its childhood, stand up to quarrel about objectivity of truth in the latter years? This theory as we have seen even lacks the stand to debate over subjectivity or objectivity of truth; for is foundation is corrupt, though in some cases where it is full of lies. However, this is not to say that there are no cases whereby from the foundation a statement is true and is coherent with its system of statements. Nevertheless, what we are saying is that this theory because of the chances of having a proposition that is not true but consistent with its system lacks the right to speak of either subjectivity or objectivity of truth.

With not only the urge to characterise the nature of truth in relation to statement/proposition, but also with the aim of ordaining the objectivity of truth, another theory was undressed. The Pragmatic Theory of Truth says that what is true is what works in practice or what is expedient in our way of thinking. For the group of people under here, a statement or idea is true when it works in practice or when it has beneficial consequences in practice. To characterise truth in this bedspread presupposes that it will objectively work or will work for all. If we take this as the case, how far can we justify the claim that first everybody wants a statement or idea to work in a particular way? Second, how far can we justify (if we assume the very before now) that everybody will agree that the idea or statement has worked just that way they expected? The last and the most perilous, how can we justify the claim that everybody will accept practicability as truth?  From the first question, even if we all accept that everybody wants a statement or idea to work in a particular way, what we have is not a mere agreement of the subject but the same views about that idea? There may be problem with the second problem here because in terms of the standard of the workability of the idea, can we have a situation whereby something works the same way for everybody? And finally, we also find out that the issue of practicability is a product of a very few in the entire world. Therefore this theory does not guarantee the arrival of an objectively given truth of an idea or statement.

At this juncture we have come to realise that the three major accounts of an objective arrival of truth are full of gaffes. Hence, we are still concerned with the problem of objectivity of truth. The traditional view of truth is that truth is the property of a proposition or statement, which is independent of human experience. If we accept this, how can we possibly arrive that this objective property of a statement called truth, since truth is characteristically objective. Again another quality of truth is that it is true regardless of time and space; for it is true yesterday, today and tomorrow. This being the case, the question now moves to how can we arrive at truth? If we claim that it is arrived at with the senses, then we cannot have universal senses but only individual senses. If we can arrive at it by reason, how can a contingent being arrived at what is necessary? How can spacio-temporal beings obtain a trans-spacio-temporal idea or knowledge? In fact, is there anything like reason which we ascribed as having the powers of arriving at this truth? There are many claims to truth human beings have made with the acclaimed reason in the past that are today false. In the words of the post-positivists, who is very sure that what is true today may not be false tomorrow? There is a problem with the objectivity of truth because the claims to truth that have been made in the past and at present which are also claimed to have being arrived at are debatable. Truth should be such that cannot be debatable. But it is worthy to note that people might know the truth and pretend not to hold it. This can be true; but at the same time the contrary could still be the case.

What is truth? Had Christ answered Pilate are we sure that Pilate would not have objected to it? Without prolonging this problem, it is good to say that it is only in religion that we can have truth. But beyond this, truth as being objective, indubitable and eternal can only be arrived at by Divine revelation. Outside religion, the truth is more subjective than objective. In fact, what we call objectivity is a mere agreement with the subjective views in a given scenario. Think about it!