Catholic Archbishop Of Abuja Diocese , Most Revd. Ignatius Kaigama has called on Nigerians to put aside hostility and bitterness for one another in other to obtain divine transformation.
His grace made the call on Sunday in his homily titled : “Behold I am doing a new thing”.
TheFact Nigeria noted that the Archbishop said,“We are desperately looking for divine transformation in this country. To obtain it, we must put behind us our bitterness, hostility towards one another, let go of the wounds of the past and like St. Paul, “strain forward to what lies ahead” (Phil. 3:14). We must admit that we “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23).
“Let us judge less and love more. We need to remove the plank in our own eyes so that we can see clearly enough to remove the speck in our neighbour’s eyes (cf. Mt. 7:5). Let us learn to admit when we are at fault instead of the blame game or senseless rationalization of sins and offences, or even claiming that “it is the work of the devil!”
“We should seek to outdo one another in love rather than hate, forgiveness rather than revenge and embrace each other in the spirit of a common humanity. We are all brothers and sisters (fratelli tutti).
“Despite all our current predicaments, we are comforted that weeping may endure through the night, but joy comes in the morning (cf. Ps. 30:5). This can happen only with genuine prayers, good leadership, transparency, accountability, sincerity of purpose, selflessness and dedication to service. If we practisethese, God will do something new in Nigeria.
“God is offering us as individuals and as a nation His therapeutic, reassuring and warm welcome as the father of the Prodigal Son, so that we can move on with greater optimism, to turn a new leaf in our socio-economic, political and religious undertakings.
Commenting on the current state of the nation, the cleric said,”But in Nigeria, we seem to be graduating from the gruesome killings, kidnappings, the skyrocketing prices of goods in the market; the lingering fuel scarcity; the ASUU strike action, to the bombing of trains by terrorists and other criminal elements!
Who knows what, with our lackadaisical approach to issues we will wait until a plane full of passengers is brought down (God forbid) before we frantically set up investigation panels and committees which will definitely arrive at nothing,” he said.
The Archbishop lamented that , Adultery is a sin against chastity, a sin against the dignity of the sacrament of marriage and an injustice against one’s partner, but which has unfortunately become rampant in our time. It must be guarded against by both men and women.
“While our society seems to tolerate the excesses of men, it hardly condones the slightest mistakes from women. This is seen in the imbalanced treatment reserved for women in our socio-economic and political life, not to talk of the cultural biases that subordinate women, an obvious demonstration of our inability even today to respect the dignity of the woman.
“We learn from the readings today that God offers us divine justice which condemns only the sin, not the sinner (“neither do I condemn you, go, but sin no more”), as against human justice that condemns both the sin and the sinner,” he said.
