Right from the dawn of creation, from the very moment man strayed away from God by his disobedience, he has been like a fish out of water. He had always sought to find rest, succor, peace and joy which he enjoyed prior to his fall. This struggle is to retrace his source and sustainer. Often times, in contrary to our desires and expectations, instead of solace and comfort that our hearts yearn for, we are met with the very opposite, and so we get disappointed and distressed, at times tempted to question the essence of our being and the value of our existence here on earth. We are confronted by our three principal enemies: the flesh, the world and the evil one.
The immediate question would be, who is at fault here? Who is to blame for the dread that man suffers? Is it God who of all he created fashioned man in his own image and likeness and who looked at all he created and declared them very good? Certainly, the response is in the negative. It is therefore, man who out of his free will chose to obey the enemy rather than God. He is the one at fault and who is to liberate himself.
Hence, the need for radical conversion. The call for conversion is a call for inner transformation of man. The response to this call does not come without counter reaction from men. Today in our society, abnormalities have become a norm and as such the ideal is exchanged for the norm. A genuine Christian today, one who makes a keen effort to go against the current of the day cannot but suffer from being called names and suffer certain persecutions. You must acquire the identity of a strange person. The one at odds with the reality of the day. The one who do not have the dancing steps to the tunes of the day. These are the ones who do not have the currency for the business of the present-day business.
However, we should not be deterred but look unto Christ our master and perfect model who came through the human form but he did not conform himself to the human standard. Hence, he was called names, identified as a strange one, an imposter, a false prophet. Eventually, he was condemned, crucified and he died. Our seraphic father St. Francis, at his point of encounter with God became a stranger in the midst of his people. He was identified as being insane.
This struggle is, therefore, both internal and external. Using the current situation of the Nigerian society as a point of reference, a country richly endowed with both human and material resources, we discover that greater percentage of the people are in a state of penury and abject poverty. We suffer societal unrest. People die on daily basis out of hunger, diseases both known and unknown coupled with poor or zero health care services. And so, it becomes important to ask the question, what is really the meaning of life? Why do we have to experience and suffer hardships and difficulties even in the midst of abundance and excesses? Though the situation seems incomprehensible, St. John of the cross in one of his selected writings has a response and he says, “virtue is made perfect in weakness and is wrought through the experience of suffering”. Our daily life experiences are often misunderstood and misinterpreted. We tend to rationalize based on our human constructions, calculations and speculations, but if I may ask, does anything happen to us or is there any experience we pass through in life that is outside the knowledge of God? If we answer in the negative, then we are denying the omniscience of God - a God who is all knowing. I do not think we would like to fall victim of this because that would be unchristian. So, I would think that our response shall be, God knows all. In other words, God is fully aware of all that happens within and around us. Our worries, anxieties, fears and disappointments, these do not escape the knowledge of God. In the Book of Isaiah we read: The God who knew us before we were conceived cannot forget us when are born.
The journey of our Christian calling is quite demanding, it is rigorous, the road is narrow and full of thorns but I suppose it is not out of place for it is in conformity with Jesus’ injunction in the gospel, “if you want to be my disciple, carry your cross every day and follow me”. this also captures and depicts the central message of our lady in Fatima particularly the message of this month where she made a clarion call for a life of penance, prayer and sacrifice. Our lady is not asking us to do something impossible for she herself was not an exception to these realities of life challenges. She had her joys likewise her sorrows. She experienced hardships, poverty and deprivations but she never compromised nor lost focus rather she pondered all in her heart and offered everything to God and as such merited the glory of heaven where she is interceding for us. And I think my brothers and sisters, our lady serves as a model here. Her docility and self-resignation is a virtue worthy of emulation. Maxwell Staniforth in one of the early Christian writings says, “accept as good whatever experience comes your way in the knowledge that nothing can happen without God”.
When we find fault with the odd experiences of life, we lose the meaning and merit embedded in them. Brother John Merle in Capuchin Spirit and Life says, “on our journey to heaven, our consideration should not be so much on our comfort rather on our safety”. St. Pope John Paul II in one of his encyclicals, Ecclesia de Eucharistia, states, “no matter what obstacle we encounter, we must not allow them to turn us aside from the joy of the heavenly feast. Anyone who is determined to reach his destination is not deterred by the roughness of the road that leads to it”. It is only when we realize this fact that we would be watchful of our ways and keep guard over our thoughts, words and actions, what we perceive and say about ourselves and about others, our attitudes towards ourselves and towards our neighbors.
CONCLUSION
I would like to conclude with the words of our lord in the gospel, “come all you who labor and are overburdened and I will give you rest. Shoulder my yoke and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart, and you will find rest for your souls……my yoke is easy and my burden light. (Mt.25: 28-30)
by Friar JONAS UGWU, OFM Cap.
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