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From Fred Ezeh, Abuja
Archbishop of Abuja Catholic Archdiocese, Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama, has appealed to Nigerians to reinvigorate their generosity spirit in order to reach out to less privileged in the society, thus making the society a better place.
Archbishop Kaigama, however, discouraged the “eye service” kind of generosity which people often engaged in, for political or economic benefits, instead of the pursuit of unity, peace, and inter-religious harmony.
Archbishop Kaigama, in a homily delivered at
Our Lady Queen of Nigeria Pro-Cathedral, Abuja, on Sunday, maintained that generosity open doors and cancels a multitude of sins, adding that God also love cheerful givers.
He said: “In our country, many people are ready to give their lives or even take other people’s lives in the pursuit of political ambition or economic benefits instead of the pursuit of unity, peace, and inter-religious harmony. Some give to others because they want to receive favours after or just so that the public will perceive them as generous persons. Such kind of generosity has no lasting reward.
“The first reward for generous people is inner satisfaction. The second reward is the one that comes from God, which is not limited to time and space. The Scripture asked us never to neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby, some have entertained angels unawares.
“In our society where the frequent effects of crises and flooding keeps rendering people homeless and hungry, we have a duty as Christians to come to their aid, to help alleviate their suffering.
“The best gift we can offer one another is the gift of ourselves. Be generous according to your ability or material resources. Life it is said, is strange. You come with nothing and fight for everything and in the end, you leave everything and go with nothing.”
He prayed that all Nigerians would learn to make sacrifices for the growth and development of Nigeria, and that should start from the Presidency, National Assembly, Judiciary, to the State and Local Governments, etc, especially following the fuel subsidy removal which has created real tough living conditions.
“The Catholic Church which, even though has no government grants at all is witnessing an increasing number of people seeking help for basic survival. The panacea to this is that all those in charge of our patrimony must be selfless and must give generously to people what is their legitimate right,” he suggested.
