By George Ehusani
Christmas has come once again, and this time I ask all believing Christians to put themselves in the mood and be determined to celebrate to the full the joy and the peace, the beauty and the glory, and above all, the salvation, which the messengers of hope prophesied – from Jeremiah to Isaiah and from Zephanaiah to John the Baptist, the same joy, peace and salvation, which the angel of good tidings announced on the night of the Nativity to all men and women of good will. I recall some of God’s promises concerning the cosmic equilibrium that would be actualised when the Messiah is born and when he establishes his kingdom of integrity, justice and peace.
The Lord says through Isaiah that “I will make rivers well up on barren heights and fountains in the midst of valleys. I will turn the wilderness into a lake, and dry ground into water spring. In the wilderness I will put cedar trees, acacias, myrtles, olives. In the desert I will plant juniper, plane tree and cypress side by side…” (Isaiah 41:18-19). Again, Isaiah says of the new dispensation when the Messiah takes the throne: “The wolf lives with the lamb, the panther lies down with the kid, calf and lion cub feed together with a little boy to lead them. The cow and the bear make friends, their young lie down together. The lion eats straw like the ox. The infant plays over the cobra’s hole; into the viper’s lair the young child puts his hand. They do not hurt, no harm, on all my holy mountain, for the country is filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” (Isaiah 11:6-9). And Prophet Zephaniah describes the jubilation that would accompany the Messianic times in the following words: “Shout for joy, daughter of Zion, Israel, shout aloud! Rejoice, exult with all your heart, daughter of Jerusalem. The Lord has repealed your sentence; he has driven your enemies away… The Lord your God is in your midst, a victorious warrior. He will exult with joy over you, he will renew you by his love; he will dance with shouts of joy for you as on a day of festival.” (Zephaniah 3:14-18).
Inspired by the above passages which we constantly heard during the preparatory period of Advent, let us be determined to make the most of the holy season of Christmas this year. Let us allow God’s word of power to come alive in us. Let us allow God’s word of promise to take flesh and become effectual in us and in our immediate environment, the prevailing circumstances of our country, including the worsening fortunes of our people, notwithstanding. Let us be determined to celebrate in faith and hope, the joy and peace, the beauty and the glory, which are the endowments of the Infant King, even as the entire framework for economic, political, social, emotional and psychological wellbeing in our society has become degenerate, throwing the multitude of people into desperation, and sending many to their early graves. Let us be determined to embrace the peace of the Infant King even as terrorist gangs and killer bandits take effective control of swarths of the Nigerian territory, as those in government continue to prove themselves incapable of protecting or defending the helpless population. Yes, I say, let us be determined to embrace the peace of the Infant King even as scores of Nigerians die of stampede at food stamps, while a privileged few among us revel in conspicuous consumption, and shamelessly intimidate the rest of the population with what is often ill-gotten wealth.
Let the Christmas bells ring. Let the Christmas carols be staged with passion, even though many politicians have continued to perfect their game of manipulation and subterfuge and the callous merchants of misery that control and dominate our commonweal have become ever more relentless in the ruthless desecration of all that is good, in the violation of all that is noble, and in the destruction of all that is valuable. Let us be determined nevertheless to celebrate Christmas this year with hope, and make the protracted midnight of our national exigencies a providential milieu for the hatching of new dreams, and for the fostering of fresh visions of a land of justice, unity, peace, security and prosperity.
Let us be determined to celebrate a Christmas of joy and peace, even as we have watched with utter consternation the scandal of Nigerian fathers stealing food off the hands of their children, and the irrationality of Nigerian mothers mortgaging tomorrow for the fleeting pleasures of today. Let us be determined to join the chorus of heaven to sing “Glory to God in the highest” and “Peace to men and women who are God’s friends,” even as those who should take responsibility for the future generation are propagating decadent social values at every level and instituting a legacy of shame in the psyche of the young people. Through the dark tunnel of primitive feudalism, executive lawlessness, elite impunity, high profile roguery, the politics of greed, acrimony, and gangsterism, as well as the inept and profligate leadership under which we find ourselves, complicated as it is by the apathy and despondency of a largely conquered population, let us light the torch of rejuvenation and liberation, and celebrate, even if only in faith and hope, the wholesome and vibrant youth population which the young Jesus of Nazareth inspires.
All year long, we have witnessed our worsening fortunes as a people, and we have agonised over the plight of the victims of greed and the casualties of debauchery in our land; yet let us jingle the bells and roll out the drums at Christmas. Let us celebrate the joy of the incarnation and savour the abundant life which Jesus of Nazareth brought to the world, if only in faith and hope. Though our countrymen and women are living daily in mortal fear due to heightened insecurity, and though they are devoid of the basic needs required for wholesome existence, this Christmas should not go without major celebrations. If there is little to rejoice over on the material plane, let us move on to the spiritual level, the level of faith and hope and declare a feast. True, on this level, the level of prophetic imagination, we can celebrate the triumph of good over evil, the supremacy of light over darkness, and the ascendancy of resilient truth over pretentious falsehood; for we must appreciate the fact that all appearances to the contrary notwithstanding, the victory of Christ’s civilization of love over the prevailing logic of power and control, is as sure as daylight follows the night.
As we celebrate a Christmas of faith and hope therefore, let us make a renewed commitment to live by truth, the truth that sets one free. Let us make a renewed commitment to pursue religiously the Kingdom values of love, mercy, compassion, forgiveness, non-violence and peace, for which the Son of God became man, and for which he gave his life. I challenge you all who count yourselves among followers of Jesus Christ, to reject today the cult of the self, the cult of pleasure, the cult of power, as well as the cult of mammon, and strive to live meaningful and purposeful human lives, lives devoted to the service of God and neighbour. I challenge all Nigerian Christians, to stand up and be counted on the side of righteousness, truth and justice. We must advance in our religious practices beyond mere ritualism and the shouting of slogans. Yes, we must rise beyond the noise making that characterises much of our religious enterprise today, and face courageously the truth of our national existence – an existence that has been so thoroughly jaundiced and so painfully blighted by the criminal exploits of the succession of punitive rulers that this land has witnessed for such a long time.
I challenge Nigerian Christians to address seriously the scandalous co-existence of poverty that has assumed the moral equivalence of war for the majority of the Nigerian people, side by side with the conspicuous consumption of a tiny cabal who appear to have captured and privatized the Nigerian state. We must work towards reversing this ugly situation in our society, if our religious enterprise is not to be a matter of mere lip service. I challenge Christians in positions of leadership at all levels, who so often succumb to the lure of power and material wealth, while putting their professed Christian beliefs and values on hold. I challenge Christian politicians and office holders, to abandon the madding crowd, even as they wield ephemeral power, and return to the values, the virtues, and the principles that have been the distinguishing mark of authentic Christian disciples through the ages. I challenge the Nigerian political elite in general, to begin to recognise that political leadership is service of the common good, and not a channel for abusing, exploiting and subjugation the people; that leadership is a call to the life of sacrifice, and not the criminal enterprise of stealing and looting of the resources of the land, such as has been so blatantly and recklessly displayed by political office holders in our nation’s recent history.
I challenge my fellow country men and women, especially the teeming population of Christians among us, to strive to accord basic human dignity, decency and rights to all citizens; rights that are too often trampled upon or denied, to satisfy the whims and caprices of a callous, insensitive and uncaring elite. Yes, I challenge those who hold in their hands the fortunes of the present and future generations of the Nigerian people, who today would rather sink the ship of state than relinquish some of the stupendous power and wealth they have unjustly and inordinately amassed, to recognise that when this season of madness is over, they would be called to answer fatal questions. I challenge the “godfathers” and “powerbrokers” in our midst whose greed for money often rides in tandem with their lust for power and control, along with their elite collaborators, and their shameless gang of sycophants and praise singers all over the place, to look beyond the gains of the moment, and think of the multitude of Nigerians whose chances of meaningful existence are often truncated and aborted by what is often their reckless policies and thoughtless conduct.
I challenge the generality of Nigerians who are celebrating Christmas at this time, to recognise and uphold the sanctity and inviolability of the human person, for Christmas is about how the Creator Himself loves human beings and accords us such dignity and honour, that He sent His only Son into the world, to save them from the damnation that accompanies a life of sin and debauchery. Those who claim to have faith in the incarnation should strive to live out and demonstrate to those around them, the way of love preached by Christ Jesus in his earthly ministry; the love which the men and women of the world have so often rejected to their own peril.
Nigerian Christians should reflect on the explosion in the number of Churches and their membership in the country, an explosion that is not at all matched by a discernible transformation in the social morality of individuals and corporate entities. We should reflect on the anomaly of an ever-increasing army of “cash and carry” prayer merchants, prosperity preachers and miracle speculators, whose compromised messages, seasoned with materialism and slanted with vainglory, only tend to disorient, mislead, and whet the already bloated worldly appetites of their teeming followers. I challenge Christians to show practical understanding of the concept of sacrificial love as exemplified in the Incarnation and in the passion and death of Jesus Christ, a concept that is often regarded by many modern-day believers as an unwelcome disruption.
I shall end this Christmas reflection by challenging all Nigerians to come to terms with the social injustices that are inherent in the very structures of our society. I challenge the poor victims of Nigeria’s despoliation, to work towards eventually taking back their country from the band of callous and punitive overlords that have over the years subjected the people to so much pain and misery. I challenge all our countrymen and women to come to terms with the negative customs, the sinful cultural norms, and the irrational prejudices that have held Nigerians back all this while. And I warn everyone that time is running out, and so we must now wake up from our slumber and abandon our accustomed but culpable apathy and despondency, and instead take responsibility for the future of our society.
We must begin to address courageously the injustices and injuries of our past and take urgent steps to redress those that are still ongoing. We must begin to call to account all those who at one point or the other have superintended the devastation of our national landscape. We must begin to name and shame the destroyers of our nation’s patrimony, including a posthumous shaming of those among them that have passed on, and thereafter begin to seek forgiveness and reconciliation among the wounded and angry peoples of Nigeria. We must begin to pursue the kind of healing and reconciliation brought about by Jesus Christ the Prince of Peace, a reconciliation which sheds domineering intransigence, the illusion of superiority, and all other pretensions; a reconciliation which is generous, flexible, and magnanimous; a reconciliation which constitutes the forerunner to for durable peace and stability.
On the first Christmas night, the angels sang, “Glory to God in the highest heavens, and peace to men and women of goodwill.” May we embrace the message of Jesus the Incarnate Son of God today, so we may experience in our own lives the good news that was first proclaimed by the angels to the Shepherds in Bethlehem. Amen.
• Rev. Fr. Ehusani,
Lux Terra Leadership Foundation