“God made no distinction between them and us since He purified their hearts by faith.
Why do you put God to the test now by imposing on the disciples the very burden that neither our ancestors nor we ourselves were strong enough to support?
But we believe that we are saved in the same way as they are: through the grace of the Lord Jesus.”
Excerpt, First Reading, Thursday 2nd May 2024 – ACTS 15:7-21.
So, to be a good person, live honourably according to the law and religious tenets and a good Christian who has attained perfect love and is prepared anytime and any day for the judgement is very easy and simple.
See, if any of us has watched the movie, “The Passion of Christ” by Mel Gibson, we must have all seen that the opening scene is Jesus Christ dancing at a wedding party.
It is very likely that wedding feast in Cana that his mother approached him with a complaint that, the party, has run out of booze.
But the take home practical interest here is that, Christ was dancing at a wedding reception.
Until Jesus Christ began his public ministry, he was just an everyday dude, like John, Terfa, Emeka, Peter, Adekunle, Rukevwe, Ahmadu, Paul. Etc.
Jesus Christ was an artisan assisting his foster father Joseph (ie spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary) in his carpentry workshop.
Once, when Oga Joe finished making the bench ordered by Otunba Qadiri, he called his apprentice (Jesus Christ).
“Boy J. And Christ answered, Sir!
“Come take dis bench go dat big ‘dogon yaro’ tree close to ‘mami’, wia Mazi Okafor and him pipo dey play draught and give am to Otunba Qadiri.”
True to it, when Christ delivers the bench, Otunba who is quite impressed gives him 20kobo and says –
“Go tell Oga Joe say I go come see am later as we discuss. But dis coins, put am for your pocket make you use buy akara for yourself. You be beta pikin.”
By evening of the same day, while going to buy his akara, he saw Clara and Bobi her boyfriend whom she is co-habiting with, as usual arguing about money issue by the corner of their street.
Bobi who was trying to mould his ‘eegbo’ violently pushed her away just so that she won’t spill it away and she fell on her butt, quickly using her hand to support herself so that the child she is carrying on her back won’t be hurt. He laughed sarcastically and walked away, heading towards ‘mami’. Even when market has closed.
Boy J quickly rushed to her aid and helped her to stand up. He would also give her the 20kobo Otunba gave him together with all the money in his pocket so that she can go get something for she and her baby to eat that evening.
Bobi and his cohorts would be in the dark corners of the deserted market smoking weed until late into the night.
Suddenly, they saw ‘yan banga’ from afar and took to their heels.
The next morning, Iya Sikiratu sent her daughter to Oga Joe to ask him to quickly come and fix her table in ‘mami’ market which was very good when closed the previous evening.
Apparently, Bobi and his gang were sitting on Iya Sikira’s table when they saw the vigilante and in their haste to move the broke the table.
Oga Joe woukd ask Boy J to fetch some tools and follow Sikiratu to Mami and do the work.
Christ would be walking on the street that early with Sikira, talking casually as it is with every other youth.
The two would stop and exchange greetings with Leman who was coming from the opposite direction. He said he was returning from his night shift duty and going home. Even when he wasn’t asked.
Leman would instead head straight to Orafa’s House and inform him about how he saw his crush with Boy J, casually walking hand-in-hand, gisting and laughing as they go. “Dis early ‘mor-mor’ fah!”
Dear friend, that is a typical day in the life of the same Jesus Christ that you and I know, before he commenced his public ministry.
He was an everyday guy. No, he wasn’t like some kind of a superhuman who fell down from heaven and immediately started multiplying seven loaves of bread to feed over five thousand men, raising Lazarus from the dead and all those well known outstanding signs and wonders.
All that we may be going through right now, Christ equally experienced same when he was in this world as a human.
Recall that, at a tender age, for his safety, his parents had to run away from home with him to Africa to live as a refugees.
Although, in all fairness, he is Divine, as he is God who came down from heaven into the world and took up the form of we humans.
Nevertheless, until he turned thirty (30) years, he lived his life just like we all do, except for sinning.
Even when he eventually began his public ministry, what sort of people did he choose as his apostles?
The Holy Bible says of him, that having prayed all night, “When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles.” – LUKE 6:13.
These said apostles were also just everyday people, like Simon (Peter) a brash and little tempered fisher man.
Others were hated people like Matthew the tax collector.
Then, there was also Simon the Zealot. – The Zealots were a political movement in 1st-century Second Temple Judaism which sought to incite the people of Judea Province to rebel against the Roman Empire and expel it from the Holy Land by force of arms, most notably during the First Jewish–Roman War. (Source: Wikipedia).
Therefore we mustn’t enforce on ourselves a regimented and highly restricted lifestyle. Having so many dos & don’t, with a myriad of rules and regulations that get us unsure whether one must walk leftwards or rightwards on the road. Such a life that gets us questioning and criticizing our every move.
My fear friend, by all means, one can wear jeans and T-shirt on weekends, dance at parties did like Christ did (in Mel Gibson’s The Passion of Christ), share a beer with friends and when available, leisurely walk and talk with a Sikiratu on the street (despite all what the likes of Leman may think or make of it) without any strings attached.
Yet, after living like this, we could still live right and avoid loose and wayward living and therefore still make heaven.
It is that easy, my dear friend, very easy. It is just the way it is.
Have a fantastic day folks.
#SAINT_ATHANASIUS! #Blessed_Carlo_Acutis! #Pray_for_us!
Akase F. Agabo.