The Bishop, Catholic Diocese of Oyo Diocese, Most Rev. Emmanuel Badejo, has called on Christians to make the Christmas celebration worthwhile by showing love to people around them and rescuing those in conflicts and misery.
Badejo, in his Christmas message entitled: “No Real Christmas in Conflict and on Empty Stomachs,” asked Nigerians to emulate Jesus Christ, the reason for the season, and destroy the discomfort of the human race.
He called on religious faithful to demonstrate love, peace and harmony which Christmas typifies all the days of their lives and not on Christmas day alone.
The cleric stated that, “It is still right to say if we did not have Christmas we would have had to invent it today. With all the strife conflict, bloodshed, hunger, suffering, abuse and injustice all around, the world needs Christmas, not every year but every day. By that I mean the world needs the spirit and essence of Christmas which is love, peace and harmony, every blessed hour and day. Christmas is the feast of Jesus Christ and of families. He is at the centre of the celebration and he came as a baby in a family.
“Jesus Christ came into the world to destroy all the discomfort of humanity especially sin. The same thing must all who claim to celebrate Christmas do. He came to save, to make people live with dignity. During Jesus life, he fed the hungry, healed the sick taught the ignorant and comforted the afflicted. The way we are today, Christmas cannot be truly celebrated if we do not do these same things.
“We cannot wish merry Christmas to people with empty stomachs nor have we the right to celebrate and make merry without each of us personally helping people who are suffering. All of us can do this. The saying goes: “to overcome your troubles, help people out of theirs.” The joy of Christmas will surely sound hollow to people caught up in the wars in Ukraine, Russia, Israel, Gaza, Sudan, Congo, Tudun Biri in Nigeria, and other parts of the world in war and conflict.”
He added that, “Jesus came so that all may be saved and so Christmas indicts all political leaders who are supposed to be saving people from trouble. It speaks to the difference between statesmen, whom Nigeria, for example, badly lacks and mere politicians who flood the country. A statesman is a politician who puts himself at the service of the nation, a politician, in contrast, is a statesman who puts the nation at his own service. Our world, our country and our land need to be relieved of selfish politicians and be endowed with Christ-like statesmen, for God so loved the world that he gave His only son Jesus Christ that all who believe in Him may be saved. No matter how beautiful our carols may be if we do nothing to save others from misery and suffering our Christmas cannot honour God.”
