Easter will be meaningless if we don’t forgive –Priest

The Parish Priest of SS Peter & Paul, Nyanya, Abuja, Reverend Father Michael Gokum disclosed in a chat with Sunday Sermon that Good Friday and Easter offer Christians the opportunity to reflect on their lives and make amends, stressing that it is a special time for praying, giving alms and forgiving others. “Good Friday and […]

The Parish Priest of SS Peter & Paul, Nyanya, Abuja, Reverend Father Michael Gokum disclosed in a chat with Sunday Sermon that Good Friday and Easter offer Christians the opportunity to reflect on their lives and make amends, stressing that it is a special time for praying, giving alms and forgiving others.

“Good Friday and of course Easter is a time to pray, it is a time for penance, a time to give alms and a time to forgive one another.  Especially in Nigeria today, if we don’t forgive, then we will never be happy.  It is time to forgive those who must have wronged us and ask for forgiveness from those that we must have wronged so that generally, we will forgive one another,  otherwise, the celebration of Easter Sunday may mean nothing.

“We all know that Good Friday is the day that Jesus Christ died for me, you and everybody.  It is important because that is the day Jesus Christ died for us. When Adam and Eve sinned, God was not happy with them, and because of that they were sent out of the garden. Then God decided that he cannot leave this world alone so he came back as Son of God, Jesus Christ. He was born on Christmas and then of course, he worked for three years. At the end of his ministry he died, and by dying, he his telling us that we cannot go back to our sins.

“Dying for us on Good Friday is just a symbol of telling you and I that we are also going to die into our sins and rise with Him on a Easter Sunday because this is not our final home, we have a better place to go, our eternal home,” he said.

Fr Gokum admonished Nigerian leaders to learn from the lessons Good Friday and Easter has presented to Christians, stressing that the death of Jesus Christ is to remind everyone that no matter how good the position one holds today, one day, it will come to an end.

“But Jesus Christ above all, was a servant so we are supposed to serve and be humble and carry along everyone no matter what.  If somebody belongs to our ethnic group or our religion or not, we are supposed to really love one another and, of course, it is a question of service. We must serve just as Jesus Christ did. Christ was God and he became like us, he did not sin but he went about everywhere and worked for all of humanity and at the end of the day, even though he did nothing wrong, the people killed him but he forgave them on the cross. So it is a question of forgiveness and service,” he said.

 Sunday Trust reports that the New Testament teaches that the resurrection of Jesus, which Easter celebrates, is a foundation of the Christian faith. The resurrection is a proof that God will judge the world in righteousness. God has given Christians “a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”

Next year’s Easter falls on April 24.