Volunteering into action

Aloaye carried the egg gently and added it to the eggs of his turkey. The turkey incubated its eggs alongside the egg of the eagle. The eggs were hatched together. The baby turkeys and the eaglet lived and roamed together. One day, the eaglet saw an eagle soaring towards the clouds. He wanted to fly […]

Aloaye carried the egg gently and added it to the eggs of his turkey. The turkey incubated its eggs alongside the egg of the eagle. The eggs were hatched together. The baby turkeys and the eaglet lived and roamed together. One day, the eaglet saw an eagle soaring towards the clouds. He wanted to fly but was very afraid. It had not yet gotten the awareness of its potentials to fly. The eaglet was so sad and told the mother turkey, “Far in the sky, I see a bird that looks like me.  I feel inside me that I can also fly even above the clouds.” The mother turkey replied: “it is hard to soar with the eagles when you have to live with the turkeys.”
The eaglet ran into the forest wondering when it could really actualize its potentials to soar into the sky like the eagle. He wanted to voluntarily make a difference. He was not content in the class of turkeys. One day, an eagle was soaring in the sky and looked down to see a bird that had its resemblance. He dived down, picked the eaglet, and rested it on a tree. The mother eagle said, “You are not a turkey, you are an eagle, so you can either fly or cry for not realising your essence. You have it in you to soar like me, but the choice is yours to take the risk with courage either to fly or fall down from this tree like a turkey.” The eaglet was released with the option of flying or fall down to be with the turkeys. It took the risk, opened its wings and flapped them with courage. It did not only fly but soared like every other eagle.
The power of Christ in us should define who we are and whose we are. As Christians, we are called to be different from every other human being because we share in the divine life of Christ, who has bought us with his own blood. While we live in the world, we are not of the world. We must fly as our Christian nature dictates and embrace divine grace irrespective of where we are and with whom we live. A Christian is a son or daughter of God with a divine destiny. What makes a human person a creature of destiny is the ability to know where he is coming from, where he is, and where he is going! Every creature has a class, we would only be happy if we can identify where we belong and act accordingly. Awareness of our identity can energise us to liberate our colleagues who have been colonised into a colony where they do not actually belong. Knowing who we are can give us the strength to look down like the eagle to identify our brothers and sisters who are trapped in the camp of the devil. Then we can come down and say to them, “look, you do not belong here, you belong to Jesus Christ; like me, you can be saved but the choice is yours.” This is the essence of Evangelization and Dialogue ad intra. This is necessary to liberate many children of God who have been brainwashed and indoctrinated into different strange and satanic societies that promise only mundane prosperity at the expense of salvation and total liberation of the whole person.
We could begin our stock taking by tracing our origin through the Sacred Scriptures and the life of the Saints. Like our good ancestors, there is a lot we can learn from the heroes of faith (the Saints) who have passed this way before us. These can help us to be aware of or rediscover the strength we have as Christians. This may also help us to know the weaknesses and strength of our ancestors in the Church-Suffering (purgatory) who hope to join the Church-Triumphant (heaven) very soon, through the prayers of the Church-Pilgrim (on earth). The Scriptures and the Traditions of the Church are reliable sources that can empower the faithful to embrace the courage of our heroes past and avoid the faint heartedness of those who abused the Christian values. This may help us to appreciate the Faith of our fathers, and the fate that befell them (in their suffering).
Consciousness of the need to serve is a unique Christian identity. We are servants in order that the world may be saved. We are servants in order that men and women may find comfort in the world. We are servants in order that human dignity may be restored. The Christian serves not because of material gains and rewards but because it is what he or she is called to do. Volunteerism is couched in this statement: “We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty” (Luke 17, 10). A Christian makes a difference like a burning candle for those who have eyes to see. The action of a Christian response must emanate from Christ and reflect a Christian action. No provocation should then make a faithful to convert into a “wild beast” to prey on their fellow human beings. Rather, it is within our power through faith to convert the wild beast into a normal human community, where God has placed us. In us lies true life, and we must know and trust that God is with us.
In many parts of the globe, some people are living in fear and frustration. Some people are living in a society that has no clear destination, no goal, no purpose, no vision and everything seems to be falling apart. People are living in a very hard time that makes others ask them again and again; “where is your God!” But they know that their God lives. He reigns supreme over the nations. He is real and not just an abstract reality. He is able to deliver them from the vale of tears caused by greed and avarice. He is ready to use human beings as available resources and instruments to actualize His divine purpose. God is the true identity of every person, who He created in his own image and likeness (Genesis 1, 27). However, every human person has a choice to make God real to him or herself; the poor, the underprivileged, the oppressed and the abandoned.
The goal of service is to make human beings aware of their latent potentials to freely respond to God, to serve with dedication and selflessness. Like the prophets, we must volunteer to set the captives free. The Captives of hunger and pain deserve a better life! We need to rediscover ourselves and our talents by returning to the Desert of our hearts, then come out with a renewed identity. Then we can touch the world with a renewed relationship that can reproduce a healthy community in its original form where humanity is at peace with God and God with humanity. Human beings have known God through the created order, which was the vehicle for divine revelation. God had manifested himself in the action of human beings in such a way that denying a neighbour the good things of life is denying the true knowledge of God. “Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen” (1 John 4, 20).
Fr. Prof. Cornelius Afebu Omonokhua is the Director of Mission and Dialogue of the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria, Abuja and Consultor for the Commission for Religious Relations with Muslims (C.R.R.M), Vatican City ([email protected]).