It is a new year and the decibel of its roar, the chatter and cacophony is resonating the world over. We deserve to pat each other on the back for being among those fortunate to be part of a new year. Not everyone is as lucky for the renewal of the loan of Life, which we erroneously deem as a Gift.
It is indeed a treasured loan; were it a gift we would have it ad-infinitum, but no one has been able to achieve such, because NOTHING survives the ravages of time, beside the Word of God.
There is no argument about it, a new year portends new hope, renewed aspirations, time to take stock and position ourselves to maximizing the opportunity that comes with a new year. All these are in order - after all, to the generality, good living is about getting a good degree, great employment, caring spouse, lovely children, posh car(s), decent accommodation and all that.
These achievements would have been the summum bonum of human life, if we doltishly imagine ourselves to be mere human beings, helpless drifters in nature's vortex, bent as twigs by every breeze that blows, preys to every hostile creature that crosses our paths, victims of diseases, of poverty, pain and of death. Worse still, as depicted in the biblical story of the prodigal son, oblivious that we are little god's, clothed in rags and now merely striving to eke out a miserable existence.
To those with the mindset that we are mere human beings, their main preoccupation is: Eat, Drink and Merry, we have seen this world, who has seen the next. What comes handy on this is the famous saying of Renes Descartes to wit: "Cogito ergo sum." This is translated as "I think therefore I am."
The drift of Descartes' admonition is that the uniqueness of human being is that he can think, rationalize, scheme and do other great things beyond the capacity of animals of the lower species hence, man should constantly deploy his boon of a rational mind, which is the only thing that differentiates him from the lower species, to true living and towards Life Eternal. Beside humans' better brain and thinking faculty, animals fare better in virtually all other aspects of sensual gratifications viz: sex, eating, drinking and most of our indulgences.
An offshoot of the rational mind is clear thinking. With clear thinking it will dawn on us that man without exception is half angel and half beast. If he overcomes lust and other beastly tendencies, he will rise even higher than the Angels, but if lust overcomes him, he will fall to the level of the beasts because nature is not extravagant, we will get what we richly deserve.
Christ put it brusquely: we will go where lies our attachment. With this background it is important that we seize the opportunity of a new year to rededicate our lives to the ideal human, which must be our collective goal.
The topic of this message again is: WHAT ARE WE DOING WHILE TIME IS PASSING. What an outgone year and a new one imply to those with clear thinking is that, of the number of years alloted to us in this life we have just lost another year. While this reality may induce us into a state of frenzy, the good news is that the Merciful God has given us on a platter, an opportunity of a new year for us to devote to our purpose in this world. Those past years that we had lived cannot be relived and so we should regard them as cancelled cheques. The current year is compared to cash in hand which should be spent wisely, while tomorrow is still at the realm of proposition.
To strike at the urgency of our duty to the Lord, Christ was quoted to have said in John 9 vs 4 that: I must work the work of Him that sent me while it is day, the night cometh when no one can work.
The implication of this statement from the Messiah is that our devotion is only possible while we are alive. Once we shed the mortal coil, our body has become inert. It can no longer serve God and neither man. It is instructive that at death, dead bodies of animals can be deemed as useful to human beings, as we do make all sorts of delicacies with them, whereas, human cadavers if useful at all are only to the medical students, essentially for teaching purposes.
And so, the poser again, what are we doing while time is passing? Are we laying our treasures where thieves can break through and moth doth corrupt, or we are laying treasures where they would eternally avail for us.
The choice is ours. To preoccupy ourselves working for others or for the life hereafter. On this,we should remind ourselves of the vanity of all our worldly acquisitions because at the end of the day, there is NOTHING we can take away, just as we didn't arrive the world with anything. Even our body we must drop it behind for dust thou art and to dust shall thou return.
The miserable plight of those with warped perception of life and trying to amass everything that is acquirable is that, when departing the world,at best they may merit some few yards of white linen and if billionaires they are, a gold or diamond coffin, both of which matter not to the lifeless body.
In addition to this, the family members or supposed loved ones will shed their hypocritical wailings, but only fools would be deceived by those wailers. Their chief interest lies in sharing among themselves what we have busied ourselves acquiring, during which, we compromised on moral principles with chains of karma further wound around our neck. In no time, all the wailers or mourners of ours will go about their normal business and the world wouldn't miss a mingy fraction of its heartbeat. This tells us man's sense of importance barely extends beyond the tip of his nose. How could it when the world had been going on before we arrived unto it, it is going on now that we are in it and it will still continue running when we depart it.
To live purposefully while living, Christ admonished in Mark 8 vs 36 thus: “What does it profit a man who gains the whole world but suffers the loss of his soul.”This is the plight of man who came to the world, did so many wonderful things but did nothing for the redemption of his soul.
To assist us, the Messiah gave the world the two principal laws on which hang all the prophets and indeed all laws. This will be found in Matthew 22 vs 36-40. The two laws which are fundamental to the worship of God in Truth and in Spirit are about loving the Lord thy God with all our hearts, minds and souls, while the second which is like unto the first, is to love thy neighbor as thyself.
If we despise fellow beings, misappropriate fund meant to improve the lot of the masses, indulge in all kinds of mudslinging, backbiting and all other vices, we have missed the Kingdom of God. No amount of money we throw about to the priestly class would save us from God's damnation.
It is a new year and not everyone would be inclined to any serious brainstorming at this period of wining and dining, I will therefore be wrapping up this homily with the following reminders. Reminders they are because nothing is really new. There is nothing anyone has to say that had not be said. We and indeed all Bishops, Pastors, Imams et all, are all parroting, by repeating what had been hitherto said by someone else. The irony however is that man rarely acts on what he knows. In effect, the doer is often not the knower. Were it not, the world would have been a better place.
In summation, I wish to stimulate thoughts as follows:
We must try to give few minutes everyday to introspection and close examination. We should carefully scrutinize our day's work and thank God for the good deeds done, while repenting for the bad habits, with a resolve not to repeat them again.
Let us constantly live our lives in appreciating He Who has given us the privilege of a new year once more. This would be quite discernible if we can pause and come to terms that a whole year comprises of 31,536,000 seconds or 525,600 minutes or 6,760 hours, 365 days, 52 weeks, or 12 months. It is the culmination of all these that we refer to as a whole year. During the period of one year, an average human being would take in a whopping 8,409,600 breathes free of charge.
Those who had been unlucky to have paid through their noses to receive oxygen in any hospital ICU would better imagine the greatness of the Supreme Lord and that we just can't thank Him enough.
Ergo: As we pass through life in 2023 and thenceforth, we should let our thanks be greater than our demands. If we must demand anything, the Lord's grace is more than enough. We shouldn't just rise in the morning as the animals do and hit the road, without devotion to He Who has woken us to life again, just as we remind ourselves that we die daily when we hit the bed, and we are woken up by the Giver of Life to continue with earthly life, anytime we rise in the morning.
May the Good Lord grant us the grace of clear thinking to enable us discern and ceaselessly sift between the way of the Lord and the satanic way all through the new year and ever more.
I thank you for the patience of reading through.