Christians all over the world are observing the season of Lent that began with Ash Wednesday. Lent is a 40-day period marked by fasting, prayers, penance, repentance, self denial and works of charity in remembrance of the the 40 days Jesus Christ fasted and prayed in the wilderness. It is also a time for sober reflection and positive action.
At Lent, eating of meat and associated products is prohibited as a mark of self-discipline and a form of spiritual cleansing. Sometimes the faithful are expected to deny themselves only a favourite item of consumption such as alcohol.
In Nigeria, the season has traditionally been celebrated with penitential prayer, fasting and alms giving. Many focus on charitable deeds, especially helping those in need with food and clothing or by simply giving money to charity. For Christians, it is a time to place self before God in humility. It is a way to confess total inadequacy before Him; a way to strip self of all pretenses to righteousness; to come before God in dust and ashes. It is a way to empty self of false pride, rationalizations that prevent one from seeing oneself as a perfectionist.
In this season of Lent, through prayers that allow us to give up ourselves, we can seek and open ourselves up before God and hear anew His call to repentance. We can seek to recognize and respond afresh to God’s presence in our lives and in our world. We may seek to place our needs, our fears, our failures, our hopes, and our lives in His hands again. We need to allow His transforming grace to work in us once more and to come worship him in victory and hope that go beyond new clothes and the melodious music.
Just as we want to urge Christians to observe the season with all sense of selflessness, we call on them and other Nigerians to use the Lenten period to pray to God for peace and the unity of Nigeria now more than ever because of the rising levels of insecurity in the land. We admonish the Christian faithful to imbibe the lesson of Lent, leading up to Easter when Christ was crucified, died and resurrected from the dead after three days. By his vicarious sacrifice, Christ scored a decisive victory over sin and opened the way to eternal life.
We task our Christian brethren to should use this season of spirituality to preach and practically demonstrate love for adherents of other faiths so as to promote religious harmony and peaceful coexistence in the country. It is only when the nation is at peace that it can progress.
