The Catholic Archbishop of Lagos, Alfred Adewale Martins has challenged the government at all levels to do all they can within their powers in making life more meaningful for Nigerians. “At this Easter time we can only ask our leaders, those who rule the land, and those who asked to be given the mandate to rule us to really do everything within their powers to ensure that they make life better for the people.”
He made this known during the 2024 Chrism Mass held at the Holy Cross Cathedral in Lagos, where he also urged the political class to lead by example. According to him, Nigerians are already aware of the need to make sacrifices in order to move the country forward.
However, he said further that those in government should show example so as to carry the people along in moving the country forward. The cleric said further that things might appear rough and difficult at the moment, but they will soon get back to normal. “When the sacrifices are one-sided towards the people, then they do not take what the leaders say seriously. Let our leaders’ just lead by example and I believe all of us will fall in line,” he said.
On the socio-economic challenges facing the people, the Lagos Archbishop urged Nigerians to keep hope alive despite the many challenges demanding improvement across the country. “We all are witnesses that there is hunger in the land, we all are witnesses that there is so much poverty in the land, we all are witnesses to the insecurity that is very prevalent among us, and so the challenges of our country are so very very many.”
Speaking on the significance of the 2024 Chrism mass, which is an occasion for priests to renew their faith, Martins said that the worshipers must continually pray for their priests to make a success of their calling. He also urged the people to stop using social media as a means of correcting people whenever there is a need for such. “If there is need for corrections, they should be corrected in love and in a way capable of bringing a positive response – never a social media away to correct anyone, it never works.
“We pray for the priests and to commend them for the good works they are doing in the entire archdiocese, and also to remind them that the work must continue with new vigour; remembering that until the end the work must continue,” Martins said.
On Easter, the Clergyman said that it was one of the most significant activities that Christians carry out after the 40 days preparation of the Lenten season. According to him, Easter is such a significant moment in a Christian’s life because if there was no resurrection, there would have been no Christianity.
“And so, Christ has died and risen for us, we must pay back to him whatever must be paid back by ensuring that we do our best to overcome our shortcomings that we have identified during lent. And then start a new life at resurrection for Jesus,” Martins said.
Earlier in his homily, Micheal Umoh, national director of Communications, Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria, urged the Church and Christians in general to harness the potentials of new media for evangelism. According to him, the recent statistics of 7,742 parishioners to one priest in the archdiocese will not bring about the effectiveness of the gospel.
According to him, baptism has provided the enablement for all believers to share in Christ’s priesthood. He said further that the entire community of believers is priestly, and are called to participate, each according to their own vocation, in Christ’s mission as priest, prophet, and lay faithful.
“Every disciple is a priestly evangelist. Every disciple is a priestly missionary. Every disciple is a priestly servant. All are essential for the conversion of the world. And we must not just talk about this; we must put these words into action to give the best to the people of our time,” he said.
