Christians have been admonished be prepared always and be willing to proclaim Christ everywhere in spite of all odds. This admonishion was given by the Most Rev. (Dr) Gabriel Dunia, Catholic Bishop of Auchi Diocese in a Homily delivered recently on the theme “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Advocate.” Bishop Dunia reiterated the need for Christians not to shy away from preaching the word of God. He also listed certain conditions that must be met for one to become a true disciple of Christ. Jesus’ declaration and irrevocable promise of giving us another Advocate, the Bishop emphasized, is to show the love He has for humanity, but that we can only be his disciples if we love him in return by keeping His commandments.
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14 v 15). According to the Bishop instructs, Jesus will not ask the Father to give another Advocate to unbelievers and rebels to be with them for eternity. “Do not give what is Holy to dogs, or throw your pearls before swine, lest they trample them underfoot and turn and tear you to pieces” (Matt 7 v 6). Bishop Dunia stressed that it is an assignment placed on true followers of Jesus mandatorily to positively carry out the works of evangelization despite the difficulties they may have to go through, just as the Apostles. “This call must be heeded by the true followers of Jesus so that they be given the Holy Spirit in and with whom they will be qualified to be in Jesus who is the Father…”
He said it is that spirit of obedience to love Jesus and keep his commandments that made St. Philip to journey to a Samaritan town to proclaim Christ to the people there in spite of the painful persecution he and other had experienced. Bishop Dunia therefore urged all to copy the example of the Apostles, proclaim Christ in all places, in spite of the odds, because, in his words, “wherever the gospel goes there the life of the Spirit of God is, driving away into oblivion all the ugliness of past woes, calamities and deaths, and replacing the same with the Spirit of perpetual peace that flows like a river in the hearts and minds of the people and their land in abundance.”
