L
ife is full of all kinds of
people with different char-
acteristics. In the world,
God wants us to be happy
and live in love with one another.
God wants us to be contented with
what he has given us. In spite of
God’s goodness and kindness to
man; something in man repels him
at times to do the contrary. It makes
him lose a sense of himself. Anger
and the spirit of jealousy is one of
them. Most importantly revenge
and the lack of forgiveness are also
among them, by living a life of “nev-
er forget and never forgive”. It is a
life of not allowing the spirit of God
to control your life and set you free.
Anger, jealousy and revenge are dan-
gerous emotions and they are found
in man. When a man is unspiritual
and does not live in a divine milieu,
he allows these aforementioned
vices control him. Revenge has done
untold harm to man. One would ask:
what causes revenge? Sometimes,
when a man is provoked especially
when he sees himself as a big “Iroko”
or a great spiritual man who gives
lectures all over the world he feels
insulted and the pride in him sur-
faces while forgetting his function as
a spiritual man and descend low to
attack anyone.
He feels degraded and insulted.
His reactions to what the person did
or said can be a kickback. He shows
it by the way he feels and carries
himself. His reaction is a sort of fight
back for an injured ego. There is no
humility in him to calm him down.
The deflated ego wages war, the war
that can cause harm to a man who
may mean well but misunderstood.
It is the cause of pride that leads
to revenge. Many innocent people
die because of innocent things they
said that were misinterpreted by the
angered man who cannot pause to
control himself but reacts immedi-
ately to ventilate his feelings on the
enemy. A man that lacks forgiveness
is caged in the doldrums of wrong
ideas and he is unhappy.
Pride makes us to ignore and forget
God. The wicked through pride will
not seek God (Ps. 10:4). God resists
the proud but gives grace to the
humble. It is also pride that makes us
rebel against the word of God. Pride
gives us an exaggerated sense of
ourselves and false greatness. Pride
makes us feel we are wise. It gives
us a sense of “you know it all.” You
notice it by the way some parishion-
ers speak and talk about their priests
and support what is evil. They incite
others to think like them. Where is
our religion? Is it the Religion of the
Scribes and Pharisees? Is it the reli-
gion of Pentecostalism; a religion of
“give-me-give-me” without accepting
the sufferings that come from the
crosses of life? We can now know
what Jesus was going through. Hid-
den motives that target our enemies
can never touch the inner self of our
enemy where there is trust in God.
When we really understand Chris-
tianity well we will discover that
we cannot separate suffering from
it. Look at the whole season of lent
and see what Jesus went through.
He faced persecution due to the
arrogance of the Jewish authorities
and their cultural deficiencies. At the
end, those things did not touch the
centre of his life.
The most degrading act of the
Jews was to compare Jesus with two
criminals and one of them identified
Jesus as a good man while accepting
his sins and was rewarded. He for-
gave him because sincere repentance
sets one free. Suffering frees us from
selfishness and also helps us to see
Jesus in our sufferings. From all
that Jesus experienced for mankind;
dying on the cross for our sakes. He
liberated us from the bondage of sin,
the resurrection touched mankind
and proved the source of where Jesus
comes from and nobody can deny
that.
As we enter into the lenten season,
we should liberate ourselves from
pride and lack of forgiveness because
they lead to spiritual destruction.
