Jesus was not just a man that was behind the curtains. His call was well publicized and announced to the world for his prophetic ministry. He did not come as a show man or media guru. He came to teach me and you the meaning of our own call and baptism. Our own baptism is immersing of ourselves in the mystery of our Jesus historical great baptism. We the faithful are imitating the life and death of Jesus and we share in his sufferings, death and resurrection. It is not necessary asking people “Are you born again?” It is more than that. It means if you are able to suffer and share in the sufferings of Jesus Christ. It is not a doctrine. It has something to do with faith; faith in Jesus, faith in what you believe and faith in the gospel values of Jesus. It is not twisting the gospel to suite our purpose or attract our adherents to our church but to follow Jesus in his own ministry. We should embrace the gospel the way it should. Christians are called to embark on this journey.
It is only through baptism that we draw closer to God. The baptism of our Lord Jesus Christ is an optional question for every Christian to ponder about. It is an existential question for everyone who believes in why he came and took this prophetic mission. Christians should live an exemplary live after baptism. Many people live and forget about their own baptism. The baptism of our Lord Jesus Christ has confronted the reality of our lives on the day we were born to our adulthood. There is no way of going back. It has become our way of life that will lead to victory. Victory to ourselves and victory to others we meet and stand as witnesses to Christ baptism and not live a life of contradiction that would make people question our beliefs and make us liars to the gospel. We have been hearing about several contradictions of those who followed Jesus and later backslid and made mockery of what they believed in before. This is exactly lying to ourselves and mocking the religion of our master; Jesus! The Church today is filled with many franchises making caricature of what sustains our lives not minding the damages it causes for the sake of making money and running down the prophetic utterances and power of one sent by God due to human inability to conquer himself in his iniquities. That is why sin reigns all over the world.
The whole thing is not where Jesus is from or which denomination he belongs. He came from God. Why would human beings make counterfeit of his teachings for their own selfish benefits? He came for our salvific mission and no one is exempted from this divine mission. Unfortunately, the world is divided by doctrines and beliefs and we do not know where these can carry us to. It can only lead to division which has caused great unrest in the world today. Jesus has called us into different ministries through our baptism but many have failed to attest to his teaching hence he said “Many are called but few were chosen”. In the world of insatiable appetite, men keep creating their own doctrines which have caused Christianity a fortune today. There is no way we can ignore the consequences of our baptism and that of Jesus. Ignoring it is to our own peril. We have seen many in the Church who lost their faith and beliefs because of the caveats they got from the adulterated teachings of other churches. We should stand firm in faith and avoid not to be swayed by many adulterated ministries but stick to the true teachings of Jesus thereby becoming true witnesses to him through spreading the gospel.
• Very Rev. Monsignor Livinus Ukah is a Catholic Priest, Author of many books and a crusader of Peace and Social Justice.
