The Catholic Archbishop of Abuja Diocese, Most Rev. Ignatius Kaigama on Sunday called on Nigerians to use the Valentine’s Day celebration to show true love to others.
According to him, true love should be reflected in daily human interactions and relationships, marriage, and society because “love is the greatest and without love we are nothing.”
The cleric said that until humanity shows true love to others, all they say would be ineffective and incomplete, their belief insufficient, their gift insignificant and all accomplishments inadequate.
The cleric stated these in his Homily delivered at Our Lady Queen of Nigeria Pro-Cathedral, Abuja.
Kaigama said, “I urge you to be solid in the defence of human life and the promotion of good home training of children in the family, the domestic Church.
“Be advocates of the culture of life and promoters of the dignity of the human person at a time when family life is threatened by marital crises and modern ideologies that are inimical to life. You must endeavour to reconcile families in trouble and formulate programs that will instil the good upbringing of children.
“As the world celebrates Valentine’s Day, let it be about true love in daily human interactions and relationships, in marriage and in the society. St. Paul states that love is the greatest and without love we are nothing.
“Unless we can show true love to others, all we say is ineffective, what we say is incomplete, what we believe is insufficient, what we give is insignificant and all we accomplish is inadequate.
“Our world needs bringers of good news: the healing of wounded hearts, peace, joy and progress and not the news of kidnapping, terrorism, banditry and other man-made miseries we inflict on one another because of large-scale deficiency of morality and very corrupt practices.
“We must admit that modern man is sick and as St. Augustine says, we need a doctor and that Doctor is Jesus. In the same manner, we pray for those whose marriage has been infected by “leprosy” such that they don’t enjoy the love that is patient, kind, gentle and forgiving. May God grant His healing, peace and joy to them and indeed to all families.
“The disease of leprosy symbolizes the misery of our sin-infected society and disfigured humanity. More increasingly, our world wants to do everything by mere human reasoning or scientific and technological skills, hoping by this, to conveniently exclude God who is seen as an intruder rather than the Creator of heaven and earth, and those things that live and move in them.
“Our world is trying very hard to distance God from human affairs and to distance human hearts and souls from God, so that modern man can live comfortably with all kinds of freedoms without God!
“Today in the world, poverty is a menacing social disease, and being poor is enough justification for maltreatment. Those living with HIV/AIDS, the mentally, emotionally or physically challenged, ex-convicts, illiterates, alcoholics, drug addicts, the critically sick and even those battling with the deadly coronavirus disease suffer a lot of discrimination or condescending treatment.
“Apart from physical leprosy, the world today suffers from the leprosy of sin, worse than any infectious disease. Sin corrupts our soul, separates us from God, spoils our relationship with one another, makes us perpetually enslaved, makes us unclean, keeps us troubled, robs us of our innocence and inner peace, and separates us from the community of believers.”
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