By Christopher Odamah, Warri
WARRI, MAY 17th (URHOBOTODAY) The Bishop of Catholic Diocese of Warri, His Lordship, Most Rev. Dr. John Afareha has urged Nigerians to be both the hearers and the doers of the word of God as a way to stem down the high level of crimes and violent attacks being experience in the country.
Dr. Afareha, who made this call recently in his homily at the Sacred Heart Cathedral in Warri during the Diaconate ordination, said, “After hearing the word of God we should also act on the word because this will bring peace, love, blessing, understanding, wisdom, humility and development to our Country.”
He noted that our failure to act on the word of God which is love, truth and peace could be responsible for the level of moral decadence, violence, crisis, lawlessness, killing, stealing, hatred , kidnapping and violent attacks.
Dr. Afareha said the solution to the crisis in Nigeria could be found in genuine love for one another, prayers, truth, humility, discipline and good governance.
According to him “Let the word of God penetrate our lives and in this way to know the fundamental truth. Who we are, where we come from, where we must go and what path we must take in life. Since God is love, in order to give love we must also love. The divinely instituted ecclesiastical ministry is exercised in different degrees by those who even from ancient times have been called, bishops, priests and deacons”
He told the deacons that they have their duty of proclaiming the Gospel and helping the priest explain the word of God, urging them to speak the word of God and not their own word and clearly stated that as part of church ministers, they must understand that it is the truth that judges events and not vice versa as so often happen today in our current culture.
Bishop Afareha, who supported his sermon with several passages warned on the danger of not acting on God’s word and enjoined Christians to pray for Nigeria to save this country from evil and intermittent crisis.
Let us beg and pray Him day by day to reveal Himself to our souls more fully, to quicken our senses, to give us sight and hearing and touch the world to come, he said, so to work within us that we might sincerely say…my flesh and my heart faileth, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.