February 15, 2025
News Nigeria

2022 LENTEN MESSAGE OF ARCHBISHOP MATTHEW MAN-OSO NDAGOSO OF KADUNA ARCHDIOCESE

“Carry each other’s burdens; that is how to keep the law of Christ…And let us never slacken in doing good; for if we do not give up , we shall have our harvest in due time. So then, as long as we have the opportunity let all our action be for the good of everybody and especially of those who belong to the household of the faith” (Gal. 6: 2, 9-10).
Last Wednesday, being Ash Wednesday, we embarked on a Lenten journey towards the celebration of the paschal mystery, the victory of Christ over sin and death. Put in other words, during Lent we prepare to celebrate the triumph of failure, namely, the agony, crucifixion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Lent challenges us to a change of direction from facing the evil one, Satan, to facing the Saviour, Jesus Christ. It challenges us to a change of heart; a fuller living of the Christian life. The attitude during this season therefore should be one of becoming fully aware of the Christian dignity received through the Sacrament of Christian initiation which conferred on us a new identity of the children of God.
While it is true that the water of rebirth gives us new life of grace, nevertheless, being the weaklings that we are on account of our human nature it remains necessary for us to struggle against the rut of our earthly nature that makes us unable to live up to our new identity as children of God. The church provides the Lenten season for us and invites us to be part of this joyful penitential journey that leads to reconciliation, forgiveness and renewal and thus enables us to celebrate the paschal mystery in the right state. The Lenten journey properly undertaken can become our “exodus” as we move from self-centredness to selflessness and being children of God and experience the joy of being forgiven and renewed through the gift of God’s mercy. Frequent use of the Sacrament of Reconciliation is an essential part of the Lenten journey.
We embark on this year’s Lenten journey within the ongoing synod on synodality. And as we may well be aware, a synod by nature is a corporate affair, a spiritual journeying of all the faithful, a corporate pilgrimage of a people who share a common goal and therefore a common means. The Lenten season therefore is a corporate penitential pilgrimage of the faithful. This is noteworthy because, “No one attains salvation alone, since we are all in the same boat, amid the storms of history; and certainly no one reaches salvation without God, for only the paschal mystery of Jesus Christ triumphs over the dark waters of death” (Pope Francis, 2022 Lenten message). In other words, on this journey we need the support and cooperation of each other.
In their difficult and trying moments especially when faced with the invasion of locusts that devastated Judah, the prophet Joel enjoined the leadership of Judah to call for a collective religious ceremony of lamentations and prayers to seek the face of God. He said: “Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the people. Sanctify the congregation; assemble the elders, gather the children, even nursing infants. Let the bridegroom leave his room and the bride her chamber…let the priests, the ministers of the Lord weep and say, ‘spare your people, O Lord, and make not your heritage a reproach…” (2:15f). This collective act of penance worked for the Judeans because God replied by promising the end of the plague and the return to prosperity (cf. 2:26f).
Like the Judeans of old, faced with our numerous plagues of insecurity caused mainly by bandits now turned terrorists, insurgents, kidnappers, ritual killers etc, we too can effectively use this corporate religious season of prayer, fasting, and charity to seek divine intervention in our challenging situation of insecurity which has made life unbearable for most Nigerians.
A Hermit, it is said, goes to the desert not to lose himself but to find himself. We do not embark on the Lenten journey to escape from others but to find them in God. For it is only when we encounter God in solitude and inner silence of our Lenten journey that we can find the gentleness with which we can love our brothers and sisters.
The Lenten season makes us conscious of being our brothers and sisters keepers regardless of creed, ethnic group, socio-economic or political affiliation. It is indeed a time of self-emptying for others like the down and out through concrete show of solidarity. When we purge and empty ourselves of selfishness, greed, self-centredness and such like, we create space for something else to fill the space so created, namely, the grace of God which takes control and leads us in the right direction.
Lent is about sharing; sharing our lives and resources with others. We must learn to share, for, as the old saying has it, “to have is to owe” or better still in the language of the Bible, “to whom much is given much is expected” (Luke 12:48). “Thus all the faithful, even although unequal to one another in their worldly possessions, should be equal in the drive of their spiritual lives” (2nd reading of the Divine Office of Thursday after Ash Wednesday). In other words, we have all been gifted differently. Let us therefore endeavour to share our gifts with others according to our means especially the needy this season of grace (cf. Lent, 2013).
In this vein, the advice of Pope Saint Leo the Great is apt here: “And so, dearly beloved, what every Christian should always be doing must now be performed more earnestly and more devoutly. These forty days, instituted by the apostles, should be given over to fasting which means, not simply a reduction in our food, but the elimination of our evil habits” (ibid.). This is the demand and charge of the Lenten season to one and all.
Through prayer we create room in our hearts for the grace of God to work and develop a deeper relationship with Him. We are encouraged this season to endeavour to set aside some time and be faithful to that time for a deeper communion with God. Daily Masses, weekly communal or private following of the Stations of the Cross and frequent use of the Sacrament of renewal are highly recommended Lenten exercises. Through fasting we deprive ourselves of something in order to help those more in need than ourselves.
Apart from denying ourselves material things by fasting we can also deny ourselves some pleasure such as excessive use or even addiction to the social media which Pope Francis rightly says impoverishes human relationships. Lent therefore is a propitious time to resist these temptations and to cultivate instead a more integral form of human communication made up of authentic encounters face-to-face and in person (cf. Pope Francis, ibid).
The unnecessary time and resources spent browsing and wandering in search of “nothing” in the World Wide Web (WWW) can be gainfully devoted to the service of God through service of others. The season challenges us to embrace and embody the attitude of Christ who spent much time in prayer, fasting and helping others especially the needy.
Our communion with Christ in prayer and fasting should lead us to communion with others just as his communion with the Father led him to communion with others. In other words, our solidarity with Christ in prayer and fasting should lead us to solidarity with others especially the needy through almsgiving.
The Lenten season which is both penitential and sacrificial provides a special and unique opportunity for those who desire to do good for others by helping to lighten their burdens of lack of food, loneliness, sickness etc. by providing food and paying them planned occasional visits.
While it is true that the love of God comes first in the order of the commandments, the love of neighbour comes first in the order of action, because, by loving our neighbour whom we can see we gain the sight of God. In other words, by loving our neighbour we purify, if you like, our eyes for seeing God. And as St. John tells us, if we do not love our brothers and sisters whom we can see, how can we love God whom we do not see (cf. 1 John 4:20). “For if God is love, charity must have no limit because God cannot be confined within any bounds. And so, beloved, although anytime is suitable for the exercise of the virtue of charity, it is more especially urged on us by this present season. Thus, those who long to receive the Lord’s Pasch with bodies and souls made holy must strive earnestly to acquire this grace which includes the sum of all the virtues and covers a multitude of sins” (Pope Leo the Great).
This Lenten season the church in our country invites us to reflect on the theme: “:REKINDLING HOPE IN THE NIGERIA PROJECT.”
Easter which we prepare to celebrate is a celebration of hope restored. The story of the two despondent disciples on the road to Emmaus on Easter Sunday morning who went back to Jerusalem to share their experiences of encounter with the risen Lord with the eleven is a-hope-rekindling story (cf. Lk. 24:13-35). It was the experience of the presence of the risen Lord that helped the disciples to pick up the bits and pieces of their shattered lives to move on. Without this experience they would not have made it on their own.
The predicament of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus on Easter Sunday morning is eking to that of most Nigerians today vis-à-vis continued bad governance which has created economic hardship caused by under and unemployment, poverty, insurgency, terrorism, kidnappings for ransom, cattle rustling, banditry, armed robbery, drug peddling, ritual killings etc.
Successive governments especially since the return to participatory democracy in the fourth republic in 1999 have raised and dashed the hopes of most Nigerians for a better and inclusive nation. It is an understatement today to say that there is hopelessness and despondency in the country. This state of affairs has no doubt caused many to lose hope and confidence in the country. Many sections of our country have a feeling of exclusion and have a-no-sense of belonging. These feelings have manifested in the agitations for self determination and in some cases outright calls for secession (cf. forward to 2022 National Lenten Campaign Brochure by Ndagoso).
The above said, “For us Christians, the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the greatest assurance and anchor that we have. Our faith is based on faith that produces hope and this hope is what sustains and urges us on (cf. 2 Cor. 5:14). Fortitude in the face of adversity has always been the armour of Christians. We do not live alone as believers in Jesus Christ. We are the salt of the earth and the light of the world (cf. Matt. 5: 13f). Jesus has told us that no matter what happens we must ensure that we do not lose our taste and fail to shine. It is the only guarantee that we have to defeat the dark forces around us that lead to hopelessness” (ibid).
Our Justice, Development and Peace Commission (JDPC) continues its engagement with helping the unemployed and underemployed youth and women, especially widows, regardless of religion and ethnic group to acquire various skills that help to equip them with relevant skills to be employable and self-reliant. We are able to do this over the years because of your generous support. And as will be seen in the annual report and accounts of its activities for 2021, the JDPC has over the last ten years trained and graduated thousands of young people and women especially widows in various skills in addition to engagement in peace building efforts and provision of relief material in emergency situations such as distribution of relief materials for those affected by the activities of bandits turned terrorists, kidnappers and clashes between farmers and herders.
I wish to assure you, our dear generous and supportive faithful of our Archdiocese and beyond that the more support we get from you the more services will be rendered to the less privileged members of our society.
With your continued support we hope to continue with the skills acquisition programmes, civic education ahead of the 2023 general elections, advocacy for good governance, acquisition of farmland for large scale farming, provision of legal aid to convict prisoners, charity to needy individuals and families and clean drinking water to needy communities through the sinking of boreholes. We thank and appreciate individuals and corporate bodies who have sunk boreholes for needy communities through the JDPC and appeal to those with the wherewithal and desire to do so to approach either the JDPC or the Archbishop’s office.
In view of the foregoing, I wish to inform you that the Archdiocesan flag-off of the 2022 Lenten Campaign will take place at Our Lady of Fatima Chaplaincy, Sabon Tasha on March 20, 2022 at 8.30 am while the step-down in all parishes/pastoral/chaplaincies and outstations will take place on March 27, 2022. Your continued support and cooperation will always be highly appreciated.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR KIND ATTENTION AND GOD BLESS YOU.

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