By Abdu Rafiu
The season of love and goodness is here; it is round the corner. The legendary Christmas is only three days away. There is hardly anyone who does not feel love to his finger tips. We feel uplifted, with eyes shining when we experience love. Love makes the world go round, it is said. This is because it is the foundation of Creation; and it is maintained and driven by it. Our ardent longing for Christmas gets us attuned to it, and feeling light connected to it. Love that envelopes the world, nay the whole of Creation is the precipitation of the Rays outstreaming from Love, the Lord Jesus Christ Who is Love personified. Already, the joy of the season is sweeping and enveloping all lands in Christendom. There is singing and there is dancing. Christmas carols fill the air in many shopping malls and giant and lit Christmas trees are mounted. The fun and exchange of goodness are headed towards a crescendo. It is a season of giving and receiving which forms an aspect of the expression and manifestation of love. So was it that on Holy Night the ultimate in Love and Goodness was born in Bethlehem more than 2,000 years ago.
In many churches on Sunday, jubilant souls will sing:
O Holy Night
The stars are brightly shining
It is the night of the dear Saviour’s birth!
Long lay the world in sin and error pining
Till He appear’d and the soul felt its worth.
A thrill of hope the weary soul rejoices
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn!
Fall on your knees
Oh hear the angel voices
Oh night Divine
Oh night when Christ was born
Oh night Divine
Oh night Divine.
In many streets, at Public Square, with buntings dancing in the air, moved hither and thither in night breeze—and the carols ring out:
O come, all ye faithful,
Joyful and triumphant,
O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem,
Come and behold Him,
Born the King of Angels!
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
Christ the Lord.
The coming of Christ was an immeasurable Act of Love and Goodness. There was rejoicing in the firmament, in the cosmos. He was led in protectively by Angels and several higher Beings, an Event shepherds on the field with their inner eyes opened were the simple people blessed to behold the stupendous happening. They fell on their knees, afraid. The elements bowed in worshipful adoration of the Lord. Wise men from the East Called and appropriately endowed materially and in inner radiance to read the special Star in the sky followed It until they found the Baby—outwardly a Baby according to the Law, in a stable in Bethlehem.
The unique Star universally referred to as the star of Bethlehem stood still and shone brightly in the sky in direct line to the point the Bay lay in the stable. They paid homage and gave gifts. The memory of their Calling faded. They forgot that their coming to the earth was to use their power, influence and material endowments to protect the Lord from danger. The Lord came to show mankind the way out of their wrong living and sins and point the path upwards to His Father’s Kingdom, Paradise. He taught mankind the Will of His Father and it is by living in accordance with that Will that mankind can be freed from sin and redeemed. Entry into Paradise becomes a possibility, indeed a certainty, only upon redemption, upon atonement and casting off all faults. As it is now revealed in higher knowledge available on earth today, that Will is expressed in the incorruptible and adamantine Laws of Nature. Indeed, it was with the Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ that the Gates of Paradise were opened to mankind. Until then the Gates had been shut and mankind burdened with sins and in varying degrees of maturity were hanging in different planes between the earth and the Region of Twilight as Paradise permits of only spiritually mature, pure and noble human spirits. It was when the failure of human beings was seen from the Highest Height that it was thought imperative that Christ should come. The coming was to save mankind from total annihilation; it was to a world in the firm grip of Darkness and man was already inclining at an alarming rate towards perdition. The Lord Christ had to make the sacrifice by descending from the Highest Height down to arrest the fall. His coming was thus an act of emergency, borne out of inconceivable love and incomprehensible goodness.
In all ages, we human beings have always desired that goodness be done to us. We long for it. We seek it. When we are beneficiaries of acts of goodness we know joy, sometimes immeasurable joy, depending on our capacity to absorb the rays emanating from goodness. An act of goodness could be life-long, and some may say, everlasting, in its effect. It rings deep down every human being. For this reason, it is said everyone feels goodness to his fingertips.
If we reflect deeply on goodness, several questions run through our minds. What is goodness? From where does it spring and flow? In other words what is its origin? Are there people who are lacking in capacity to do good? The issue of goodness is what thinkers and philosophers have grappled with for centuries. Could they have turned their gaze away when being hit by waves of age-long man’s inhumanity to man? A great many cannot forget easily the reign of terror in the days of Nero. As I once recalled, in his book, Many Mansions, Gina Cerminara narrates the experience of a man, a highly placed one at that, who suffered from unceasing severe pains in his hips. The man went from doctor to doctor and from one specialist to another in search of healing, but all his efforts were unavailing.
Eventually, the famous American seer, Edgar Cayce, was contacted for help about whom he heard on a radio programme. According to Cerminara, Cayce looking into the man’s past earthlife found that he lived in Roman times and he was a spectator in the public arena during which human beings were thrown to lions. As a watcher of the horrifying spectacle, he not only rejoiced, but cheered and clapped, applauding what he was seeing! As historians are quick to remind us, Rome was at its zenith for 500 years. The sufferer in a later reincarnation had to experience what those fed to the lions at the Roman public square went through before their gruesome death. It was a case that was similar to those of stigmatics who lived in Israel and were present at the crucifixion of the Lord Christ and mocked Him hung in excruciating pains on the Cross!
In what way is the situation in the world today different from the situation that necessitated the urgent coming of the Lord to this earth more than 2,000 years ago? Come to think of it; we can all see the horrendous destruction of lives and property going on in Ukraine following the war Russia has been waging against her since February, after Putin deceived the world into believing that the massing of his troops to Ukraine frontiers was for a drilling exercise and he was withdrawing them forthwith! In the face of untold damage and terrifying suffering, perfidious analysis is going on and the drive is for victory not for the essence and victory of peace!
In the midst of all this, a recent sensational prisoner exchange that makes many fear that arms-related crimes will escalate in 2023 comes to mind: Viktor Anatolyevich Bout, a Russian arms dealer used his multiple companies to smuggle weapons starting from during the collapse of the Soviet Union, from Eastern Europe to Africa and the Middle East. He was returned to Russia early this month from the US penitentiary in exchange for US Women’s National Basket Ball Association’s Brittney Grinder, a two-time Olympic gold medalist who was caught by Russian customs officers in Sheremetyevo Airport with a small amount of cannabis oil. Those who fear Bout have good reason. In his first televised interview after his return to Russia, he “wholeheartedly” supports the war in Ukraine and would volunteer for the war effort if he had the opportunity, according to Russian state media. His arms-fueled conflicts were from Sudan to Rwanda to Afghanistan and to Angola, and he had illicit transactions with violent regimes and militant groups, according to reports. In 2007, Stephen Braun and Douglas Farah published a book about him, titled Merchant of Death: Money, Guns, Planes, and Man who makes war possible.
Worse for the planet, US officials have issued warnings about a growing defence partnership between Russia and Iran in areas such as weapons development and training. This is why fanning the flames of war begets misery and ruin, while a benevolent society evokes peace and harmony.
Incidents of armed conflicts and riots in 2022 abound, cutting across the globe. And hold it: Afghanistan authorities have banned women in the country from acquiring university education!
I have gone this length to demonstrate the state in which our world is in these times, and at the time Christmas is being celebrated around the globe.
Indeed, we learn that the decline among mankind today is akin to, if not worse, than the time before the coming of the Lord. Alas, the longing for peace worldwide remains a mirage. Year after year, world leaders and concerned agencies organize summit talks, meetings and conferences, seeking to find means to peace. Peace Movements are not left out in the search for the elusive peace. Despite being technologically advanced, the human race is unable to live in brotherhood. A lack of cohesion and a lack of coherent economic policy in several countries of the world make it most difficult to cohere. Many a person is never at peace with himself, let alone keep the peace, or make peace where required. In these terrifying times, hardly is anywhere safe. Yesterday, California was upturned by an earthquake. The expansion of nuclear arsenal is on. “The world is one misstep from devastating nuclear war and in peril not seen since the Cold War”, the UN Secretary General has warned. “We have been extraordinarily lucky so far”, Antonio Guterres said. Amid global tensions, he added, “humanity is just one misunderstanding, one miscalculation away from nuclear annihilation.” We do not need to go far, here in Nigeria, down through the year; we have witnessed many incidents of insecurity. More than 50 persons were reportedly killed and many injured in attacks by armed bandits raiding communities in Kaduna State only this week.
Yet, Yuletide beckons. What more appropriate time can there be than this Yuletide than to remind ourselves of the Teachings of the Lord Christ that it is the Will of His Father that governs the entire Creation. In the enlightenment beamed In The Light of Truth, we learn that all men stand in the Law as does every creature; that we are enveloped and penetrated by the Law, and in the Law and through the Law we have also come to existence. That is, only through the Will of His Father.
Family reunion is synonymous with Christmas. Many plan to spend holidays with their families. Those who have to move intra and interstate can only rely on Heaven’s Blessings. For, despite repeated assurances, the government has not been able to reign in insecurity manifesting in kidnapping, banditry and killings. Kidnappers release captives only upon payment of ransoms. There are horrific murders termed ritual killings which are carried out for money. It is self-evident that many parts of the country are seized by rampant violence. Victims who regain their freedom and travellers who get back safe from a trip thank their stars. Nigerian situation is verging on the tragic. The obsession with material world and physical comforts has put the country in this messy state. Evil increases with ease because of disregard of the Laws of Creation, the Laws of Nature, generally borne out of ignorance. Adults of today were children of yesteryears. Whatever we give is returned in abundance at an appropriate time by Nature’s Law of Movement. The moment never fails to arrive when we have to reap the harvest of our handiwork.
Everything grows from the seed. Humanity’s seeds are our speeches, writings, intuitive volitions, mental thoughts and activities. The Nature Beings, perfectionists that they are, ensure that the fruits from them determine our fates and influence both the present and the future. We begin to build peace and cultivate harmony in our world when humanity has a change of heart to call up the Teachings of the Lord Christ and when there is an inner change to live according to His Holy Word which encapsulates the Will of His Father, the Almighty.
Christmas thus provides the unique opportunity for all of us, for all mankind for thanksgiving and a sober reflection and introspection—on the Event of the Holy Night.
The Guardian
