‘YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT’: OBEYING THE DOCTOR’S PRESCRIPTION HOMILY FOR THE SOLEMNITY OF THE BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST Rev. Ezekoka Peter Onyekachi

Health conscious people are familiar with this saying which forms the central topic of our Homily. Have you ever fallen sick; and thereupon visited a medical practitioner? What was the doctor’s advice to you? Was there any concern about your eating habit? Did he prescribe to you particular diets to be followed for speedy recovery? The diet we take in has a most important connection with our health status. To enjoy good health, particular diets are necessary. Tell me what you and I will tell you what you are, what you do and how you act. People who do hard jobs are inclined to eating heavy foods. People in search of fitness and slim fit pay attention to their diet. Someone who works tirelessly during the day may be inclined to taking coffee every morning for agility. A clinical nutritionist has once been quoted to have said: everything you eat becomes a part of not only your inner being, but the outer fabric of your body as well. The healthier the foods are that you consume, the better your skin looks. However, beyond health and the look of your skin, the food you eat has a bearing on your state of mind and health. We must eat to stay healthy and alive, even though we shall still experience physical death. However, there is a meal that assures holistic healthiness and t hat has the capacity to transform physical death into eternal life with God.
Today, the Church celebrates the solemnity of Corpus et Sanguis Christi (The Body and Blood of Christ); a feast which exposes to us the meal that takes care of our entire being. A Priest, after having presented a wonderful academic paper to some students got an unexpected question: why are you a Catholic? The Priest surprised at the question, gazed fiercely on the student and answered: Because of the Eucharist. For sure, this is a feast which makes us truly Catholics. This is a feast that reminds us of Christ’s invitation to come, take and eat. In this invitation to take and eat is an establishment of a covenant between us and Christ, in such a way that the food which is His body and blood inaugurates a new covenant of adherence to Him. Today’s readings make this vivid. The tradition of offering to close friends bread and wine as we see in Melchizedek’s action towards Abraham in the first reading (Gen. 14: 18-20) is made more spiritual and divine by Christ in the second reading (1 Cor. 11:23-26), who offers to the apostles His body and blood in the forms of bread and wine. He furthermore insists that they do this in remembrance of him, to share this with His future followers for a continuous partaking of this meal that nourishes the soul and the body. Hence, whenever the apostles (or their authoritative representatives) perform this action with the same species used by Christ, and uttering the words of Christ, the bread and wine completely transforms into the body and blood of Christ. A word that explains this mystery is transubstantiation. This points to the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, where-in at the words of consecration, the bread and wine cease to be what they are and are substantially transformed into the body and blood of Christ in such a way that what is now received at communion is the body and blood of Christ, not the bread and wine. The body and blood of Christ with His soul and divinity, and therefore the whole Christ is truly, actually (really), substantially contained in the Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist. Yes, that is the mystery we celebrate.
Remember, you are what you eat. So, if you partake of this body and blood of Christ, you become Christ-like. He offers us Himself and assures us in John 6: 51 (cf. Alleluia verse) that if anyone eats this bread that is his body, he/she lives forever. Christ constantly provides us with every material aid for our bodies and spiritual aid for our souls. In the Gospel, we still saw this effort he made to quench the momentary hunger of his listeners numbering more than 5,000 (cf. Luke 9: 11b-17). Beyond this offer which only quenches hunger momentarily, there is another offer which quenches hunger perpetually and leads you to eternal life. To remain spiritually healthy, we must take and eat the body and blood of Jesus Christ. Just as material food is a necessity for man, this food that sees both for the matter as well as for the spirit is all the more necessary. The body and blood of Christ nourishes our bodies and our souls. It makes for integral salvation. One of the prayers every priest says before the reception of this Most Holy body and blood of Christ make this all the more appreciable: may the receiving of your body and blood Lord Jesus Christ, not bring me to judgement and condemnation, but through your loving mercy be for me protection in mind and body and a healing remedy.  We have many lessons to learn from this solemnity.
1. The body and blood of Christ helps us to avoid condemnation, hence, assuring our safety into eternal life. This body and blood protects our cognitive faculty, restores our physical body, and heals our spiritual soul. We must take and eat this body and blood, as Christ, the chief doctor of our souls has prescribed for us. That is the tablet for our salvation. We must follow the Doctor’s prescription. We already know the natural consequences of not following the prescriptions of the medical practitioners here on earth: sickness is prolonged as the cure is delayed, and not assured, until it eventually leads to expiration/death. So too, there are consequences of not following the prescription of the Master and Supreme Medical Practitioner, Jesus Christ: our souls which continue to search for God experience hunger, grow weary and gets dry; all these turn into spiritual slot as material well being is not even assured, until it eventually leads to eternal damnation.
2. Some Christians ridicule and are filled with disbelief on what we celebrate today. At this point, join me and ask: Am I in the camp of those filled with disbelief about the feast we celebrate today? Have I acted in any way that undermines the sacredness of this feast? Very importantly, have I doubted that it is actually Christ that I receive whenever I go for communion? Most importantly, how can I apply the lessons learnt from this feast for my day to day human interaction? Firstly, we must realize that the Eucharist is alive. Since Christ is truly, really, substantially present in the Eucharist, then He is alive and present in the world. Then, the host we receive is not a thing nor bread, but a person; for He is alive. Receiving Him with this awareness, we become more fully alive, so that we can repeat Paul’s words: it is no longer I who live but Christ now lives in me (Gal. 2:20). Christ is indeed the living bread (cf. John 6:51.57), not dead; eating this bread makes one alive forever.
3. We must also learn that Christ gives Himself to us in the sacramental form perceptible by humans. Whatever is received is received according to the mode of the receiver. What the sacramental forms of bread and wine signify and make real is the Christ who is a living, personal presence. And approaching Him is an experience of faith. Hence, Christ real presence is an offer of grace, and we must tap from the immensity of this divine favour. The Eucharistic meal thus signifies both Christ’s gift of himself and the individual’s response of faith; only so can we together talk of the Church’s response of herself. It is on this basis that the Eucharist becomes for us the sacrament of unity, with the Church and with Christ, “because there is one bread we who are many are one body; for we all partake of the one bread (1 Cor. 10:17).
4. This is the special day when Catholics all over the world show their love for Christ in the Real Presence by honouring Him in a public manner by procession, but due to our Nigerian weather condition, ours comes on the day of the feast of Christ the King. It is also a wonderful moment to show our love for our neighbours by bringing Our Lord and Saviour closer to them. The Eucharist provides the unction for your function as a Christian. Come, take and eat, it is really Christ; and make sure that the Christ whom you welcome transforms your life in such a way that you see the necessity to show love in this our age filled with desperation and rancour. As Christ gives us wholly himself in the Eucharist for the life of the world, we must learn to make ourselves present and to give ourselves wholly for the suffering humanity. The injunction to take and eat by Christ and the Church is not just limited to our passive acceptance. We must extend it in our active practice by allowing others to take and eat us; by emptying ourselves in love for the good of the others. That is a practical way of glorifying the Lord. If we but paused for a moment to reflect attentively what takes place in this sacrament we celebrate, I am sure that the thought of Christ’s love for us would transform the coldness of our hearts into a fire of love and gratitude. Dear friends, my prayer for all of us today is that Christ’s Body and blood will never bring us condemnation but health in mind and body, leading us through this life into the kingdom of heaven which is our ultimate home. Amen. Do have a blessed week ahead. GOD BLESS YOU.

THE COMMUNION OF LOVE IN THE MOST HOLY TRINITY: MODEL FOR OUR WORSHIPPING COMMUNITY HOMILY FOR THE MOST HOLY TRINITY SUNDAY, YEAR C

THE COMMUNION OF LOVE IN THE MOST HOLY TRINITY: MODEL FOR OUR WORSHIPPING COMMUNITY

HOMILY FOR THE MOST HOLY TRINITY SUNDAY, YEAR C

Rev. Ezekoka Peter Onyekachi

Today, the Holy mother Church celebrates the solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. As we celebrate this, we must be courageous enough to state that the situation of Nigeria poses serious indictments upon the Church and how she has been able to live out her calling. Dear friends, the Church must learn to look inwards, so as to discover how she has passed or failed. We live in a society that is inclined to hatred and verbal attacks more than to love and fraternal correction. We live in a time where the meaning of love has been totally bastardized. We live in an epoch where individuals think that intimidation paves the way, rather than love and humility. We exist in a period where concern for others is understood as weakness. We live in an era where community service and work is seen as the interest for the jobless. Our communities grow bushy, are devoid of proper morality, buildings are admired as they dilapidate, as maintenance culture becomes only a topic for studies in the schools. The Igbo adage otu onye anaghi azu nwa is now replaced with the adage zuo nwa nke gi otu isi choo. We live in a political system that favours the corrupt more than the sincere. Nigeria simply put is a decayed society. The question comes: to what extent are these experiences influencing the worshipping community? To what extent is the Church fighting to become a panacea to the crises-ridden Nigeria? To what extent still is the Church contributing to such societal evils experienced in Nigeria. Which way are we to follow? Who will save Nigeria?

THE TRINITARIAN COMMUNION OF LOVE

The three readings expose to us the activities of our Christian God. It is not enough to believe in God. We must know Him whom we believe in and must live as He lives. Our God is three-in-one. The first reading informs us of the wisdom of God the Father who creates in an orderly manner with the divine purpose of salvation (Prov. 8: 22 - 31). The second reading tells about the work of God the Son, Jesus Christ who redeems us by leading us towards justification, and thereby glorifies the Father with it (Rom. 5: 1-5). The Gospel explicates on the work of the Holy Spirit who brings to completion the work of the Father and the Son by leading us to the complete truth. Hence, the Christian God is one that lives as one and works as one. The Christian God is the God of the Trinity, whereby there are three persons in one God.[1] This knowledge of God as a communion of three persons is that which we have got from God’s revelation of himself in Jesus Christ (i.e the Incarnation). The specific character of God’s revelation in Jesus Christ consists of the incredible message that God is a communion of persons. The Christian God is not a solitary monad but a self-creating community, indeed a communion both in Himself and in His relations with mankind and with creation.[2] Hence, the Trinitarian lifestyle is that lived in the communion of the three divine persons. God lives his own divine life in a tripersonal inter-communication and need no complement, supplement of fulfilment from a reality distinct from Himself.[3]  “In every divine person as a subject, the other persons also indwell; all mutually permeate one another, though in doing so they do not cease to be distinct persons.”[4] What is then the content of this communion?

Many seasoned theologians accredit that this inter-communication of this tri-personal God is love. Indeed, Garrigou-Langrange captures this perfect life of love and union when he advocates:

Indeed, the entire personality of the Father is the relation to the Son, the entire personality of the Son is the relation to the Father, and the entire personality of the Holy Spirit is the relation to the Father and the Son.[5]

This divine life of love is a perfect beatitude without limit, and these divine persons are happy with all the fullness of happiness. This activity of love is seen in the sending character of His Son (cf. John 3:16), and Christ’s prayer to His Father makes it clear that the Father loved him before the creation of the world (John 17:24). Yet, this communion and union in love manifests more in their glorification of one another (cf. John 12:28; 17:1; 17:5), joy at one another (John 15:11) and peace with one another (cf. John 14:2). In essence, God is love (1 John 4:8.16). Indeed in the sending of Christ “into the world, God reveals Himself as the God whose being is constituted by relationship.”[6] Our stake then is the discovery of how this communion in love of the Trinity can serve as a model for our worshipping community.

A FOCUS ON OUR WORSHIPPING COMMUNITY

The Catholic worshipping community, by divine institution are regarded as Christ’s faithful; they are comprised of the clerics (the sacred ministers) and the lay people (cf. Canon 207, para. 1).

1. Among the clerics are the deacons, the priests and the Bishops. These sacred ministers constitute the hierarchical structure of the Church. However, it must be emphasized from the onset that the hierarchical structure of the Church is one that has its foundation in service; as Christ told his disciples: Now that I, your Lord and Teacher have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet (John 13:14). This service must be based in love. It is in this sense that we can understand well the connection that ought to exist in the ‘threeness’ of the Church’s ministers following the triune nature of God. Just as the Trinitarian lifestyle is love, the lifestyle of the Church’s minister should be love. There ought to exist no calumny, character assassination, hatred, rancour, disobedience, authoritarianism, war, etc. If we imitate the Trinitarian life of love, these cogs to the wheel of our progress will melt in such a way that where there is hatred and jealousy, love replaces; where there is war and calumny, peace reigns; where there is gossip and character assassination, glorification of one another overshadows; where there is authoritarianism and disobedience, joy at one another surfaces. It is our duty to make this happen in our religious society, which is our community of faith.

2. The lay people has too many lessons they can derive from the Trinitarian lifestyle. They too are bound to this commandment of love and service to the Church. They too must make a whole-hearted effort to lead a holy life, and to promote the growth of the Church. They too have the obligation to permeate and perfect the temporal order of things with the spirit of the Gospel. In whatever they do, they are to give witness to Christ. They too have the duty to help the sacred ministers in their duties. The lay organizations in the Church should together work for the good of the Church, and not engaging in tussles that have the tendency of bringing bad name to the Church. Often, we notice little rancour and inordinate struggle that exists between Pious Sodalities and Movements. That which should not even be mentioned at all is the acrimony, malice, resentment and bitterness being heard of some lay people against their sacred ministers. Our duty is to love them, pray for them and help them for the good of the Gospel. Never nurse the idea to partake in any meeting that is carried out to pull down your fellow Christian, or worse still, to pull down your Parish Priest, Bishop or any sacred minister working for the Church.

3. If we can achieve this in our circle, then together we can work to transform our crises-ridden, corrupt, degenerated Nigerian society. It is our task, the clergy and the lay to assist in this struggle. Nigerian society is apparently without any saviour. The onus lies on us to save her from this impending shipwreck. We pray not to fail. In fact, we shall never fail. Our society needs us. Nigeria needs our sanctity in this face of immorality which is on the increase. Nigeria needs our love in this face of inter-tribal wars and agitations. Nigeria needs our justice in this face of a failed juridical system incapable of offering justice to the poor masses. Nigerian citizens are in daring need of ministers who will assure them that there is light at the end of this dark tunnel. We need hope. We need to keep kicking. We need a country that we can call ours. We need to experience justice, peace, love, joy, hope and equality of all humans. It is our mission to work for this. Yes, it is the mission of the Catholic faithful. Let us stop chasing after shadows, and face our duties. From what we see currently, only the Holy, intelligent, and charismatic people of God can save Nigeria.

The solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity provides antidotes to anything that works against the unity and love of the pilgrim Church on earth. It also can provide cure to our sick society; only if we align ourselves to the Grace that constantly comes the triune God. Let us pray: Lord, may we continue to be one even as you, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are one. May we together and constantly grow in this awareness; such that reiterates that what unites us is greater than what divides us; such that gingers us to work for the good of your Church and our country. Amen. ♫♫ We are one holy family, we are one in the Lord. We pray together, we sing together, we worship together; we are one in the Lord ♫♫.  GOD BLESS YOU. GOD BLESS HIS CHURCH. GOD BLESS NIGERIA.

---

1 The Catechism of the Catholic Church

3 Greshake, An den Drei-einen Gott glauben, Freiburg, ²1999, translated by Nwachukwu O., p. 16

4 Schmaus, M. Dogma 2 –God and Creationn, U.S.A: Sheed and Ward, 1969, p.85.

5Miroslav Volf, After Our Likeness: The Church as the Image of the Trinity, Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing, 1998, p. 209.

6 Garrigou-Langrange, R., The Trinity and God the Creator, Binghamton and New York: Vail-Ballou Press, 1952, p. 332.

7Martin M., Davis, The Holy Trinity and Human Relationships, Friday, uploaded on July 19, 2013 via Martinmdavis@blogspot.com

COMMUNION OF PERSONS IN THE TRINITY:A MODEL FOR AFRICA'S COMMUNAL LIFE

COMMUNION OF PERSONS IN THE TRINITY: A MODEL FOR AFRICA’S COMMUNAL LIFE

ABSTRACT

Africa has a problem. These problems over the years have proved to be perennial, resisting variegated solutions. Time after time, the continent still finds herself beset by wars, hunger, starvation, diseases of sort, political and economic instability, violence, problem of leadership and general underdevelopment. The African man since history has been on the struggle to overcome this challenge and to meet up with other parts of the world in economy and politics all to no avail. Both African and Western Philosophy couldn’t and cannot save him. His problem still stares him in the face. This work argues that only authentic faith, expressed in the communal life after the model of the Trinity, God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, can save the African man. This work further argues that from this shared and revealed life, the African man finds salvation for his soul. 

The Disposition: Introducing the Paper

Africa from time immemorial is beset with woeful stories that feed the despair of the continent. The continent as a geographical entity has always been at the lower level of global economic ladder. Stories of regrets: wars, both past and present, civil wars, hunger and violence have continued to stagnate the continent as it implicates progress, no thanks to the above named factors. Many moral and political ideologies and theories have been proffered. Social theories; socialism, capitalism, communalism etc have not succeeded in bringing light to Africa. Ethical theories of sorts have been preferred in philosophy and in every human intellectual investigations, yet, the African man has not found the right answers to tackle the perennial problem of his society. He still finds himself in a volatile environment beset with poverty and violence, hunger and economic despair. All these threatening themes as death, fatality, the difficulty of living, abandonment by the gods, the solitude of man staggering in dark, formed the basis of Greek pessimism.[1]

Parallel to these, one of the problems which tries to confront the African society today is the tension that faces her communal life for which we are known. This tension cannot be vastly discussed if we relegate the harm such does to faith. Irrespective of the fact that the African intelligence strives always to put a check against this tension, our write-up clearly demonstrates that authentic faith which takes after the model of the Trinity serves as panacea to the distortions in African Communal life. It envisages that the Trinitarian life if employed and made practical by us can make this seed to germinate appropriately, become a tree, bear fruits and become so formidable that the birds of the air could build their nests on it.. This article attempts answers to these questions: in what consists the Trinitarian communion? What is the sense of African Community life? How best can we appropriate this communion in the Trinity to the African society? These questions and their corollaries shall we strive to answer as we progress. Hence, based on these problems and for precision sake, our paper is divided into three major parts: The Position which presents an orthodox interpretation of the trinitarian communion; The Exposition which examines the community life in the African Society; The Proposition which unravels how best a proper appropriation; hence an application of the communion seen in the Trinity can be made for a better appreciation of our African communal life.

PART ONE: THE POSITION

COMMUNION IN THE TRINITY

1.1 The Trinitairan Lifestyle

It pleased God in His supreme bountifulness to reveal Himself and to make known his will “that men should have access to the Father, through Christ, the Word made flesh, in the Holy Spirit...”[2] Surely, the basis of our faith is that rooted in the belief in the Trinity. The Christian God is the God of the Trinity, whereby there are three persons in one God.[3] This knowledge of God as a communion of three persons is that which we have got from God’s revelation of himself in Jesus Christ (i.e the Incarnation). “The specific character of God’s revelation in Jesus Christ consists of the incredible message that God is a communion of persons.”[4]The christian God is not a solitary monad but a self-creating community, indeed a communion both in Himself and in His relations with mankind and with creation.[5] Hence, the trinitarian lifestyle is that lived in the communion of the three divine persons. God lives his own divine life in a tripersonal inter-communication and need no complement, supplement of fulfillment from a reality distinct from Himself.[6]  The African theologian, Nyamiti, in line with others stresses that God is primarily communicative; he is a communion of an bounded union in perfect harmony and absolute oneness.[7]  This perfect harmony and oneness is of an interior reciprocal manner. “In every divine person as a subject,the other persons also indwell; all mutually permeate one another, though in doing so they do not cease to be distinct persons.”[8] But, here, we ask ourselves: what is the content of this communion?

1.2 The Content of the Communion in the Trinity

This question is pertinent because it is through the discovery of the content that one can better appreciate the communion and at same time appropriate clearly such a lifestyle in the modelling of the Africa’s communal life as the theme of our article suggests. Schmaus and many other seasoned theologians[9] accredit that this inter-communication of this tri-personal God is love. Indeed, Garrigou-Langrange captures this perfect life of love and union when he advocates:

Indeed, the entire personality of the Father is the relation to the Son, the entire personality of the Son is the relation to the Father, and the entire personality of the Holy Spirit is the relation to the Father and the Son.[10]

Guerry Emily in his own thesis on the Happiness of the Divine Family exposes the content of this communion. He says that before the world, was the Father and the Son, and they loved each other with an eternal and infinite love in the unity of the Holy Spirit.[11] For him, this divine life of love is a perfect beatitude without limit, and these divine persons were happy with all the fullness of happiness. This activity of love is seen in the sending character of His Son (cf. John 3:16), and Christ’s prayer to His Father makes it clear that the Father loved him before the creation of the world (John 17:24). Yet, this communion and union in love manifests more in their glorification of one another (cf. John 12:28; 17:1; 17:5), joy at one another (John 15:11) and peace with one another (cf. John 14:2). In essence, God is love (1 John 4:8.16). indeed in the sending of Christ “into the world, God reveals Himself as the God whose being is constituted by relationship.”[12] Our stake then is the discovery of how this communion in love of the Trinity can serve as a model for the African society. Yet, we need to know whether the African society can really boast of  communal life; whether this communal life, if in existence is Trinity-inspired; and whether the African society can imitate to an extent even in their finitude, this trinitarian lifestyle. But, let us first discover what the African Community looks like.

PART TWO: THE EXPOSITION

AFRICA AND HER COMMUNITY LIFE

2.1 The African Sense of Community

Africa, no doubt is blessed by God with communal social setting that recognizes one another in the society, observing close consanguinity up to the third and fourth generations. This communal living finds expressions in cultural structures like kingship, women wings, different rites and practices of initiation, traditional dances, common land ownership and inheritance etc. Such settings no doubt, dispose a typical African society towards collective progress and mutual complementarity.

The African society has always been seen as one marked with communalism. According to African scholars such as Onwubiko O., this communalism in Africa is a system that is both suprasensible and material in its terms of reference. It is both god-made (that is, transcending the people who live in it now) and man-made (that is, its inability to be understood independent of those presently living in it). Hence, the authentic African is known and identified in, by, and through the community. The community is the custodian of the individual and the individual must go wherever the community goes. “The African idea of security and its value depends on personal identification with and within the community... the community offers the African the psychological and ultimate security as it gives its members both physical and ideological identity.”[13] Hence, the community remains while the individual comes and goes. This emphasis on community life and communalism is a living principle which has its basic ideology in community-identity, and has the aim of producing and presenting an individual as a community-culture-bearer. Now, we quest more: what is the structure of this community of the African society?

2.2 The Tri-partite Structure of the African Society

Amongst many structures of the African society that scholars may have presented, ours follows a tripartite progression which we consider as the major pillars in the structuring: The Family, The Village and The Ethnic Group. We do not relegate in any way the possibility of ancillary divisions in-between the tripartite structure already presented. The family is on the first level, nuclear, and on the second level, extended. The nuclear is the immediate members of a family comprising the man, the woman (or women) and the children. The extended is the many number of different families of the same grandfather or great grandfather. “Living together and the sense of community of brothers and sisters are the basis of, and the expression of the extended family system in Africa.”[14] This is also seen in the Ujamaa philosophy of Julius Nyerere. Ujamaa, in the Literal sense means togetherness or familyhood.

The conglomeration of these extended families and patrilineages while declaring themselves the descendants of a common remote ancestor forms the village. After the village are some other groupings, but the most important of them progresses tot he Ethnic group. It is a territorial delimitation including the sum total of the varied clans (number of villages acclaiming to have descended from a common mythical or very remote ancestor) as a people living in the same geagrophical territorial unit.the ethnic group is then in a way segmented but in such a way as to make the sections indissolubly linked one to the other. They posses a cultural homogeneity seen in the linguistic, economic, political and religious organizations.

PART THREE: THE PROPOSITION

TRINITARIAN FAITH AND THE AFRICAN LIFE

3.1 The Need for a Revealed Life

As Paul says, the revealed life of the Trinity was not one devised by human wisdom, more or less persuasive in its appeal (1Cor 2:1-5) but the transmission of the very word and power of God. By living the communal life of the trinity, the model of the life of an African man in the society is no longer a question of speculating or even of understanding more or less profoundly, according to the varying capacities of each intelligence but of adhering and of submitting, “We demolish human calculations, yes, every fortified height that rears itself against the knowledge of God, we bring every thought into captivity under obedience to Christ. (2 Cor. 10:5). Therefore the communal life of Christians in Africa should be essentially union with the Trinity. Cesclaus explains that this model of communality thus:

This conception is rich in meaning; it contains the qualities of nobility, integrity, and glory, of perfection and completion; it is opposed to ugliness which is a characteristic of vice; finally, it implies excellence[15]

This life supposes a conversion which is first of all faith in the message and in the redemptive work of the saviou and the deliverance from error. This underlies the necessity of revealed and shared life of the trinity over human ideologies.

3.2 Modelling after the Trinity

Just as Onwubiko has lamented that “the betrayal of the African sense of community life by the new generation impede a healthy cultural exchange”[16], we advocate that this healthy cultural exchange can be reclaimed if we take the Trinity as our model in our communal life. Hence, as we have said earlier and as some authors agree that the Trinity is a fellowship or communion of divine love, we reiterate that “the persons of the Holy Trinity are not separate, autonomous selves or individuals...” and that their “relationship is marked by equality of personhood, interdependence (not independence), cooperation (not competition), unity of purpose, and mutual self-giving and receiving.”[17] The life of the Trinity is a life devoid of hatred, rancour, ethnicity, division, and covetousness. A life characterized by fellow feeling, sharing and mutual complementarily, a life marked by division of work geared towards a common end. The absence of this Trinitarian life accounts for the dysfunctional African communal life. the Trinitarian life is the revealed and shares life of the trinity bereft of defunct or failed human ideologies. According to Harrison, this provides a model for the ideal human community in which people are united by mutual love, they work together in harmonious consensus , and the equality and dignity of each person is respected.[18] Harping further on this, Kallistos explains what it mean to follow the model of the trinity in practical terms:

Each social grouping-family…nation, has as its vocation to be transformed by grace into a living icon of The Holy Trinity, to effect a reconciling harmony between diversity and unity, human freedom and mutual solidarity after the pattern of the Trinity. Our belief in a Trinitarian God, in a God of social inter-relationship and shared love commits us to opposing all forms of exploitation, injustice and discrimination.[19]

In followership of these divine qualities extracted from the Trinity, a basic question become more glaring to us: why should we take the Trinity as models? This God whose image we are is love; a communion (fellowship), hence he lives in relationship. The man He has created (and more specifically, the African) is called to live in relationship as an image of a God who lives in relationship. In essence, man is made to be in relationship; both vertically with God (cf. Deut. 6:4; Mtt.12:30; John13:34) and horizontally with the neighbour(cf. Mtt. 12:31.). God has not made the African to be in solitude; he is a relational being. It is because the African is created in the image of God that we are able to penetrate certain mysteries in God; one of which is the mystery of God who lives in love. “The equality, interdependence, cooperation, sharing and mutual self-giving and receiving among the persons of the Trinity provide a model for human relationship, whether marriage and family, or community, clan, tribe or nation.”[20]

It is because the African man is created in God’s image, that we are called to embody a new community in which their is a fair sharing of the resources of the earth, and where authoritarianism, domination, and power consciousness are replaced by mutual honour and respect. The communion in the Trinity ought to lead us to an understanding in which dialogue and consensus replaces war and disagreements, and in turn form the basic constituents of living together both as Africans and as Christians. Just as in the Trinity, “there is difference without division, self-giving without self-loss, and eternal life in ceaseless harmony and peace”[21], so also the African should learn to be different without dividing, to give without having lost oneself and to live in happiness with fellows.

By imitating the community in God, the African hope for a time of peace, justice and freedom among the varied cultures in our land, the varied ethnicity, with the emphasis on community, equality, freedom and harmony among the people, will surely be met. Hence, this christian profession of the Trinity brings to book certain ideologies of the present-day African society –totalitarianism, individualism, etc. It dismantles all sorts of social inequality –elitism, racism, genderism, classism, tribalism, authoritarianism, etc. The doctrine of the Trinity affirms that God is one but in three persons, each being distinct but inseparably united with others. This distinctness and inseparability suggest that in them is both unity (in their oneness), and diversity (in their threeness). This simply has implications for the African Society. The African society is composed of many parts of diverse ethnicity, cultures, beliefs and nationalities. Yet, all African Christians are by virtue of their baptism united under a single head, Jesus Christ, and disposed for service through the numerous gifts plentifully given by the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12:4-31).

In the face of these multi-ethnicity and culturality, variations in culture ought to be encouraged as against rigid conformism to particular dictates; for variety is the spice of life. This demonstrates an understanding of the unity and diversity of the Trinity. Any atttempt to impose a particular culture or practice on a people reduces the trinitarian principle of unity in diversity to bland conformity.Thomas F. Tumblin after writing his thesis on the application of the Trinity cannot but deem it wise to summarize his points in these words. “To summarize the language of this essay, God calls us to model perichoretic community by which God’s Spirit can transform via the grace promised in Jesus Christ.”[22]Perichoeris implies the mutual penetration of the Trinitarian family. The African Society is  then called to style herself in a mutual understanding, toleration, love, peace with one another, appreciation of one another, joy at one another.

3.3 A Socio-Cultural Application

Justice And Human Right: When as Christians we fight for justice and human rights, for a compassionate and caring society, we are acting specifically in the name of the Trinity. Faith in the Trinitarian God, in the God of personal relationship and shard love commits us to struggle against poverty, exploitation, disease and all forms of oppression. It also commits us to fight for human emancipation and for the greater ennoblement of the human race and against tyranny and unbridled oppression, public embezzlement of fund, civil wars and unrest, election hijacking and rigging etc.

Obedience to Civil Law: Africans are culturally respectful. This respect for elders are also translated to respect for civil authorities and constitution which frowns at all forms of criminality capable of bridging the peace of a society.[23] So following the example of Christ who, although he is fully God and entirely equal to the Father renounces himself and does only what the Father willsthe African society should fan a total obedience to the laws of the land. This does not undermine their human dignity and equality since Christ’s obedience did not compromise his divine dignity.[24]

Unity and Common Purpose: This calls for collective action in the communal life of Africa’s communal life after the model of the trinity. Just as the three persons,. Although they played specific roles in the work of salvation, yet all are geared towards the salvation of man. God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit joined together in inseparable love. Here St. Gregory of Nyssa paints a clearer picture of this unity of act and purpose in the trinity that the three persons work together such that none is unaware of the activity of the other.[25]Hence, a collaborative effort of all the members of the society, with common interest, to create a peaceful, progressive and egalitarian society that recognizes and respects the right and dignity of each individual should be emphasised.

Life-Giving: The Trinity came to give life to the world (Jn 10:10) and the Trinity gave themselves personally in the Son to win sovereign freedom for man. This singular model challenges the African man to give up his time, and energy and even life for the good of the other. This model on the one hand helps to eschew all forms of selfishness, embezzlement and covetousness, and, on the other hand, condemns all forms of action, policies, laws that endanger or annihilate human life such as the legalization of abortion, using human beings for biological experiment, indiscriminate use of contraceptives, pills, directly willed sterilizations etc[26].

Transfigured Leadership: Many scholars, like B.E.B Nwoke are of the view that the problem of Africa is leadership. In the world history, Africa has recorded a crème of notorious and corrupt leaders that dot the continent and has stagnated her as it implicates progress.[27] In recounting history, we call to mind dictators and oppressive African rulers like Charles McArthur Ghankay Tailor of Liberia, who committed untold crimes against humanity, and wasted many innocent lives in his crave for power; Paul Biya who has been the president of Cameroon since 6^th November 1982 who wields his sweeping powers like a tyrant and hardly appears in public; Robert Mugabe, the tyrant of Zimbabwe since 1980; General Sani Abacha of Nigeria who, though ruled for five years, managed to commit a lifetime of crimes and declared his government to be above the law and is known as the most brutal dictator of the West African powerhouse responsible for five billion dollars in stolen funds; Sekou Toure of Guinea who ruled from 1958-1984 and declared Guinea a one party state. Others include Macias Nguema of Guinea, Siad Barre of Somalia, Omar Al-bashir, Hissene Habre of Chad, General Idi Amin Dada of Uganda who can be regarded as the most brutal of all times.[28]The woeful stories that accompany these infamous African leaders no doubt accounts, to a reasonable extent for the sorry predicament of the continent, politically and economically. Here, Harrison reminds us  that Like God the Father, the leader is called to provide a strong foundation enabling other persons to use their gifts in mutual service and collaboration.[29]

Love in Action: This is the zenith and summary of all the distinguishing models of the Trinity. Love put in action is what Africa needs in her communal living to make progress and transform the society. The Holy Spirit “activated” the disciples on the Pentecost day, enabling them to share the love of God, through the gospel to all nation. By virtue of our baptism, we have received the Holy Spirit and have put on Christ (Gal 3:27-28). We are therefore charged to make this love evident in the African Society.

THE REPOSITION: Concluding the Paper

No nation, no continent can claim to be trouble-free. Africa, thus as a continent is not an exception.  Problems have been issues in the historical events of the world. In this regard, man continues to make effort to solve the problems that existence presents, and the ones he is unable to solve, he learns to adapt to; yet without loosing hope of the possibility of solution. To give an instance, in the health world, there have been confrontations by various diseases and infections, according to epochs and generations; still man has continued to proffer solutions to these issues, thanks to his intelligence. Where does this intelligence come from? Our era apparently presents or proffers solutions to problems as if man has become all in all. We today tend to neglect the vertical dimension for the solutions to our problems, and of course, the result of which is the over-emphasis on the horizontal dimension. When we experience certain political tension and wars between nations, the tendency has always been to employ every human intelligence either to calm the situation or to win. The recent global politico-economic turmoils accentuate this fact. There is the need to remember the vertical line of our human existence; God is there. This belief in the thereness of God, thought honestly, spoken truthfully and lived sincerely opens up a clear aperture of authentic faith.

The world with all its human inteliigence and intervention has continued to fail; authentic faith and his intervention cannot fail us. When God is seen as a tri-personal communion of love, it challenges and undermines the radical individualism of the Western Culture and urges the distorted k-legged communitarian life of the African to qeue up for the better. The faith in the Trinity does not fail. Living a life rooted from the Trinity calms the storm and opens man up towards the eschatological destiny. Values such as mutual respect and honour, unity of purpose and peace among the diverse cultures and religions are sure to accompany these. Hence, applying the communion in the Trinity seen in their love of one another, peace with one another, joy at one another, and glorification of one another, in the African communitarian life seen in their sense of community and society structure certainly assures us of a divine life here on earth which opens us up for the life hereafter. St. Paul reminds us that we are that “noblesse oblige”- we who are citizens of heaven must do honor to the nationality that was conferred on us by baptism and consequently lead a Trinitarian life.[30]In all then, since our life is regulated by our  nationality, which is heaven, then our ways of life consists in living as citizens of the city of the living God (Heb: 12:22)

ENDNOTES

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[1]Festugiere A. J., L’Ideal Religieux des Greces et L’Evangile, Paris, 1932, pp.163-164

[2] Vatican Council II, Dei Verbum, Dogmatic Constituion on Divine Revelation, 1965, no.2.

[3] The Catechim of the Catholic Church, no.233

[4] Nwachukwu, O., Unpublished Lecture Notes on Inculturation, no.6)

[5] Greshake, An den Drei-einen Gott glauben, Freiburg, ²1999, translated by Nwachukwu O., p. 16

[6] Schmaus, M. Dogma 2 –God and Creationn, U.S.A: Sheed and Ward, 1969, p.85.

[7] Nyamiti, C., African Tradition and the Christian God, Kenya: Gaba Pub., 1978, p.64.

[8]Miroslav Volf, After Our Likeness: The Church as the Image of the Trinity, Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing, 1998, p. 209.

[9] In this list, we notice, according to our research such Church Medieval thinkers as Augustine in his Confessions and the De Trinitate, and Aquinas in his Summa Contra Gentiles; such contemporary Church thinkers as karl Rahner in his Theological Investigation, vol.4 and vol. 16,; Egbulefu J., in The Church in the Service of spreading and amplifying the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory of God, a Paper delivered at the Pilgrimage Centre in Elele on 8th April, 2010; etc.

[10] Garrigou-Langrange, R., The Trinity and God the Creator, Binghamton and New York: Vail-Ballou Press, 1952, p. 332.

[11] Guerry, E., God the Father, translated by A.H.C. Downes, New York: Sheed and Ward, Inc.; 1947, p.43.

[12]Martin M., Davis, The Holy Trinity and Human Relationships, Friday, uploaded on July 19, 2013 via Martinmdavis@blogspot.com

[13] Onwubiko, O. A, African thought, Religion and Culture, Enugu: Snaap Press, 1991, p.14

[14] Onwubiko, Op. Cit., p.15.

[15] Ceslaus S.O., op.cit, p. 99

[16] Ibid, p. 19

[17] Martin M. Davis, Op. Cit.

[18] Harrison N., The Holy Trinity, A Model for Human Community in St. Nina, 2012

[19] Kallistos, The Human Person as an Icon of the Trinity, Sobornost, 1986, pp.17-18

[20]Ibid

[21] Migliore, D. L., Faith Seeking Understanding: an Introduction to Christian Theology, 2nd Edition, Grand Rapids, MI, Eerdmans Pub., 2004, p.87

[22]Tumblin,  T, F., The Trinity Applied: Creating Space For Changed Lives,p. 73, downloaded online from arl-jrl.org

[23] Harrison, op.cit, p.44

[24] Ibid

[25] Ad Ablabium; F. Muller, (ed.) Gregorii Nysseni Opera Dogmatica Minora, Paris, Leiden Bill, 1950., pp. 47-47

[26] Paul VI, Humanae Vitae, 1989. here, the pontiff condemns all forms of actions that militate against life. this comes in form of contraceptives that destroy openness of sexual acts to procreation. These practices as condemned by the pope account for unbridled moral decadence prevalent in modern day society and Africa is not excluded from this predicament.

[27] Nwoke B.E.B, The Problem of Infrastructure Decay in Nigeria, Whelan Research Academy, 2013(unpublished conference paper)

[28] http||www.answersafrica.com, accessed 11|12|2013

[29] Harrison, op.cit. p.55.

[30] Ceslaus S.O., The Trinity and Our Moral Life According to St. Paul, translated by Sr. Marie Aquinas, Newman Press, Westminister, 1963, p. 6.