Rev.
Fr. Ezekoka Peter Onyekachi
A story is told of three
demons who were coming to the earth to deceive men and lure them to Satan, their
chief. They were seeking advice from Satan about their plans to tempt and ruin
men. The first said, “I will tell them that there is no God.” Satan laughed and
said: “that will not deceive many for so many have experienced God in their
lives.” The second said, “I will tell them that hell does not exist, so that
they can live they way they want.” Satan again laughed even more and said: “men
know that there is always a punishment when there is an offence. They will
never believe that there is no hell.” The third then said, “I will tell men
that there is time; that they should relax and not be in a hurry, for there is
always a tomorrow.” The devil smiled to him and said, “go, and you will deceive
many by their thousands.” Hey! The most dangerous of all delusions is that
there is plenty of time. There is a word known as procrastination. It is a
killer of time. It is an unnecessary postponement of programmes which in
actually could be done at a time before the scheduled date it has been
postponed.
The Gospel Reading (Mtt
24: 37-44) spells it out very vividly how we ought to be constantly prepared
and not be deceived by those who may tell us that they know the hour of the
coming of the Lord. The danger that lies in such a claim is that the people are
rendered lazy in their struggle for heaven. If they know the hour, it is consequential
upon man to relax, only to wait for the dawn of the coming to get prepared. We must
remember the parable of the foolish and wise virgins. It is therefore clear
that speculation regarding the time of the second coming is nothing less than
blasphemy, for the man who speculates is seeking to wrest from God secrets
which belong to God alone.
We must be careful when
we notice ourselves immersed in materialism. It is in such an immersion that we
can tend to forego God, and so that time will come with shattering suddenness.
Jesus made reference to the story of Noah. Noah prepared himself for the flood
and was saved, but others were giving in marriages and feasting and were lost. They
allowed the activities of this life (however necessary) to rip them of the
activity of heaven. We must never be so immersed in the things of this life
that we forget eternity. We need to be found ready at any time, the Lord
demands our attention.
To live without
watchfulness is a disaster. The weapon of the thief is surprise; and thus, a
householder must be constantly on watchful guard against such invasion. The Christian
must be watchful with eager expectation for the coming of the Lord who comes
with glory and joy. That is what advent season tells us. To make ourselves
ready and with eager expectation wait for the coming of the king. The spirit
which leads to disaster is that he says that there is plenty of time. Going back
to our lead story, whenever we allow ourselves to be convinced that there is
plenty of time, it is then that we deceive ourselves. There is no greater
deception than the one that delays appropriate preparation for God’s entrance
into our lives, or the one that convinces oneself that there can be conversion
tomorrow, and not today. There are practical relevancies that the coming of the
king must teach us:
1. No one enjoys a
person who does not keep to time. How do you feel when someone gives you an
appointment, and he/she is late, or worse still fails? How do you feel when a
particular worship time is fixed, and the celebrant is late? How do you feel
when as a boss, you give your worker some work to do, and then the work is not
done, or there are 101 excuses for not meeting up with the time? I once gave my
student a punishment to write an article on Procrastination because of the
delay manner he carried out his work. After researching and writing the article
which he did so well, he told me that it really helped him to know the dangers
of postponing things. He wrote well on its dangers. He posits that
procrastination leads to doing the right thing at the wrong time. Yes, I agree
with him. There is time for everything. A foolish student may decide not to
study during the lecture period or the preparatory classes, and decides to
study in the midnight when others are sleeping, and by so doing distracts
others. Procrastination not only affects the person who procrastinates, but
others around.
2. Procrastination manifests
unseriousness. When we procrastinate, we are showing unseriousness in our
faith, and so project ourselves as unserious people. Many of us postpone conversion.
We postpone charity and good works. We postpone prayer time. We postpone peace
and unity in our families and communities. See, let me tell you: by the time
you know, we are overtaken by events. We do not know the hour that God comes. Only
God alone knows. We must run as far as our legs can carry us away from
postponing any good work or spiritual lifestyle that we desire. The king must
come; but we do not know the hour that he comes. We must be watchful and
vigilant so that we can never be found wanting when our king comes. We must
live each day knowing that our salvation is nearer to us than when we first
began to believe (cf. Second reading: Rom. 13:11-14a).
3. Those who think that
there is time are lazy with work. They continue to postpone when to submit
their CVs (Curiculum Vitae). They continue
to convince themselves that no one can take their place. They are liable to align
themselves with the saying that destiny can be delayed, but not denied; and so
even if they delay, what will be, will be. They are the ones that will tell you
that their positions and connections must wait for them; that even if out of
their delay, they miss the opportunity, that it was not ab initio meant for them. I pity these people who believe that
there is time. They go with such words: let us relax and merry now for there is
tomorrow. The hard truth there is that tomorrow may not actually come; today
can be your last. Why not make the decision and act today? Why must you wait
for tomorrow to execute what you can achieve today? Why not decide to write JAMB
this year, and not wait for next year? Why must you wait for next year to take
loan from bank for your business? Why must you wait until you are 30 to further
your studies? Why must you wait for examination period to come before you start
studying as a student? Make haste while the sun shines.
4. In Politics, we see
the attitude of laziness and postponement of work. A leader thinks and executes
in time. However, our leaders think, talk, and execute outside of time. Some of
their policies and actions appear atemporal. The way they lead appears to me
that they think they have eternity to fix things up. Why not start today to
construct that road that has become a death trap to your people; they prefer to
wait until accident occurs therein? Instead of waiting for the next election, why
not achieve and execute your campaign promises in the present tenure? I pity
those Nigerian politicians that are already talking about 2019 Elections, where
we know that they have done practically nothing in the present tenure. This is
heartlessness. People are crying, lamenting, dying out of frustration and
poverty; dying out of their inability to give themselves proper health check-ups;
dying out of the uneasiness to feed properly; dying out of the stress imposed
on their health due to the present condition of the country; and all a leader could
do is to talk about the next election. Woe to such a leader! For me, the beast
is better than he. To such people, I say: time waits for no man. Nigerians can
never wait for you; they can never wait for the next election. Indeed, that
next election will even be your doom. Nigerians are ready to expunge and send
all of you packing out of those positions. The children of God must be free. We
must enjoy what God has given to us, both here on earth and hereafter in
heaven.
I therefore urge you,
my dear friends to be more watchful for the coming of the king, our Lord Jesus
Christ through the way you lead your lives, as I pray God to remove from you
the spirit of delay and laziness and bestow on you the spirit of agility and
alacrity. You must be a young achiever. You must be a young graduate. You must
be a young millionaire. You must be a young doctor (or any discipline of your
choice). You must be a young bride. You must be a young groom. Indeed, you must
be a listener and doer of the gospel message of our Lord Jesus Christ. I wish
you more blessings ahead, and a blessed week. I wish you a favour-filled Advent
season. A new year of the Church has just begun. Make use of it now that you
can to turn a new leaf. God bless you.
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