Nsukka, 24 January, 2022 / 9:00 pm (ACI Africa).
Misinterpretation of the word of God is causing rancor among Christians, the Bishop of Nigeria’s Catholic Diocese of Nsukka has noted, and cautioned the people of God in the West African country against using the Scripture to attack people belonging to other denominations.
In his homily on the celebration of this year’s Sunday of the Word of God, Bishop Godfrey Onah pointed out the tendency by Christians to pick out passages from Scripture to wage war against others.
“Let us remember that the word of God is not a stone quarry where we go to pick up stones, which we use to attack one another. The word of God is a deposit for construction and the building of a people,” Bishop Onah said in the Sunday, January 23 homily.
“St. Paul tells us in the second letter to Timothy that all Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness so that we’ll all be happy and joyous children of God,” the Nigerian Catholic Bishop said, and added, “Scripture does not exist so that we use passages of Scripture to attack one another.”
Bishop Onah noted the importance of this year’s Sunday of the Word of God being celebrated within the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity saying, “Today we pray for the unity of all Christians across the world because although we are all nourished by the Scripture, our attitude to that scripture is different from one person to the other and that attitude has become the source of division among us.”