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Why Lent in 2023 is Important for Nigerians: Catholic Bishop

Bishop Emmanuel Badejo of Nigeria’s Oyo Diocese. Credit: Oyo Diocese

This year’s Lenten Season is a time that Nigerians are “knocking on heaven’s door”, the Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Oyo in Nigeria has said, noting that the West African nation, especially, needs God’s mercy ahead of the country’s general elections.

In a reflection shared with ACI Africa on the eve of Ash Wednesday, Bishop Emmanuel Adetoyese Badejo underlines the need to mobilize “all human, material and spiritual resources to attract God’s mercy” as the country prepares to elect the President, Vice President, members of the Senate, and those of the House of Representatives on Saturday, February 25.

He says that Lent this year is especially important for Nigerians who he says are “longsuffering” and “exasperated”.

“Lent is a 40-day season of great hope for Christians. Leading up to Easter, it calls for repentance, and the mobilization of all human, material and spiritual resources to attract God’s mercy and favor on our personal lives and that of our country,” he says in his message shared with ACI Africa Tuesday, February 21.

Attracting the favor of God, he says, “is important for longsuffering, exasperated Nigerians especially as we elect new leaders to lead us into the future.”

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“L E N T says: ‘Leave Every Negative Thing.’ Call it a period for restoration, and recovery and you would be right,” Bishop Badejo says, and adds, “It is a time when we are knocking on heaven’s door for help.”

The Nigerian Catholic Bishop says that by the ashes received on Ash Wednesday, the people of God are called to repentance, humility, and love. 

“Jesus said: ‘Repent and believe the good news.’ The focus of Christians, observing prayer and fasting, is to get close to God in love, holiness, and good works for we cannot claim to be Christians without bearing fruits of good works. Faith without works is dead,” Bishop Badejo says.

According to the Local Ordinary of Oyo Diocese who doubles as the President of the Pan African Episcopal Committee for Social Communications (CEPACS), an initiative of the Symposium of Episcopal Conference of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM), doing good works means living a truthful life by shunning falsehood and deceit. 

“In Lent, we fast not only from food and drink but also from doing evil such as murder, cheating, lying, infidelity stealing, hoarding, calumny, backbiting, and all sorts of wickedness,” he says.

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Bishop Badejo says that the three pillars of Lent, prayer, fasting, and almsgiving must go together, and adds, “Praying and fasting without good works is hollow religion.”

He goes on to remind his compatriots to be responsible citizens, saying, “In the election period, Christians must resist selling and buying of votes, lying, thuggery, and all criminality.”

The Catholic Bishop who serves as a member of the Vatican Dicastery for Communication since his appointment on 3 December 2021 notes that Lent requires humility in recognition that “God is supreme and that he will judge everybody.”

He adds, “Christians’ conduct, during Lent, should demonstrate trust in God and his word which says: ‘If my people who bear my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my presence and turn from their wicked ways, then I will listen from heaven and forgive their sins and restore their country.’”

“Beyond all human effort, we must trust God to write even on crooked lines and use anyone,” the Catholic Church leader who started his Episcopal Ministry in October 2007 as Coadjutor Bishop of Oyo Diocese says.

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Agnes Aineah is a Kenyan journalist with a background in digital and newspaper reporting. She holds a Master of Arts in Digital Journalism from the Aga Khan University, Graduate School of Media and Communications and a Bachelor's Degree in Linguistics, Media and Communications from Kenya's Moi University. Agnes currently serves as a journalist for ACI Africa.