The Cheese and The Pandora 's Box

Who opened the Pandora's box? Who moved the cheese?

When you live in a capitalist society, you've got to join the rat race of work and business to survive. Nothing is wrong with that, what is wrong is that the balance of making money and living real life has shifted towards money to the detriment of life .

Gone are days when having more children give parents more prestige. Have more than 3 nowadays and you'll be looked at as irresponsible.

Majority of the so-called middle class  have got to go out to join in the rat race for resources that are barely sufficient for the family.

Children's education is more and more being reduced to purely academical status.

I'm so sorry for the young of today, what have they not seen, all in the glorification of media: social media, mass media, web media,public media. Media media media, a tool for the glorification of pornography, violence & drugs.

And the leaders whoever they are seem to be loosing: harmful drugs are being declassified ,ages of consent are being lowered, even the choice of celibacy for priests & religious may soon become optional.

Today talks about abstinence have been muted, you only hear of safe sex, birth control or child prevention.

Authority stealing has been stylishly nurtured and given names which seem to lessen its impact :'defraudment', 'misappropriation ' , 'maladministration', 'nepotism', 'mitigation '- as Fela would say.

The rich simply shrug their shoulders towards the bewilderment of the poor because the poor themselves are over-desperate.

I'm sorry for that man who needs job but hasn't the right connection. Or one who feels he's entitled to success all because he's got integrity and has read almost all the motivational books .

Out there in the business world, shit happens, a lot there are who couldn't change them and end up joining them. Ask Obama .

Women disregard men of marriageable age because of cash, and cashless men would close their eyes to marriage until they 'do something' towards their cash status.

Unmarried women abound because cashless men are in excess, cashless men are in excess because the rich shrug their shoulders on the bewilderment of the poor , the rich do this because they are afraid of the 'desperation of the poor '. Resources are scarce because the rich are afraid. 

The Pandora box is opened by I know not  by who. The evils therein are like the Red Sea. Plunge in with confidence in your skills and ability and you shall die like Pharaoh and his men, refuse to plunge because of your narrow ideology and you shall be left back in Egypt.

Take the plunge in faith and prayers and you shall arrive at a safe harbour.

And except by a special mercy of God , those who live in cities and depend only on shallow faith and tepid prayers may also be at risk. Who opened the box, who moved the cheese? I don't know, but we all have a responsibility towards surviving this hullabaloo . 

AN ESSAY ABOUT THE JOURNEY BACK

AN ESSAY ABOUT THE JOURNEY BACK

During the last week, I took my family for a visit to a friend’s place. We got talking about the need to ultimately return home and invest in our roots. My friend’s wife did not agree with us, as far as she was concerned, she was done with her native town, if anything, she would rather claim as her home, the nearby megacity to her town . Ancestral town, for her has become a closed chapter with her parents.

On the contrary, I spoke passionately about digging more and more into my root. I told her about my current discovery that my ancestral families were originally not from my native town and that I intend exploring that history further down to my roots as much as I could. She couldn’t see any rationale in my motives, as far as she was concerned it was a risky, worthless and meaningless endeavour. She told me that her ancestral root was Jerusalem and that she would rather venture through the scriptures than expose herself to dangerous meaningless ventures like mine. I made to tell her that she wasn’t wrong and not totally right either for claiming Jerusalem and for exploring through the scripture, but her husband (my friend) stopped us from the discussion being too complicated for his wife.

Many people get a good grasp about the need for conquest and moving forward, but this idea of exploring the roots and repairing the past is still alien to many.

After we must have escaped from a circumference of work and friction, we immediately face an instant disgust against the necessity to return to the circle.  We normally have no motivation towards returning to that cycle of work, friction and torque. The evils on ground is easier seen when one is up, it gets magnified and exaggerated, the more our perception of these, the more our natural repugnance. That is why towns are empty and villages are void.

The reality remains  that the momentum gained from going back into the cycle and repairing the root is what propels the energy for the forward conquest and the attainment of true liberation and peace unimagined. That is the path God took: Phil: 2:1-11.

Passion about history, grace of memory, will and intellect are the energy base of our victory. Our liberation shall be incomplete if we are reluctant to go back to our roots in order  to repair and refine it. The more a man forgets his roots and would neither physically, intellectually and spiritually  repair and refine it, the more suffering is laid down for him and his posterity. Forget the land of source and it takes longer and harder to conquer the land of venture.

“He who forgets the home has a sack of suffering hung around him”- African proverb.

Of course, this journey back is not an easy task; it is the height of responsibility. Reality points to the fact that some evils perceived after an escape from a particular centrifuge are not always figments of imagination. One experiences a situation whereby one is not received both ways, whether from the area of venture or from the root backward. Ideas gained from the forward leap are often translated as pride and insolence by the source. Memory is often plagued by myths and history tilted to the advantage of the loudest and not reality, back and forth.

God Himself appeared not very successful in His root cause, but for Him it was worth the effort. He remained committed to His root; He was forever a Nazarene, perpetually a Galilean and eternally a Jew. Without walking with God, the principalities one encounters in the search for the root and attempt at liberating the past through memory, intellect and will are enough to jeopardize the journey; but of this is real mission made of: giving back to the circle of your escape. God is still a Jew, and so are we, albeit at the other end of the bridge. Going back is work, and it is absolutely impossible without love, but it is also the basis of real power and influence, it is the residence of the elders, the commitment of protagonists, and the fellowship of God’s strength. The back mission is the basis of baptism without which there is no redemption.

John’s concept of baptism came about as a result of his conviction about repairing the root and liberating the past. As far as John was capable of seeing, the beginning could only go as far as creation. Biblical narration of creation  tells us of  the land coming out from water and it was from the landmass that earth was taken to form man, thus by consequence, man , from dust, forms a generation of the sons  and daughters of water, and thus for creation to be renewed, through man whom God had originally  bequeathed all power, he must turn back to God to be cleansed and must be recreated by coming out from water in baptism which is a journey to the root .

Christ saw deeper than John, He went deeper than the adamic creation into the beginning of which no humanity had seen nor heard anything about (cast your mind back to the pre creation battle between St Michael and Lucifer before creation in which the latter was cast down). He also did this by a personal journey into a mystery of which we know not much about: He descended into hell. Christ’s descent into hell was a work, the reason for His death on Calvary; it was a journey into the spiritual of which only God was capable of winning. Man must thus, not only be baptized with water alone (which is Joanine and incomplete) but with water and the Holy Spirit through the sole journey of Christ ,he who was  born of God and he who snatched the key of death and brought about life and liberation through His death, descent into hell and resurrection. The journey is a Trinitarian mission and man must be baptised into God in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit to be saved. Such a great mystery.  Here let every tone be mute.

Baptism, whether in the Blessed Virgin, at Jordan or on Calvary, is not just a ritual, it is a journey of God and with God, and we little can perceive the depth of what it costs God. We must not take this work of His for granted. Work really costs, even God’s work, definitely God’s work. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but gain eternal life Jn 3:16.

Mediocrity reigns in our land because of our reluctance to journey back physically, intellectually and spiritually to the root of our experience and environment. In Engineering, we study both Integration and Differentiation to make us holistic designers. Even as we seek the power of His resurrection, let us accept the fellowship of His suffering. The latter is not easy for man , but it is the sole investment for self and posterity, as long as we live in the arena of time and space, we gain power, peace and freedom through work, energy , torque, friction, source, suffering, call it anything, but you know what I mean.

One man dared to make the journey , thus in Christ we already have all sins mitigated and all experiences leveraged unto His own. The journey back can be tough without Him because we enter an arena of competition for power, but with Him we have nothing to fear, believe me, we journey farther, quicker and surer with Him. Those who would not journey back seek to avoid work, but they end up labouring far more, and they return empty handed, unlike those who would take the step of faith and journey with Him. Being shallow, myopic, slothful and ignorant happens through our reluctance to liberate the root in our individual capacities; the journey which definitely needs meekness and wisdom, has growth, peace, liberation and prosperity as an assured destination.

When you arrive at the point of generating the new without throwing away the old, you arrive at the position of an elder full of wisdom. Old things breathe; don’t mortgage your future and that of your offspring.

 “Therefore every scribe who is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is a householder who brings forth out of his treasure things both new and old.”- Mt: 13:52

Keep and treasure your antiques.

Dad

Why do some of us seem to want to create a sort of cult around him?

Why would we want to make a saint out of Daddy amidst his many flaws?

Is it simply a case of 'b'aa ku l'aa d'ere' or is there something deeper?

Why would we simply not let go- as some would say- keep quiet, stop talking and let the dead be?

Its because some of us have seen that life is Ressurection and death is ascension , that to live is Christ and to die is gain.

Some of us have seen that in following through Daddy's death and memory is life and liberation for the family.

Some of us have seen that nothing changes, that Daddy is still the head of the family, linking the heavenly one with the earthly one .

Some of us have seen Daddy still as the rallying factor, now broadened, even adding up to eternity.

Some of us have noticed God's mercies , His covenant  and the positivity of things amidst Daddy's death. O death where be thy sting , o grave thy victory?

Surely there had been many deaths , and if death had known, it wouldn't have taken Christ's death as another out of the numerous crucifixions. Such we see of Daddy.

Is that death? No. Only if they had known they wouldn't have done it.

Some of us simply see our destiny tied to the events of this family and have decided to stay put, come what may.

Some of us have seen the potential of this family and have stayed positive amidst every chaos and tussles, because of the continuity of Daddy.

Some of us have seen in our midst and family the treasure to offer the church and the world.

Providence  has called us once again to the memorial of Michael Araoye Akinola, let every one rejoice in the  Lord as His mercies unfold unto us through Christ Our Lord. Amen. Saa maa yo!

ON THE EUCHARIST & SUFFERING

The dimension of our humanity and of our earthly existence is of such that, to achieve enlightenment - to 'see', to be wise, to know- it is necessary to suffer, toil, face hardships and to labour and face ordeals. 'Oju eni ma a la a ri'yonu'. I suppose this  is a consequence of the 'fall', of gravity, and as long as we are subject to the law of nature, we need to thread the 'road less travelled' to be free.

If like me, you twitch at the idea of suffering and ordeal and yet passionately desire to be wise, see and arrive at truth, the one remedy at mitigating the hazard of the journey is to labour, trust and believe in the Holy Eucharist, this occurs in active, regular and intense participation and devotion at Mass, with constant communion. Hear  it from the horse's mouth , Christ says:'labour not for the meat that perish, but that which endures to eternal life'. 

This does not mean that the trials of life are eliminated, but they are lessened ,in comparison to the truth one is aware of .

When you live in God and God lives in you, you are guided to realize what is necessary to avoid and what is important to be done, and you are assisted to do them and avoid them. The whole of creation happens as it were, as a reference to you. This struggle and revolt from one who does not know Christ or who receives Him amiss is what causes death. The war Christ would wage against evil when we believe Him starts within us and is easier dealt with with the Eucharist . Hear Him again: 'Come to Me all you who labour and are overburdened and I will give you rest'. That is truth.

Human testimony is great and the scripture is marvelous, but when you begin to eat, trust and live the Word of God made flesh and bread constantly, regularly, faithfully and trustfully, you arrive at such intense truth and enlightenment far deeper than the most intense ordeal or penance could have acquired on its own.

Heaven ! (Part 3)

(Extract from the book: "The End of the Present World and The Mysteries of The Future Life" By Father Charles Arminjon)

Man will see God face to face, but how will this vision take place? It is certain that we shall not see Him partially and dimly like distant objects, of which we cannot discern all the features, but which we see only imperfectly and on certain sides.

God is not in any place, but all spheres and places are in Him. He does not live in any time , but His eternity consists of an indivisible instant, in which all time is contained. So we shall see Him as He is in His simplicity,in His threefold personality, and in the same way as we see the face of a man in this world.

This vision will operate by an immediate impression of the divine essence in the soul with the aid of a supernatural light called the light of glory: a created quality and a supernatural virtue of the intellect, infused into the soul, which will give it the aptitude and the power to see God. This light of glory will transform man, it will deify him by imprinting in him the seal and likeness of celestial beauty, and make him the image of the Father; it will expand and augment the soul's capacity for knowledge to such an extent that it will become able to apprehend immense and boundless good.

Just as, by means of the light of the sun, the eye can see the variety of tangible things and, so to speak, comprehend the whole extent of the universe; just as, aided by the light of reason, it knows the reason for its own existence, and the intellectual truths, so immersed in the light of glory, it will have infinity as its domain, and in a sense, will comprehend God Himself.

Scripture teaches us that the light of glory is the light of God Himself.By it , our souls will be so immersed in the light of the divine presence that we may say with St Augustine, that in a sense, they will no longer know through their own knowledge, but from the very knowledge of God, and that they will no longer see with their so weak and limited eyes, but with the very eyes of God.

The transports that the divine vision will arouse in the elect will make their hearts super abound in the most unutterable joys, it will be a flood of delight and raptures, life in its inexhaustible richness and the very source of all good and all life. It will be ,as St Augustine goes on to say, like a gift from God of His own Heart, so that we may love and rejoice with all the energy of the love and joys of God Himself.

Eternal life, says St Paul, is like a weight, like being overwhelmed with all delights, all exhilaration and all transports: "an eternal weight of glory", a weight that, by reviving man, rather than annihilating him, will inexhaustibly renew his youth and vigor.  It is a source forever fertile, where the soul will drink substance and life in abundance. It is a marriage in which the soul will clasp its Creator in an eternal embrace without ever  feeling any diminution of the rapture it felt on that day when, for the first time it was united to Him and pressed Him to its bosom.

Even so, the elect who see God will not comprehend Him. God is incomprehensible to all created things.We shall see God as He is, some more, others less, according to our disposition and merits. God is in infinite, and all that can be said is that the creature sees Him; sees Him as He is, entire, and yet does not see Him, in the sense that what he succeeds in discovering of His perfections is nothing compared with what the eternal Being Himself contemplates, in the splendor of His word and in union with the Holy Spirit.

We would say that,, in comparison with God, the elect are like a traveler standing on the banks of the ocean. The traveler knows that it is the ocean, he sees with his own eyes the ocean, which stretches out and unfolds in the immensity, and he says, " I have seen the ocean". Nevertheless there are reefs and distant island she does not discern, and his gaze has not encompassed all the riverbanks and all the contours of the ocean.

Accordingly, contemplation of the ocean will not mean immobility but  above all, activity,an ever ascending progression, where movement and repose will be bound together in ineffable harmony.

But infinity has no limits, no bottom or shore. The happy mariners of that fortunate abode will never cry, like Christopher Columbus: land!land! They will say God, God always. God yet more.... Forever there will be new perfections they will seek to gain: forever more pure and more intoxicating delights aspire to taste. The infinite God has no limits, the desire which He arouses is immeasurable.

Nevertheless, the sight of the divine essence will not absorb the saints so much as to make them forget the external marvels of the visible world, or prevent their relationship with the other elect. The spirits of the elects enter into contact with the world of the spirits, they see the beauty of the blessed souls, illuminated by the divine likeness, adorned with charity and its attendant virtues, as with a nuptial robe.

Heaven is the repose of man's intellect, the repose of his will and affections.Yet what often frightens us in this life, what makes us reject heaven with a sort of repugnance, is that we imagine that in that abode, all the natural attachments of our hearts will be, as it were,annihilated and invisibly extinguished by the conquering exuberance of the love in which we shall be inflamed for the Creator.Oh! The whole of Christianity protests against this error.

What we teach as certain is that in heaven we shall see and recognize each other, and in heaven we shall love one another.

All the objects and causes that captivate our hearts and arouse love in this world will act with an intensity a thousand times greater, and without encountering any obstacle on the hearts of the elect.

In this life, love is still the consequence of gratitude, and our hearts glow at the memory of benefits and services rendered. It is only in heaven that we shall recognize the extent and the cost of the graces of every kind that our benefactors have showered on us.

Then the child will read all the treasures of grace, solicitude and tenderness enclosed in the earth of his mother. He will know that , next to God, it was the tears,prayers and sighs of that mother which brought about his salvation. O mother, now, i love you a thousand times more tenderly because of the eternal life that i have received  and without which the first would have been a fatal gift, a source of calamity and torture for me.

Then, Christian fathers  your sacrifices  courage and heroic constancy in strengthening your sons by profitable examples, and in rearing them by noble, laborious training, will no longer be unknown. We shall redeem the debt of our hearts in eternal thanksgiving.

How much greater will be our fascination, as we sit at the great hearth of our Heavenly Father,listening while our brothers tell us the story of their seductive and manifold temptations and of the assaults waged by hell over which they triumphed. We shall not tire of hearing about those victories won in the sight of God alone, more glorious than those of conquerors; those battles waged in silence against the failings of the flesh and the turmoils of one's own thoughts. We shall admire their efforts and their heroic generosity. We shall know about the twist and turns and uncertainties whereby the grace of the Spirit of God, through a strong but gentle impulse, led them to the harbor of repose, and turned even their deviations and falls to account, in the edification of their incorruptible crowns. Ah! These will be inexhaustible subjects of conversation, which will never loose their interest and charm.

It is true that the glory and happiness of the elect will be apportioned according to their merits, and that they will differ in beauty and greatness as the stars in the sky are themselves different in size and brightness. Nevertheless, union, peace and harmony will not reign any less in this countless array, in which the lesser ranks cooperate with the highest in the repose and harmony of all.

Each will be rich in the richness of all; each will trill in the happiness of all. Just as the creation of a new sun would double the fires that burn the air, so each new sun in the City of God will increase the measure of our own bliss, with all its happiness and glory.

There will no longer be any place for rivalry or envy. Each of the elect will receive the complement of his personal good from the good of his brethren.  We shall read their souls as clearly as our own. On this point St Augustine exclaims: " O happy heaven where there will be as many paradises as citizens, where glory will come to us by as many channels as there are hearts to show us their concerns and affection, where we shall possess as many kingdoms as there are monarchs sharing in our rewards.

In heaven , sin is forever excluded. The elect are no longer capable of committing the least shadow of a fault or imperfection.

For this reason the saints felt a kind of anxiety and unease amidst prosperity. They knew that , in this life, the most honourable pleasures and the sweetest and most lawful joys have always something debilitating and corrupting for the Christian soul.

However, in heaven, the bliss of glory, far from rendering souls more human, elevates them and makes them more spiritual.

Surprisingly , heaven is somehow the opposite of earth!Here below, man is restored and bathed anew in dignity and moral value through suffering and sacrifice. In heaven it is the reverse: he is perfected and deified by the flood of delight wherein he is immersed.

In heaven, happiness is stable, since the elect,confirmed in glory, are beyond all fear, the soul says : " Nothing is finished yet; i reign today  today i am in possession of my happiness, and i shall possess it as long as God remains God- forever and ever!

Illuminated by infinite clarity of the Word of God, they see the events that will be accomplished in a thousand years as clearly as those that were fulfilled a thousand centuries ago. Every moment, says St Augustine, they experience, as it were , a feeling of infinite joy. Every moment, as far as it is permitted to create beings, they absorb the power of divine virtue. Every moment, eternity makes them feel the accumulated weight of its intoxication,  its delights, and its glories.

Ah! We love power and glory; we would like to be present and give orders everywhere. Why , then , turn away from the nobility of our destiny and abandon the immortal empire God prepares for us? We love pleasures and joy; we recognize that life is unbearable if affection and joys do not mitigate its misfortunes and bitterness. Why, then, spurn the only real happiness, and desire that the source of all pleasure and joy dry up along with the present life?

Earthly goods, measured against the bliss above, no longer seem an advantage, but rather a burden and a painful tyranny. Temporal life, in comparison with eternal life, deserves not  to be called life but death. On the other had, to live in  the heavenly city, mingled with the choirs of angels, to be surrounded by a light that is not itself circumscribed, and to possess a spiritual, incorruptible flesh, is not infirmity, but royalty and abundance of life.

Let us remember that great rewards are acquired by great combats and no one shall be crowned who has not fought the good fight.

Already countless tribes, legions of apostles, prophets, martyrs and virgins, just men of every state and rank, have crossed the court of your domain. How desirable their fate is,,for they are freed from our temptations, our troubles, and our miseries!

Everything that is not Jerusalem is unfit for us. Let us ask only for the goods and peace it contains. Let us think only of heaven, let us seek only heaven, let us store up only for heaven, and let us live only for heaven.
A few moments longer, and all that must end will be no more; a few more efforts, and we shall be at the close; a few more combats, and we shall attain the crown; a few more sacrifices, and we shall be in Jerusalem, where love is always new,and where there will be no other sacrifice but praise and joy. Amen.

Heaven ! ( Part 2)

(Extract from the book: "The End of the Present World and The Mysteries of The Future Life" By Father Charles Arminjon)

Let us observe that the Holy Scripture calls heaven requies, a rest. Furthermore, we are told that there are two kinds of inhabitants in this abode: first of all God, of whom heaven is the temple and throne; then the angels and men, called to be united with God and to share His supreme happiness, His beatitude.

Heaven is not the ideal of a human intellect,  it is the repose of the divine intellect,  the ideal and masterpiece of God, whose power fecundates the void.

O inspired prophet (John), when you tell us that eternal life is the collection of all the attractions of the world, of all the beauties portrayed in the Sacred Books.When you describe the elect in heaven as being subtle, immortal, impassible, and clothed in a sweet light or, rather, in a divine glory that dwells in them and penetrates them more subtly than the sun penetrates the purest crystals, you are not being deceived by some illusion. Heaven is that too; it is our subtleties, our lights, and our glory, but infinitely more than these.

Lastly , when you compare the future bliss to the sweetest and most intoxicating transports of the soul, to a joy ever new, freed from all disquiet and passion and maintaining its intensity and strength through all eternity, you do not feed us with false hopes; for heaven is our transports and all our joys, but raised beyond all measures, expression and comparison.

Heaven is a kingdom of such beauty, a bliss so transcendent  that God has made it the sole object of His thoughts . To this creation,, the only one truly worthy of His glory, He directs the universality of His works; the destiny and succession of empires, the Catholic Church, with her dogmas, sacraments, and hierarchy  are ordered towards the consummation of this heavenly life. In the words of St Paul: "The gift of God is eternal life"

Heaven is God's ideal, the repose of His intellect. Let us add: It is the repose of His heart. The heart goes further than the mind. It has aspirations and impulses, unknown to genius, which go beyond all the bounds of inspiration and thought  Thus , a mother sees her son rich and honored,  the most brilliant crowns glitter on his head; the mother cannot conceive of any fortunes or new empires for her child. Her reason says, "Enough!" Yet her heart calls out , "More! The happiness of my child is greater than all the dreams in which my mind can indulge.

As no mother ever loved her dearest son, so the Lord loves His predestinate. He is jealous of His dignity and could not permit Himself to be outdone by His creature on the score of fidelity and generosity.

"...I must unite myself to them in an eternal face-to-face, so that my glory illuminates them, exudes and radiates through all the pores of their being, so that, 'knowing me as i know them, they may become like Gods themselves" . May they be engulfed and loose themselves in the ocean of Your splendours; may they desire, possess, enjoy, and then desire again; may they be plunged into the bosom of Your beatitude, and may it be as if nothing remained of their personality except the knowledge and experience of their happiness"

Is the created being capable of uniting itself so closely to God that it sees Him face-to-face? What will this mode of vision be? When we see God as He is , shall we know Him in His integrity and without restriction? These are three important questions that must be resolved

If we consider things from the narrow compass of our reason, God cannot be seen by any creature. In order that an object may be known, says St Thomas authoritatively, it must be contained in the mind of the person who knows; and it can be contained therein only in accordance with the forms and capacity for knowledge which that mind possesses. Thus we cannot see and know a stone, except in so far  as the image of this stone , transmitted by our senses, is made present and, as it were, contained in our understanding. Hence the axiom: "Nothing is in the intellect which is not first in the senses"

To take the angels: they are endowed with a nature more perfect than ours; they have no need of the aid of tangible things in order to rise to the perception of intellectual truths; they are an admirable likeness of the divinity, and need only contemplate their own being and nature in order to rise to the knowledge of the existence of God and of His attributes. This mode of knowledge always occurs by representation.  For man, it is external and material creatures that act as a mirror. For the angels, it is their cogitative nature, and although pure spirits, they do not have the power to rise to the knowledge of God directly, and without intermediary.
That is why no one has ever seen God. God "dwells in an unapproachable light: whom no human being has ever seen or can see" God is at an infinite distance from men and angels, and is invisible in Himself.

Nevertheless, it is of faith that man will one day see God, as He is , in the brigtness of His essence.

"Every soul free from sin" says the council of Florence " is immediately admitted to heaven and sees God in His Trinity, as He is , according to the degree of his merit, one in a more perfect, another in a less perfect manner. The vision of God in no way comes from the forces of nature". It does not correspond to any desire or any necessity of our hearts. Outside of revelation, the human mind could not have conceived the slightest suspicion of it - "nor , has it so much as dawned on man". The Incarnate Word has planted the seed and the root in the center of our humanity by the power of the Holy Spirit  and so that we may attain eternal life, God had to imprint a new form in our minds, and superimpose a new faculty.

Let us add in passing that, as the vision of God is not connatural to man, its deprivation does not necessarily bring about sensory pain and pain of fire. Thus children who die without Baptism will not be admitted to the vision of God. nevertheless, they will enjoy God to a certain extent ; they will know Him with the aid of the light of their reason, and they will love Him tenderly, as the author of their being and the dispenser of all good.The reason for this doctrine stems from the great principle that man, considered in himself and in the state of pure nature, differs from the man degraded by sin as much as he who is naked differs from him who has been stripped of his honours and prerogatives by a deserved punishment and degradation. Consequently, every man with the use of understanding and freedom is predestined to eternal life , and possess  by this fact, the capacities and means needed to reach this sublime reward. If he does not obtain it, he will feel immense grief, having through his own fault, lost the good that should have been his lot and crown.

But children who die without baptism do not possess the seed of glory; they have never been able to apprehend its price; their minds, unenlightened  by baptism, do not possess any disposition or aptitude preparing them for the vision of supernatural things. These children who have died without baptism Will not be separated from God completely; they will be united to Him in the sense that they will attain their natural end, and will see God,as far as it is possible to see Him, through the medium of eternal beings, to the extent that He manifests Himself in the marvels and harmonies of creation.

On Bad Dreams

One thing is that, no matter how horrific a dream is, one must not succumb to the temptation of falling prey into believing that they would come true, the devil would then have succeeded in lurking you into fear. Just pray the Divine Mercy, sing psalms, do good works and have confidence. If these things are revealed, it is for you to do what you can to rectify the situation and leave the rest to Christ in prayers, not to mortgage your life to fear. Bad dream for a christian is full of mercy.He normally would shield you and yours with His mighty and holy Arms.

A fool normally would wake up from a bad dream, be gracious it was all a dream, and go back to sleep. A wise person would wake up, pray, with much trust and without fear pick up d story and ponder on what lessons to be learnt from the dream.

Dreams act like this: they pick up occurrences and thoughts from reality, bring them up from the memory bank and knit them into seemingly coherent acts during sleep. A christian would pick up lessons proportional to his depth of thoughts and clarity of opinion in real life, and would, without emotions,be able to separate the tares of the horror from the wheat of the lesson. He would pick up salient lessons while discarding the junks and dreads which occurred during the dream into the ocean of His Mercy.

Bad dreams can be dangerous when you believe more in them than you trust and confide in God.Your bad dream, experienced in purity, aided with prayer and borne in trust is really a form of exorcism. Rather than harming anybody, it purifies you and yours.

Heaven! (Part 1)

(Extract from the book: "The End of the Present World and The Mysteries of The Future Life" By Father Charles Arminjon)


Theology starts from the principle that, after ressurection, the elements and material nature will be adapted to the circumstances of the glorious bodies.




The first prerogative that the resssurected bodies of the elect will enjoy will be that of subtility. Just as the risen Lord passed through a tomb that was sealed, and ,the following day, appeared suddenly before His disciples in a room where the doors were closed, so our bodies, when they are no longer composed of an inert and gross substance, but are vivified and penetrated at every point by the spirit -corpus spirituale- will pass through space like a ray of sunshine , and no corporeal object will have the capacity to hold them back.



The second property of the glorious bodies will be agility. They will dart about like the sparks through stubble. They will have the ability to move with the swiftness of thought itself, and wherever the mind wishes, the body will convey itself immediately.



Lastly , the ressurected elect will possess brightness. They will encompass with such splendour that they will appear like so many suns...In fact, this brightness will be distributed in different degrees among the elect, according to the inequality of their merits; for the brightness of the sun is one thing, that of the moon is another, and that of the stars yet another. The stars themselves differ from one another in brightness.



The brightness with which the elect will be adorned will unceasingly cast out new reflections, increasing every moment: the glorified saints will eternally communicate to each other the goods they possess,and they will reflect upon one another the streams of splendour that illuminate them.



Jesus Christ in the Eucharist gives us an image and likeness of what the glorious bodies will be like one day. Without leaving heaven, He is substantially present every day on earth in a thousand places. He is entire , without reduction or diminution, in each particle of the host and in each drop of the chalice.



St Thomas teaches us that heaven is destined to serve as the abode and principal habitation of the glorified saints, but they will not on that account be motionless and restricted within a fixed place. Each of the elect will have his throne, and they will occupy higher abodes according to their meriits, but observes St Thomas,the word place (locum), is to be understood rather as excellence of rank, order of primacy, than as the eminence of the place that will be assigned.



They will be free to explore the heavenly bodies, reappear on this earth, and pass again over the places where they lived and prayed, places that were the scenes of their labours and immolations. This view concurs with the texts of the Sacred Books, where they tell us that there are many mansions in our heavenly Father's house, that the saints will shine like the stars in perpetual eternities, and that , wherever the body- that is, the sacred humanity of Christ- shall be, there also will the eagles be gathered.



There was a fairly general belief among the doctors of old that superior intellects were assigned to govern the celestial bodies. It is reasonable to think that beings capable of praising and blessing God fill all space , as they fill all time; thus , there is no infidelity to Catholic tradition in linking the material existence of the stars to the existence of free, intelligient beings like ourselves.



The Church even gives us to understand that they were the scene of the first act in the providential drama of that great struggle among the higher spirits which St John describes in his Revelation, a struggle of which our earthly strife is the continuation. It was in the most luminous part of heaven , above the most brilliant stars, says Isaiah, that Lucifer tried to set up a throne for himself, from which he was cast down; it was to the summit of this heaven of heavens, says the psalmist, that Jesus Christ ascended.



However if these views are only theological opinions, what must be held certain and as an article of faith is that all the stars and suns were reborn in the divine blood and have shared in the grace of the Redemption. The church affirms it in one of her solemn hymns : " Land, sea, and stars are washed by this stream "



What practical and moral lessons are to be drawn from these teachings, for the guidance of our lives and the rule of our actions?



The first is this: that it is the height of human folly to become attached to the perishable and corruptible things of this life.



The second of these consequences is that suffering in this life is only a relative evil: There are cases of profound sorrow, of intolerable raw bruises, and heart-rending, indescribable seperations on this earth. Yet all this heartbreak and suffering are but a laboratory and a crucible, into which divine goodness has cast our nature, in order that, like coal, black and base, it may emerge in the form of a precious sparkling diamond.



The third consequence of our doctrine is that we must not allow ourselves to be pertubed by the noise of our social strife and the convulsion of our revolutions. All this is but a prelude. It is the chaos that precedes harmony; it is motion seeking rest, twilight on the move towards day. The city of God is being built, invisibly but surely, amidst these shocks and heartbreaking convulsions.



Children of men, how long will your hearts be burdened, how long will you seek your sustenance in lies and shadows? When will you cease imagining death as a curse, and cease imagining it as the abyss of darkness and destuction? Let us try today to understand that it is not the obstacle, but the means ; it is the paschal transition that leads from the kingdom of shadows to that of reality, from the life of movement to the life of immutability and indefectability. It is the good sister, whose hand will one day cast off the clouds and idle phantoms, to lead us into the holy of holies of certitude and incomparable beauty!

Love of the cross and Faith in Ressurection

When John leaned on Christ at the behest of Peter to ask Him who it was who would betray Him, Christ showed him the source of His betrayal and he, not Peter, was able to enter into the mystery of the cross , and though Peter determined to do the same, was not granted the grace and he denied Christ 3ce. It was only John who experienced to the full the mystery of love, up to Christ's death on Calvary .
On the day of Ressurection a kind of contrast also happened. Though John had ran faster than Peter to the tomb, for some reasons he couldn't enter in until Peter arrived and went in first; and it was given to Peter first to understand the mystery the empty tomb and faith in the Ressurection . This experience finds its root at Peter's confession and the promise of Christ on him that upon him and his confession He would build His church, for we are justified by faith, faith in the Ressurection of our Lord Jesus.
May we be granted the grace to experience the power of His Ressurection and the fellowship of His sufferings .
St Peter and St John: Pray for us

On The Pope's Resignation

I feel this action of the Pope should not be taken 'as usual’; after all, this has not happened in the years of our great great great grandparents, how much more our lives. Those who would deal with such things, beginning from the cardinals down to the laity would also have to refer through long history gone.

The ultimate exhaustion of perpetual rule: when the Pope resigns.

The demystification of positions and the ultimate affirmation of human communion: the Pope resigns.

An escape from the deadly attack of secularism or a painful decision for d good of d church?

Those who glory in hierarchism, authoritarianism and beaureucracy, learn from the Pope and let go!

Oba ko le pe meji l'aafin', a’sipa owe, we gonna have 2 Popes at the Vatican. Na wa o. Impossibilities are happening in these our days.

Real faith does not reflect as such in much talks and holy writings, but in action. Benedict xvi exemplified this in the summary of his homilies about the ongoing year of faith and the conclusion of his encyclical on faith through his resignation. That is faith.

We can only walk through a gesture as great as this through faith. I can see a parallel between this gesture and the crucifixion of Christ, which up till now is a cause for the rising and falling of many. It is a reality that this action would give credence to the arguments of those who would want to escape from the obligation of marriage, those who through laziness would give weakness of mind and body as an excuse for not seeing a project through, or, leaving out the grace of God and succumbing to our emotional sentiments and idiosyncratic decisions . 

On the other hand, the Pope's gesture could be taken as a great act of humility and this would rather influence those who would not let go of power to do so. It is an action which inspires us to take a bold and courageous leap of faith and act on issues which calls for progress without succumbing to outdated norms which have little relevance towards the life we live today, it helps in gestures which demystifies positions, destroys bureaucracy and makes us see our common human struggles as God's handmaids. The final stronghold of power could have been destroyed by this action, we are all a society of sinners.

So, you see, this action has the potential of having both positive and negative influence on people, and Christ himself has no excuse for that, He only says 'blessed is he who is not scandalized by me'. In America, the democratic installation of a black man has inspired many to rise beyond racial and tribalistic prejudices. Even in our own circle, the resignation of our dear Bishop, Babatunde Adelakun has inspired others to do thesame. Letting go is the greatest gesture of faith that I know of.

On Ifa : My response

TAYO AKINOLA’S QUESTION: Ifa: An art or a religion? Some people see Ifa in Yoruba culture as an art and they believe that the way you learn music, astrology/astronomy and painting/fine arts, the same way you can learn Ifa if you put your mind to it; while another school of thought believes that Ifa is a religion.  What is your view concerning Ifa? Please support your comment(s) with reason(s) and it will be appreciated if we all stick to the topic and no name calling.  Thank you. MY RESPONSE: Mahatma Ghandi said that one of the sins of humanity is 'religion without sacrifice'. On that basis, I would say any so called art, divination or practices which either offer sacrifices or mediate between man & G(g)od in the offer of sacrificial oblation is a religion. On a particular note, in Yoruba culture, there is a tradition borne out of what I call the 'exasperation of Orunmila': Ifa, who mediates between men & gods, and would succumb to these principalities, perceiving wrongly that the only way out is to beg evil through sacrifices, for it knows not the way of conquering it through love, thus, in the attempt at mediating, Ifa becomes an accomplice in evil. There is only one manner of conquering evil: through love, that which comes about through the one sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. Every other sacrifice falls under aiding and abetting evils. The Good, The Bad and The Ugly Side of Ifa: The Good: Ifa has developed a searching and deeply intuitive prerogative amongst the Yorubas. And has balanced an otherwise warlike tribe with the virtue of 'Iba' and 'Iwapele'. Note that it would be hard to find someone with a name having the prefix 'Fa', who hasn't a high form of intelligence. They should thank their fore fathers. Except perhaps that person's fore father is a fake Ifa priest, just like we have fake prophets. The Bad: The Ifa precedence has created a 'can-not- do' culture. Even in the emerged Islam and Christianity culture that resulted, we have a populace who is fearful, and would rather consult a pastor or Imam before they embark on the tiniest venture, and this decision of the so called men of God is what determines their destiny ever after. What we have as a result is a mediocre religion which is entirely dependent , gullible,superstitious and thus remaining a baby of faith forever. The Ugly: The nation of Yoruba is at the mercies of the gods which are the principalities holding the society to ransom. Even in our days , the oracles are consulted before kings are chosen, chieftancy ceremonies are filled with oaths and occultic practices. As I said , I really don't blame Orunmila, it sees a situation which seems entirely hopeless, and rather than despair, requests of its adherents to make sacrifices to this demons holding the barriers of progress. And the land remains stuck in a parambulation of living and not progress. Christianity have come, and little by little, ancient gates are been opened, but I continue to wonder if we are not going from one demonized criteria to another , for the western culture as we have it today is composed of a whole lot of garbage dictated my Marxists and Freemasons, including our modern day religions. And these things do not stop at killing the body like the Orishas, they kill the soul! Humanity has thrown away the baby of truth with the water of superstition. Mythology has been completely erased and has been replaced with science and in the process, the sense of 'awe' in the face of the spiritual has been immensely affected. Have we taken the time to ponder on the wisdom of the 'odus'? We should; because it is on these basis that the whole foundation and destiny of Yorubaland get established. To redeem our motherland of the falsehood upon which it is established, we need to embark on an inculturated journey , and endeavor to sieve out the baby of truth from the water of superstition. This is no little task, and hardly has anyone dared to embark on the task already, we , as a result have become intellectually berserk by the garbage fed us by westernization and we remain complacent with the fact that we live under a curse propounded by an ancient king ( Alaafin Aole; read history) that people shall come from afar of and laud it over the sons of the land. And in succession, we are held bondage under the Sultanate of Uthman Dan Fodio, the Queen of the British Empire, then the kingdom of America. They come , become our Lords,raze our resources and take over our lands. He who plays the piper dictates the tune. In the process we have completely lost our identity and the realization of our collective destiny. But from the advent of this raze have developed a Pearl of great treasure: not a myth, not odu, but a Truth that has discovered us: herein is our epiphany : that everything that Orunmila has despaired about, that mythology even in her presumption and creative endeavors have dared not to fashion out , have become factual: God has become man. God was killed and has risen from death to redeem man so that he may die no more. Life is a continuum for he with faith in Christ! The task on the Yorubans, if they are serious about liberating their land from the shackles of the Orishas who have held the land to ransom and have conspired with the external gods of Marxist atheism and freemasonry to kill , to steal and to destroy souls, is to commence on the arduous journey starts of understanding the history of the land and its accompanying rituals. Just like I laugh at a professed Christian who has not seek to understand the history of the church, catholism and the mystery surrounding the Mass. Or a catholic who refuses to understand Judaism, her history and the mystery surrounding the covenant . If we don't understand the odus- armed with the strength of Christ- Yorubaland shall forever remain locked under the shackles of external agencies and her lying gods. INTERJECTIONS FROM BABALOLA @Niyi Francis Akinola, Tayo said no name calling. You don't need the attack on Marxist, Freemasons, British and Americans. They have done their own good to humanity, in some cases more than your so-called Yoruba people and even the politics of the Church. Before Freemasons, the whole Europe was engulfed by religious wars and persecution. They delivered us from 'monkish ignorance' - to use Jefferson's words. I humbly suggest the following; First, I think you should separate your religious intent from the political one. Yoruba tradition has to be re-invented along multi-religious and non-religious lines with respect to current religious liberalism and the same religious liberalism that Ifa represents. Using Odus as a basis for redemptive homily through inculturation as Pope John-Paul II had encouraged is another matter. Both should be encouraged. The first entails reading Orunmila as one would read Socrates. The inculturation would entail the baptism of Orunmila as Aquinas did to Aristotle and the reading of Ifa as an Old Testament. Second, Ifa, which means the Truth, cannot be boxed like Judaism or Christianity or Islam. Even if all Odus are written down. Ifa cannot be entirely understood by one person or a single group. You can only see a small glimpse. Thirdly, Ifa is not exclusivist but unlike Judaism or Christianity or Islam, allows for growth of religious pluralism - or progressive religious accumulation. Fourth, Ifa is not only about divination and sacrifices, it is also concerned with other realms like - psychology, philosophy, astronomy, geometry, medicine, geometry, science, etc. As Wande Abimbola stated it is a body of knowledge. Like the Chinese I Ching, these aspects are more relevant today. Fifth, there are many eses in Ifa, where sacrfices are not proposed. Rather, the customer or patient is told to change his/her ways. The sixth is that on the issue of sacrifice, Ifa is closest to Judaism and not so different. Sacrifices are not as important as obedience to natual laws. Seventh, orisha means 'ori ti asa' [chosen heads]. Yoruba people only see them as spirits and sometimes as companion of Olodumare. They are not more important in the scheme of things than Olodumare. Yoruba people say - orisa, bo le gbe mi, fi mi si bo se bami. We don't say that about Olodumare - who is central to Ifa via Orunmila. Eighth, Uthman Dan Fodio's children do respect justice among themselves more than us. Unlike us, they respect merit among themselves, as we employ arrangements and the injustice of dispoilment through spiritual, economic and physical might. That is why we are exhausted and weak. Eloquent but no moral force - no conviction. Powerful but no permanence - Photo-trick culture. I do not believe in the so-caled Aole curse. Our problem is lack of justice among ourselves. And finally, the greatest threat to your proposed project of revisiting Ifa are the the badly educated Christians and Muslims, the former especially. MY RESPONSE Aaah at last! Just what I needed: To get people talking on a topic that I feel should be of utmost concern to every well meaning Yorubaman. And it is a real pleasure to have a response from no less a person than Olusegun Richard Babalola, for I am well aware of his long held passion regarding this subject. I hold Segun in high respect, and would beg pardon before I begin (Only for the sake of truth) that I would be objecting some of his objections. To begin with, when Tayo said no name calling, I take it to mean a mutual respect for each person that comments regarding the subject he tabled, not on bodies, institutions, organisations or individuals that are alien to the post in question, otherwise much havoc would be perpetrated if we would have to be ‘nice’, and the rationale to the arguments would then have been defeated. I feel it would be absolutely whimsical and quite nonsensical if one attempts to be nice to all protagonist in the face of such salient topic. Please correct me if I am wrong: I believe that, conciliation in the face of injustice shall never reconcile the world to truth. Your response made me jubilant, for it gives me an opportunity to express my long held position in the face of history and my conviction about humanity and the life we live.I am passionate about living! As a preamble, I would like to note that, while it would be callous and biased to disapprove entirely of the progress made through science, westernization and secularism, I would also say that we should not be negligent about the many tares generated among the wheats of progress, and I would like to raise our consciousness to the rapid spreading of this tares, most especially in our days, and I believe that  if there is no radical change of attitude, actions and culture, the tare would end up consuming all that remains of the wheat. My opinion is not borne out of sentiment, the clarion call for change is urgent! I would like to reiterate my insistence that Freemansonry and Marxist ideologies are  at the root cause of our dilema .Freemasonry is the father of all fifth column lodges, prominent of its ideology is that you believe in a supreme being, but the manner of the being that you believe is entirely up to you. At first, this looks entirely harmless; after all what is my business about whatever ‘garbage’ anybody takes as god, but beginning from the middle ages and accelerated through the French revolutions, Freemasons have infiltrated everywhere, they hold the top echelon of power in politics, business, media, religion and every facet of wordly power, they have institutionalise the ideology of the dictatorship of relativism, and man is basking in the euphoria of this fake freedom which they have propounded. Assisting Freemasonry is Marxism. A communal utopia which aims at building a world empire of materialism, consumerism and has as its  mission the putting of religion at bay! On the face of it again we see nothing wrong, but the error of Marxism which has polluted everything and has as its mission the death of God, is putting posterity in peril. Marxism does not relent, because the idea is the seat of money and earthly well being, it is spreading its error like an aggressive cankerworm. It is the source of the tare, the aggressive secularism as we have it today. What is my problem? My problem is that I am acutely aware of the war we fight. I call it the ‘Ki ijoba a Re de war’ or the ‘Thy kingdom come war’. The world is once again telling God, this is not Your domain, You come here we kill You. And for me, staying on the fence is not given to me as an option in this war, fighting on the world stage is herculean and dreadful. My little strategy is tackling secularism and relativism in myself, my home, my family, my community , and whenever I am opportuned, on social media, I use my gadgets to air my opinion. The first objection you raised is precisely what I would not be tempted to support anymore. The resources of the dichotomy between art and belief, between politics and religion, between church and state has been spent, they are not working anymore. It is only a question of time before the monster of state rear its head in its entirerity. The present separation does nothing but send a multitude of souls packing into hell, promoting apostasy and providing a wide and credible platform for the spread of atheism. The only part of Christianity left for us is a watered down and shallow one, and there is this uncomfortable and growing opinion about getting rid of religion. There is nothing wrong with religion; it is fake ideologies (also in religion) that something is wrong with. Asking me to separate my religious intent from my political one is telling me to stop at truth at some point. It is because we are complacent about the world forever remaining under the shackles of evil that we refuse to venture into some sensitive human endeavours like politics. We tend to give that part of life to the realm of the devil. I am not suggesting that we return to the political atrocities perpetrated when the church was in power during the medieval periods, what is at stake is not earthly power, what is at stake is truth and the salvation of souls. I am passionate about the reign of truth, of peace, of authentic liberation which makes man live forever. Marxism promises worldly comfort at the detriment of souls, what I foresee is a leadership that practices the beatitudes and a justice where everyone is equal before the Law. ‘Onijogbo ni I sin ilu, ilu kii sin Onijogbo’-(Saworoide). Let he who would be first be the last, that is not happening at the moment in most world politics, and I am optimistic about its possibility. I am more of a realist than an idealist. I KNOW THIS IS POSSIBLE. If Christianity does not speak out now, politics would come into the realm of the church anyway (that which is already starting) and would make it known that there has never been any dichotomy. The state rules all along. And I don’t have any problem with state leadership, but that it should provide authentic and just leadership. When issues like abortion, gay marriages, and the likes are brought to the fore front, the position of religion should not be criminalised. And I try not to be a prophet of doom, but the time is near when he who does not contribute to the common purse of America to abort children, or the church which does not consent to marry gays in the UK, would face the justice of the human right campaigners and would be sentenced for treason. It would then be too late to object anything, and it would be very obvious that the divorce between church and state does not help souls anymore.’ B’aa wi ‘ a o ku, b’aa wi orun la n lo’. Nobody sends me to say anything; I even fear my church would term my position heretical. If at this age I cannot stand for what I believe, then I would live a fool forever. Now, lets come back home to Yorubaland where I would like to say something regarding your second objection. In the quest of freeing our land, and as a consequence her people, we have to search for truth. The scripture says: you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. I believe any authentic search for truth, that which you said Ifa is, should bring about a reconciliation of ideas, and that this reconciliation should be borne out of mutual respect for each others’ views, and that any attempt at arrogance from either side would only return us to the status quo. Contrary to your objection, in the quest towards this liberation, I have as a major mission, the precise quest to ‘box’ Ifa. I know you would think that statement is quite presumptous and rash. Let me explain my strategy : armed with the whole armour of Christ, I shall venture into the school of Agboniregun and learn about odu and the mystery of Orunmila. Just as Christianity spread through contact with the Hellenistic culture, I have concluded that my understanding of the nature of Truth lies precisely in the quest of boxing Ifa , not into any ideology, for as you explain, this is dangerous and harmful, but into a person, the person of Jesus Christ. The crisis point between God and the world is this: The Word was made flesh. Everything has to be reconciled through Him and in Him. And thus shall our land be truly liberated, not so much the importation of Roman culture in form of Catholism, or that of American ways in form of Pentecostalism, or the British way through Protestantism, or the Arabic ways through Islam. But the journey towards inculturation demands the patience of a student in a school; and we shall not be tempted to take a short cut as happens in the Caribbean Sancteria religion which attempted to baptise the Orishas into saints, causing havocs. By educating ourselves to freedom, harmed with the grace of Christ, we shall bring forth the long awaited reconciliation and the authentic freedom of a race. I know whom I believe, and like the Magi, I know it would be the ultimate joy for Orunmila to be reconciled with its objects of quest since ages past. When the practices of Ifa authentically meets the person of Christ, then shall we be better placed to understand the mysteries of the odus and be able to separate the wheat of truth from the tare of unnecessary sacrifices which only feeds the ego of the demons holding our land to ransom. I know of only one sacrifice, one Lord, one Master, and one God. Lift up your heads you ancient gates; let the king of glory enter! As per the third point you raised; the occult kingdom flourished in Yoruba land in spite of the advent of westernisation and Christianity because it found a ready home with the Freemasonry. Fifth columns persisted in Islam and Christianity in the land in the name of Ogbonis, the Awos et all. These groups facilitated and encouraged this pluralism and the culture of the survival of the fittest. Relativism doctrine thrived, even in our religions. But the inconvenience of Christianity within this group lies precisely in the profession of Truth as one, of God as one, of the Lord and Master as one. Lets say it as it is, because much evils are being perpetrated by silence and complacency.I respect diversity, and God Himself is a Unity in Diversity. But the motive of diversification and pluralism, if it is selfish and narcist in view becomes evil. In answer to your fifth and sixth issue, I maintain that without religion; Arts, Philosophy, Science and Psychology would become exasperated in the search for truth. Separating these arms from religion does not do justice to a holistic quest of life and reality.   There was a cry which resounded in the book of Revelation which I would like to bring our attention to; It was that of John the divine when confronted with the futility of humanity and creation in the quest towards opening the seal. It was an exasperated cry of despair and the recognition of  the urgency and the necessity of tackling this desperation towards the realisation of life and freedom. This exasperation takes many form; you often hear of karma, reincarnation, cyclic existentiality and the likes in religions like Bhudism, Hinduism, Shintoism and African religions and you wonder why this is so . Even Judaism and Islam at certain points succumb to this exasperation of John the divine.This sensitive area needs elaboration and I confess, without falling into sentimental bias, I am still in the process of studying this issue and shall not discuss this further, but what I am sure of is that the event of Calvary broke open the seal, and I am convinced that no human, no god, no orisha, no scientific postulation, no artistic construction or reconstruiction could reveal the reality of that moment. This is borne, not out of sentiment, this is a conviction of mine: There is something more than oscillation, cyclism and perambulation. Light travels perpetually and in a straight line, and that Light is Christ. On your seventh objection regarding Orishas, I insist that the intricacies and complexity surrounding them makes me hold no apology in my condemnation of them. The ways of the Orishas can only facilitate chaos and confusion. I respect Orunmila, but I have very little tolerance for the Orishas. Not all of them are mythological characters and the humans figures among them have got a pedigree for immorality, violence, chaos, vengeance, and amidst all this, their agencies have raised them to divine status because of their unrestrained desires. No servant is greater than his master. Regarding the issue you raised on the eight point I would say categorically that I respect Islam, and we ( Yoruba) should feel indebted to Islam for promoting a continuum of integrity and morality in the land. Islam has contributed and still continues to contribute to the advancement of the human race, and has been a great factor towards the continuation of the idea of God in the world. We share a lot in common, and we should not take lightly our common patrimony with Islam and the Jews as the fruits of Abraham of whom the promise was made. Islam is destined in the world for a positive purpose. The extent of the negative aspect of secularisation would have been worse if it has not been countered by radical Islam. I vehemently oppose the idea of reprisal attack and the ideology of demonising a party who is in opposition, to the extent of killing fellow humanity, but the point I am making is this: though, virtue lies in the middle, but extreme situations sometimes demands extreme measures as a counter.Now, lets take what extremity means in context. If Mohammed supports or actually fought wars, it is logical for the adherents of Islam to do same. If Sango sends fire, brimstone  and thunder upon his enemies ,it is logical for the leftist among his followers to do the same. If Christ stood for a Truth and carried his cross and died rather than deny this Truth, it is pertinent that his adherents do same in the face of extreme measures. The beatitude is the consequence of authentic leadership, and flesh and blood would naturally shrink from this. That is the reason behind every opposition  of  all wordly gods and ideology . Finally , I recognise the fact that I had pulled the string of this topic beyond the realm proposed by its originator, but it was an opportunity for me at grasping on an issue that has been burning and lingering inside me for a long time, and every objection as the one proposed is a further chance for me to propound more on my idea. I am less interested in winning the argument; I am more interested in keeping the discussion going. Thank you