Introduction
A bit of experience, knowledge,
insight, logic and imagination, which has to countered, objected and tested for
it to be verified. No one can lay claim to truth.
Eti
Let’s start with Eti since it’s Friday.
When Yoruba calls something ‘Eti’
(‘O ti so o di Eti mo o l’owo’), that
presupposes that the issue has become stagnant. A last-stop so to say.
The entire natural working of
creation meets a dead point in Eti. The
works of creation was completed in 6 days, it ended on Eti (Friday). Christ also finished His works of recreation on Eti, as he cried ‘It is finished’.
There are universal natural
working order of creation happening irrespective of culture, where the Yoruba
cosmological ingenuity has recognized the mystery of Eti, even before the advent of Christianity.
A descriptive example of Eti happens, for instance, when I watch
a match on internet, and before there is a visual goal on the gadget, a
notification is already gotten on my iPhone about a goal. Now, no matter how
much I imagine or pray away the goal, it would still happen. When something is
entwined in Eti, every effort becomes
a perambulation in futility.
This is what happens as far as
the visible world is concerned, where those who are adept at matching the
cosmos, without an intervention of the Divine, are next to accurate in
discovering the circumstances of future events.
The ‘Eti’ condemnation is what Christ has come to break. But without
authentic faith, without real awareness, without a depth of life lived in
spirit and truth, every effort of man becomes a perambulation in futility. ‘Without me you can do nothing ‘. That
is why Good Friday is the fulcrum of the entire history of man. Ojo Eti Rere!
Chief Yemi Elebuibon once
lamented the prevalent national social retrogression, which he claimed was as a
result of people performing certain actions on certain days that are not meant for
such days. It is true that anyone who does certain things on Eti and without this
acknowledgment of grace from Christ who enables one to act under grace through
faith, and not under law, Eti may catch up on such person.
‘O blood and water which gushed forth from the heart of Jesus as a
fountain of mercy for us, I trust in You’.
That is the origin of
breakthrough from the curse of Eti.
Abameta
Aba-meta: The 7th day in which God rested after creation. If God
rests, what else can happen? Nothing.
‘Aba’, simplistically means
suggestion. Suggestions arises out of thoughts and imagination. Thoughts and
imaginations are an exercise of reason. Logos.
Why ‘Meta’?... Could this be a far capture of the Trinity?
The chasm of Abameta is a mystery beyond man, it is a realm for the God(s) and
divinities. Man’s activities, from Yoruba cultural perspective ends with Eti. This possibly explains why Jews
were so stringent with Sabbath. If God rests, creation stops, nothing exists.
But from a Christian perspective,
‘Nothing’ has been personified. It is
Mary. A reasonable explanation why the Church dedicates Saturday to the Blessed
Virgin.
Ojo Abameta, the day of the Trinity (Meta) where man can only
suggest (Aba) but cannot fathom. Nothing exists here, and that Nothing is Mary.
She is the bridge linking the meaninglessness of ‘Eti’ with the meaningfulness of ’Aiku’. One can only imagine, but cannot capture, the unfathomable
depth of Theological virtue exercised by Mary in order to bridge this gap.
Through Mary’s co-redemptrix
action, the Sabbath’s rest lies no more outside the scope of man’s understanding.
The reasonability of man within the realms of gods at Abameta, has been captured and actualized within the realm of man
through the resurrection of Christ at
Aiku, which we shall soon discuss.
If Saturday is your Sabbath, do
not stay put, keep searching. If Sunday, welcome to the perpetual reasonable
deathlessness of ‘Aiku’.
Aiku
Has anyone wondered why Yoruba
calls the first day ‘Aiku’, even
before the advent of the Christian experience? The name of this day so
perfectly matches the event of Resurrection. ‘Ojo Aiku’. The day when we do not die.
The book of Genesis describes
that on the first day light was created. ‘Let
there be light’. Jesus described Himself as ‘the light of the world’. Every astronomical evidence has always
been calculated as a reference with light.
My explanatory inkling is that
Yoruba wisdom must have realized from afar, something about the ‘deathlessness’
of light and thus, refer the first day ‘Aiku’.
This is not impossible because, before Christianity, many cultures, Hindus,
Aztecs, Egyptians, have, albeit afar, come about the idea of living forever.
The problem was how to arrive at its reality. The Egyptians, for instance
pushed into this realm of the dead so much that they used to mummify their dead
and bury them with earthly utensils.
Christ’s resurrection was a great
paradigm because, for once, all the efforts of these cultures was realized in a
single event. One man was dead, was buried and on the 3rd day, was resurrected,
to die no more. He was seen, felt, touched, spoken with and dined with. The
whole longings of the whole Yoruba race in naming the first day ‘Ojo Aiku’ was realized perfectly in
Christ. ‘Aiku’ transcended from just
being an ‘Aba’ (idea) of the ancient
cultures (remember Abameta), unto
becoming the reality of the Christian experience.
‘You are a new creation, old things have passed, behold all things have
become new!’. Christians are children of ‘Aiku’; ever creating and recreating, ever renewing, ever
resurrecting, no dull moment. ‘Aiku’, being the dawn and first day of
creation, a day of newness and fresh vigour, does not require the rest of ‘Abameta’. God is not tired. ‘Let there be light’.
The cursed work of man in Eden has been
reversed by the new work of Resurrection. A Christian does not loathe work, because
God is Love and Love is a verb, an action word. ‘Behold I go on working...’ says Christ. This in no way negate the
rest of Sabbath. While work is a blessing not a curse, but ‘The greatest among you must be the slave and servant of all’. Our rest on Sunday allows God – the greatest
in our lives- to serve us by renewing the entire week for us.
Conclusion
Time, as we know it now, is a
mystery and an illusion, but more a mystery than an illusion. The qualitative
nature of our days within events and experience are of more value than its
quantitative nature, which happens through the ticking of the clock. The real key
is orientation, the perspective and outlook at which we approach life, which is
called faith.
The entire life orientation of individuals,
people, groups, or nations, can be dictated and overwhelmed by one day, over others,
while, every day, hour, minute, or second- can encompass these 7 days as an
experience.
To a greater or lesser degree, we
would all have to undergo the 7 days of creation in our lives if we are to be
perfected. The only means of transcending life’s ‘Eti’ unto the reasonableness of ‘Abameta’,
into the newness of ‘Aiku’, is
through a new orientation, called faith. Faith in a person, who has only broken
the yoke of Eti: Christ Jesus, Our
Lord.
