An ESSAY ABOUT THE JOURNEY FORTH (PART 2) The Journey Into Love

Without love, all that we do is worthless.

As we grow, the definition of love often acquires a rebirth and exposes a broader horizon to our journey.

I start this second essay with the depiction of a young girl who is in love. She has her whole mind and heart revolving around this young man, the object of her love. She is prepared to leave whatever she’s got at any inkling for this cupid. She would not imagine a life without him; this would simply be nothing but death. This feeling and desire is what I shall call Eros, and Eros is a very beautiful experience, but that which has got to be managed, otherwise it becomes dangerous.

Many grown-ups are aware of this necessary phase in the life of a young person. The imprudent adult rubbishes and zeroes this experience and leaves the young girl feeling bewildered and more confused. The wise ones guide her along this dangerous but necessary path whatever be the outcome.

Back to our story. Eventually the worst happened: our young girl became heartbroken: the boy leaves her. Her life support was snapped; life seemed nothing but wicked. She felt suicidal; she couldn't go on of her own strength.  I maintain that this is Destiny’s way of calling her unto something greater, even though she knew not, this is her own personal journey back and it becomes eternally fruitful, if she remains faithful and true to her experience.

Then, she could see nothing but misfortune, but in actual fact, painful as it was, the experience was simply an invitation to advance in wisdom, to be detached and to venture more into the more honourable path of true love. To her, life seemed no more to go forward anymore, but for Destiny, it is simply a journey to the truth.

And this depiction of Eros is not limited only to young people; it is as wide and varied. For instance, I once asked a friend what his ultimate motive was .He replied that he hoped to work hard, retire and spend the remaining part of his life fishing. He was passionate about this hobby. I delved into the issues of family, community and suggested if he would be interested in impacting his society, but he would hear nothing of such, his ultimate goal in life is a time for his passion: fishing; I admire a man with a passion which is the starting point (many there are who don’t have future ambitions), but I just couldn’t bring myself to understanding a whole life spent in an inedible fishing pastime in the midst of all opportunities. This sort of passion like that of my friend is as varied, it could be love of music, fashion, food, money etc. While I consider these the starting point, I cannot see it as a destination in itself.

Back to the story of our girl. The experience didn’t break her, she was instead detached by it and understood deeper the sole purpose of love. Years passed and  she got married to a man she loved sincerely and maturely , being no more attached to the frivolity of emotion but to the truthfulness of love. During her married life, something else began to crop up, something unlike the ‘shaky’ love she felt as a girl, a love more gentle, calm and more reasonable, but equally disturbing; that which, however plausible, was not the ultimate (though she thought it was then until she had to face another reality): It was the love for her family, most especially her children who were indeed everything to her. Life without them became unthinkable. This is a kind of love I shall describe as Filial.

The older she grew, the more attached to her children she was, and the more ‘responsible’ for their destiny she became. Then, these children began to leave home; they started graduating from school and getting married. She knew sooner she would have to face the reality of being without them. Even though she had been a faithful wife and a wonderful mother, she discovered that love goes deeper than family ties, that which were now being snapped from her, for good.

Events in life and ageing could force us out from Eros to Filial, but without early practice and constant faith, dedication and commitment, it would be difficult to proceed from Filial unto the next stage. Most fall from the snap of Filial, not back unto Eros- which would be nothing- but further into what I call Principality. Upon reaching the Filial spot, the journey further would be impossible without the Divine.

I once asked a woman what her ultimate motive for hustling so much for her children was. She replied that in the hope that, one day they would be well learned, get good jobs and be able to support her and the family. Plausible, but short sighted and in danger of an aversion unto this Principality that I talk about.

Many there are who after the Filial snap find succour in altruistic deeds like community works, charitable deeds or Godly service. These are very commendable but in danger of an escape from the Agape call, which is the destination of this journey of love because it is where authentic freedom and liberation resides. The novelty of fathoming the inaccessible horizon which is the summit of our journey belongs only to a faith assisted by humility and charity. Agape does not blame Filial and Eros; it journeys with them, without being attached to them.

Agape stems from a detached heart, a detachment from self, from loved ones and from the world, and it is of such that makes a companion of Filial and Eros without being a slave to them. This novelty of love becomes like a horizon which broadens unto infinity. Love becomes purified and everything points to this purity of love. The journey forth is not about us, it simply happens because of us. For instance, we see daily, all around us, those good examples of people who fast, keep long vigils, pay tithes, offerings and stipends, who perform all forms of ascetic practices and altruistic deeds in order to venture towards this liberating path, but this journey to the truth of love is not a guarantee even for them, it belongs entirely to the choice of the Divine. According to Christ: Many would seek to enter through the narrow gate and would not succeed. If such plausible deeds would not succeed therein, what then would become of us who don’t even venture at all?

But my consolation is in this discovery: this power of truth which liberates goes hand in hand with a holy dissatisfaction, it belongs, not to those who visibly make the effort, not even to those who are aware, but to those who know they are not where they should be and passionately long to be where they should without ‘killing’ themselves over it or arrogantly judging the others who venture, albeit not like them. The victory lies in our desire, not in our arrival. Blessed are the poor in Spirit; blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.

I would like to end this 2^nd of the 7 parts of my essay with a quote from the Little Flower which summarises the summit of this journey of love. She said about herself: “Because my heart is centred on God, it has manifested a more purified; sincere affection farther than it would have done if it had spent itself in selfish and barren loves. All things have come to me because I no longer seek them for myself”.

An ESSAY ABOUT THE JOURNEY FORTH (part 1) Life and the Quest for Power

Some 6 months back I wrote an essay about the journey back. This second essay which I shall put in series concludes the previous.

No pain, no gain; no cross, no crown. The journey forth is an attempt at expounding our conquest when we dare journey back in faith and confidence. It is the residence of mercy, the acquisition of power.

Life is full of mystery. At the micro level, life seems to be going back and forth. ‘Atori l’aye’, life becomes like a yoyo; but when we look at it from an acute macro perspective, when we see the big picture, life is actually, truthfully, realistically moving in one direction, and that is forward only; because the ruler of this world has already been judged, and the more we accustom ourselves to looking at the big picture, the more positive we become and the more we are unaffected by the earthly and ephemeral. But we cannot see the big picture unless we broaden the heart, and we cannot broaden the heart unless we embark on the journey back.

Life moves forward, it journeys in search of truth and truth beckons to visit her. The man who journeys in truth knows that all falsehood shall ultimately be destroyed, and an adept at this journey forth knows that all falsehood has already been destroyed. When we venture back, we definitely return with power; we acquire power, so to say.

Now, this definition of power has the tendency of being viewed from a negative perspective. When we think of power we immediately think of something akin to greed and personal acquisitions, because, just like love - and perhaps more than love- power’s definition has been tarnished. In fact, if love has been wounded in our age, power has been murdered.

Power is the ultimate capacity to influence. When we sincerely journey back, we acquire power, but because the journey back can be tasking, a great multitude ‘cut corners’ to acquire power and here lies the death of power, in my land and in the world in general. We have murdered power by ignoring its route, thus no man is at peace.

This desire for power, the capacity to influence was the reason which propelled the Magi in their long search for Christ, it was the longing of the Queen of Sheba which enhanced her journey to Solomon, and it is what every single earthly and heavenly ruler craves for, rightly or otherwise.  If you cannot influence, of what benefit then is your power? You can use force of course, but force and coercion deplete the source of power the more and ultimately dries and kill it off. Herein lies the death of power: Not keeping to the rules of its path.

Life in fact is full of powerful people who are not aware of their power, and of powerless lots who in fact think they are powerful.  Power in truth was what Christ acquired through His death and Resurrection, or rather that which He has bequeathed us, and thus hope is reborn because, even in our age, real power seems though it is dead, but it lives.

Power comes at a cost, whether you travel in truth or falsely, the difference is that one is sustainable and the other ultimately crumbles. You cannot ‘sit down’ and manage power; if you do you shall ultimately be consumed. Power moves, it moves with the body, heart, mind, intellect, will and memory. If you really want power sustained, most especially: you've

got to learn to let go.

One person would say, ‘I don’t care for this power thing anyway. I am contented the way I am, why should I be that ambitious?’  I reply that you either do not understand what real power consists of or that you are still disillusioned regarding your reason for living. Your essence is made for power, even simple laws of Physics point to that fact.

Another person would say, ‘yes I am in charge, I grasp this concept of power, I am superior.’  I say: good for you, but you still do not know what this power is, because it has nothing to do with you. Even if you know what it is, be careful, for you are threading a very risky ground by deciding to be in charge, you are already in the realm of great temptations and may not last.

We live in an age where power is directly motivated by the material, but acquiring true power demands rising above the material. This rectilinear journey requires an education which is equipped towards enabling the 21^st century man to rise beyond the material, but we don’t seem to be ready.

For every journey back that we make, we acquire the capacity to make 7 journeys forth (and I use 7 figuratively to depict perfection), thus I have decided to divide this essay into 7. This is just one of them and the forthcoming topics shall equally be as diverse as they are provocative. Stay tuned…

My Contribution to a Beautiful Essay on Dance

Nice write up of a universal repute.

Here is my contribution  purely from a personal experience  .

Dance is necessary in our contemporary culture because

1) It is a great source of unification, integration and communality, but if not handled and experienced properly, the experience could be ephemeral or even degenerating.

2) Dance brings joy,  it is somehow an heavenly foretaste, it is synonymous to a song which calls God a God of the dance because life itself is a dance. Nature dances, creativity dances, and as written by Father Peter, if you don't dance, you are dead. Even the whole creation synchronizes and shakes to a particular rhythm.

3) Permit me to compare dance with love. I have come to cherish Eros the base of love, not only as it is understood in our contemporary society, but also as a passion for beauty, for nature, for creation, and i believe this is of necessity a beginning to the proper understanding of the nature of love and as a consequence of God. Those who have experienced agape much have known a lot about Eros.  it is like the many miracles of Christ which is a call to something higher, a higher state, a greater truth. Dance stays at the median position, it can lift up a soul to the sky  and can thrust a soul to the pit. As we live in an essentially materialistic culture in which it is far easier to succumb to gravity we must watch the way we dance. I share my own experience:

4) I watch carefully in the midst of those I would dance, if my dance is capable of cheering people up, attracting people in order to remove their pretenses, foster communality, I dance. If it in a relatively 'enlightened' space, those who have already grown truthfully out from the physical dance into the internal spiritual dance, i simply watch how i dance. But if it is in an already degraded environment, and i observe that my dance would be of utmost incapability of true affection but something that would further the degradation, or something that could even push me beneath,then i don't dance at all. These are just to say; i dance with sense. Like Eros, dance is often necessary, but also dangerous.

5)As asserted in the essay, without good music, there is no dance. I ponder and ask myself where  my passion for music has brought me. When i was a young man, i frown at dull and slow music,i preferred so much the hype type popularly known as 'alujo'. Now growth has journeyed me from a greater focus of the rhythm of the beat to that of the message of the beat. Beat is still necessary for in music, but i have traversed from 'alujo' to 'agidigbo', so has my sense of how, when and where i dance.

The Blessed Virgin and The Secular Age

We live in an entirely secularized world. The Christian world, armed with the power of faith in Christ was able to conquer the lie of the Gentiles manifested through various polytheist and hedonistic practices. But in our days , pagan practices has made an aggressive comeback. As Luigi Guissani puts it: what we have in our age is not a bad Christianity -that would have been nothing- but an unchristian, dechristianized world.

Christianity through many trials was able to christianize the pagan days, and now, albeit subtle , Christian feasts are being paganized once more.

In the dichotomy between church and state, let it be clear that the Church (which is the bulwark of truth) has got her new year, just as the Moslems have got their new year (Hijrah). I do not consider it a coincidence that the Solemnity of Mary Mother of God was set on the 1st of Jan which is the beginning of the general secular year. Thus, as children of God, it is imperative to consecrate ourselves under the mantle of our mother to lead us through the year if Christianity is to reclaim what it has lost to secularity. Mary is the terrestrial paradise, the true world through which God decided to come into our ephemeral world; this valley of tears in which humanity has been banished . So, as we still have got to journey on,let us consecrate ourselves to the bright Morning Star which is Mary to lead us forth through the year that we experience. It is in the nothingness of Mary that we shall transverse the nothiness of this age if we are to arrive into the somethiness, the truth of God. It is through this Ark of the Covenant that we shall travel safely and engage the secularity of our age without being harmed, for she is like a Tower of David that protects her children. When we journey this widely publicized new year with Mary, we shall see more and more about what the actual truth is about the beginning of the year and we shall thread each day of the year far safer and more blessed into the true year of The Lord .Happy solemnity of Mary the Mother of God and Happy new year to us who are as yet in this world but not part of the world.

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!