Mary (3) Where Does Water Come From?

Where does water come from?

Science has little to tell regarding the origin of water, so, we return to the holy scripture for succour:

God created heaven and earth. And the earth was a formless void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters (Gen 1: 1-2).

This initial creative description appears to have the heaven, the earth, darkness, and water, as progenitors of the 7-day creation account that followed. Its visible Protagonist being the Spirit of God which hovered over the waters, because, from the onset, there seem to exist an intrinsic belovedness and unity between the Spirit and water.

Science has poked through the heavens and has provided certain explanations regarding the origin of the earth with the Big Bang theory. It has also offered propositions about the existence of darkness with the Black holes theorem; but, there is yet to be any credible conclusion about the origin of this colourless, odourless, tasteless, and shapeless element called water. Could water be a mystery that God intends to keep away from us?

Let us hypothetically discuss how the following 7-day creative act of God has developed from the base creations of heavens, earth, darkness and water already discussed.

On the first day, God spoke, He called out light from pre-existing darkness (2 Cor 4: 6; Gen 1: 3) and called it day, and the darkness he called night, thus setting history into motion. Evening came, morning came… (Gen 1: 4-5) first day.

The firmament was called forth from pre-existing waters, and, just as he separated light from darkness on the first day, with the aid of the firmaments, he divided the waters above from the waters below, (Gen 1: 6-8) …second day.

God teamed up all the waters below the firmament and land was born (Gen 1: 9). Water is the mother of land and subsequently everything that came out from the land: grass, herbs, trees (Gen 1: 11- 12) … third day.

God created other lights in the firmament of heaven (Gen 1: 14) to rule over days and nights, and to divide light from darkness. Light, the first creative master, rules the night and is divided from darkness (Gen 1: 15-18) ...fourth day.

Here we see why Science studies the cosmos as a reference to light (the speed of light). This is because God intends lights to rule and to be used for signs, for seasons, for days and for years (Gen 1:14).

The fourth day probably explains why man finds himself subordinated to the gods (lights) of the heavens. The ancients, and now the modern, through Science, worship the rulers above the firmament (the lights). You worship anything that you are totally subordinated and devoted to.

Science is entirely subordinated to the rules of the cosmos as dictated by the direction and speed of light, its Lord. But this is not enough, because a man has come as the Light of the world (Jn 8:12), and has named his followers also as such (Mt 5:14). He arrived and changed the dynamics of this subordination and devotion. We shall return to this subject later, but meanwhile, let us return to the creation account.

God was not yet finished with water, He commanded her to bring forth living creatures, fish and birds inclusive. Scripture at this point specifically uses the word ‘living’. Every living creature came out of water, and God blessed them with a mandate to replicate (Gen 1:20-23) which is characteristic of any living organism …fifth day

Land, which comes from water on the third day, produces cattle, creeping things, beasts … (Gen 1:24) and lastly man was also created out from the land in the image and likeness of God (Gen 1:26-31) … sixth day.

Man, who comes out from the land that is born of water, has a double mandate of ruling over all that is beneath the firmaments, and of replicating its own kind. Man is therefore the Lord of everything that is born, either of water or of the land.

Vain subordination and devotion to the lights above the firmaments is rampant, but there is a son of man who has given men the audacity to pry boldly into the heavens, no more as worshippers, but as Lords, because it is through Him that humanity can transcend from being images of God unto being Gods.  

The lights are rulers of the heavens and the cosmos which have a finiteness (Lk 21:33) because they are ingrained within the dynamics of laws, but the son of man brings something far more. He is the Word which never passes away (Lk 21:33), He completes these laws (Mt 5:17) that we may transcend them by providing believers with the spring of water which wells up to eternity (Jn 4:14), thus creating a new heaven and a new earth (Rev 21: 1).

The root of this transformation is found in the nothingness of Mary who is the predominant archetype and medium by which God is begotten through water, blood and Spirit, which are the 3 witnesses of grace of which she is graced with its plenitude (Lk 1: 28).

Stephen Hawking may not be far from the kingdom of God (Mk 12:34) by declaring in The Grand Design that the universe can generate itself out of nothing. He simply did not know that this nothing has been personified in Mary.

Christ is born of a woman (Gal 4:4) by water, blood and spirit: the 3 entities that bear witness both on earth and in heaven (1 Jn 5:6-8). The Spirit, the third person by whom He became incarnate in her, we know. Blood (and flesh), a constituent of the human souls, we can tell. But what about water, the third witness that is in her?

Every baby in the womb of a woman develops inside an amniotic sac of water. The breaking of this water is what precedes the delivery of a baby during labour. Water which happens as a form of birth, surrounds the entire mission of Christ, at His Incarnation inside the amniotic sack of Mary, at His baptism at River Jordan (Mt 3:13-17), from the gushing forth of water and blood from His side during His crucifixion (Jn 19:34) which is the bringing forth of His Church.

Christ’s legacy of Baptism, without which no man can enter His Kingdom (Jn 3: 3-7), also introduces this mystery of water. Being born again by the Spirit is understandable, but why would Christ insist that one must also be born of water to be saved?

Water happens as a paradox of life and death and leaves more questions asked than answered. How many cities and civilisations throughout history have sprung forth around, and because of water. Scientists keep scanning the entire cosmos for life using evidences of water as basis for signs of life. Water remains very indispensable for life, and as the Afrobeat legend puts it: ‘Water no get enemy, if you fight am, unless you wan die’.

This death by water talked about happens to the uninitiated (unbaptised). The event of crossing of the Red Sea shows this (Ex:14), the water which gushed forth from the Dragon to kill the woman in Revelations is another example (Rev: 12-16) and many people with near death experiences have equally recounted their experiences of water as agents of death.

It is only by the experience of Christ that we can experience water as a lasting and authentic source of life that transcends rules. The bridge between this old and new life, between death and life, is she who dwells in the secret shelter of the Most high (Ps 91:1). The recognition of Mary as an ancient and eternal transition forward from the old to the new is that which provides an opening unto the real Israel which is the reign of her Divine Son, Christ Jesus.

Copernicus and Galileo may after all be wrong in saying that the sun is the centre of the universe. It depends on the manner of seeing.  Faith often enables belief before sight. The sun which rules the heavens is not the centre of the universe. The earth, this little speck from the vast cosmos is that which the entire universe serves and which begets God.

Earth is where the replication of life governed by Eve, the mother of all that live subsists. Not the old Eve by which we see the sun’s supremacy, but the new Eve, Mary, by whom the true Sun of Justice, the son of man, is the true centre.

“Truly, unless a man is born of water and the Holy Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of heaven” (Jn 3:3). Christ’s mission, in His essence is to get man back to the roots of creation. We are the reason why He went through the agony of the Cross, to integrate us back into the pure mystery of this primordial creation.

This land, of which man receives his blessings, was created, born of water and the spirit (Jn 3:5), and it is from this land that Christ was born in its purest form. The land is Mary. “Woman, behold thy son” (Jn19:26). That is love to its highest limits. “Woman behold the son”.

Remember the 3^rd day. Land was created out of water on the 3^rd day, Christ rose on the 3^rd day. Being born of water and the Holy Spirit is just a call on man to retrace his roots into his peaceful essence through the merits of Christ’s death and resurrection, which He underwent solely for us, but which He acquired in Mary for Himself, that which He also wishes to share. “Woman behold the son”.

So, where does water come from? 

The new primordial water which saves is embedded within the new archetypal creation which is Mary, she is the new creature through which new creations are begotten.  It is from her amniotic sac of water that the new citizens of the new creation, the sons of God are begotten.

The origin of water is from the humble bosom of Mary.

MARY (1) Is Earth a Woman?

We begin from the murkiest and most controversial: The objection to Marian devotion as remnant of cultic practices accorded to Pagan deities. Let us here, then, explore the anthropological root of deities from the development of myths with cultural antecedents, and compare this with the relevance of Mary in our modern times.

Archaeological researches suggest that the earliest representation of Pagan deities started as that of females. This is easy to comprehend from a Christological perspective because, Eve fell before Adam and fallen humanity has its base rooted in womanhood (Gen: 3).

But as the necessity for freedom grows for humanity, struggle prevailed and prowess overshadowed nurture in the idea of survival between civilisations. The deity trajectory became bent towards the masculine framework as a result.

Ancestral rituals and the worship of female deities survived though, and the worship of goddesses like Brigid of the Celts, Kuan-Yin of Buddhists, Shakti of the Hindus, Freya of the Norse, Athena of the Greeks, Olokun of Yorubas and Edos, and Isis of Egypt, persisted even to our day.

As a node of deliberation on this subject, let us pick on Isis, the most popular Egyptian goddess of her time. First, because, upon reflection, we see that the Israelite and Christian antecedent has always borne a certain scar of Egypt. For instance, Israelites were brought out of Egypt by the powerful hand of God (Ex: 12). Christ Himself, through the hand of destiny, was brought up, raised and migrated to Israel from Egypt.  ‘From Egypt I call my Son’ (Mt 2: 15; Hos 11: 1).

Another reason is because, careful studies show evidences of similarities between the Isis/Osiris mythology and the Christian historical events relating to the Resurrection from the dead and rites of baptism, and how the age long attempts by Egyptian Civilisation at cracking the code of afterlife was indeed realised only through the resurrection of Christ.

Lastly, because, more than any pantheon and pagan deity, sceptics have largely accused Marian devotions as still retaining certain elements of practices from this Isis cult.

Regarding this last point, let us start by reflecting on the Christian encounter, which often happens amidst the daily struggles of cultural life. In fact, the entire Israelite and Christian (Christians being the new Israel) life is rooted in this daily struggle (Mt 10: 34).

A Christian’s struggle is not against flesh and blood (Eph 6: 12-13) and her encounter with non-permissive cultures is not a confrontational one, rather, she lives through this culture and changes it while striving at retaining her identity as reflected in the person of Christ.

An authentic Christian knows whom he serves, and while he is not rigid, becoming all things to all men (1 Cor 19:23), nevertheless he does not get tossed around by the wind of every ideology (Eph 4: 14). Living amidst these struggles with paganism, he learns to survive by being gentle as a dove and being wise like a serpent (Mt 10: 16).

We would like to think of the ancient past as being more demonic and chaotic because of her numerous deities. But we only must look around to witness the existence of extremely rebellious, diabolic and paganistic trends that proliferate our modern circumstance too. The demons are here, ancient gate will fight before it rises! These evils, thwarting the hearts and minds of men, are mostly lurked within the sex of media, the money of business and the power of politics (1 Jn 2: 16). Christians do not run away from such battles. They win by engaging with each determinants of cultural realities.

Mary, this foremost archetype of Christianity, did not run from the cultural scandal of her time, she stayed at the foot of the cross and conquered, rooted in faith and helped by grace. It is in Mary’s nature to conquer, not through morbid alienation, but by humble engagement. This is the manner in which she is terrible to demons as an army set in battle array (Sos 6: 10).

It is true that a presumptuous meddle with these ‘powers-that-be’ can be a perilous invitation to doom; but, when we alienate by fleeing, when we, in the guise of not causing offense, throw away the baby of truth with the water of Paganism, we run the danger of ultimately becoming that which we flee from, just like that servant who hid his talents and believed himself to be smart (Mt 25:14-30).

It was Man who was created from dust, but it was the woman who perpetuated this dust through childbirth, and because of her primordial alliance with the serpent, she won a greater control of this fall into dust as she became the origin of human deities (Gen 3: 16).

The genealogy of every human can be traced, not through a man’s Y chromosome, but only through the mitochondria produced by a woman. Every man and woman is born of a woman, and everyone, ever since the Fall, needs a woman as a gate leading, either to the arc of freedom or to the ring of perdition.

A woman appeared in the book of Revelation (Rev:12), clothed with the sun, the moon was under her feet and she was adorned with a crown of 12 stars. Sun, moon, stars: a depiction of the entire cosmos. But this leaves one wondering, where is the earth? That woman herself who is Mary, is the Earth, she is the creation which groans in labour of childbirth (Rev 12: 2; Rm 8: 22), she is the new Eve who governs the entire cosmos through a new way of seeing, a true reason for hoping and a divine manner of loving.

But this earth, a woman, is dust, she is ‘nothing’ (Gen 3:19), and her deep recognition of this fact also becomes her ultimate triumph over evil, paganism and every cultural ideology at odd with the freedom of man. You know you are dust o Mary, but dust of a refined mitochondria you are; and this pure humility of yours is the truth which liberates you, and us and every humanity who follows your awareness (Jn 8: 32).

The intense recognition of this fact is the dynamism of the eternal triumph of Mary, forcing a transition of the Egyptian Isis, which is an orientation carved from the archetype of the old Eve, and opening up, like the parted Red Sea (Ex 14: 21), unto the new Israel which is the reign of her Divine Son, Christ Jesus, a man, born of a woman that is dust and ash, who redeems every son of woman condemned to the bondage of this rebellion (Gal 4:4).

Mary is more relevant today, even as we strive by the Passion and Resurrection of Christ our Lord, within the Egyptian cultural paradox that dictates our age, towards the new Israel of God (Gal 6: 14-16).

Mary is the daughter of Abraham who has taken control of the gates of her enemies (Gen 22: 17; Lk 1: 55) and thus becomes the ancient gateway that willingly rises that Christ, the King of glory may enter therein for our peace and liberation (Ps 24:7).

MARY (INTRODUCTION)

The following weeks of Lent would be both exciting and challenging for me because I shall try, with the help of the Holy Spirit, to migrate piety within the root determinants of our daily existence, by delving through obscure frontages leading to the relevance of the Blessed Virgin within the intricacies of our modern life.

My conviction is that Mary is the Dawn of the next civilisation, a civilisation that has already budded. The coming weeks’ submissions would not, as such, be made from the frontage of piety, but as a development of realities of our current civilisation, from the synergy of factors that have structured our modern era, seen through the realms of its roots, especially in the fields of Anthropology, Philosophy, Science, Politics, Economics, Theology, Feminism and Sustainability.

While some would wonder about the correlation of Mary, an article stigmated to the realm of faith, with realities of our modern livelihood, I reply briefly defending her contemporaneousness with a statement of hers when she broke into our time and space in 1917 at Fatima and delved into the politics of the time as she said: '… Russia will be converted, and there will be peace…'. That doesn’t sound like a chiming bell from Sistine Chapel, that is the Madonna breaking into real world politics that has rocked the world up till now.

Our modern existence has been battered into accepting a flawed patrimony of a division of State and Faith, and the State triumphs at the expense of Faith because of the Mammon factor. This condition has its root in the French Revolution, and as such, many do not see the direct relevance, for instance, of Mass on Sunday, and Profession on Monday. Piety is now extraneous to work. A dichotomy from State is not what is needed, a dialogue with State is and the dawn of Marian Civilisation would show and resolve this.

We are already witnessing a global age of radicality and flexing of muscles, underlining these struggles are proposition of ideas that intend to shape the next age of existence. This may well turn into a global crisis but it is not yet the end of the world.

The world may not end too soon, Christ will not come until there appears on earth the age of Mary. The eschatological dimension would only be opened through the gate of Mary. The same path He thread at His first coming would be the same path He would thread at His second coming, even if the manner of approach is radically different.

It is already certain that the different power blocks are involved in ideological struggles that are posed towards championing the next age, and here I shall stand and propose to you a totally unknown path that would come out as champion of this struggle: The humility of Mary.

“In the end my Immaculate Heart will triumph”
- Our Lady of Fatima (1917)

Of Memory, Ancestors and the Liberation of the Land.

My primal sin: I take things for granted. 

What if my grandfather had not decided to be a Christian, or had not invested in my Dad’s formal education? What if my Dad had not valued education, and had not trained me to the university level? Surely, I could still have made it, but it would have been at a greater toil and in a lengthier time. 

Only God knows what important choices my Great-grandfather had taken to get me here, good or bad. 

Do I think at all? Am I grateful for these or do I take things for granted? And what choices will I make for my children to keep up this progress? This is the capital sin: Idagunla, aibikita. 

Memory, the bane of our society. We lack history, we treat death as another ‘spanner loss’, we ignore the lives of our ancestors, that is why wise elders are lacking, why dynamic leaders are short and why we have mediocre as followers. Don’t look too far: Mea culpa. 

In the scripture, upon satisfying the first goal to freedom, which is morality, Christ told the rich young man to apply the second step: ‘letting-go. He said: ‘Go, sell all what you have and give the money to the poor’. The virtue of a leader who desires freedom is about letting go. ‘Agba maa n gba ni’.

But, there was another proposal which came into play after ‘letting-go’; Christ said: ‘Then, follow Me’. This following is the stage of memory. ‘Follow me’ means, keep me in focus. It is the arrival at ‘Eldership’, the mystical age. The 24 elders described in the book of Revelations, who were always by the throne of the Lord, are those who have mastered this science of memory.

It is saddening that we practice faiths that tend to kill memory. How shall there then be growth? Even Christ cannot affect much without memory. A society whose followers are obedient and grateful, whose leaders let go, and whose elders practice memory and teach others its method will move at light speed. After morality and letting go, the next big qualitative virtue is memory. 

Look at yonder, how do they get on? They lack faith in God, they are immoral, they are aggressively secular and atheistic, but they value history, they have a reading and writing culture, they think and reminiscence, they do not forget, and they believe in and leave legacies for posterity.

The land cannot gain freedom if its inhabitants do not master the art of the memory of those which constitute the land: they are called ‘Alaales’ in Yorubaland.  ‘Alaales’ constitute our dead, buried but living ancestors. And the more that the memories of these ancestors are purified by centring them on Christ, the more liberated the land would truly become. This is truth, and it is because we believe this in a shallow way, or because we do not believe this at all, that evil still reigns supreme in the land.

Regarding the very matters of the afterlife, Christ said: ‘Whatever you do to the least of my brethren, you do unto me’. When we remember anyone, who dies in Christ - the least of the brethren-, we give Christ greater means of conquering the land. A damning belief is that which teaches us to forget the dead. A society or household that fails to constantly remember its dead is itself dead!

A soul in love cannot stand still. Movement is love, love happens for freedom and peace. When we remember our loved ones, we help them quite alright, but we benefit a lot more from them. We gain vision, progress and love. Blessed are those who mourn out of love, for they shall be comforted.

All Souls Day tend to portend sorrow, and the concept of Purgatory has a load of bad press, so much that we think of it little less than anathema. We look at our beloved dead as being helpless, and having no more contact whatsoever with our lives here on earth, and we spare little thoughts for them, if at all, only on All Souls Day. A considerable number of Christian faiths would not even do this at all. 

But, do we really need to be sad for our departed brethren? Perhaps yes, because they are no more around with us physically, but on the contrary, they feel a greater sorrow for us, because we are more to be pitied.  Any positive pain we feel at their remembrance is for our good. Sorrow helps the soul. Work, pain, labour, sorrow; these become positive over there. 

Christ’s reply to the man who wondered whether only a few people would be saved was astounding. Rather than looking outward, Christ told him to look inward. He told him that, rather than him to be concerned about the numbers of those who would make it, he should mind his own business and try his hardest to be saved, for many would try and would not succeed.

The opus magnum of ensuring the salvation of our beloved ancestors and of our posterity, is our own efforts at conversion and salvation. This conversion involves a radical approach of looking at reality, of unlearning and relearning of letting go and not judging. To save ourselves and our loved ones, we must judge not so that we are not judged; we must be merciful to all so that He would be merciful to us.

When we regard pains, labours, works, etc as evil, we should have a rethink. Think how, for instance, the Little Flower would want to spend her heaven doing good on earth. Or, what if we consider how the Blessed Virgin is still in labour of childbirth. Or, how St Paul would desire to be condemned on behalf of his Jewish brethren. Are these people stupid, or are we ignorant? 

Only when we learn to love and not hate, do we know the reason why. It is He who has not come to condemn, but who has come to save that which is lost, who causes this experience. What is purgatory, for those who live the beatitudes? Hell melts away at the sight of the love of one who has mastered the art of abasing and abounding.

It is because bad people seem to believe more in devils, than good people trust in God, that is why it seems easier for humanity to destroy than to build. But evil is a lie and lie would not survive because it does not exist, even if it appears so, that appearance does not last.

It is the devil’s motive to make us – for whatever reasons- forget the dead who have hold on the land. Freedom is all about the liberation of the land. Who owns the land? Who are these ancestors, the true ‘Alaales’? They are the whole human race who are departed, but this gets disintegrated and narrowed down, the more we enter individual cultures and languages, and they are powerful according to the passion which they initially displayed in life, good or bad.

The eternal legacy a man can achieve is the true acquisition of the land, and one can only acquire this land when it is truly liberated. But it is only through one man, that the land can be truly liberated and won, only He who has opened the seal: The Christ. Our Saviour!

Christ has won the land for us. How? When we realise that man goes back to dust; that, a man in Christ has become ‘Oro’ (word), and that this ‘Oro’ has become ‘Ile’ (land) (‘The Word became flesh…’; ‘Thou art dust…’); and that, it is through this ‘Oro’ that ‘Ile’ gains its freedom and liberation. 

Without destroying its concept, the time immemorial dynamics of ‘Alaale’ has taken a radical different dimension with the introduction of Christ. The continual disintegration of the land, through languages and cultures, has – and is being- reversed into a unifying integration of the land through the language of love and the culture of God by the factor of Christ. Thus, the real question of who owns the land has been redefined.

Christ’s ultimate legacy is: ‘Do this in memory of Me’. The more that all are brought into the mystery of the Eucharist, the more that this cult of memory would be continual and widespread. We shall continue to succumb to the devil’s illusions without the cultivation of this memory in Christ. The verb of his great power over the earth is this ‘memory’ of the Church through which the land is liberated.

Our lives, knowingly or unknowingly, are truly a battle for the land, and it is through letting go and memory that we gain the wisdom of conquest. We are the word, but we are also the world. It is up to us to decide if we would perpetuate this concept and make it a reality in Christ and in Mary, or not. The dead are alive. More so, those who are dead in Christ are the living ones. They keep liberating the land, they are awaiting the perpetuation of His true legacy!

When He is come He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgement: Of sin, because they believe not on Him; of righteousness because He goes to His Father, and we see Him no more; Of judgement because the prince of this world is already judged - Jn16:8-11.

The real fact of the many languages spoken during Pentecost is not for the novelty of ‘speaking in tongues’, but deeply speaking, it is that of a deep and divine understanding of the respective cultures of the languages spoken, which had been hitherto foreign to the disciples, because these needed to be entered into before the land can be conquered and brought into unity through Christ, in Christ, with Christ and for Christ.

Language is deeply engrained in culture and culture is deeply engrained in language, and without this Inculturation by the local word of God, or that of circumscribing the culture by a foreign word of God, the land cannot be liberated. The source of this word is the Eucharist and the scripture.

Asides the natural love fostered within the family, there is also this tribal and national language which is manifested in culture and tradition, and which only he who is born, bred and dies in the land can be adept at. This language, ultimately, is the Word of God, which is love and which every one of us shall become. The divine Logos.

This Logos must cut through the waft and weft of the illusions of every culture, it must consume every fake word and lies, exist, causing the entire land of humanity to be unified and liberated. The more that this Word is active, the more that our lands are unified and liberated, and the more that there shall be prosperity, for, the liberation of the land has a very close tie with the liberation of its people.

Even though, the land ultimately is -and shall be- one, and everything shall operate within its unifying essence, but what operates more in the heart of many now is the diversity of the land, that is why there are varied nations, cultures and languages, and it is within this imperfect manner that Christ wishes to act to create a true unifying nation of heaven, culture of God and language of love.

It is a form of laziness to seek to circumscribe inculturation by not labouring with Christ by engaging to refine the culture and language of the land through the mastery of memory. This sloth eventually creates more toil and lingers one’s freedom.

No matter our cries to Him for liberation, within this time and space, Christ would tell us:

‘Wait, I am busy with Israel and Palestine’.

And when we tell Him:

‘but won’t you come to Nigeria?’, He shall reply:

‘You have Tansi and all the numerous dead in my name to deliver your land’.

And we shall reply:

‘Tansi, we do not really know, the others: they are not saints, they are imperfect’, and they are not you.

And we shall rattle the faults and imperfections of our deceased to Him; and He shall reply:

‘Whatever you do to the least of my brethren, you do unto me. Remember them, thus you remember Me, for they are in me. Ibi ori da ‘ni si l’aa gbe.  I rule from Israel, but I am present everywhere through my vicarages. Even Peter is not here in Israel, he is manning My site in Rome. My mother also is not here, she is in Ephesus, so also is my beloved disciple, John.

We avoid memory because we dread idolatry, but the fact is, Christ takes glory in the glorification of His members who have died and have been perfected in Him. What is sin and imperfection in the presence of love? When we believe that the dead in Christ are not saved, we are gradually commencing the process of our own condemnation.

The real war is on and has been won at the same time. The actual war is inside us and in our capacity to see and realize this work in love. Liberation of the land can only take effect through the memory of our ancestors, and our most liberating ancestors are those who have died in Christ. He who has mastered the utility of memory wins. On the other hand, evil thrives when we do not cultivate memory.

If Christ had not envisioned the attainment of the unity and universality of the church, though a loving and authentic confrontation with the world’s culture, respecting its autonomy while refining and purifying its assumptions, the disciples would probably have spoken only Hebrew on Pentecost.

Cultural changes are tough and challenging. Every ‘Alaale’ loathes evolution; but without evolution, revolution takes charge, and this is often worse, and it steals the land off its rightful labourers.

Even with the glorious event at Pentecost, it took persecutions to move the apostles from their comfort zones. Pentecost thrusted the Apostles out into an encounter with cultures that was not theirs. They spoke the gentiles’ languages, they knew, by grace, the waft and weft of dwelling in the respective lands.

That which was gained by the Apostles through divine grace is what we have been given naturally by our language. They know the power of using the Word to win the land. That was why the essence of memory through the Eucharistic dynamics was paramount in the early times.

We need to wake up, and wake up the dead in Christ through memory. They have the natural ability to speak our languages, in fact, they have become our languages, and that is a plus for our land. They are the real words, but they are powerless without us bringing about their memory.

Christ Himself would be powerless without us exercising His memory. But this, the Holy Spirit shall not permit. He still rules more from Jerusalem than in any other place because it was from there that He gave His life, He is still busy in Palestine because it was from there He came to earth, and He shall conquer in the Middle East, and when He does, He shall rule the world, but then He shall have to ask us, how have you assisted me to conquer the land that destiny has placed you?

Some ancestors have won over their traditions, cultures to truth or to falsehood. For instance, Latin has so much been conquered that it has become the language of the church, and how the devil trembles when it is spoken. Aramaic and Hebrew are also deep. Power also dwell in Arabic, Hindu, English, Greek and Yoruba, albeit positively or negatively.

There is a mystery that I have realised in my name that has shown me the lingering dichotomy of faith and culture. Named ‘Niyi’ and Baptized ‘Francis’, but notwithstanding the widespread popularity of ‘Francis’ as to my nomenclature, ‘Niyi’ seem to have a greater depth and pull on me, which has often made me wondered whether God has a greater preference for culture, or if it is my faith that is still shallow.

I know, He does not intend to kill one for the other. I have a strong feeling I would be called ‘Niyi’ before ‘Francis’ when I get to Him because it goes more intimate. I have a ‘Niyi’ that has been ingrained in my gene and it is impossible to extract, despite the affluence of ‘Francis’. I have become an advocate of a merger of Christening and naming ceremonies, so that such perceived dichotomies may be averted in others.

Home is the most natural place to build the passion of love, that which lasts till eternity. We should do everything to preserve the natural love of the home. ‘Bi ile o ba dun, bi igbe ni ilu n ri’. If we miss the love from home, we shall labour more to get it elsewhere, and the vastness of our destiny shall most probably be curtailed.

Thus, I have cultivated the memory of St Francis, my patron Saint to build the love in my home. He blesses me and blesses my family, but he has carried the remaining blessings to Assisi, for he could not speak Yoruba to effect much further, my culture was alien to him such that he finds it far easier at being an Assisi than a Yoruba. He would have to effect greater works at breaking through my genes and archetype despite we are close pals.

Another interesting factor is the confluence I found within my varied family’s ancestral culture and of the church’s culture which we poise, not to abolish the former, but to purify and complete them. Even, the Church’s culture – God’s culture on earth- must walk within our earthly culture, because they cannot be stamped out as an illusion; but while it walks within this culture, it seeks to pick the good and drop the bad in them.

Francis also does this walk, which is work, such that within the confines of my space, time and gene, it would become easier for him to work in and through Assisi, as an authentic Logos which he has been transformed.

Francis is more an ‘Alaale’ of Assisi than of ‘Yorubaland’ which I represent, even if we both confluence in the earthly culture of the Church as it becomes purified within my household. His strategy towards making me better and blessed is to send as emissary my Dad who is better acquainted with the cause and source of the hindering factors to my liberation.

After all, said and done, what shall I do then to liberate myself, and thus, my land? I must learn and practice the science and art of memory, bringing back alive my ancestors who are dead in Christ, for they love to dwell with us, they hold the true language that can liberate our land, and it is through them that there shall be prosperity, progress and true liberation of the land!

O blessed are the dead who have those that really matter to remember them, that is, the church, holy people, simple souls; and also blessed the living who have saintly dead to remember. Reciprocals of this bring liberation of the land!

My thought on JF Odunjo's Classical Poem

*Ise l’ogun ise*

(Work, far from being a curse, is the only path to any form of freedom)

*Mura s’ise ore mi*

(Work hard, but far more: work smart)

*Ise la fi n’deni giga*

(Unfortunately, if you still see work as a curse, you are set on being a dwarf for life)

*Bi a ko ba reni feyin ti*

(There is a salient need to build institutions)

*Bi ole la’nri*

(Work without building a network of capacities ends in servitude )

*Bi a ko ba reni gbekele*

(Trust God, but use that to build human 'Trusts', even if they would fail)

*A tera mo’se eni*

(Persistence pays and it yields many fruits, sooner or later. Don't quit!)

*Iya re le lowo lowo*

(Be born again, not just spiritually, but in mind and heart )

*Baba re le lesin lekan*

(Keep your culture, but move on from what your Ancestors have built, there is a lot to be discovered)

*Bi o ba gbo’ju lewon*

(Be complacent at your own risk)

*O te tan ni mo so fun o*

(Change, or become a dinosaur. Dare preserve yourself from extinction)

*Ohun ti a ko ba ji’ya fun*

(No pain, no gain)

*Se kii le pe lowo*

(No cross, no crown)

*Ohun ti a ba fara sise fun*

(There is dignity in labor)

*Nii pe lowo eni*

(Beware careful about free things , nothing actually comes free)

*Apa lara*

( Use your hand, but let your head, gut and heart do the commands)

*Igunpa niyekan*

(Knowledge moves, but technical skills lasts much longer. Merge it with changing trends)

*B’aye ba n’fe o loni*

(Love what you do , don't do things for praise)

*Bi o ba lowo lowo*

(Money is fleeting. It serves the purpose, but it is not the purpose)

*Aye a ma fe o lola*

( Do not be known for money, it is a murderous trap)

*Tabi ki o wa ni’po atata*

(The higher you go, the closer to the calamitous door you'll be, if you don't move on)

*Aye a ma ye o si terinterin*

(Be conscientious , you are what you are in the eyes of God -you dust and clay- and nothing more)

*Je k’o de’ni tin raago*

(Preserve humility, which is the truth about you, o nothingness, without God you go under, so why pretend?)

*Aye a ma yinmu si o*

(The world is only attracted to power, money and flesh; the height of folly is to depend too much on these which prevent authentic peace and freedom)

*Eko si’nso ni d’oga*

(Ah, education is everything, educate yourself to freedom)

*Mura ki o ko dara dara*

(Formal learning is but a minuscule; be deep and broad about learning, and apply what you learn)

*Bi o si r’opo eniyan*

(The vast majority are not educated, and it is little about going to school and colleges)

*Ti won f’eko s’erin rinrin*

(Look around your family and clan, you would find examples; and make comparisons)

*Dakun ma f’ara we won*

(Education is perpetual . Little minds discuss people , average minds discuss events, great minds discuss ideas)

*Iya n’bo fun’omo ti ko gbon*

( Whatever we call 'hell' comes about as a result of lack of education)

*Ekun n’be fun’omo to nsa kiri*

(Preserve patrimony, sustain memory)

*Ma f’owuro sere ore mi*

(You must set forth at dawn)

*Mura si’se ojo nlo*

( At the end of the day, we profess: love is everything, and it is a verb, an action word. You cannot love if you do not work)

An Arrogation of Power

 An arrogation of power is an ephemeral act. All efforts by man at perpetuating his history would be lost without a start from a disinterested position. It is not about you, it is about God and the people you serve. Let go and let God. Let go and let them.

Between Faith and Science; Sacraments and Reason.

The rejection by Christians, of the Sacraments, is what has resulted into what I call The Age of Matter. Science has made much progress at the expense of faith. Faith, on the other hand, has lost so much because of an abject rejection of the Sacraments; it's a question of simple law of energy conservation.

To save the world, faith can reclaim her lost energy from science through reason, which would be the battle ground , faith must employ reason to engage science in order to take back what belongs to her in all truth, and the weapons of  engagement between both parties would be M(m)atters. Matter of the Sacraments, from faith perspective and the matter of things, from Science perspective; 

If there would be any hope left at all for the world, While the battle rages between faith and science within Reason, the matter of science would have to pave way for the Matter of faith in the sacraments, only if people of faith universally embrace the efficacy of these Sacraments.