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OPINION: The Origin And Meaning Of Christmas!

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Mr Chairman, Mr ‘Hitman’, the able and generous organizer, ladies and gentlemen, bonsoir a toute et a tous! (Good evening to everyone!) It is with great Yuletide delight that I stand before you all to deliver this lecture on Christmas, the origin and the meaning.

I bow and tremble before you all here present — apology to the late hanged Ken Saro-Wiwa, the great Ogoni environmental crusader and playwright. Standing before the late maximum ruler on that fateful day Saro-Wiwa had uttered those words (I bow and tremble, General!) as he met Gen. Sani Abacha to implore him to sign the Ogoni Bill Of Rights into law. He made that statement not out of fear but in deference to the constituted authority at that time — no matter how vicious, dictatorial or kleptocratic its history.

I stand before you humbled by the great season upon us, the reason for which we are celebrating. Humbled as a ‘nonentity’ chosen to do justice to this lecture on Noel. Life is all about choices! Choosing Jesus the Christ leads to good life and hope for the hereafter. Heaven and hell are real! It is up to us to choose one.

On a special day like this we cannot but be glad that we are partakers in the commemoration of the glorious birthday of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ of Nazareth. The Jesus we celebrate today was the begotten Son of God who accepted gracefully to visit this vast sinful planet we know better for the redemption of mankind.

Of course, we have other Jesuses (some fake like the Jesus of Oyingbo and Jesus of Ogbunike) the Jesus whose glorious birthday we mark today was unique in many ways.

That singular immaculate conception and birth in Bethlehem went a long way to demonstrating generationally the enduring power of light overcoming darkness!

Ladies and gentlemen, permit me to crave your indulgence by informing you that when ‘Hitman’ called me a few days ago to inform me of this Xmas Party/Lecture I had accepted the invitation based on the fact that the occasion is an auspicious one. Nothing could have been more auspicious than attending a great event like this where compatriots and others share views on Christmas and the origin and significance. Cross-fertilization of ideas remains a fundamental way of life literally.

I had planned to be in Nigeria because a brother back home is taking a wife next weekend. He had invited me over for the wedding. As I drove to this event my brother in Naija had called me to wish me merry Xmas. And I used the opportunity to inform him that due to unforeseen circumstances beyond my control (chief of which is security) I cannot afford to be home. He regretted my absence but saw reason with me nonetheless.

I promised him that next year I would be home for the Yuletide. Since a new President and administration would be taking the mantle of leadership from Buhari and his Fulani gang. For crying out loud one’s security is not guaranteed this Yuletide in Nigeria given the mounting security challenges confronting our nation. Ordinarily I should have been there but the Buharian presidential pestilence the hard decision was taken to be on a safe side.

We all love Nigeria, our homeland and want her to achieve her destined greatness. Yet, the national condition is hellish! It imposes hard choices. President Buhari and the Fulani and non-Fulani executive scoundrels and security fools running Nigeria aground can afford to regale us daily of their achievements but what we see and hear on the ground paint a gory different picture of a nation terrorized and challenged on all fronts!

This year’s Yuletide marks President Buhari’s last as our underwhelming President and Commander-in-Chief of our Armed Forces. As he bows out gracelessly next year’s May 29 there are justifiable grounds for optimism in the Nigerian renaissance. Whether Atiku, Tinubu or Obi wins the presidential poll of next year’s February Nigeria is bound to experience a new lease of life.

Buhari has ‘transformed’ Nigeria in the negative sense of the word. Critics and patriots are in a haste as it were to write the ‘obituary’ of the brutal, sectional, and nepotistic regime.

What is Christmas? And what, brothers and sisters, constitutes its origin and meaning? Well, Christmas is simply the birthday anniversary of Jesus the Christ who came in blood and flesh to salvage us all. He preached love, peace and salvation.

The meaning of Christmas cannot be over-emphasized here. The significance resides in the fact that man is redeemed. His sins are forgiven with the shedding of the blood in the Golgotha! With the Lord’s prayer and the most important divine exhortation for us to love our neighbours as ourselves we are armed with the indomitable spirit to conquer evil and become potential candidates for heaven.

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Mr Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, almost everyone here present would agree with me that life is good and beautiful. We are created wonderfully! We live only but once. Death occurs inescapably and the dead are no more with us in flesh and blood — awaiting the ultimate Judgement.

Over two thousand years ago, so the Bible says, Mary had given birth to Emmanuel (God with us) according to the prophecy proclaimed prior. Emmanuel fulfilled all the prophecies pronounced long before His delivery unto the world.

He was unjustly and criminally arrested (betrayed by one His eleven Disciples, Judas Iscariot) and tried and crucified on the Cross of Golgotha. Now, before He gave up the ghost He had triumphantly declared: “It is finished!” His job on earth was done! And He had since returned to Heaven from where He came constituting one integral part of Trinity.

The Yuletide has a global impact and reach. Commercial activities linked to Noel are universal in nature. The Chinese whose belief in the Immortal One is at best shaky, bombard the world with Christmas toys, clothes and other goods. Yet, they conveniently dismiss Xmas as a non-event! Hypocrisy on this score must be redefined to suit the Chinese position.

When we were kids, decades ago, in a remote village in Ihiala, Anambra State, we looked happily forward to Christmas. Then, we ate rice and chicken once a year! Decked in our new clothes and shoes we would be visiting homes of brethren in search of good tidings, peanuts et al. Now, we know better as regards the origin and meaning of Christmas.

Mr Chairman, ‘Hitman’, ladies and gentlemen, it is unfortunate that today Jesus and His birthday are associated with fraud, with bibulousness, with obscene consumption and display of wealth. Folks sell substandard or outright fake products to unsuspecting members of the public.

My late elder sister, (Stella Aguneme Okenwa), an elegant amazon through whose efforts I got educated in Benin City had bought a bottle of dry gin in Onitsha as we headed home for Christmas many decades ago. On getting home my late father to whom the gin was presented opened it up for the traditional blessing. Lo and behold, it was just water that was inside the sealed bottle! We were all shell-shocked! Another bottle was sent for.

Commercialising Christmas may be justifiable for but when such commerce is accompanied with fraud then Jesus is dishonoured!

Ladies and gentlemen, does it not amount to greatness unequalled and unrivalled and one magnified that for the past two thousand years or thereabout we are still celebrating the life and time of the Son of Man, one born of poor parents in a manger in a remote town of Bethlehem? No man, living or dead, (not even Nelson Mandela, Adolf Hitler, Queen Elizabeth, Pope John Paul 11, John Kennedy, Dim Odumegwu Ojukwu, Bashorun MKO Abiola etc) could be so remembered and celebrated.

Jesus Christ embodied humility, gracen glory, wonder and greatness personified. He did a whole lot of good delivering souls and healing the afflicted while preaching the good news of salvation. He performed supernatural miracles! The accounts found in the Scriptures remain coherent and credible. As we await His second coming, this time to Judge mankind we can only but rejoice in great expectation of Rapture.

This is hoping and praying fervently that we shall all be party to the heavenly last call.

Our lives matter! But what mattered most, in our reckoning, is our deeds while still sojourning on this planet with gravity we know better.

Jesus the Christ, in His omnipotence and omniscience, remains the reason for the season. Let us, therefore, together endeavour to spread the message of love, hope and liberation from evil to every nook and cranny of the universe.

I conclude by warmly wishing all and sundry very merry Christmas. And a prosperous healthy new year 2023 is on the horizon. As we wine and dine this special day, one out of 365 days in a year, we must share with the needy and the vulnerable and put smiles on the faces of those we are better than in the spirit of the time.

Thank you for your rapt attention. And may the spirit of the Yuletide strengthen us physically and spiritually. And may it fortify our collective faith in God.

Happy Holidays!

AUTHOR: Ozodinukwe Okenwa


Articles published in our Graffiti section are strictly the opinion of the writers and do not represent the views of Ripples Nigeria or its editorial stand.

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