President, Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN), Lucius Ugorji has urged Nigerians to imbibe the enduring message of peace, that Easter offers.
Ugorji in an Easter message to Nigerians on Friday in Abuja, said that the message of peace was necessary, especially in times like these when the nation was experiencing challenges.
“Peace can be promoted when citizens recognise that poverty, religious and ethnic bigotry, human rights abuse, corruption lack of inclusiveness and poor governance were the root causes of tension, strife and violent conflicts.
“Together we need to muster the political will to drastically reduce these social ills in our nation.
“Peace can be fostered when we value the sanctity of human life, cherish our common brotherhood and shun the spilling of innocent blood, knowing that they are outrageous.
“We should keep in mind that true peace begins from within oneself, where we can find inner peace with God and with our conscience.
“ We should all cultivate inner peace for social peace to thrive in our nation.
“Inner peace and tranquility facilitate peaceful cohabitation in the family, community and nation, in contrast, when anger, hatred, envy, bigotry, wickedness and greed erect their empires in our hearts, there cannot be social peace.’’
Ugorji also encouraged Nigerians and those seeking electoral offices to embrace the spirit of sportsmanship and not to see a political contest as a do-or-die affair as elections drew near.
He urged citizens to make personal commitment to non-violence because violence would only breed more violence.
He said that the vicious cycle of violence resulted in utter destruction and would never be a solution to any human problem.
“On behalf of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria, I wish you a happy Easter. May the risen Christ, the Prince of Peace, give peace to our nation.
“May Mary, the Queen of Peace, intercede for our country.’’
According to Ugorji , Easter is the culmination of the great mystery of salvation and liberation from sin.
He however said that it did not come that easy because the horrible journey of Christ embracing the Cross, his passion and excruciation death preceded the great event.
He said that amidst the feeling of disillusionment and despair by citizens, Easter had a message of hope because the darkest part of the night was the beginning of dawn.
“ Easter tells us that when the pressures of life seem so heavy; when the brokenness of this world tries to break our spirits, and when we seem to have come to a dead end, there is a light at the end of a dark tunnel.
“This message of hope underscores that even though the forces of evil might seem at times to have an upper hand over the good, on the long run the good will triumph over evil. “Accordingly, far from yielding to pessimism and despair, we should face the future with hope and optimism and always try to persevere to the end in hard and difficult circumstancesnan
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