LET YOUR LIGHT SHINE BEFORE MEN (MATTHEW
5:16): THE NYSC IN FOCUS
Can you imagine our country without NEPA failure… can
you imagine 24 hours light supply… can you imagine a situation when everywhere
can be always lighted up again. Up Nepa!
This little light of mine... am gonna let it shine!
A community without its
youths is a dead society. It is dead because it has no future, it has no light
hence, it is blind and moribund. Soon all the old ones or elderly will die, who
then are those to succeed such society? Indeed, there is no society that does
not have its youths, no matter how small they are, there must be those that
will continue the existence of that society, if there are none, the society
will definitely go into extinction. Even in those communities where the
minority is a collection of youths, the development and progress of that
community is at stake. All these point out forcefully the significant place of
the youths in the society. The more reason why societies should begin to invest
seriously on the youths since they are the ones that will bear the torch of
excellence for the continuity of the society.
The Nigerian experience
has been a failure. In the political arena for instance, the youths have little
or no space at all. Why? The old men
who think they have the monopoly of politics have remained on seat so long as
they cannot remember. Hence, it is often said that nobody enters the Aso Rock
and wants to come back alive, they all want to die in power. You can imagine
what an 88 year old man wants to do in office when there are energized men who
can do better. The European governments will continue to be paradigms for us in
this regard. How old is Obama if we may ask? It is clear that youths are not
given a fair place to exercise their potentials in the Nigerian society except
for their employment as prostitutes, thugs, bodyguards and agbero as they are often called.
It is good therefore to
impress it on our minds and the minds of our leaders that the youths should and
must be trained to rule and guide this nation which eventually will be their
task in the nearest future. Once again, the place and roles of youths in our
society cannot be negotiated, it cannot be undermined. The future of this
country lies in their hands and the better our Youths are the better for the
future of this country.
YOUTHS AS LIGHT FOR THE FUTURE
You are the light in
the world (Matthew 5:13-14)- this is one of those statements which should cause
us to lift up our heads and make us realize once more what a remarkable and
glorious thing it is to be a Christian. Imbued in our Christian vocation is the
injunction to be light in the world. It may well be said that this is the
greatest compliment that was ever paid to the individual Christian, for in it
Jesus commands the Christian to be what he himself claimed to be. Jesus said:
“As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world” (John 9:5). This
Christian injunction to be lights in the world demands nothing less than being like Christ in every respect. For
once we are in darkness but we have seen a great light (Ephesians 5:8). We have
not only received light but we have been made lights ourselves so that we might
also become transmitters. We must understand the meaning of being lights in the
world. When Jesus used this concept for his disciples, he meant that 1) A light is first and foremost something which
must be seen. Hence, Christianity is something which is meant to be seen.
There can be no such thing as secret discipleship. That Christianity also must
be visible not only in the Church or within the Church premises but it must be
seen in every ordinary activity of the Christian. 2) A light is a guide. Christians must therefore make the way clear to
others. That is, Christians must necessarily be examples. 3) A light can often
be a warning
light which tells others to
halt or to wait, there is danger ahead. It is sometimes the duty of Christian
to bring others to necessary warning. It is important to finally note that as
authentic Christians, it is not our light we must radiate, it is the light of
Christ that we must reflect. Every individual is capable of a certain relative
understanding of light, if that is the light we must shine, then we would soon
see the impoverish status of our different lights but when we wear Christ cloak
and therefore radiate his light then we become authentic Christians and
ministers of Christ in our society and environment.
With these
understandings of light, we will begin to understand why the Youths are not
just the reality for the future but
that they are and must be the lights for the future as well.
BUT WHERE DO WE GET THIS LIGHT FROM?
When we are baptised,
we were given the light of Christ, symbolised by the baptismal candle- God came
to life and shone his light in our souls. The purpose of our baptism is to make
us lights to the world for Jesus. Jesus equally told us that he who believes in
him and does not remain in darkness will have the light of life (John 3:). We
therefore are behoved to show to the whole world what we must be.
OUR DARKENED WORLD
And this is the condemnation, that the light has come
into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds
were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to
the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. (John 3:19-20)
Would there be any need
of light, if there was no darkness? Hence, the term or word light presupposes
the dark. Truly, our society is darkened.
In all the tiers of societal life, there is need for the radiance of light.
There are many indications of the darkness that is looming our nation. To
mention all in this write-up is an illusion but for the purpose of the focus of
this edition of the magazine, it would be apt to mention a few.
Corruption, a household named in
Nigeria is the fountain of all our troubles. It is grossly unfortunate that
Nigeria continue to grow daily in this crime and no hope of redemption- for
much has been preached on this topic to effect a rapid metanoia. When we talk of corruption, we often think it is only those in
government that are affected. In truth, most Nigerians are corrupt in one way or the other.
This is a significant darkness that we must shed light on.
Terrorism is another epidemic that the
whole nation is suffering currently. We are sickened with the news of bomb
blasts and killings every day on the media. Even in some quarters, Borno
especially, it has become a normal thing as to a routine in their environment
to hear these things. The prevalence of these heinous acts suggests only one
fundamental reality, that “life” has become a cheap commodity in our society
and that it can be traded for any other thing. This is perplexing and
disturbing that in an African culture, human life has become something grossly
redundant. It’s a shame!
There are many other darkness in our
society. In fact, everything contradicting the gospel of Christ is not light
therefore it is darkness (1Corinthians). The darkness of prostitution,
malpractice, kidnapping, quarrels, malice, theft, abortion, lying, sexual
misconducts, rituals, killing etc.
The more disturbing phenomenon about
these evils is that most of them are executed through the instrumentality of
youths. Whether they do them of their own conviction or whether they were
forced is inconsequential. When these youths grow to become adults, what would
they become? If they can execute these terrible deeds when they are youths,
they will plan more when they are adults. What hope do we have in the future
for a peaceful society?
However, that there are problems and
difficulties in our society does not suggest that it is a bad community all
together. We are the beams of light that must enlighten this world and make our
society a better place for us all.
YOUR LIGHT MUST SHINE!
When Matthew gives that injunction that your light
must shine, it implies that you must be a group of believers and disciples who
will be highly visible because of the unusually dedicated character of your
lives, who will illuminate the world as light does, and who will sanctify,
purify and preserve the world in its relationship to God like salt. As light,
you must shed the radiance of the Good News of God’s saving presence, into the
darkness of an alienated humanity. What this injunction tells us is that as
Corps members and more as Christians, our mission is that of witnessing. Pope
Paul VI in Evangelium Nutiandi has
said that the world needs more of witnesses than preachers. The injunction also
harbours a warning that a community which does not live out this Christian
mandate to become shining examples of the faith, which has so adjusted itself
to the values of the world that its lifestyle no longer challenges it, is fit
only to be thrown out.
Furthermore, the injunction- Let your light shine
before men! Connotes further two important things: 1) people are to see our
good deeds. These goods deeds that you must exemplify must not only be good but must also be attractive. Hence,
we must be Christian youths whose goodness makes everything loving. 2) It is
further to be noted that our good deeds ought to draw attention not to
ourselves but to God. You must never think of what you have done but think only
of what God has enabled you to do.
Our light must essentially shine not only in words but
deeds. We are called to reflect the light of Jesus into the dark room of our
brothers and sisters- the people we see every day, who otherwise may not
receive this light. A little girl once stood in Church staring in amazement at
the sun streaming through stained glass windows. With wonder in her little
voice she said, “Now I know what Christians are! They are people through whom
the light of Christ shines.”
In Ancient Greece, the runner who won the race was not
the one who crossed the line in the shortest time, but the man who crossed the
finish line in the shortest line with his torch still burning. Our goal as
Christians is that we may cross the line into eternity with the light of Christ
that we received at our baptism still shining brightly.
AFTER SERVICE WHAT NEXT?
Many have opined that The NYSC service year is an
all-important decision-making year for the Nigerian Youth. Generally, it is the
time of great decision when most important choices of life are made. The choice
of a vocation, the choice of a life partner, the choice of religion, the choice
of life and other choices. So, after service what kind of Citizen/Nigerian do
you want to be? I think we should begin to ask ourselves these serious
questions. Not just what kind of person do you want to be, but also, what will
your contributions be to making this nation you have claimed to serve this
year, a worthwhile place for us all to live? What kind of family do you want to
raise? What influence do you want to impact on others? We must never be bound
to the ruse theory that if you cannot
beat them, join them. We need to stand out as true Christian youths living
a life worthy of emulation and a life worthy of praise. In fact, we must live
as lights in our society shining as torches in the tunnels and dark crannies of
our society. In short, your flame must be exemplary! You must remain dedicated
as ever to Christ and to his Church.
SPECIFIC AREAS THAT WE MUST SHINE
OUR LIGHT
Shining our lights means that our Christianity must be
evident in everything that we do. We must live Christ-like lives. The
Christ-like life is the platform on which individual testimony becomes
convincing. We cannot even claim to have relationship with Christ without
shining his light. Our responsibility therefore as disciples and Christians is
to live so transformed by the Word and the inward presence of Christ that
everyone can see his light reflected in our acts of kindness.
CLOTHING
LANGUAGE
PRAYERS
OUR WORSHIP
CONCLUDING REMARKS
At a time like this when we gather
together from East and West, from North and south, when we gather together in
the name of Jesus Christ, O Lord arise and Shine!
It has come to a point in this country when we need a
turn-around, we need a change and that change must begin with you. Why? Because
you are the leaders of tomorrow and nobody can rob that from you. In order not
to find ourselves in much disasters as we are experiencing in our country these
days, our youths-you- need to get it right from the start that we cannot
continue to live like this in Nigeria, else we recede into a collapse. We must
all together, Arise and Shine. Wherever you find yourselves
tomorrow, know for sure that you are an ambassador of the Catholic Faith and
therefore you have no other choice but to shine forth for all men to see your
light. Anything less that shinning forth is not accepted and hence not
qualified to be called Christians.
A
little boy was standing in an alley with a broken piece of glass, reflecting
the light of the sun to a third story window. A police officer came by and
scolded him asking, “what mischief are you up to now? The boy said to the
officer, “Nothing sir, my little brother is sick and can’t leave our apartment
up there on the third floor where no sunlight ever gets into his room. The only
sunlight he ever sees is what I reflect from this little bit of glass.
