9th June, 2019
A cleric of the Catholic Church, Rev. Fr. Anthony Ntia, has said that a nation with the spirit of God must promote transcultural relationship with one another for success and enduring love.
Fr. Ntia spoke during the sermon at Saints Joachim and Anne Catholic Church in Ijegun, a Lagos suburb, to commemorate the Pentecost; he day the Holy Spirit descended on the disciples of Jesus Christ.
This happened 10 days after Jesus Christ ascended to heaven, 50 days after Easter Sunday and the Pentecost closed the Season of Easter.
He said that the Holy Spirit would always condemn division irrespective of race, tribe and culture, but will always promote unity among the people.
According to him, the Holy Spirit works only where there is cooperation between man and God and also in the relationship among the faithful.
The cleric urged the faithful to be promoters of peace in their immediate environment to demonstrate the existence of the true spirit of God in their midst.
” The Holy Spirit brings forth peace, togetherness, cooperation and unity, differences of any form cannot allow the existence of the Holy Spirit.”
The priest also said that Nigerians should promote transcultural relationship instead of hating or killing each other.
He also said that the celebration of Pentecost was a call to show love to one another as was the case in the upper room, when the disciples were in waiting.
Fr. Ntia noted that the story of the building of tower of Babel was successful because they were united but immediately they offended God, division and failure set in.
” Differences bring about failure, but if a nation should speak in the same language of love and not division, that is the only thing that can build her success,” he said.
The cleric said that Pentecost marks the birthday and take off of Christianity as that was the first authority God breathed on the faithful to start up an official church.
“Pentecost marks the official beginning of the church as the Holy Spirit gave them boldness to preach the word of God and also gather the people for worship,” he said.
He added that any group without the spirit of God cannot have boldness to succeed as the Holy Spirit is the foundation to progress.
The cleric also described the Holy Spirit as the only symbol in the world that represents God’s presence that would make man do ordinary things in extraordinary ways.
He, therefore, urged the faithful to emulate the characteristics of the Holy Spirit in homes, schools, offices, places of worship and the world in general.
Catholic faithful commemorated the Pentecost Sunday, being 40 days after Easter celebration and the beginning of another church calendar year.