Why Faith and Family?

We Africans are reputed to be notoriously religious. Our faith is not divorced from our everyday life.  More so, in Nigeria, our faith imbues our everyday actions and behaviors.  This is evident in how much faith or religious-flavored expressions have permeated our everyday parlance.  And that cuts across all strata of social interactions.  “God dey,” once the solace of the poor, I am told, has also become a succor for the rich.  Someone once said to me, “Father, na before dem dey talk say ‘God dey’ na poor man prayer oh.  Now na rich people even dey pray am pass.”

We are familiar with the passion with which many Nigerians forever cover everything with “the blood of Jesus” or perpetually “cast” and “bind” and then send whatever it is “back to the sender” or “to the bottomless pit.”  Indeed, “God pass dem.” Phrases like “to God be the glory” (a favorite of Nollywood home videos), “na God” and “by his grace” have become acceptable ways of acknowledging greetings and compliments. Some of my non-Nigerian friends, all thanks again to our enchanting Nollywood movies, tease me to no end with “my broda, we thank God oh, we thank God oh.”

All of this indicates that, for good or bad, faith orients our lives, albeit in some quarters, shallow faith and popular religiosity lead to faith schizophrenism, an unstable, inconsistent or contradictory mentality or approach to faith, a situation where one is neither here nor there.  This results in an eclecticism that drives one, as we say, from pillar to post, as one traverses all kinds of churches, spiritual homes, shrines, and beaches—in the name of searching for healing and answers to prayer.

Now to the second part of my question: Family is the basic social unit of every human society, the first human institution established by God.  Every family derives its existence and essence, value and mission from God.  From the beginning God placed family at the summit of his creation. Genesis 1 reveals that the whole of creation culminates in family, in the creation of our first parents and in the commission given to them to raise a family.  “Then God said: ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness…’ God created man in his image; in the divine image he created him; male and female he created them.  God blessed them, saying: ‘Be fertile and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it’” (Genesis 1: 26, 27).  This same God, when the time came for him to redeem the world, chose to be born into the human family of Mary and Joseph (Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:16, 18-25).

Given that within any human society certain behavioral traits, individual quirks, interpersonal idiosyncrasies, and communal practices could be traced, one way or the other, to family backgrounds and upbringings, anchoring our understanding of family on our faith, on God, orients us towards the ultimate end for which we are created, to be like him who has made us for himself.  Such connectedness with God will help direct and redirect our paths, especially as we strive to build a better society, a better Nigeria that we will bequeath to generations yet unborn. It is the cause and effect dynamics.  You want to fix a society, fix the family. To fix the family, seek the ultimate Source, which is God.  Besides, didn’t our African ancestors apprise us: “To know where you’re going to first know where you’re coming from.” Families come from God, are ordered by God, and will ultimately return to God.  Knowledge of the source of our existence, of our journey, always lightens the path to our destination. God assures us: “Yes, when you seek me

with all your heart, you will find me with you… and I will change your lot” (Jeremiah 29: 13-14).

On a more personal note, faith and family constitute the two continua within which I experience the boundless love and faithfulness of this ever compassionate and smiling God.  Family is God’s best gift to me.  And as a priest, God has also drawn me closer to an enriching and life-giving relationship with him.  This relationship invites me to always strive to know God more intimately, love him more dearly, and follow him more closely--as a Jesuit.  So I thought, what better way could I share the joys and consolations of these gratuitous gifts of God, gifts of faith and family?  They are a grace.  Freely I received and freely I give.

So much for “Why Faith and Family,” more like “what’s in a name?”  In this column, we shall be addressing sundry issues that affect us as individuals, as families, as society, for these are the same issues that also affect our faith, our worship, our relationship with God and neighbor. These same issues we bring to our relationship with God in whom “we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28).  May God hear your prayers and bless your every effort and undertaking, as you strive to live your life in his presence and to keep his commandments. Have a peaceful and joyous week.

Remain blessed and keep smiling.

First published in Yes! International magazine: "Faith & Family with Fr. Chijioke, SJ." July 2011