Country President UNITED NATIONS-POLAC felicitates with Christians at Easter

HAPPY EASTER CELEBRATION 2023

The Country President of United Nations Positive Livelihood Award Centre, United Nations-POLAC (UN-POLAC), the Secretary General, Nigerian Supreme Council for Ecclesiastical Affairs (NSCEA) and the Presidential Candidate of Mass Action Joint Alliance (MAJA) in 2019 election, Bishop Amb. Prof. Bishop Funmilayo Adesanya-Davies has congratulated the Christian community in Nigeria on the Easter festivities, and all weekend of Easter celebration of 2023.

She explained, “The period of Easter as the most important and oldest festival of the Christian Church, celebrating the resurrection of Christ and held (in the Western Church) between 21 March and 25 April, on the first Sunday after the first full moon following the northern spring equinox. Easter is one of the principal festivals, or feasts, of Christianity. It marks the Resurrection of Jesus three days after his death by crucifixion. For many Christian churches, Easter is the joyful end to the Lenten season of fasting and penitence.

She added further, “Along with the Nativity of Christ, Easter is one of the most important celebrations in the Christian calendar. It is when Christians glorify and give thanks for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. After His crucifixion, death, and burial, Christ rose from the grave three days later. By this, He conquered death and redeemed us from sin.

The significance of Easter is thus that, “Jesus Christ’s triumph over death; His resurrection means that eternal life is granted to all who believe in Him. The purpose of Easter is also the full confirmation of all that Jesus taught and preached during His three-year ministry. If He had not risen from the dead or simply died and not been resurrected, He would have been thought just another teacher or prophet and not the son or form of God, Christ, the Messiah. However, His resurrection rebuked all that and provided final and undeniable proof that He was the Son of God and that He had overcome death once and for all.

“The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is the core of the Christian gospel. Saint Paul says that if Christ is not raised from the dead, then our preaching and hope are in vain (1 Cor. 15:14). Certainly, without the resurrection, there would be no Christian preaching or faith. The apostles of Christ would have continued as the disheartened group which the Gospel of John depicts being in hiding for fear of the Jews. They were in total despair until they met the risen Christ (John 20:19). Then they touched Christ’s wounds of the nails and the spear; they ate and drank with Him. The resurrection became the foundation of everything they said and did (Acts 2-4): “…for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you see that I have” (Luke 24:39).

The resurrection affirms Jesus of Nazareth as the prophesied Messiah of Israel and the King and Lord of a new Jerusalem: a new heaven and a new earth. It is therefore a period of self- introspection, self-discipline, giving of sacrifice, forgiveness to others as Christ did for us and commitment to the Almighty God for the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ, including the individual personal acceptance of Jesus Christ as personal Lord and saviour so as to be born again and prepared ultimately for eternal life in heaven.

This Easter festivities come at a unique moment in our national life when we have just elected new president and other representatives and chief executives to pilot the affairs of the country for the next four years. In the spirit of the Easter, month of Lent, and of the Muslim’s holy month of Ramadan, we all therefore need to bury the hard feelings that came with the campaigns and elections and join the new leaders for the task of nation building ahead in the spirit of forgiveness, faith, unity and peace to ensure progress.

Adesanya-Davies calls on individuals to repentance and to come to the light of the knowledge of Christ, while appealing to all Nigerians to embrace peace in this season and take advantage of the period to seek God’s forgiveness, direction and favour for the country and eschew all divisive tendencies, segregation and evil. “I wish you all a truthful celebration of the glad tidings of Easter as we all celebrate in this festive period, and may the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, and Saviour and the sacrifice of God in Christ which he atones for our sins accrue to us not only on earth alone, but in heaven at death, and through out eternity in Jesus precious name, amen.”      ¢-Amb. Bishop Prof. Funmilayo Adesanya-Davies

Bose Ajibola
NSCEA Press
April 8, 2023