Catholic Bishop Highlights Importance of Family, Humility
By Church News
Bishop Emmanuel Adetoyese Badejo is urging the people of God to consider the importance of the family institution and the virtue of humility during this year’s Christmas Season.
In his Christmas 2022 Message, he reflects on the need to take care of the needy, including the homeless, and migrants so they can realize the love of God for them.
“Christmas reminds us of the importance of the family, the very first institution which God Himself revealed through Adam and Eve,” Bishop Badejo said, adding that all the people of God belong to one family, God’s family.
He continued, “The nuclear family of man, woman, and children predates and underlies every society, and association in the world and therefore deserves maximum attention and consideration.”
Making reference to the birth of Jesus as recorded in the Gospel of Mathew, the Local Ordinary of Nigeria’s Oyo Diocese said that Jesus came to salvage humanity through a family.
The Nigerian Catholic Bishop also reflected on the humble background surrounding the Birth of Jesus, “God could have seized the palace of King Herod to have His Son born there but he chose a lowly manger.
“He was born among mere animals in humble appreciation of lowly nature. In that way all who are privileged and highly placed must learn humility; so must we all learn to value the ordinary things of nature because they speak to us of God the creator of all (Matt.20:26-28),” he explained.
Bishop Badejo who has been at the helm of Oyo Diocese since November 2009 further said that taking better care of children in the family attracts God’s spiritual grace.
He further appealed to giving during the Christmas season according to one’s abilities.
“Christmas teaches us that in gratitude to God everybody must give what they can afford. The owner of the inn gave the manger, the shepherds gave their time, the angels gave their song and praise and the three kings each gave what he could, gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Give it up to someone else,” he said.