By Ononye VC
The Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Onitsha,Very Rev Fr Johnbosco Okafor has explained the dual nature of Jesus Christ whom he said,possess the nature of God and man.
He spoke on the backdrop of his homily titled,”You need this food to be strengthened”,at the St Mary’s Catholic Church,Onitsha Inland Town last Sunday.
He explained the mystery of the Blessed Trinity saying that Jesus as the second person of the Blessed Trinity is God and that relative to that,He possesses two natures;the nature of God and the nature of man.
Fr Johnbosco urged the faithful to always draw their spiritual strength from God in whatever they were doing as it is the only food they need to strengthen their journey and all other endeavours.
He gave Biblical instances with the encounter of Prophet Elijah and prophet of Baal,citing the Book of Kings(1Kings.19:5)where God proved Himself by consuming Elijah’s sacrifice on Mount Carmel and the slaughtering of prophets of Baal which led to several threats from Jezebel to kill Elijah and he fled.
But while fleeing and getting tired thus asking God to take his life,the Angel of the Lord came to him and asked him to get up and eat,or the journey would be too long for him(1Kings.19:7).
“So Elijah got up and ate and drank,and was strengthened by that food and he walked for forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb,the mountain of God.”
According to Fr Johnbosco,such spiritual food having come from God,is expected to contain all the nutrients needed for spiritual and physical strength.
“This is exactly the message of the gospel of today where Jesus made it very clear to the Jews that not only that He is the bread that came down from heaven to give life to the world,but also that whoever eats the bread will never die”,fr Johnbosco pointed out.
Jesus he maintained,is offering every faithful the real spiritual food to prepare everyone for the journey ahead and urged everyone to take advantage of it by receiving the Holy Communion regularly and also going to confessions.