By Olivia Obijiaku
The Parish Priest of St Ann’s Parish Zango Tama and the Supplying Priest to Our Lady Queen of Peace Parish, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Rev. Fr. Patrick Atama has called on the faithful to use their God-given gifts for the good of the Kingdom of God. He gave this charge on Tuesday, 17th September, 2024, leaning on the first reading of 1 Cor. 12:12-14, 27-31 in explaining that every member of the Body of Christ is gifted uniquely to contribute their quota selflessly to the growth of the Church.
He has charged them to imitate Jesus in being compassionate to others without waiting to be approached first, like Jesus who restored life to the son of a widow even though she did not ask for His intervention.
“These gifts were not given to us for the sake of competition.” The priest oriented. “Even though we have one spirit, we have different gifts given to us by the Holy Spirit. They were given to us to build the Body of Christ that is the Church – to join our hands together and put our talents together and see how we can strengthen the Kingdom of God here on earth. As our faces are different, so also our talents, our abilities, our gifts are also different. So, it is not to claim superiority over others. We all have our gifts. It is either you have discovered your own or you are yet to discover your own.”
“We all have these gifts of the Holy Spirit. The moment you discover your own, put it into good use. Do not use it with selfishness as many of us do today. Some people want to know the benefits to enjoy first before they use the gifts before putting them into use. They are not given to us for us to fight one another or to cause division or confusion in the Church as we see today. Instead of building the Church, we break away from the Church and we claim that we are also using the gifts given to us by God.”
“Even though we all have different gifts that are unique to every one of us, in the Gospel today, we are all called to be compassionate. As Christians, we are all called to be compassionate, whether you have the gift of prophesy; you are a teacher; whether you can work miracles; you possess the gift of healing; you speak in tongues; or whether you can interpret these tongues; we are all called to be compassionate. That is one thing that binds us together as Christians, because love, mercy and compassion are not particular gifts to particular people. We are called to exhibit them. No Christian is exempted because they are the core messages of Jesus.”
Fr. Atama clarified that classifying love, mercy and compassion gives those who are wicked and those who are insensitive to the suffering of others the room to justify whatever they are doing. He classified them as a call, stressing that those who perform acts are deviating from the calling of Jesus.
