By Olivia Obijiaku
The Director of Seat of Wisdom Academy (SWAZ), Bassawa Zaria, Rev Fr. Dr. Julian Ibe has called on Christians to support one another in the journey of life. He made this call at Our Lady Queen of Peace Parish, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria on the Feast of St Luke the Evangelist, Friday, October 18, 2024.
The priest cited St Luke as one who stayed with St Paul when others left him even as he emphasized the need to support others in mission field.
“Only Luke was with him.” The priest recalled. “So, Luke was faithful in following Paul. In the Gospel, Jesus sent them in twos because He knows that everybody needs support. In our journey of life, we can never make it alone. We need companionship even in our spiritual life.”
Fr. Ibe clarified that the Church uses Evangelists for the four Gospel Writers: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John; as well as evangelizers for those who proclaim the Good News. He intimated that Luke was the only Gentile among the four Gospel Writers, the rest of whom were Jews, explaining that, “that is why it is only in the Gospel of Luke that you find passages like Good Samaritan and the story of the ten lepers whom Jesus healed and that it is only a foreigner – a Gentile who came back to give thanks.”
Maintaining that Jesus came to remind one that the Kingdom of heaven is at hand, he summed that any Gospel that does not boil down to repentance is not of Christ. He then charged them to change their old way of life and embrace a new one because, “nobody knows when the Kingdom of |God will come. Time is ticking every day. Let us repent.”
