Not in Jesus name!

Thus, the season began. Like it did last year, the Christmas season began in this village immediately the calendar read 1st December. A group of “guys” and “babes” thought of beginning the celebration with an all-night party. They were those who usually identify with the emblematic portents of Christmas not its deeper meaning and essence.

They decided to meet where they usually meet. They met in one of the best hotels in the city. The hotel is located in that part of the city which is inhabited by the rich and the privileged in the society. The boys and girls, all in the prime of their youth, met to enjoy themselves; to drink, dance and have fun.

They gathered in the hotel late in the night and indulged in all kinds of fun most of which their forbears would never have imagined. Remember that such gatherings can only take place in the dead of the night, and at a time when those who know the Almighty would be busy humiliating themselves in His presence, partly out of fear for his punishment and partly out of desire for His favours.

Thus, the partying friends left the hotel around three in the morning. They drove in a Toyota Camry car. They had one of them, perhaps the most inebriated and intoxicated, take charge of the wheel. He got off on the road as if he had a death-wish.

His friends could not have demanded caution and circumspection in the way and manner he was driving the car. They were all drunk and intoxicated from the excesses of the opportunities life had thrown on their laps.

They were beside themselves as a result of their failure to realize that the distance between life and death is as far as that between one side of a coin and the other.

Thus the ‘guy’ pressed the pedal with such force that would make an experienced pilot of Boeing747 wink with envy. By the time they got to a round-about, the car had gone beyond control. He consequently drove it atop the road-divider. Tragedy consequently ensued. The car somersaulted several times and came to a halt when it hit another car which was coming from the opposite direction.

Thus, the city woke up to mourn their death. It also mourned the death of the innocent road-user whose car was hit by the Toyota Camry which was driven by the “boys”. There was no way the ‘guys’ could have been counselled anymore. All advice to the dead becomes infantile and puerile.

The above is different from yet another one which took place close to the University Campus. It was some days before Christmas. It was around ten in the night. The elderly ones were busy turning on their sides-right and left-in the hope that sleep would overtake them.

One measure of the treasure of the blessings of the Almighty on us all is that unquantifiable opportunity to rest our bodies at night. My brothers and sisters in the medical profession would advise that a man needs at least five hours of interrupted sleep every day.

Thus, on that day we all entered our homes in the hope of getting a blessed rest. We were all prepared to ‘die’, that is temporarily, so that we may all ‘resurrect’ in better health the following day.

Brethren, that was not to be. All of a sudden, we heard the penetrating sound of musical instruments blaring from a close distant. I thought it was an ‘accident’; I thought it would soon come to an end so that the majority of the populace could take a rest. But alas! It lasted the whole night. The whole neighbourhood was treated to different tunes from musicians, most of whom have nothing to say other than to corrupt the mind and body of the youth. The girls and boys were told to dance ‘their head out’. It was an opportunity to experience the pleasure of insanity.

I thought I was the only one that lost the opportunity to sleep. A neighbour, an elderly woman and who happened to be a Christian, woke up the following day and wondered who could have been so uncaring as to deprive her of her right to a peaceful night.  Brethren, further enquiries revealed that a group had decided to organize an all-night musical carnival to celebrate Christmas.

In other words, I thought Prophet Isa would argue that all celebrations of his birth that would lead to the desecration of the sacred are invalid. Here the sacred references not only human life but also such other values upon which human prosperity is hinged.

Thus, it would run contrary to the spirit of what I know Prophet Isa represents for my compatriots who believe him to indulge in the consumption of intoxicants which have the potential to lead to accidents and consequent loss of life.

It would be antithetical to the teachings of Prophet Isa for my compatriots who claim to believe in his message to use the occasion of the celebration of his birth to engage in heinous deprivation of their fellow.