The Rector for St. Theresa Rectorate – Zorkor in the Upper East Region of Ghana Rev. Fr. Ezekiel has challenged Christians on the need for forgiving all offenders regardless of the nature of the offense.
Speaking on his second mass celebration on Sunday at St. Anthony of Padua Catholic church- Nyariga, the Priest advised the congregation that forgiveness is not optional for Christians because we are called to serve and the second reading which was taken from Ephisians 4:1-6, refers to Paul as a slave of Christ which means that we believers are slaves of Christ.
In his words, a slave has no authority of his own but lives under the authority and commands of his master and so Christ being our master has commanded us to forgive and so we have no reason to refuse because if we do, we would simply be undermining the authority of Christ over us.
According to the outstanding preacher of the gospel, unforgiveness has no justification and we have no reason to deny our fellow human being the gift of forgiveness because in the “OUR FATHER PRAYER”, we usually say that forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us, in other words do not forgive us our sins as we do not forgive those who sin against us, where do you think you would be when you refused to forgive? He questioned.
He added that, we put our health at risk scientifically when we refuse to forgive people because the more you see those people, the more you are being hurt and it can cause you high blood pressure.
He went on to say that Jesus told us in the Bible that if we go to the temple to worship and remembered that someone has offended us, we should leave the gift that we brought to present to God at the church and go back to make peace with the person and come back to offer your sacrifice for God to accept it and this in effect means that if you bear grudges with someone, your prayers can never be answered he added.
