FR ALIA ABOUT TO EAT THE UNLAWFUL BREAD?

The book of 1 Samuel 21: 1-10 tells the story of an encounter between David, the anointed one of God and Ahimelech, the priest of God. According to the Bible, when David was fleeing from Saul, he and his men ran out of provisions and therefore became very hungry.

Consequently, David sneaked out of his hide out and paid a visit to Ahimelech, the priest. He demanded for five loaves of bread for himself and his men.

Unfortunately, there was no ordinary (unconsecrated) bread left in the temple at that very time apart the consecrated loaves which no one was permitted to eat, except the priest.

However, given the circumstances that David and his men found themselves in, the priest handed over the bread to him; he and his men ate and survived their hunger.

This, apparently was perceived to be a gross violation of the religious laws of the Israelites. One may choose to term it a sacrilege.

Surprisingly, Jesus justified this action of David and the priest in the Gospel of Matthew 12: 3 He said "Have you not read what David did when he and his followers were hungry - how he went into the house of God and they ate the loaves of the offerings although neither he nor his followers were permitted to eat them, but only the priest ?

Jesus quoated the above Biblical passage to justify his action when he was accussed of breaking the law by curing a sick person on a Sabbath day.

The Canon Law of the the Catholic Church has a set of rules which are meant to guide all Catholics as it patterns to both spiritual and temporal things.

However, in the wisdom of the same Church, there are exceptions in most of the laws, bearing in mind, cultural differences and individual circumstances.
For instance, where the law says " one man , one woman" . This works very easily in the white man's land. But here in Africa, what happens to those who are already having many wives ? This was never envisage by the drafters of the law who are of Western culture that is monogamous in nature.

To take care of the above, the Church in Africa have domiciticated this law but with a little moderation to suite our situation. It allows a man with many wives (provided they are of a certain age) to pick one of them and wed. Once this is done, the rest of the wives are allowed to be receiving Holy Communion too.

In terms of clerics participation in politics, the law also gives some exceptions. Some of these include the followings:
1. Where there is only one party system

2. Where the state calls a Bishop to come in and help out or permit a priest to do so.

3 where a Bishop for the greater good of the people of God permits a priest to hold a political position.

The lacuna in this law is that, the drafters of the law, as in the case of marriage, did not envisage a state like Benue . They never imagined that:

1 . A government can owe workers salaries for years- leading to starvation, sickness and death in many families

2. That a government can kill senior citizens slowly but surely but keeping back their pensions and gratuities

3. That a government can come into power for close to eight years without building a single factory but plan to sell all the state owned assets before the end of it's tenure

That a governor can enrich his personal Enterprise so very rapidly while the entire state becomes poorer by the day

The list goes on.

If David was justified by Jesus for eating the unlawful bread to save his life - because of the circumstances he found himself in, how much more should Fr Alia eat this perceived "unlawful bread" to save millions of Benue citizens.

If the Church bends the law about marriage to accommodate and save those with many wives, how much more about the economic liberation of Benue people from political scavengers?

Finally, Bishop Avenya has been very out spoken about the issues of governance in Benue. Politicians don't like him. This is very obvious. Time and again, he has called on the government to pay workers and pensioners, to develop Infrastructures, provide means of transportation etc.

None of these is taken seriously. This informs why he has started doing some of these things by himself.

Why are we being clever by half here? Why all these noise about a statement credited to His Lordship about clergy and politics?

If we are to take him seriously as we claim, let us begin with the things he said the government should do. Otherwise, you stop quoating out of context.

Meanwhile, Fr Alia is going to eat the forbidden bread , for the sake of Benue Masses .

Radical situations require radical decisions.