At creation, God in His holiness made a clear distinction between plants and animals on the one hand, and man on the other. He created the plants and animals by the words of His mouth, but man, the perfection of creation, He created with His hands and His breath of life. He created man in His image and likeness, and the image of God in us is our soul, while our memory, our understanding and our will are His likeness in us. He thereafter gave man authority over creation, with a mandate to multiply and dominate the earth. And so, our father Adam was the god on earth, and creation obeyed him in all things. He was king of one of the many kingdoms of his father called earth, with a mandate to oversee and populate the earth in heavenly bliss. His sceptre of authority was the Sanctifying Grace of God his father. 

But at the instigation of Lucifer, Adam sinned and lost the sanctifying grace of God; he fell from grace to grass and also lost his scepter of authority. The sin of Adam robbed us of our godliness and we became ugly. Sin stained our humanity and spirituality that, instead of gods of the earth, we became glorified animals, and we lost the grace of procreating without pain, as that aspect of our humanity fell to the level of the animals. Creation revolted against man and heaven receded from earth; we became exiles on earth, and earth became our Altar of Reparation instead of a paradise. Mankind began to experience pain, sorrow and disappointment as a consequence of his betrayal and as against the peace and tranquility he enjoyed before the sin.   

But out of mercy and in fulfillment of His promise to redeem, God invoked the sentiments of filial piety in man, thereby raising mankind from the dust of animalism to the sphere of humanity. He established the concept of Family in human affairs for order and harmony, and in His written law for man, He defended what He has provided in the 4th Commandment. In the 4th of His Ten Commandments, He told us to honor our father and our mother so that it may be well with us. And of all the Commandments, only the 4th has promises attached to its obedience, and I know that God does not act in vain. And curiously, through the disobedience and betrayal of God by our parents, Adam and Eve is the reason for the estrangement between man and God, yet, God wants us to love and honor our father and mother even though they had first refused to love, obey and honor Him as God. Oh, what Goodness and what Love, what an Immeasurable love of God for man.  

Despite this fault and fall of man, God maintained His order for creation that, unlike the plants and animals which procreate as food for the pleasure of man on earth, man on the contrary procreate souls for heaven. So, whereas every human being has a filial relationship with his parents which exceeds time, a seed has no attachment whatsoever to its generating tree just as a weaned dog or goat has no filial attachment to its mother or father. This is why in the visible life of animals, there is no established attachment of ‘father and mother’ relationships as in the case of man, and fatherhood is a foreign concept in the plant and animal kingdoms. But in human life, parenting is active and involves a father and a mother, and this is the will of God for humanity and is not at the discretion of the human participants. So, whereas the sense of family and parenthood is none existent in plants, disappears with age and growth in animals, it is established and sanctioned by God for eternity in the case of man. God wants us to honor our father and mother; to behold them with love, honor and respect, be they alive or dead 

In the years gone by and when men were humane, parents were loved and held in honor by their children. But gradually, gradually and at the instigation of the evil one, the concept of family is being systematically annihilated. And now, the sin of the white man that destroyed family life in the ‘developed’ world has crept into our land and has taken root. In our so-called human development and advancement, we requested for, accepted and drank from the fountain of deception as offered by Satan to humanity, and in our continuous romance with him Lucifer, we have buried the will of God for man and family in the mud of humanism. And as with all things of God, we have discarded the Ten Commandment from our conscience and vocabulary and replaced it with an opposition from Lucifer; a human legislation instigated by Satan and called Fundamental Human Rights; our right to oppose God. 

We jettisoned the commands of our father God for our mundane sentiments at the instance of the evil one and we call it advancement. In our foolish but costly and self injurious collaboration with Lucifer to deny God on earth, we have, by our disobedience created chaos and anarchy everywhere; we have desecrated our homes and families to the ruin of our communities, cities and nations. We strive and continue to strive in perverse disobedience to the will of God for man and we pretend that all is well with us. We pretend that we can flourish in our disobedience, whereas we are only making the earth a hell, losing our humanity and becoming beasts as we dance to the evil tunes of Lucifer. We celebrate our advancement from mere mortals to supermen and so pretend that we do not need God anymore, whereas in reality, we have only become super demons as we have cast away the image of God in us and replaced it with that of the Demon to become demons.

In the years gone by and when we were not yet ‘civilized’, we honored our parents simply because God said so and so, it was the right thing to do. Then woe betides the child, no matter the age, who answers back to his father or mother for any reason, and all would blush with embarrassments who are witnesses to the shameful family life of the few conquered ones. But what has become of us? It is now the norm for parents to shiver in fear before their children, to be afraid to scold, to command or make demands of their children. We have turned the table upside down and the rule has now become: parents beware of thy children for your sanity and wellbeing else you die or go to jail. And we are proud of what we should be ashamed of, as we call it civilization instead of demonization for we have all been conquered.

We have been conquered and are being conquered by the evil one as we have stubbornly refused to walk with our father God. We have become most disobedient and we live and flourish in our disobedience, taking the mercy of God for granted. But note that God does not lie and has no need to, for He is the Way, the Truth and the Life, and cut off from Him we waste our time and achieve nothing. Can clay perhaps decide for a potter and live? In the same way, man will remain restless and sorrowful until he accepts to labor and rest in line with the will of his father and Creator God. The Commandments of God are eternal and immutable, and we obey to our peace, our joy and our rest, while we disobey to our ruin and tears. Evidence abounds all around of the evil consequences of our rebellion against God though we have chosen to close our eyes and our ears, pretending that we do not know why we are where we are; the liars that we are.

God said, honor your father and your mother so that it may be well with you. And as mentioned above, this is the only one of the Ten Commandments that God explicitly attached the consequences of our obedience. And I cannot in all humility fathom any other reason for this except that Love wants to make His gift of life to man peaceful and pleasant even while man is in exile on earth on account of  the first sin. He desires that His children, who chose to love Him through their obedience, may be happy on earth, and God does not lie. He has promised that if you honor your father and mother, it shall be well with you all the days of your life and that He will also reward your obedience with a long life on earth. What more could He have given as an incentive to encourage our obedience and what could be better than what God has offered? God loves us and demands that we reciprocate His love by loving our parents for our own good, and as usual, we have chosen not to listen to Him but rather to the enemy of our very existence; the thief, the liar and the deceiver; Lucifer, and so, we disobey to our peril. 

After God, parents are the donors of life and of all the necessities of life. They are our first teachers and friends who break their backs in order to care and cater for us, who deny themselves the benefits of life for our sake. We are all products of parents, and God has commanded that we honor them with our love, our obedience and our respect as their children. No parent is really happy who receives accolades outside his home but is scorned and despised by his children, they are sad and unhappy parents. But happy and blessed is the father who is surrounded by the love and affection of his children even though not applauded outside the house. He is a happy and fulfilled father with a spark in his eyes and a smile on his lips; he praises his father God and blesses his children daily at sunrise and at sunset. He will die in peace with tears of joy and fulfillment. And so I ask, what is the strength of your filial duties and responsibilities. Are you in obedience to the will of God as enshrined in the 4th Commandment or you are the reason for the sorrow and tears of your parents.

Note that you are under duty before God to honor your parents, and your neglect or refusal to do so is a sin for which you shall receive a punishment except you repent. Let nobody deceive you, and you must not deceive yourself.  You have no say in this matter and you have no excuse for disobedience as a child is never too poor that he has nothing to offer his parents. Much more than wealth, it is your love and affection that they hunger and thirst for, and if your dreams should come to pass, they will rejoice with you, and if not, they are ready to share your plate and also add whatever they could, including their blessings, for they are always our fathers and mothers till the very end. So, woe betides the child who denies his parents love and affection in their lifetime but buries them in gold. Reconcile now before they leave, and if they have already left, know that death is not an end or a separation to relationships. Prayers, sacrifice and charity, properly defined and performed regularly in their honor is commendable and of great support to departed souls.    

As God is the first parent and deserves our absolute unconditional love and honor, so also God, in His holiness and generosity has elevated parents for being His helpers in populating the world and generating souls for heaven to deserve to be loved and honored by their own children. And here again, we see the unquestionable love of God for man and His hope and great paternal expectations from us, but we betray. For like our parents Adam and Eve, we have also chosen to ignore and or calumniate Him as our father and God with our disobedience. We have chosen to ignore His filial boundless love and affection for us and despite the graces we have received from God through the merits of the Cross of Calvary, we have chosen to continue to despise Him. Despite all His affection and faithfulness, we have chosen to disobey and to continue to disobey Him as we dishonor our parents every day, causing them sorrow and tears, and killing many through our hardness of heart.

But obedience to God in all things is the only sure foundation for our good and success in our human endeavors, else we labor in vain for the Lord has said so. He said, unless the Lord builds, the workers labor in vain, and unless the Lord watches, the sentry watches in vain. God in His angels will never watch or bless the fields and efforts of those who live in disobedience to His word, and painfully regrettable is the headstrong refusal of man to learn from his mistakes and those of his brothers and sisters. Every soul on earth is begotten of a father and a mother, and so, we are all under the obligations of the 4th Commandment for our individual and collective prosperity on earth and for eternity, else we will suffer and continue to suffer despite all our human efforts.

Though obedience to the 4th Commandment is personal and private, the same is a reflection of our individual and communal acceptance or rejection of the will of God for man. But the consequence of our refusal to obey is all embracing as the individuals make the community, and the effects of our disobedience are glaring, devastating and far reaching even if we chose to pretend not to know. Obedience to the 4th Commandment opens a stream of blessings upon our efforts and undertakings while disobedience is sin, an offense against God for which we will suffer here on earth and for eternity, except we repent. So, be watchful and be on your guard for Lucifer, in collaboration with his human demons labors to steal from you your right and privilege to reap the benefits of your obedience to the 4th commandment.

 In his continuous opposition to God, and in his efforts to steal more souls from God, Lucifer has offered humanity an imitation, an opposition and a counterfeit to the will of God for mankind as expressed in the 4th Commandment, but the choice is yours. He has again given mankind the Child Rights Act, which is an extension of the evil phenomenon called Human Rights. This is our ‘right’ to offend, to annoy, to dishonor and to humiliate parents, to destroy homes and families. It is our flag of disobedience and dishonor, an affront to God Almighty and desecrator of filial piety and the concept of family as designed by God. It is another grand design for the ruin of innocent souls and total annihilation of family life at the instigation of the enemy of God and man, and we are blind to it. Or do we not remember that family is the cradle of every civilization, and that therefore the dearth of a good family is the ruin of a people.

And I remember the sorrow and lamentations of Prophet Samuel and the response of God to His sorrowful prophet: ‘you are not the one they have rejected; I am the one they have rejected as their king’. And I remind you of the admonitions of Prophet Isaiah, ‘let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts, let him return to the Lord that He may have mercy on him’. My dear friend, I admonish you in the name of God to behold your father and your mother in line with the will of God that it may be well with you.

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