Rendering Accounts

It is quite obvious that there is a time we have to give account of our works and life. We are called to be responsible in the use of the graces and talents we have, and the wealth we possess. So a time comes when we must explain ourselves, silently or verbally, before God and man, how we lived out our lives in view of our responsibilities towards them.

Jesus lift up His eyes to heaven and said,  "Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you." By this gesture,  Jesus rendered back to the Father all that was entrusted to Him. "I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work which you gave me to do." In Jesus' address to the Father,  we see how prayer summons us to account to God by rendering to Him, through Jesus Christ, all that was entrusted to us. "I am praying for them...for those whom you have given me, for they are yours; all mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them."

On the other hand, we give account to others, as St Paul did at Ephesus. The account of the goods we possess, which we render on earth, comes as 'witnessing'. "You yourselves know how I lived among you all the time...how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable..." St Paul accounted how he testified of the repentance to God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Therefore, when we render account of our life of faith in the form of witnessing, we connect the faithful to the 'glory of Christ', which is readily available in prayer. Hence, in prayer we enjoy the twofold rendering of accounts to God in glory, and witnessing before men. Amen. 

Fr Jude Chinwenwa Nwachukwu, C.Ss.R

Corpus Christi Catholic Church, 

Egbin, Ikorodu, Lagos. 

Tuesday May 18th, 2021.

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