The Essence Of Religion

“Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained from the world” (James 1:27).


What is the essence of religion? How does one know a genuine and authentic religion? Where can we find a genuine religion? Who is a worthy religious? What are the things that make a religion pure and undefiled? Do we have a genuine religion in Nigeria? What of you my dear reading – are you practicing a genuine religion?

St. James defines authentic religion in terms of generosity and purity. According to him, “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained from the world” (James 1:27). For any religion to be pure and undefiled it must take these two conditions seriously.

The Psalmist defines God as the Father of the fatherless and protector of widows (Psalm 68:5). God is the One that provides for the widows and the orphans. But He cannot come down physically from heaven to provide material food for the orphans he uses people of goodwill as his instruments. God told Abraham, our Father in faith, “I will bless those who bless you, and him who curse you I will curse; and by you all the families of the earth shall bless themselves” (Genesis 12:3). Abraham is the channel of God’s blessing.

Child of God, like our father Abraham, you are channel of God’s blessings. God will use you to provide food for the hungry. He will use you to provide shelter to the homeless. What will determine your fate on judgment day will not be your wealth or academic qualifications; it will not even be how prayerful we are, but how charitable and how holy you try to live your life as a child of God. According to St. James, “Faith without works is dead” (James 2:26). Works of charity is what gives value to our faith. It is also what God will use as a yardstick for our judgment.

On judgment day, for instance, Jesus will say to those on his left, “Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me” (Matthew 25:41-43). Any assistance we render to our fellow human beings, especially the poor, it is to our Lord Jesus Christ that we are rendering it. He is the One that takes the glory and honour. He is the one that will equally reward us for our generosity.

Pope Francis recently launched a campaign that seeks to end world hunger before the year 2025. For the Holy Father, the only way to bring an end to hunger in the world is through Prayer and Action. The Holy Father observed, “We are in front of a global scandal of around one billion – one billion people who still suffer from hunger today. We cannot look the other way and pretend this does not exist. The food available in the world is enough to feed everyone. The parable of the multiplication of the loaves and fish teaches us exactly this: that if there is the will, what we have never ends. On the contrary, it abounds and does not get wasted.”

In a nation like Nigeria with rich natural resources talking about hunger, as the Pope rightly observes, is indeed a scandal. Yet, this is an unfortunate reality. Most Nigerians are not able to afford one square male a day. People are dying of hunger almost on a daily basis. During the interview of Cardinal Onaikan to mark his 70 years anniversary, he observed that here in Nigeria “we have people who are extremely poor who could not afford their daily bread; yet on the other hand we have people who are notoriously rich who do not even know what to do with their wealth; people who are buying jet and paying millions of money just to park them at the airport.”

With these and other observations the Holy Father came up with a passionate appeal to all people of goodwill, “Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, I invite you to make space in your heart for this emergency of respecting the God-given rights of everyone to have access to adequate food. We share what we have in Christian charity with those who face numerous obstacles to satisfy such a basic need. At the same time we promote an authentic cooperation with the poor so that through the fruits of their and our work they can live a dignified life.”

The Pope specifically invites all the institutions in the Church and the world to join in this campaign against hunger: “I invite all of the institutions of the world, the Church, each of us, as one single human family, to give a voice to all of those who suffer silently from hunger, so that this voice becomes a roar which can shake the world.” For the Holy Father, Charity begins at home. Hence, all the institutions in the Church must be involved. Gone were the days when we simply pray for the poor and needy. Now the Pope is inviting us to merge words with action. As a matter of fact, Action speaks louder than words.

On several occasions in the Bible, our Lord Jesus provided food to the hungry crowd. The last thing Jesus did was to dismiss the crowd without feeding them, not just with the word of God but also with material food. In one of such occasions when great crowd gathered around him, they had nothing to eat. Jesus called his disciples and said to them, “I have compassion on the crowd, because they have nothing to eat; and if I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way” (Mark 8:2-3). This is the most compassionate feeling and statement in the Bible.

The disciples were somehow skeptical and even insensitive to the needs of the people like most of us who are men of God. They asked Jesus, “How can one feed these men with bread here in the desert? For them it was impossible but with God all things are possible. Jesus insisted that they must give the people something to eat. He then collected their seven loaves of bread after giving thanks to God he handed them over to the disciples to distribute to the people. They all ate and were satisfied. At the end they collected seven baskets as leftover.

When Jesus appointed Peter the head of the Apostles, before his ascension into heaven he clearly demonstrated to him the reason why he chose him as the Apostles and what was expected of him as a shepherd. He called Peter three times and each time he asked him, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” Peter said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.” Second time he said, “Tend my sheep” and the third time he said, “Feed my sheep.” The sheep are not just the followers of Christ but all the hungry people you find along the streets, under the bridge, orphanage homes and even inside the motor parts. These were the people Jesus entrusted into the hands of the shepherds. The shepherds are expected to feed the Lord’s sheep that is the Lord’s faithful.

Jesus wants us to be generous with whatever God has given us. Our generosity should not be limited to our family members or only to those whom we know. Our generosity should cut across tribe, religion and ethnicity. God himself is generous, “He makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and unjust” (Matthew 5:45). The more generous we are the more we become like God, our generous Father.

Child of God, remember, each time you feed a hungry person, you are not just feeding the person before you. You are feeding God through that person. By so doing, you are storing riches for yourself in heaven. May God provide for your needs! May He bless you abundantly! As a child of the Most High God, you will never lack. God will use you as a channel of blessing. He will use you as instrument to feed the hungry, to clothe those who are naked and to provide shelter for the homeless! As you avail yourself for this noble task, it shall be well with you, in Jesus name – Amen!