Emmanuel Abiodun

One reason I remained Catholic was the sacrament of penance. The church knows that humans are flawed and that we can't be perfect. It created a path to reconciliation after sin, allowing people to keep striving while keeping their struggles personal. No community rebuke, but just a conversation between you and God, with a priest providing guidance and absolution when you are ready. I didn't do confession for many years because I believed there was no point in admitting I was trying to change what I wasn't willing to change. I loved Mekwe far too much, thanks to teenage hormones. Some strange thing happened that changed that. One night, a guy came out of nowhere to me in the corridors of Hall 3 at UNIBEN, and he told me he wasn't there to preach but to share a message. He said, "Humans can never be perfect because only God is perfect." We can only strive towards perfection. God loves the act of striving, not perfection itself, because we can't attain it. I never saw the guy again after that day. He just vanished. I don't know who he was, but he changed me. After that encounter, I went to my first confession with a priest. In the Bible, Jesus mingled with people seen as sinners because he looked into hearts, not the outward pretense of the Pharisees. Christianity, when practiced properly, allows for inclusivity and personal growth, not the cults of judgment many are turning it into.