The joy or good news that MEN is called to share with His fellow men is only the logical continuation of that which He Himself had receive from another person. Indeed, just as we cannot give what we do not have, pretending to have what you don't have and don't even intend to try to have while promising to give it to those in need, is pretending to be what you are not; that is to say, a seller of illusion, a liar, a charlatan, a hypocrite and finally, a person who speaks without conviction.

To be able to strengthen others, you must first be strengthened yourself by the teachings and experiences that you yourself have received and lived. How can you ask a person to believe when you don't have faith yourself? How can we help others overcome their doubts when we ourselves are not able to overcome our own doubts? To support the faith of others, you must first be supported by those of others. In other words, we cannot give others what they need without being carried by a divine grace which accompanies us throughout our journey of conversion, redemption, sanctification, fraternal communion, and social impacts through daily life testimonies resulting from a series of personal and daily experiences with a Men, a Child, a Community or a God always ready to strengthen the faith of all those who make the free choice to place their trust in Him.

Men is incapable of doing the will of God without being carried by the grace of God. If God wants to lead an individual to put his trust in Him, it is He Himself who initiates the process because He is God and He knows that without Him Men can do nothing.

How to break bad habits without being carried by the grace of God? Men conscience lets Him know on a daily basis that God is in Him. How can you be saved without a helping hand? If Christ was only concerned with His own person no Men would have the grace to be reborn again in Jesus.

In the seventh verse of the fourteenth chapter of his letter to the Romans, the Apostle Saint Paul makes it known: “None of us lives for himself only.¹” He continues in the eighth verse saying: “if we live, it is for the LORD that we live, and if we die, it is for the LORD that we die. So whether we live or die, we belong to the LORD.¹” This means that the life of Men in society and that of those who call themselves children of God in general or Christians in particular must not only be centred on itself, that is to say, on the fulfilment of our own person, the preservation of our interests in disregard of those of others, the search and the exacerbated satisfaction of selfishness, the denigration of others, the humiliation of others, criticism for the sake of criticism or criticism without propositions serious, slanderous and tendentious statements with the aim of harming the image of others and anything that relates to the satisfaction of our own satisfaction without taking into account the legitimate concerns of others or without taking positions in questions where our proposals and our points of view are required.

Human life: A gift in the service of others

The gift of oneself for others has its source in a relationship of trust which is only the consequence of experiences of faith translating into actions of thanks through virtuous acts which honour the one we have chosen to serve daily through our brothers, our friends, our compatriots, the sick, the most deprived, our country, the countries at war, our Churches, our mosques, our synagogues, our temples, our schools, our institutions; in short, our societies in their most extreme and complex realities because if indeed salvation comes from God, it will always need Men to translate it concretely on the ground. So, whatever Men has to do, He must put Himself in the service of God through the service He provides to others. “Being there for others is also being there for yourself. When we love ourselves, giving to others is also giving to ourselves. For the gift of self reflects on the one who receives, on the one who gives and on all those who witness it.² » Whether free or not, any service which obeys a logic of duty and responsibility will always be of a very great interest not only for the one who provides it but also the one who receives it because we will always need others as much in moments of joy as of sorrow.

| Also read : The real sacrifice : giving your life for those you love.

We will always need the experiences of others, the expertise of others, the advice of others, the consolation of others etc. And even if it happens that others cannot give us the comfort or satisfaction that we expect, we will always have the possibility of resorting to the source of all those helping hands that surround us because the only person to whom we can always turn turning when we no longer know which way to turn will always give us the happiness that others cannot give us and that we are called to provide in various ways to others.

Faith as a basis for real social impact

The assistance of a God who never abandons His own is a certainty for those who believe despite everything. But it is not enough just to believe. You have to be convinced of this and to get there or be strengthened in this wise choice, you have to make the effort to be true to yourself on a daily basis while demonstrating sincerity through daily actions that for a Christian are not trivial but essential faith experiences in deepening faith.

By professing his faith in Jesus Christ for example, someone who chooses to become a “child of God” through Christ is not only saying that he believes in the existence of an all-powerful God. He also attests that he is convinced that whatever the circumstances of life, He who has triumphed over death will never abandon him. He will always accompany him on a daily basis in his experiences of life and faith, sometimes jovial and very often painful but always with a glorious outcome because as the prophet says: “When you pass through deep waters, I will be with you; your troubles will not overwhelm you. When you pass through fire, you will not be burnet; the hard trials that come will not hurt you.³”

| Also read : Relationship of trust : the need to believe in God without having seen, so as not to be satisfied with seeing before believing

And even if you have to see before you believe, you should not wait for a sign from heaven in the sense of an act that feeds Men's greed or misplaced ambitions. We must believe thanks to the testimonies of others, and put ours at the service of others. This is how instead of remaining in obsolete reasoning which sometimes leads to reasoning which contributes to speaking ill of those we do not know, we will begin to speak with authority thanks to our personal experiences or that another has truly experienced because in fact, what God had to do for others in the past He can also do for us because “from one generation to another he shows mercy to those who honour him⁴.”

The child of God in general or the Christian in particular is the one who knows that God through Christ can do all things. He is the one who knows that the Holy Spirit of God is capable of making possible what seems impossible in the eyes of the world. It is because he is convinced that the God in whom he has placed his trust is, and has the solution to all problems, that the profession or confession of faith of a Christian is not a series of affirmations devoid of conviction. The firm conviction of the one who proclaims his faith will always imply active cooperation with God in order to break the limits of uncertainties and those of the unbelief of Men not only for the good of the one who believes but also all those with whom he share the same certainty that he proclaims and that he is called to proclaim in a more concrete way through quality service that truly testifies to God's love for all people.

It is by insisting on improving our personal relationship with God through Christ and especially by putting His words into practice on a daily basis that He helps us to know Him better and make Him better known to others. By being constantly connected to Christ we are guaranteed never to be disappointed because He is the only person worthy of trust; the best model that could exist; The one to whom all those who want to be trustworthy can turn to be able to provide or allow others to always provide a quality testimony because God and Christ in particular is not only the One with whom hope is never lost but also the one whose omnipotence knows no limits.

Maraboutism is a cult or devotional practice exercised by a holy person. Image: afp

Speak with authority based on truthful testimonies

Experiences of faith or all other forms of experience, are necessary in strengthening a relationship of trust both for those who experience them, as for those who experience them through the testimony of others in order to then be able to know what he or she should do when faced with a similar circumstance.

It is during the daily experience of Men that the omnipotence of God is manifested. Everyday experiences are the means by which God provides Men with that which will not only be useful for Himself, but also for Others.

The omnipresence of God in the world for the good of Men is not a certainty which is limited to the level of the circle of religion and faith. It takes birth there to better deploy itself on a daily basis in all spheres of life, thus allowing Men to better translate into action what He proclaims and not be content with being “simply listen and then forget it⁵” without However, make the necessary effort to fully benefit from the riches of these words in His life.

It is easier to tell a person not to consult a marabout when you have not had to experience the same difficulties as them, or when you are just content to respect one or more religious or biblical precepts without having experienced the same difficulties as the person you are advising.

The tendency to exclude from the love of God those who consult marabouts under the pretext that it is a path of perdition created by the "devil" in order to corrupt Men must be contextualized and based on examples practices and palpable proofs in order to clearly show the difference between a work of divine provenance and one which is not.

Jesus says that it is by their fruits that we will recognize true prophets⁶. In other words, to differentiate between a seller of illusion and a true Men of God, we must refer to the quality of works. But does this mean that because we accept the fact of being a sorcerer, marabout, diviner and others, that we are necessarily or automatically a bad person? It is easier to judge according to appearances generated by inherited considerations than to judge according to justice.

Anyone who has had to deal with charlatans or sellers of illusions knows the basis on which to say that certain people are not good. But the fact that some are not good does not necessarily mean that all are bad. What are those who consult marabouts looking for? Do they find solutions to their problems or not? Do they only want to harm others? Actually, what is a marabout?

The ambiguity of the term in itself or rather its diverse reality in African societies in particular gives rise to numerous controversies. Indeed, between those who consider them to be religious and moral authorities, sages, sorcerers, soothsayers and tricksters, it is not clear who they are perhaps because they do not have a well specified religious status such as that of the Sheikhs⁷ (name given to wise men and religious dignitaries), the Muftis⁷ (official interpreters of Muslim law), the Meuzzin⁷ (Muslim religious functionary responsible for calling from the top of the minaret of mosques to the five daily prayers), the ZaouÏa⁷ or religious establishment under the authority of a Muslim brotherhood, specially assigned to teaching, the Cadis⁷ (the one who judges disputes between Muslim individuals), and the Imam⁷ (authority in religious matters and minister or Muslim dignitary who in a mosque plays the role of leader of Friday prayers.)

This term has taken on various connotations to the point where traditional practitioners, diviners, mediums, traditionalists, sorcerers, political-religious leaders, healers, are all called marabout. But what is the origin of this word and what is a marabout?

The term taken from the Arabic word (mrabef), then on the word amrabed in the Berber language, essentially referred to holiness, to the beliefs that revolve around them, and to the practices to which they give rise. Maraboutism is therefore in this sense a holy cult or a devotional practice exercised by a holy person.

At the end of the 15th century, the sovereignty of the central power of the very vast Maghreb territory was shaken by Christian threats from the Iberian Peninsula and other internal conflicts, notably those of the Berber tribes (sedentary in the North-West territories of the Maghreb).

The plan of the Maghreb states to submit the entire Middle East under their control was foiled by the independence of the Arab tribes. “The central powers were therefore forced to witness the decline of the hegemony of the Muslim civilization of the Iberian Peninsula (consisting mainly of Portugal and Spain) and the dynamism of Southern Christian Europe which was gaining a foothold on the Maghreb coasts by taking advantage of internal tribal disputes.⁸ »

This situation of insecurity in the Maghreb internally allows the emergence of religious movements which have spread throughout the Maghreb and more precisely in all social groups (urban dwellers, mountain dwellers, people of the desert, and those of the high plains) including even in the Berber tribes. This dazzling expansion attracted the attention of the central powers who attempted to use the popularity of the members of these religious movements to benefit in return from greater political-religious legitimacy.

This is how they formed executives controlled by the central powers for the administrations while allowing networks to develop by the Cheicks, that is to say charismatic personalities who had the status of representatives of rural communities in the Maghreb space and who, on the back of the central administration which granted them the status of community leader, constituted a politico-economic organization whose center of influence will be the Zawiya, an institution which will include houses of maraboutic families as well as places of prayer, teaching, and catering or accommodation for nomads.

It is within this institution that local conflicts were resolved and that major decisions concerning the future of the maraboutic lineage and communities were taken to maintain this mysticism which gave birth between the 15th and 16th centuries to a spirituality founded on individualism while promoting not only submission to the Sheikh and his descendants, but also taking the prophets as models of life, patience, respect for parents and elders, frugality or sobriety as well as openness to others as brothers in religion.

Thanks to his deep knowledge in Islam in particular, the marabout has the capacity to intervene in several areas, particularly mystical, and this is the reason why many people come to seek his services, unfortunately compromised by pernicious acts orchestrated by crooks and other deviant acts prohibited by Islam and going in the direction of using occult means to harm others.

If it is not formally attested that the marabout is an Imam, a Cheick, a Cadis, a Meuzzin, a Muftis, a Zaouia, a Traditional Practitioner, a Healer and others, we must not forget to specify that thanks to his abilities and his multiple knowledge, he has the capacity to intervene in several areas. This is why he is defined as “a traditional personality with multiple variations.⁹”

By going to marabouts and we specify the real ones, Mens really find solutions to their problems despite the scams which taint the exercise of all activities.

The impact of Christianity in Africa is so strong that some Christians rightly and wrongly equate everything that relates to traditional religions with the devil to the point where certain spiritual and traditional authorities are qualified as marabouts while they do not consider themselves to be marabouts just like some traditional practitioners for whom this term is today equated with charlatanism.

If Christianity does not claim to have a monopoly on salvation, making the free choice to become a Christian is a sure way among others to experience and help others experience the omnipotence of God which resides in faith in His son Jesus Christ.

For a Christian, you should not go and consult a marabout just because you shouldn't go there or because they are charlatans but because when you have Jesus in your life, you no longer need to go looking for solutions to your problems elsewhere. And it's not just words. He Himself said: “I am the way, the truth and the life; no one goes to the Father except by me¹⁰”

Because “all religions emphasize a transcendence that it understands in its own way”¹¹, it is preferable to campaign even more in favour of one's culture, one's tradition, nature, one's religion, one's mosque, one's synagogue, one's its chapel or its Church. In other words, putting ourselves in the service of God and Mens where we have made the free choice to be.

Men would benefit better by choosing to become a Christian. For what? Because without any pretension, Christ conquered death and thanks to His one and only salvific sacrifice, those who believe in Him no longer need other forms of sacrifice. Furthermore, by choosing to become new creatures in Him, there is the possibility of experiencing on a daily basis the signs of His love or of His presence in the lives of Men.

The works that Jesus produced increased His fame. Even those He asked to be quiet couldn't do it. They were all eager to testify to the wonders of God in their lives to let the world know that there is someone who has the power to say Yes forever where Men said No forever or No forever where the world said Yes forever. In other words, with Christ there is no lost cause. To declare it, that is to say, to attest that He truly acts in the name of God and that His works are good, one must have had to experience certain circumstances to strengthen oneself or be strengthened by the testimony of others.

In his prison and having heard of the works of Christ, John the Baptist sent his disciples to ask Jesus if He is the one who should come or if they should wait for another? Jesus answered them by saying: “Go back and tell John what you are hearing and seeing: the blind can see, the lame can walk, those who suffer from dreaded skin diseases are made clean, the deaf hear, the dead are brought back to life, and the Good News is preached to the poor. ¹²"

Today Christians can no longer remain silent when they have experienced the wonders of God in their lives. They themselves are called to proclaim it so that other people no longer remain in uncertainty and despair. God needs servants to extend His reign of love in spaces where His omnipotence is limited by hypocritical and sometimes selfish considerations. Environments where Muslims are martyred, where Christians are marginalized, where Buddhists are shunned, where traditionalists are ousted, where the contribution of others in a common project is sometimes assimilated to competition between several companies or to a work for evil.

To some of those he had delivered and healed, Jesus recommended silence because He did not want His greatest project, namely His victory over death caused by the sins of the world, to be compromised by distractions. This is why, as the prophet Isaiah said: “The LORD has given me understanding, and I have not rebelled or turned away from him. I bared my back to those who beat me. I did not stop them when they insulted me, when they pulled out the hairs of my beard and spat in my face. But their insult cannot hurt me because the sovereign LORD gives me help. I brace myself to endure them. I know that I will not be disgraced, for God is near, and he will prove me innocent. Does anyone dare to bring charge against me? Let us go to court together! Let him bring his accusation. The sovereign LORD himself defends me – who, then, can prove me guilty”¹³?

God’s love is not discriminatory. He thinks of everyone. He knows that if there are any who are not in conformity with His requirements, those who have a good relationship with Him will act to produce fruits that truly reflect the love from which they come.

Don’t we say that “it is from the Jews that salvation comes¹⁴”? If God's long-term plan was to save only the Jews, what would happen to the pagans that we were?

A heart that is well disposed despite its weaknesses is better disposed to a relationship of trust than an ill-disposed heart or one not at all disposed.

The choice of faith in Christ is a response to God's call and at the same time a sending on a mission. Those who are strong must work for the strength of others. We are not children of God for ourselves. Faith in Christ always leads towards others. This impulse of heart of divine origin must always help us to produce fruits which perfectly represent the person in whom we believe who is a God of love, of forgiveness, of consolation, of assistance, of peace, of justice, of unity and fraternity.

Everyone who believes will always have something to offer others. The children of God in general and Christians in particular are managers and co-owners of the free gifts of a God who would like them to translate into action on a daily basis the joy of the Gospel that they have received in their hearts.

Although there will always be conflicts and wars, that does not mean that we cannot contribute to the return of peace. Photo: nyitkyyina news journal

The Christian and peace in the world

The mission of the Christian is not to stop conflicts and wars in the world but to contribute to the maintenance of peace and its return where the path of violence to recover peace has become an absolute necessity. This might seem paradoxical or even implausible to some, but being a peace worker does not mean that there will never again be conflicts and wars in the world. Even though Christians live in hope of a new heaven and a new earth, as long as they are on pilgrimage on this earth, there will always be conflicts and wars and they will always have to wage war while favouring the paths of non-violence and in several other particular cases that of violence.

The Christian lives in a world of dissension where it is not always what he wishes or what the Lord asks him to proclaim which will be applied by Men. The child of God in general and the Christian in particular is called to put himself at the service of an ungrateful world that can lead him to perform acts that some could describe as ungrateful but which for him are not because he has the duty to act permanently for the good of all with the firm conviction that what is alarming today will have a happy ending afterwards.

This contribution to the preservation of peace and the return of peace is also reflected in the fact of waging war to contribute to the return of peace. There are wars in the world because of hatred in the hearts of men. To overcome these hatreds, it's necessary to putting ourselves at the service of a truth that we know to be good because it arises from our personal relationship with God. It's about not letting yourself be dumbed down by perverted mentalities but remaining faithful to your principles and fighting on a daily basis so that many people experience an inner joy that the wickedness that reigns in the world would like to dissipate. And Jesus himself said: “do not think that I have come to bring peace to the world. No, I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.¹⁵”

War does not only refer to the uprising of one nation against another or to the confrontation between a State and rebels. The spectrum is broader and takes into account among other things, slander, betrayal, hypocrisy, bewitchment, idolatry, embezzlement of public funds, corruption, adultery, sectarian excesses, pederasty, paedophilia, evil pacts etc.

To make peace triumph, we must fight for the truth not only by taking the weapons that science and technology offer us. Saint Paul says to “put on God amour now! Then when the evil day comes, you will be able to resist the enemy’s attacks; and after fighting to the end, you will still hold your ground¹⁶”

During his public ministry and always by the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus went “to Nazareth where he had been brought up, and on the sabbath he went as usual to the synagogue. He stood up to read the scriptures and was banded the book of the prophet Isaiah. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it is written: the Spirit of the LORD is upon me, because he has chosen me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind; to set free the oppressed and announce that the time has come when the LORD will save his people.¹⁷"

He called people to conversion¹⁸, he healed the sick by laying hands on them or not¹⁹, he drained the faults and strengthened the faith of the weakest²⁰, he freed individuals whose fate was likened to an inevitability to the great happiness of some, and to the great contempt of others²¹. He outlined the abuses and injustices in society²². He never took up arms but always acted in the name of truth in order to breathe new life into a world perverted by pernicious acts that have always existed. And since the problems He fought are still relevant today, His servants continue this same work thanks to a divine anointing in order to strengthen the faith of Men in a world in distress, in search of reference, in search of a solution, in search of strengthening and consolation.

Strengthening others means trying to help them come back to their senses while being careful not to trivialize the situation they are experiencing. We are not always the best people to tell others what is best for them, especially if we have not gone through a similar experience. To say that God said in his word not to do this or not to do that is not enough. We ourselves must be able to live what we proclaim on a daily basis while learning to respect the choices of others even if we do not share them. This is also having trust in God: Entrusting what seems bad to us to His holy mercy, learning from the experiences of others, knowing how to get up when we have fallen, taking the risk of making mistakes, making our choices and demonstrate responsibility in order to be finally able to share our faith experiences with others so that they not only have more confidence in themselves, but even more in God.

English|French

References

Biblical references (from the GOOD NEW BIBLE with deuterocanonical books)

[1] Romans 14, 7-8; [3] Isaiah 43, 2 [4] Luke 1, 50 [5] James 1, 25 [10] John 14, 6 [12] Matthew 11, 4-5

[13] Isaiah 50, 5-9 [14] John 4, 22 [15] Matthew 10, 34 [16] Ephesians 6, 13 [17] Luke 4, 16-19

Others biblical references

[6] (Matthieu 7,16) [18] Marc 1, 15 [19] Marc 6, 5 ; Luc 7, 1-10 [20] Luc 5, 17-20 [21] Jean 5, 1-18 [22] Matthieu 23, 13-32

Articles references

[2] Le don de soi

[7] Le marabout dans la société nigérienne

[8] R. Béllil, « maraboutisme », encyclopédie berbère 30|2010, open edition journal, pages 4576-4588

[9] Capteurs de djinn. Une chercheuse va à la rencontre des marabouts guérissuers d’Afrique de l’Ouest

[11] Carl-Albert Keller, Le Dieu des chrétiens et le dieu des religions, Revue d’Histoire et de Philosophie religieuse, 1976, pp. 509-523

Conversion of sinners: a divine grace offered to the free will of Men

Patience: fruit of a series of faith experiences with God

Ambivalences anduncertainties: when the choice of silence in prayer appeases anger

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