One event that dominated the activities marking the entrance into the Year 2016 at the Peac Centre Elele is the free feeding of the poorest of the poor and indeed the entire people of God. Although, food is one of the fundamental needs of the human person, certain persons live their lives without enough food on their table. It seems unbelievable but it is real.
People in hunger-condition across the country of Nigeria usually make their way down to Elele especially on the first day of the year. In keeping with the will of Jesus the Saviour that everybody must eat food, the man of charity without boundaries, the Father Professor Emmanuel M.P. Edeh CSSp, OFR, provided food stuff, cooked them and served same to the poorest of the poor on January 01, 2016.
The New Year charity food is symbolic. It is a gesture which smacks of charity and hope of better things to come in this year blessed by God. Charity food is given to quench immediate hunger and as a sign of hope for future blessings from our Saviour who came to save us all.
Father Edeh fed both the poor and the rich alike. Usually, streams of people flock around the man of God in the God-given Peace Centre Elele. The tentacles of his charity extended to every Tom, Dick and Harry.
Living true to his philosophy of life as contained in his Towards an Igbo Metaphysics (1985) and centred on compassionate caring for all mmadi, Father Edeh’s charity touched the lives of everybody seen at the said Centre. It was a celebration of charity without discrimination.
It would be recalled that Father Edeh’s acts of charity are also done day-by-day. His daily charity usually reaches its climax during festive periods when it is done in a spectacular manner. His life of charity achieves two major goals. One, it spreads God’s charity to the poorest of the poor in the country. Two, it stimulates the rich people to give generously to their neighbours.
It is clear that if God’s gifts and earth’s resources are charitably shared among the people of God on earth then people will have peace. God has given the world enough resources to engender peace on earth. It is our duty to emulate Christ in caring for one another: feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, providing shelter for the homeless, educating the indigent, etc.
Father Edeh’s charity on the New Year day celebration becomes a human response to the age long divine invitation to compassionate caring and an impetus for all well placed persons in the society to key into the act of charity. Charity, as the queen of all virtues, can really make the world a better place to live in fellowship and peace with God and with one another.