Ho, Aug. 10, GNA - Christians have been exhorted to accept and live with the realities of life of which suffering is its trademark. "The challenge is to go ahead and live our lives whatever way it unfolds". The Reverend Father Paul Agbodza of the Ho Bankoe Parish of the R.C. Church gave the exhortation at a thanksgiving service to mark the peaceful end of the nine-day final funeral rites for the late Togbe Afede Asor II and some of his elders.

Togbe Afede Asor II, who died six years ago, is the predecessor of the Agbogbomefia Togbe Afede XIV. Reverend Agbodza said it was usual to protest under such difficult situations but "not to abandon or deny God", he said. He said Biblical accounts of its personalities such as Job, Elijah, and Jesus Christ, among others have not indicated that they were free from suffering for all their faithfulness and holiness. Reverend Agbodzah said suffering and other negative things in life were natural consequences, which nobody could escape from, irrespective of his or her relationship with God.

That, he said, did not mean that God's mercy is not a reality. Reverend Agbodzah said God's mercy "liberates us from eternal death to eternal life not that we shall not suffer". Monsignor Anthony Kornu, Vicar-General of the Ho Diocese of the R.C. Church explained that the depth of one's faith in God is what strengthens the Christian against suffering. Prayers were said for peace and understanding in the Asogli State as well as during events in the run-up to the December elections and after.