The Most Reverend John Bonaventure Kwofie, the Catholic Metropolitan Archbishop of Accra, has advised members of the church not to use God’s name deliberately to extort monies from people to get rich.”There are those who are making millions improperly in the name of God. Let me not hear this about any of us who are my dear Catholics. I will be very sad…”The Most Rev. Kwofie gave the advice while delivering a homily at the church’s observation of the veneration of the cross on Good Friday at the Holy Spirit Cathedral in Accra.
He said Jesus Christ wanted all believers to learn from His willingness to sacrifice his life to save humanity and make the world a better place.”We are, therefore, missionaries of today sent out to proclaim the good news, to go out and do what we learnt of Him. Anytime mass is ended, let’s run with our baton to go and do what we heard,” he said.
Most Rev. Kwofie, touching on the essence of Good Friday, said: “What is good about this Friday when we mourn the death of our Lord Jesus the Christ. What is good about this Friday when the church asks us to stay away from food, when we enter the church in silence and exits in silence?”
He said Christ’s suffering and affliction was to take away the sins of many, hence the reason for His failure to retaliate.”On His last moment when He was tortured, He said Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing. He didn’t say, Father deal with them for treating me wrongly.”The Archbishop entreated Christians to learn to forgive one another if they wanted to be true followers of Christ until their last days.”Jesus was not thirsting for water, wine nor vinegar on the cross, but he was thirsting to accomplish the mission God had sent Him to accomplish, for goodness and love to flourish on the face of the earth. So, let’s not let His toil and suffering be in vain,” he admonished.
The congregation, mostly clad in black, red, or brown outfits to signify mourning the passion of Christ, prayed for the repentance of unbelievers and those who failed to acknowledge the help of Christ in their accomplishments.They also prayed for the progress of the church, the Archbishop and his auxilliaries, cathcumens, and public and private office workers.The congregation took turns to touch parts of a crucifix, symbolising the sorrowful passion of Christ, with prayers, believing that their concerns would be addressed.The entire ambience of the Cathedral was calm and quiet, with low-key hymnals being sang at the background, especially during the veneration of the cross.
Interacting with some members of the congregation, Mr Emmanuel Ashong, a businessman, told the Ghana News Agency that: “Even if I miss church activities for the whole year, I will not miss Good Friday because it gives me a remorseful feeling to renew my life, reflecting on the passion of Christ.”“You know sometimes we forget about what Christ went through just so we could be relieved of our sins”.Ms Elora Tening, a student, said: “Whenever I attend Good Friday mass, it feels like I should cry because Christ went through a lot. But I also believe it’s a time for God to look at how His son suffered because of me and forgive me my sins and grant me my heart desires.”The service was touched with hymnals like: “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow”, “Old Rugged Cross” and “Behold the Man”.
Source: GNA
