‘’Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age’’ (Mt. 28:19-20 RSV)
My dear Marshallans, as the Noble Order of the Knights and Ladies of Marshall celebrates 90 years of existence, you have chosen as the theme of the celebration ‘’The Marshallan and the New Evangelization for the Transmission of the Faith’’. In selecting this theme, you have clearly indicated that you wish to follow in the footsteps of the patron of the Noble Order, Sir James Marshall, a lay Catholic whose immense efforts contributed to the transmission of the faith from Europe to Ghana.
For you as Marshallans to be able to transmit the faith, you must first be people of faith. You must br Catholics, i.e, people who have embraced the Catholic faith and are practising members of the Church. The Catholic faith is faith in God who is triune, i.e, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Belief in the Trinity is the basis of all other articles of faith contained in the Nicene Creed and elsewhere. The Catholic faith is this faith as lived in accordance with the Catholic Tradition. If one is a Marshallan, one must embrace the Catholic faith as expounded by the teaching authority of the church.
The Marshallan is also a practising Catholic man or woman who has joined the Noble Order of the Knights and Ladies of Marshall in the hope of living by the aspirations of Sir James Marshall who sought to advance the cause of evangelization in Ghana at the early part of the last century.
The Marshallan and Effective Evangelization
Membership of the Noble Order should help in the transformation of the individual Marshallan. It should make the Marshallan a better person so that we can say with St. Paul, ‘’…. if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new’’ (2 Cor. 5:17). It should lead not only to the transformation of the Marshallan himself or herself but of his or her family so that there will be good relations in the home between parents and children and between husbands and wives. It should bring fidelity in marriage so that spouses will not suffer heartaches from illicit extra-marital relationships. It should lead to parents having more time for the upbringing of their children so that they become good citizens in future.
Marshallans, through evangelization, should transform not only themselves and their families but also the wider society in which they live. This transformation of the wider society will come about when Marshallans carry out the mandate to evangelize the world imposed by Christ at the end of Mattew’s Gospel:
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age (MT. 28:19-20 RSV).
A similar command to evangelize the world is found in Mk 16:15-16 where Jesus says to his disciples,
Go into the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation. The one who believes and is baptized will be saved; but the one who does not believe will be condemned.
The Marshallan, like any other Christian, has the obligation of sharing in the Church’s evangelization ministry, that is, bringing the good news of salvation to the whole world. The Marshallan evangelizes directly by his or her lifestyle. If you Marshallans can demonstrate by your lifestyle that Christ is in you and that all your actions are inspired by love, you will be able to attract people to believe in the good news.
Bringing good news to others means that Marshallans have to express their faith in concrete action and in good works. In this connection, St. James says,
What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘’Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill’’, and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead (Jammes 2:14-17).
This and several other passages in the Bible clearly impose a responsibility on Christians to do all they can to promote integral human development by combining faith and good works through providing for both the spiritual and material needs of God’s children. The mission of the Marshallan should, therefore, consist in part of works that will earn him or her the words of commendation in Mt. 25:35-36, ‘’I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you made me welcome, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me’’.
It is in line with this command that Marshallans should do something to improve the material living conditions of people among whom they live. What are you doing as Marshallans to help the underprivileged or to feed the hungry in your neighbourhood? Are you concerned about the plight of the sick in the hospitals and those in the prisons? I know that you do something periodically, but is it enough?
Again, what are you doing as Marshallans to help educate people about the menace of HIV-AIDS? It is better to educate people so that they do not contract HIV-AIDS than to wait for them to contract the disease and then visit them in hospital and donate food items to them.
In trying to evangelize the various societies in which you live, you as Marshallans must be concerned about social issues. You should try to liberate yourselves and others in your societies who live in the bondage of ignorance, superstition and unnecessary fears. You must help to liberate people from oppression of some of our traditional customs and practises. Some of these are widowhood rites, Trokosi, female genital mutilation, domestic violence against women and witch camps.
As part of your evangelization mission, you should champion the cause of justice. Justice is necessary not only in the judicial system but also in our dealings with our fellow human beings. There is the need for justice both in the secular world in which we live and in the church. As Marshallans, you need to denounce injustices vehemently in the tradition and spirit of the Old Testament prophets like Amos, Hosea and Jeremiah. These prophets stood for social justice. They condemned those Jews who were rich and did not care about the poor in their midst. They also condemned those who got rich at the expense of the poor.
The prophets are inviting you as Marshallans to pursue social justice in our country. You need to champion the cause of the poor, the oppressed, the marginalized and all those unjustly deprived of their fundamental human rights in our society.
The Marshallan and Morality
In your attempt to evangelize the nation, you need to tackle the canker of corruption in the various strata of society. Corruption is found in different strata of our Ghanaian society. It is found among politicians, in the judiciary, the security agencies, the Customs, Exercise and Preventive Service, the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA), in our educational institutions, in the workplace, in the marketplace, in the men and women of the media, in the sports, in some traditional rulers, in the pastors and ministers and traditional priests. If there is corruption, it is largely because people including Marshallans, are not acting with integrity and honesty, corruption would be drastically reduced, and our world would be a better place than it is today.
Today the corruption in the judiciary has received nation-wide attention, thanks to Anas Amereyaw Anan and his team. It is gratifying to note that no Marshallan judge is among those who have been mentioned. Indeed, there is the story of a lady Marshallan judge in Kumasi who resisted the bribery attempts several times. I salute her and pray that she will persevere until the end.
Speaking of corruption, we must note that there are organizations in Ghana and elsewhere that are carrying out a campaign against it. The aim of this campaign is to raise public and civic awareness of the harmful effects of corruption on our national development effort and to dissuade people from the practise. These organizations in Ghana include the Centre for Freedom and Accuracy, Tiger Eye PI, Ghana Integrity Initiative and Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition. Is it not possible for the Noble Order to institute a similar body to fight corruption, or at least join hands with those organizations that are already in existence?
Still on the moral front, I urge you to resist not only corruption, but also what Paul in our first reading from Galatians 5 calls the works of the flesh, namely, fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatory, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. The list is long enough and we can all find something that we are guilty of. In the silence of our hearts, let us all resolve to part with all these vices.
Paul says that by contrast Christians should have the fruit of the Spirit, which is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. If we seek to evangelize the world, we should try to have these virtues.
Again on the moral front, evangelization demands that the Noble Order should speak out and condemn practises that go against the practise of Christianity. We are confronted today with the phenomenon of same sex marriage. Recently, following the passage of the same sex marriage legislation into law in Britain, the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, expresses the desire to export same sex marriage around the world so that other countries can follow suit.
I must commend the Noble Order for the Press Statement that it issued in Accra in February 2013 condemning Homosexuality and Lesbianism. We your bishops, are glad that you have affirmed the Church’s position that while homosexuals are not condemned or molested for being homosexuals, or having ‘’ the homosexual condition or tendency’’ the homosexual acts that they perform are wrong and must be condemned. You also affirmed the position of the Church that while homosexuals have human rights, these rights do not include the right of a man to marry a man or a woman to marry a woman. The Ghana Catholic Bishops Conference will be expecting more of such statements from the Noble Order in future.
The Marshallan and Political Life
The transformation of the world of politics is part of evangelizing mission of the Marshallan. Like other Christians, you as Marshallans should take your civic and political duties seriously. The individual memebers of the Church are citizens of two worlds, as it were – the Church and the nation. They should, therefore,’’ render unto Caesar what belongs to Caesar and unto God what belongs to God’’. As citizens of the nation, Marshallans have every right to be involved in the political life of the country. You should be actively involved in politics. You should join political parties, take part in voting, seek key positions in political parties, in government, district assemblies, etc. You should strive to become ministers, president, etc. If you refuse to vote, or show indifference to political issues, other people will vote and take decisions which will affect you, for good or ill. As Vatican II’s Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World (Gaudium et Spes) says,
Those who are suited or can become suited should prepare themselves for the difficult, but at the same time, the very noble art of politics, and should seek to practise this art without regard for their own interests or for material advantages. With integrity and wisdom, they must take action against any form of injustice and tyranny, against arbitrary domination by an individual or a political party and any intolerance (no. 75).
In this connection we should bear in mind that the 1994 African Synod held in Rome ‘’ prayed fervently to the Lord that there would arise in Africa holy politicians- both men and women and that there would be saintly Heads of State, who profoundly love their own people and wish to serve rather than to be served (Ecclesia in Africa, par.111)’’.
Finally, I will expect the Noble Order to speak out occasionally on the political matters. All too often, we know that politically things are not going well in our country, but we fail to speak out. We fear for our skin. We need to have courage to speak out when necessary. As Marshallans you wield swords to symbolize your role as defenders of the Church and its hierarchy. But if you are afraid to speak out when the Church is attacked, then what is the justification for carrying swords and escorting bishops and priests to and from the church?
The Marshallan cannot succeed in his or her evangelizing mission without the power of prayer. In doing this, the Marshallan must have Jesus as his or her model. Jesus’ life was characterized by prayer. We are told time and again in the gospels that he left the multitudes and went to a lonely place where he could be by himself, and there he prayed. He was constantly followed by multitudes of people, but he found time to pray. The classic example of Christ finding time to pray was when he withdrew for a period of forty days into the desert to fast and pray. This example of Christ inspired the Christians of the early Church, and we learn from church history that quite a few sought ‘’ the desert ideal’’ by withdrawing to the desert to embrace the life of the hermit. Such people included St. Pachomius and St. Anthony of Egypt.
It is important for Marshallans to cultivate the habit of prayer. The need for Christians to pray is stressed in the Bible. In Thess 5:16 Paul says, ‘’But watch at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of man’’. In prayer we put ourselves in the presence of God. Like Mary, sister of Martha, we should learn to sit quietly at the feet of Jesus to listen to what he has to tell us. Like Christ, we must learn to periodically to a lonely place and pray.
In our own time people have sought ‘’the desert ideal’’ as well. These include Charles de Foucauld and Carlo Carretto. But as Carlo Carretto tell us in his Letters from the Desert, we do not need to go to the Sahara Desert or the desert of Judea in order to have a track of desert in our lives. We can find it everywhere – in our churches, in our homes, in our work places, etc. Again, as Carlo Carretto tells us, we need to cultivate the habit of contemplation in the streets and to seek solitude. One day a month or a few days in a year, we need to leave everyone and everything to be with God in solitude. It is usch prayerful and meditative solitude that we can take stock of our spiritual lives. We need to reserve a minute, an hour, a morning, a day, a week, or whatever period of time we can find and commune with God.
In conclusion, as you members of the Noble Order of the Knights and Ladies of Marshall celebrate 90 years of existence, I would like, on behalf of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference, to congratulate the Noble Order and to wish it many more years of success in carrying out its evangelizing mission and the transmission of the Christian faith. May God bless you all.