“For to us a child is given, to us a son is given; and the government will be upon his shoulder, and his name will be ‘Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace’”. (Isaiah 9:6, RSV)
Introduction
The Season of Christmas is the time when we celebrate the birth of Christ, while preparing ourselves for His second coming in glory. Unfortunately, though Christmas is primarily a religious and spiritual celebration, our society has commercialized it, overemphasizing the material dimension of Christmas and therefore losing the spiritual benefits of the feast. Let us recover the true meaning of the feast and reap the spiritual benefits. Christmas calls for peace, unity, justice and humility.
Christmas: A time of Sharing
As mentioned above, Christmas is a time to recall God’s ineffable love and to renew our resolve to love as He has loved us (cf. John 15:12). In this Season in particular, we express love by sharing our goods with others especially those in need. We, therefore, take this opportunity to urge all to share with others, most especially the needy. The Saviour, who was celebrated by the “poor” shepherds (cf. Luke 2:16-20) and the “rich” Magi (cf. Matt. 2:9-11) at His birth, wants both the poor and the rich to joyfully celebrate His birth.
Besides encouraging individuals to share, we wish to urge various churches and families to revive the traditional Ghanaian culture of sharing and further enhance it with the spiritual significance of Christmas and then foster same among their members.
Christmas: Peace to All
Christ is truly the Prince of Peace. He uniquely establishes peace between God and humanity and urges all humans to live in peace with one another. Thus, when Christ was born in Bethlehem, a choir of angels sang to the hearing of the shepherds: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased” (Luke 2:14). He, whose birth necessitated this angelic melody of peace, urges all of us to be men, women and children of peace.
Christmas: Peace on our Roads
A very worrying concern of many Ghanaians is the high spate of road accidents or carnage on our roads. Indeed, peace is disrupted in the family, corporate, community and sometimes in national life when road accidents occur. Therefore, during this yuletide and beyond, we appeal to all users of our roads to observe the rules and regulations to ensure safety on our roads. Let us avoid the temptation of drink-driving and driving under stress.
Every human life is precious and an asset to the person, to the society and to humanity as a whole. We also call upon all the relevant state enforcement agencies to ensure that all road users comply with the road rules and regulations.
Christmas: Unity among All
Peace entails unity. Therefore, Christmas which celebrates peace among people calls for unity among them. Each of us has to take stock of the extent of unity in our families, churches, communities, corporate organizations and the nation as a whole.
We need to soberly look at the roles we can play to ensure unity at various levels and be firmly resolved to act accordingly. In the area of national life in particular, we should all endeavour to desist from the form of politics which divides the country and rather foster all that contributes to strengthening the bond of unity among all citizens (irrespective of their ethnicity and political affiliation) and all law-abiding inhabitants.
Christmas: A call for Humility
Another deep spiritual significance of Christmas is the message of humility. If He who is true God became human (cf. Phil. 2:5-11), then we cannot but learn that the virtue of humility is necessary to one’s spiritual growth. This is one area that each of us (poor or rich, junior staff or management, church leaders or church members, traditional leaders or subjects, state authorities or ordinary citizens) need to soberly reflect and ascertain the true state of his/her sense of worth in relation to others and most especially in relation to God.
Here, we wish to highlight a few applications of the virtue of humility. If Christ who is truly God denied Himself of the glory of divinity so as to relate to us in a manner that humans could accommodate, then a rich person should relate to a poor person not on the basis of his/her superior possession but on the basis of being equally human. Similarly, the clergy should relate to their church members not on the basis of their divine calling, but on the basis of their common membership received through Baptism. Also, elected or appointed state officials should relate to other Ghanaians not based on their high executive, legislative or judicial office, but because of their common citizenship.
Conclusion
It is our fervent prayer and hope that the Year 2023 will be a year of new beginnings for our country Ghana and that as citizens, we will all act responsibly in all spheres of life. We urge all to thank God for His grace and mercies that we have enjoyed in 2022 despite the hardships we have to deal with as a nation.
May our government harness the necessary resources that will enable it better the current economic downturn and implement more social-intervention programmes that will bring some relief to the common Ghanaian who continues to struggle to make ends meet.
On behalf of the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference, I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy and Prosperous New Year.
MOST REV. MATTHEW KWASI GYAMFI
CATHOLIC BISHOP OF SUNYANI & PRESIDENT,
GHANA CATHOLIC BISHOPS’ CONFERENCE
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2022