CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR MESSAGE TO GHANAIANS
FROM MOST REV. JOSEPH OSEI-BONSU,
PRESIDENT, GHANA CATHOLIC BISHOPS’ CONFERENCE,
AND BISHOP OF KONONGO-MAMPONG
“For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6).
My dear fellow Ghanaians, as we get ready to celebrate the feast of Christmas and New Year, I would like to share some reflections with you on the significance of Christmas and the need for peace in our country now.
Christmas and the Incarnation
In our secular world of today, Christmas seems to be for many people only an occasion for enjoying themselves and for family reunions. The feast of Christmas these days has been so commercialized and secularized that many people have lost sight of its religious significance.
Christmas marks the birth of Jesus Christ, the saviour of the world. When humankind lost God’s favour because of sin, it took Christ’s death on the cross and his resurrection to restore the broken relationship between man and God. The birth of Christ at Christmas marked the beginning of the process of restoration of the broken relationship. It marked the beginning of the process of humankind’s salvation. In the birth of Christ, God came to be with us not just in spirit but in the flesh. For this reason, Christ is said to be Emmanuel, which means “God with us”. Christmas is about the incarnation, about God taking on human flesh, about God becoming a human being.
This is what St. John is speaking of in the first chapter of his Gospel. In John1:14 we read, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us”. Christmas is about the coming together of the divine and the human. We therefore have an obligation to strive always after the divine and not limit ourselves to the merely human or earthly. As St. Paul urges Christians in Col. 3:1-2, “… seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth”.
Christmas and the Prince of Peace
Christmas is also about peace, since Christmas celebrates the feast of Christ, the Prince of Peace. For us Christians, Christ is the Prince of Peace spoken of by the prophet Isaiah: “For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6).
At Christ’s birth, the angels spoke of peace: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased!” (Lk. 2:14). Christ is the Prince of Peace, and he gives his peace to this world. In John 14:27, Christ says, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you”.
It is more than two thousand years since Christ left us physically for heaven, yet the peace that he spoke of remains an elusive phenomenon in our world today. We live in a world beset by all kinds of problems, including wars, even in the Middle East, the birthplace of the Prince of Peace. In our own country right now, we are facing severe post-election challenges. Members of rival political parties have been attacked. Innocent people, including journalists and other media personnel, doing their work have also suffered attacks. I call on our political leaders, especially those of the two major parties, the National Democratic Congress and the New Patriotic Party, to talk to their supporters to put an end to all violence. I appeal to all priests, ministers, pastors and all other religious leaders to let the message of peace be part of their preaching in the next few weeks.
All of us should make peace our number one priority. We should always remember that we have only one country called Ghana and that this country is the only home that we have. We should therefore ensure that there is peace in this dear country of ours now that the elections are over. We do not want to experience post-election violence or war. There are a number of countries on our continent that have had such an experience. They include Nigeria, Kenya and Zimbabwe. Just next door to us in the Ivory Coast there was, not too long ago, post-election violence that resulted in the loss of human lives. We do not want to share in the unpleasant experience of the people living in these countries. The consequences of war are well known. They include the destruction of precious human lives and property, fear, the phenomenon of refugeeism, etc. We do not want to be refugees in our neighbouring countries. I therefore appeal to all to avoid actions and inflammatory utterances that have the potential to incite people to violence and war. Let us all do all in our power to ensure that we protect the peace that our country has enjoyed up to now.
Let us pray for and work towards the realization of peace in our dear country. The prophet Micah, long before the birth of the Prince of Peace, had a vision of a time of perfect peace: “…and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more” (Micah 4:3). In this post-election period when there is tension in the country, I urge all those who wield weapons and other instruments of violence to lay them down so that we can all live in peace.
As we celebrate the birth of the Prince of Peace, we should remember that there is the need for us to strive to make peace a reality and not a mere dream. The prophet Isaiah had a vision of a time to come when there would be peace between creatures naturally opposed to one another: “The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den” (Isaiah 11:6-8). This vision should be an inspiration for all of us to learn to live together.
May Christ, the Prince of Peace, who brought joy during the first Christmas to Mary, Joseph, the shepherds and the angels, bring you joy and peace. May the coming year be filled with joy and peace for each and every one of you as you endeavour to serve the Lord. May the joy of the first Christmas and of this Christmas be in your hearts always and may you forever share in the peace of Christ, the Prince of Peace.
On behalf of the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference, I wish you all a happy Christmas and a blessed New Year.