Former President, Jerry John Rawlings
Former President, Flight Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings (Retired), on Sunday, advised Christians to back their prayer of thoughts and words with actions to achieve desired responses and results, as prayer alone was insufficient to solve their problems.
“We often fail to engage the prayer of action, but without it, we cannot give life to the prayer of words or thoughts.
He gave the advice at the St. Paul Catholic Church in Kpehe, a suburb of Accra when the Church was climaxing the celebration for its 75th anniversary.
The celebration, marked with confirmation, cultural performances, and get-together was on the theme: “Call to Holiness” anchored on 1 Peter 1:15-16.
Flt. Lt. Rawlings said Christians ought to take appropriate actions to preserve human dignity, justice, and freedom.
“You should be prepared to die for freedom, justice, your belief and you should be fearless like Christ to stand up for the truth. We need the courage of conviction to live by the truth.”
Citing an example with the global leader of the Church, Pope Francis, he said the Pope went a step further from using prayer of words to taking an action by kissing the shoes of both contenders of political power in South Sudan and imploring them to maintain the tenuous peace that existed between them.
“I’m asking you with my heart,” the Pope said to the President, Salva Kiir, and the opposition leader, Riek Machar, clutching his hands in front of his chest. “Stay in peace,” he quoted the Pope.
The Former President advised Christians to desist from ungodly practices like corruption, telling lies and succumb to being truthful and showing love to all.
Flt. Lt. Rawlings said politicians resorted to ungodly acts like telling lies and stealing, a practice that was far from that of traditional leaders.
He said traditional leaders had the ethics of life; hence, he called on everyone who wanted to enter into politics to learn from traditional leaders to be able to conduct themselves in a noble way.
“I see the indignity that corruption has reduced people to and the humiliations involved. You should be fearless like Christ to stand up for the truth. We need the courage of conviction to live by it,” he added.
Most Reverend John Bonaventure Kwofie, the Metropolitan Archbishop of Accra, Catholic Church, charged Christians to respect virtues of justice, mercy, love, forgiveness, and reconciliation.
It was also important that they strived hard to be light to worldly darkness, he said, and implored them to make a difference at their homes, communities, and work places.
“We cannot continue to do the same thing, we must stand out and give a message to the world as it keeps getting sour by the choices we make in our daily lives,” he said.
He encouraged them to support government to introduce more social intervention programmes for the homeless and destitute.
Most Rev. Bonaventure noted that Christians before, during and after fasting had to do away with all malicious practices to make the fasting profitable.
The Very Reverend Father Peter Rocky Hesse, the Parish Priest of the St Paul Catholic Church, said the call to holiness was not limited to just the clergy, the consecrated, or those who lived a contemplate life.
“We are called to holiness, whatever our role, by living our lives with love and becoming witnesses and turning to God every day,” he said.
