Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish

FR MICHAEL BIBLICAL IMAGERY

(Fr Michael Boakye Yeboah: Vice Rector of St Gregory Seminary, Kumasi-Ghana)

THE BAPTIST’S VOICE

            The power of a voice. There is a radio presenter in my city and of late I have heard how some people have become addicted to his voice. One day a young man told me that he values hearing his voice more than his daily intake of breakfast. This wasn’t surprising to me at all because I have done extensive research into some “voices” that change nations from paganism to Catholicism. I remember a testimony of an old man who witnessed some of the returnee slaves turn catechists who evangelized their village. This old man told me that though he was a boy at that time he still “hear” the voice of one orator catechist. According to the old man their village folks love their native religion but when repeatedly they heard the Gospel from the lips of that catechist missionary they couldn’t but abandon paganism and accept the Gospel. To this old man the power of speech is a key element in any missionary endeavour. And so he told me to polish my power of speech and aided by the grace of God I will bring many to the faith. I continue to be thankful to this old man and may his soul rest in perfect peace.

            We may have heard and celebrated greater orators whose messages changed the cause of history. I hope you folks are not too young and so you may remember some famous voices. We remember the famous freedom speech “I am the First Accused” by Nelson Mandela on 20 April 1964 while not forgetting the speech “Love begins at home” – a speech delivered by Mother Teresa on receiving the Noble Peace Prize on 11 December 1979. Can we forget Ronald Reagan’s “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall” at the Brandenburg Gate, Berlin on 12 June 1987? Saints and public speakers have changed our lives and their voices live on but none can be compared to the Baptist’s voice. The inspired writer gives us glimpses of John the Baptist speech the day he emerged from the desert and invited people to renewal and repentance.

            It has been over two thousand years since John the Baptist cried out from the wilderness: “prepare the way of the Lord and make straight his path.” His voice continues to re-echo in the hearts of all who embrace the Advent spirituality of a call to renewal and repentance.

            The inspired writer employed Palestine’s landscape symbolically to depict the sinful state of the human person. Any modern-day visitor to Israel/Palestine cannot but be struck by the sheer ruggedness of the landscape there. The whole place is one unbroken chain of hills and valleys. The terrain is also littered with rocks, stones and pot-holes of varying sizes and shapes. But in the midst of this uneven terrain some parts have seen drastic transformation and so those places are level and beautiful with gardens and vegetations.

            The Baptist’s words are therefore prophetic in the sense that if we put ourselves up to fix our brokenness, life’s pot-holes, and a life littered with rocks and stones; then a “garden of Eden” can be planted in us and it will be to the delight of all and glory to God. That is the place that Jesus wants to dwell. As people of God we are called to embrace this Advent spirituality in a very unique way. It is possible that some of us are having some pot-holes, rocks, and stones in our lives that need levelling. Cooperate with the grace of God so that you will be fixed and become whole again.