Rekindle in ourselves the Spirit of nationalism and voluntarism – Talk to STHEYA

STHEYA – Onua Odo Neye

 This is a subject was first delivered at the launch of the 50^th anniversary of COSRA. I will borrow a few ideas from COSRA to still make the point to us today.

Before I start let’s all pray – May the words of my mouth be inspired by the Holy Spirit, the meditation of our be acceptable to Christ our Savior Amen.

• As a youth group, how has STHEYA done in bringing the youth of the church together? It should be one of our primary goals and we should be measuring and tracking that. Causing joy in heaven.
• Have we as a society been tracking how we are promoting spiritual and religious activities among members and in the church? How have we done with that? There is some much social change happening currently in our world, what are the impact on us as a Church and our primary goal as Catholics. As Rev. Boniface Muggli, a Benedictine Monk and Priest, says our primary purpose as Catholics are to remember and spread the Gospel, primarily by faithfully living it, and to reach salvation ourselves. To this end, the Church unites people of every language, state, and time in following Christ, praising God, and inviting others to join us on our journey to salvation. So how has STHEYA responded to these changes and phenomenon in promoting social and religious activities among our members and the church?
  • Globalization,
  • Materialism,
  • Social Media
  • Digital Transformation
    • AI
    • IoT
    • Big Data
    • 5G
  • The rise of homosexuality
  • False Prophets
  • Urbanization
  • Some say that there has been some exodus of the youth from the Church; is that true, have we tracked it, how many of STHEYA members have left the society and the church, what have we done about that. The great commission calls on all of us to make disciples of the world starting from our families and our societies.
• One of the characteristics of STHEYA, which we exhibited at the beginning of our formation, was volunteerism. Thank God some of us are still carrying the touch today. Taking a cue from COSRA and I am sure it applies to all of us. We are called to encourage the spirit of voluntary service to the church both among members and the youth of the church. How well are we all doing? It is a critical issue in our time. I hope that as we celebrate Pentecost today, we need to rekindle that the spirit of voluntary service to the church both among members and the youth of the church.

We have been blessed with all the resources both natural and human but our development as a country is lagging behind largely because of a leadership deficit. It will take organizations like STHEYA and the Church, to make the quantum paradigm shift and step into that greatness that calls for Selfless, Compassionate, Transformative, Nationalistic, Ghanacentic Servant Leadership that is based on Christ.

The question is, are we ready to be used by God to cause that change whose time has come? Are we ready to make the sacrifices required? Are we prepared to pay the right price to cause that right transformation? Are we ready to avail ourselves like the Virgin Mary, when she said that Fiate – the Yes to God’s Call? There can be no resurrection without a Calvary, no Crown without a Cross; we need Sacrifices for Sustainable Success.

However, there are couple of the major crisis that confronts our country Ghana apart from the lack of integrity in our public dealing, corruption, unbridled partisanship, that is the death of nationalism and voluntarism.

Even for the basic acts of pushing your car when you have a problem, or coming to sweep and clean the house of God, or serve in some ministries within the Church, I will not limit it to only young people, but say that the Ghanaian, the Catholic and I dare say some of today’s STHEYA members will not want to do any of these without asking for a reward. I know of some ministries and groups in some parishes that now ask to be paid when they perform their duties for weddings and funerals.

Where did our Ghanaian hospitality go to? Where did our call to serve as Catholic Christians go to?

Are we asking for all our blessings here on earth so as to forfeit what we will get in heaven? How are we going to build this nation and our church on this Esau spirit where we sell our entire blessing for broth?

The blessing you will get from a grateful person who you have helped out of a calamity is lost. Or the grace that comes from serving the Lord is forfeited because you get your reward from that nokofio we collect from serving in His house. Do we think with that philosophy of pay-me-for-everything we will be rewarded like Anna, the Prophetess who served for four scores and four and was rewarded with being present when Jesus was presented in the temple as reported by Luke 2: 36-38.

Then there is also the situation where we will not do anything for Ghana, nationalism has been completely killed in us. It has to be for something else but because for Ghana. Our current democratic dispensation does not seem to have helped at all and fuel by materialism and lost values.

What kind of economic transformation are we going to get at the cost of abandoning volunteerism and nationalism? Is it the one where we destroy our water bodies and our land looking for gold, only to now seek $29 billion dollars to reclaim and restore our environment? Some older than I am who have seen a lot more moons, seem to justify it that for a $2.4 billion dollar commercial arrangement we should not punish those who are caught perpetuating this evil act.

What is volunteering?

VOLUNTEERING can be defined as offering services of the self for a cause not directly beneficial to the person. Although it appears to be a self-less service by the person, in essence, it is a service of the self too. The person gets immense satisfaction out of volunteering and the actions thereafter.

It is a spiritual and emotional exercise providing immense satisfaction to the person and earning social respect for him/her. But it is not risk-free and certainly causes some discomforts for the volunteer.

A STHEYA member who lives to achieve this noble aim is motivated by the sufferings of others and offers him/herself to reduce these sufferings. Volunteering is a spiritual and emotional exercise hence is adopted by spiritually and emotionally sensitive persons only, the true Catholic and Onua. The essence of volunteering is self-sacrifice for other individuals or for humanity as a whole.

In a brief passage, Ralph Waldo Emerson, the famous American poet, essayist, and philosopher captured the essence of Volunteerism: “Volunteerism is a wonderful state of mind. It urges us to step outside the routine of our daily lives. It propels us to act when we perceive a need. It reminds us that even though our actions are not always selfless, there is a great reward in accomplishing a worthwhile task.”

It is important to remember that Ghana like all other nations are set up by God for the purposes of Himself. Job 12:23 “He makes nations great, and He destroys them; he enlarges nations and leads them away”. He calls us to live lives that will exalt this nation He has given us. Proverbs 14:34 “Righteousness exalts a nation, But sin is a disgrace to any people”. So is our righteousness exalting Ghana?

I will want us to see how we make the change and rekindle the spirit of volunteerism and nationalism into our body politic as Ghanaian Catholic leaders, for that is what we are. How do we live by Mark 12:17 English Standard Version “Jesus said to them, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” And they marveled at Him.” This is the obligation of the Catholic and an Onua, to God first then to the state and to society, it is so important and is captured also in Matthew 22:21 and in Luke 20:25.

For our context I tell you, Christ is not only referring to the issues of taxation but our total duty of nationalism and volunteerism so that we will be worthy citizens of both heaven and here on earth.

It is not for nothing that God has placed us, in Ghana, so after our first love being to Christ Jesus, to whom we are to give our entire lives—body and soul.

However, God has put us under our nation’s authority: “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God” (Romans 13:13). It is true that Christ has freed us, but our freedom is for “living as servants of God. Honor all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor” (1 Peter 2: 16b-17).

We are created by God and He has given us duties to give back to Ghana what is due to the state after we have given ourselves to Him before and above anything else. We are called to the service of the state and our society. It means that we work for God in our nation, with His will and law being our ultimate goal. John Piper summed up this principle wonderfully on his blog:

When you know that all is God’s, then anything you render to Caesar you will render for God’s sake. Any authority you ascribe to Caesar you will ascribe to him for the sake of God’s greater authority. Any obedience you render to Caesar you will render for the sake of the obedience you owe first to God. Any claim Caesar makes on you, you test by the infinitely higher claim God has on you. Rendering to Caesar is limited and defined by rendering to God.

So St. Paul in his letters to the Romans, Romans 13:7 “Pay everyone what you owe him: taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due”.

So we need to bear in mind that all that has been given to us, have been given to us to serve others. So we have to give back and know that God put us here in Ghana and our Ceaser is specific – Ghana. I am not saying so, the bible tells us so; go with me into the bible.

1 Peter 4:10  As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace:

Galatians 6:10 So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith

Luke 6:35 But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for He is kind to the ungrateful and the evil.

Colossians 3:23-24 Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.

How could I say I am a Catholic and for that matter member of STHEYA and shy away from being nationalistic and be filled with volunteerism when the bible admonishes us in so many ways?

• Restore the spirit of selflessness and the need to put the Church, humanity, and country first
  • It is important to put sacrifice for the greater good of our Church and country above self. Selfishness and material wealth will close the door of sustainable happiness and joy to us.
  • It is time to make the necessary sacrifices that put God, the Church and Ghana first
  • Avoid corruption, greed, avarice and today’s comfort for a greater good. Proverbs 14:34 Righteousness exalts a nation, But sin is a disgrace to any people.
• Promote volunteerism and sacrifice to God and country.
  • There are benefits of volunteerism, it is Biblical and a natural law
  • Proverbs 11:24“Some distribute their own goods, and grow richer: others take away what is not their own, and are always in want.”
  • Ephesians 2:10“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them”.
  • Isaiah 58:10“When thou shalt pour out thy soul to the hungry, and shalt satisfy the afflicted soul then shall thy light rise up in darkness, and thy darkness shall be as the noonday.”
  • You the younger ones among us, I say to you in the spirit volunteerism you build your career, take up internships to work for free, you build skills that are required for the work. Capture it on your CV, it pays. You might even create a job out of that. Let your focus not be on today’s cash but being of service to society, our country, and God.
  • When you volunteer, do it with love for 1 Corinthians 16:14“Let all things be done in charity”.
• Our Church and nation have a lot of potentials it is the time for the youth to build the country tapping into those potentials in the spirit of volunteerism and nationalism. Note that the Bible promises us rewards for being nationalist and filled with the volunteering zeal –
  • Ruth 2:12 “The Lord repay your work, and a full reward be given you by the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings you have come for refuge.”
  • By the story as told in 2^nd Samuel 2:5-7 The people of Jabesh Gilead didn’t have to bury Saul, yet they did so voluntarily. David, then, responds by letting them know how much they were appreciated for it. Not only does he tell them that the Lord will repay their work, he also says he will repay them for their kindness. Now that’s appreciation and the same shall be our portion if we leave here and start the crusade of nationalistic volunteerism!
  • My prophesy and prayer for you will be from 2 Samuel 2:6 “And now may the Lord show kindness and truth to you. I also will repay you this kindness, because you have done this thing.” And Philippians 1:3 “I thank my God upon every remembrance of you”
• Now a few of pet pains;
  • One of my calls to our Lord Bishops is that if we want to see a great change in our county, then we need to grow a new kind of leadership from the Church. Leaders who will be God-fearing, with integrity, Ghana centric, with our values as a people. The Church should gather some youth and start training them for political leadership and when we are ready we unleash them onto all the political parties. It is only way that we can clean politics is when we have clean Catholics at the helm of affairs.
  • The Freemasons and other secret societies are capturing the heights of the leadership of the country what is the Church doing? We even have some Papal knighted Catholics declaring openly that they belong to these lodges and they are still keeping their knighthood. What examples are we setting to the youth? In one breath we are told as Catholics that we cannot belong to such societies and in another breath, we give honour to some who openly declare membership. STHEYA we need to tell some truths here when we meet our Lord Bishops bring it to their attention.
  • What is STHEYA doing about the scourge of homosexuality – it is eating up our youth. Will you be countered in fighting this battle for Christ? Like the example of Christ, we do not condemn and beat them, but we will treat them with mercy and compassion but say to them go and sin no more. Join me in that fight.
  • Support the Church to fight the destruction of our environment, from galamsey to the plastic pollution of our planet.
  • We cannot be satisfied with our numbers we need to cause a lot of rejoicing in heaven by bringing a lot more people into our fold. We need to embrace the New Evangelization; let us ensure that STHEYA first lives to its mission as a vehicle to get other and us to heaven but not just a social society.

To conclude go with me to Philippians 2:1-5 ESV / 7 helpful votes

So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from rivalry or conceit but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,

STHEYA – Odo Neye

God Bless our Homeland Ghana and make our Nation Great and Strong.

I thank you all!

This post has already been read 589 times!