HOMILY PREACHED AT THE VIGIL FUNERAL MASS OF MOST REV. JOHN MARTIN DARKO, BISHOP EMERITUS OF SEKONDI-TAKORADI,
STAR OF THE SEA CATHEDRAL, 19 FEBRUARY 2013
BY MOST REV. JOSEPH OSEI-BONSU
BISHOP OF KONONGO-MAMPONG AND
PRESIDENT, CATHOLIC BISHOPS’ CONFERENCE
“For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” (2 Cor. 5:1).
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, we are gathered here today to say goodbye to Most Rev. John Martin Darko, Bishop Emeritus of Sekondi-Takoradi. In the brochure prepared for his funeral, there is a tribute that I wrote on behalf of the Conference. My homily will therefore not be a eulogy on the life and achievements of our departed bishop.
As we meet to say goodbye to Bishop Darko, I would like to extend the condolences of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference to his family, the clergy, religious, lay faithful of the Diocese as well as all his friends who are here to say goodbye to him. May the good Lord console you all in your loss and strengthen you in your faith.
THE LATE BISHOP EMIRITUS DARKO
My dear people of God, the death of Bishop Darko confronts us, once again, with the mystery of death, the strange phenomenon that destroys physical life and brings remarkable changes in its train. During the 67 years that he lived in the earthly tent of the body, Bishop Darko interacted in many ways with us as relatives, friends, parishioners, priests, religious, brother bishops, etc. He spoke with us, preached to us, administered various sacraments to us, ordained some of us priests, laughed with us and discussed issues with us. But now, all that is over. At the moment, he just lies in his coffin, quiet, still, motion¬less. Death has laid its icy hands on him.
My dear people of God, the death of a Christian should be the occasion for us all to reflect on our lives as Christians. What is this life that we are living and what at all are we doing in this world? On the occasion of the death of our brother Bishop Darko, I would like us to reflect on a number of things with regard to our lives in this world and the mystery of death.
The first thing that I would like us to reflect on is the certainty of death. Death will come to each one of us. As William Shakespeare says in Julius Caesar, “death, a necessary end will come when it will come”. It will come to everyone; it will come to men, women, the young, the old, lay people, priests, bishops, cardinals and even the pope. We may reach the biblical age of three score and ten and may even live to be older. But what is certain is that the earthly tent of the body will be destroyed. We shall die one day. The death of Bishop Darko is just a reminder of this point.
Some 67 years ago, Bishop Darko received from God the earthly tent of his body and started his life in this world. He has lived his life as a priest and as a bishop. The destruction of Bishop Darko’s earthly tent, like that of the rest of us, started the moment he was born. He enjoyed reasonably good health until a few years ago when he became very ill and started receiving treatment in Würzburg in Germany. Because of ill health, he courageously resigned as bishop on 14 December 2011 so that the diocese could be better administered by someone stronger and healthier. The dissolution of the earthly tent became complete after 67 years in the evening of 12 January this year when Bishop Darko slept in Christ after a lot of sickness and suffering. On behalf of the Conference, I would like to thank all the doctors, nurses and other people who attended to him both in Ghana and in Germany during his illness. May God bless them all.
The second thing that I would like us to reflect on, my dear brothers and sisters, is the transitoriness of human life and the need for us to be ready for death at all times. The psalmist speaks of the transitory nature of human life when he says: “As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field; for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more” (Psalm 103:15-16). Elsewhere the psalmist says that men “are like a dream, like grass which is renewed in the morning: in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers” (Psalm 90:5-6).
Over the years, we have been interacting with Bishop Darko in one way or another. As bishops, we interacted with him during our meetings and on other occasions. Some of us visited him when he was sick. Not too long ago, Archbishop Nketsiah and I visited him at Aboadze and interacted with him. But now, suddenly, he had disappeared from our midst. In view of the transitory nature of human life, there is the need for us to be ready at all times to face death. Death will come like a thief in the night; it will come when we are not ready. Against this background, we should always bear death in mind.
The third thing for us to reflect on is the necessity for us to lead good lives in view of judgment that comes after death. We shall be asked, at the end of our lives, to give an account of how we lived in this world. Our first reading for today, from 2 Cor 5 tells us, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad”. We have to give an account of our lives in judgment after death. Mt. 25:31-46 presents us with such a scenario when the Son of Man will judge people on the basis of what they did or did not do for their fellow human beings who were hungry, thirsty, naked, sick, in prison, etc. The death of a believer should be a reminder to us to lead good lives all the time because we do not know the day or the hour when God will call us to give an account of our lives.
The fourth thing that I would like us to reflect on is the need to be steadfast in our faith in spite of afflictions. Bishop Darko’s parting message for us is that all of us should realize that suffering is part of our human condition. Towards the end of his life, he was in great pain, as all his vital organs failed him, but he bore his suffering stoically. He bore it all in the spirit of St. Paul who experienced suffering on many occasions. St. Paul tells us in 2 Cor. 12:7 that a thorn was given him “in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to harass him, to keep him from being too proud”. Again, in 2 Cor. 4:10 he says, “We bear in our body the sufferings of the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be seen in our body”. Bishop Darko in his sickness and suffering is reminding us of the redemptive nature of suffering and encouraging those of us who are suffering to accept the cross and to bear it with faith and hope, even if healing does not come in spite of our prayers.
The fifth and last thing that I would like us to reflect on, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ, is our faith in the resurrection. In a time like this, we need to affirm our faith in the resurrection. Without faith in the resurrection, our life in this world, with all its problems and afflictions, is meaningless. Indeed, for unbelievers death is the end, the end of the road of life. For them life is meaningless and purposeless. Such people may be tempted to share in the following sentiment expressed about life in Shakespeare’s Macbeth, “Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury signifying nothing” (Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 5, lines 17-28).
When death strikes, naturally we are all sad because we shall not see the deceased any longer. We have every reason to be sad, but as Christians, we should not grieve like those who have no hope, those people of whom St. Paul speaks in his first letter to the Thessalonians. St. Paul says, “But we would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep” (1Thess. 4:13-14).
For us Christians, death is not the end. It is not the end of life and it is not meaningless or purposeless. We believe that in death it is only the mode of life that changes. In one of the Prefaces of the Mass for the Dead, we pray, “Lord, for your faithful people life is changed, not ended. When the body of our earthly dwelling lies in death, we gain an everlasting dwelling place in heaven”. We Christians, therefore, believe in resurrection and the basis of this belief is the resurrection of Christ, which is the foundation of our faith. As Paul says in 1 Cor. 15:14, “if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain”.
If Christ had not risen from the dead, then what would have been the point of following him? What would have been so special about him? There would be no need for priests to preach about him. If death were the end, there would be no need whatsoever of denying ourselves the pleasures of life. As Paul says in 1 Cor. 15.32, “If there is no resurrection of the dead, then let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die”. With this philosophy of life, life becomes meaningless and purposeless.
Physical death there must and will be, but for those who believe in Christ there is established a fellowship with him that cannot be severed or ended by death. It is for this reason that St. Paul can say in 1 Cor. 15.55, “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” We may suffer afflictions and even sudden or tragic death, but death is not the end for us. It is this conviction that St. Paul expresses in our first reading for today in his second letter to the Corinthians. He says, “For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens”. What St. Paul means is that in the event of our death, we will have another body, which is eternal and not subject to the limitations of this present body. We will have what he calls elsewhere a spiritual body. This is the body of the resurrection.
The resurrection means being raised to life after our death to be in the presence of the Lord. It is this same message that Jesus gives us when he tells us in today’s gospel reading: “In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also.”
The doctrine of the resurrection makes it imperative for us to keep in mind always the heavenly dimension of our Christian lives. As Paul tells us in his letter to the Colossians,
“Since you have been brought back to true life with Christ, you must look for the things that are in heaven, where Christ is, sitting at God’s right hand. Let your thoughts be on heavenly things, not on the things that are on earth”.
If we believe in resurrection, we should not be engrossed in earthly, material things. We should not grow roots in this world. Neither should we forget about the transitory nature of our sojourn in this vale of tears. We must always regard our lives on earth as something transitory, something that will not last. We are people in transit; we are aliens and strangers in a foreign land, to quote the letter to the Hebrews. Bishop Darko’s death should remind us to try to do God’s will every moment of our lives because we do not know the day or the hour when God will call us to give an account of our lives. Today it is Bishop Darko. Tomorrow it may be you or me. Are we ready?
In conclusion, my appeal is that we try to lead lives pleasing to the Lord so that when we die, we may be judged worthy of a place among the saints in God’s kingdom. It is in this kingdom that we shall also meet all our departed brothers and sisters including Bishop Darko. We shall meet them all in the company of Christ who said,
,
“I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die”.
