By Fr Joseph Panabang SVD
St. Paul to the Filipinos
Once a month, I meet my catechists and explain to them all the four Sunday readings. In one of those meetings, the second reading was from Paul’s letter to the Philippines. Knowing that Ghanaians call Filipinos “Philippians”, I said, “kindly read the letter of Paul to my great-grand parents.” Not even one noticed the joke.
Chauvinism?
My catechist Nicolas Busi and his wife live an exemplary life. Both command the respect of the whole village. At their door was written “In the name of Busi and wife Amen.” Observant as he is , Nicholas noticed my wry expression when I read it. The next time I returned, the notes were gone.
King of the Ants
I found near our church at Abodiom, an early opened Catholic village, a deserted anthill with a hole near to top. Gazing at it for sometime, my imagination told me that if the hole widened a bit, one can peep through for a good picture. Inspired,, I went enlarge the hole telling every passer-by that I was looking for the Queen Bee. When the sun was lambent in the West lighting directly through the anthill, I got picture which I captioned: “The King of Ants.”
Know you priest
A sick woman at Yara asked for her baptism certificate to my surprise for I had not baptized her. But according to her, when she was sick at the hospital, a priest baptized her wanting to know who the priest was, she went home and came back to tell me that a certain priest was Fr. Joseph Kintampo, according to her brother baptized her. Then I remembered I did baptize a dying a dying woman at Techiman Hospital, a parish nearby. I asked, “do you know Fr. Joseph?” she shook her head to my dismay. The catechist scolded her for not knowing the priest in-charge of her. Known to all my catechumens, it is a requirement before baptism to know three names: that of the Pope, the Bishop, and mine. If they do not know the names, they are in real trouble.
Pale Face
In my remotest Yara village, while just about to sit down after a long, long, walk, I saw a two year old child running helter-skelter out of the yard disturbing his mother. The father who is also my catechist said to me: “Father listen to my child. He said he is going to wash and wash and will be as white as you.” No wonder the mother was laughing instead to getting annoyed.
Adam
During a baptism, I was distributing the candles when I distributing the candles when I discovered we lacked one. I bent over the table for the big Easter Candle and handed it to Adam Kwaku Fogo, one of those being baptized saying, “Adam! Since you were responsible for our original sin, take this big candle.” That made his baptism more meaningful though a ripple of smiles ran through the church.