I am Fr. Anthony Baffour Awuah from Ghana, west of Africa. I was ordained a Catholic priest on December 7th, 2002, and I had my first Mass on December 8th, 2002, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. I am a diocesan priest incardinated into the Diocese of Obuasi in Ghana, but currently serving in the Archdiocese of Atlanta, hence, I have been appointed to All Saints Catholic Church, Dunwoody, as the Parochial Vicar to assist Fr. Michael Silloway to carry out the pastoral ministry and the evangelization mission of the Church in this parish.
Evangelization is the proper vocation of the Church, her mandate given to her by the founder, our Lord Jesus Christ, when He instructed the disciples to go out to all nations and preach the good news, baptizing those who believe in the good news. The Church, therefore, exists to evangelize and win souls for Jesus Christ after her birth from the evangelization mission of Jesus Christ. (Pope Paul VI, 1975). This is a call to the service of the word of God given to us by Jesus Christ through the Apostles and their Successors and all those who have been untrusted with the authentic teachings of the Catholic Church.
This call is directed to all of us and not to just a few. We are to perform this task according to the grace received from the Lord. It is a fact that the Holy Spirit is the first and main evangelizer (Pope Paul VI, 1975) , but He uses ordinary people like us to perform ordinary tasks to achieve extraordinary results. We only need to cooperate with the Holy Spirit, use the graces of God that we receive through the sacraments profitably, and be united as the body of Christ.
We must undertake this mission through word and deed to receive the desired results and reward (Paul VI, Apostolicam Actuositatem, 1965). Many people in the world today are losing the sense of sin. They believe much in philosophy and the secular sciences more than the word of God, and they live as if there is no judgement as we find in the first reading of this Sunday. Let us be the Abraham of today to evangelize and intercede for the world. Let us follow the teachings of Jesus in this Sunday’s gospel by praying as pilgrims of hope with perseverance, and our prayers would be answered according to the Holy will of God. May we avail ourselves to the promptings of the Holy Spirit and He shall use us to renew the face of the earth.
I wish you all a blessed week,
Fr. Anthony