“Your kindness can save a city” – Fr. Okine-Quartey urges faithful to be modern-day Abrahams

Rector of St. Paul’s Seminary, Very Rev. Fr. Joseph Okine-Quartey has called on Christians to take seriously their calling to intercede for others and live lives of goodness that ripple outwards to save families and communities.

Preaching a homily on this year’s World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly at the University of Ghana’s Catholic Chaplaincy on July 27,  drawn from the story of Abraham interceding for Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 18) and Jesus’ teaching on prayer (Luke 11), Fr. Okine-Quartey invited worshippers to embrace the spiritual power of goodness and intercession.

“We don’t sow kindness and it is for nothing,” he said. “Whatever good you are doing, it’s a seed you are sowing for the salvation of others.”

Referencing the elderly Abraham, he described how righteousness can influence entire communities: “The goodness, their righteousness, their innocence was going to save the whole of Sodom and Gomorrah from the impending attack.”

Tying the message into the occasion, Fr. Okine-Quartey said, “Let us celebrate the graces we have received because they were kind, the graces we have received because they were good, the graces we are receiving because they were loving.” He added, “It is also our turn to be good. It is also our turn to be kind. It is also our turn to be loving.”

The homily also emphasized the need for intercessory prayer. “Abraham, the elder at this point… was an intercessor,” he reminded the congregation. “When we get up to pray, we think only about me, myself and I. But it is a privilege and a spiritual work of mercy to intercede for one another.”

Fr. Okine-Quartey urged the elderly to continue their silent but impactful spiritual duty. “If you have no one to intercede for, intercede for us, your priests. We rely on your prayers to be what we have been called to be just as you rely on our prayers to be what you have been called.”