Skip to main content

ABOUT THE AUTHOR


Rev. Fr. Michael Mensah, SSD
Fr. Michael Kodzo Mensah is a priest of the Catholic Archdiocese of Accra, Ghana. He is a Biblical Exegete and holds a Doctorate in Sacred Scriptures from the Pontifical Biblical Institute, Rome, Italy.

He is currently a Formator and Academic Dean of St. Paul’s Catholic Seminary, Sowutuom in Accra, Ghana.



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Swords into Ploughshares! (Isa 2:4)

Have you ever wondered what it means the prophecy of Isaiah which reads “they shall beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks? Well, it simply means that a situation of war will be turned into a situation of peace. But why swords and ploughshares? The sword in the bible was an instrument of war. But not just war. It was a symbol of violence. The first story of violence in the Bible was that of Cain and Abel (Gen 4), when an elder brother killed his own younger brother. The ploughshare was a farming implement. The first farmer was Adam, the father of Cain and Abel, whom YHWH commanded to till the garden of Eden and care for it (Gen 2:15). The prophecy of Isaiah is thus a vision of a return from violence to what God originally intended – the peace of Eden. This is what God intends for us this week. May God banish from your heart every violence and return   you to the peace in which you were created.

Honour thy father and thy mother (Ex. 20:12)

The fourth commandment enjoins us to honour our parents and it even adds a promise; that we might live long in the land (Ex. 20:12). But the real problem is, what exactly is the content of this honour? What is a person supposed to do? My understanding is that there are three dimensions that constitute the idea of honour. The first content of honour has to do with the things one does to or for them. In Ex. 21:15 the Law reads: 15 "he who strikes his father or his mother shall surely be put to death”. The passage introduces a certain type of comportment that is expected of children with respect to their parents. This is expressed in varied ways. For instance in Lev. 19:32 it reads: "You shall rise up before the grayheaded, and honor the aged. This has to do with consideration of the elderly. It is this same idea which Sirach expands upon in Sir. 3:12-14. He mentions help, kindness and forbearance among the ways one should act towards parents. The second content of hono...