FUNERAL OF THE LATE MR. JOHN WILLIAM KODZO ANATO-DUMELO (NOVEMBER 14, 1949 – JANUARY 3, 2025)
AT THE HOLY SPIRIT CATHEDRAL
ON SATURDAY, MARCH 8, 2025
HOMILY BY BISHOP JOHN KOBINA LOUIS
THEME: HEAVEN IS THE PRIZE
READINGS: 2 Timothy 4:1-8 & Matthew 5:1-12
0.1 INTRODUCTION
On behalf of Most Rev. John Bonaventure Kwofie, the Metropolitan Archbishop of Accra, Most Rev. Anthony Narh Asare, my co-Auxiliary Bishop of Accra, as well as the priests and religious here present, I wish to express our condolences to the chief mourners, children and other family members of the late Mr. John William Kodzo Anato-Dumelo.
Time flies, indeed! It is already 32+ years since I first met Mr. John Anato-Dumelo, his late wife, Mrs. Antoinette Dumelo and their then young children, Dela, Emefa and (Hon.) John Dumelo. I was then the Priest-in-Charge of St. Joseph the Worker Catholic Church in Community 8, Tema. With time, (Hon.) John Dumelo would become one of my Mass Servers.
THEME
The first reading (2 Tim. 4:1-8) mentions God’s Kingdom or heaven as our ultimate reward. And three times in the gospel reading (Matt. 5:1-12), heaven is mentioned. Hence, I have chosen the theme: “Heaven is the Prize”.
HYMN
May the choir lead us to sing Catholic Hymn no. 212: “Yes, Heaven is the prize” (the first and second verses only).
OUTLINE
⁃ Mr. John Anato-Dumelo’s Desire for Heaven
⁃ Heaven as the Crown of Righteousness
⁃ Heaven is for the Blessed
⁃ Conclusion
1. MR. JOHN ANATO-DUMELO’S DESIRE FOR HEAVEN
When I first met Mr. Anato-Dumelo, he was an Evangelical Presbyterian. On Sundays, he used to drop his family at the St. Joseph the Worker Catholic Church, and then returned later to pick them home. With time, Mr. Anato-Dumelo and I became friends. Then in 1997, by God’s grace and to the excitement of his late wife, he decided to become a Catholic. He became a faithful Catholic and when his family relocated to Adenta, they worshipped at the Holy Rosary Catholic Church. Not long thereafter, he would be elected as the Chairman of the Church Pastoral Council.
As a chemical engineer, Mr. Anato-Dumelo knew that nothing in the whole universe can last forever, even if it has survived millions of years. He knew that no chemical compound, element, or mineral is everlasting. Even diamonds are not forever as claimed by the 1971 James Bond movie and the song by John Barry.
Hence, Mr. Anato-Dumelo was convinced that only that reality which is beyond the universe is everlasting. That reality is the Kingdom of Heaven, and knowing that we can access it only through Jesus (cf. John 14:6), Mr. Anato-Dumelo passionately loved Jesus and aspired to be with Him for all eternity. So, he wholeheartedly embraced Jesus’ exhortation: “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you” (Matt. 6:33, NKJV).
Today, however, there are too many Christians who have reversed the above exhortation of Jesus. That is, they seek first all other things (material wealth, fame, etc.) and wrongly hope that they will receive the Kingdom of God and His righteousness in the future.
Unfortunately, the misleading sermons and lifestyles of many Ministers of the Gospel encourage this deviation from the teaching of Christ. And did not St. Paul caution us against such a deviation when he said: “For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will [gather] for themselves teachers to suit their own desires, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths”? (2 Tim. 4:3-4).
Beloved in Christ, the funeral of Mr. Anato-Dumelo is a call to give up any such deviation and to “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness”.
2. HEAVEN AS THE CROWN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS
Jesus spoke about seeking first God’s Kingdom and His righteousness in the same breath. This is because, only those who have been made right with God through the free merits of Christ’s death and resurrection (cf. Rom. 3:21-26; 5:17-19), and who have been sustained in the grace of righteousness till death can enter heaven, the eternal presence of the “holy, holy, holy” God (Isaiah 6:3).
Hence, St. Paul rightly described the prize of heaven as “the crown of righteousness” (2 Tim. 4:8). Please, let us note that heaven is not the crown of unrighteousness. It is not the crown of bribery. It is not the crown corruption. It is not the crown of mismanagement.
Whereas some people may engage in bribery, corruption, mismanagement, and the like, and still enjoy the good things of earthly life, no one who persists in unrighteous living till death would be given the crown of righteousness. Thus, St. Paul cautioned us: “I am warning you, as I warned you before: those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God” (Gal. 5:21).
Let us, therefore, turn away from all that is unrighteous and embrace, like Mr. Anato-Dumelo, the life of righteousness.
- HEAVEN IS FOR THE BLESSED
In his Parable about the Final Judgment, Jesus called “blessed” the righteous who were admitted into heaven on account of their charity to the needy (cf. Matt. 25:37). Thus, we read: “Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world’” (Matt. 25:34).
What else are notable about those whom God considers as blessed? According to Jesus, the blessed are “the poor in spirit”, “the meek”, “those who mourn”, “those who hunger and thirst for righteousness”, “the merciful”, “the pure in heart”, “the peacemakers” and “those who are persecuted” (cf. Matt. 5:1-12). These features of the blessed were guiding principles for Mr. Anato-Dumelo. Therefore, beloved in Christ:
- Instead of seeking first worldly wealth and fame, let us be poor in spirit (i.e., let us live with the conviction that fundamentally our lives, aspirations, achievements, future, etc. depend on God)
- Instead of being proud and aggressive, let us be meek (i.e., humble and gentle)
- Instead of engaging in evil deeds, let us mourn the evils in this world
- Instead of being unrighteous, let us hunger and thirst for righteousness and justice
- Instead of being vengeful and unkind, let us be merciful to those who offend us and kind to the needy
- Instead of multiple spiritual allegiance, let us be pure in heart
- Instead of promoting hatred and conflicts, let us be peacemakers
- Instead of giving up during trials and persecutions, especially when witnessing to Christ, let us endure to the end
Obviously, the life of the blessed is not easy. No wonder, St. Paul, whose persecutions were about culminating in his execution in the old City of Rome, would describe his life as a brutal fight and strenuous race as was in the ancient Olympic Games: “As for me, … the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Tim. 4:6-7).
As St. Paul kept the faith to the end, so may God grant us the strength of His grace to fight the good of the righteous and run the race of the blessed to the end.
4. CONCLUSION
Our brother, father, grandfather, uncle and friend, Mr. Anato-Dumelo, truly desired heaven as the ultimate prize. He fought the good fight of the righteous. But, as even the best boxers are sometimes hit by their opponents, so Mr. Anato-Dumelo had his shortcomings. Therefore. may the Good Lord, whom he loved so much, forgive his sins, declare him “blessed” and give him “the crown of righteousness”. Amen!
