He said this in a homily during the August 16, 2025, funeral Mass of the late Madam Nangwelle, which took place at the Roman Catholic Primary School compound, at Kalsegra, an outstation of Queen of Peace Parish, Nadowli, Diocese of Wa, in the Upper West Region of Ghana.
The Mass was officiated by the Most Rev. Francis Bomansaan, M.Afr., Bishop of Wa, and concelebrated by Most Rev. John Alphonse Asiedu, SVD, Bishop of Donkorkrom Apostolic Vicariate, and a score of Priests from within and outside the Diocese.
According to Msgr. Bazaanah, who had known the deceased over the past 40 years, as a newly ordained, and became a close friend to the family over the years, Madam Margaret Nangwelle was simply a good woman. He described her as “a woman of unshakable faith, and a woman of prayer. She had great love for the Holy Mass and the Rosary. Despite her old age, ebbing strength, and painful illness, she hardly missed Mass and her Rosary prayers. In her troubled times, she would always say, ‘Only God knows, He will save us,’” he recounted.
Late Madam Nangwelle belonged to the Christian Mothers’ Association, the Sacred Heart of Jesus Confraternity, the Legion of Mary, and the St. Monica Widows’ Association, he added.
The Priest further avowed the late Madam Nangwelle as a pleasant and friendly person. “She was kind, generous, compassionate, and full of love for all. She was meek and humble, quiet and peaceful. She was a reconciler and a unifier. She was hard working, committed, and dedicated to her responsibilities,” he praised.
To him, there was hardly a time he visited her house and found her idle. She was always doing something: feeding her fowls or pigs, working in her garden or farm, washing her dishes, cracking groundnuts or shea nuts, or praying the rosary. “It is this hard work and industry of hers that enabled her to raise her five children almost single-handedly. Margaret, well done! We are proud of you!” he applauded.
The homilist, not seeking to canonize the late Madam Nangwelle, by words of praise, explained that it was for the very reason that, human as she was, with her limitations and shortcomings, that the faithful had gathered to offer prayers to God for the peaceful repose of her soul.
Further alluding to Judas Maccabeus, a pious Jewish leader, who led a rebellion against the Greeks who wanted to impose their religion and culture on his people, from the First Reading (2 Mac 12:43-45), and who had offered prayers and sacrifices for the forgiveness of the sins of his soldiers who lost their lives, Msgr. Bazaanah opined that by that religious act, Judas demonstrated his strong belief in the resurrection of the dead and his concern for their well-being thereafter.
He called on the mourners to share in the same belief and always remember to offer prayers and sacrifices for the dead.
Msgr. Bazaanah further based his reflection on the theme: “Do not let your hearts be troubled; trust in God and trust in me; for there are many rooms in my Father’s house; if there were not, I should have told you. I am going to prepare a place for you, and after I have gone and prepared you a place, I shall return to take you with me, so that where I am, you may be too” drawn from the Gospel of the day (Jn 14:1-6).
He underscored that this act of preparing a place for humankind signifies Jesus’s deep love and care for those who believe in him.
The Priest noted with surety that the Lord had gone and prepared a place for Madam Margaret and had returned to take her back to himself. Hence, “when our rooms, too, are ready, the Lord will come and take us to live with Him on his ‘Holy Mountain’, where there will be neither mourning nor crying nor pain nor death (cf. Rev 21:4-5),” he professed.
He, however, buttressed that the promised rooms were meant for those who believe in God and the Lord Jesus Christ; those who do the will of God. Contrarily, “those who live for themselves only, those who are wicked and uncharitable to others, those who are proud, selfish, greedy, immoral, deceivers, extortioners, unjust will not inherit the kingdom of God,” he maintained.
Expressing the firm conviction that the late Madam Nangwelle will live with Christ forever, because she fulfilled the Christian mandate of eating the Body of Christ during her lifetime (cf. John 6:58), Msgr. Bazaanah charged the faithful not to grieve so much over Madam Margaret’s death as non-believers who do not have hope in the Resurrection do.
Rather, they should thank God for “the exemplary faith and love that she has bequeathed to us, for the lessons of hard work, dedication and commitment that we have learnt from her,” he encouraged.
“May her gentle soul rest in perfect peace. May Mary, the mother of sorrows, pray for us to know the shortness of our life, so that we may gain wisdom of heart (cf. Ps 90:12),” he prayed.
Drawing further inspiration from the Second Reading, where St. Paul maintained that that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands made ready for us, the homilist urged the mourners to gain comfort and hope that Madam Margaret is in this “better and lasting residence” made by God for all who believe in Him.
They must, however, follow the promptings of St. Paul to fix their eyes on this true and permanent home rather than waste their time and energies on earthly things that do not last.
By Sr. Sylvie Lum Cho, MSHR (DEPSOCOM, AVD).
