Ghanaian archbishop says only hope of rising from dust is through the Cross

By Klysha Best 

Visiting Archbishop Charles Palmer-Buckle of Cape Coast, Ghana, brought a message of humility, self-discipline, and divine mercy to the faithful at the Minor Basilica of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception on Ash Wednesday, urging them to see Lent as more than a season—but as a blueprint for living.

“Remember you are dust and into dust you shall return,” the Archbishop repeated, anchoring his homily in the ancient refrain that marks the start of Lent. But he offered another image to drive the point home.

“I take some of the dust which is of the palm branches. When you throw it into the air, what happens? It dissipates. And you can’t gather them together anymore,” he said. “And that is a very important lesson, not only for Lent, but for the rest of your life.”

Whether president or peasant, the wealthiest or simplest, he reminded the congregation, “life is passing.” The only hope of rising from dust, he said, comes through the Cross of Christ, “who died on the Cross, that you and I may have life… who has made our dust into our victory.”

Archbishop Palmer-Buckle reframed the traditional Lenten pillars of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving in deeply personal terms.

Prayer, he said, is simply “my loving relationship with God.”

“You know many of us, we only pray when we are in need of something,” he observed, drawing some nods from the congregation. “If you love somebody, you don’t only wait to call the person when you need money… Once in a while you just call to say hello. And even you call to say ‘I love you.’

He challenged the faithful to adopt a habit of constant, joyful communication with God—before meals, after travel, in sickness and in health.

On fasting, the Archbishop admitted he prefers the term “self-discipline”.

“Many of us are worried about giving up some of the goodies that we enjoy,” he said with a chuckle, listing steak, wine, and sweets. But the deeper call, he insisted, is to take control of one’s life—of what we eat, what we watch, how we behave. “I discipline myself. I take control of my life.”

And on almsgiving, he expanded the definition to “good works” and “charity” in the fullest sense. “It is not just giving money, but it is about doing what I have to do and doing it well,” he said. “You are a teacher, teach well. You are a cop, be a good policeman. You are a minister, serve the country well… Everything you do, do it well.”

He reminded the congregation that Lent is not an isolated 40-day exercise but “a call to remember who we are and how we should live our lives.”

The Archbishop also urged the faithful to embrace the Sacrament of Reconciliation, calling it “the first gift that Jesus gave us from the Resurrection.”

“When He rose from the dead and met His apostles in the upper room, the first gift He gave to them was peace,” Archbishop Palmer-Buckle said, referencing John 20. “Those were sinners. One had betrayed Him. One had denied Him. The rest ran away. But He gave them the power of the Holy Spirit to forgive sins.”

“So, you see the good news of Lent,” he concluded, “is that God is merciful. God is good. Let us taste of the goodness of God through prayer, through self-discipline, and through good works.”