HOMILY FOR THE BURIAL MASS OF MR. ISAIAH BAIDOO
(APRIL 10, 1956 – NOVEMBER 22, 2025)
AT ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST CATHOLIC CHURCH, ODORKOR
ON JANUARY 31, 2026
BY BISHOP JOHN KOBINA LOUIS
THEME: “LIFE IS CHANGED, NOT ENDED”
READINGS: Wisdom 3:1–9 & Luke 9:28–36
Introduction
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
Today we gather with heavy hearts, yet with unshaken faith, to commend to God the soul of our brother, Mr. Isaiah Baidoo. We — especially his dear mother, beloved wife, children and siblings — grieve his absence, but we do not grieve without hope.
Our hope stems from our Christian belief that “life is changed, not ended” for the faithful departed (Roman Missal, “Preface I for the Dead”). Hence, the theme for this homily: “Life is Changed, not Ended.” Death is real, painful, and final in the eyes of the world—but for us who believe in Christ, death is a doorway, not a dead end. The readings from Wisdom 3:1–9 and Luke 9:28–36 remind us that what God begins in this life, He perfects in eternity.
- Life After Death Illustrated by the Law of Conservation of Energy
Mr. Isaiah Baidoo was a lecturer in engineering, a man formed by science, reason, and discipline. In engineering and physics, one of the most fundamental principles is the Law of Conservation of Energy: “Energy is neither created nor destroyed; it is only transformed from one form to another”.
How beautifully this scientific truth echoes our Christian faith! At death, life is not lost—it is changed. The body may fail, but the soul does not vanish. It is transformed.
As an engineer and lecturer, Mr. Baidoo understood that when energy changes form, it does not cease to exist. In the same way, at death, the life of the righteous does not disappear into nothingness; it passes from the visible to the invisible, from time into eternity, from earth into God’s hand: “the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God” (Wis. 3:1).
We therefore believe that death is not destruction but change, not extinction but transformation. So, may Mr. Baidoo, whose life was marked by faith, intellect, family, love and service, now enter a new and higher state in God. Amen!
- The Transfiguration: Proof of the Change of Life After Death
In today’s gospel reading, Jesus takes Peter, James, and John up the mountain. This moment comes immediately after Jesus predicts His suffering, death, and resurrection. Peter cannot understand it. Like many of us, he struggles with the idea that suffering and death could lead to glory.
So, Jesus gives them the Transfiguration—a preview of what lies beyond suffering. His face shines, His clothes become dazzling white, and Moses and Elijah appear in glory. For a brief moment, heaven breaks into earth.
But notice something important: the experience does not last long. Like an experiment in a laboratory, it is temporary—just long enough to reveal the truth. Peter wants to remain there, to build tents, to freeze the moment. But he cannot. They must come back down the mountain.
Yet the reality revealed in that moment—the glorious transformation of life—does not end. It is eternal. Therefore, we pray with confidence:
May Mr. Baidoo experience not a brief glimpse, but the everlasting reality of glory of heaven!
May he see Moses and Elijah, not for a moment, but forever!
May he see as well the prophet Isaiah, whose name he bore!
May he behold also all the angels and saints in heaven!
Above all, may he gaze eternally upon our Lord Jesus Christ, together with the Heavenly Father and the Holy Spirit, world without end! Amen!
- The Transformation of the Souls of the Righteous Like Gold in a Furnace
The Book of Wisdom assures us: “The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God… As gold in the furnace, He proved them” (Wis. 3:1,6). Gold does not become pure without fire. The fire does not destroy it; it refines it. In the same way, the trials, sacrifices, and struggles of this life purify the souls of the righteous.
Mr. Baidoo knew discipline, responsibility, intellectual labour, family commitment, and human struggle including sickness. Like gold in the furnace, his life was shaped, tested, and refined.
Today, as we commend him to God, we pray:
May the Lord complete the transformation of Mr. Baidoo.
May every imperfection be purified.
May every burden be lifted.
May his soul shine with the beauty of perfected gold in God’s eternal kingdom (cf. Wis. 3:7).
- The Transformation of the Souls of the Righteous Like a Sacrificial Offering.
The Book of Wisdom also tells us that the souls of the righteous are received by God “like sacrificial offerings” (Wis. 3:6).
The story of the two brothers, Cain and Abel, can throw some light on this point (cf. Gen. 4:1-7). Cain offered the fruits of the land and Abel offered the first-fruits of his flock. In each case, what they offered was destroyed or lost (through fire). However, unlike Cain, what Abel lost became a pleasing sacrifice to God, because he was a righteous man. That is, Abel’s physical loss was transformed into a spiritual gain.
So, though we lose this earthly life in death, the righteous person rises up to God like the sweet-smelling smoke of a sacrifice pleasing unto Him. However, the unrighteous person’s death is like the offering of Cain which is lost both physically and spiritually.
Today we entrust Mr. Baidoo to God, praying that his life — his faith in God, his work as a lecturer, his love as a husband, his sacrifices as a father, his service to society — may be received like Abel’s sincere offering: pleasing and acceptable to God.
Above all, we pray that Mr. Baidoo’s soul may be transformed, and rise up to God like the sweet-smelling smoke of the pleasing sacrifice of Abel.
Conclusion
Dear family and friends, our grief is real, and our tears are genuine. But our faith is stronger than death. The same God who revealed His glory on Mount Tabor, who causes gold to be refined by fire, who receives the offerings of the righteous, now holds Mr. Baidoo safely in His hand.
Life is changed, not ended.
Love is not broken, only deepened.
Death is not the end of the story — it is the turning of the page.
Finally, may the soul of Mr. Isaiah Baidoo, and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen!
