Jesus “the Way, the Truth, and the Life” (John 14:6): The rhetoric of a funeral homily

Abstract

For many Catholics in Ghana, one way of dealing with death and grief is the celebration of Mass, also called Holy Eucharist, or a prayer service with the homily serving as both a religious and rhetorical act of teaching and consolation from a Christian perspective. This paper engaged in a rhetorical analysis of a funeral homily of a Ghanaian statesperson, using metaphoric analysis as a unit of analysis, and drew conclusions on the meaning of the metaphors “the Way, the Truth, and the Life” expressed by Jesus in John 14:6 especially as these metaphors relate to human conduct, belief, and hope of a Christian. To write this analysis the author watched the funeral celebration of the late Theresa Aba Kufuor, former First Lady of the Republic of Ghana, published on YouTube, several times and concentrated on the homily delivered by the Auxiliary Bishop of the Catholic Archdiocese of Accra, Most Rev. Anthony Narh Asare, and drew some conclusions about the efficacy of the rhetorical act of the homily.