Homilies

Message from our Community Director for February 2020

Greetings dear Sisters and Brothers

As we begin this month of February we are experiencing in our country and the world a sense of urgency for God to come and save his people. We see and hear about wars and rumors of wars; Coronavirus getting out of control and infecting tens of thousands; corruption on the scale that maybe the world has never seen before; people being so cruel, doing unthinkable things to one another; abuse of children and women on an unimaginable scale and the lists goes on. Where is God we ask.

God is with his people. He is alive and working in our midst. If you are ever at our prayer meeting on a Wednesday night, you know that He is alive. When you go out of your way to help your sister or brother; when you see the smile of a refugee baby in the arms of its mother; when you can celebrate with your family the joy of just being together and when you can get up in the morning and welcome the day, you know he’s alive. I could go on and on and the list is longer than the woes you can give me.  If only we can lift our vision and see with the eyes of The Spirit… then we will know, ‘do not look for him among the dead, He is alive.’

Yes, the Lord is at work in my family, my country and the world; to be able to see God present in my family, in my environment, at my workplace, in the beauty of creation, in the smile of a loved one; to see him in the poor and needy, when I reach out in love and service to bring comfort to someone, needs my action. It needs me to commit to say yes to the will of God in my life. “To know Jesus Christ and the One who sent Him.” (Jn.17:3).  To know that it is in Him that we live and move and have our being. (Acts 17:28) He is my way, my light and my salvation.

Mary at Cana said to the steward… “do whatever he tells you,” (John 2:5) and he said to us “Love the Lord your God with your whole heart and soul and mind and love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matt.22:37). The answer to life and to all the problems and challenges that we see and experience lies in doing what Jesus has shown us. No rocket science here…‘do whatever he tells us’…We are enlightened as we read the scriptures and begin to know what he is telling us… read the scriptures, The Word of God…ask His Holy Spirit to come and do the work that is necessary in you to be able to know and do God’s will in your life.

Yes, my dear sisters and brothers, there is an urgency for the people of God to live as children of God and to take his light into the world of darkness. In John’s Gospel 33:16 Jesus, when preparing his disciples and comforting them before his death, says:

“I have told you all this so that you may find peace in me. In the world you will have hardship, but be courageous: I have conquered the world.”

It is in this Word (Jesus) that we have the courage to face the challenges of life, let us bind ourselves to him, as a vine to the branch.

We pray for a safe and decent Carnival in our beloved land this month and we prepare for the blessed and grace filled season of Lent as we continue our journey through 2020. ………..Blessings Rhonda