Wading into the deep of faith

By Kaelanne Jordan
Email: mediarelations.camsel@catholictt.org
Twitter: @kaelanne1

“Where are you along this journey of faith?”

Archbishop Jason Gordon posed this question in his homily as he celebrated Mass virtually, Tuesday, March 24 at Archbishop’s Chapel.

“Just water at your ankles or ready to go further as a disciple or further as a missionary disciple or ultimately to mystical union with God?” he asked.

The Archbishop beseeched faithful: “Do not stop short on the early stages of faith.”

He observed many have had their ankles in the river, stepping back into dry land.

“Do not be satisfied by just touching faith lightly. This is the moment in the midst of this [COVID-19] desert, to wade in the water. Wade deep into this water because God is troubling up this water to teem with life inside of us….” Archbishop Gordon said.

The Archbishop commented that in the First Reading (Eze 47:1-9,12), with each measure, the water gets higher and higher.

“And this is an image of faith, this is what faith is.”

It is through “the stream of waters” of Baptism faithful experience their first encounter with faith.

“But it’s just a little trickle at this stage,” Archbishop Gordon said.

In the First Reading, the desert turns into a fertile ground and the dry land becomes a wilderness with incredible life teeming in it.

“And whoever wades into the river finds life and that’s what happens to the soul when we give ourselves completely to our God,” the Archbishop said.

The Archbishop, commenting on the day’s readings, said he “loves” the Church’s readings, how they work, how they feed us, how they challenge us and how they move us along in this middle time of Lent where we are experiencing a desert of “arid land”.

Like the First Reading, as faithful wade a little more in the river of faith, we come to a conscious choice to be a disciple of Christ where we make His Word our home, His command our life’s call. We seek out vocation, then the water now is up to the thighs.

“And in this bringing the Good News to people, we are ready now for the hardships of the gospel and ready to be generous with our lives and to give our time, talent and treasure to God…..because now the water is up to our waist, and we are experiencing a fulness of this love. Measure out again and now the water is at our head and that’s mystical union with Christ,” the Archbishop said.

To enter into mystical union with God, is the ultimate call of every Christian. It is the apex of the Christian call, and this is what the prophet is measuring out—the different stages of development of Christian faith, the Archbishop said.

Archbishop Gordon then invited faithful to examine where they are in their journey of faith, measure out the next cubit and delve deeper and deeper into this life-giving water into which He is inviting us.