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Believing is seeing

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

“I would give anything to walk two seconds on water than to stay in a boat and tell the story about when I didn’t get out the boat to try.”

Those two seconds when Peter walked on water, when he saw the face of Jesus, “no-one will ever take that away from Peter. And no-one will ever get Peter to move from his mind what Jesus did for him on that day and who Jesus is. But he had to believe to see, then he stopped believing and he stopped seeing.”

We have to believe if we are going to see. This was the crux of the Archbishop’s homily as he celebrated Mass at the Living Water Community Chapel last Sunday (May 17) in commemoration of World International Day of Families (May 15). The Mass, initially scheduled to take place via Zoom with families joining virtually, was adjusted due to an outage of the video conference service .

In delivering his homily, the Archbishop believed that all should believe that life comes forth even in the midst of death. He commented that as “terrible” as the COVID-19 virus may look for the whole world, “God is here with us” and if, he stressed, persons believe that, “then we will see”.

What’s stopping persons from receiving God’s love? According to the Archbishop, one’s free will of choice, choosing not to believe and to be convinced of something else.

To this end, the Archbishop beseeched families to pray “every single day” between now and Pentecost so that God will allow them to believe and allow His love to flow through them.

“If you find the love in the family is not what it’s supposed to [be] pray. Pray and beg the Holy Spirit that the love will come through you out to others. If each of us allow the Holy Spirit to work, it will be an amazing world we living in,” Archbishop Gordon said.

He explained when we are open to the Holy Spirit, the Spirit sanctifies us. We become a lesser version of ourselves, and that’s the dynamism of free will and what God has promised to us, the Archbishop said.

Only those who have the eyes of faith will see Jesus Christ. Science has taught us that if you see it, you believe it. Faith teaches us if you believe it, you see it.

“And here is where the modern mind gets into serious trouble in the journey of faith, because the modern mind says if you let me see Him, then I will believe in Him. And the faith perspective says ‘No that’s not how it works. If you believe then you will see’,” the Archbishop said.

To this end, he offered this invitation to faithful: Believe in Him. When you believe in Jesus, that His words are true, that He sent an Advocate whom is in us and with us, “then you will start to see the signs that will justify your belief”.

If you wait to see first, Archbishop Gordon warned, then you will never come to fully believe. If you want to truly believe, the Archbishop suggested persons go to God in the most honest prayer they can make: ‘Lord I want to believe. I want to believe that You are in me. Help my little faith and help my belief’.

“…that’s an honest prayer that will allow you to begin that journey with Christ to open up your hearts to change your eyes,” the Archbishop said.