Tuesday January 17th: People first
January 17, 2023
Wednesday January 18th: Do Good Anyway
January 18, 2023
To say there is nothing good happening in the world is to say God is absent, “and God is not absent,” said the Chair of the Evangelisation Commission, Deborah de Rosia in her talk for the biennial Catholic Charismatic Renewal Conference, Sunday, January 8 titled ‘Once you were a non-people, now you are God’s people’ (1 Peter 2:10).
Commenting on the more than 600 homicides recorded in 2022 – the country’s deadliest year ever, according to a Trinidad Guardian report – and the bloody start to 2023, de Rosia declared, “we can reverse it.”
“God gives the power and anointing. It is going to be reversed when people begin to experience the power of God in their lives,” she said.
She acknowledged though evil, wickedness, sin sickness, greed, hostility, and injustice exist, “you and I have been set apart. You and I have been given a very special task to live out our consecration in the world that is full of brokenness and pain.”
The Church, de Rosia explained, is the salt of the Earth, the light of the world and the custodian of the Holy Spirit. “You and I are the church and we’re scattered all over this place. Wherever we go, the power of God must flow,” de Rosia said.
She then called for those gathered, both in person at the Centre of Excellence, Macoya and virtually, to “wake up, sleeping giants.”
De Rosia observed that faithful have become “so comfortable” with virtual fellowship. She highlighted, “you don’t realise that when you pull the embers apart, the fires go out? When you bring the embers together, the fire blazes.”
She warned faithful to not allow the wonders of God, His “awesomeness” and superabundance to be missed by others because “our lives are not expressive of what God has done or is doing in us.”
Reiterating the point that we all have been chosen and called by God, de Rosia underscored that Hannah, Elizabeth, Zachariah, “in their old age, God used them.”
“Why you think God does discard? God knows how to take anything that is offered to Him and turn it to good for those who love Him.”
She invited all to offer themselves for the rebuilding of community, community values, nation, families, and church. This de Rosia said, is going to take “a serious effort”.
De Rosia referred to the popular saying ‘I’ve found God’, adding, “as if God was lost and we went looking for Him.” She questioned ‘Why did He choose us? Why did He call us through the waters of Baptism? Why did He put His stamp of ownership of us?’
Responding to her own questions, de Rosia explained that He did that so that faithful can show the world who He is. “We have a responsibility to let the world know who God is. People must never look at us and say, ‘Where is your God?’. People must never have to turn their backs on God because of the quality of life you and I choose to live.”
De Rosia reminded faithful God has covenanted Himself to us. “And you and I are not just ordinary people,” she said.
She explained, “We entered into a covenant relationship with God through the waters of Baptism. We renewed it at our Confirmation and every time we go to Mass, and that Body and Blood of Christ is elevated, and we participate in it, we are renewing a covenant with God, and we are saying to God, ‘I am wedded to You as You are wedded to me.’”
De Rosia then appealed to faithful to “look like your Father” adding that God is depending on us to look like Him in this world. This, she said, is sustained by God’s grace.
De Rosia cautioned faithful when they find themselves in the wilderness, it is not a time for despair. Make prayer a priority, she beseeched. “Don’t compromise your prayer time. If Jesus was not a man of prayer, we don’t know what would have happened,” she said.
She further warned faithful that the church must not go around in circles in the desert. Rather, we are called to ask God to lead us out of the desert places we have been in and bring us into a place of new life.
By Kaelanne Jordan
mediarelations.camsel@catholictt.org
