The Saints of Africa
March 5, 2024
Wednesday March 6th: Journey back to God
March 6, 2024
Justice Tricia Hudlin-Cooper is urging the Catholic faithful to stand firm in their faith and not be swayed by the tide of the world.
Addressing the congregation at an open-air Lenten Retreat at St Paul’s RC Church, Couva on February 28, Hudlin-Cooper recounted the tale of St Paul’s visit to Thessalonica, where he had established the Church but found it veering off course. The people, once fervent in their faith, had begun to stray, embracing strange concepts and behaviours.
“Are we not facing a similar crisis today?” she asked, “have we not become complacent, taking our faith for granted?”
“God has chosen us,” Hudlin-Cooper said. “Before the creation of the world, He chose us to be His people. But have we truly embraced this calling?”
She urged the congregation to examine their lives, to question their actions and motivations. “Are we standing firm in our faith?” she challenged them, “or are we being swayed by the tide of the world?”
Drawing parallels between scripture and everyday life, Hudlin-Cooper described the challenges facing modern believers. “So, at work, just so you find they start to single you out. At home, everybody starts to be irritated with you, just so. The neighbour you were living with without problem for 20 years, the whole mango tree that both of you suck mango from start to disturb them, just so. And the whole coconut tree, the branch used to fall in peace now it has two of you in pieces just so.”
“The devil is not sleeping,” she declared, “he is constantly strategising, seeking to lead us astray.”
Amid daily challenges, she urged people to “stand firm,” and not crumble. “We have the power of prayer; we have the Holy Spirit as our comforter and guide. With God, we can stand firm against any adversity.”
Declaring that “prayer is our communication with God,” Hudlin-Cooper chastised the gathering for turning to Facebook and other social media before turning to God. “Your prayers do not require a code to reach God,” she said. “You are on a data plan supported by the Almighty.”
Hudlin-Cooper encouraged prayer in every circumstance in life. “If you have children, you have to pray. If you are married, you have to pray. If you are using roads in Trinidad, Lord knows you have to pray,” she declared.
This Lenten period, she said, should be used for introspection. “Ask God, ‘How do You perceive me? Where do I stand before You? What aspects of myself are not aligned with Your will? Grant me the grace to enact the changes You call me to make’.”
She asserted that this process is necessary to emerge from the depths of sin and embrace new life in Christ, “so that when I come to the Good Friday experience and the Gloria Saturday experience, by the time I get to Easter Sunday, God would have given me the grace to rise out of the cesspit of my sin so that I rise to new life in Christ. That’s what Lent is about.”
Hudlin-Cooper urged the congregation to recognise that God is needed “every day and in everything. That is why we hold on to this anchor that is Christ Jesus because we know outside of Him, we can do nothing. There is no option for our lives but Jesus.”
Speaking on the opening night of the retreat on February 27, Couva parish priest Fr Trevor Nathasingh noted “in the context of the world we live in, with the mass murdering of people, the mass injustices being done to human beings, the lust for power, the greed, the corruption, the violence, in the midst of all of that men and women of faith have a responsibility to proclaim without fear and favour that Jesus Christ is what the world needs today.”
The Lenten Retreat ended with an open-air Mass attended by hundreds on March 2. Delivering the homily, Fr Nathasingh urged parents to ensure that their children attend church, come to know their faith, and develop a desire to walk with God.
Without a foundation in Christ, he warned, they would be consumed by the darkness which pervades “on the streets, in the schools, in the playgrounds, in liming spots and all over. Your children are exposed to it, and if they do not know the power of Jesus Christ, they will be eaten up alive.”
—CN contributor
