Do a ‘litmus test’ on your soul

Archbishop: Absence of love in society, a spiritual problem

The “litmus test” for the soul is how people respond to God’s invitation, said Archbishop Charles Jason Gordon while delivering the talk, Invite Everyone to the Banquet (Matt 22:9), the theme of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal’s 49th Annual Rally at the Centre of Excellence, Tunapuna on Sunday, May 26.

Discussing the ‘Parable of the Wedding Banquet’, Archbishop Gordon said it shows the special nature of the invitation God gave to His people and the response of “wayward stupidity of the people”.

“We are sometimes dumb and slow to understand the true message of salvation and what is being put before us in this parable is that there is something of great importance to which we are invited and our response to this something has not always been what it ought to be,” he said.

Archbishop Gordon gave examples of people choosing to view the Mass on television, young people reluctant to attend Mass, or people putting off prayer or attending prayer meetings.

He also said, “Every time you hear God speaking to your conscience and you choose not to follow God you are refusing the invitation that God is giving you. Every time you feel a tug in your life towards vocation and what God is asking of you in your life and you refuse to choose to follow what God is asking you, you are refusing the banquet that He has prepared for you, He is inviting you to.” Not helping the poor or being a loving presence within the family are also ways people are turning down God’s invitation.

“There is something that has gone wrong with our soul, so we have to beg the divine physician to heal our soul. Because whereas God is giving us the most fantastic invitation that anyone can ever receive, our response to this God is not the jubilation, the gratitude that we ought to have.”

Archbishop Gordon asked attendees to reflect on where they were now in their spiritual life and ask themselves: “Is your heart full of gratitude, and happy for the opportunity to serve God, to worship God, to be with God, or is your heart filled with anger and bitterness?”

He called this inward look “a litmus test to the soul”. The refusal to accept God’s invitation is caused by pride. He called the absence of love a spiritual problem affecting society.

He said, “This harshness with which we are treating each other in our society has made its way into our Church and it is not right, it’s not what God called us to be.”

Jesus, the bridegroom of the wedding feast, is inviting people to long-term loving relationship that is always new and invigorating. “What He wants with you, brothers and sisters, is a loving relationship where that loving response never dies, never grows cold, never outs, it remains hot all through your lives. That is what God wants with His bride the Church, that’s what He wants with us”.

The Synod discussion revealed a lack of loving relationships in Church and people being “not nice” to one another. “We have to recognise right now we are not doing well with relating to one another”, the Archbishop commented.

When this is seen it also shows “we are being exclusive”. He asked attendees when was the last time they extended an invitation to strangers to attend the banquet: to Mass, a prayer meeting. —LPG

Recitation of the Rosary – Mt Lambert Youth

Praise & Worship and Prophecy

Welcome – Deborah de Rosia, Coordinator

Talk – Fr Peter Aduaka VC

Praise & Worship

Intercession – Assumption Men’s Ministry

Talk – Archbishop Charles Jason Gordon

Testimony

Praise & Worship

Segment

Healing Ministry – Fr Hyginus Edwuazu

Holy Mass – Chief celebrant & homilist, Archbishop Charles Jason Gordon