Message to the nation from Dr. The Honorable Keith Rowley Prime Minister on the occasion of Corpus Christi 2024
Greetings to the Christian community on its celebration of the Holy feast of Corpus Christi – 2024 from the Government of Trinidad and Tobago, my family, and myself as Prime Minister.
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Today is another sacred celebration for the community, which connects to the commemoration of the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the symbolisms of his blood and body, and the covenant that followed.
The official name of the celebration is the “Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ.” It is revered as a holy day of obligation, and also a day of thanksgiving for communion and choosing to honour the Blessed Sacrament.
As citizens, we should all share in the community’s way of saying thanks to God for His abiding presence in our lives, and see this as another instance in which we, as a nation, can renew our faith, and devotion and surrender ourselves to the greatness and mysteries of God.
Saint Paul, in a prayer for spiritual growth, says he fell humbly to his knees in seeking that God, through His unlimited resources will entrust each one of us with His spirit, and that the message of Christ will make its home in all our hearts, so that the roots of love will go deep and strong there.
All peoples, he wrote, have the power within them to understand the length, width and depth of God’s love. We all experience that love, although it may be too great for many of us to understand fully, but, in reality, the fullness of human life, and its wealth and power will only be complete, when they come from God.
As citizens, we must recognise that each one of us has a personal life story, and everyone is on a spiritual journey.
Let us acknowledge that we are all born of God; His presence stands dominant throughout our daily lives, and we all need to seek our personal path to know God, now.
Some may question the call, at this time, to citizens to find a meaningful and purposeful life through God. They may argue that in the 21st century, many traditional religious beliefs are being undermined by science, citing the encroaching impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on our lives, and that many of us are “future challenged”, in an era in which we should be encouraged instead to be “future smart”.
But human progress and the march to modernity have always come with some psycho-social disorders and costs.
In the face of this challenge, we, in Trinidad and Tobago, cannot lose the natural, communal spirit of our land – the way we, love, share, show kindness, respect, and live with each other.
We must display, every day, God’s gift, the spirit of community, in which we find mutual benevolence to extend to our family, friends, and our fellow Trinbagonians.
Fellow citizens: Have a Holy Corpus Christi – 2024.
