Archbishop: Show love for Lent

HEAD of the local Catholic flock, Archbishop of Port of Spain Fr Jason Gordon is urging the nation to give up negative remarks to each other and replace them with loving language and loving responses.

Gordon made the recommendation at Ash Wednesday’s mass at the Our Lady of Perpetual Help RC Church at Harris Promenade, San Fernando.

“During this Lent, let us listen to the language we use. I cringe every time a child tells parents, ‘I hate you.’ Words have consequences, and the way we speak to each other matters,” Gordon said to the spaced-out congregation.

“The disrespect we hear on national radio and television for each other and people in office counts as eroding the very fabric and soul of our society.” Ash Wednesday marks the start of Lent. He considered it a day of national repentance. It is a day when the whole community is called to ask for forgiveness.

He said this forgiveness is for the way in which the church has not been a witness and light that the nation ought to have had. Gordon said it is about recognising that parents have not been shining examples to their children.

“If we were living as we ought to live, the nation could never be where it is right now. Have you heard the way we speak to each other? Have you listened to how the violence comes out of our lips in the family?” Gordon questioned. He said the family is supposed to be the school of love, the first school of devotion and learning.

“This year for Lent, I want to highlight the violence in our hearts. I want us to make a commitment that in our families, we will repent of violence and violent words and actions,” Gordon said. He encouraged people to pray and fast. Gordon said, “Let us pray for the family to become a school of love that it is destined to be. Can we give up the hurtful words and hateful gestures we use easily use in our day? Can we give up the hurtful words on social media?” Saying alms giving covers a multitude of sins, he encouraged people to help the less fortunate.

“That too is a gesture of love. As a country, we have gone very far off the mark that God has intended for us. God is no longer center in the family and schools,” Gordon said. “We have to pray for peace in our families. In fasting, give up the hurtful things we say. In alms giving, offer something to the poor.”