RC Archbishop: There’s a saviour in your family

RC Archbishop Jason Gordon wants TT to know there is a saviour in each family – someone who can be the light which will help restore familial ties and bring light to the country.

He delivered this message during the Christmas Day mass at the Sacred Heart RC Church, Richmond Street, Port of Spain.

Using the Christmas story and the Bible’s books of John and Genesis, Gordon told the congregation while the Christmas story has been turned into a children’s story, it also told an important message of vulnerability.

He said to the small gathering, “Many times we turn the Christmas story into a little children’s story. And yes, it is, you know. What is cuter than when a child is born? It have anything cuter than that?

“There is nothing more beautiful than when you see a newborn baby, and a new baby comes into the family. Is there anything more beautiful than that? No.”

However, he said there was nothing more helpless than a newborn baby, and nothing more powerless than one, and this was how God chose to be born.

Gordon said God came as a humble, vulnerable being who was open to all humanity, and this meant every human being can go to him.

“On this Christmas morn, we have to remember that God becomes flesh and pitches his tent, his tabernacle amongst us. It means that all flesh is destined to God.

“What that means is every human being…is an image of the divine, and every human being that we meet is capable of a unity with the divine.”

He said if that is true the Christmas story is one of how human beings need to treat each other.

As TT nears the 600 murder mark, and asked about that by Newsday in relation to his message, Gordon said TT was in a difficult place between the floods and the distress many communities face because of it, people who lost jobs because of the pandemic and crime.

However, this was not the source of crime.

He said the source of crime was in another place: in the place of greed and people who were willing to do anything to get by.

“If we understand, a lot of what drives our crime is the underworld economy. It is what corrupts our nation: drugs, guns and human trafficking. It is the way in which that has corrupted the nation over many, many years that makes it more and more difficult to get the nation back on track.”

The country faced this Herculean task.

“But the nice thing about Christmas is when the world was at its worst moment and did not see it coming, God did something that was so different and came into the world as a child.

“Therefore, although it is a dark moment for us as a nation, the readings at midnight say, ‘A people who walk in darkness have seen a great light.’”

He said people have to look and see that light within their own families.

“If we recognise that Christ is amongst us in our own families and start treating people differently in our families, a light will break out in our whole nation.”

The Miller family composed of Ray, Elizabeth, Ethan, Elisa and Elijah attended the Christmas morning service. Elizabeth said the family followed the advent journey and that was why they attended the mass.

Apart from celebrating her birthday, Elizabeth said it was a special Christmas for them and the family was happy all members were alive and still together in these difficult times.

She said her family wished TT peace and love and for everyone to recognise Christ in each other as Gordon had said.