Archbishop Gordon tells citizens: Don’t lose hope

New Archbishop of Port of Spain the Most Rev Jason Gordon, 58, urged people not to lose hope in life but rather to become part of the solution to society’s ills by following the example set by Jesus Christ. He said so yesterday in his homily at his mass of installation at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Port of Spain, attended by President Anthony Carmona, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley, retired RC archbishop Joseph Harris and Anglican Bishop Clyde Berkeley in a packed cathedral.

He said just as Christ’s disciples were in despair at finding his tomb empty, so too many people today have lost hope, compared to the 1960s dreams of an ideal Caribbean civilisation that reflected our forefathers’ values.

Gordon said many people today ask what is there to hope for, even as many survive on the edge of existence facing very real challenges.

Saying Christ’s disciples had once looked beyond the rumour of his body being stolen (at his resurrection), Gordon said we too must look again to see proof of a great Caribbean civilisation. “People are living heroic lives. There is good news. People are doing amazing things. We have to look at them, we have to see again and we have believe again.” Just as the Archbishop’s office is to be filled, he said that so too is the post of the “beloved disciple”, an unnamed person at the foot of the cross. He urged people to find God in the quiet places, like the prophet Elijah.

Gordon lamented that one of TT’s biggest problems was idolatry, saying, “We’ve made money, pleasure, power and honour into a god and put them before the living God.” Saying in the Independence era the common good trumped the individual good, and people on society’s margins got help, he lamented that now TT is run by the creed of American rap singer Fifty Cents, “Get rich or die trying.” He blamed love of money for today’s social ills in TT. “Aristotle, 2,800 years ago said, that any people who put money and wealth as the primary in front of everything else will devolve into violence,” Gordon said.

“The violence in our country and in our region cannot be fixed by army and police. It has to be fixed by a conversion of the heart where we put God first.” The congregation loudly applauded. “Unity will break out in our church and our land if we give our hearts to Christ.” He said will experience the fullness of God’s grace, blessing us as a region.

“We all want somebody to fix this problem. I want to say to you, you are the solution. In so far as you’re willing to bring your heart to God, you become the solution.” He said the real power of the church is not in having an archbishop or priest but is the depth of discipleship of its people. “When people are living as loving disciples of Christ, the church will have real power.”

Gordon, after mass, told reporters he will today visit an RC community of contemplation and the St Vincent de Paul community.

On a past Barbados assault incident, he said he and the other person had reconciled and that the matter was behind him, otherwise he would not today be Archbishop of Port-of-Spain.