KEVON FELMINE

Se­nior Re­porter

kevon.felmine

@guardian.co.tt

At a Palm Sun­day Mass yes­ter­day mark­ing the start of Holy Week, Ro­man Catholic Arch­bish­op Ja­son Gor­don re­mind­ed the faith­ful that di­vi­sions based on race and creed have no place in the mes­sage of Christ’s pas­sion.

“If the pas­sion of Christ means any­thing at all, it is the sign that race and creed are not the things we should be quib­bling about. It is a sign that Je­sus has over­come that and put his 12 to judge all peo­ples,” Arch­bish­op Gor­don said dur­ing Mass at the Pro-Cathe­dral of Our La­dy of Per­pet­u­al Help in San Fer­nan­do.

The ser­vice be­gan with the tra­di­tion­al bless­ing of palm branch­es which were dis­trib­uted to the con­gre­ga­tion out­side the church.

In his homi­ly, Gor­don en­cour­aged re­flec­tion on the true mean­ing of Holy Week and urged the con­gre­ga­tion to shift their fo­cus from per­son­al bur­dens to the sac­ri­fice that Je­sus made.

“While we of­ten think of things we go through, do we of­ten think about what God has done for us?” he asked.

Gor­don said Christ’s work ex­tend­ed the apos­tles’ role from lead­ers of the Jew­ish peo­ple to lead­ers of all peo­ple.

“To be lead­ers of the whole world, they had to move from just a Jew­ish iden­ti­ty to one where they saw every creed and race as hav­ing an equal place. So any leader who wants to gain favour by call­ing out race and creed does not un­der­stand the high price that Je­sus al­ready paid for us to be one peo­ple,” he said.

He in­vit­ed wor­ship­pers to se­lect a char­ac­ter from the Gospel and med­i­tate on their jour­ney. For his re­flec­tion, Gor­don chose the Apos­tle Pe­ter, high­light­ing the mo­ment he ful­filled Je­sus’ prophe­cy and de­nied him three times.

“Even in be­tray­al, God still used Pe­ter,” Gor­don said. “As we go through our pas­sion, some­times we be­lieve he can­not help us. As we suf­fer, we may not look to him as some­one who can help. Al­though he may seem pow­er­less to us, he is promis­ing us eter­ni­ty. Keep your eyes on the prize.”

The arch­bish­op de­scribed Pe­ter as a man of a “fick­le heart”, but one whom God re­in­stat­ed and tasked with strength­en­ing his fel­low apos­tles.

“Even when we are fick­le in heart, God is not fin­ished with us yet. Pe­ter, for me, is a hero. In the Catholic tra­di­tion, we have the min­istry of the Holy Fa­ther, the Pope, and that comes from Pe­ter,” he said.

He end­ed his homi­ly with a call for spir­i­tu­al dis­ci­pline dur­ing the sa­cred week ahead.

“This year, as we en­ter in­to Holy Week, let us turn our so­cial me­dia right down. Let us on­ly look at things that help us to pon­der the pas­sion of Je­sus Christ.

“Let us leave the dis­trac­tions be­hind, bring the food right down to a min­i­mum, and al­low him to live in us, day by day,” he said.