PE­TER CHRISTO­PHER

pe­ter.christo­pher@guardian.co.tt

We have be­come a na­tion mired in dis­re­spect.

This was the view of Arch­bish­op Ja­son Gor­don dur­ing the Good Fri­day Pas­sion of The Lord Litur­gy at the Cathe­dral of the Im­mac­u­late Con­cep­tion in Port-of-Spain.

“Our coun­try has be­come a coun­try of deep dis­re­spect. Very deep dis­re­spect, we dis­re­spect each oth­er in such bru­tal ways,” said the Arch­bish­op, who said he no­ticed that many in­ter­ac­tions be­tween peo­ple and even those be­tween me­dia prac­ti­tion­ers and the pub­lic held a tone of scant re­spect.

“I am ap­palled some­times at the very tone of the me­dia in the way they talk about peo­ple and talk to peo­ple,” said Gor­don dur­ing his homi­ly, who of­fered the view that this cul­ture of dis­re­spect to­wards each oth­er had been in bred in our fam­i­ly units.

“The lev­el of dis­re­spect that starts in the fam­i­ly with how we talk to each oth­er in the fam­i­ly that re­al­ly starts from so young for peo­ple to ex­pe­ri­ence to­tal dis­re­spect that the name call­ing that we give and the sham­ing that we do of mem­bers of our fam­i­ly.

“Al­lyuh know what I talk­ing about? Y’all know what I talk­ing bout?” said the Arch­bish­op.

The lo­cal head of Catholic Church, how­ev­er, felt this cul­ture of dis­re­spect may have been passed down through sev­er­al gen­er­a­tions.

“As I said yes­ter­day, I be­lieve it comes from our an­ces­tral wound, I be­lieve that. I be­lieve it’s the soul wound of our na­tion, the lev­els of dis­re­spect that we give to each oth­er. But what I want to say to you to­day is that there is no soul wound Je­sus Christ can­not heal. “

Gor­don said the peo­ple of the coun­try did not act like they had been saved by Je­sus Christ when he sac­ri­ficed him­self for the sins of the world, as he point­ed to the lack of char­i­ty giv­en to the less for­tu­nate and the mi­grant com­mu­ni­ty.

“Do we live like a peo­ple who have been re­deemed by Je­sus Christ. Do we live by oth­er peo­ple who have been loved by Je­sus Christ?” asked Arch­bish­op Gor­don who added: “When I see the naked, the hun­gry, the home­less when I see the refugee and the mi­grant who have noth­ing will prob­a­bly get noth­ing. What do I do broth­ers and sis­ters? Do I close my eyes and my ears and walk on by and say noth­ing and hope some­body helps them?. What is the na­ture of love? That’s what this evening means to us.“

Ear­li­er in the day, the Arch­bish­op kept to his word about hav­ing the Catholic church stick to guide­lines on re­strict­ed gath­er­ings, as he staged a soli­tary pro­ces­sion along the Bri­an Lara Prom­e­nade to re-en­act Christ’s Sta­tions of the Cross.

Along the way he was asked about his ad­her­ence to re­stric­tions by a by­stander along the prom­e­nade when there was an ex­pectan­cy of large gath­er­ings along the beach­es, to which Gor­don said, “That’s them and this is me.”

While of­fi­ci­at­ing a Mass last week, Arch­bish­op Gor­don chid­ed the flout­ing of reg­u­la­tions by some parish­es af­ter re­ports emerged that a COVID-19 case orig­i­nat­ed in the church.