I am hap­py to­day to ex­tend East­er Greet­ings to the Chris­t­ian com­mu­ni­ty from the Gov­ern­ment and peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go, in­clud­ing my own fam­i­ly, and my­self.

East­er is not just a hol­i­day but a sig­nif­i­cant spir­i­tu­al ex­pe­ri­ence, a sea­son of joy and cel­e­bra­tion in the lives of the mem­bers of the Chris­t­ian faith, the world over.

Dur­ing this time, fam­i­lies and friends join to­geth­er in cel­e­bra­tion of their be­lief in the grace and res­ur­rec­tion of Je­sus Christ, as the Son of God and the sav­iour of the world.

East­er is seen as a cel­e­bra­tion of life over death which was achieved through the ul­ti­mate sac­ri­fice of Je­sus Christ, who, the Gospel tells us, laid down his life so that all mankind might live free from sin.

The be­lief in the res­ur­rec­tion of Christ takes us to a high­er con­scious­ness; a vic­to­ry over sin, death and the grave.

In this joy­ous sea­son, I urge that, as in­di­vid­u­als, we should at some point al­so find time to step away. Pause for a mo­ment and adopt what is con­sid­ered God’s first lan­guage: Si­lence.

In that mo­ment, let us re­flect on our dai­ly lives, how we may be con­sid­er­ing and pro­mot­ing our self-in­ter­ests, above those of oth­ers, and not the com­mon good. Ex­am­ine al­so the bun­dle of neg­a­tive at­ti­tudes we may be dis­play­ing dai­ly in our homes, the work­place, and in our so­cial lives.

In that mo­ment of Si­lence, let us ask our­selves, where is God placed in our lives, right now? Is God where he should be in every mo­ment of our lives? Then let us nur­ture our aware­ness and be­gin to re-think our lives, and seek an on­go­ing in­ti­ma­cy with God.

Every year, the East­er hol­i­day is a time for cel­e­bra­tion, but this year de­mands that it should be one of deep, se­ri­ous re­flec­tion. Take this mo­ment to ex­am­ine our­selves as cit­i­zens. Where are we? Ask your­self what am I con­tribut­ing to ease this coun­try’s pain?

Then turn to the ever-chang­ing health is­sues, cre­at­ed by the Covid-19 pan­dem­ic. Again, ask what is your role, as a cit­i­zen in Trinidad and To­ba­go to­day. Ques­tion whether you have been re­spon­si­ble, in the face of nu­mer­ous Health Care warn­ings. What pos­i­tive steps should you, per­son­al­ly, adopt to bring re­lief to fel­low cit­i­zens and the coun­try, in this time of cri­sis.

Are you go­ing to seek av­enues to make pos­i­tive con­tri­bu­tions? Or are you go­ing to sit in the wings, hurl­ing crit­i­cisms and point­ing fin­gers at those, who are work­ing night and day on the front lines – self­less­ly and against the threat of los­ing their lives?

Re­mem­ber that the val­ues of Chris­tian­i­ty, and East­er, which can be found in so many oth­er faiths, are based on love, com­pas­sion, for­give­ness, kind­ness, to­geth­er­ness and in­di­vid­ual re­spon­si­bil­i­ty.

These are val­ues we should all, share with oth­ers at every mo­ment of our dai­ly lives, for these in essence rep­re­sent Christ’s sac­ri­fice, and pro­mot­ed among each oth­er will sus­tain our col­lec­tive feel­ings of Hope that our chal­lenges shall pass.

Over the past weeks, the coun­try found it­self with much to do and with very lit­tle re­sources to do it with - but we made clear choic­es, en­sur­ing that we at­tempt to take care of all cit­i­zens.

The two ma­jor chal­lenges -- the plunge in en­er­gy prices, and the spread of the Covid-19 virus -- re­quire us to con­tin­ue stand­ing on these hu­man val­ues, par­tic­u­lar­ly that of to­geth­er­ness, and a gen­uine care for all cit­i­zens, specif­i­cal­ly, the most vul­ner­a­ble among us.

As we cel­e­brate the East­er sea­son, let us use the lessons of love, grat­i­tude, dis­ci­pline, faith, tol­er­ance, to­geth­er­ness, which the res­ur­rec­tion of Christ brought to us, turn­ing it in­to a feel­ing of Hope for a brighter to­mor­row.