Sascha Wil­son

A Ro­man Catholic priest is chal­leng­ing elect­ed lead­ers and those in po­si­tions of au­thor­i­ty to do what is good and not al­low their emo­tions to lead their ac­tions.

“Those of you who the peo­ple have elect­ed..., don’t let your emo­tions get the bet­ter of you, do what is good,” said Fa­ther David Khan.

He is­sued the chal­lenge af­ter lead­ing parish­ioners of Our La­dy of Per­pet­u­al Help RC Church in re-en­act­ing the cru­ci­fix­ion of Je­sus Christ dur­ing the 14 Sta­tions of the Cross at San Fer­nan­do Hill on Good Fri­day.

While the Vir­gin Mary suf­fered great sor­row when Je­sus was cru­ci­fied, Khan said she did what was right and good.

“She prayed so that we too can share in the ever­last­ing joy,” he said.

Not­ing that joy and sor­row live in the same house, he said there is al­so a lot of joy and sor­row in Trinidad and To­ba­go. How­ev­er, he said if those in au­thor­i­ty dis­play dom­i­nance, they will on­ly bring sad­ness be­cause they will be do­ing what they want in­stead of what pleas­es God. Peo­ple in au­thor­i­ty, he added, need to be in­flu­encers to bring about joy.

“It is not about mov­ing by emo­tions. Emo­tions are nei­ther good nor bad, but it is what we do with our emo­tions. I keep re­mind­ing my con­gre­ga­tion that emo­tions are meant to in­form us, not to con­trol you. Usu­al­ly, peo­ple in au­thor­i­ty, if you al­low your emo­tions to con­trol you, you will bring about great sad­ness, but if we al­low our emo­tions to in­form us, it does not mat­ter whether we are hap­py or sad, whether in our be­ing, our house, there is joy and sad­ness but we will al­ways do what brings about joy.”

Whether hap­py or sad, he said peo­ple ought to do good. “Lead­ers, peo­ple in au­thor­i­ty, peo­ple who can dom­i­nate, when your emo­tions are in­tact, you will do what is right and good. When you al­low your emo­tions to con­trol you, you will al­low your dom­i­nance to show, and you will laud it over oth­ers in­stead of do­ing what is good...”

He al­so urged parish­ioners not to let their emo­tions get the bet­ter of them.

“Je­sus took his cross, and he did what is good, so through our emo­tions when we face our dai­ly cross­es may we do what is good,” he said.