Regenerating the Moral and Spiritual Values in our Society

By Vernon Khelawan

Another Easter Sunday has rolled around and I extend to readers and the Catholic community as a whole a joyous Easter season.

If we are serious about implementing the Third Pastoral Priority, now might be a good time to reflect on what we did to enhance our spirituality during the six weeks of Lent.

A particular tradition of the penitential season is to abstain from some of the things we have grown to like. Self-denial, it tells us, is a key to living our lives more fully according to the will of God.

I argue that faced with many societal problems and the need to restore the moral and spiritual fabric of our nation, as mandated by the Third Pastoral Priority, our practice of self-sacrifice must go deeper and extend beyond the Lenten season.

As Catholics, we cannot sit idly by and see the degeneration of our society without raising a finger to arrest that descent. As a Church community and people of God, we are obligated to initiate steps within our Church community, and in our neighbourhoods, to stop bullying in schools, the corruption in the public and private sector, and the ‘gangsterism’ and violence born of the illicit drug trade.

The Catholic Education Board of Management (CEBM) must meet head-on the many problems in our schools, even if it means handling the challenges from parents, teachers, parent-teacher bodies and even the Ministry of Education itself, to re-instill discipline and respect in the classroom and the schoolyard; to ensure the teachings of the Catholic faith play an important role in the lives of our students and their families. All this will demand self-sacrifice.

We all agree that standards have dropped tremendously at all levels in the society; morals and spirituality have been sacrificed at the altar of inanity and selfishness. It is more like “Live your life like you’re playing mas’”, according to David Rudder.

I remember an old saying which went something like this, “Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country.” As Catholics, we have little choice but to answer that call in whatever way we can, to bring some realism to Regenerating the Moral and Spiritual Values of our Society.