Archbishop at Jubilee Year closing: ‘Become who you are, Pilgrims of Hope’

The culture and values of Trinidad and Tobago are no longer of the Kingdom and Catholics “are fast becoming refugee families”, Archbishop Charles Jason Gordon said as he alluded to changes in society.

“We find ourselves as foreigners, as refugees within this culture, recognising that we must hold fast to the culture and the values that God entrusted to us, and we must hold them tight because we are protecting something that is really vital, important, and precious to God, and that is His Son, Jesus Christ,” he said while preaching at the closing Mass for the Jubilee Year at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception on Sunday, December 28. That Sunday was also the Feast of the Holy Family.

Archbishop Gordon told the congregation the culture and values were no longer the same as when he grew up. Highlighting the important role of the family to civilisation and the impact when family life declines, he asserted that it is within the family that God protected His Son.

He called for families to renew hope and beg God for the gift of hope, “so that we may move our desires from ourselves as families and move them to Him collectively as family and bring out reliance to Him as families”. It is in the family that the child is protected, grace nurtured and the consolations experienced during the year can be found. And, he added, “the ways to protect the graces we have experienced”.

Recalling the activities that took place during the Jubilee Year—accessing mercy, pilgrimages to sacred sites, Eucharistic Congress, Festival of Hope—Archbishop Gordon asked the congregation how they felt. “Wonderful” was the response.

It was a year of journeying to wherever God led, and hope has led them through the difficult times. As the year ends, Archbishop Gordon said, “God knew we needed to learn about hope at the beginning of the year”. He added that no one can see how the year would end with the “drama” of geopolitics on T&T’s “doorstep”, rising unemployment and desperation people are experiencing.

Archbishop Gordon said with the end of the Jubilee Year people have asked him, “what we going to do?” Catholics have had a year to prepare being Pilgrims of Hope and now they are called to live this.

He exhorted that whatever the troubles and challenges were being faced personally and as a nation, “we are a people of hope and what we recognise [is] God turns everything to good for those who love and trust in Him”.

He asked the congregation repeatedly “Who are you?” And they responded: “Pilgrims of Hope”.  He instructed them to “become who you are” and to be wise as they stepped across the threshold of hope.

The faithful were placed under the protective care of St Joseph who twice saved Jesus and will save them, too.

The Archbishop advised Catholics that before 2025 ends to write down all the graces they have received and to protect them. He reiterated the Scripture quote which guided the Jubilee, “Hope does not disappoint”.

Before the final blessing, Fr Matthew d’Hereaux, Vicar for the Southern Vicariate, read a letter from the Antilles Episcopal Conference on the closing of the Jubilee Year (see page 16) and tokens of appreciation were distributed to various committees and groups who spearheaded activities during the Year.

—LPG