Geisha Kow­lessar

Ro­man Catholic Arch­bish­op Joseph Har­ris has ad­mit­ted he was pained by the slaugh­ter of the in­no­cents in 2013, say­ing this was a re­flec­tion that the wor­ship of God is not what it should be.Har­ris' state­ments were made dur­ing his New Year's Eve homi­ly at the St There­sa's Ro­man Catholic Church, Wood­brook, on Tues­dayAbuse in all forms, Har­ris added, has al­so be­come com­mon­place.

"It would seem there­fore that even though we have so much for which to thank Almighty God in this na­tion of ours, as a na­tion our wor­ship of God is not what it should be," he said."The slaugh­ter of our in­no­cents, the abuse which seems to be spread­ing like wild­fire... We see it in the bul­ly­ing in our schools, the dis­crim­i­na­tion prac­tised be­cause of gen­der, or eth­nic­i­ty, or ill­ness all speak to us of the lack of au­then­tic wor­ship in our land," Har­ris said.

Urg­ing peo­ple take stock of their ac­tions to "re­verse this sit­u­a­tion," Har­ris said the re­la­tion­ship which God want­ed to have with peo­ple was es­sen­tial­ly a re­la­tion­ship of jus­tice."It is a re­la­tion­ship in which peo­ple give to God what is his due and God gives to us what is our due," he said."If the re­la­tion­ship of jus­tice which we are called to have with God is to be ev­i­dent in our land, for a re­la­tion­ship of jus­tice with God is on­ly re­alised in a re­la­tion­ship of jus­tice with oth­er hu­man be­ings."

Say­ing it was im­por­tant peo­ple em­u­late prop­er role mod­els, Har­ris said these in­clud­ed the Blessed Moth­er Tere­sa of Cal­cut­ta, St Damien of Molokai and T&T's late Arch­bish­op An­tho­ny Pan­tin."These are three ex­am­ples of men and women who of­fered true wor­ship to God, be­cause they let their faces ex­press the wel­come, ac­cep­tance, mer­cy, re­as­sur­ance, and love to the most vul­ner­a­ble around them that God want­ed ex­pressed," Har­ris said.

He said those con­vinced that God was a venge­ful God who pun­ished peo­ple for their sins must be as­sured that God would smile up­on them."In many ways we to­day still be­lieve in a venge­ful God. Re­li­gion has so of­ten taught us that God pun­ish­es. We tell our chil­dren that God will pun­ish them and for many of us the ba­sic re­la­tion­ship that we have with God is coloured by the fear of pun­ish­ment," Har­ris said.

"We need to know that the Lord lets his face shine up­on us and is gra­cious to us, that the Lord looks up­on us kind­ly and gives us peace."