Sto­ries by RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

T&T is rav­aged by crime, vi­o­lence and sin and lead­ers must ask them­selves what have they done to make the coun­try bet­ter, Ro­man Catholic priest Fa­ther David Khan said yes­ter­day.

In his ser­mon dur­ing Cor­pus Christi Mass at Our La­dy of Per­pet­u­al Help RC Church in San Fer­nan­do, Fa­ther Khan said too of­ten peo­ple re­mem­ber on­ly the bad things about the coun­try rather than think about the good things.

He said pos­i­tive ac­tions lead to pos­i­tive out­comes, while neg­a­tive things have de­struc­tive con­se­quences and urged parish­ioners to take ac­count of their ac­tions.

Re­fer­ring to the Trin­i­ty Hills dis­cov­ered by Christo­pher Colum­bus, he said, “This land from the very be­gin­ning of re­dis­cov­ery was blessed. But what have we done for this blessed land? Most of us in lead­er­ship po­si­tions are lead­ing the young, what have we done to this land? Whether we like it or not Trinidad and To­ba­go God has blessed us.”

Fa­ther Khan em­pha­sised the re­spon­si­bil­i­ty of lead­ers, par­tic­u­lar­ly those who in­flu­ence young peo­ple, to con­sid­er their role in shap­ing the coun­try.

“This na­tion was one of the rich­est na­tions of the Caribbean and what have we done with the bless­ings? That is why many peo­ple of­ten say, is Trinidad a re­al place? Yes, it is a re­al place! A place that is rav­aged by crime, vi­o­lence and sin be­cause we do not want to face re­al­i­ty,” he said.

Speak­ing to crim­i­nals and law-abid­ing cit­i­zens alike, Fa­ther Khan said, “Re­mem­ber that what we sow is what we are go­ing to reap. We need to up­root the wrong things and start back plant­i­ng good things. It has to be­gin with you and me. Are we do­ing the things we are called to do?”

Fa­ther Khan ac­knowl­edged the tra­di­tion of plant­i­ng for Cor­pus Christi in T&T and used the anal­o­gy of plant­i­ng to de­scribe peo­ple’s ac­tions and the out­comes they yield.

“Good and bad seeds are giv­en when we go out to plant and when we go out to plant we know the good seeds will yield a good har­vest and the bad seeds will not. In good you will yield good but if you de­cide to cor­rupt the soil and plant bad things, you have re­al­ly cho­sen to go down a path straight to hell,” he added.

Em­pha­sis­ing per­son­al ac­count­abil­i­ty, Fa­ther Khan re­mind­ed the con­gre­ga­tion that blam­ing God for the con­se­quences of one’s choic­es is mis­placed. He said peo­ple must not give in to temp­ta­tion and peer pres­sure.

“God is prepar­ing us. Even if the soil is not good, make it good! Re­pent. If peo­ple come to plant bad seeds in your soil, do not give in to the temp­ta­tion. Tell them, ‘No, you are not wel­come here,” he urged.

He en­cour­aged in­di­vid­u­als to re­sist temp­ta­tion and peer pres­sure, re­mind­ing parish­ioners that T&T is a land of love and uni­ty.

Fol­low­ing the ser­mon, parish­ioners took part in a pro­ces­sion to mark the Cor­pus Christi cel­e­bra­tions.