President Anthony Carmona yesterday called on citizens to reject revenge and recreate within our lives love and the application of mercy during Easter.
This was the message Carmona relayed to the nation in his Easter message on the occasion of the celebration and resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
Carmona stated that the resurrection of Jesus Christ bears the motif of rebirth, renewal and eternal hope and, even though one may be a non-believer or doubting Thomas, we must all share love in the spirit of humanity.
Carmona said this rebirth must make us strong.
“This is not to say that as a society we do not feel down and out and even despondent when we confront in our society man’s inhumanity to man. There continues to be a growing crisis in defining and acting out true manhood against the backdrop of the killings and mayhem that occur from time to time. Is that pattern of manhood defining what Trinidad and Tobago is?” he asked.
The President also appealed to the nation not to despair, as all broken things can be made whole.
“We must believe and have an abiding faith that all bad men are salvageable and this is made possible not only through social transformative initiatives but also through the invocation and power of prayer.”
Noting that Pope Francis had deemed 2016 an ecclesiastical year of mercy and forgiveness, Carmona stated that Easter was a time “to recreate within our lives the love and application of mercy and reject outright that unholy sanction we often act out and it is called revenge.”
He pleaded for individuals to show compassion and kindness to others throughout the year.
“We must therefore have and nurture a disciple’s tongue to respond to the negatives that often rule and dictate our thoughts and daily lives. We must eradicate in ourselves the primitive emotions we resort to and our social indifference to loss of life and therefore loss of love. The intelligent and formally educated are failing us.
They must be more responsible and caring and must all wake up to the realisation that as intelligent and formally educated men and women, we must stop fooling the ignorant and the not so well-informed.”
Carmona stressed that our national dialogue must not be confrontational in attempting to solve our nation’s problems, but open, frank, inclusive, honest and even spiritual.
“Leadership and humility therefore must always walk hand in hand because genuine leadership is about relentless and selfless service. We further need a reconciliation among us all grounded in mercy and forgiveness. Mercy and forgiveness are not exclusive to men and women of the cloth, and if true reconciliation takes place in our hearts, the desired impact of that reconciliation will be judged and assessed by our deeds and actions and not our words.”