Last Ash Wednesday Sermon  by Archbishop Anthony Pantin at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception on March 08, 2000: 

We are assembled here this afternoon this Cathedral to begin solemnly the holy Season of Lent and to prepare very consciously and very prayerfully for the celebration of the Easter Triduum: Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter.

This Lenten season is particularly important because it takes place during this Jubilee Year 2000.

In his Lenten message, our Holy Father Pope John Paul II has asked us to insist particularly on the "fullness of new life in Christ, a life of faith, hope and love".

FAITH

We are called upon to renew our personal faith: holding fast to the proclamation of the Paschal Mystery and in this connection I want to make a strong appeal to those Catholics who have become slack over the years, to participate every Sunday in the celebration of the mystery of faith, the Holy Eucharist, the holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

We must humbly beg God to deepen our faith, to witness to our faith, and one of the best ways is by being faithful to Sunday Mass (whether Saturday evening, Sunday morning or Sunday evening).

In this connection also, I want to call upon all of you not only to take part in the Mass but to reach to church well in time for Mass.  The adults, especially the parents, must give good example to their children.

Our faith will also help us to see God in all the events of life, even those that bring us sorrow.  As St Paul the apostle writes: "here are we preaching a crucified Christ" (1 Cor 1:24).  Our faith will help us to have a share in the sufferings of Christ before we can share in His glory.

HOPE

"Through the grace of the Jubilee," says our Holy Father, "the Lord invites us to renew our hope".

As Christians we look forward to the eternal banquet "the Spirit and the Bride say 'Come'" (Apoc 2:17), and our hope helps us to bear witness to the fact that the Lord will be faithful to His promises.  That is what will enable us to face without fear the challenges and expectations of the future.

CHARITY

We are called upon to rekindle our charity.  We, the Church, the Body of Christ, are called to bear witness to the communion, peace and charity which are the distinguishing marks of God's kingdom.

We know, as St James tells us, that "faith without works is dead" (James 2:17).

There are still millions of people who live in sub-human conditions all over the world and there are still hundreds of people right here in Trinidad and Tobago who are suffering from all kinds of diseases and have no one to look after them.

Even among those who seem to be reasonably well housed and fed, there are many who are lonely and seldom receive a visit or an uplifting word.

We need to pay special attention to our children growing up in a world of violence.

Just imagine a six year old boy having a gun in his hand and worse yet, killing a six year old girl!

Before I end, I want to pay special tribute to those admirable young people, some 3,000 of them, who recently had a public march in support of sexual purity.

I most heartily congratulate them and thank them for their courage in standing for what is right and clean and noble.  In this they are following in a very meaningful way the advice of St Paul to the Philippians: "Finally, brothers, fill your minds with everything that is noble, everything that we love and honour, and everything that can be thought virtuous and worthy of praise." (Phil 4:8)

Keep it up, my dear young people, I am truly proud of you.  So, then, sisters and brothers, under the guidance of our Blessed Mother Mary, let us enter fully into the spirit of Lent and be generous in the sacrifices we make and the time we spend in prayer.

Let us willingly unite ourselves to Jesus in His suffering so as to be united with Him in His glory.  Amen.