Many live in hopelessness

“More and more people are experiencing hopelessness,” he told the congregation in his Good Friday Liturgy at a packed Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. “That’s a very serious thing. People no longer ‘hope’.”

Having given up their hope, he said, some people instead move from pleasure to power to wealth, if they could.

In contrast, Gilbert urged people to find hope in the Cross on which Jesus died. Urging people to accept the Cross into their lives, he said: “Does it give you encouragement, does it give you perspective, does it give you hope?”.

Gilbert said that while more and more people wanted the so-called freedom offered by the secular world, true freeedom and happiness came from the Cross. Instead of rejecting the Cross as the symbol of a degrading death used by the ancient Romans, he said, it was the method God chose to redeem us.

“To accept the Cross gives meaning to our lives. Do you accept the Cross into your life as a gift?”

The Cross, he said, was the symbol of love.

“Some people can’t believe God loves them. They are so ‘down’. They can’t forgive themselves because they can’t accept the power of the Cross.”

He recalled having witnessed the comfort which the mere sight of the Cross had given to persons in their last moments of life.

Saying “sin” is a reality and that it hurts individuals and communities, he said that many problems we face are not political or economic problems but are theological problems. He assured that God can identify and sympathise with us. He concluded: “Never doubt you are loved by God. No matter how many mistakes you make or how often you sin. God loves you.”