Lost values, lost love

There is always the eternal quest for happiness, for love and for the Divine. Today’s Gospels peaks about a search for the lost sheep and the lost coin and, as such, forces us to think about the objective of our searching.

Usually, someone searches for something that is important or valuable to him or he: there is a correlation between the energy given over to the search and the value of what is being sought after. The word of God challenges us to step back and ask honest questions about both our life’s search and searches.

We will do ourselves a great service as a nation, if we evaluate our searches, both metaphorically and literally. Apart from the economic search for oil, gas and FDI, there is another kind of search that is destroying the moral fabric of our nation, affecting marriages and thwarting healthy psycho-sexual development among our young. It is the search for pornography on the internet. Google tells us that Trinidad and Tobago ranks as one of highest countries per capita with respect to searches of this kind.

Where are we looking for happiness and fulfilment? And, What are we looking for in life? These are the questions that today’s Gospel places before us.

Apart from the aforementioned literal searches taking place, we must challenge ourselves as a nation to search for lost people and for lost life-giving values. These, too, are important to the flourishing of society. The Gospel should inspire energy, resolve and commitment to seek out what has been lost.

Our country is in need of a fertile imagination, religious and otherwise. We need to imagine what our society would look like if...We must imagine a society in which we have found and brought back those who have strayed from the community. We must imagine what our society would like if we would have retrieved the values of honesty, hard work, fair play, respect and tolerance.

Of course, it is important to evaluate a government’s performance as we have been doing over the past week. Nevertheless, we must evaluate ourselves, too, as faith-based and non-governmental organisations.

Civil society must evaluate its performance and record in reaching out to those who have lost their way. The mass media must evaluate its level of corporate social responsibility in using its power and resources to help us retrieve important moral values that have been lost. We need to keep searching for the good and for the beautiful and to be mindful of what we are searching for, as individuals and as a country.