Another gang leader is killed by an assassin’s bullet. For a public anxious to see the end of the cycle of killings in the nation, Sheldon Scott’s death on Carnival Sunday must raise some particular concerns.

One daily quoted police sources as saying that they expect the death of the 30-year-old man “will lead to another gang war on the east Port of Spain hills”. A society threatened to its core by such violence must take advantage of the opportunity for reflection, spiritual growth and developing the resilience that the season of Lent offers.

According to the newspaper report, Scott, who was mentored by one of the country’s “most notorious gang leaders” from age 10, committed his first murder at age 14. He is said to have committed over two dozen murders and was a beneficiary of several State-run projects as a contractor.

Given the background information that the police seemed to possess and proffered about Scott, it is extraordinary that he had eluded the police and the justice system of our small nation with such success. But, more importantly, the events of his life demonstrate how the structures of our society continue to fail all citizens.

Confronted by the evils of our society and our ineptness to deal with them, we find in Lent a way forward. This season of grace ought to help us, as individuals, as communities and as a nation, to change for the better.

Lent – through its invitation to prayer, fasting and almsgiving – reminds all of their dependence on God.  To acknowledge this dependence is also to see our interdependence, and the moral and ethical obligation we have to look after our neighbour.

Structures of sin

In a special way, Archbishop Edward Gilbert’s Pastoral Letter, Deepening the Spirit of Solidarity in the Archdiocese of Port of Spain, presents a more than useful theme for Lent 2008. Its mandate at this period of our nation’s history could not have been more appropriate.

The virtue of Christian solidarity says, “We’re all in this together.” It impresses upon each individual the need to be concerned about his or her relationship with others.

In the Pastoral Letter, the Archbishop quotes Cardinal Ratzinger: “Solidarity means people care about and feel responsible for each other. It means they have a sense of individual awareness and reciprocal responsibility.”

The late Pope John Paul II put the matter bluntly in his encyclical “On Social Concern” Solicitudo Rei Socialis, where he sees neglect of one’s neighbour as amounting to “interference in the process of the development of peoples” (art 36).

The evils that beset us as a nation, the structures of sin that seem to make our steps leaden have their root in personal sin. Lent offers each person – with the prayerful support of others and with the grace of God without which nothing is possible – the opportunity to examine his or her heart and to change.

On this First Sunday of Lent, the Church gives the world the pattern of Jesus who spends forty days and forty nights in the wilderness fasting and in deep communion with the Father. The time spent there allows him to steel himself against the attacks of the devil and hostile environment he will face.

May today’s Responsorial Psalm, the Miserere, be the prayer on all our lips and the word of God that sustained Jesus in his time of testing be our strength also.