Archbishop Edward Gilbert, in his New Year message, called believers in Trinidad and Tobago to find ways to take back the nation from the evil-doers.

Speaking at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception during the New Year's Eve Mass, the Archbishop told the congregation 2006 "may be the time for all of us to rise above race and ethnicity, religion and politics to participate in a national conversation about how to take back our nation; how to protect each other and how to build a future reflective of the family spirit, the joy and peace of the past."

Archbishop Gilbert observed that in 2001, the Queen's Park Savannah was filled with young families and their children playing up until late in the evening. "Now, it is deserted by 5 o'clock ," he said. "Why should the evil minority be setting the agenda for, changing the lifestyle of the majority?"

The Archbishop told a full church gathered for the 9 p.m. Mass which honoured Mary, Mother of God, that the times of the liturgy in many churches all over the archdiocese had been brought forward-from the customary midnight -for their protection. But, he said: "You have a right to your physical integrity. You have a right to your life. You have a right to your property. You have a right to your peace."

It was encouraging, "in all this tension, that people still gather all over this nation," he said, in various Christian traditions, and in other religious traditions "to celebrate our faith." He saw this as indicative of the gospel value that the darkness can never overcome the light, as the reason why there is hope. "Hope," he stressed, "is an irrepressible element of Christian faith."

While we "ask God's blessing," Archbishop Gilbert told the faithful, "we must, in particular, ask for the gift of God's wisdom" to know how to live our lives, "as individuals, as families, as communities, as a nation." He said: "There is evil all over the world. It cannot be an accident. This is the hand of Satan. The only one who can control the hand of Satan is the Lord our God."

But, the Archbishop warned: "We cannot be hypocrites." He said "we cannot live without faithfulness to the Covenant and then approach God as though we were faithful.

"We will need to look, in 2006, and see whether we are making an effort to live the Covenant-really. Are we making an effort to live the values of the new Covenant? Are we making an effort to be in relationship with Jesus the Lord, in the Spirit?

"You are gathered here in worship. You either belong to God, or you don't."

Archbishop Gilbert said that through Mary "we have the privilege, the opportunity to share the life of God. We never deal with God in fear; we deal with God, with comfort, with familiarity.

"We may get the impression, in difficult times, that we are all alone, that there is no one to turn to, no one who understands; that there is no one who can help us, no one who can guide us. What Mary did says that is nonsense. God loves us. God is present to us. God is open to our needs. God is 'pilgriming' with us.

"Mary trusted God. She did not understand all that was happening around her. Because of her relationship with God, she was asked to say 'yes' to an extraordinary invitation. The way she said 'yes' was in trust, not in understanding."

The Archbishop asked the faithful to hold before them the image of "the people who have been butchered in 2005, people who have been beheaded, people whose legs and arms were chopped off; people who were beaten and stabbed; people who were left to die alone in a forest.

"Think of their families and friends, how they feel, how they hurt; the tremendous weight they have to carry. As they carry this weight, they sincerely struggle with being a Christian. Because they are human and because they grieve, they also ask why do bad things happen to good people.

"Theologians will say: 'Because of evil, the presence of evil.' It does not make a dent in the anguish of these people. What is left is what Mary did. Trust in the Lord, your God. Bring your pain, your emptiness, your anger, your fear to the Lord. Allow him to heal it, allowing him to calm your memories. You cannot do that unless you trust God. There is a big difference between faith which is intellectual, and trust which is in the heart."

Archbishop Gilbert asked believers to continue to walk with the families who have suffered as a result of the violence. "They can't let it go. They can't move on. They are broken. They are grieving. They are angry and fearful. Walk with them. Pray for them. Enable them, in time, not to forget the tragedy, but to deal with it in trust."

Turning to the gospel of the Mass, the Archbishop said that the shepherds who came to adore the Lord were poor, simple people, "people of faith," who "opened themselves to the communication of the angels, and they responded in faith and they adored the Lord, and they began a relationship with God in the new covenant. Most of the people ignored it. It made absolutely no difference in their lives and, unfortunately, for many people that is still the case."

The Archbishop, therefore, asked the congregation, to "look at the openness of your own lives as you enter 2006, look at that openness on a scale of one to ten-openness to God, openness to the Spirit, openness to growth in the spiritual life, openness to the privilege of worship, openness to form community, to solve problems in dialogue, and with trust.

On a scale of one to ten, some people may be at two, others at six, others at eight."

Archbishop Gilbert said the people committing evil in Trinidad and Tobago were not born that way. "Little by little they closed themselves off to God, closed themselves off to values and little by little they moved in to a comfort with the life of shadows, and eventually with a life of evil. What happened to them can happen to us."

Echoing a call of Pope John Paul II, he asked the faithful "to see what you can do to begin to touch the lives of people who were believers, but have changed their minds. See what you can do to touch the lives of people who on a scale of openness to God are at two, heading to one.

"Make that a pastoral responsibility, you accept for 2006. Begin with yourself, expand into your own family and friends and then expand into the world in which you live-where you study, where you play, where you socialise.

"God's invitation is to free people. We are free. We are so free we are capable of looking at God right in the eye and saying, 'no thank you.' When that happens we begin to create a world of enormous pain, of enormous emptiness."