The plight of North Coast villagers, highlighted in one of the dailies last week, is the kind of story to which we have become all too accustomed. Deplorable roads, lack of public transport, inadequate policing and power outages are among some of the problems which the communities from Maracas Bay to Blanchisseuse face – problems which are not uncommon to villages in several parts of our nation.

It is no comfort to the people of La Fillette to be told that they are not alone in their circumstances. It is after all 2007 and the economy, the Government will tell us proudly, has been buoyant for several years.

The president of the Blanchisseuse Community Council Owen Charles in the newspaper interview was ready to hold up the banner of “no vote” to force the hand of the Government, in the same way that parents in some villages take their placard-bearing children with them to protest school conditions.

Neither ploy is the answer: the latter is particularly objectionable. After blame is cast on the Government or on this or that institution, the problems remain. The problems call for honest self-examination by those who are meant to provide the services that will bring relief to those troubled and in need.

All citizens must encourage one another along the path of true development of the society. It is here that the Archdiocese can play an important part in the life of the nation today even as the local Church calls its members to a solidarity that requires that “people care about and feel responsible for each other”.

Sacrifice and self-emptying

In his recent Pastoral Letter “Deepening the Spirit of Solidarity in the Archdiocese of Port of Spain” Archbishop Edward Gilbert warns that this caring for one another will involve sacrifice. “Solidarity not only means sharing resources, personnel and skills,” he says.

“It also means sharing sacrifices for the common good.” “Sacrifice” and “self-emptying” are not popular concepts but they must find resonance in the society as a whole if the nation is to rise to the challenges it faces.

And so although the Pastoral Letter was written in the first place for the members of the Catholic community its message has value for the entire nation.

Of particular importance though is that Catholics recognise that solidarity calls them beyond their friends and family, parish or chapel community.

Solidarity does not allow for any easy limits – either to the extent that each citizen must go to care about the other, or the paths that he/she must take to extend compassion. Solidarity happens when self-interest gives way to virtue, as in the parable Jesus shares with the lawyer in this Sunday’s Gospel.

In the story, the Samaritan traveller happens upon a man beaten and left for dead on the side of the road. The injured man, shunned by two other travellers, finds compassion and solidarity in one whom he would have least expected to find it.

At the close of his discussion with the lawyer Jesus asks: “Which of these three, do you think, proved himself a neighbour...? The lawyer, in reply, says, “The one who took pity on him.” Jesus then says, “Go and do the same yourself”. The Good News for us is that we know what we must do.