The photo above surely speaks for itself! There is innocence and a
trustfulness in both creatures that speaks volumes to a discerning mind.
There seems to be a mutual bond and trust as if they are both so close
to the heart of God. However, with the passing of time the desensitising
and ultimately exploiting character of man destroys such a picture. The
sheep soon learns to distrust humans, and rightly so. And as for the
youngster, she will become so removed from that earlier closeness and,
indeed, kinship, as to have a leg of lamb on her future plate at school
dinner. Ah, but thankfully, that is only half the story. Cheryl is no
longer a conditioned child but a grown up who is throwing off the
shackles of past programming and is now a recently qualified social
worker, more and more reprogramming her own future life style, revealing
compassion and care for those lives which are much more vulnerable than
her own.
It is a regrettable fact that the older one grows ‘educationally’
then the more desensitised one is programmed in to becoming. The roles
of parchment and a mortarboard are seldom for those with a mind of their
own. It is for those willing to be subservient to those they are
persuaded to adulate as academic superiors to ones self. It is, mostly,
for those who tow the line and imbibe 95 % assimilation of others views,
and retain about 5% of their own. Thankfully, the young lady – who along
with her Mum, has graduated at the same time – are amongst those
prepared to go out and face the real world and – thank God! - think for
themselves.
Indeed, concerning the little folk who inhabit our earth I well
remember last week traveling in a crammed coach of holidaymakers as the
narrow gauged train chugged its way through the lovely welsh
countryside. Doreen and I were padrly surrounded by little people, some
little more than toddlers; and – as if to make the day more memorable
still - a little puppy engrossed in the atmosphere was further back,
wagging its tail for all it was worth.
Yes, Doreen was truly rejuvenated in spirit as she spoke to the
closest of these little ones while their proud parents looked on so
happily. These children made me very much aware of a third presence in
such a midst. Yes, none other than Jesus Himself! It appeared that in
the midst of so much joy the Nazarene had invisibly come to join in the
joy. But then – after several happy moments - my thoughts moved on to
something awfully tragic: ‘where would these happy innocent lives be,
ten years or so from now?’ Indeed, I sense that Jesus was thinking along
similar lines. Yes, and then His words came back to me. Not only
uplifting ones such as: ‘of such is the kingdom of heaven!’ but much
more sobering ones: ‘woe unto this world for offences; yet offences must
surely come. However, who so ever becomes a stumbling block to one of
these little ones that believeth in me, better for that person that he
had never ever been born’
And who are the ones that are a cause of offence to one of these
little ones? Are they the pedophile priests of Catholicism who – via the
confessionals – have preyed upon young folk, assessing their
vulnerability so as to ‘groom’ them later? Well I’ll not go in to that
one, I’ll simply recommend a book by a dear colleague who was abused as
a youngster himself (see next article). For the present moment, I have
in mind a protest I took outside Dounrey nuclear site in the far north
of Scotland. – Oh yes, I know I’ve mentioned it before, but I’ll repeat
it again! -There were hardly a dozen of us there, but we knew full well
of lethal faults within that nuclear system that so many had sought to
cover up.
We knew also that the fish of that area had to be avoided by the
fishermen because so many were deformed through so much radioactive
waste seeping out in to the sea. We were not surprised to learn how the
sheep that grazed in that region were not allowed to be sold for meat
within the whole of that vicinity! Yes, as for ourselves, we were moved
with compassion for the vulnerable families of such an area – especially
the youngsters. However, the nuclear site provided much needed
employment for the vicinity and, when we made our protests, none less
than a parish minister himself became our clerical opponent. He leaned
backwards to side with the mercenary motivated nuclear authorities,
along with MPs anxious to win local votes. And – saddest of all - even
the rank and file of workers preferred to oppose us because the industry
rewarded them with lucrative employment.
Then I thought of the children of such families; of the piling up of
nuclear waste; of the future hell that all those supportive of the
nuclear industry were creating for their children, grandchildren, and
children yet to be born I’m not ashamed to say it: ‘I wanted to cry; and
I knew that I was not alone’. Those brave protestors felt similar to
myself, and again I was conscious of the tears of the Nazarene whose
presence felt so close. Well, I tell you, the grotty politicians who are
crazily pushing for more nuclear sites today – be they Tory, Labour or
(God forbid: Lib Dem) – are little more than myopic stooges of a
heartless chemical conglomeration whose god is mammon. And as for the
clergy who could speak out but prefer ‘courting the praise of man to the
praise of God’: they will reap the wrath of a righteous Christ whose
strongest denunciations throughout His ministry were singled out for
their first century counterparts: the scribes and Pharisees who, as
‘whitened sepulchres’, appeared attractive on the outside, but were
inwardly full of rotting carcasses. If you don’t believe me, look up:
Matthew Chp: 23!
Go on to Book Review: THE
LEAST AMONG US by Martin O’Shea & Tony Wright
Return to Autumn 2006 Issue
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