Jesus began to reproach the towns
(Matthew 11:20-24) see also Isaiah 7:1-9
The 60s were called the time of sexual revolution. The 80s are called the time of the ‘me’ generation. Add the two together and you have a lethal mix of individualism and sexual exploitation. The only person worth bothering about is myself, and the only thing worth pursuing is my own pleasure and happiness. Now, so many years later, we find ourselves unearthing stories of sexual abuse of children. We want to get to the bottom of it and we want it never to happen again. Chances are, neither of those worthy aims will be realised to the full. People will hide or destroy evidence that might incriminate them, and human nature does not change. We will always have to deal with our dark side and our attraction to evil.
The trouble is that if we do not aim to be good, if we do not aim to be the best we can be, then we will most certainly fall well short of what is fair and acceptable human behaviour. We will settle for what Reggie Maudling called, during the Troubles in Northern Ireland, an ‘acceptable level of violence’ in our society. We are not meant to live a middling kind of existence. Our very nature rebels at the idea. Native instinct wants to be the best it can be, and that demands of us a high level of justice and truthfulness and kindness and honour.
No society can simply allow itself to drift along on the current of whatever passes for life and standards in our time. But only too often that is what tends to happen. In a world wedded to individual freedoms, any call to a higher standard of life is quickly seen as an infringement on personal liberty. Just as, in an authoritarian society, any call to a higher standard is regarded as an attack on the establishment and on public order.
But the call remains. In the days of the prophet Isaiah, we hear the man of God tell his contemporaries of their need to be close to the Lord. ‘If you do not stand by me,’ the Lord says, ‘you will not stand at all.’ And that is the great truth. Stand by God and by all that is right and true, or you will collapse like a pack of cards.
In Matthew’s gospel, chapter 11, we hear Jesus begin to reproach the towns where he has worked his miracles of healing, because his presence among them and the wonders he has done have had no effect on their lives whatever. They carry on in the same old way.
What Jesus asks of us is ‘repentance’; that is a daily turning of our heart to God and to all that God desires for this world. To live just for myself is a very poor option, a narrow field. It is to live a dark and blinkered life. The Lord calls us to open our eyes and to open our hearts to the brightness of his love and to walk then in his ways.
Such repentance, such renewal of life begins each day with our humble confession of our own misdeeds. Out of sackcloth and ashes a pure heart may arise to see the face of God, and in seeing God’s face, we may be worthy to look upon one another with an open and generous heart.
Abuse and exploitation are the words that dominate our society these days. Using others for our own purposes. These stories and millions like them have darkened our society and many lives are broken still.
In the days of King Ahaz, we are told that the hearts of king and people shuddered as the trees of the forest shudder in the wind. They feared invasion from outside. For us, the fear is collapse from within. Isaiah spoke up to allay such fears. “Pay attention, keep calm, have no fear, do not let your hearts sink.’ These are the words we need to hear in our own time now.
And even more importantly, we need to hear those other words of the prophet:
‘But if you do not stand by me, you will not stand at all.’
Brian Fahy
8 July 2014
Erris Poetry 