Has anyone else noticed how frequently the phrase “They must be mad” appears in conversations nowadays? ‘They’ of course, refers to the Westminster political classes and top bureaucrats. To many folk the ‘madness’ of the elite appears to be as great a disease as the plague which swept Britain in 1665.
Bubonic plague was a catastrophic outbreak of a bacterial disease (Yersinia pestis) endemic in small rodents and their fleas. Without treatment two thirds of infected humans will die within four days, and in medieval London bacteria spread because people were crowded together in unsanitary proximity to rats.
The mediaeval plague affected the bodies of people in terrible and horrible ways. The modern plague also started in London and is also caused by people living in fetid togetherness. This time however the disease in not deadly bacteria but deadly ideas.
Nothing is new, and just as the bubonic bacteria had been around for many years before striking, so too these ‘new’ ideas. And just as bacteria did their deadly work only when conditions were right, so too the political ideas which come into fruition only when conditions are right.
It is said that ‘nature abhors a vacuum,’ and so with a fashionable decline in people’s belief in an absolute deity, the scene was set for a return to the time when humans set their own values. We are not therefore surprised to see the metropolitan elite set values according to whatever idea is floating in their heads at the time.
The politically correct values of the chattering classes are not however divine absolutes and so contain inherent inconsistencies. We may ask for example; how a law on human rights that allows an illegal immigrant to commit a murder then stay on in Britain and commit another can be the same right that allows a law-abiding citizen to enjoy freedom from fear?
Likewise, how can a rule which bans old ladies from arranging flowers at Gloucester Cathedral in case they see a choirboy or stop a tea lady who has pushed a trolley around a hospital for forty-two years; be squared with appeals for volunteers to carry out public duties? The answer is that they cannot be squared because they are simply fashionable ideas of the day.
Sensible folk should not however be troubled by the stupidities of our rulers. Rather, we should regard their rules in much the same way as Jesus viewed the petty rules of his day. Whereas the Pharisees and Scribes saw the commandments of Moses as destinations, he saw them as signposts. He did not expect us to regard the commandments as ends in themselves although he did expect us to use them as a route to a successful way of living.
We saw a lot of success and failure during the Olympics, but my thoughts were also triggered more recently at Communion as neighbours read aloud the general confession and we said together:-
Almighty God, our heavenly Father, we have sinned against you and against our neighbour in thought and word and deed, through negligence, through weakness and through our own deliberate fault.
We are truly sorry and repent of all our sins. For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ, who died for us, forgive us all that is past and grant that we may serve you in newness of life to the glory of your name. Amen.
It is a good job Jesus understood that we are not hypocrites for trying and failing, but only for pretending to have succeeded when we haven’t.
Talking about confession however, reminds me of the Arizona cowgirl who went to the kindly Priest after Mass with her grey eyes full of tears.
“What’s wrong Catherine?” he asked;
“I’ve terribly news Father, my husband died in front of me last night.”
“Oh dear dear me. That is awful!” he replied. “Did he have a last request?”
She breathed a deep sigh as she said: ……… “Not much really except ‘put the gun down.”
View from the Pew 