NIGHTMARES
AND DAYDREAMS
A nightmare is described in the
Oxford Dictionary as ‘a female monster sitting upon and seeming to suffocate a
sleeper.’ I know a little boy in Ireland who was so traumatised by his primary
school teacher’s description of the advance of Communism in Europe, and the way
its enthusiasts brain-washed those who opposed its beliefs, that he had a
nightmare. He woke up screaming at a vision of Stalin’s divisions marching down
O’Connell St, the main street in Dublin.
Well, Stalin’s divisions came –
not to Ireland but to other places – and now they are no more. Hitler’s
divisions marched through Europe and North Africa and now they too are no more.
The colonial empires pegged out territories for themselves across the world are
also no more. The cold war – from the 1950s to the 1980s – is also no more. And
the threat of MAD – mutually assured destruction by opposing nuclear powers -
is, if not no more, at least unthinkable.
While we have the power to make
life miserable for others there is always a push- back when those oppressed
rise up. As I write, delegates of the human race are gathering in Glasgow to
‘push-back’ on global warming. The media heightens the tension telling us of
the many battles lost across the globe: forests destroyed, habitats eliminated,
sea levels rising and global temperatures relentlessly going up. We wonder what
kind of world we will leave for our grandchildren. Already, in Kuwait for example,
life is almost unbearably hot.
But history tells us that human
being always resist, always fight back. I met a man the other day who grows
‘essential natural oils’ and he helps others to do likewise. He is adamantly
optimistic. ‘We will win this thing.’ The ‘thing’ is, of course, climate
change. Uniquely, it is not about war or famine or disease. It is about the
human will. It is not about science. We know the science. It is about morality.
It is about doing the right thing – not the selfish thing.
‘Now that you know these things,
blessed are you if you do them’ (John 13:17). Jesus knew this was the crux of
the matter. We know what to do but we lack the will to do it. We have won many
battles before. Are we going to win this one? The answer – based on our past
success in building a better world and our present exponentially growing
awareness of the threat to our survival - is, ‘yes’. We need the will of a Churchill or a Martin
Luther King or even a Merkel to get there. Or perhaps it won’t be one
individual who will convince the world; maybe it will be a globally shared now
consciousness which is so strong it will overwhelm the delayers and begrudgers.
When Jesus was on the mountain,
giving his inaugural address, he included these words; ‘Blessed are those who
hunger and thirst for what is right.’ Their number is increasing.
November 7, 2021 All Saints Rev 7:2…11 1 Jn 3:1-3
Mt 5:1-12
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