Our Christmas Message
Courtesy, Nii Bonney Andrews
December 24, 2022
These are particularly tough times
everywhere and more especially in societies where corruption,
pernicious patronage and plain ignorance have reigned unfettered
for decades.
The consensus is that things will get a lot
worse before they get better if at all.
The threat is an
existential one; it even includes mass extinctions.
But
of course there is no unanimity about the gravity of the
situation: there are other opinions/ viewpoints.
Welcome
to the post-truth world where merely expressing an opinion gives
it validity; in some backwater this is the current definition of
democracy.
No longer are some opinions misguided or
worthless on account of objective reasons.
Such is the
darkness in which we exist; such is the darkness in which we
wait.
We wait in Hope for the Light - as St. John's Men
have done for centuries; we wait in Hope anchored in a
spirituality with rigour.
Clad in camel's hair and eating
locusts and honey (? an early hipster); John is mentioned in at
least two holy books placed on our altars - the Holy Bible and
the Holy Quran.
The stunningly beautiful verse anthem
composed by Orlando Gibbons entitled THIS IS THE RECORD OF JOHN
also reiterates his powerful declaration,
"I am the
voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, make straight the
way of the Lord".
John was emphatic, erudite and humble
enough to state that he only pointed the way to infinitely
greater and better things for which he himself was not even
worthy.
Where are today's Johns to point the way to a
better, brighter future?
Are they among our poets,
artists, writers, statesmen, musicians and thinkers?
Will we listen to them or will we silence them.....or simply
ignore them?
What will be the response of those who today
carry the mantle of St John's Men; do they even understand the
importance of the designation; do they care; what opinions do
they have; is it all rigour devoid of spirituality like the
brood of vipers?
We should never forget that the
integrity and fidelity of John even unto death at the hands of
Herod Antipas is mirrored in the stories of Jacques de Molay and
the Widow's Son.
So as the gloom continues to encircle
us; we wait in darkness with Hope for Light.
Courtesy, Nii Bonney Andrews
December 24, 2022
