The Huron Expositor, 1977-04-07, Page 21positort
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FIRST SECTION PAGES 1A - 8A SEAFORTH, ONTARIO, THURSDAY, APRIL 7, 1867
he thcillpoge 47f- Easter:
ndifferel*eT:or concer n
(by W.G.Sticieg)
There is a verse in Lamentations 1:12 which
begins, "Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass
by?" This pointed appeal to • man's
indifference. For centuries we have lifted this
anguished cry from its original setting in the
Old Testament and applied it'to the spectacle
el a suffering Saviour on a cruel cross. No
doubt there were those who witnessed the
most infamous event in history with an
attitude of non chalant unconcern. They cared
nothing that the foulest of deaths had been
dealt out unjustly to the, best and noblest of
men. The sight of His tortured agony left them
unmoved. They saw Him suffer; they saw Him
die; then they went home to dinner and put
the whole unpleasant business out of -their
mints.
What were the forces 'within human society
that put Him to death? It is • riot difficult to
discern them when we pick out certain leading
characters in the Passion drama. Caiaplias
represents the envy of the religious leaders,
that hypocrisy which so rationalises crime
. „.
when it serves to prptect an entrenched
interest. Judas represents the treachery of
which friends become capable when
friendship ceases to benefit them. Pilate
represents the cowardly mind which connives
at ev it for the sake of its own security. The
Roman centurion; flogging his victim and then
executing Him, represents ignorant brute
force. The crowds clamouring for blood and
shrieking their taunts represent mob hysteria.
Yet, perhaps, none of these evil forces hurt
, Him more deeply than the sheer indifference
of people who passed Him by with a shrug.
They were f not bad people who exerted
themselves to oppose His ministry, just
indifferent people who saw the agony on His
face but could not care less.
Foundered
The work of the Christian Church has too
often foundered in the quagmire' of man's
indifference. The Church has, many sworn
enemies in today's world. A ,large portion of
the earth's population embraces an anti-God'
philosphy. Communism or Christianity -
ultimately one or the othef will have to go and
the Communists . have ' long since decided
which. Behind the Iron Cirrtain they
,• persecute Christians and Jews either by force
or by social and economic pressure and where
they have not driven the Church underground
they have brought it into line with State
policy. The Church has also enemies on this
side of the Iron Curtain who claim that God is
a myth and religion a changing fashion. Since
the beginning of the Christian era the Church
has been persecuted but has thriven despite
'the ..agtiostics.r What . has really hurt the
Church's progress is 'the moral inertia and
spiritual apathy, of the laity, people who are
neither for it nor against it and who really do
not care' too much one way or the. other.
The greatest enemy of human-progress has
always been man's indifference. Great moral
, and social evils' go unchecked, not becuase
bad men outnumber good men but because
the majority of men . do not care. Towards the
end of the eighteenth century a—group' of
Christian politician's' headed by William
Wilberforce introduced a Bill in the British
Parliament to abolish the slave'trade. Victory
seemed certain hut •on. the evening: that the
Bill was read for the third time, a comic opera
opened in London. While a dozen" sure
supporters applauded a popular singer,
opponents .of the Bill -in a. depleted..•Marge
defeated the same.
At presesnt there is a chilly atmosphere in
the realm of world diplomacy, a deTerroration
in the relationship between East and West.
The arms race has been stepped up to a point
whtregenerals have only to press buttons to
annihilate countless innocents.' Russia has
forged ahead in the struggle for power and,
possessing an apparent advantage has more
Or less ceased to talk about peaceful
'co-existence. At times one might think they
held the West in contempt. Have we grown
careless? Has affluence drugged us into a
state of • complacency? Some statesmen
agonize over the fact that the world trembles
on the brink of catastrophe but too many
people show more interest in scandals and
sports scores. Has our society entered the age
of the shrug?
Do not care
Is it not a fact that, at times, we do not
seem to care any more about social ills? But
we do get angry when increases in property
assessment, municipal, provincial and federal
taxes are announced. Perhaps we are too
self-satisfied. Pictures of starving refugees,
impoverished peoples, suffering hordes no'
longer. seem .to.. bother us. Compassion seems
to have becom'e old-fashioned or out of date
and we are too proud to becoine sentimental.
Is that an accurate picture of life 'in our
Western world? If so we had better remember
;that there are millions in Europe, Asia and
Africa whose zeal and anger rise within them
like a volcano on ' the verge of erupting.
Someday, if, the human race survives,' the
conflict will cease and either the arrogant or
the meek, the enslaved or the free, the forces
of darkness or the forces pf light will inherit
the earth. This alone is certain - they will be
the people who care.
It takes courage . to care. Caring is that
Warm; emotional involvement in something -
outside ourselves - family, politics, public
. charity, international affats, the problems of
the neighbours.next door. It costs nothing to
shrug one's shoulders but it does cost
• • .something to care. Nevertheless, it remains
truelhat the really great contribitions to the •
hti,nran race hive been made by people who
cared.
' Ragged urchin
omas John .Barnardo was a mediCal,
..- student in London last century. One cold night
on a back street in a slum area he encountered
a ragged urchin and when ht .suggested that
the hey go hcinte-,-„the lad retorted, "I ain't got
no 'ome." Then he led Barnardo to an
adjacent stairway up on the roof where they
found a number of, boys huddled -asleep 'with'
nothing beneath but the cold tin 'roof and
nothing over thern but'" a starlit sky . "The
curtain of indifference had been drawn across
the view of the untold miseries of fprlorn
children in London. People jclicy that little
children suffered but nobody seemed to care.
That night Barnardo knew what his mission in
life would be . With Lord Shaftesbury and a
few friends whom the doctOr persuaded to •
investigate these appalling conditions their
crusade prospered. Their work continues and
because of their vision and influence
thousands upon thousands of children have
been rescued, properly housed, clothed, fed,
given an education and established in society.
At his funeral he was referred to as. "The
Father of Nobody's Children". This , great
contribution was made by one who cared. "By
this shall all men know that ye are my
disciples, if ye have love one -to another."
It was into the channel of nursing that
FlorenCe Nightingale poured the full strength
of her nature. Born to the ease and luxuty of a
rich woman's life, she turned aside and spent
years studying nursing as an art ..Then came
the opportunity of her life in the call to. the
East. Late in 1854 with a band of thirty-eight
nurses they reached, the Crimea on the very •
day of lnkerman. The hospital at Scutari was a
barracks of aplace; its wards, tank with fever
and cholera; its corridors lined with the sick,
the dying, the wounded. Into this so-called '
"hell", this temple of. pain; foulness and
suffering, moved the slight and delicate form
of this English lady with her band of nurses.
Instantly a new intelligence, instinct with
pity, aflame with energy, fertile with womanly
invention swept through the hospital. Dirt
became a crime, fresh air An,d-clearilinen,
sweet food and soft hands a piety. In their
warfare with disease and Pain these 'women
showed resolution as high as the men of their .
rade showed against the gray-coated'
Battalions of Inkerman or in ' the frozen
trenches 'before Sebastopol.
,She remained in the Crimea until the last
British soldier left its shores. Back in .
England, public gratitude found her out and a
Memorial Fund was established in recognition
of her services but she would not take a penny
for herself but devoted it allto_the founding of
nursing schools for the training of nurses in
the great London hospitals. •
Florence Nightingale, "the 'Lady with' a
Lamp", needs no memorial. The Red Cross
• on every modern battlefield ' or where
distressed• areas of disease and devastation
are fotind is an everlaSting monument to one
--of the noblest' 'careers lived by a woman in
modern history. .....The Red. Cross is ' a
world-wide organization aiding suffering
hilManity without :,self-interest. All., this is'
accomplished without compulso rynr coercive
means but on the principle of friendship and
brotherly love. •
He cared .
•Oneed 'there ' lived ; a man who ' cared
supremely. He walked` he' city streets and his
eyes flashed with angert as he beheld evil and
corruption which were so commonplace that
men ceased even to Notice them. He moved
among the multitudes and his great compas-
sionate heart went out to them. He wept over
a city that rejected'him. A publican needing to'
cover his. self-respect, a beggar needing to
recover his sight; a rich, man worried about his
soul, a fisherman worried about his catch, a
leper 'crying, "Unclean", , or a 'woman who
sinned - he cared for them all. Men warned
him not to care, not to•beccime involved; they
as much as told him to mind his own business
but he paid no attention to them. He went
right . on ,caring until caring took .him to. a
cross, . . „. . .
At this- season "of Easter can' we dare to be
• indifferent? Can we shrug our shoulders as if
our feeble efforts are 'inconsequential? Can we
crawl into our shell' of a selfish ,•• materialistic
life as if the great event of Easter, never
happened?"Is it nothing to you, all ye who
pass by?"
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