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The writing is on the wall - Canon Pat Browne


Fr Pat Browne gave the following homily at Holy Apostles, Pimlico, central London, on Sunday, 29 January 2012.

What is a prophet? The common view is, that a prophet is someone who can foretell the future! That may be so. But a prophet is not a fortune teller. They are people who can read the signs of the times and so see what is going to happen if we pursue this line of activity or what will happen if we do not change direction. The prophet has an in-built SatNav and sees more clearly than the rest of us what direction we should be taking and where we are going wrong. They are uncomfortable people to have around. They tell us the truth about ourselves - a truth many of us do not want to hear.

Jesus was such a prophet. We are told in today's gospel that he taught them with authority.

This Wednesday the Government will seek to overturn what the House of Lords voted for last week. Yes, the country needs to spend less and pay its debts and the government must do all it can to catch benefit cheats and those who evade their taxes as they should. If they did, the money would be there to help those who are in genuine need of benefits.

But this legislation on Wednesday if it goes through, will seek to cap benefits to families, regardless of how many children there are in the family. Regardless of the state of health of those children. Whether they are well, sick or disabled. In doing so over 100,000 children will be put into absolute poverty in this country - the most severe poverty measure according to the institute of fiscal studies. The popular press sees nothing wrong with this. Nobody likes the poor. And they are all categorised as spongers. Who is going to speak out on behalf of the genuine poor?

The Government is now about to allow Abortion Clinics to advertise Abortion on TV and Radio - like advertising a car or a washing up liquid. We are now advertising the death of our most vulnerable members. Next we will be advertising which clinics in order to go to, for assisted suicide. When is it going to stop? Two for One. Buy one get one free! Come along and bring your wife too we can do her for free. It is laughable if it were not so tragic! Who is going to speak out on behalf of the vulnerable in our society - the unborn, the elderly and the sick?

And now the Government want to redefine marriage - to say that marriage is not something only between a man and woman but that it can be between two people of the same sex. Why? Civil partnerships give gay couples all the legal rights and responsibilities that that married people have. It is such arrogance to start dictating now the meaning of words - changing the dictionary by legalisation!

Our young people are growing up in a world today that is telling them they are inadequate if they are not sexually experienced by the age of 16 or younger; that they must try whatever drugs and alcohol is available. They see their parents moving from one partner to another with no real thought about the needs or rights of the children. And yet we wonder why there is so much sexually transmitted disease in society. Why alcoholism and addiction is so rife. Why family life is in such a mess. Why so many people young and older are depressed and often suicidal. Why people do not like themselves. How could they, when they behave like this. A life of Hedonism - pleasure seeking leads only to self-loathing and depression.

The writing is on the wall.

Where does that expression come from? In the Old Testament in the book of Daniel, the pagan King and his court have given themselves over to unbridled promiscuity and self-indulgence. At one of their banquets a hand appears on the wall behind where the King is sitting, and begins to write. Who can interpret what has been written? Daniel steps out and does so, telling the King the hand has written that and his civilization are going to be crushed as a result of the choices they have made and the lifestyle they have pursued.

The writing is on the wall too for our society today.

At our Baptism, you and I were anointed to be prophets - people who would speak up in society to say, there is another way, God's way. Not to go along with things as they are cos it is easier to do so.

When the writing is on the wall, the fool ignores it. The prophet on the other hand reads it, puts his or her life in order in the light of it, and equally important, has the courage to speak out and tell other people what it is saying, so they can do the same.

If we don't, our silence will condemn us and all that we value will be lost.

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