The Calgary Herald created a stir some time ago when it printed a cartoon characterization of Bishop Henry. It was the newspaper’s response to the bishop’s condemnation of abortion. I found myself in the center of the storm facing a team of the newspaper’s writers and editors. I set them back a little when I mentioned that their ill-advised treatment of the good bishop had become an international embarrassment.
It was an interesting and memorable confrontation. Bishop Henry was simply doing what he was supposed to be doing, defending all human life, including the unborn as well as those who were born. The Herald was doing what it was not supposed to be doing, unjustly lampooning an innocent man. The irony was that the unauthorized was castigating the authorized. There was tension in the air, but our meeting ended on a cordial note. The team, at least most of them, had recognized that some of my comments had merit. The newspaper’s action in vilifying Bishop Henry, nonetheless, struck me as a case in which the outlaw tells the sheriff what he should do.
I made my transition from the Press to the Chancery where I offered Bishop Henry my sympathies. He responded with thanks, but told me that he has “thick skin” and the ruckus did not get to him. There was a silver lining, however, to the abuse that was heaped upon him. It led to his acceptance of many speaking engagements he would not have received otherwise. I offered him, as a consolation and a gesture of friendship, a book of poetry I penned entitled, Patches of God-light. It is a collection of poems about sharing the light and the many ways in which we can enlighten the lives of others. Bishop Henry’s “sin” was trying to share the light among people who preferred to remain in the dark.
Light exposes the cockroaches in the kitchen. This can prove unsettling. But dousing the light does not remove the pests. Remaining in the dark is not a solution. We should be grateful for the light because it allows us to perceive the situation realistically and move in the direction of a positive resolution. Enlightenment is the first step in cleaning the kitchen.
Plato, in his Dialogue, Gorgias, presents an imaginary, but instructive, example of injustice. He has a cook prosecute a doctor before a jury of children. The cook speaks to the children and accuses the doctor of “giving you the bitterest potions and compels you to hunger and thirst.” He reminds the jury of “the variety of meats and sweets on which I have feasted you.” Naturally, the children will side with the cook. In his defense, the doctor would say, “All these evil things, my boys, I did for your health.” His defense, however, would not release him from his predicament. The jury of children, an image of the unenlightened masses, would laugh and side with the cook.
Bishop Henry is the doctor. The Calgary Herald is the cook. Readers of the newspaper represent the unenlightened children. Injustice reigns when the incidental takes precedence over the essential. In the example Plato offers, taste is given priority over health. To approve abortion, by comparison, is to place convenience over the life of the unborn. When the light leads to ridicule and laughter, injustice reigns.
In 1832, while John Henry Newman was in Sicily, he had fallen victim to a severe fever which lasted for three weeks. Utterly convinced he was going to die, he made final arrangements with his Italian servant. In a memorandum he wrote many years later, Newman recalled the unlikely and unexpected words he kept saying to himself during the time of his critical illness: “I shall not die. I shall not die, for I have not sinned against the light…God has still a work for me to do.” He lived another 58 years doing God’s work by sharing His light. In 2019, was declared a saint.
In John 1:4-9, Jesus proclaims, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” John the Evangelist states in 3:19, that “light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.” Light, of course, is illuminating. It allows us to see what is, thereby allowing us to participate more fully in the glory of God’s creation. The battle continues to rage, however, between the children of light and the children of darkness.
On September 23, 2022, 20 armed federal agents raided the home of Mark Houck. Houck was arrested in front of his family and interrogated for six hours. What was his crime to precipitate such extraordinary action on the part of these gun-wielding agents? He was a pro-life activist who prayed in front of a Planned Parenthood facility. The incident cried out for justice. Four years later, Mark Houck was acquitted of charges and awarded a $1 million settlement. Justice was slow to arrive, but it did arrive, though it did not compensate for what happened to Houck, his wife, and their children. As a pro-life advocate, Houck and his family were merely trying to share the light with the world.
Justice requires enlightenment. But all too often it reveals something that people do not want to know. When the Culture of Light meets the Culture of Darkness, justice becomes the issue. Those brave hearts who want to share the light must be as courageous as they are generous.
Photo by Jametlene Reskp on Unsplash
