By Dr Charles Leyman Kachitsa
From the very first days humans were created, they were given freedom with boundaries in which to exist along side other creations. You would recall the beautiful story about the garden of Eden where the mandate for man to be in charge of all things was given but with one condition, to set up a boundary with the the tree on the middle which was never to be touched and or its fruits eaten. As you know the rest as they say is now history which condemned humanity to constantly yearn for knowledge in trying to identify this tree which was forbidden.
The first story of human creation exposed the desire for rebellion that man has despite all freedom that he is so given. It narrates a story of betrayal perhaps when liberty is plentiful. Yet it is also a story that highlights the need for individuals to have personal boundaries. One would say it gave birth to realisation by man of the need to protect his own personal space. In the narrative after the first man and woman were created, we hear of the enticement by the serpent that had breached all the personal space set to cause a catastrophe that we are still dealing with to this day.
The need to protect ones personal space is for survival of species as well as it is for dignity. All living things require space to breath and where that is limited or taken away, survival is diminished. The key for humans is in realising what that space is and how to guide it. In the primitive world space is preserved by attacking and or fighting anything that attempts to threaten by getting closer to the subject. With realisation, added to that is being conscious, otherwise unconsciousness would render one to sleep walk into situations of threats to life.
The quotes this week are a continuation extraction from a book that opens up on the intricacies involved in the choice of a leader on faith in one of the very first known religious groupings in the world. I am sure the selected few quotations from the book will enlighten you to one or two life lessons, read and enjoy:
CONCLAVE – THE POWER OF GOD. THE AMBITION OF MEN. by Robert Harris
“But to win, Adeyemi would need to pick up support from beyond Africa and the Third World, and that would be his difficulty. He might win votes in Africa by attacking, as he often did, ‘the Satan of global capitalism’ and ‘the abomination of homosexuality’, but he would lose them in America and Europe. And it was still the cardinals of Europe – fifty-six in all – who dominated the Conclave. These were the men Lomeli knew best. Some, like Ugo De Luca, the Archbishop of Genoa, with whom he had studied at the diocesan seminary, had been his friends for half a century. Others he had been meeting at conferences for more than thirty years.”
“The Universal Church? But how can a thing be considered universal if it speaks fifty different languages? Language is vital. Because from language, over time, arises thought, and from thought arises philosophy and culture. It has been sixty years since the Second Vatican Council, but already what it means to be a Catholic in Europe is no longer the same as what it means to be a Catholic in Africa, or Asia, or South America. We have become a confederation, at best. Look around the room, Dean – look at the way language divides us over even such a simple meal as this, and tell me there is not truth in what I say.”
“The words issued from the mouth, went forth into nothingness, and seemed to expire halfway along the nave and drop inert from mid-air. Only when he mentioned the late Holy Father, ‘whose brilliant pontificate was a gift from God’, was there a gradual welling-up of applause that started among the laity at the far end of the basilica and rolled towards the altar until finally it was taken up with diminished enthusiasm by the cardinals. He was obliged to stop until it subsided.”
“He had reached the counter and was helping himself to a little riso tonnato when he heard the sound of raised voices behind him, followed by the crash of a tray hitting the marble floor, glass shattering, and then a woman’s scream. (Or was scream the right word? Perhaps cry would be better: a woman’s cry.) He swivelled round to see what was happening. Other cardinals werer rising from their seats to do the same; they obscured his view. A nun, her hands clasped to her head, ran across the dining room and into the kitchen. Two sisters hurried after her. …….”
