DELIVER US FROM CANT

Waihi Daily Telegraph, Volume XXXII, Issue 8869, 5 February 1943, Page 2

DELIVER US FROM CANT

(By “E.L.8.G.”) That passionate lover of l'eality, the late Rev. (5. A. Studdert Kennedy (Woodbine Willie), concluded a poem exposing humbug and hypocrisy in religious circles with the prayer: O by Thy Cross and Passion, Lord, By broken hearts that pant For comfort, and for love of Thee, Deliver us from cant. Cant In Politics It is a prayer which should often be on our lips-to-day. for on every hand the snivelling accents of cant are to be heard. The common people are exhorted by our leaders to “give till it hurts” in patriotic service; whilst private business enterprises showing handsome dividends receive the politician's blessing. "Populate or perish” is ’he cry of Cabinet Ministers who will not lift a little finger lo solve the terrible problems of child malnutrition and youth unemployment, or to rid this young country of the foul stain of inadequate and poor housing, delinquency and destitution. Words are cheap, promises, like piecrusts, are easily broken; and, unfortunately, the public is readily gulled and has a surprisingly short memory. An alert and intelligent community would not tolerate for a month the impertinent blusterers and shameless timeservers in whose clumsy direction of affairs, year by year, we dully acquiesce. The honest politician fares ill in such a rabble. The history both of politics and of pseudo-religion is the history of the gullibility of mankind. Religious Humbug Religion supplies innumerable examples of minds and lives frost-bit-ten by cant. "Blessed words” and pious phrases are thought-saving devices. Many claim to be “saved,” without a thought of the implied liberation from bad teinber, evil speaking. malice, greed and general selfishness. Fervent pietists claim to be "washed in the blood of the Lamb” without realising that they are announcing to the world their acceptance of sacrificial love as the principle of life. On the other hand, Catholics may frequent the Sacraments without understanding that they arc committing themselves to a far-reaching plan of action in everyday life- -the fashioning of the world into “an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace.” The Word became flesh and still dwells among .us. giving us His own life and love as our food and drink. Therefore. after the war. slums must go. together with their attendant ills—disease. malnutrition, delinquency, hopelessness, despair. What concord has Christ, with soulless profiteering? How can His Body and Blood preserve us when we break the bodies and dilute the blood of the poor? Dare we partake of the Table of the Lord and also of the tallies of demons—the evil spirits of oppression and tyranny and insensitiveness to suffering? Dare we contemplate the blasphemy of mingling with the great Sacrifice of Love the blood of people whom we have sacrificed for our own pleasure and well-being? Many Catholics would die in the last ditch to defend the dogma of our Lady’s Immaculate Conception. But

vhy are they unmoved by the bought of myriads conceived and

born in drunkenness and unspeakable degradation Why shed bitter tears at the recollection of Calvary, and then gaze coldly and indifferently upon the crucifixion of the Son of God in the wasted bodies and darkened minds of those whom Christians have denied a rightful share of the good things of the earth Why are so manv Christians, both Catholic and

Protestant, sensitive to any imagined defacement of the Holy Scriptures by “Higher Critics.” while remainingcallously indifferent to the mutilation of the divine image in their fellowman by poverty, disease and sin? Let us hold fast to the great Christian verities, by all means. But let us never forget that our most fer-

vent, professions of faith are in vain —nay, they are an insult to God —if we do not seek to translate them into action. The world will pay little attention to faith expressed in words, but it will be quick to mark faith bodied forth in love. And the word became flesh, and pitched His tent among us: and we

oudselves saw His glory, glory as of the only-begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. . . We love, because Ho first loved us.