Lunch Reflection in Uppsala
2009Posted by Gustav 11 Oct, 2009 01:34Last week, the teachers at the priest training school in Uppsala assigned me to share a short reflection at lunch prayer. The theme for the week was children. The following is a rough translation of what I said:
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This Monday, the Children’s Day was celebrated around the world. In just a few weeks, me and my wife's baby will arrive. It feels wonderful to welcome our child to the world, but it has also made me think more about what kind of world it is.
In my work at the prison, I have met too many lost and confused young people. Sometimes only 16 years old. There is often time to talk in the evenings, and I have been thinking a lot about how these teenagers’ lives became so destructive. Last Sunday in church, we read texts describing a struggle between good and evil. But what is evil, really?
I remember a young man who got a special permit to call his mother from his prison cell. I was instructed to sit with him in his room during the call. He used this opportunity to manipulate and threaten his mother. Every other sentence he said that he loved her, and every other sentence he said that she should put all his drugs in a bag and keep it somewhere safe, or else he would hurt himself in prison.
Another young man told me one evening how his father used to tie him to a chair and beat him when he grew up. I wonder how my life would have been if I had grown up like that. I also wonder what his father had been through. Sometimes, the pattern of evil and destructiveness can be seen clearly.
The artist Josh Ritter sings:
"If evil exists, it’s a pair of train tracks, and the devil is a railroad car."
I share this view.
I am certain that all the inmates I meet at the prison – murderers, pedophiles and rapists – they all have the same basic nature as you and me. They have also been little children. It is important to remember that it could just as well have been me sitting in the prison cell crying. Somewhere they got on the wrong train.
There is a personal responsibility to get off the train, but it is not easy when it is going fast. For our children’s sake, we must make sure that the destructive train stations are as few as possible. We also have to slow down those trains, making it easier to get off.
By sharing the stories of our religious tradition in a skilful way – the faith, hope and love they carry – we can forcefully contribute to limiting the routes of the destructive trains.
Together, and with God’s guiding light, we can make fewer children and teenagers get on the wrong railroad track. It is not only our opportunity to make this world a warmer and safer place. It is our duty.
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