by Leela Ramdeen, Chair, CCSJ and Director, CREDI
In last week’s CCSJ column, we shared with readers the winning Spoken Word contribution from Michael Logie from Tunapuna. Below is the contribution of Shineque Saunders, the second prize winner of CCSJ’s and the Youth Commission’s Spoken Word Competition.
(Sings): You push the Creator out,
You didn’t want He name in your mouth,
You take him out of the school curriculum,
No knowledge of God for your children,
(Speaks): Look at them,
Shirts buttoned up,
Skirts zipped up,
Pants buckled up,
But nobody is ready,
Book bags filled but their mind have nothing in it, but O’s and A’s and CXC, but no knowledge of the Almighty,
Just like the society,
See,
Too much emphasis is placed on academics,
Not saying it’s not important,
But to only have book sense,
And no common sense,
Is simply nonsensical,
We need to make a radical,
Change,
Because everyone wants a degree,
And keep forgetting about Christ,
We think about Mathematics,
And we continue to subtract God from our lives,
This makes the desire of flesh multiply,
Causing someone to subtract clothes from an equation,
Then adding one body to another,
Then we’re left with a lot of unsolved problems,
All because you didn’t follow the rules of BODMAS,
Brushing Our Desires Miles Away So that we may attain Salvation,
You see everyone is chasing degrees,
Yet still don’t study the intensity of hell fire.
We are out here chasing dollar signs,
Instead of chasing eternal life.
We’re out here chasing paper,
But have to be chased to spread the word of our Maker,
Everyone is suited up,
But no one is ready,
Everyone is suited up,
But not suited to meet our Maker,
Not suited to meet our Creator,
We’re chasing paper but not thinking about our names being written on paper in the book of life,
How my country, over night,
Get so angry and uptight
It’s because we’re no longer teaching our children about God,
We just teach them the ABC’s and 123’s,
And timetables from 2 to 12,
Yet we don’t teach them about the signs of the times,
Which are everywhere.
We need to put God back into our life,
Tell our children about the Creator.
Only then will they learn Unity,
And then and only then we can BUILD INCLUSIVE COMMUNITIES.
In 2010, the then Secretary-General of CARICOM, Dr Edwin Carrington said “The people of our community continue to be resilient and resourceful… it is the talents that reside in the regions’ youth, which could provide innovation, invigoration, and the creativity necessary to be competitive in the global marketplace” (http://jis.gov.jm/).
There was much wisdom coming out of the mouths of our 17 youths who participated in the Competition on October 30. Shineque’s piece is relevant to our Gospel reading today (Mark 13:24-32). She reminds us that we may not be “suited to meet our Maker.” In the next verse of the Gospel passage we are told: “Be on your guard, stay awake, because you never know when the time will come.”
Only our Father in heaven knows the day and the hour when our time will come to meet our Maker. Are we ready? Is striving to live holy, virtuous lives a priority for us? And when we make poor choices due to our human frailty, do we reconcile ourselves with God? Staying awake involves prayer and nightly examination of conscience.
In August 2014, Pope Francis reminded those gathered for a general audience in Rome about the importance of examining our consciences every night. He sees this as something “simple and concrete.”
Our Catechism tells us that “The education of the conscience is a lifelong task… Conscience is a judgment of reason by which the human person recognises the moral quality of a concrete act… A well-formed conscience is upright and truthful. It formulates its judgments according to reason, in conformity with the true good willed by the wisdom of the Creator. Everyone must avail himself of the means to form his conscience” (1784, 1796, 1798).
And teach your children to engage in this exercise also – each night at the beginning of their night prayers. As for us, each night, let us look back over the day to see if we have lived the day as God wants us to; identify any area(s) of your life where you may have sinned; be truly sorry for your sins; commit to reconciling yourself with God; and pray for God’s grace that you improve your life and do the will of God the following day – as a disciple of Christ. And we should end this examination of conscience by saying the “I confess.”
