Greetings!
Having completed my morning's conversation with The Omnipotent One, I turned to the Holy Bible for His answer and guidance regarding the words of praise and supplication I’d poured out to Him. The Good Book fell open to Luke, Chapter 14, so I began to read (I paraphrased):
Then Jesus returned to Galilee and began to teach. When he came to Nazareth, his hometown, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath, as was His custom. He read and preached from the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. When He finished, all eyes were fixed on Him. All were taken aback by His words of wisdom. They murmured, “Isn’t this Joseph the carpenter’s son?”
He answered, “Truly, I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s home town. There were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s and Elisha’s time, when there was drought and famine many years; yet, they were sent to help people everyone despised.”
On hearing this, the audience became enraged and tried to kill him by throwing Him off a precipice. But The Lord rescued Him.
When Jesus declared that prophets never find honour in their hometowns, He was making a bold statement not to win friends among “influential” people listening, rather to teach them a painful truth: Elijah and Elisha were two homegrown prophets, but God directed them to help foreigners, thereby earning honour not in Israel, but elsewhere.
Having completed my morning's conversation with The Omnipotent One, I turned to the Holy Bible for His answer and guidance regarding the words of praise and supplication I’d poured out to Him. The Good Book fell open to Luke, Chapter 14, so I began to read (I paraphrased):
Then Jesus returned to Galilee and began to teach. When he came to Nazareth, his hometown, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath, as was His custom. He read and preached from the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. When He finished, all eyes were fixed on Him. All were taken aback by His words of wisdom. They murmured, “Isn’t this Joseph the carpenter’s son?”
He answered, “Truly, I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s home town. There were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s and Elisha’s time, when there was drought and famine many years; yet, they were sent to help people everyone despised.”
On hearing this, the audience became enraged and tried to kill him by throwing Him off a precipice. But The Lord rescued Him.
When Jesus declared that prophets never find honour in their hometowns, He was making a bold statement not to win friends among “influential” people listening, rather to teach them a painful truth: Elijah and Elisha were two homegrown prophets, but God directed them to help foreigners, thereby earning honour not in Israel, but elsewhere.
The same thing eventually happened to Jesus: His own countrymen hounded Him after He left His private world to fulfil His public calling; today, the whole world reveres Him. A salient feature of Jesus’s public ministry was that He never ran away from confrontation with any “influential” person who did not believe or accept Him; nor did He hesitate to scold them when they did wrong.
Has the same fate overtaken our Attorney General, Anand Ramlogan?
Has the same fate overtaken our Attorney General, Anand Ramlogan?
Lo and behold, scriptural reading completed, on opening today’s Express, the editorial (captioned, “Too much for the AG to handle”), jumped out at me. It introduces a blistering, wide-ranging attack on the AG, describing him as one who “exults, but does not invariably excel” and as a “tirelessly over-zealous Attorney General over-reaching himself,” one for whom “the portfolio…may be more than he can handle”.
I couldn’t help wondering: Didn’t Anand forsake private practice in response to a summons to embark on a public ministry? And, since his commencing that journey, haven’t several “influential” persons become aggrieved because he has taken on the task with a diligence, thoroughness and zeal which they never thought possible or witnessed before?
So, while I admire the editor's bluntness in its today’s editorial, I must point out it has sacrificed truth in the process: the fact of the matter is there isn’t any homeboy attorney or AGl who, in such a short space of time, has accomplished as much as the incumbent AG has and with such distinction.
So, while I admire the editor's bluntness in its today’s editorial, I must point out it has sacrificed truth in the process: the fact of the matter is there isn’t any homeboy attorney or AGl who, in such a short space of time, has accomplished as much as the incumbent AG has and with such distinction.
The Express editorial itself acknowledges this by referring his victory in the OPV matter as “stellar”, but, given the context, I can only conclude it begrudgingly bestowed the accolade in a fit of “Isn’t this the carpenter’s son?” condescension. Who knows, their next move may very well be to throw him under the bus.
When that hit me, I put away the paper, closed my eyes and said this silent prayer: “Lord! Forgive them! For they know not what they do!”
Then finished my cup of Creole chocolate and began to write, hoping Mr Ramlogan would understand that “this too, shall pass”.
Thanks for for publishing this.
Ayodele Chieng | Irving Street, in Petit Bourg.
When that hit me, I put away the paper, closed my eyes and said this silent prayer: “Lord! Forgive them! For they know not what they do!”
Then finished my cup of Creole chocolate and began to write, hoping Mr Ramlogan would understand that “this too, shall pass”.
Thanks for for publishing this.
Ayodele Chieng | Irving Street, in Petit Bourg.
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