Past Present and Future

Many years ago, in my early 20s ( many years ago!) i watched a TV Play which has stayed with me. It starred Trevor Howard and Martin Sheen. The basis was that the Vatican had forbidden the saying of the Mass in latin and an old priest in Ireland ( Trevor Howard) had gone back to the latin and his church was being thronged with ppl from all over the world to take part in the latin mass. It had reached the proportions of him h aving to say Mass in a field as so many ppl were attending. The Pope called a young priest ( Martin Sheen) to him and told him what was happening and sent him to Ireland to stop the old priest because it was going against the rules of Rome. The one quotable line that i have always remembered was from the Pope to the young priest. He said ” when i issued that Edict i expected trouble. I thought it would come from the great catholic countries of Italy or Spain. I should have known that it there was to be trouble it would come from that troublesome little island in the middle of the Irish Sea”. The play ended with the young priest agreeing with the old priest and staying on to help him and take over when he died.

My point is ( apart from it being a nice story) that , whilst change and progress are essential, change for the sake of change is not always good. Why can we not have the benefits of the modern world while still enjoying and learning from the traditional ( in every way, not just religion).

The strangers came and tried to teach us their ways. They scorned us just for being what we are.

Perhaps we all need to learn not to scorn people just for being what they are.