Foreword
At the time when the
Quebequers of French descent were very Catholic, Saint John the Baptizer,
followed by his sheep, was chosen as their patron saint. But, after the « quiet
revolution » of the 60s, the Baptizer and his sheep were literally wiped off
the face of the earth. And rightly so.
It was because those
two great symbols of the Christian world, John the Baptizer and the Lamb, had
become purely sentimental images, good only for the consumption of the devout
people and for the folk show, without any serious connection with the
political, economic, social and cultural situation suffered by the people since
the Conquest of 1759 by the British.
According to the
spirit of Jesus, the saints, the Church and her sacred signs, and also the
Gospel itself, when we empty them of their prophetic content, « they are no longer good for anything but
to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. »
(Matthew 5:13)
JOHN THE BAPTIZER AND HIS SHEEP
In the past, we would celebrate with
a parade, a band and all the fuss the feast of Saint John the Baptist, our
national patron. The highlight of the parade was the last float that carried in
triumph the little upstart chosen to represent the saint. Cute like an angel
and as curly as his sheep that chew at a twig next to him, he seemed to glide
on a cloud in front of the stunned crowd. All hearts were invaded by
indescribable emotion, and the good people gave thanks to heaven for having
given him so cute a patron saint.
And so time flew, and one day, more
than 40 years ago, in the streets of shameless Montreal, John the Baptist appeared
suddenly without any halo, without a standard and without a sheep; suddenly, he
had grew and become a real Tarzan, proud and almighty. However, in spite of his big arms, he did not
last. More than that, he simply disappeared, without any burial. Nothing. As something shameful, a stain for the family
about which it was better not to talk.
Yet, in his real life, this good
patron saint was not an ordinary person. And his sheep either. Who were they
actually?
THE BAPTIZER
Since his youth, John, known as the
Baptist, was introduced to the harsh life of the desert monks. These monks
called Essenians were dissidents. They challenged the authority and even the
legitimacy of the high priests who succeeded one another to govern the people
at the temple of Jerusalem (in those times, politics and religion were one),
and those dissidents of the desert entertained the darkest feelings towards the
Roman occupier (at the time, the Romans were colonizing the country of the
Baptist and the high priests, in any case, were puppets of the Romans).
And why not say that the dissident
friends of the Baptist were anticlerical from the beginning and all-out
nationalists. Real Quebequers of today…and
«grumblers, as usual».
From them, John the Baptist learned
that each individual could purify oneself
from evil without going to the Temple, that is, without going through
the sacrifices and the priests ( Protestants before their time maybe)…
He also learned the therapeutic
values of the water for the soul as well as for the body since, even in the
desert, the Essenians used abundantly water to purify themselves in preparation
of D-day when the temple would be cleansed from all its riff-raff and the
country rid from the heel of the Romans. (Rather esoteric on the sidelines)…
And so, John was a man rather clean,
who smelled good under his tunic made of camel’s hair. Voluntary simplicity was
a must…But soon he felt cramped in that ambiance carrying a sectarian odor.
Therefore, he left the community to
take refuge alone in a cavern in the middle of the desert. (Probably he missed
by a hair’s breadth to become a Buddhist)…Strict vegetarian, he fed on wild
honey and locusts, which is excellent for health. And still, he was searching for his
own way.
He was no more no less seeking God
and what God wanted from him. And as always, by experiencing nothing, he experienced everything. He fought
with the Invisible like Moses, like Jacob, to the point of becoming strong and
free. And then, one morning, he left his desert to turn towards his
people.
From the shores of the river, he spoke. His voice had the
power of thunder. He was shouting: « You see those mountains that blocked
the horizon? They will be
made low! You see those valleys that separate them? They will be filled! You
see those crooked roads? Theys shall be made straight! » (Luke 3 :5)
Translation : You see that handful of pretentious who
believe that they are the masters of the world and who stand on the head of the
little ones, well, they will learn what it means to be routed! You see, that
multitude of poor people who are in the hole, well, they will pull
through! As for the crooks, better for
them to prepare themselves to learn to walk straight! In three words: equality, justice,
freedom! (Luke 3 :10-14). (One more leftist!)
« No more time to lose, was
saying the Baptist; make the first move! If you do not get going now for that
great change, everything will blow up! » Your status of « chosen people » and
of « people of God », of superior race because you descend from Abraham, in
other words your religious and ethnic nationalism, all of that will not serve
you at all.
What counts is justice. (Here we are!)
You must be just like Abraham was. You
understand? With stones God can make people of the same race as we are! But
that is not what God wants. What he wants from you, people, is sharing, and
from you the civil servant is that you be just, and of you the policeman and
the military man is that you stop abusing people…».
For many the pill is rather big to
swallow, but, nevertheless, most people of the country began to give reason to
the Baptist; they let themselves be carried by a strong wave in favor of great
changes, thinking without doubt that it was God who was speaking to them
through his own mouth.
And then we were embarking in the
great movement of John the Baptist by jumping into the water, in other words, in
getting wet. That was the baptism of the baptizer…
A proof that the point was really to
plunge into something different than holy water, our Baptist showed personally
to what that baptism committed to: to nothing less than to fight Herod, the
tyrant of the country, and to incur the public wrath of the royal concubine. He lost his head for that; it was
severed.
Brief, John called the Baptist, was
a great man. He does not merit to be the patron saint of a coward people,
afraid of getting wet.
AND THE
SHEEP…
John the baptizer, the one who urges
the people to get wet for equality, justice and freedom points out with his
finger a man from Nazareth, called Jesus, and declares: « It’s him! You think
that I am a revolutionary, but I am hardly in the same league as him. I would
not even dare loosen the thongs of his sandals. Me, I’m only a match, but him,
he is fire! He comes to clean the house from top to bottom. Everything will
start anew. In your religious faith and
in your culture you say that a « lamb » will come to carry on his shoulders
our catastrophes and our national shame,
and that he is the one who will deliver us from it; well, that lamb, it is he! »
Who says lamb says sheep, and a sheep
for us is a « loser ». But in the culture of the people of John the Baptist, it
is completely different. That people is above all a people of sheperds, and the
sheep is its food, its clothing, its life. It is its great recourse. The sheep is revered. (It’s their petroleum)… They love it because it gives its life
so that the people will live, that it will be free and happy. In a word, the
sheep is not a symbol for
mini- followers, but a very great
symbol of life; it is the sacred symbol of the gift of self for the freedom of
the greatest number
For it’s really about FREEDOM. Here is why.
According to ancient accounts, the
people of John the Baptist had been slave in Egypt, a foreign country, where a
wicked pharaoh had decided to exterminate it. The pharaoh was afraid of that
small people because, in his mind, it was growing and developing too fast. (He
thinks like a British)… He feared that it would become independent. And so, he
took the necessary measures so that little different people choose between
living like the Egyptians or die.
When it had enough to be beaten up,
this little people decided to run the big risk of freeing itself. Of course,
everything was organized in total secret. With the police on their backs twenty
four hours a day and spies everywhere, it was a must that no one’s attention be
called. Here the sheep appears.
What can be more harmless than a sheep?
We really cannot imagine that a sheep can initiate a revolution…Well, come on!
The sheep, precisely because of its apparent innocence, was chosen to be the
rallying sign of a people of slaves and of the starting point of its
liberation. A young sheep, that is a lamb. A lamb roasted on embers that, in their huts,
all the slaves, at the same time, had to eat wearing their coats, hats on their
heads, stick in their hands and, ready to depart.
From now on, in the history of that
people, the lamb was becoming for ever the one who gives life to assemble the
people and to nourish it so that it may have the strength to undertake its
march towards freedom. For it was an adventure that was extremely perilous and,
by all appearances, impossible.
At the same time, the lamb was
becoming the image itself of God who in turn was committing himself to
accompany his people in its great adventure of liberation. And so, when John
the Baptist, one day, points to Jesus with his finger and declares publicly: «
He is the Lamb! », he did not mean to have the people start to bleat behind
him, but to come together, to take control, because that man was to open to
that people the path of freedom.
The whole life of Jesus was a
perpetual battle for the freedom of his people and of all human beings. It is for that reason that the high priests
and the Romans killed him.
And it is for that reason also that,
encouraged by his example, many people committed their selves to walk in his
footsteps. They did not contest directly the Empire, but they undermined it by
bluntly refusing to adore the pillars on which it was built.
This resistance cost the life of
hundreds of thousands of them, but the Empire ended by falling, and the
oppressed of yesterday triumphed.
Notwithstanding the many treasons
that will come afterwards, it remains that the great values for which we boast
in our modern societies would have enormously been a long time to see daylight
if it had not been for those first men and women who had the courage to set
their feet in the footsteps of the famous « sheep » called Jesus.
For his daring, John will be
beheaded, and Jesus, the so called « sheep » or « lamb », will be murdered also
for the same reasons.
Both gave their lives so that all
peoples of the earth, including ours, wake up.
“The Lamb” is a typical code of the underground,
a powerful symbol of active resistance to stimulate the people without power to
face their almighty oppressor. It is a sacred symbol of rallying for independence
and a releasing sign of liberation.
The lamb is the triumph of the
little one over death itself. He is
represented at the same time with a slit throat but alive and standing (Revelation 5:6). It is the image of the
hero put into pieces, who continues to live in the heart of the people for
which he sacrificed his life so that it has the strength to face the tyrant.
The sheep of John the Baptist is the
victory of the lamb over the wolf and the image of the little one who triumphs
over the big bad man. It is the symbol of the sure victory of non-violence that
goes till self-sacrifice over all forms
of tyranny or over all those wise reasonings that prevent a people to take
control and to embark on the great adventure of its own total liberation.
Eloy Roy
Translated
from the French by Jacques Bourdages
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