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Schooling socialises a person. The saying “No man is an island” highlights man as a social being. If the goal for a person is to live in the “City of Man”, then schooling does not just socialise but in fact it civilises a person preparing him or her for a life in the “civitas”. And if by schooling we educate, then, education is a process of enlightenment.
How should it be done? The present ideology operates along the principle that people need to be schooled and socialised into correct thinking. This demand for orthodoxy does not take into consideration that this human endeavour has a flaw. It is called Original Sin.[1] Disregarding this truth, this so-called orthodoxy follows a mechanical and linear trajectory whereby the goal is to achieve a perfect society where inequality and injustice do not exist. This goal is accomplished when people accept and behave according to the correct principles inculcated in them.
This is our challenge. It is true that in trying to school a person, there is always a modicum of moulding his or her thoughts. Today the moulding is no longer a form of persuasion but rather an expectation. A person is expected to think this way and not that way. Thus, thoughts have to be surveilled and policed to meet approved and accepted narratives. For example, we may not use the so-called “N” word. It carries such a heavy connotation in some parts of the world, notably the United States and even though we do not share their history, our education has drilled into us never to use the so-called “N” word.
Banks, brands and businesses seem to have jumped onto the bandwagon of trying to school the “average and stupid” consumers into proper and acceptable behaviour. It is not enough for them to sell ideas and items; they want you to change what you believe and how you behave. In other words, they virtue signal. What is virtue signalling? According to a definition, it is an effort to demonstrate one's high moral standing by expressing opinions on political and social issues that are current and acceptable, often with little or no intent to act on said opinions.[2] This is not a novel development. Remember the Pharisee standing at front of the Temple who virtue signalled through exposing the flaws of the Publican standing at the back.
Those in power also use forms of surveillance to detect and criminalise thought and of course, education has been coopted into the process of producing group-think. For example, the rewriting of our national history is one way of eliminating historical facts disapproved by present political persuasion. “Hang Tuah” is no longer the hero we were taught to be because his skin colour does not fit the criterion of racial palette.
To teach or to educate is never to drum, that is, to force an idea down a person’s throat. We cannot legislate morality, that is, how people ought to think and behave. Sadly, law by nature possesses a degree of force. Coercion is punitive in its expression. Look at how fasting is being imposed. But more than coercion, today’s broadcast media in tandem with the threat of posed by cancel culture is a powerful deterrent against aberrant or deviant behaviour.
Christ the Good Shepherd is the gentle teacher who inspires people to be better, to behave better, to think better. I used to fail Mathematics consistently from Standard 3 until Form 3. Back then, the Std 3 maths teacher used to beat us with a wooden 1-metre ruler. I cannot remember how many rulers she broke and requisitioned only to beat us and break the ruler again. Then in Std 4, there was punishment for having scraped through. 51/100 was not good enough for the teacher. When I was in Form 3, I already had a streak of red in the annual report card. Thanks to my sister who challenged me when I proudly announced to her that it did not matter if I failed Mathematics in the Lower Certificate of Education. She said, “You think the seminary takes in stupid people?”. I bucked up because the teacher in Form 3 was good and his teaching style helped me to catch up. I got through LCE with a strong credit and managed to get myself into science stream. At 16 and in Form 4, I could not do long division and this one incident in class has stayed with me all these years. There was a new teacher of Additional Maths in St Francis Institution in Malacca. During one of the lessons I could not grasp, there was long division involved. She came to my desk, knelt in front of me and proceeded to teach me step by step how to do long division.
That incident was a compelling reminder of how teaching should be conducted. There was no shaming to stimulate better performance. Like Chinese parents who need to belittle the children to toughen them up. Instead, to teach is to inspire as Jesus did. He mesmerised the crowds. He consistently drew them to Himself and never with the naked power of intimidation. He commanded people’s attention through the authority of His humility and most of all, through His love. He looked at the crowd and was moved with pity.
This brings us to the subject of the Kingdom. How would Jesus proclaim His Kingdom today? The reality is that two people can hear the same thing but each can perceive it differently and sometimes almost at the opposite ends of a spectrum. Just like the operating systems that power our mobile devices—Android, iOS or Huawei—there are different perceptions of the Kingdom.
The good thing about “operating systems”, is that they reveal a weakness in our polarised self-perception. We pride ourselves as being independent and free in the manner that we think. But operating systems already function with algorithms that decide or pre-determine so much of what people see or how they think. There may be a million minds about the Kingdom but given the fact that operating systems work in a particular way, it not far-fetched to accept that the ideology posed by wokery attempts to corral and control the manner in which we conceive of God’s Kingdom.
After all, we have practically abolished all monarchies except for a handful which makes the word “Kingdom” a rather alien concept. We hold ourselves to be democratic and equal because nobody likes to be dominated or to be lorded over. Perhaps the word “kin-dom”, denoting affinity or relationship rather than kingdom suggestive of dominion, is more in keeping with our egalitarian sensibility. The present woke emphasis is definitely on diversity, equity and inclusion or DEI.
The idea of a fairer world populated with equitable societies may drive the different versions of the reign of God, still the point is, what does Jesus Himself teach about the Kingdom? Since the reality of Original Sin is somewhat rejected, the temptation is always to reshape His Kingdom more like ours. Is that what Christ would have willed and if not, how should we present it according to His understanding?
The parables themselves specify a way to think about the Kingdom. The presence of the weed amongst wheat reveals that the Kingdom has a beginning in this world but the world is not its final realisation. At the Last Judgement, the Kingdom in its fullness will be revealed when the weed will be gathered and burnt. Therefore, there exists an unresolved tension between what has already started but is not fully realised. The presence of the weed may be uncomfortable but precisely the tension is what gives meaning and agency to our lives here on earth. As the parable of the yeast suggests, God is exceedingly generous and that should invite the very best of our efforts for the Kingdom, whilst entrusting to the Lord the fruits that are His to grant. Our contribution, no matter how miniscule, like the mustard seed, is who we are and what we are capable of. The ability to hold the tension between the “already and not yet” is a convincing sign of the Kingdom’s unfolding.
In that sense, witness how Benedict XVI willingly surrendered the apostolic keys of St Peter. To watch silently how his notion of the Church being slowly changed was testimony to God’s greatness but more, it signalled a profound faith in Christ that His Church remains an ongoing mission until the end of time. Benedict XVI showed us how not to be afraid of the weed of ugliness, the darnel of incompleteness, the thorns of sin that belong to the process of building up God’s Kingdom.
In presenting the Kingdom as enunciated by Christ, we should never labour under any impression that what we have here is anything but transient. While we are trying to right historical wrongs, opting to liberate the marginalised poor and working towards averting a future climate catastrophe, we never forget that this world is passing. However, this uncertainty must never deter us from the good we can accomplish. But more than the good we can achieve, it is our joy despite the struggles, our faith despite the trials, and our hope despite the suffering that witness convincingly to the future fulfilment of the Kingdom. If anything, the shape of God’s Kingdom is a reflexion of the beauty of our faith, the grace of our action and the joy of our lives.
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[1] Think of the many explosive outrages expressed simply because leaders are found flawed and wanting. There seems to be an unforgiveness towards a person’s past. Think of the many celebrities cancelled on account of his or her past foibles. How many have had to grovelled for having said something not approved by current canons of appropriateness?
[2]Ben and Jerry, the ice-cream maker, on 4th July 2023 proudly took the stance that that stolen lands be returned to native Americans. Later it emerged that their headquarters in Vermont actually sit on tribal land. Where is the action?
