The precious legacy of a man who had a vision

"WITHOUT VISION, PEOPLE perish": that was the prophetic warning issued by Philip Lawrence in his beautiful piece, for the Herald in 1993, on the special challenges before Catholic inner city schools. He was, as is tragically clear with hindsight, all too right. Bereft of vision, unsure of where they stand and where they want to go to, the men, women and children who make up today's society have allowed their instinct for the good to perish, their instinct for evil to triumph.
Philip Lawrence laid down his life for a vulnerable young boy in his care. We must ensure that his extraordinary sacrifice has not been in vain. We Catholics and non Catholics alike must hold up this man's shining example and proclaim his message of faith: that there are values for which it is worth dying; that there is evil which must be fought; that the world, no matter what secular trend-setters claim, is still one of black and white morality, where good each day must wage battle against evil.
As the Catholic commentator Lord Rees-Mogg has so aptly reminded us, we must eschew the relativist woolythinking that prevails in all areas of our life, and recognise sin for what it is for, as the old adage has it, we can forgive the sinner, but not the sin.
We, whether at home or in our schools, cannot deprive our children of an understanding of the great spiritual absolutes Good, Evil, Sin, Temptation if we wish them to espouse a moral conduct that is rooted in these very absolutes.
To remind us that to do evil is to offend Our Lord always, no matter what the context of our action may be, no matter what extenuating circumstance we feel compelled us to cary out the deed. Free will is just that free will to do good or evil. The great challenge before all educators in Catholic and non-Catholic schools is to arm our children with an understanding of this concept and of these choices.
Philip Lawrence's call to virtuous living had to be distinct from the Babel of secular promises and lures and herein lay the headmaster's superhuman task a task we must agree to shoulder: to ensure that those other voices that tempt us to stray from the good life will be drowned out by the true call to do His will.
If we are to end the culture of violence that casts its shadow over our schools, our homes, our streets, we must identify its root-cause first. And, as Philip Lawrence wrote in this newspaper only two years ago, it is clear that our dismal lack of vision is in great part responsible for our failure to combat frustration, greed, and the empty values endemic in our present society.
It is this vacuum that our Catholic schools must attempt to fill. Clear and positive action is called for: we must once again learn the ABCs of morality; once again recognise sin as well as virtue, and divide the world accordingly.
Unless we can build a clearlymarked moral world for our children to inhabit, how can we prevent them from straying from its signposted path of virtue? Unless we stop being coy about teaching right from wrong and true faith from modern dilution or "interpretation"of that faith, how can we hope to build a good world for our children, and good children to live in our world?
Perhaps one good man's murder can prove the impetus required to reform our teaching of morality. What better tribute could we offer Philip Lawrence than to strive to live up to his legacy of goodness?