I -I hits been proved beyond palildouht that the most opuar television programmes arc not the elaborate. sophisticated and artistic productions, but those which depict simple. homely subjects. People want to sec how others teact to their own problems. conditions and environment.
The art of the producer is to make them quite certain • that the characters are not people living in a world apart but in the humdrum. sometimes sordid. everyday atmosphere Of ordinary pcti If we want to get away From ourselves we don't want to go so far away that the surroundines are iintemiliar.
One of the greatest tragedies of modern times has been the rift between Religion and everyday life. Is this because we have forgotten the ci turtle lesson or Oar Lord's preaching?
Necessary as technical Ianhe ere.sttlei d Lor a ttnits'i i ',here of remoteness from the ordinary man. Sublime as the teaching of Cho Lord is. spoke. even of the deepest mysteries. ill a simple way. full of rich examples.
1 he Kingdom of Heaven was no easy thing to talk about to the materialist. nationalist and prejudiced factions in the crowd. Yet how beautifully our Lord gets over the difficulty in the Gospel for the 24th Sunday after Pentecost by referring to Iwo well known homely facts. The mustard seed known to the farmer and the leaven known to the housewife. What a wealth of meaning there is in them the more we examine them!
He was not giving His message to the theologians alone but to the common people in a language they could understand. This because He wanted them to understand and contemplate the great mysteries of the Kingdom.
Too often we try to reduce our religious life to a formula divorced from everyday Ii ving, We discover for ourselves a ritual. a routine we can slip into on certain occasions without it affecting how we live. There are those who live their Catholic lives in a closed compartment which when they enter they leave the world behind them.
It has no affect on their business deals, their conversation. even their outside morality. But the Kingdom of Heaven is an everyday affair not merely like the leaven in the meal hut like the daily bread ii -1
Fr. PASCHAL,
O.F.M. (Cap.)