Ringing the Angelus bell to remind us never to look the other way

TWO PEASANTS, their heads bowed in prayer, is the focus of The Angelus, a work by the French painter Jean-Francois Millet.

He would have witnessed many such moments in the fields near the village of Barbizon where he lived. The Angelus prayer, said at 6am, 12 noon and again at 6pm, is associated with Catholic, Anglican and Lutheran denominations.

The incipit text, “The Angel of the LORD declared unto Mary”, refers to the angel Gabriel who told the young jewess Mariam that she would be the mother of the Son of God, Jesus. It’s a prayer about God’s great love for humanity who, paraphrasing Athanasius, the bishop of Alexandria, became human so that we might become divine. The daily ringing of the Angelus bell is a reminder of this blessing and a call to our better nature.

This past week, God’s presence was incarnate in the young women and men of the Fees Must Fall movement. They audaciously bore the hope of the poor and the weight of our collective neglect to the very doors of Parliament. Some of these young ones were threatened with being charged with high treason.

Even as they sang the national anthem – our sacred hymn which seeks God’s blessing on us, our land and continent – stun grenades were thrown at them. They scattered and ran through the pink-hazed plumes of tear-gas smoke. They regrouped seemingly more determined, some perhaps blooded on their first, uncertain step on to the path of justice.

Some had stood with their arms held up and crossed at the wrist, a sign of their peaceful intent. The delinquents and the opportunistic fellow-travellers of marches into the city should not blind us to what is unfolding before our eyes.

These young people are the sentinels of a neglected truth, testifying to what Arundhati Roy, the Indian writer and human rights activist, calls us: To be vigilant, to seek understanding, which is often the mother of empathy, and “To never look away. And never, never to forget”.

Will the tenacious commitment of the students and their families, the academic staff and workers of our places of learning across the land rouse us from our political babalas?

We have indulged in the reasonable hope that an illuminati of wise elders would somehow call the delinquent bearers of our liberation mantle to order. It ain’t gonna happen, baby. St George’s Cathedral will ring the Angelus bells throughout the week from Monday to Friday.

We will gather on the cathedral steps on Wale Street. Our prayers, prefaced by the Angelus, will always be for Africa and all humanity and, in these days, in solidarity with #Fees Must Fall. On Thursdays the focus is on peace and justice in Palestine-Israel. Our belief is that “Another world is not only possible, she is on her way”, and as Ms Roy testifies, “Maybe many of us won't be here to greet her, but on a quiet day, if I listen very carefully, I can hear her breathing”.