Let the mask fall; let the pretence stop.
Liberation is orange – the colour of the hi-vis vests that say “Community Payback”. For there is a deep freedom in acknowledging guilt and allowing it to be visible: “I am a sinner” and “I am paying for my sin”. Now the mask can fall and the pretence can stop.
Ironically it is those who impose the sanction, those who say, “let them be humiliated, let them be disgraced” who are trapped, held captive by the mask which they must keep in place at all costs. The mask that says: “I am good. I am a role model. I am worthy of your respect. I am a moral as well as a professional success.” They must pretend at all times that they are worthy to cast the first stone.
Saint Paul’s words are harsh, they exclude, creating a boundary between us and them, putting up a wall that must be breached, demanding a tariff that must be paid: “God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ Jesus died for us.” For just as Jesus told the crowd that he came to be the doctor for the sick, so Paul tells us that Christ died for sinners – for those who wear orange.
So my friends, wear the orange with pride, you know who you are.
Tony Hebden
written as a thanks to the lads who are working in the churchyard and who allow me to wear the orange.
