WOLVES IN SHEEP’S CLOTHING
«The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination; how much more when he brings it with wicked intent!» (Proverbs 21:27).
EDUCATION
Jorge Mario attended religious educational institutions in Bolivia and Peru throughout his childhood. However, something happened to him at the age of twelve, when at the end of a school year, he had to go and pick up his report card from school. Suddenly, brother Leoncio, an old man with a reputation as a crank, appeared, but on that morning, he appeared quite cheerful. He asked him to accompany him because he wanted to show him something. He led him to the top floor of the school, where the clergymen’s rooms were. Both entered the dormitory of the clergy, who opened the door of his closet and took out a magazine with naked women in it. The young man felt a great shame and surprise. The old man smiled and asked if he was familiar with this kind of material. The boy shook his head as he looked at him with distrust. But when the man tried to touch him, Jorge Mario began to shout: «Let me go! Let me go!» and ran away. Gradually, he ceased to be interested in God and religion. A couple of years later, he confessed: «I do not believe in God, I am an atheist.»
That young man became the famous writer Mario Vargas Llosa, the Nobel Prize of Literature winner of the year 2010. On the subject of religion, he wrote many years later: «Religious education that isn’t secular, objective, and responsible . is essential if we want to prevent culture from degenerating at the pace it is doing, and to avoid the future world from consisting of functional illiterates and ignorant and insensitive specialists.» —Mario Vargas Llosa, La civilizaciön del espectåculo [The spectable civilization], México: Alfaguara, 2012, p. 185.
A school is a place of protection and training, never a criminal’s lair to hurt children. But sometimes there is a wolf in sheep’s clothing waiting to do harm. An attack of this nature can destroy a person’s childhood and spiritual life. But even in those circumstances, the heavenly Father can help us overcome any situation. Thanks to Him, «you would forget your misery, and remember it as waters that have passed away» (Job 11:16). Life has so much more to offer us. Sadness does not have to seize us, as the psalmist said: «You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; You have put off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness» (Psalm 30:11).
Today ask the Lord to help you overcome any negative experience you have had at school and to fill your life with satisfaction.
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Take From: Daily Devotions for Youth 2020
«A New You»
From: Alejandro Medina Villareal
Collaborators: Gezer Noria & Misael Morillo