Every year we take our Grade 11 students on an academic tour to Johannesburg. Part of the tour is a visit to the Constitutional Court. It is built on the site of the Old Fort which was a notorious prison. Prisoners of conscience such as Nelson Mandela, Joe Slovo, Mahatma Gandhi, Fatima Meer and Albertina Sisulu were held there under brutal conditions. The court, which is tasked with protecting and upholding South Africa’s constitution, includes bricks from the Old Fort; the stones of oppression are now literally part of the mountain of liberation. On the great wooden doors of the court are carved the human rights that underpin the constitution.
For me, visiting the court is almost a holy privilege. It is a physical reminder that darkness will be conquered by light. The political prisoners once held there were like John the Baptist in today’s Gospel who told the people, being oppressed by Rome and their stooge Herod, that freedom was at hand and that soon all would be well.
Our last visit to the precinct coincided with that of a tour group from a primary school in Soweto. There were hundreds of children, ranging from 6-year-olds to young adolescents, all united in noisy excitement. I chatted to one of their teachers who told me that they bring them so that they can witness for themselves that hate can be defeated. Watching their joyful exuberance, I was filled with peace and hope for our future in the secure knowledge that, as the psalmist sang, our Creator has indeed done great things for us.
It would appear that our planet and its people are currently in peril. Yet, in this time of Advent, we are reminded that we are a community of hope who follow a God that stepped out of timelessness into time, who lived as a part of a people who suffered under the scourge of occupation, who promised and delivered liberation and who made eternally true the words of Baruch that God is leading with mercy and justice for company.
Paul Venter
