Bless the Beasts and the Children

“For freedom Christ set us free; so stand firm and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery.” (Gal. 5:1).


My wife works for the media giant, Comcast, so we have literally hundreds of channels of television programming and music stations in at least ten different languages streaming into our home.

Spoiled by this embarrassment of riches, our daughters would certainly die if they had to go back to the programming we had in our homes as children. Clicking around the dial yielded only five snowy channels: the ABC, CBS and NBC affiliates and two local stations, channels 56 and 38.

Home games of the Bruins and Red Sox were telecast on channel 38 while Brady Bunch and Star Trek reruns kept us tuned into channel 56.

At a time when, before the invention of the VCR, there were no movie rentals, both stations competed to offer the best films.

Unfortunately, just as there was a paucity of TV stations, there were only a few movies broadcast in what seemed like a continuous loop. Such titles as “Play Misty for Me”, “A Man Called Horse”, “Rosemary’s Baby” and “Tora, Tora, Tora” were the weekly fare. Like old Gilligan’s Island and Hogan’s Heroes episodes, it wasn’t long before we committed every line to memory. But, with no other choices, we continued to watch as if, by some miracle,the ending might change.

One particularly poignant movie we were treated to once a month was the classic, “Bless the Beasts and the Children”. A coming of age tale, it features a bunch of misfits who have to endure a gauntlet of adolescent humiliations during their first year of summer camp including being doused with a bucket of urine.

The plot turns, however, when they are taken to a corral where buffalo are rounded up and shot for sport by hunters. The kids are horrified as they watch the beasts being mercilessly slaughtered. So they decide to escape from the camp and release the buffalo from their enclosure, liberating them from otherwise certain death.

After stealing a truck and facing much misadventure along the way, the boys finally arrive at the corral. They throw open the gates expecting the buffalo to stampede into the countryside reveling in their new freedom. However, the animals simply hoof over to the other part of the fence and continue grazing. They are just too dumb to realize that they have been saved and too content in their captivity to flee.

The boys try shooting in the air to get them to run along, but to no effect. Finally, one of the boys drives the truck at them to get them to stampede. However, the hunters who arrive on the scene shoot at the truck, killing the young driver.

In this past Sunday’s second reading (13th Sunday of Ordinary Time), Saint Paul writes: “For freedom Christ set us free; so stand firm and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery” (Gal. 5:1). Through his death and resurrection, Jesus has freed us from sin opening wide the gates which enclosed us in despair. However, like the buffalo, we are content to graze on the hillside blissfully ignorant of the danger we are in. We find ourselves trapped in patterns of sinfulness because we haven’t grabbed hold of the freedom we have as sons and daughters of God. We would rather live as beasts burdened by sin rather than as free children of God feasting in the pastures of grace.

So what are we to do? How can we lay claim to the freedom which is ours through baptism?

First of all, we have to recognize that we are in danger. Sin is nothing to trifle with. It distances us from God, damages our relationships, makes our hearts grow cold and kills the life of our soul. “The wages of sin are death.” Every sin is punished in some way, so we should fear it and flee from it at every opportunity. We cannot afford to live oblivious to the price sin exacts from our soul or the danger it poses to our well-being.

Secondly, we have to stop trying to rely on our own will-power and self-control and start drawing on the power of Christ. Saint Paul explains that, through baptism, Christ is now living within us. The Risen Lord, victor over sin and death, has made his home within us. If so, it is by his power that we will resist temptation, not by our own. We can face sin confidently knowing that Jesus is our strength.

Finally, we need to begin every day renewing our baptismal vows:

I reject sin so as to live in the freedom of God’s children.
I reject the glamor of evil, and refuse to be mastered by sin.
I reject Satan, father of sin and prince of darkness.
I believe in God, the Father Almighty....
I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord...
I believe in the Holy Spirit....

It was in the waters of baptism that our sinful self was drowned and our free self emerged. By recalling our baptismal vows daily, we keep in mind that we are no longer slaves of sin and can lay claim to the freedom Christ won for us.

Like many of the movies from the seventies, forty years later, “Bless the Beasts and the Children” seems corny and stale. But its central message - how comfortable we can become in our captivity - is ever true. For Christians, it is a message worth repeating if we are to become effective witnesses to the power of the gospel and to live in the freedom Christ won for us.