Page 5 - The Portal magazine - February 2025

THE P RTAL February 2025 Page 5
Snapdragon
Snapdragon
A beginning,

a middle, and an end

HE YEAR 2022 was a very important year for many people because it marked the
Tend of the eleventh and final season of the zombie chiller “The Walking Dead”. Clearly,
it was a very popular series, hence eleven seasons. However, I always had a problem with
this series because the episodes were always very much the same. Let’s face it, zombies don’t
have a lot going for them and they don’t do very much either; they seem to be preoccupied
with shambling about an apocalyptic America, eating the flesh of living people. You never
saw them doing anything else. You never saw any of them talking to each other or doing
watercolours, listening to music or playing football. They were obsessed with the idea of
eating the flesh of living people and naught else.

It was the same for the human beings; they spent which we draw together the various strands of the
the entire whole eleven seasons killing zombies or middle part of the essay, the body of the work and
fleeing from zombies and generally avoiding being we offer this as a conclusion. This seems to me a
eaten. This is in itself laudable enough, but for me perfectly reasonable way of going about things.
didn’t make for compulsive viewing. Yet it went
on for eleven seasons and of course, what always One of the great things about Christianity is that
happens with these long drawn out TV series is that it follows this pattern. It has a beginning, a middle
they keep making them, following the same formula, and an end. It begins with the Book of Genesis; with
until eventually it becomes unpopular, they run out the creation of the world and the creation of man in
of ideas and it just peters out into nothingness. God’s own image and likeness. Then the Bible story
relates how again and again we have rejected God’s
And this is true of all of them. There’s no idea of covenant; rejected his love; and again and again
a goal; they have no “Sense of an Ending”. This is throughout the whole of the Old Testament we have
why it’s great when you turn on Netflix and it has the story of God’s unfailing faithfulness and how he
“limited series”, which means there’s only going to gives us another chance He renews the Covenant; he
be one season as opposed to 11 or 24 or whatever. sends the prophets to remind us of the “story so far”.
You know if it’s a limited series it’s going to have a
beginning and middle and an end; you don’t have to Then we get to the end (or nearly the end!) when
invest a good proportion of your life in watching 83 God reveals the meaning of the whole story. The
seasons of some mindless TV series! disaster of the fall is now reversed. He brings the
whole story together in the glorious end! We are
Now this sense of a beginning, a middle and end “ransomed”, “healed”, “restored”, “forgiven”.
is something with which, at one time, everybody
was familiar. I can remember primary school in the You are invited to join the
days when one had to write essays. We were all told Rosary Fellowship
that a good essay had a beginning, a middle and an
end. Later, in further education, we were told the For full details and an application form
same sort of thing. We should have an introduction, please contact Barry Barnes at:
where we set out our aims; then in the middle we rosaryfellowship@yahoo.com
develop our thesis and then we have an ending in 01328 853015

Unity maters ... continued from page 4

families (I’ve just been reading about John Betjemen’s just join the group in the porch when they emerged!).
real distress when his wife became a Catholic) and
poor management of many things (another childhood In 2025 we can rejoice at a rich Anglican heritage
recollection is of a friend being a bridesmaid at an that has, in some measure, come into full communion
Anglican wedding and being told by a priest that she with the wider Church, and work with goodwill for the
should avoid being in the church for the service, but future. Our poor country needs Christ so badly.