In Need Of Crickets

All this week I discuss “conscience.”  We’ve all heard: “Let your conscience be your guide.”   It’s the part of us that needs to be “formed,” and through good practice and Church teaching based on following Jesus’ way, we hope to be properly “formed” and informed.

I begin with a piece of script those reading this blog likely will remember since the majority of readers probably are in their 60’s and older.  

The Blue Fairy: You must learn to choose between right and wrong.
Pinocchio: Right and wrong? But how will I know?
Jiminy Cricket: [watching] How'll he know!
The Blue Fairy: [to Pinocchio] Your conscience will tell you.
Pinocchio: What's a conscience?
Jiminy Cricket: What's a conscience! I'll tell ya! A conscience is that still small voice that people won't listen to. That's just the trouble with the world today...
Pinocchio: Are you my conscience?
Jiminy Cricket: Who, me? [seeing Pinocchio for the first time] Good piece of wood, too.  Now, you see, the world is full of temptations.
Pinocchio: Temptations?
Jiminy Cricket: Yep, temptations. They're the wrong things that seem right at the time... but... uh... even though the right things may seem wrong sometimes, or sometimes the wrong things...[chuckles] may be right at the wrong time, or visa versa. [clears throat] Understand?
Pinocchio: [Shakes his head] Uh-uh. But I'm gonna do right.
Jiminy Cricket:  Atta boy, Pinoke! And I'm gonna help ya.

We all need a Jiminy Cricket – Pinocchio’s official conscience.   According to the web, “In the 1950s through the 1970s   Jiminy Cricket appeared in four series of educational films aimed at grade-school audiences.   In the I'm No Fool series, he advised children how to steer clear of dangerous traffic, sharp objects, strangers, exposed electrical lines, and so forth. Several of those series were first shown on the Mickey Mouse Club from 1955 through 1959.” 

Yes, how I remember that wooden boy with his nose that grew when he lied.   I had to touch the tip of my nose on occasion to measure its length.

Back then when I was young teenager, I didn’t appreciate the Blue Fairy’s importance.  She was a magical being who fulfilled Geppetto’s wish by transforming Pinocchio into a living being and later into a real boy. She also helped Pinocchio and Jiminy Cricket throughout all their adventures.

None of us rely on a Blue Fairy for help and transformation.  We rely on the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit to transform us into “real” men and women.  Many of us are “wooden” in our approach to relationships.   Our loving threesome give us life and is the Jiminy Cricket in our lives helping us to come alive.

Hear any crickets lately?  That's our conscience - that small voice to which we must listen.

Deacon David Pierce