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Interfaith Learning

24/9/2023

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 I have been invited to take part in the monthly faith to faith dialogue organised by Interfaith Glasgow and St Mungo’s Museum of Religious Life and Art. The dialogue will focus on how positive and fruitful interfaith dialogue can enrich one’s own faith and spiritual journey. It’s one that I look forward to. There’s still a suspicion and fear amongst some people of faith that interfaith dialogue will somehow compromise or threaten their own beliefs and practices. For me this has not been the case. I can honestly say that my own faith and spirituality have been enriched and transformed by my work in interreligious dialogue and my contact and friendship with people of other faiths.
 
My interfaith journey began when I studied world faiths at Lancaster university, met and talked with people of other faiths for the first time in my life and then went on to teach world religions as part of my job in preparing students to teach religious education in Catholic schools at a time when the RE syllabus had moved from being focussed on Christianity to include world religions. This meant trying to give students an insight into the faith of others by explaining some of their beliefs, introducing students to their scriptures, visiting places of worship and encouraging the students to engage in dialogue by visiting the International Flat and taking part in meetings of the Glasgow Sharing of Faiths. To give the students an insight into the wisdom and beauty of a faith I tried to teach it with appreciation and respect, from the ‘inside’ so to speak. Just as a stained-glass window can look quite dull from outside a building but different when seen from inside with the sun lighting up the diverse colours so too another faith can, I would suggest, only be appreciated when we have crossed over, tried to stand in the shoes of another and view it and the world from their perspective. John Dunne, a catholic theologian, sees the work of interreligious dialogue as a crossing over into the world of another and coming back to our own to see it with new eyes. It is this crossing over that brings about a transformation in faith and change of perspective. And along the way I have made many interfaith friends which I greatly value and for which I am very grateful.   
 
So, what have I learned?  I’ve seen my faith from the perspective of another and realised something of its exclusive and oppressive aspects. I was brought up to believe that there was only one truth and that was to be found in the Catholic Church. How wrong we were to think that we were the only way to truth and salvation and that others lived in ignorance of that truth. I have come to recognise, appreciate, and be inspired by the wisdom and truth that I have discovered in other faiths. So too I am glad to say has the Catholic Church. I also appreciate the diversity to be found within faiths. For me this is what makes interfaith relations interesting and challenging because it is very easy sometimes to think that when we use the same words eg God or even religion we mean the same thing. We can’t take that for granted. This is where real face to face dialogue happens and it can’t be done quickly. Recently Interfaith Glasgow in partnership with the Council of Christians and Jews produced a report on Difficult Dialogues. It recorded a dialogue that took place over several years, longer than intended because of Covid. I was privileged to be part of that and it was one of the best experiences I’ve had of dialogue because we really listened to one another and honestly shared our common understanding of shared concepts. It also brought out that there is a variety of understandings of people from within one faith and it’s important not to generalise that what one person believes and thinks is necessarily indicative of what everyone within the faith believes. Interfaith dialogue is a face to face, person to person activity.
 
Getting to know another faith, experiencing its hospitality and visiting its place of worship is to recognise the sacredness of all faiths. When we encounter a person of another faith we are standing on holy ground, we’re encountering the sacred, the divine in that person and in that tradition. It is indeed a privilege. And sometimes it’s to recognise that another faith might do some things better than our own or its scriptures and teaching lead us to reflect and gain a new insight into our own faith. Krister Stendhal- Ras when he was at Harvard coined the phrase holy envy in urging believers to find beauty in other faiths and there are many things that I admire and could be envious of. But I’ve also come to realise that there are both liberating and oppressive aspects in all faiths and that in interfaith relations it’s important to compare like with like. It’s easy sometimes to compare the best of our own religion with the worst of another or even the worst of our own with the best of another. There is good and bad religion.
 
Perhaps above all else my interfaith journey has led me to realise that I am a member of a much wider community than my own. I feel in my being that we believers make up a vast community of people who are striving to live a good life and desire the welfare of all sentient beings as well as our planet. I believe that when we each in our own way commit our lives, perhaps our day to following what we believe to be right together we generate a great energy for good, something Christians would call the Kingdom of God, which while hidden is still powerful. Together we are sowing seeds that we hope will grow and flourish, we are in the words attributed to Archbishop Romero prophets of a future not our own.
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Parliament of World Religions

1/9/2023

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​  The 9th Parliament of World Religions was held in Chicago from 14th - 18th August this year.  The website claims that 7,000 people attended with participants coming from 95 countries, representing 210+ traditions which is quite something. The theme for the event was The Call to Conscience, celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Parliament’s foundational document which was originally drawn up by Hans Kung called Towards a Global Ethic and accepted at the Parliament of 1993.

The Parliament of 1993 had been called to commemorate the original Parliament of World Religions which had taken place in Chicago in 1893 as part of the Chicago’s World Fair. It was the first major coming together of Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, Jews, Protestants, Catholics, Unitarians, and adherents of the Shinto and Zoroastrian traditions in modern history. At the opening session the chairman declared “
   “We are met together today as men, children of one God. We are not here as Baptists and Buddhists, Catholics and            Confucians, Parsees and Presbyterians, Methodists and Moslems; we are here as members of a Parliament of Religions,     over which flies no sectarian flag.”
 The star of the show was Swami Vivekananda who got a standing ovation after his presentation on Hinduism. For the first time people of the west were introduced to the message of religions such as Buddhism and Hinduism and responded well to Vivekananda’s call for an end to “sectarianism, bigotry, and its horrible descen­dant, fanaticism…. and all uncharitable feelings between persons wending their way to the same goal”.
 
One hundred years later there was a reconvening of the Parliament in Chicago at which the Global Ethic document was presented and accepted after several years of consultation. I was involved in interfaith relations at that time and remember well the discussions beforehand of the document. Our Glasgow interfaith group spent many a meeting looking at it and discussing it. I wasn’t present at the Parliament but was able to go to an offshoot of it in Bangalore in India – chosen because India was much more attractive than Chicago.  It was an interesting event, and the various workshops and presentations must have taken a lot of organising, but my memory is that it was a bit of a jamboree with nuggets of wisdom and insight among some rather odd events and organisations. It did rather put me off such events. However, the Global Ethic was certainly to the forefront and for some time afterwards was promoted by interfaith groups, academics, and others as an important vision for faiths working together for a renewed future. We had a major interfaith conference here in Glasgow and brought Hans Kung’s exhibition on religions’ response to the Global ethic to Scotland.  The ethic was based on two foundational principles – the Golden Rule, common to all faiths and spiritual traditions and the need to treat people humanely. These were elaborated in a commitment to a culture of non-violence and respect for life; a commitment to a culture of solidarity and a just economic order; a commitment to a culture of tolerance and a life of truthfulness and a commitment to a culture of equal rights and partnership between men and women.

It’s good that the Global Ethic was resurrected at this year’s Parliament but now to be considered side by side with the Earth Charter, the second landmark statement on global ethics and a vital one for our contemporary world. Both documents are said to “offer a rigorous ethical critique of the current world crisis and its root causes – as well as a vision of hope for the future. Both prioritize human dignity, equality, and reciprocity, as well as care for the Earth”.  During the Parliament leaders from Muslim, Hindu, Jewish, Sikh, Jain, Buddhist and Christian communities held a climate repentance ceremony and read 10 spiritual practices for addressing climate change. Among them: "We must care for each other and the planet, deepening our efforts to bring about a change of heart among members of our traditions in the way we relate to the Earth and to other people.

This is not the first such statement from religious leaders. In 2021 ahead of the United Nations climate change conference in Glasgow, COP26, nearly 40 heads of major religions, including Pope Francis, issued an unprecedented call for governments to cut greenhouse gas emissions. And during that Cop meeting the religious leaders of Scotland publicly declared their commitment to working together for the future of the earth.  A lot of talk which needs action. Perhaps those who attended this year’s Parliament of World Religions could be a catalyst for a renewed study of both the Global Ethic and the Earth Chapter and the drawing up of a plan of action to be carried out by faith communities and interfaith groups. This could be the Parliament’s legacy.

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Growing Old

16/8/2023

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Something on the BBC website yesterday caught my eye. It was a reference to a video of someone who spends a lot of money and energy on trying to reverse the ageing process. The person concerned is Bryan Johnson, a wealthy venture capitalist who describes himself as a professional rejuvenation athlete. He is 45 years of age but wants his body to act and look 18 again. To do this he has 2 dozen morning supplements, a strict daily regime which includes intense exercise and daily monitoring of the health of his skin, heart and other organs. To do this he employs 30 doctors and it all costs 2 million dollars a year. He sees this as a contribution to the future health of humanity and an example of a regime that will allow people to live healthily for longer. He looks young but I’m not sure I liked his look. It was rather doll like, no lines, a bit like the trend in makeup which, to my mind, makes people look as though they are wearing a mask. I like a face that looks lived in.  

If we were all to look like that it would be like living in Barbie Land as depicted in the latest blockbuster movie “Barbie”. The film is about the plastic dolls of that name which were popular in the 1960. Surprisingly it has captured the imagination of some theological commentators. It’s amusing, well-acted and has a serious message – about feminism and patriarchy but also about what it means to be human.  

Life in Barbie Land is rather perfect, no ageing or dying. All, no matter what their size, shape or colour are between 15 and 35 years old and even those with disabilities are “in the pink of health”.  But one day stereotypical Barbie asks a question about death, to the shock and consternation of the rest. The real world is breaking through. Barbie has cellulite and her arched foot which fits comfortably into her high heels has fallen and is flat. There is a tear in Barbie Land caused by someone who has played with Barbie in a fearful and angry way and the tear can only be healed by Barbie going into the world and helping this individual. In this sense Barbie become a saviour figure. The real world is not at all what she expects, and she must struggle against patriarchy to save the person who is disturbing the perfection of Barbie Land and who turns out to be an adult, not a child as Barbie had anticipated.

There is one scene in the film that relates to our theme. Barbie sits on a bench beside an old woman. Like the Buddha when he emerged from seclusion this was her first experience of old age but unlike the Buddha, she doesn’t want to escape from it. Rather she tells the woman that she is beautiful, and, in the end, Barbie chooses real life with all its imperfections rather than the perfect unreality of Barbie Land. Perhaps this scene touched me because I will soon celebrate a significant birthday, one which sets me firmly within the realm of old age. It’s a sobering thought to be entering a decade in which statistically I’m likely to die. Life, old age, and death have, not surprisingly, been on my mind. I’m glad to be old and see old age as a gift with its own challenges and possibilities.  I’ve had a good life which has had its joys and sorrows, its elation and heart break, its successes and failures, its struggles and periods of calm, all of which has been a gift and helped me become the person I am. Would I have wanted it any other way? Certainly not. It’s the highs and lows that give life its sense of adventure and challenge us all to discover what it means to be human. Much better than wanting to be young forever.
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For me this adventure has been lived within the context of religious life which has drastically changed over the 50 years or so I’ve been a member. The old institutional aspects have gone- a strict regime, a uniform dress, large convents and to the outsider it might seem as though my life is not much different from any single woman. But I still live my life within the context of three vows – poverty which means that I own nothing of my own but share all with my community; obedience which means discerning how I might serve other people and chastity which means that the focus of my commitment is to that Reality which is the Source of Life and Love and which we might call God. Religious Life is a journey that has given me much and taught me much. There has been the opportunity of companionship with some amazing, strong and committed women; sisters who have supported me and hopefully whom I have supported as we shared space and time for reflection and discernment as well as holidays and recreation; retreats that have given me opportunities to explore my inner self and face up to the contradictions, emotions, motivations that lie behind the veil of my ego; training in prayer and mindfulness; courses and educational opportunities  that have challenged my presuppositions; a ministry in teaching and interfaith relations that has given me a sense of purpose and a sense of contributing to the Kingdom of God. And in all this meeting, working with and walking with some marvellous men and women who have inspired and encouraged me throughout this journey. And the journey will go on – there is more to learn, more to experience, more to discover – even in old age. I cannot but think that Bryan Johnson will have a very impoverished life if he doesn’t embrace it in all its fullness. Maturing in mind, body and spirit is a great adventure.   


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Global Burning

1/8/2023

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This last week Antonio Guterres, the United Nations Secretary General declared that the era of global warming had ended, and the era of global boiling had arrived. We don’t need to be convinced of this for we can see it with our own eyes.  Extreme heat and wildfires in Greece and North America, extreme monsoons and terrible flooding in the Indian Sub-continent, droughts and floods in Africa, the melting of ice and snow in polar regions are now part of our daily dose of news and viewed on our television sets. It is terrifying as Guterres said but he also said it is “still possible to limit global temperature rise to 1.5C (above pre-industrial levels) and avoid the very worst of climate change. But only with dramatic, immediate climate action. The air is unbreathable, the heat is unbearable, and the level of fossil fuel profits and climate inaction is unacceptable. Leaders must lead. No more hesitancy, no more excuses, no more waiting for others to move first. There is simply no more time for that.”

Strong words from the Secretary General of the United Nations – will they be heeded? Well, in one sense they probably will be.  There will be much talking about ‘climate boiling’ at the next COP due to take place in Saudi Arabia in November of this year, but this is the 28th climate change conference and in the previous 27 conferences leaders have promised to take steps to tackle climate change. In Glasgow in 1921 leaders resolved to cut greenhouse gas emissions and phase out government subsidies for fossil fuels while accelerating the deployment of clean energy. Britain prided itself at being at the front of this. Yet the British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak has announced plans to grant "hundreds" of new licences to drill for oil and gas in the North Sea off the coast of Scotland, declaring it to be “entirely consistent" with the government's net zero goals. He sees these as being reached by 2050 but how much hotter will the earth have become by then? For politicians winning elections, pleasing the public by focussing on the cost of living seems to be more important than caring for the environment. The present British Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, recently objected to extinction rebellion demonstrators who inconvenienced motorists and commuters as being inhuman (on this occasion it so happened one of the motorists was a mother taking a child to hospital which was unfortunate) and yet she has been responsible for a law to send asylum seekers to Rwanda on a one way ticket even though it has been acknowledged by the Court of Appeal as illegal.   

Joanna Macy would describe this as Business as Usual. And we are all guilty of that to a certain extent. One of the consequences of Covid was that we realised the joy of clean air and the sound of birds singing but no sooner was the danger over than we were on our planes, back in our cars, consuming meat as we did before even though we recognised the contribution of these things to global warming.  And if we focus on Business as Usual, we are likely to contribute to what Joanna calls the Great Unravelling. We would need to be blind and deaf to be unaware of this happening to our world. What Joanna would call us to is the Great Transformation. Sometimes it is difficult to believe this is possible and yet without it we are doomed as a species. Without it I feel there is very little hope for our world. But there is evidence of the Great Transformation. 

Because of the internet I have been able to link in to some of the movements that are around at the moment and reveal an energy for transformation that is often hidden – the Work that Reconnects which is based on Joanna Macey’s approach to the environment, the Deep Transformation Network set up by Jeremy Lent which offers opportunities for people to link with other climate activists and hear about the marvellous work happening all over the world, the Shift Network which advertises the work of Brian Swimme and Matthew Fox, the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology – and there will be more. This is like a great underground river of concern and love for the environment, which is growing and developing, bringing about a change in perspective and on which we can draw for energy when things appear hopeless. Christians might call this the Kingdom of God and Tibetan Buddhists the Kingdom of Shambala. We can all join in promoting it in whatever small way we can. It’s a great movement for good that can give us energy and hope if only we have the eyes to see it and the desire to promote it.   

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The Universe is a Green Dragon

15/7/2023

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 It’s quite usual at this time of year for magazines to invite friends and contributors to suggest some summer reading. For the past few years, I have been invited to do this by the editor of the Scottish Catholic journal, Open House.  Normally I have suggested a novel but this year I chose something a bit more serious. (I’m not suggesting of course that novels aren’t serious). The book I chose was
 
The Universe is a Green Dragon, A Cosmic Creation Story by Brian Swimme and published by Bear and Company Publishing in 2001. I must have read it about five times, on my own and with others who have found it as inspiring as I do. I suggested it would be a very suitable read over summer on what we hope might be long days of sunshine on beach, countryside, or garden. It’s a short book, only 170 pages long but filled with an understanding of the story of the universe that I feel is sure to set hearts on fire. 
     
Brian Swimme is a cosmologist with the soul of a mystic and poet so that a book that sets out the powers at the heart of the universe of which we are all a part is never dull or for that matter academic. Rather it gives us an insight into this universe and our own place within it, making sense for me anyway of much traditional theology and the God who is beyond explanations and anthropomorphisms. It is written in the form of a dialogue between Thomas, named in honour of Thomas Berry, the Redemptorist theologian or geologian as he liked to call himself, who believed that religion must now  reinterpret itself in the light of the story of the universe and Youth who while representing humanity reminds us that “the human species is the youngest, freshest, most immature, newest species of all the advanced life forms in the planet.”

Brian Swimme claims to be an unbeliever and yet he is in awe at the wonders of the universe, is responding in love to what he calls the Ultimate Mystery from which all beings emerge, the Divinity of Being, the Life that is beyond life. He wrote the book in response to a challenge from Thomas Berry who asked him to tell the story of the universe “but tell it with a feel for its music.” He does this magnificently. To read this book is to be fascinated by our universe and take a “step into a wild love affair” with life.  It is the kind of book that I wish I could eat so that I could digest its content and language and so make it part of me.  It’s a book I would want everyone to read, especially those involved in environmental issues. I have been to many events about the environment and climate change. Often the content is overpowering and too many facts to take in and the approach is what I would call a ‘fix it’ one. I’ve given up going to ‘fix it’ talks and yet I know that concern for the environment is crucial and that human beings seem to be on a crash course with the universe. Covid seemed to give us the opportunity to reconsider how we related to our environment and yet once the danger was passed, we returned to business as usual, seemingly using the earth’s resources unthinkingly, flying all over the world, talking of progress as though resources are unlimited.

We do need to care for the earth but I feel we will only do that when we fall in love with life, when we understand our part in the great evolution of being, when we understand that our origins go back to that moment of creative activity which we might call the Big Bang and that each of us has been given form at this point in history to, in the words of Brian Swimme,
               
​                provide the earth with her heart and mind
               feel the stupendous beauty and grandeur of the universe
               awaken the earth to its own beauty power and future possibilities
               discover the meaning and significance of ordinary things
               embrace the creative potential poured into us by the universe
 
 Can we do this?  What if we could recite the Song of the Universe each morning and before every meeting re the environment?  What if we declared our place within the whole evolutionary journey and expressed our desire to live for the well–being of all?  Would this not help each of us make our own unique, authentic contribution to this great adventure of life and contribute to the awesome work of fashioning the future of our planet? And would the cosmos not be the better for it?

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Hospitality of the Heart

1/7/2023

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I was invited recently to contribute to a dialogue about hospitality. I was to be the Christian speaker. I wasn’t too sure where to begin because hospitality is something that is human and not specifically religious. It’s a very human thing to welcome friends and family into our homes to share food and drink. It’s these get togethers that deepen friendships and relationships, that give us a sense of family and community identity. I always feel it’s a real privilege to be invited into someone’s home as well as into the world of other faiths when celebrating events and festivals.

The word hospitality is connected to the latin word ‘hospes’ which can mean a guest or a host so there are two ways to experience hospitality. As a host we invite and welcome others into our lives, either our home or our community, or even nation as is the case with immigrants or refugees. As a guest we receive hospitality and enter the world of another which never feels quite like home.

The Letter to the Hebrews 13:2 says, “do not neglect to show hospitality to the stranger for by doing so some have entertained angels without knowing it”. This is likely to be a reference to stories such as that of Abraham in the Book of Genesis when he welcomes three strangers into his tent who turn out to be angels. These stories are not unusual in religion – there are many stories told in different religions where an unexpected visitor is a messenger from God or even God.  Paul’s letter to the Romans 12:13-14 tells us  what extending hospitality to strangers is about –“rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep, live in harmony with one another”.

Pope Francis often speaks of harmony and fraternity. He believes that listening is an essential part of hospitality. It is only by listening, he says, that we can respect the personhood of guests and know something of their history, their concerns and beliefs.  Only then will a person feel at home, and we will recognise the spiritual gifts they have to offer us.  What the Pope calls for is the cultivation of a hospitable heart which he believes is essential for interreligious dialogue and for world peace.  In April this year he told a delegation of Buddhist monks “let us continue to work together to cultivate compassion and hospitality for all human beings, especially the poor and the marginalised.” During a recent visit to Iraq, he said “The journey to peace begins with the decision to have no enemies.  “There will be no peace as long as we see others as them and not us.” 

This separating humanity into them and us is obvious in the wars and conflicts throughout the world as well as in attitudes to people of different race, gender, sexual orientation, religions. It can also be seen in tensions within our faith communities where one denomination can often be suspicious of the other.  This came to the fore in a recent series of programmes on British television about the troubles in Northern Ireland. People simply told their stories, about their experience of the conflict and  the hatred between Catholics and protestants which  eventually gave way to a desire for a peace that turned enemies into friends. This was the case with Martin McGuiness who served alongside his once upon a time enemy Ian Paisley as deputy first minister of North Ireland.  One-time enemies they worked together and found they shared a sense of humour so that they were known as the ‘chuckle brothers’ – something that was very unexpected. At Martin McGuiness’ funeral President Bill Clinton spoke movingly of how he had reduced the ‘them’ and widened the ‘us.  The situation in Northern Ireland, while not perfect, is both an encouragement that such a change is possible and an inspiration to make this a focus for our work of interreligious dialogue. It shows that hospitality of the heart can make strangers (and even enemies) into brothers and sisters. Nowadays we would want to expand this beyond the human of course to include all sentient beings and the very planet on which we all live and depend on for life.   

In Matthew’s gospel chapter 25 Christians are told that it is not religion that will save us but how we treat one another. This is the yardstick for our relationship with God. What we need is a heart as wide as the world. It is surely this that will save the world and redeem it from the zenophobia, hate and suspicion that keeps us apart and ignites so much violence and conflict in our world.  


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A Sacred Heart

17/6/2023

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Yesterday Friday June 16th the Catholic Church celebrates the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.  The feast goes back as far as the 17th century in France where it captured the imagination of the French Bishops who over the years requested that it be given global recognition. This happened in 1856 when Pope Pius IX established the feast as obligatory for the whole western Church. Unlike other feasts it does not remember events in the life of Jesus or the early Church but is based on the private revelations of a nun, now canonised, St Margaret Mary Alacoque, who had visions of the heart of Jesus as a symbol of God’s love for all. The ikon or picture associated with the feast is of Jesus – white, long hair and beard pointing to his heart which is outside his body and sometimes in his hand. The heart has tongues of fire coming from it and a crown of thorns surrounding it. When I was growing up most Catholic homes, if not all, would have a picture of the Sacred Heart in their living room. I remember the one in my family home. It was one of those pictures where the eyes moved as you passed in front of it. We thought this a bit spooky. 

We took all this for granted. We grew up with the devotion and were exposed to pictures and statues of the Sacred Heart so that they just became part of our religious background.  We were not taught to read them as symbolic or to reflect on what they might mean apart from showing that God loves us and was willing to die for us.  Some people even thought they were indications of what Jesus looked like. I once had a class of students who were amused by pictures of Hindu deities because they had multiple arms and when I asked them to tell me what people would think if they looked at a picture of the Sacred Heart, they replied they would think Jesus was an ordinary man – really? With a heart outside his body? One of the things that interreligious dialogue can do is to teach us a lot about our own faith and in this case help us interpret the symbolism of this devotion and see it for what it is – a finger pointing to a reality beyond itself, just as pictures of the Hindu deities do.

I have recently been rereading Adyashanti’s book ‘Resurrecting Jesus’ in which he mentions the Sacred Heart. Adyashanti is a Zen Buddhist teacher who acknowledges that although he is a Zen Buddhist that the Christian transmission has informed his spiritual path and life. For Adyashanti Jesus is a revolutionary mystic and he sees the heart of Jesus as “radiating forgiveness to all of humanity” and “one of the most potent symbols of the whole Christian spiritual tradition. It’s Jesus’ greatest gift, the most powerful healing balm that exists.” Adyashanti’s approach to the story of Jesus is to so enter into it that we become the story and if we can do this then we can “resurrect it from all the old ways it has been presented to us by those who seek to control us more than set us free as Jesus had intended it to do.”  This is not a new approach to the story of Jesus. As someone brought up on Ignatian spirituality and encouraged in retreats to pray the scriptures and enter into the stories in an imaginative way I do know the experience of realising that the scriptures are my story and tell me something of myself as much as Jesus.  This is also true for ikons so favoured by the Eastern Orthodox Church but also used within the Western Church. The approach to these stylised paintings of Jesus, his mother Mary or saints is to read and contemplate them so that the reality to which they point is revealed and their invitation to how we should respond becomes clear.   
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The pictures of the Sacred Heart are popularly rather sentimental without the artistic quality of ikons so it is rather easy to dismiss them and catholic homes no longer display them in the way they did in these post- Vatican II days. But Adyashanti’s book shows that the image reveals something important about Jesus and about us.  The Sacred Heart shows us that Jesus was a man, wholly human, through whom the transcendent shone and who shows us the divine in human form. Here is a man with a heart on fire with love for humanity, a love which is ready to suffer for others. There is no separation between the human and the divine so that to embrace our humanity and all that is involved in living out our lives is to touch divinity, to touch God. Adyashanti suggests that if we surrender back into life whatever it throws at us then we are like Jesus. Whatever we can say about Jesus can be said about us. So, a text such as John 3:16 which says that God so loved the world that he sent his Son to redeem the world can be applied to us. The question for each of us is ‘can I so love the world that I pour myself into it as a loving sacrifice in order to redeem everything that was hurt, in pain and confused about my own incarnation?’.  This, suggests Adyashanti, is the way of engaged realisation as compared to the way of transcendent realisation of the Buddha. It is freedom which is found in a deep engagement with the world, a gift to all. And it is to be found in the Sacred Heart of Jesus if only we have the eyes to see and understand it.  


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Pentecost and Shavuot

28/5/2023

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 This weekend two important festivals take place – Shavuot in the Jewish community and Pentecost in the Christian community. They are linked to the two major festivals of Pesach and Easter that were celebrated just 50 days ago. Like all else in our faiths these two festivals are linked but also show the distinctiveness in the two traditions.  Because Jesus was a Jew and the important Christian festivals remembering his life and death take place at times of significant Jewish festivals it’s not easy for Christians to celebrate them without some kind of reference to Judaism. Jews on the other hand have no need to refer to Christianity when they celebrate these festivals as Christianity is seen as having broken faith with its roots and developed in a totally different way from post- biblical Judaism.   
  
  Originally a harvest festival, Shavuot focuses on the Torah and remembers the giving of the Law to Moses on Mt Sinai. Religious Jews will spend the night studying Torah, the synagogue will be decorated with flowers and there might even be a marriage canopy built around the Bimah as a symbol of the marriage between God and the People that took place when they accepted to live in a covenantal relationship with God. This happened 50 days after the Exodus from Egypt and there is a strong link between Pesach and Shavuot. Pesach was the moment of liberation when a group of slaves left Egypt to spend time wandering in the desert to finally become a people when they accepted God’s Law given to Moses on Sinai and committed to it as their way of life. The days in between Pesach (at least the second day of Pesach) until Shavuot are called the counting of Omer which parallels the wandering of the Israelites in the desert. Counting the Omer is the practice of marking the 49-day journey from Passover to Shavuot by saying a daily blessing and identifying each specific day according to its number. It has been described as a time of reflection to remember that process of moving from slavery to liberation and how that very liberation is only fulfilled after the Israelites became a people when they took on responsibility for their own Law at Sinai. 

While the Jewish community has been counting the days of Omer Christians have been reflecting on the effect of the resurrection of Jesus on his disciples and his community. In church services and liturgies, the resurrection stories have been retold as have the stories of the early days of Christianity (not called that of course) when the apostles tried to share the good news of Jesus’ resurrection and how people responded. It gives an insight into an early community that has been brought together by a profound experience of being in a post-death relationship with Jesus, is trying to work out what this means for them as Jews and what it means to spread this word to others. Ten days ago was the feast of the Ascension which underlines that whatever the on-going relationship with Jesus was it was not in the flesh and the festival of Pentecost tells us that the relationship is through his spirit which keeps alive his presence and influence in the world. Pentecost is seen as the birthday of the Church when the apostles received this spirit which united them and established them as a community.

The parallels between the two festivals is obvious – the fulfilment of Judaism and Christianity’s foundation stories, celebrated fifty days ago and an acceptance of a way of life, expressed in the Torah and in the guidance of the Spirit, that forms both groups into a people and a community. There are also differences. The community of Judaism was associated with a particular people and a particular place. The Christian community was not to be confined to one nation or one language. It was to spread throughout the world and be available to different peoples and cultures. It was however to be united in its diversity and this by the common gift of the Spirit of Jesus, which is also the Spirit of God and simply known as the Holy Spirit.  

Sadly, in the past the differences between the two faiths have led to Christianity being seen as the fulfilment of Judaism in such a way that it replaces it. This is called supersessionism and has been rejected by the main denominations of Christianity. A popular anti-Jewish trope was to see the God of the Old Testament as a judging and censorious God with Jews living in bondage to a Law while Christians lived in the freedom of the spirit with the assurance of eternal salvation which was to be found in Jesus and not in keeping to an out-dated law. This is to show an ignorance of the Hebrew Scriptures that Christians call the Old Testament. Some of the most beautiful passages about the love of God are to be found in the prophets and the whole story of the journey of the Israelites shows God as continuing saving and delivering them from themselves and their infidelities. It is also to misunderstand Torah which is the body of wisdom and law contained in the Jewish scriptures and other sacred literature and oral tradition. It can mean teaching, direction, guidance and law. For Jews the Torah is the voice of God and the Torah Scrolls are the symbol of God’s presence among them, the most sacred object of their faith and to live according to the Torah is to keep alive God’s presence among them. It is not a dead letter of the law and is to be reflected on and its meaning discerned through prayer and study. For this Jews would look for the guidance of God’s Spirit. For Jesus the Law was important. He did not reject it but claimed to fulfil it by interpreting it in a particular way, as did others of his time.  Christians may claim to live by the Holy Spirit, but this does not excuse them from discerning the ways of the Spirit or what the Spirit is asking of them in their personal and community lives. Both communities are engaged in the same thing even in different ways.

Jonathan Sacks has said that to hear the voice of God you need a listening silence in the soul, an ability to listen with faith which he describes as “the ability to hear the music beneath the noise”. This is true for Jews and Christians alike in their embrace of the Torah for one and the embrace of the Spirit for the other. And in this we are in fact walking the same path.  

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The Kingdom of God

15/5/2023

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Britain is still reflecting on the recent coronation of King Charles – some people thinking it was a waste of money, others enjoying the pomp and circumstance of it all and others decrying the fact that still the King must declare his allegiance to the Protestant faith and to uphold the beliefs and traditions of Protestantism. It wrangles a bit that it is impossible for a Catholic to be crowned king or queen, perhaps the last vestige of sectarianism within governmental structures. Some changes in the coronation service were applauded – the involvement of other Christian denominations and faiths, we even had a Hindu Prime Minister read from the Christian scriptures. And some people look forward to greater changes at the next one!

It also was an opportunity for preachers to reflect on the idea of the Kingdom of God, something which to my mind is at the heart of Christianity but not too often talked about. In both Matthew and Mark’s gospel Jesus begins his ministry with the call to repent for the kingdom of God has come near, declaring this as good news. At that time the people of Israel were living under Roman occupation and control. They longed for a Messiah who would be both priest, prophet and king and establish the return of the Kingdom of Israel’s glory days under King David. For them any sense of kingdom was a physical one but not so for Jesus. His message was that there is another level of being, a spiritual kingdom which is not recognised by power, wealth or glory but by the more spiritual values of justice, peace, service, love, compassion, integrity, reconciliation, wisdom. It is to have a concern for the common good and indeed the good of all sentient beings.
Those who heard this message of Jesus interpreted it according to their own understanding at the time and, especially in the light of their belief in the resurrection of Jesus, thought that the end times had come, and the Kingdom of God was at last to be established in their land. This was a dilemma for those early Christians and led to much reflection on the nature of the Kingdom preached by Jesus. According to Luke the disciples of Jesus “supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately” (19:11) even though in the gospel Jesus had told those who were enquiring when the kingdom of God was coming “the kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed; nor will they say ‘Look here it is ‘or ‘there it is’. For in fact the kingdom of God is among you.” (17:20-22).

I like the idea that Christians ought to be kingdom spotters. And once you begin to look for evidence of the kingdom you see it everywhere – in the love and concern of parents for their children, in families struggling to care of their families during a financial recession, in parents living with children with severe disabilities, coping with difficult children who have left home, got themselves involved in addictions. It’s also to be seen in wider society in those working in our hospitals, social services, those committed to helping refugees, the homeless, the bereaved. It is also seen in those who are refugees, who are homeless, who are coping with trauma and bereavement as they struggle to make sense of their situation and cope with what life has thrown at them. It is to be seen in conflict and war zones, in those negotiating peace and those caring for the dead and wounded. It is to be seen in all those who have a concern for climate change and the environment, in those protesting bad and unjust government policies. It is indeed everywhere.

But it is not enough just to recognise the presence of the kingdom of God outside of ourselves for we are part of it. The kingdom of God is also within us, and the Christian belief is that, made in the image and likeness of God as we all are, inspired by God’s own spirit we have the potential within us to live out its values of love, commitment, justice, selflessness, wisdom – the gifts and virtues are all there if we would develop and use them. This of course requires repentance and conversion – repentance that we often live in our own bubble with only a concern for ourselves and our comfort, that we forget our interrelatedness with all living beings so that we forget what we do to others we are doing to ourselves and what we do to and for ourselves has repercussions on others. The idea of the kingdom of God and our ability to cooperate with it and work for its growth in ordinary ways is a vision to give meaning and purpose to our lives. We are facing great challenges of poverty, homelessness, refugees, climate change in society and we have our own challenges at home, but we have great possibilities within us to make a difference in that small part of the world in which we live.

Jesus says in the gospels that this message of the Kingdom is the good news. This I think should be at the heart of the new evangelisation that Pope Francis is promoting and I believe it is good news, easily recognised by those of other faiths as well as those of no faith. It is a vision for the future.

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The New Evangelisation

30/4/2023

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The New Evangelisation is something we hear a lot about in the Catholic Church. It has its roots in the gospel command to proclaim the gospel to all people. Pope Benedict XVI saw a need for Catholics to “rediscover the joy of believing and an enthusiasm for communicating the faith”. Pope John Paul II also called for a missionary outreach and Pope Francis has continued this call to missionary discipleship, setting up a new Dicastery for Evangelisation in the Vatican. Just this week he appointed Archbishop Leo Cushley of the diocese of St Andrews and Edinburgh as a member of the Dicastery and Mr John Docherty a former head teacher in East Renfrewshire as a consultor.  The new Archbishop of Glasgow is bringing some life into the diocese by reorganising and bringing together representative from local parishes to take up the challenge of the new evangelisation in a ‘Looking to the Future’ initiative, designed, he says, to equip the Church in Glasgow to be a vibrant community of outreach and support in coming years.  It takes up Pope Francis’ three focuses for evangelization … the care of those already committed, engagement with those who are lapsed, and outreach to those who do not believe.

As an interfaith practitioner I’m a bit allergic to the word evangelisation, being aware of the centuries in which the Church has taught that it alone was the way to salvation and demanding conversion and baptism of indigenous people as well as those of other faiths. But this new evangelisation is not proselytization but a new way of spreading the wisdom of Christianity that is seen as ‘good news’. In doing this the Church is only doing what other faiths do for all religions believe they have a universal truth that can make a difference to how people live their lives and find purpose and meaning. How they attract people and introduce them to this truth varies from those who serve a local community and hope people will then learn about their faith, like the Bahais, or set up retreats and study programmes like some Buddhists or offer hospitality to the wider community like the Sikhs.

In his first encyclical Evangelii Gaudium Pope Francis invited Catholics to “be bold and creative in the task of rethinking the goals, structures, style and methods of evangelization in their respective communities…”  This task of rethinking the work of evangelisation needs, I suspect, also needs a rethinking of the content of the good news and how is it to be expressed in a way that it meaningful to present day realities? Perhaps too the purpose of it needs to be looked at very honestly. Is the new evangelisation a desire to return to a time when churches were full and influential in both people’s lives and society in general? Is it really about bums on seats so to speak. Will it involve a recognition that there is goodness and wisdom and even grace outside the bounds of Christianity? Will it understand that for some people a sense of meaning and purpose is to be found elsewhere and that the message of Christianity might not be for them? Is it possible for the Church to even think this possible?  Will it begin with personal interactions that listen to why people have simply lost interest in the Church and have drifted away from it?  Will it be willing to be alongside people and listen to what they long for in life and be prepared to encourage them in their search for truth and wisdom, even if they find that elsewhere. Will it be able to recognise that a creed centred on sin and redemption might need reinterpreting in the light of what we know about cosmology and the historical development of doctrine? Should we emphasise incarnation rather than redemption? Should the kingdom of God be at the centre of it? Can we recognise that there are other traditions like the Celtic tradition that have expressed the faith differently from what some people would call the imperial and clerical tradition of the Church? Will we be able to take seriously the sacred interrelationship of all things that helps us live out this reality both individually and collectively? Will we recognise that, in the words of Karl Rahner, all nature is graced, and we need not fear the secular.

This new evangelisation could be a moment of revolution if it is approached honestly and creatively. Not everyone will be happy with the questions I’ve posed. Whatever way the new evangelisation goes, hopefully it will be within the context of an open and welcoming Church and not that of a fortress buttressing itself against the world. A twitter from the National Catholic Reporter has suggested “If our public witness isn't always evangelizing in a broad sense, we are just another private country club, another gated community in a world of increasingly growing inequity and isolation”. Luckily this is not the kind of evangelisation envisaged by Pope Francis. Pope Francis situates the Church firmly in the world. He is committed to human fraternity; he has talked of the revolution of tenderness and is committed to building relations with other denominations and faiths. At the centre of his thought is the common good and a healthy pluralism which respects and values differences. If we could develop the new approach to evangelisation from this perspective it could change Catholics, their Church, and the whole human family. 

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    I am  a Catholic nun, involved in interfaith relations for many decades.  For me this has been an exciting and sacred journey which I would like to share with others.

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