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Never Again?

30/1/2016

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This week we've had two visitors in Scotland. They came to speak at several Holocaust Memorial Day events with stories that few of us will forget.

Professor Mukesh Kapila had been head of the United Nations in Sudan when he blew the whistle on the atrocities of Darfur. At what he called a master class he drew us into the situation in Darfur and got us imagining what we would have done in his position. It certainly got us involved and made me more receptive to the story he told.  What was most shocking was the fact that governments knew of the atrocities being perpetrated in Sudan through their intelligence services. Professor Kapila thought he was alerting the United Nations and several government departments  to a situation, known to him because he was on the ground, but they already knew and were doing nothing.  Oh, they offered excuses - let's sort out this problem first, let's be careful not to make the situation worse, let's wait and see how things work out. Officials hid behind their positions, took no responsibility for what was happening and were never called to account for their action or non-action. And Darfur is still suffering but how often do we hear about it now?  Mukesh got us imagining ourselves as head of the UN, sitting in a very large office at the top of a high sky scraper looking down on the world below - how do people look from that height?  Well, the obvious answer: ants, And looking on people as insects or cockroaches, as was the case  in Rwanda, hardens the heart.  The problem with politicians Makesh suggested, is that they think they are in control, they are arrogant enough to think they have the answer, they are far removed from the human suffering and are hesitant to challenge the state that is sponsoring the violence for all genocides are state sponsored.  Of course state sponsored violence wouldn't succeed if ordinary people didn't participate, if they weren't caught up in the propaganda that turned former neighbours into enemies or saw them as less than human.  Mukesh stressed that while genocides are orchestrated by government, decisions are made by individuals and atrocities carried out by individuals who ought to be called to account but  their involvement is hidden in secret papers and so they are never exposed  - and sometimes even awarded Nobel peace prizes!

Our second visitor wad Dr Inge Auerbacher. Inge is  a holocaust survivor. She spent  three years, from the age of 7 to 10, in Terezin (Theresienstadt) concentration camp in Czechoslovakia and  was among the few children who survived.  She relived her memories of kristallnacht when all the windows in her home were broken  and all the men in the village she lived in were arrested and taken to Dachau. They were released a few weeks later as this was simply a warning as to what could happen to Jews. Later, however, she and her parents were transported to Terezin where everything was taken from them though Inge managed to keep her doll, Marlene, that was a source of comfort to her and is still in her possession. Perhaps the most moving account of Inge's story took place at Polmont Young Offenders Institute. About a hundred of us were privileged to be there and see the work that some of the young men had done on the holocaust.  When Inge spoke to them she said that someone had asked her if she had ever been in a prison before - well she had and she told them she knew how difficult it is to lose one's freedom and understood something of  what they were going through. She told them how important it was never to give up - never give up hope she told them.  What was most moving was at the end of the evening she spread out her arms in welcome and every one of the young men embraced her before returning to their cells or whatever they call the rooms  they live in. I will never forget it and I doubt if any of them will either. 

I was privileged to have dinner with Inge. She spoke of her friend Sr Rose Thering, a Dominican sister, who is well known for the work she did on catholic catechetical material showing up its anti-Jewish sentiments. Her work was influential in the drawing up of Nostra Aetate, the document from the Second Vatican Council that opened the Catholic Church up to interreligious dialogue and changed its relationship with the Jewish community. I knew of Sr Rose's work and somehow just knowing this connected Inge and myself. We also spoke of forgiveness, something Inge found difficult. She didn't think it was right to forgive mass murderers and only those who had suffered directly could forgive a perpetrator. In the final analysis she believes forgiveness lies with God and even Jesus on the cross didn't forgive those who crucified him - rather he prayed that God would forgive them.  Nelson Mandela believed that not to forgive his captors was to continue to live in prison. Inge is certainly not living in prison and much of her life has been giving voice to all the children who died in the Holocaust. While struggling with the concept of forgiveness Inge did not believe in blaming the children for the sins of their fathers and was totally committed to reconciliation, something her whole life bears witness to. Perhaps reconciliation bears within it the seeds of forgiveness and forgiveness without reconciliation would be meaningless.  These are difficult subjects but hopefully Holocaust Memorial Day keeps alive in us the need to treat others well, to remember our common humanity and that the work of reconciliation is necessary in this world of ours torn apart by war and division. 

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No Going Back

23/1/2016

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PicturePope Francis at Great Synagogue in Rome. January 19 2016
This coming week we have Holocaust Memorial Day - remembering one of the most horrific episodes in human history.  It's a dark time which we shouldn't forget and a constant source of mourning not just for the Jewish community but for all of us. For many there has been a search for justice over the years and some of those who perpetrated the atrocities have been put on trial.  We know many of these stories from television programmes but there was a programme this week that was different. It focussed on the trial of Oskar Groening, now in his nineties, who had been an accountant in Auschwitz. He wasn't responsible for sending peope to the gas chambers nor was he one giving orders. But he knew about the atrocities and did nothing to stop them. Now such people can be prosecuted. 

The programme included memories from survivors - awful, moving, scary, incredible. Their stories  leave me wondering how the human spirit survives such things and lives with such memories.  An important story at the trial was that of Eva Kor, a twin who was subjected to terrible experimentation by Mengele, whose experience at Auschwitz was horrific but who somehow had found it in her heart to forgive the Nazis  and at the trial embraced OskarGroening - much to the consternation of those who sought only justice. Many who had lost all their family objected and signed a petition against Eva, believing that forgiveness was just not possible in these circumstances, that only God can forgive.  Others believed that there had to be an end to hatred and refused to sign the petition. For Eva forgiveness was a way of moving beyond a victim mentality. It gave her control of her life. She was so admirable and yet most of us know how difficult it can be to forgive when we have been deeply hurt or abused. It's a process that takes time and can't be done quickly or easily. It's very likely that Eva struggled for many years to reach this point but she does witness to how liberating it can be for those who can do it. 

I've often thought that forgiveness has a place in  interfaith relations, especially in terms of the healing of memories because faths have done terrible things to one another over the years and we need to acknowledge this together if we are to move on. The Holocaust was the result of a secular philosophy of eugenics and the Naziis were certainly not religious people. However the Catholic Church, in its document on the Shoah, admitted that centuries of anti-semitism had been the seed bed  which had allowed Naziism to flourish. But, thank God, that has changed and both Christians and Jews now know that relationships between them have developed to the point that there is no going back.  

Two recent initiatives illustrate this well. Just before Christmas the Pontifical Council for Ecumenism published a document on Catholic-Jewish relations. Two things are significant about this. First of all relations with the Jews does not come under the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue but is the concern of a committe within the department of ecumenism. This is because the Church recognises a family relationship with Judaism - after all Jesus and all his early followers were Jews. Judaism and Christianity emerged from the same root, they have a unique relationship. As the document says Judaism "is not to be considered simply as another religion; the Jews are instead our elder brothers".  The other significant thing is that the document says quite explicitly that Catholics should not convert Jews, something which has been a bone of contention for a long time:
 "the Catholic Church neither conducts nor supports any specific institutional mission work directed towards Jews".  A Jewish friend tells me this caused a great deal of delight and discussion within the community. What is interesting too that Rabbi David Rosen from the Orthodox Jewish Community and Dr Ed Kessler from the Reform Community were both asked to comment on the  document before its publication and were present when it was officially launched in Rome. 

The second initiative was a statement signed by over 25 Orthodox rabbis from the United States, Israel and Europe. It  invited others to sign on line - and one from Scotland has already done so. “To Do the Will of Our Father in Heaven: Toward a Partnership between Jews and Christians” encourages Jews to accept  the "
hand offered to us by our Christian brothers and sisters. Jews and Christians must work together as partners to address the moral challenges of our era".   It recognises that the Shoah " was the warped climax to centuries of disrespect, oppression and rejection of Jews and the consequent enmity that developed between Jews and Christians. In retrospect it is clear that the failure to break through this contempt and engage in constructive dialogue for the good of humankind weakened resistance to evil forces of anti-Semitism that engulfed the world in murder and genocide" - something that the Catholic Church has also recognised and something that gives us motivation for engaging in interfaith relations.  So too does the statement that Christianity is willed by God and that " In separating Judaism and Christianity, G-d willed a separation between partners with significant theological differences, not a separation between enemies".  Surely there is no better message in the week in which  Holocaust Memoral Day falls?

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  Unity in Diversity

17/1/2016

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 This week begins a week of prayer for Christian Unity.  This is an annual event which usually takes place between the 18th  and 25th January and has been happening for over a hundred years. There will be many initiatives - prayer services, pulpit exchanges, visits to one another's churches. At the heart of all this will be the fervent prayer that "all may be one". Many  Christians see disunity as a source of scandal and certainly conflict, bickering, misunderstanding, suspicion and competition between churches has been and would be a scandal. Sometimes, however, I think that fear of disunity leads many to think in terms of visible unity and uniformity. Over the years Christians of different denominations have come to know one another as friends as well as brothers and sisters and have learned to respect one another's traditions. But a lot of time and energy, at the institutional level at least, has gone into debating common statements on faith, the nature and purpose of the Church as well as Church order and governance. I've been to some of these meetings and have found them quite painful and lacking in energy as each denomination wants their particular way of thinking and acting to be included. Often these discussions show up the differences between denominations rather than offer a possibility of unity.  In the end the statements often say very little and it seems  the process of producing them hardly worth the effort. 

It seems to me that ecumenism could learn quite a lot from interreligious dialogue. For one thing all religions have their internal differences and denominations.  Judaism has its orthodox, reform and liberal movements; Buddhism can be divided into Theravada, Mahayana or Vajryana Buddhism; Islam has its Shia and Sunni denominations as well as its various schools of law and Hinduism consists of many paths which are so varied that they seem like separate religions.  This diversity is accepted by students of religion and in dialogue people are interested in these differences and keen to know how the different denominations relate to one another. This isn't scandalous but a recognition of the diversity that exists in all religions. So it's not at all scandalous that Christianity has its divisions as long as there is acceptance of this difference. One of the motivations for the ecumenical movement was the competition of missionaries touting for converts and insisting that their version was the true Christianity.

Today we are happier living with diversity. In interreligious dialogue we are not looking for a new unified faith. Rather we rejoice in difference  and strive to understand those who are different from us. We search for the gift of wisdom to be found at the heart of faith, to recognise truth when we come across it - a truth which often gives new insights into our own faith and deepens our understanding of its truth. Sometimes too we find that other faiths have practices that we wish our own faith would adopt - a kind of holy envy so to speak. And underneath all this diversity we recognise a fundamental unity -   a common humanity and a common search for meaning, value and purpose in life.  


But religions are also interrelated as is everything else in life. All of them have come from the womb of Asia. Many of them have emerged from other religions or indigenous religions eg Christianity has its roots in Judaism, Buddhism has its roots in Hinduism. Sometimes these religions can be best understood when their origins are known. What is their distinct message looked at in the light of the world which gave them birth? This can reveal their particular truth but should also be a reminder that the expression of that truth is  conditioned and affected by its context.  That should, I think, be a sign that no religion has the totality of truth or the most complete expression of it. We do have a lot to learn from one another.

Luckily there is a movement within Christian ecumenism that reflects the work of interreligious dialogue. it's called receptive ecumenism and focuses on the gifts of faith and practice that different denominations  have to offer to one another. It requires humility and an open heart if it is to take the christian churches forward in their journey together. It values an essential unity which is not harmed by diversity but may even be enhanced by it.  

So this coming week I pray not just for Christian unity but for the openess of heart that will take us to the table of dialogue so that we learn to value and respect those whose expression of Christianity is different from mine.  

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When there is need..........

11/1/2016

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There's a saying in Buddhism that when there is need the teacher appears.  I've found this to be true so many times but for me the teacher often comes in the form of an author or a book. This happened  quite recently. I found at home a book I had already read but the second reading showed how much I had forgotten. There seemed to be such wisdom in it so why had I forgotten so much of it.  Perhaps the first time I wasn't ready for its message. The book was a self -help book, described as 'transforming professional and personal life'. The title is  'The Art of Possibility' and it's  written by Benjamin and Rosamund Zander, one a counsellor and the other the conductor of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra.  The purpose of the book is to offer practices to move our thought patterns and actions  from negative, calculating thinking to a live in a universe of  possibilities. It's a secular management book but has overtones and undertones of religion. 

One chapter I particularly liked was the one on Giving Way to Passion. It talks of the vibrancy and energy of life, of a universe 'sparking with generative power' - an energy which manifests itself everywhere. I was immediately reminded of Tich Nhat Hanh who says that rather than wishing people a happy birthday we should wish them a happy manifestation day. He uses the images of the sea and the waves to show that any sense of us being isolated, independent individuals is an illusion. The  wave is not separate from  the sea and the sea is not separate from the wave.  They are interrelated or as Thich Nhat Hanh would say, 'they interbe'. They are of the same essence and in their essence they are one. Hinduism has a similar idea. In the Vedas there is a story of a young man, Svetakatu, who after years of study still doesn't know the meaning of life. His father tells him to fill a cup with water and put some salt in it. His father then asks for the salt but of course he cannot bring it because it has disolved in the water. When he tries to drink from one side of the cup and then the other all he can taste is salt and cannot separate the salt and the water. Just as the water and salt are now one so we are one with that which is the essence of life, the Supreme Reality, however we may understand that. 'You are That', Svetaketu, is one of the great sayings of the Upanishads - profound in its insight and today confirmed by science.

I like these images and often find them more helpful than philosophical or psychological explanations. I like too the idea that the life force that is within each of us has evolved from the first division of cells that began the whole adventure of evolution. For me it's as though God has called each one of us from that first moment of life, called us into life through the centuries and  generations to take form, to become manifest at this point in history. Our individual manifestations are unique and we have something to offer the world and our present generation that no other person has.  There is not another me or another you. 

Christianity is strong on this. I have heard it preached over and over how much we are called into being by God, how precious we are in God's eyes, how even the hairs on our head are counted. I have come to realise the dignity of being made in the image and likeness of God, of being loved as an individual in the depths of my being.  And all this I believe to be true. But I have come to understand all of this in a new way. In my uniqueness I carry within me the DNA of past generations. I probably display characteristics from ancestors long forgotten. I am bound by a whole range of relationships which have influenced me and formed me. I am part of a great community that reaches far into the past and will reach into the future. In my uniqueness I am not alone or independent. I am a unique manifestation of something greater than myself and in this I am one with all human beings, good and bad alike.  

As manifestations of  life we are  a gift to the world. But what kind of gift will we be - will we take humanity further on its journey towards unity and wholeness or will we hold it back by our ambition, competition, power seeking, selfishness? Will we live at the surface level of the ego, what the  Zanders call the calculating self, that seeks to dominate and get its own way through all kinds of manipulations  that contribute  to division and separateness, to hostility and enmity?  This is a self that takes us on a downward spiral. Or shall we live from this deeper self, what the Zanders call the central self, that seeks to recognise all as our brothers and sisters, that inclines to unity as well as love and compassion and opens us up to possibilities for a new life and a new world? 


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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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