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A 500 year old story

29/3/2015

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An extraordinary thing happened in England this week -  a medieval king was buried with great pomp and ceremony. It had live coverage on television with debates about  what it all means and who is this Richard III who has come down in history as a villain, supposedly murdering his two young nephews in the Tower of London to grab the English crown for himself.  I found it rather moving though any of my friends to whom I confessed to  being interested said they couldn't  care a toss about it and thought me a bit mad, I think. 

 I only saw glimpses of the ceremonial but it did get me thinking. Here was a man who died 500 years ago, in a battle, competing for the crown on England, betrayed by people who had sworn loyalty to him, buried uncermoniously in a franciscan monastery, Greyfriars, that had been destroyed during the Reformation and whose bones then lay underneath a car park in Leicester.  Now he was being reinterred with all the dignity due to a monarch but it was the human being that I was aware of. What would all this pomp and ceremony mean to him now. He had gone the way of all flesh.  But this pomp and ceremony had become part of his story and perhaps that was the uncanny thing. Now that we have seen his remains, seen his direct descendants from whose DNA scientists were able to determine that the skeleton they had found was indeed Richard III, been present at his reinternment, albeit through television, we have become part of  his story. This is a story that didn't end with death but now has a chapter written 500 years after that  event. It would seem to me that this is true for all of us  - life doesn't end in death. And I'm not thinking here of an eternal destination in heaven or paradise but that our story, our influence lives on in the lives of those we have touched and in one sense will never be complete. We are indeed part of a great global story in which we are all implicated. 

Things were very different when Richard died - everyone was Catholic, the Reformation hadn't taken place, and though he was originally buried uncermoniously it would have been with Catholic rites and prayers.  Now he is buried in an Anglican Cathedral and the internment rites were carried out by the Archbishop of Canterbury. All of this would have been unknown to Richard though Cardinal Kevin Nichols did speak at the reception of his body into the Cathedral and said a requiem mass for him during the days he lay in state. But as the Cardinal noted all things are connected. The stones from the Friary pulled down at the Reformation were used to extend the nearby Church into a Cathedral so in a way Greyfriars also still lives and our denominations are intermingled in all sorts of way.  Thank God the days of enmity are over and Christian denominations are working together. 

It also struck me how circumstantial life is. Here was a man who had been king through intrigue and deceit, who died childless  and yet has thousands of descendants still living, some of them being second cousins and now seventeen times removed. It was amazing the number of media people interviewed who were related to him!  It seems that the Plantagenets married into English gentry and sometimes commoners so that there are many descendants - if things had been different could any of their ancestors have claimed the English throne and would they now be royalty.  What would Richard have thought if he had known that his descendants would be ordinary people doing ordinary jobs?  Would he have felt his family belittled?  One of the two direct descendants of Richard who gave DNA samples is a carpenter and made the coffin in which his illustrious ancestor was buried.  All this  too has become part of his story.  

And there's a lot of 'what ifs' in the story.  What if Henry Tudor had not won at the Battle of Bosworth Field?  There would have been no Henry VIII, perhaps no break with Rome, no sacking of the monasteries, a different royal family on the throne of England today. Of course 'what ifs' are part of all our stories. What if my grandfather had not been struck by a beautiful young woman descending from a tramcar in Glasgow and not fallen instantly in love with her?  What if I had not been born Christian but Jewish or Muslim or Buddhist?  All possibilities. 

Perhaps what I'm left with in the Richard story is that life is as it is, that we're part of a story much greater than our individual existences, that status and prestige are of no lasting importance. Our precious human existence is a gift to be used well for its influence  extends much further than we realise - for good or for ill. 

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A Day of Happiness 

21/3/2015

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March 20th is the day designated by the United Nations as the International Day of Happiness. I'm not too sure that I noticed anything different about last Friday though I did have a good day. I was at a very amiable meeting and  spent some time with friends, so it was a happy day. I wonder how others spent it and if people even knew it was international happiness day. I didn't know till it was all over. 

The Secretary- General of the UN, Ban Ki-moon, had a message for the day,  


"I wish everyone around the world a very happy International Day of Happiness! The pursuit of happiness is serious business. Happiness for the entire human family is one of the main goals of the United Nations. "

Everything is serious nowadays. It's a bit like mindulness which began as a religious practice and is now an academic subject.  There are websites and on line courses to 'do' happiness.  But happiness can't stand alone. For global happiness, which, I presume, is the concern of the United Nations, justice, peace, equality, freedom, sustainable development, health, education, environmental well-being are necessary. And to work for these is to work for the happiness of others and maybe even to deprive ourselves to bring this kind of happiness about. 


Not so long ago Pope Francis set out his recipe for personal happiness: It included 
  •  Live and let live. 
  • Be giving of yourself to others.
  • Proceed calmly in life.  
  •  move with kindness and humility, a calmness in life.
  •  have a healthy sense of leisure. 
  • communicate" with each other 
  •  Respect and take care of nature.  
  •  Stop being negative. "Needing to talk badly about others indicates low self-esteem".  
  •  Work for peace. "We are living in a time of many wars," he said, and "the call for peace must be shouted. Peace sometimes gives the impression of being quiet, but it is never quiet, peace is always proactive and dynamic".  

Buddhism says quite a lot about happiness  but it sees suffering as the main ingredient of life in the sense that we live in a changing world and any experiece of happiness will come to an end - otherwise it turns into boredom, dissatisfaction, a desire to move on to something else or something new.  Happiness comes from letting go, enjoying the moment but not clinging to it. This seems counter intuitive as most people have a list of things they think will make them happy but we know from celebrities and from research that the accumulation of goods, power, ambition leads more to dissatisfaction and a desire for more which then becomes a never ending cycle of wanting more and being dissatisfied with it. Happiness in the Buddhist sense is not to build up the ego but to see beyond it and feel compassion for others with whom we share the same human nature, with whom we are one at the very deepest level of our human nature. 

Happiness for most religions is not seeking self but living an ethical life focussed on others rather than self. It's associated with blessing which comes from living in God's way, not our own. In Luke and Matthew's gospels the conditions for such happiness are set out in what's called the beatitudes.  Happiness is not associated with immediate gratification but with those who are poor in spirit, those who hunger and thirst for justice, those who are meek and merciful, those who are peacemakers, those willing to suffer persecution and rejection for what they believe in - not things that most people would associate with happiness but things that do bring a deep sense of satisfaction and contentment and a vision of life that is inspiring and meaningful.  Is this not important?


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Being a martyr

15/3/2015

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PicturePeter Howson's St John Ogilvie in St Andrew's Cathedral, Glasgow
Martyrdom is in the air at the moment.  Last week we celebrated the 400th anniversary of the death of St John Ogilvie, Scotland's only recognised martyr of the Reformation. Some people doubted the wisdom of remembering a time when Christians hunted out  and killed one another but in these ecumenical days it was seen as the celebration of a  Christian martyr rather than a Catholic one and a recognition that we can be grateful that those days of suspicion and hate are behind us - at least for true believers. It was  a celebration of religious freedom and possible for all Christians (and perhaps all believers) to admire the integrity of someone willing to die for their beliefs and minister to those who shared them.

 John Ogilvie was martyred at a time when kings were demanding control of spiritual as well as temporal power, when Catholicism had been outlawed, when reformers were imposing their beliefs and worship on society, when people were ready to kill those who did not conform, when only one truth was seen to be acceptable.  So what has changed you may ask?  This hatred and lack of intolerance has spread to the Middle East and is a constant item on our news bulletins. Now we have our modern martyrs like the Egyptians recently killed in a barbaric murder in Libya with a prayer upon their lips and now officially declared marytrs in the Orthodox Coptic Church.  They were killed for being Christians and many others have been persecuted and killed for simply being themselves. History is littered with such killings.  Religious wars, ideological positions, fear of wise women who were different, the exclusion of people because of their sexuality have all led to death and persecution.  Are they all martyrs?  Well in some ways they are.   

The word martyr means witness and in religious terms is applied to those willing to stand up for their ideals to the point of being willing to die for them. But are all ideals worth dying for?  Presumably soldiers engaged in war believe in  the success of their cause, kamikaze pilots believed that duty to their country was worth the sacrifice and those willing to fight for the  Islamic State seem to think that the rewards of martyrdom in the next life are worth sacrificing their lives in this one.  And religion  encourages this attitude.  The Qur'an does tell them that they will be rewarded in Paradise. 

Martyrs have been revered in religion especially Christianity and Islam.  For Christians a martyr has been one who has remained true and steadfast to his or her faith in the face of physical punishment or death. It is to refuse to compromise on faith, which would also be true of religions such as the Baha'i faith or Judaism. While this is also the case for Islam a person can be called a martyr who has died in battle defending his faith which can include suicide bombing. I've heard this called active martyrdom while the other is called passive martyrdom. Passive martyrdom is to refuse to resort to compromise, violence or physical retaliation, it's to be done unto  while active martyrdom can involve infliciting violence on another because it takes place in the context of war so it's to do unto. These are two quite different views but perhaps a notion that unites them is the idea of persecution. Passive martyrdom is to accept persecution and active martyrdom is to fight against a real or imagined persecution for the truth of one's position.

But there's a way in which martyrdom in Christianity can also be active. Here I'm thinking of people like Dorothy Stang and Oscar Romero who were active in standing up for the poor and oppressed  even though they knew they were likely to be killed. For many years the Vatican refused to call Oscar Romero a martyr because they said his cause was political but Pope Francis has settled that argument and he is now to be canonised in the next few months. For Archbishop Romero, as for Sister Dorothy, being active in opposing injustice and speaking out for the rights of others ( in a non-violent way) was a religious act and a faithful response to the Gospel message. Their position had political repercussions but their deaths were indeed a religious act and their courage and self- sacrifice truly merits them being called martyrs.


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Interfaith Hospitality

8/3/2015

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PictureRoublev's ikon depicting the three visitors to Abraham and seen by Christians as an image of the Trinity.
Hospitality has been on my mind this week because  I was asked to take part in a scriptural reasoning session  at a Jewish study day celebrating aspects of Jewish culture and diversity.  Scriptural Reasoning's an approach to interfaith relations which focuses on reading scripture texts on a common theme from various faith traditions. It began about 20 years ago with Jewish scholars engaged in a havruta style of reading Torah ( in which pairs or small groups read a biblical passage together and question one another closely on its meaning) and spread to include Christians and Muslims.  It's a good way of cutting to the chase and encouraging conversation and dialogue about issues that religions hold dear.  

    Today's texts focussed on Abraham's hospitality. The Jewish      text told the story of the three visitors whom Abraham    welcomed to his tent, giving them rest, water and food. The  Rabbinic commentary on this was that the incident happened shortly after Abraham had been circumcised and that in spite of his pain he was earnest in offering hospitality. The Qur'anic text was more or less the same story, this time with the angels telling Sarah she would have a child. The Christian text was quite different. it was from Hebrews and spoke of the need for mutual love within the community and hospitality without. For me the two Abrahamic texts talked of trusting in God even in the face of the impossible. Our Muslim presenter saw the possibility of a child for a couple past child bearing age as a  death and resurrection event, even preparing readers for future deaths and resurrections, something which had more resonance for Christians than Jews. 

 Although the Genesis scripture is also Christian, the Christian text was from Hebrews, with only an allusion to the angelic visitors but no direct mention of Abraham. It did underline the need for hospitality in a divided community, a community of Jewish Christians who were in danger of backsliding into old Jewish ways and neglecting Christian belief, ritual and community. It was in this context that the author asked for mutual love, compassion and hospitality. 

At these sessions I'm aware of Jews and Muslims having a similar approach to scripture. They seem to like to analyse the text, looking for root meanings in words and constantly asking questions about its meaning.  While scripture scholars no doubt do this in Christianity, for me the approach to scripture is more reflective and prayerful - what is the meaning behind the words, what does it tell us about God, Jesus, human beings and how we should live. To analyse words can be interesting enough but to question the exact meaning of words and how factual the information is doesn't seem as important as gleaning the religious message.  And in this case hospitality was at the heart of all our scriptures. 

The very fact of being part of a study day was a lesson in hospitality in itself. Not only was I able to participate in a workshop but I was able to attend two other workshops. One of them was on some rabbinic understandings of Jesus which weren't very complementary, one story suggesting that in eternity Jesus was being punished with boiling excrement!  A friend was concerned I would be insulted by some of the suggestions but our leader was at pains to stress how the stories reflected a growing distance between Christianity and Judaism and had to be understood in this context - not too dissimilar from some of the theology of Hebrews when Jesus is compared to the Jewish High Priest and his death with Temple sacrifice. I wasn't at all insulted.  We need to be honest about our texts and to recognise the historical circumstances that gave rise to them and the reality that is reflected in them. it's just a shame that once set down in words they can be taken literally and used to destroy rather than build relationships. Thank goodness for scriptural reasoning and our ability to be honest and straightforward with one another, not dodging difficult texts but not allowing them to weaken relationships.  

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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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