Examples of Grace

Splendid examples of grace and charity are not always in great supply.  The new Pope's decision to do the Maundy liturgy in a Young Offenders Institution http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/on-holy-thursday-francis-goes-to-prison.html  is one such sign today.  Another was in the news a few days ago about the Congregation of St John's Crown Terrace Aberdeen hosting their Islamic neighbours.  This has led to some nasty abuse directed at the Rector, Canon Issac Poobalan and the Church http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/03/21/scottish-church-abused-after-allowing-muslims-in_n_2922783.html?utm_hp_ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false  

I'll declare an interest here: Issac and and I were students at Edinburgh Theological College at the same time. He was Curate of the Church I did a 12 month placement at and I preached for him when he was parish priest at St Clement's Mastrick in Aberdeen.  He is a very nice guy and a thoroughly gracious and deeply prayerful Christian gentleman.  The abuse directed by "trolls" is both vile and unchristian.  Most of these so-called "commentators" hide their identity behind assumed identities whilst displaying their prejudices and ignorance in spectacular and blatant diatribes, often badly spelled and grammatically embarrassing.  However, I have every confidence that my gracious friend Issac will rise above their poisonous spleen and will continue to build bridges and the Kingdom.  And, incidentally, I was the 1st cleric in Falkirk to invite a Muslim to preach at a service rather than address a meeting after Church in the Church hall - so I'm doubtless as "unchristian"  as Issac.

O Rex Gentium

 

Christ the King, a detail from the Ghent Altarpiece by Jan van Eyck.

The Latin antiphon is:

O Rex Gentium, et desideratus earum,

lapisque angularis, qui facis utraque unum:

veni, et salva hominem,

quem de limo formasti.

which is in English:

O King of the nations, and their desire,

the cornerstone making both one:

Come and save the human race,

which you fashioned from clay.

"For a child has been born for us, a son given us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." Isaiah 9:6

"He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore." Isaiah 2:4

If you are going to acknowledge Christ as King of the Nations, then using a prayer from one of them may not be a bad thing.

"May all beings everywhere plagued with sufferings of body and mind quickly be freed from their illnesses. May those frightened cease to be afraid, and may those bound be free. May the powerless find power, and may people think of befriending one another. May those who find themselves in trackless, fearful wildernesses - the children, the aged, the unprotected - be guarded by beneficent celestials, and may they swiftly attain Buddhahood."  Buddhist prayer

I can reconcile this one with my faith as the "beneficent celestials" to me are "angels and archangels and the whole company of heaven" . As to "attaining Buddahood" - well, being perfected in Christ through his Incarnation, Death and Resurrection is achieving perfect fulfilment or Buddahood.  If Christ is the Cornerstone, then he draws all nations and faith to himself and perfects in due course all our errors and misunderstandings.  or Anonymous Christianity - the theological idea that declares that those who have never heard the Gospel might be saved.

You can find traces of this idea in the Vatican 2 document "Lumen Gentium", which states that those "who no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or His Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and moved by grace, try in their actions to do His will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience – those too may achieve eternal salvation". ^{(LG para 15)}

The German Jesuit theologian Karl Rahner's put it more forcefully: Non-Christians could have "in [their] basic orientation and fundamental decision, accepted the salvific grace of God, through Christ, although [they] may never have heard of the Christian revelation." 

 ^{King of the nations, bring ALL your children into the fullness of life that is your will for us all.  Amen.}

St George's Day

I am no English nationalist but did observe the Feast of St George today.  Why?

He was a Christian Martyr who lost his life in a time of religious persecution and it strikes me that this is a period in history when we desperately need to remember our own history in order that we do not repeat it foolishly with the boot on the other foot.  It's all too easy to remember our history of being persecuted and use it as an excuse to persecute others.  Rather we should remember - and pray that we have the wisdom never to repeat the errors of  other, less generous, religions.  Killing others for their faith, even if it is a distortion or twisted version, is self-defeating.  It merely gives credibility and status to their untruths.  Osama Bin Laden was, in reality, a terrorist pure and simple.  His religious opinion was incidental to this.  Oh yes, his distorted understanding of Islam inspired his malign actions, but I would hesitate to call him an "Islamic Terrorist" in exactly the same way I would hesitate to describe a member of the Continuing IRA as a "Catholic Terrorist".  To use either title is to perpetuate misunderstanding of faiths that have more good in them than the evil that their most twisted followers represent.

I rather like this bit of an article from Wikipedia: 

"There is a tradition in the Holy Land of Christians and Muslim going to an Eastern Orthodox shrine of St. George at Beith Jala, Jews also attending the site in the belief that the prophet Elijah was buried there. This is testified to by Elizabeth Finn in 1866, where she wrote, "St. George killed the dragon in this country Palestine; and the place is shown close to Beirut. Many churches and convents are named after him. The church at Lydda is dedicated to St. George: so is a convent near Bethlehem, and another small one just opposite the Jaffa gate; and others beside. The Arabs believe that St. George can restore mad people to their senses; and to say a person has been sent to St. George's, is equivalent to saying he has been sent to a madhouse. It is singular that the Moslem Arabs share this veneration for St. George, and send their mad people to be cured by him, as well as the Christians. But they commonly call him El Khudder —The Green—according to their favourite manner of using epithets instead of names. Why he should be called green, however, I cannot tell—unless it is from the colour of his horse. Gray horses are called green in Arabic."A possible explanation for this colour reference is Al Khidir, the erstwhile tutor of Moses, gained his name from having sat in a barren desert, turning it into a lush green paradise."

St George, by your intercession, save us from our madness and teach us to seek the healing of the Most High God, by which ever name we call upon the Holy One.

Mass, Mosque and Curry Sunday.

Up the hill to my local SEC establishment for the Holy Mysteries this morning. Hymns: conservative (dull), celebrant decently catholic (and female), sermon content ok (delivery a tad academic, but hey, the Team Priest has a PhD), intercessions ARRGH!

They got off to a bad start: with 4 possible passages of Scripture to choose a lectionary theme from, we got - animal rights??? How we got there from the 7 Pillars of Wisdom and the Bread of Life I know not. Responsory? That changed with each petition - which only works when they are ALL printed for the whole congregation to use. They weren't, so the congregational response varied from sporadic to inaudible. And content? Sigh! I gave up when we were bade to pray that we struggled with being vegetarian and not being vegetarian. I don't. Sorry, I struggle with depression, sexuality, faith, why God doesn't do things to Robert Mugabe involving a bleeding great thunderbolt and whatever happened to Rowan Williams spine. I don't agonise over my love of bacon rolls and inability to eat tofu with any sense of sharing in God's bounty. Not so much the prayers of the people, as a hobby horse ride over Bruntsfield Links. Haven't heard such well-meaning liturgical ineptitude since I was a Coates Hall student and I told a fellow student I hadn't left chapel at the peace because she was a woman reading prayers but because I refused to pray heresy. I've mellowed - stayed put and went to coffee afterwards and didn't get "angry", I just acknowledged this was not my problem and let God worry about it.

From there back to base to cook bacon for the brunching masses, before leaving (brunchless and drooling) for the Mosque. I did change my shirt before leaving, thinking it might not be terribly tactful to toddle in ponging of cooked pig. My reward: a 1st class curry in the Mosque kitchen before the guided tour and and a look at their excellent exhibition on Islam. And it was a real delight to be there. A big poster stated bluntly that racism and sexism are condemned in the Qu'ran. It was good and cheering to see that there is such a thing as a sensible tolerant face to Islam in Scotland in spite of much of the tosh spouted in the Press. Hugely enjoyable. This is why I think life in the City is where my future is: small town Scotland isn't for me really. The diversity and the buzz of city life are what I need.