Thinking Anew:DURING the recent presidential election campaign when the subject of religion was raised our new President quietly declared himself to be "a spiritual man" who, it emerged later, values the holy ground that is Glenstal Abbey.
His inaugural speech was profoundly spiritual when he spoke with feeling about people’s broken expectations and the pain he encountered amongst the most vulnerable in our wounded and troubled society. He challenged us “to work together for such a set of different values as will enable us to build a sustainable social economy and a society which is profoundly ethical and inclusive.” It is wrong to think of spirituality as an escape from reality; a hiding place from the challenges of everyday life. President Higgins makes the vital connection between spirituality and living, between faith and action.
His concern for the marginalised echoes tomorrow’s gospel reading where Jesus insists that our loyalty to him is not measured by abstract spiritual exercises but by our commitment to people on the edge of society: “I was hungry and you gave me food; thirsty and you gave me something to drink; a stranger and you welcomed me; naked and you gave me clothing; sick and you took care of me; in prison and you visited me.”
Jim Wallis, an American writer, insists that Christian discipleship has political implications which must not be ignored. “The scriptures reveal a God of justice, not merely a God of charity. Words such as oppression and justice fill the Bible. The most common objects of the prophets’ judgments are kings, rulers, judges, employers – the rich and the powerful in charge of the world’s governments, courts, economies, systems, and structures. When those who are in charge mistreat the poor and vulnerable, say the scriptures, it is not just unkind but also wrong and unjust, and it makes God angry. The subjects of the scriptures’ concern are always the widow and the orphan, the poor and oppressed the victims of courts or unscrupulous employers, debtors whose debts need to be forgiven, strangers in the land who need to be welcomed. And the topics of the prophets’ messages to the powerful are things like land, labour, capital, judicial decisions, employer practices, rulers’ dictates, and the decisions of the powerful – all the stuff of politics.” Wallis – or rather the Bible – ticks all the boxes of the issues that ought to concern us in Ireland today.
Ken Costa is a former chairman of Lazard International, a major investment bank and a committed Christian closely involved in St Paul’s Cathedral London. When some people recently dismissed the tented anti-capitalist group protesting in front of the Cathedral as wasters, Costa spoke out. He said that while there were “the usual suspects” among them there was also a large number of informed and articulate individuals whose objections were serious and whose ambitions were far from utopian. Tongue in cheek he suggested that St Paul, himself a tent-maker, would have been quite at home among the protesters.
He revealed that he had been asked by the Bishop of London to spearhead “an interactive dialogue” that will aim to bridge the differences between the protesters and the City. It will look at how the business world has managed “to slip its moral moorings” and explore ways of uniting the financial and the ethical. A worthy aim, but a difficult task.
Jean Vanier suggests what is required: “To grow is to emerge gradually from a land where our vision is limited, where we are seeking and governed by egotistical pleasure, by our sympathies and antipathies, to a land of unlimited horizons and universal love, where we will be open to every person and desire their happiness.”
– GORDON LINNEY