Thinking Anew:STANDING at the graveside of Seathrún Céitinn in Tubrid Cemetery, I looked across at the ruins of a late 18th-century church. Standing as I was in the ruins of a 15th-century church it didn't take long to understand the fate of faith in the dereliction of invincible stone. At different times these solid buildings had served a need, declined and were abandoned to natural decay.
In earlier times, people came to these places and prayed. They desired something that was good, and worked together as a community to build a common purpose. They asked for protection from poverty, for a good harvest and for the health for their families. Ironically the things we pray for most are the most potent enemies of faith. When we are rich, fed and healthy we quickly forget God.
Faith in God is struggling for survival in our time. The convenient fact that the source of all life and goodness reputedly made the world in six days provides adequate proof that there is no God for a sated population.
This common dismissal of Genesis forgets the wisdom in the story of creation. God said “Let there be light” and the world exploded into being.
We still believe that the world came into existence in a flash; we simply see that as the wisdom of 40 years rather than of 4,000 years.
And many believe this because it suits them to believe it. It helps them to avoid the claim that every person is created in the image and likeness of God. Through our increasing intellect we learned how to sin. Then God re-created us and, in Christ, took on our image and likeness.
Images are important. Rosaries have joined the cross and the star of David as mere shapes, devoid of meaning in cheap trinket jewellery. Buddhist statuettes, candles and joss-sticks adorn many homes. The external symbols of faith abound but like the crumbling churches of Tubrid they are dead memories of something else, devoid of their meaning. Christianity, Buddhism and all other world religions are lifestyles not therapies.
Meditation is a popular way of unwinding after a stressful day at work. But that is not a spiritual practice. Rosaries, images, icons and symbols are aids to focusing meditation onto the meaning of what it is to be created in the image and likeness of God. In pondering the underlying goodness of all things it seeks balance, enlightenment and reform. Most importantly it changes the way we view the world, the people in it and even our very selves.
The 40 days that Jesus spent in the desert were a preparation for the work he would do to revolutionise religious thought. During Lent we echo his preparation as we also seek to revolutionise our world. Times may change; institutions rise and crumble, economies gain and lose, friends come and go; but the deep-rooted desire for good remains powerful in every human heart.
Headlines highlight the existence of news, but understanding can only come from reading the full article and reflecting on it afterwards. Sound-bites lead many people into a world of simple solutions. We often tend to pick a policy or a position in the belief that this alone will solve every ill.
Frustration, panic and anger can often be a driving force. Maybe that is why human institutions and economies rise and fall so easily. Good images fail when they bear no likeness to the truth they portray. Finding that likeness is the work of faith, the daring of hope and the passion of love that have survived the highs and lows of churches, societies, nations and economies.
Look before you leap; pray before you practice!
– FMacE