Thinking Anew:As the demonstrations began in Tehran, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that the election results were fair and the re-election of President Ahmadinejad was a divine intervention.
Many people, especially in the western world, do not agree with the pupreme leader when he invokes God’s name as having played a role in the election.
We in the western world have difficulty with a state that is a mix of democracy and theocracy. Having said that, Ireland was not too far from being a theocratic state not too long ago.
But anyone who invokes God’s name is inevitably going to make us nervous and call into question what is being said. What does it mean to say we speak the Word of God?
It is an idea that constantly engages society.
In tomorrow’s Gospel we read how Jesus sent out his disciples giving them authority to preach in his name.
“He made a tour around the villages, teaching. Then he summoned the Twelve and began to send them out in pairs, giving them authority over the unclean spirits.” (Mark 6: 7)
And in the first reading we see what the prophet Amos said to Amaziah: “I was a shepherd and looked after sycamores: but it was Yahweh who took me from herding the flock, and Yahweh who said, ‘Go prophesy to my people Israel’. So listen to the word of Yahweh.” Amos 7: 14 – 16). Both writers and texts are part of the Bible and are considered the Word of God.
Many religions, including the Christian, Islam, Judaic or Hindu tradition, make God’s word central to their belief system. Yet we all are only too well aware of the damage and evil perpetrated in God’s name.
Anyone who rushes into using God’s name in detailed human affairs has to be treated with great scepticism. History tells us very clearly it is extraordinarily dangerous to “play around” with the word of God.
Too many villains and demagogues have done it and still do it. It’s done within the confines of all religions, Christianity, Islam, Judaism or Hinduism. None is immune from the excesses of what we call “fundamentalism”, though it often strays very far from the fundamental tenets of the faith professed. But completely ignoring God can also lead to questionable conclusions.
The perennial question must be – how do we discover or how do we discern the Word of God and then live it out in our lives?
Surely the journey has to be linked with goodness and truth and beauty? Within the Christian tradition it is said that God is goodness and truth and beauty. Ultimate perfection is to be found in God and it is our life-long privilege and challenge to grow ever closer to those transcendentals.
Every religion genuinely believes that it has the “fullness” of truth when it comes to understanding and appreciating God.
It is most likely that someone born into a Dublin family will be Christian, at least in name, whereas someone born in Tehran will be Muslim.
We take the Ten Commandments as a template for good living.
One can easily develop a restricted understanding of the reality of God. As humans we tend to categorise and compartmentalise the objects of our thinking. God is away beyond that and it is impossible for us to “drag God down” to our way of thinking. That does not stop us from speaking of God or attempting to paint pictures of the Divine. But every word we say and picture we paint of God is done in terms of analogy.
While in recent years there has been a tendency within Christianity to stress the immanence or pervasiveness of God, it is also important to see God as a God “out there” who is transcendent, and who allows us the freedom to do good and indeed wrong.
But every time we do good, we are bound to make more real the presence of God in our world. We have the potential to do good, no matter what our faith is.
As Christians we dare use God’s name. We speak about the divine and believe that God has given us Christ and the Holy Spirit. We believe that God is present in the world in an all-mysterious way. And every time we do good and search for truth and beauty, whether we are Christian or not, we are unfolding the presence of God in the world.
To that we can truly say Alleluia.
– MC