The College Principal, Professor Peter Finn, recently had the privilege of speaking at the launch of a book by Brother Denis Gleeson.
“Unbinding Christian Faith: Free to Be” is described by Dr Daire Keogh (author of “Edmund Ignatius Rice”) as a publication which proclaims Jesus and His message in a fresh and challenging way.
In introducing the book at the Westcourt Centre in Belfast, (a place which Brother Gleeson helped to develop), Professor Finn focussed on the central idea of the book which is that of a “Lazarus experience, a metaphysical coming into new light”.
Brother Gleeson then made a most inspirational presentation, which you can read below:
Unbinding Christian Faith: Free to Be
Everyone, I think, has some favorite lines from the Scriptures. I love these lines from Psalm 19:
1 The heavens are telling the glory of God;
and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.
2 Day to day pours forth speech,
and night to night declares knowledge.
3 There is no speech, nor are there words; their voice is not heard;
4 yet their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.
The message here is that God’s voice, God’s presence is to be found deep within us, in the events of our lives and in all of creation. However, these lines actually serve to remind me that for the most part, we are not really listening, we are not really tuned in to the reality of God’s presence. There is a spectacular symphony being played for us, for each one of us, within each one of us and our receivers are not turned on. Why is this so?
Yes, we are busy people but that really is more an excuse than a reason. True, the culture that we live in is hostile and there is much to distract us that can be shallow and superficial. True also, that the Church is in crisis and can be found wanting in leadership, inspiration and imagination. However, my feeling is that we are, ourselves, our own worst enemies.
We trip over ourselves and often tie ourselves in knots with presumptions about the divine, unhealthy interpretations of religion, misunderstandings around the essentials of spirituality and a flawed familiarity with the Gospel. To a large extent, then, the bonds that bind us and restrict our spiritual growth are self-made. We are responsible for our own spiritual well being but we get in our own way, or more correctly, we get in God’s way. For God would joyously do all the work for us, if only we would allow it. Our lives would be so much different if only we could let God in. The music could really begin.
Humanity’s perspective on life and creation changed when first we saw the photograph of the planet earth taken from space. Having seen the blue marble, the pale blue dot, our worldview could never quite be the same again. Br. Philip Pinto remarked in an address, however, that Jesus never saw that image. The great theologian Thomas Aquinas never saw that image. Copernicus and Galileo never saw that image. The bishops who gathered for the second Vatican Council never saw that image. That image changed us and so too, for example, do the photographs we now receive from the Hubble telescope.
If the images from the Hubble telescope teach us anything, they teach us this that we know very little. They teach us that many of the certainties around cosmology, creation, science, God and religion, that we grew up with are not so certain after all. In fact, there really is no such thing as an unquestioning, comfortable certainty. Instead, there is randomness, uncertainty and constant change.
Unquestioning and comfortable certainty belongs to those who advocate religious fundamentalism, secular fundamentalism, or scientific fundamentalism. The rest of us struggle to live with the questions. And the trick, as always, is to ask the right question. So, rather than ask, for example, what is the meaning of suffering and why does God allow it, I can ask, perhaps, how I can learn to live with suffering and how did Jesus live with the suffering that he faced in life.
Parents and educators do well when they teach children to struggle with the questions that disturb them and give them a context and tradition within which their struggle can constructively take place. Others have struggled with the big questions before us and we can learn much from their wisdom, if we can rouse ourselves to explore the rich spiritual literature that is available to us.
Our understanding of life and of creation constantly evolves. In response to that, our understanding of the Gospel and of Mystery has also to evolve. It must do so. We cannot freeze-frame our understanding of the mystery of God or our understanding of the mystery of Jesus. Mystery demands exploration. Mystery demands ever new and ever fresh articulation. What was sufficient and adequate for our parents, will not be either sufficient or adequate for their grandchildren.
We must not allow ourselves to become the transition generation that fails to pass on adequately the Good News about life and about living. Jesus came to tell us that God was to be found in all of life and that the fullness of our human life was to be found in God. We need to have the courage to say that aloud. Before we can do so, however, we need to unravel the bonds we have woven around the message.
We need to unbind our Christian faith. If we tune in and can listen to the music in our own hearts and all around us we will be better placed to help train the ear of the next generation. They, of course, can identify a harmony for themselves but we can make things so much easier for them.
We can begin by seeking to open up honest and respectful questions and conversations about our understanding and experience of our own humanity, a contemporary reading of the Gospel and a spiritual response to the pressing social and moral issues of our time.
Everyone, I think, has some favorite lines from the Scriptures. I love these lines from Psalm 19:
1 The heavens are telling the glory of God;
and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.
2 Day to day pours forth speech,
and night to night declares knowledge.
3 There is no speech, nor are there words; their voice is not heard;
4 yet their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.
The message here is that God’s voice, God’s presence is to be found deep within us, in the events of our lives and in all of creation. However, these lines actually serve to remind me that for the most part, we are not really listening, we are not really tuned in to the reality of God’s presence. There is a spectacular symphony being played for us, for each one of us, within each one of us and our receivers are not turned on. Why is this so?
Yes, we are busy people but that really is more an excuse than a reason. True, the culture that we live in is hostile and there is much to distract us that can be shallow and superficial. True also, that the Church is in crisis and can be found wanting in leadership, inspiration and imagination. However, my feeling is that we are, ourselves, our own worst enemies.
We trip over ourselves and often tie ourselves in knots with presumptions about the divine, unhealthy interpretations of religion, misunderstandings around the essentials of spirituality and a flawed familiarity with the Gospel. To a large extent, then, the bonds that bind us and restrict our spiritual growth are self-made. We are responsible for our own spiritual well being but we get in our own way, or more correctly, we get in God’s way. For God would joyously do all the work for us, if only we would allow it. Our lives would be so much different if only we could let God in. The music could really begin.
Humanity’s perspective on life and creation changed when first we saw the photograph of the planet earth taken from space. Having seen the blue marble, the pale blue dot, our worldview could never quite be the same again. Br. Philip Pinto remarked in an address, however, that Jesus never saw that image. The great theologian Thomas Aquinas never saw that image. Copernicus and Galileo never saw that image. The bishops who gathered for the second Vatican Council never saw that image. That image changed us and so too, for example, do the photographs we now receive from the Hubble telescope.
If the images from the Hubble telescope teach us anything, they teach us this that we know very little. They teach us that many of the certainties around cosmology, creation, science, God and religion, that we grew up with are not so certain after all. In fact, there really is no such thing as an unquestioning, comfortable certainty. Instead, there is randomness, uncertainty and constant change.
Unquestioning and comfortable certainty belongs to those who advocate religious fundamentalism, secular fundamentalism, or scientific fundamentalism. The rest of us struggle to live with the questions. And the trick, as always, is to ask the right question. So, rather than ask, for example, what is the meaning of suffering and why does God allow it, I can ask, perhaps, how I can learn to live with suffering and how did Jesus live with the suffering that he faced in life.
Parents and educators do well when they teach children to struggle with the questions that disturb them and give them a context and tradition within which their struggle can constructively take place. Others have struggled with the big questions before us and we can learn much from their wisdom, if we can rouse ourselves to explore the rich spiritual literature that is available to us.
Our understanding of life and of creation constantly evolves. In response to that, our understanding of the Gospel and of Mystery has also to evolve. It must do so. We cannot freeze-frame our understanding of the mystery of God or our understanding of the mystery of Jesus. Mystery demands exploration. Mystery demands ever new and ever fresh articulation. What was sufficient and adequate for our parents, will not be either sufficient or adequate for their grandchildren.
We must not allow ourselves to become the transition generation that fails to pass on adequately the Good News about life and about living. Jesus came to tell us that God was to be found in all of life and that the fullness of our human life was to be found in God. We need to have the courage to say that aloud. Before we can do so, however, we need to unravel the bonds we have woven around the message.
We need to unbind our Christian faith. If we tune in and can listen to the music in our own hearts and all around us we will be better placed to help train the ear of the next generation. They, of course, can identify a harmony for themselves but we can make things so much easier for them.
We can begin by seeking to open up honest and respectful questions and conversations about our understanding and experience of our own humanity, a contemporary reading of the Gospel and a spiritual response to the pressing social and moral issues of our time.
This book attempts to open up for us and to engage us in such conversations. Not just for our own sake, but for the sake of the children for whom we bear responsibility, we need to have such conversations - beginning in the family home and continuing in our schools and in our parishes. If the book succeeds in raising questions and interest and making a contribution to respectful conversations it would have been well worthwhile. Who knows where any conversation can lead?