STEPPING BEYOND Teaching can be very frustrating. What one thinks one teaches is sometimes not exactly what the student learns. I have many experiences but I remember one in particular. I was teaching a junior certificate year. I prepared the classes well, the subject: Saint Patrick. The examination at the end of this unit on the course related the following: ‘Saint Patrick, got browned off on the mountain, so he went down to Dublin and took the plane back to England.’ Maybe it’s a good airline advertisement but not quite historically accurate. Of course the student was operating from his understanding of how life worked and any teacher knows that it can be difficult to get students to understand history i.e. appreciate that there is a past and how people lived in that past. It can be hard for any of us to stand outside our culture. To move beyond the familiar, to step outside our comfort zone is not a primary instinct. In this regard Saint Patrick was an inspiration. We know from his story that he stepped outside the familiar both in a voluntary and involuntary manner on a number of occasions. He walked comfortably in the culture of the Irish as he preached the Gospel. ACCEPTING OTHERS I remember a professor of Multicultural Studies proposing that faith is essentially eighty percent culture and twenty percent God. We may argue with the percentages but I think there is some essential truth in what he says. When we look at Saint Patrick’s mission we note he never denied the fact that people had a sense of the presence of God before he arrived. It appears that he built on an understanding of the infinite that the Celtic people had rather than undermine or replace that sense of God. In fact one of the stories around the origin of the Celtic cross reflects this. Some archaeologists suggest that Saint Patrick put a cross over the image of the sun god that people worshipped. The image of the cross over the sun becomes the precursor of the Celtic Cross. The Gaelic language reinforces the belief that people were aware of God in their every day. Expressions like ‘Dia Duit’, ‘Beannacht De Leat’ display a God who was evident in peoples culture. CULTURE A faith that tries to exclude culture and preach a Gospel that does not take account of people’s stories or their life situations is not going to succeed. We also know that a culture that tries to suppress belief will also perish. History reveals these facts to us over and over again. A definition of culture that I have found useful is as follows ‘By culture I mean a repertoire of socially transmitted and intra generationally generated ideas about how to live and make judgements, both in general terms and in regard to specific domains of life’. This is as broad as how a nation sees itself and as specific as how to make a good Irish coffee or the ingredients for good brown bread. CULTURE AND THE IRISH ABROAD Those who have served in the Irish Emigrant Chaplaincy which marks it’s fifty years of service next year understand the relationship that culture has with faith. The rituals and rites that one grew up with are very important when one is away from home. Sometimes the host Church may not be able to understand and provide the culturally sensitive ministry that is required in various situations. A resulting effect is that emigrants can often find it hard to find God in their new community. They find it hard to settle. Once the novelty wears off they can often crave the familiar. Over time they begin to experience God in their new communities. The presence of an emigrant chaplain provides a familiarity and security that can ease that transition or support in times of need. One of our new projects at the Irish Bishops' Commission for Emigrants focuses on the elderly Irish in the UK It is being welcomed by many agencies as it is attending to exactly this need in many elderly Irish who are without any living relative. In the evening of life we are asked to piece together our past as we make our way home to God. To be with one who understands eases this examination and transition. Our SIA campaign this year encourages us to reach out to elderly relatives that may be living abroad. This Saint Patrick’s Day encourages us to reach out and make a difference. Maybe we have an elderly relative living abroad that we could write to, phone or even in this age of easy and cheap travel we could make a visit. I remember one priest in America being very touched to see a parishioner’s three brothers in the front seat for the funeral. They had come all the way from Ireland. However I won’t go into how shocked he was when he discovered that they never visited their brother while he was alive! (For details of our campaign see www.catholiccommunications.ie./sia ) CULTURE AND THE NEW IRISH The story of Irish emigration is a great resource to us as we try to understand how we minister to the many who now come to our shores. Following the inspiration of Saint Patrick we have to accept their faith has been nurtured in a different culture. Their culture has validity, it has to be recognised and cherished if it is to grow. As in the case of Irish emigrants particularly when they are living away from home. They have a ‘right to rites’. They have the right to be ministered to in a way that understands and respects the culture in which they came to know God. Integration cannot be forced. It is at the pace of each and every individual and each and every ethnic group. As people choose to make their home here we are asked to develop a culture of welcome. This is more than a handshake at the sign of peace. It is about institutions making the effort to embrace the new. In this lies great opportunity and hope for the future of our Irish Church. COMMON CULTURE To give a heartfelt welcome poses challenges. Irish emigration has stories of great welcomes by host nations and some stories that reveal prejudice and bias. A sister told me recently that when she was a superior of a community she noticed that the newcomer to the community would inevitably bring challenge and change. She added that most of them were both necessary and welcome. Archbishop Diarmuid Martin in his address to the Conference on ‘The Common Good in an Unequal World’ used the phrase ‘protagonists of a common culture.’ This is apt, be it a new member of a community, a new baby in the home or immigrants to our shores, they are protagonists for a culture that we share. Indeed scripture tells us that the stranger is often the protagonists for a more Divinely focused culture. We all strive for a culture that can embrace difference as on the Day of Pentecost. It is our hope that the culture that emerges will reflect the values of Christ and his teachings. CONCLUSION Whether we care for emigrants or immigrants Saint Patrick can inspire us - Firstly let us follow his example and be accepting of the culture of the migrant. Somewhere within the confusion there is a spark of the Divine that we can build on. The one who arrives is crying out for a welcome. This is a new opportunity for evangelisation. If we fail as a host nation or as a sending nation we fail not the newly arrived but we fail in our mission as Church. - Secondly, Saint Patrick looked to the Christ of the Gospels for his inspiration. In a new place, in a strange land there is no better prayer than his breastplate. No wonder he clung to it. With this focus he felt secure and strong. The prayer reveals how that security and strength came from a Christ cantered spirituality. - Thirdly and finally, we know that Saint Patrick inspired people to move beyond their comfort zone. He encouraged them to cross new boundaries. Missionaries visited new lands. They made themselves at home in new cultures. They became protagonists for a common culture that focused on the Gospel served the common good. Today’s challenge to be missionary is not trans national but trans cultural. This is a greater challenge as it starts exactly where I live. The following may be used to conclude of as a Communion Reflection Prayer for the Faithful by Saint Patrick May the Strength of God guide us. May the Power of God preserve us. May the Wisdom of God instruct us. May the Hand of God protect us. May the Way of God direct us. May the Shield of God defend us. May the Angels of God guard us. - Against the snares of the evil one. May Christ be with us! May Christ be before us! May Christ be in us, Christ be over all! May Thy Grace, Lord, Always be ours, This day, O Lord, and forevermore. Amen. ends |