It's presumptuous to tell you who is the most important person in your world. But allow me to presume...!
It's not one of the usual suspects -- mom, dad, spouse, child, significant other; nor even Bill Gates, Donald Trump or Lady GaGa. When all is said and done, the person you most likely turn to in the epochal moments of your life is the clergy. Priest, minister, rabbi, imam, Yes, even if you are a non-believer. Why? Because somehow you feel these are the people who have some kind of linkage with the eternal, the transcendent, the important. Well, at least this is what they're supposed to be devoting their lives to.
Not a sign of our weakness. Simply of our humanness. It's all very well and good to sit over fine wines probing the existential issues of living in a godless world populated by only faceless cosmic laws. However, when our nicely sewn ideologies suddenly burst at the seams under the pressure of some unexpected joy or shift or death...well, that's when the child in us looks for the parent in a member of the clergy.
This is not illogical of us. Nor irrational of us. Nor is it some genetic aberration. No matter how confident today's articulate disbelievers write about the "final freedom" (AKA, cutting loose from our primitive religiosity), there is a deep-rooted part of us that asserts itself in turbulent times. The part that feels more than thinks, intuits more than intellectualizes, that seeks the cocoon more than the clouds.
Why else are members of the clergy standing there with us at births? Weddings? Illnesses? Deaths? For most of us, it just feels right. And thus -- to paraphrase -- if it feels so right, how can it be so wrong?
You'll pardon a sudden little epiphany here. If the psycho-spiritual support of clergy can give strength to the individual, might we extrapolate and suggest the same could become true of the group? If we can find -- if only temporarily -- something good and strong in those who have devoted their lives to life, might it be possible that this very same goodness and strength can become a beacon of light in the darkness of existence...?
Frankly, it seems foolish to turn off any light in the dark.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I do like the way you use English [or should I say American ?] anyway, there is a great deal of truth in your comments, and even the people who say, "There is no God", us his name, even if under their breath, when in trouble, or when they die. Maybe, the idea is, that if you are dying, you don't need a enemy, so lets not take any chances!
ReplyDeleteHowever, in my time, in Germany between 1941 to 1946, All the 'Ministers of God', would have been thrown out of the SS, for being too nasty.
The most nasty of all were some Nuns. For some reason, I had to be left in Germany when my Mother left for England, and I was left in an orphanage. The place was full of very disturbed children, survivors from the camps, and many did not have names...only the numbers on their arms, and also German children who had lost their families. To be fair, it must have been very difficult for the Nuns as well. Their Country had lost a War, and food was short, and they had more children to deal with than they knew how to deal with..But, they were bad, and very nasty. They seemed to enjoy using straps and bits of wood to beat children, and often drew blood.
The Priests were as bad, at least the one's I met...they were so 'full of God', there was no room for living people.
Later in my life, I met some 'good' Ministers of God, and they were kind, and helpfull to a lost and mixed up child, as I was by then, but they always thought of 'God' first, and the child next.
I believe, without any doubt at all, that there is something higher than mankind, call it fate, God, or any other name you like, but there is something that gives comfort, and in some odd way, guides us on a path of life. We can ignore it of course, and take our own path, but we know, deep inside, that we have taken the wrong one.
And as you said, Jack 'It seems foolish to turn off any light in the dark', and as I tend to say, 'There is a Light at the End of the Tunnel, but sometimes, it may be a train heading towards you'.
Alfred ~ We shared those same WWII years, from different ends of the Atlantic. That's probably why we now share some of the same assumptions here. And while many clergy do fall short of their mission, I still want to believe in the mission.
ReplyDeleteSo -- together, lets keep looking for the light!