chris@mcdonnell83.freeserve.co.uk Previous articles by Chris
September 5, 2012
Chris McDonnell, UK
The
place we call home
A
dwelling is a place we leave on our many journeys and it is where we return for
rest, relaxation, security and recreation. It is where we are able to create our
own personal space, somewhere where our identity is recognisable in the
artefacts of our day-to-day existence. The rooms and their furnishing, the
family pictures and the ornaments, all contribute to making our dwelling a
personal, lived-in, space.
That
such a space should be accorded the description “sacred” may, to some
people, be a misnomer but if it is in our dwelling that the sacred nature of the
mystery of our life is encouraged to mature, then our homes are indeed Sacred
Dwellings.
And
our church is such a dwelling. It is a
home that we value, that when we journey out, is there awaiting our
return, it is familiar and it is family.
Not
that everything is smooth all the time. There are many disagreements,
frustrations and problems amongst the numerous joys and blessings.
But it is our home.
We
are living in one of those turbulent times and in these days, we mourn the
passing of Cardinal Carlo Martini, one who recognised more than most the
stresses and strains of the age, yet remained faithful to his family. May he
rest in the peace of the Lord.
Those
of us who have still to complete that journey could not do better than to follow
his example of Christian Witness. To question according to conscience for the
good of the church the circumstances that we experience, to raise such voices in
charity and understanding and to move forward together as pilgrims seeking the
Lord is part of our personal story.
Leaving
our home, whatever problems we may experience, whatever issues may arise, is
not, in the end, a solution.
Thomas
Merton in a letter to Czeslaw Milosz, the Polish poet and Nobel prize winner,
wrote this in 1968.
“You
can say absolutely nothing about the Church that will shock me. If I stay with
the Church it is out of a disillusioned love, and with a realization that I
myself could not be happy outside, though I have no guarantee of being happy
inside either. In effect, my 'happiness' does not depend on any institution or
any establishment. As for you, you are part of my 'Church' of friends who are in
many ways more important to me than the institution..."
A
powerful statement indeed, but the words of a man, honest in his appraisal of
his home and willing to keep going whatever the difficulties. It was at the end
of that year that his own journey came to an unexpected end with his death in