Sabbatical 9 (Two Popes)

Lesley and I spent last week at our apartment in Cumbria - more of that next time. We arrived back last Saturday, in time to go to Wigan on Sunday morning for the licensing of a good friend to her new post as an associate priest in a parish there. A new initiative is under way for the mission of the Church (of England) in Wigan, and I can see her having a significant role within that.

I  have been reading recently the work of two Popes, 1500 years apart! I have always wanted to read the epistles of Pope Gregory the Great (c.540-604, and Pope from 590). He it was who sent Augustine, later of Canterbury, to England at almost precisely the same time that Columba arrived on Iona (c.597). Thus the British Isles were evangelised in a kind of pincer movement, of  Romans from the south-east and Celts from the north-west. Gregory was Pope at a very turbulent time politically, following the break-up of the Roman Empire. There were violent incursions from the Lombards, who threatened the very gates of Rome, and Gregory struggled to gain authority in both secular and spiritual realms. Yet he had a pastoral heart, which is why he sent missionaries to England, hearing about her lapse into paganism. Once he had arrived, and people were becoming Christians, Augustine had a number of pastoral issues for which he sought the advice of the Pope. Several of these related to marriage: should clergy marry? can certain degrees of blood-relations marry each other? for example. Another related to how soon after child-birth a woman may enter church!...

The one that interested me most, however, concerned the temples of idol worship. Gregory's advice was that they should not be destroyed, but the idols within them should be. ...If these same temples are well built, it is needful that they should be transferred from the worship of idols to the service of the true God; that, when the people themselves see that these temples are not destroyed, they may put away error from their heart, and, knowing and adoring the true God, may have recourse with the more familiarity to the places they have been accustomed to. (Epistle LXXVI)

There is something humble and incarnational about this approach to mission. In a different tone and a very different era, Pope Francis writes with a similar outlook today. I just love his Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel)! He writes from the heart with a profound understanding of today's world and the human heart. For example, writing of city-life, he writes New cultures are constantly being born in these vast new expanses where Christians are no longer the customary interpreters or generators of meaning...This challenges us to imagine innovative spaces and possibilities for prayer and communion which are more attractive and meaningful for city dwellers.

Today, we may not have any obvious physical temples of idol worship (although maybe we could name a few?!), but that sense of the Christian faith inhabiting and purifying existing cultures provides an interesting comparison. Both popes challenge their readers to be bold and creative. Be prepared for more quotations from Evangelii Gaudium!