of gods and men

conference  #5


every conference begins with this prayer




Prayer to the Holy Spirit



Come Holy Spirit,
 Fill the hearts of your faithful
enkindle in them the fire of your love.

Send forth your Spirit
 and they shall be created,
And You shall renew
the face of the earth.

O, God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit,
Did instruct the hearts of the faithful,
Grant that by the same Holy Spirit
we may be truly wise and ever enjoy His consolations,
Through Christ Our Lord.

Amen







brothers i want to state this again i said it this morning
but i want to say it again now listen very carefully
we are beholden to this notion we must encounter it
with courage and real fearlessness

ATHEISM IS A REAL CHALLENGE TO OUR IMAGINATION



yeah big deal i thought

the master went on to explain the 17th century in britain
the rupture the tearing asunder of the imagination
in favour of the cognitive truth the scientific objective statement
stated boldly and without aplomb there was this attraction to this
dry stale scientism clean laboratory scientism which did not permit much room for imagination

now it's true that early text books hired illustrators

our task and i say this with utmost seriousness our task is to
make the inarguable case for a return to the imagination
for a re-enlivening of the imagination
as it has flourished at other times in the  14th century for instance
the twelfth  century was very imaginative the 6th century from one point of view was
richly imaginative the second into the third centuries were hot moments of rich
christian imagination
we are due for another return
to the healthy hardy catholic enchanted splurging of god's unstoppable flourishing
imagination
we must re-wed TRUTH AND IMAGINATION  teach them to dance with one another again




we must make the divorce null and void



it is important to note at this time that the foundational idea of this conference
was the film      OF GODS AND MEN    in all that he said he returned time and again to the
film reminding us for we had all or almost all of us watched it

so he presents us with the phenomenon of the end of the movie when he watched it with a friend and he observed that nobody in the theatre moved till well after the credits were finished and he could palpabley feel the conflicting emotion in the room    ---    Was this a triumph of evil?


the mind returns to the final scene when they are being led away from the monastery in northern algeria as they walked up the last mountain together they were helping one another along they were stopping to assist the walking of a slower brother much as they would if they were out for a walk
the movie portrayed in a most successful way the  TRIUMPH OF HUMAN LOVE  even in the face of death


courage chesterton says is really contradiciton in terms it is the desire to live and the willingness to die all at once

the truth of christ's passion is in both the BEAUTY and the HORROR
we all of us find it difficult to stay focussed upon it for too long

it is estimated that a quarter of a billion christians are being oppressed tortured killed threatened this very moment in the world.... there is a real hatred in the streets for christianity

for some reason some people respond to a very beautiful message with venom and hatred
yet
how are we to make the effort to always show the very best of christianity
the gifts the treasures we've been granted how do we reflect those back into the world we live in



more martyrs in the 20th century than in any century before.... way more

a good question to ask oneself

is there anything for anyone for whom i am  prepared to die ?

for  it only stands to christian reason  -    you can't hang onto your life


one scene from the movie when two brothers are engaged in
the negotiations of staying or leaving the monastery
one brother states
i didn't come to the monastery to get killed
the response is pure

no brother but you did
you gave your life away completely
when you  stated your vows

learning how to die and learning to be oneself in the community
are like inhaling and exhaling

how to find ways for god to become incarnate in my life in the way that i'm living it

it is a very catholic instinct to attain to friendships with very talented people
the long long tradition of upholding the best of art the best of craft
herein is our answer
we cultivate a truth which transcends the narrow demands of science
are they believers well it doesn't' matter to engage artists in the matters of the religious imagination is to present them with the possibility of belief and the challenge to find a way to express something of that belief

and quite possibly can be the ingenious improvement of science this is what wendell berry thinks anyway

if the scientists take on the minds of the artists
to risk to be creative instead of purely didactic or objectively cognitive or dangerously experimental

thomas aquinas is rich because of his broadness his ability to take all
of science all of literature all of philosophy all of poetry
even profound examples from agriculture and weave them into
a tapestry of thought
(we neglect it to our own demise)

it is the christian message of love which will mend the rift
between imagination and what we like to call reasoned truth

the film     of gods and men        shows this poignantly
the vivid gestures of brotherly love in christ
at the end of the story are set against the impending horror of death
and in that they completely trump the mass murder

there is a love that is much too powerful for the banal passions
which lead to violence


amen



















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