Becoming a self
Jesus continued: There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them. Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. Then he came into himself, and he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ So he got up and went to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best [priestly] robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and make the sacrifice. Let us celebrate a festival. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate. Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has sacrificed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’ The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’ ‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’
(Luke 15: 11-32)
One of the most striking moments that I experienced during my training was when the leader of a shelter for recovering alcoholics came to address us. One of the students asked him whether it was important to give money to the homeless – many of whom were clearly suffering from alcoholism – whom they saw in the underpass when they went into town on their free day. His answer was almost brutal in its clarity: He advised the students to give money if it made them feel better, or save it if it meant that could treat themselves to something nice. The decisive thing, according to him, was that they could pray for something very specific: that when the person they encountered came to himself, perhaps in the gutter, being kicked by skinheads, he would have enough strength left to act on the fervent wish of his heart, to change his life. It became clear that he was speaking from experience.
The younger son in the parable still has the strength to acknowledge the hubris that has led him to this moment, his thoughtlessness. This is summed up in the Greek text, which says literally: ‘and then he went into himself’. His long outer journey, which has brought him to humiliation and starvation, has ended with the journey to his own interior.
This is what the father recognises when he greets his starving, stinking son like a king, running towards him and honouring him with the sandals, cloak, and the ring of office. Within the husk of this human being, something unique and precious has been formed.
Gerard Manley Hopkins expresses this dual nature, in which we all share:
In a flash, at a trumpet crash, I am all at once what Christ is, | since he was what I am, and
(That Nature is a Heraclitean Fire and of the comfort of the Resurrection)
This Jack, joke, poor potsherd, | patch, matchwood, immortal diamond,
Is immortal diamond.
– Tom Ravetz
There will be no reading group for those who have died on Saturday, 3rd August. The next reading group and service for those who have died will take place on Saturday, 7th September.
Tom Ravetz is attending the Anthroposophical Society summer conference this weekend. Revd Roger Druitt will celebrate the service on Sunday, 4th August.
Open Forum, Sunday, 11th August at 11.30am
Victoria Storey has sent two questions for us to consider:
- Can machines develop consciousness and if so can they then develop morality?
If they cannot develop morality then what or whom is guiding them? - How as human beings do we stand up to this possibility of machines becoming conscious without a moral compass?
- What is the bit of Gold in the human heart and where does it come from?
Please let Tom know if you have any more questions.
Nataliia Shatna is on annual leave from 1st-31st August.
Tom Ravetz
Diary
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