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New Year and a New Route – a reflection from Justice and Peace Scotland chair Jill Kent as we begin 2021.

Well, 2021 has finally arrived. During the past few weeks I have heard many people mention that they could not wait for the new year. But now that it is here, everything has not magically changed with the turning of the calendar. It is still dark and cold outside and the news of the pandemic has got worse, not better. So how do we keep our heads up?

Maybe we can reflect on the messages that we listened to throughout the Christmas season. The great light came into the world! In the past year I have certainly been inspired by the many people who stepped into the darkness when they saw a need in their own community. I was touched by the generosity I saw all around me. From food deliveries to people checking on neighbours and vulnerable friends and relatives, I witnessed many acts of kindness.

Then the Gospel from this past Sunday recounted the Magi following the star and being told in a dream to return by a different route. Return by a different route! That may be the message that we need to hear.

This pandemic is not over yet. There are still great needs out there. When my friends and family are all doing fine, maybe it is time for me to look a little further. Perhaps now is the time to leave the comforts of the people I know and understand and work to encounter and understand those who are different from me. In walking a different route, I may be able to make a real difference in someone’s life as well as my own. There may be someone who is lonely or hungry or feeling other pressures, hoping and praying that someone will hear his or her cry. 

But what different route should I take? The Church gives us some good guidance. Fratelli Tutti, Pope Francis’ most recent encyclical, is full of ideas. Pope Francis has boldly written down a vision challenging us to care for each other as brothers and sisters, recognising our common humanity and treating everyone with dignity. It also calls us to respond to the many people in need due to a wide range of circumstances.

Justice and Peace Scotland just so happens to have a very similar vision for our Church.

My parish has a Justice and Peace group that I have joined with others to pray, learn and share ideas over the years. If you are interested there may be one in your area too. It is a place where you can find support and friendship with others who also want to make a difference. But if not, there are many ideas and resources on the Justice and Peace Scotland website to get you started.

So my challenge to myself, and maybe you too if you are interested, is this: Take a step, no matter how small, and start walking along a new route that will make the world a better place in 2021.

In this season of goodwill, Sr Isabel Smyth of the Scottish Bishops’ Conference Interreligious Dialogue Committee reflects on Pope Francis’ encyclical Fratelli Tutti.  Weekly blog.

Pope Francis’ latest encyclical, Fratelli Tutti, begins with the story of St Francis of Assisi’s meeting with Sultan Malek al-Kamil of Egypt in the 13th century during the fifth crusade. Whatever St Francis’ intentions were, the two were men of peace, recognised each other as such, and spent time conversing about the things of God.

The Sultan had offered peace to the Christian army five times and sought peaceful coexistence with Christians.  Francis had urged the crusader not to attack the Muslims during the siege of Damietta. After this encounter, Francis encouraged his brothers not to engage in arguments or disputes with Muslims and non-believers, but to use opportunities to witness to their own faith by actions rather than words. 

Fratelli Tutti ends with another Christian’s encounter with Islam. Charles de Foucauld lived as a hermit in the Sahara desert in Algeria among the Tuareg, a Berber ethnic group in North Africa. He was murdered there and is considered to be a Christian martyr. His approach was like that of St Francis, living close to and sharing the life of the people. He preached, not through sermons but through the example of his life, studying the language and culture of the Tuareg and publishing the first Tuareg-French dictionary.  He was challenged and impressed by the Tuaregs’ faith.  

He wrote, “The sight of their faith, of these people living in God’s constant presence, afforded me a glimpse into something greater and truer than earthly preoccupations.”   In Fratelli Tutti, Pope Francis describes him as one who “made a journey of transformation towards feeling a brother to all”.  

An example of this brotherhood is seen in the friendship between Pope Francis and Ahmed el- Tayeb, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar University in Cairo.  They signed a document entitled Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together at an interfaith gathering in Abu Dhabi in February 2019.  Pope Francis explicitly acknowledges the encouragement of the Grand Imam in the writing of Fratelli Tutti, which develops some of the great themes raised in the Human Fraternity document. In that document, the two religious leaders declared “God has created all human beings equal in rights, duties and dignity, and has called them to live together as brothers and sisters.”  

This Christmas, a time of goodwill to all, nothing could be more inspiring than Fratelli Tutti – urging us all to reach out and encounter our brothers and sisters of all faiths and none.

The prayers that conclude the encyclical are a final interfaith moment for me. One is an ecumenical Christian prayer and the other is a prayer to the Creator that can be said standing side by side with our brothers and sisters of other faiths, particularly the Abrahamic faiths. In the face of the crises that face all of humanity, why would we not want to pray: 

May our hearts be open to all the peoples and nations of the earth. 

May we recognise the goodness and beauty that you have sown in each of us,

and thus forge bonds of unity, common projects and shared dreams. Amen

This blog has been adapted from the original which can be found here www.interfaithjourneys.net 

What would Mother Earth say to us at this time of crisis if we gave her the chance? Sr Isabel Smyth writes the letter Mother Earth might pen.

I’ve been reading Active Hope, How to Face the Mess We’re in without Going Crazy, by Joanna Macey and Chris Johnstone. It encourages us to honour the pain of our world to bring about its transformation.  One exercise is to imagine what the Earth might say through us by writing a letter to ourselves. Here’s my attempt at the exercise.

“Dear Isabel
This is your mother Gaia writing.  I want you to know how precious you are to me and how dearly I love you. I have called you forth from the beginning of time, led you through many stages of evolutionary growth and given you form at this particular time in history.  And so, too, I love all your sisters and brothers whom I have watched over from that moment when humanity started on its evolutionary journey.  I have watched you make mistakes, develop new skills and aptitudes, cooperate and live in new ways, engage in deep philosophical debate, invent new and complex systems for living together and making sense of life.  I have watched you mature and reach for the stars.  But I have also watched you forget your origins and your place in this magnificent blue planet, which is unique in our wonderful solar system.

I have watched you forget that you are interrelated not just with other human beings but with all sentient creatures.  Together with them you are made of stardust - you depend on them for the health and wellbeing of our world.  You depend on the trees and plants for the very air you breathe. Without them, toxic gas would poison all life. Using other creatures and living things for your own good, you have forgotten your stewardship role. You have forgotten to work with nature rather than against it.  

I feel the pain of this so deeply. I hear the cries of extinct creatures and those for whom extinction threatens. I feel the pain of the Great Forests, cut down for profit; the use of fossil fuels that break the ozone layer.   My heart cries as I watch weather systems go awry.   My heart bleeds for you all. I fear for your future, especially when I look upon the joy and innocence of your children. 

Yet I have great trust in you and all humanity. Eyes have been opened to see things in a new light – recognising the interrelatedness of all life, seeing clearly how human actions can have consequences for good or for ill. So many are working together to turn this earth towards its true destiny in both big and small ways.  So recognise your beauty and power, your ability to do great things for the world in the way you live your moment by moment. Be encouraged by my love and desire for your future, my belief in you and support for the positive steps you take. 

I do not despair.  I trust you and know you can treat the earth with the love and respect it deserves. Listen to its cries, wonder at its beauty, tread its paths with gentleness and reverence, live life simply and joyfully. The future is in your hands.

With love 
Mother Gaia”

This blog has been adapted from the original which can be found here www.interfaithjourneys.net