LEAP OF IMAGINATION
A few years ago I stood at Cape Point wrapped in my private
thoughts as Japanese tourists clicked their cameras. I was thinking of the
sailing ships that rounded that treacherous cape of wrecks in the sixteenth
century and the people I revere who were on them. Francis Xavier was one.
Alessandro Valignano was another. Less well known than Xavier he was a star
organiser of the Jesuit missions in Japan and China. He left a description of
life on board those ships that beggars belief.
The ship was so packed people had to stand on deck in the
searing heat by day – they could be becalmed (at a standstill) on the ocean for
50 days - and sleep in the open during the cold at night. The food was scarce
and tasteless, the water foul. There was no way to wash so there was the stench
of clothes and bodies. Disease was rife and often half the passengers died.
Valignano remarks in conclusion; “it is extraordinary that so many Portuguese
seek to come to India each year … but they do.”
The migrants who try to cross the Mediterranean today are
driven by the same desire for a better life. In fact migration is as old as
history. The difference today is, not that we are packed into a fragile boat
but, that we are packed onto a fragile planet. We are running out of room, or
such is the perception. We do not yet know what Pope Francis will say in his
forthcoming letter on the environment but population pressure is certainly an
issue.
When we read the gospels and ponder Jesus’ command, “love
one another as I have loved you” we are forced to ask how this fits with our
reluctance, as the human family, to make room for one another. The planet
obviously has a limited capacity to sustain human life. Animal life, as we know,
has its own physical way of limiting numbers. But humans have to use
intelligent ways that accord with human dignity. How this can be done is a
question Europe’s governments are facing up to and they need all the help they
can get. It is more than likely they will pay attention to what Francis has to
say.
One of the pope’s sayings is; “God always forgives, men and
women sometimes forgive; nature never forgives.” We have not reached the point
where we are faced with nature’s harsh judgement. There is still plenty of
scope for us to open our hearts and our doors to others. We are not the first
generation to be faced with stark choices. The scriptures sometime give us
examples of huge leaps in imagination that people make. When Peter admitted
gentiles to baptism it may sound like a small thing to us. But for him and his
companions it was a highly contested decision. It signalled a complete break
with their Jewish roots.
So as the migrants continue to try to reach Europe despite
the dangers and the translators push to present the pope’s words in multiple
languages, we are called to pause and examine how we welcome people different
from us into our space.
10 April 2015 Easter
Sunday 6 B
Acts 10: 25…48 1
John 4:7-10 John15:9-17
