HEAVENLY WRESTLING

Jacob in Angelic combat

A little East of Jordan,
Evangelists record,
A Gymnast and an Angel
Did wrestle long and hard –

Till morning touching mountain –
And Jacob, waxing strong,
The Angel begged permission
To Breakfast – to return!

Not so, said cunning Jacob!
"I will not let thee go
Except thou bless me" – Stranger!
The which acceded to –

Light swung the silver fleeces
"Peniel" Hills beyond,
And the bewildered Gymnast
Found he had worsted God!

Emily Dickinson

The poem is based on this story from the Book of Genesis...

This left Jacob all alone in the camp, and a man came and wrestled with him until the dawn began to break. When the man saw that he would not win the match, he touched Jacob’s hip and wrenched it out of its socket. Then the man said, “Let me go, for the dawn is breaking!”
But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”
“What is your name?” the man asked.
He replied, “Jacob.”
“Your name will no longer be Jacob,” the man told him. “From now on you will be called Israel, because you have fought with God and with men and have won.”
“Please tell me your name,” Jacob said.
“Why do you want to know my name?” the man replied. Then he blessed Jacob there.
Jacob named the place Peniel (which means “face of God”), for he said, “I have seen God face to face, yet my life has been spared.” The sun was rising as Jacob left Peniel, and he was limping because of the injury to his hip.

Genesis 32:24-31

CIRCLING THE EARTH

Abby onboard 'Wild Eyes'

SAILING BY

The great criticism levelled against those of us who blog is that never before have so many had so much to say about so little ! To be fair there is a sizable portion of the blogosphere that even the stoutest blogger could not defend, as many are adrift on a virtual sea of triviality. From time to time one stumbles across a gem that redeems the whole blogging enterprise and rejuvenates that form as an exciting and vital expression of heroic human activity. Lately I have discovered the delights of Abby’s Blog, the online diary of an American 16 year old who is sailing single handed around the world endeavouring to become the world’s youngest solo circumnavigator . Her trip began last January when she left US waters, sailing along the western edge of South America, around Cape Horn and then across the Southern Ocean, considered for having some of the roughest seas in the world. She plans to sail nonstop on Wild Eyes, a high-tech racing yacht, for the entire trip, which could take up to six months. And you can share the adventure by checking out Abby’s Blog at http://soloround.blogspot.com where she blogs regularly of her daily adventures with some great photographs.

Here’s a sample from her entry for March 21 st., “ Today has been a pretty quiet day with not a whole lot of wind. I'm just slowly headed towards the horn. Yesterday was pretty much the same until the evening. Last night was a little exciting. The wind picked up to 25-30 knots with a large swell that unfortunately was on my beam. At about 2 in the morning, I was asleep down below when I woke up a little dazed, wondering how my dishes that were kept in the sink had made it all the way into my lap all the way across the cabin!
I then noticed that I was sitting on the wall, not my bed. (just goes to show you what a comfortable bed I have!) Well, my auto pilot went into standby mode and so I jumped outside and grabbed the tiller just in time to keep Wild Eyes from gybing. I got her back on course and set the auto pilot again. I walked around to check over the boat, every thing was fine, a little tossed around, but nothing broken. Because I was asleep I'm not sure exactly what happened. With the swells as they were, it could have just been a large swell that knocked Wild Eyes over.”… Exciting huh ?
The uniqueness of being a ‘fly on the wall’ during such a momentous trip is really exhilarating and the opportunity to send Abby messages of support in her ‘comments’ section adds to the sense of being a participant in this 16 year-olds adventure of a lifetime. Even for an old ‘land-lubber’ like myself with the shakiest of sea-legs I joy in the vicarious thrill of sailing full-throttle aboard ‘Wild Eyes’ as she sails around the world. Step on board, and become part of the worldwide virtual crew !

Gerard O'Shea

INTERVIEW WITH ANDREA

ACROSS THE OCEAN
~
A TRANSATLANTIC
CHAT

Two of the blogs which I follow are written by a young woman who lives in the U S A and is obviously very creative and artistic. Coupled with her love of our very own U 2 her blogged pieces make for interesting and stimulating reading. ( the blogs are ’ A Reflection On The Water’ and ‘A Light On The Water’ , see Blogs I Like in margin) So when Andrea approached me to help with a college project I was happy to do so. She was set the task of painting a word picture of somebody's experiences from a different culture to her own, and to that end she interviewed me over facebook on March 13 th. As the main body of the ‘chat’ concerns my ‘conversion’ story I thought it might be of interest to some Hermonites to share it here.


Andrea: First one: Where were the schools you attended located in Ireland?
Gerard: In Limerick city
Andrea: Okay. Thanks. What years were you there? Just trying to put it into perspective with other world events, etc.
Gerard: Ah dates...I left Secondary school about 1974
Andrea: Okay. How long were you there for?.
Gerard: About 6 years at junior level and the same at senior level.
Andrea: Okay. Now for some slightly more difficult questions... In the questionnaire, you talked about your “dramatic conversion experience.” What was your life like before it?
Gerard: I was a fairly devout 'religious' Catholic, attending church and trying to live my life as best I could. I knew there must be a God from the glorious creation etc,. but I had no first hand knowledge of Him. I was always curious about other world religions views and read up as much as I could on them. Through a magazine called The Plain Truth I started to read the Bible for the first time and from my knowledge of it, I realised that whatever I might be I most definitely was not (according to the Biblical definition) a Christian.
Andrea: So it was a fairly self and God-initiated conversion? Were there people who influenced you as well?
Gerard: Yes, apart from the magazine and the Bible I was also listening to evangelist Billy Graham on the radio. so intellectually I knew what a 'real' Christian was. Also in my second last year at school a classmate had become a a 'Jesus freak' as we referred to him. The change in his life was hugely impressive and he spent all his free time telling us, about Jesus and being 'born again.’ To be honest at the time I thought he was intellectually weak but there was something compelling about his radical lifestyle and his simple message that spoke loudly to me.
Andrea: That is so neat. You wrote in your “Catholic Church Abuse” blog entry that your “hope is that the baby won’t be tossed out with the bathwater as the distinction between the glorious message of Jesus and the moribund works of failed religion are muddled in the public mind.” Yet given your childhood schooling, it surprises me that you didn’t toss the baby “out with the bathwater” yourself. How did you come to make the distinction between what people do in the name of Christ (religion, etc.), and Christ Himself?
Gerard: I could see a marked difference between the professed Christianity of the Catholic church with all it tradition of pomp and dogma and the teaching of Jesus set out in the Gospels which by comparison shone like a precious jewel. You should understand that back then the Bible was a closed book for most Catholics, we were not encouraged to read it, so when I did it was new and fresh and revelatory. Also the effect of that 'simple' Gospel in the life of my schoolmate and in the preaching of Graham seemed to me to be endued with a power and integrity I had not witnessed before.
Andrea Would you say that your treatment in the Catholic schools had a role in your rejection of Catholicism (if so, how?)
Gerard I think the lack of Christlikeness exhibited in the lives of the ‘professional’ clergy and Brothers was an influence. I recall a Christian Brother visiting our class to recruit for vocations to the Brothers asking the question ’ why would you not consider joining the religious life ?’. I put my hand up and answered, “ because they (the Brothers) are in my experience neither ‘Christian’ or ‘brotherly’ ‘ Needless to say my contribution went down like a lead balloon ! Later after I had become a Christian believer I learned to separate fallible human beings from the truth as expressed in Scripture. I then rejected Catholicism not just because of my perceived lack of reality in it, but on the basis that its tenets did not always concur with the clear teaching of the Bible.
Andrea I hate to bring up bad memories, but could you tell me a bit more about your time in school?
Gerard I was a day attendee at the Ard Scoil Ris (Rice High School, named after the Brother;s founder Ignatius Rice) Secondary school. The only abuse I witnessed there was corporal punishment and ‘cruel’ verbal put downs from the Principal, Bro. Harry Cotter. He would humiliate you in class and get the student behind to administer punishment by hitting you in the back using phrases like ‘down the cripple’ and ‘hit him harder’ Also one of the lay teachers was given to physical punishments and other teachers administered slaps on the hand using a black leather strap made explicitly for the purpose. Sometimes the strap would be used to hit you on the ankles.
Andrea: Have others of your former schoolmates taken a similar route to the one you've already mentioned , in terms of rejecting religion and choosing Christ? It seems to be something I hear fairly often from Irish people... U2, for instance.
Gerard: To my knowledge no one else in my class had a similar experience. And it was a few years after I had left school that I met up with my 'J Freak' friend in a factory, and to my astonishment he was still radiating the 'joy of the Lord', even in that difficult atmosphere. We had many discussions and again nothing he particularly said was new to me apart from his claim of knowing Jesus Christ personally. This 'knowing' was the hurdle I could not cross over even with all my book knowledge and keenness to discover the true path.
Andrea: So what finally brought you to the point of "knowing?"
Gerard: The unexpected intervention of the Lord himself, I believe. Quite simply one night as I was preparing to go to bed I became overwhelmed with a sense of my own sinfulness and unworthiness. I was convinced that my sins had put Christ on the cross and that He died there for me. The scene of His crucifixion was almost like a vision , I could see and feel the experience intensely. As I cried over my wickedness this overwhelming tide of forgiveness and grace swept over my whole being and I knew for the first time in my life that this Jesus who died on the cross two thousand years ago, died for me, loved me, and was alive !
This was the most momentous single event of my life and I knew at the time that it was going to be hugely significant. I was so shaken and elated by the experience that I got dressed and went out (it was after midnight) for a walk to try and take in what had just occurred. I have often said since that it was fortunate that I met no one in my nocturnal rambling because the way I was feeling I would have hugged them to death as the feeling of wellbeing I had was so intense.. Later that morning I wrote about the event carefully in my Diary because I felt I would not believe it on the following day if the feeling had evaporated.. The diary entry wasn’t just a record of what had taken place but a charter of how I wished to live from that time on, loosely based on what I knew of the Sermon on the Mount. When I did wake the following morning the ‘experience’ had lasted and I knew that I had begun a new kind of life ( later I would learn that the New Testament term for what had happened that night was me being ‘born again’)
Andrea: Wow. That reminds me of Augustine's conversion. We've been reading his Confessions in my Philosophy class.
Gerard: Augustine I aint ! but God is good.
Andrea: Amen to that. Maybe this should be obvious, but I've been wondering why you haven't chosen to align yourself with a Protestant denomination. It seems like something many former Catholics do, at least here in the US.
Gerard: Aha...because I was always careful only to align myself to what I knew to be true, and that was Jesus. For a year after my conversion I continued to attend Mass and got more out of it than I had ever before, but always as a memorial and not as a repeat of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. Meanwhile I went denomination shopping trying to meet other people who shared my experience of the New Birth. Eventually I found a non-denominational 'Brethren' group where everyone from the age of 16 to 60 could talk about 'becoming a believer' and discovering God's love for themselves. I threw my lot in with them for many years and enjoyed sweet times of fellowship and growing in the knowledge of the Word. I then separated myself from the Catholic faith as I discovered more and more in the Bible that could not be reconciled to that doctrine and practise. I endeavoured not to become anti-Catholic in a vitriolic or aggressive sense as Irish people were fiercely loyal to their ‘faith‘, and I had no wish to complicate the Gospel by 'bashing' my former coreligionists along the way. Over the years many have come to personal faith in Jesus and replaced dry church dogma with a living relationship with God Himself.
Andrea: That makes sense. The religious abuses in Ireland seem like a real struggle to get over, in terms of people coming to Christ. Do you think Ireland can fully recover from them? Is there hope for the Church there, or is the strained relationship between religion and people too much?
Gerard: I think the Catholic Church has too long enjoyed the trappings of political power over genuine spiritual hunger, whether it can ever discover or retrieve that is hard to know. In the 1970's the Charismatic Movement brought many church people to the Lord and to the Bible but quickly the 'official clergy' intervened to contain the Movement and effectively killed it off. I do believe that the church Jesus died for is that city on the hill which gives light to the surrounding nations by example. And part of that example is the selfless life of community where all have all in common
Andrea: Well, it seems you and your friends are doing what you can to shine bright.
Gerard: The blueprint is easy to recite, the doing of it is (as you know) not so easy.

OLD NEWS

IN HIS SIGHT

In God’s nearness, in the manifestation of God’s power, Jesus reveals our smallness and our antagonism more clearly than any human reasoning. God’s light reveals everywhere to Him and to ourselves our baseness and smallness, our darkness and weakness. In His sight we can appear only as we really are.

Eberhard.Arnold,. Innerland, .
“The.Experience.of.God ”

A NATIONAL SAINT

PATRICK'S LEGACY

.
Not many of you were overtaxed by the ‘mystery’ text I blogged some two weeks ago, well today I can reveal that the quotation was taken from our National saint, Patrick’s ‘confession’. This work penned by Patrick’s own hand is the only reliable literary source we have to inform us of the reality of the Apostles mission to Ireland as against the rich body of legend and hearsay that has built up over the centuries. When I was a child we were taught that Saint Patrick brought Catholic Christianity to this island having been sent here by the Pope to ‘civilise’ the wild Irish. In vain you will search his own writings to confirm this fable as he did not come here to Romanise the natives with the trappings of that religious institution, but rather according to himself to make disciples for Jesus, His Lord
He writes “ ’ And likewise the Lord foretells through the prophet: ‘And it shall come to pass in the last days (sayeth the Lord) that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams; yea, and on my menservants and my maidservants in those days I will pour out my Spirit and they shall prophesy.’ And in Hosea he says: ‘Those who are not my people I will call my people, and those not beloved I will call my beloved, and in the very place where it was said to them, “You are not my people,” they will be called ’Sons of the living God.”’

The church left by Patrick was an independent Celtic fellowship that for centuries fiercely resisted the attempted intrusions of Rome into their order and governance. In the light of the recent woes of Catholicism in Ireland because of that institutions cover-up of clerical sexual abuse, one cannot help but wonder how the ‘gospel’ would have fared if the Irish church had successfully withstood the rule of Rome over her . The majority expression of ‘Christianity’ in our country today is in a sorry state, not ruined from enemies without but crumbling from the culture of secrecy and covertness within. A good time to remind all fair minded people of the original message preached by Patrick centering on the personal redemption of Jesus Christ and the illumination for the human soul from His glorious Word.

Towards the end of Patrick’s ‘Confession’ he writes of his motivation and hoped for reward, “ Behold, I call on God as my witness upon my soul that I am not lying; nor would I write to you for it to be an occasion for flattery or selfishness, nor hoping for honour from any one of you. Sufficient is the honour which is not yet seen, but in which the heart has confidence. He who made the promise is faithful; he never lies.” May God himself raise up men and women who will continue the evangelisation of our land with such purity and purpose, an Ireland redeemed and reborn !

Gerard O'Shea

PHILOSOPHY !