Â鶹Éç

Available for over a year

Good morning. Twice this week I have been in the position of seeking specialist, professional help. On both occasions I received exemplary support. I could not have been better served. On both occasions the person dealing with me was of a different skin colour, had a very different background and belonged to a family that originally came from another country. So there was I, an elderly white male sitting before someone so very different, in one case a woman. What was going on in my mind? What assumptions and presuppositions was I bringing to bear? Suppose the person in front of me had also been an elderly white male would my expectations have been any different? I was born into and shaped by a culture that was clearly racist. Racist assumptions were built into the very language we used and the books we read. How far, I wondered are such stereotypes and prejudices still swirling around inside our culture today, indeed inside my own mind? Moralists rightly condemn racism of any kind. But Christian practice is more than moralism. It is grounded in self-knowledge, or at least an attempt to be aware of what is going on inside us. And during this Lenten period in particular, we are asked to suss out some of the evasions and self-deceits by which we live, as well as our unconscious prejudices and attitudes. This is not to make us feel bad about ourselves. Sadly too much Church teaching in the past seemed designed to do that. The 14th century mystical writer Julian of Norwich is a healthy corrective to this way of thinking. She wrote ‘I understood that the Lord looks on his servant with pity and not with blame.’ The purpose of becoming more aware of ourselves and more conscious what is going on inside us, is not to beat ourselves up but to be honest about who we are and more hopeful about our potential for spiritual growth. So whilst we rightly condemn all forms of racism, and can be glad that we have good laws about racial equality, my own faith takes me beyond condemnation to a serious sense of personal accountability- especially for my own life but also for the society of which I am a part. This is, I think, to approach my true self, and the closer we come to knowing our true self, the closer we come to the ultimate reality in which it is grounded.