Another key aspect of heart-friendship, as conceived by the early Celtic missionaries, was mutuality. This shows itself in two principal ways.
First, the sharing of common values. The Celtic fathers and mothers, even a century apart, had a common vision of reality. They also seem on occasions to have received common intuitions - especially when it came to sensing the potential of future leaders. When Ciaran went to the island of Aran to visit his friend Enda, they both saw the same spiritual vision of a fruitful tree growing by a stream in the centre of Ireland, protecting the whole land. They both interpreted it the same way, too: that Ciaran would become that great tree and should found his monastery in the very centre of Ireland.
What shines clearly from the written lives of the Celtic saints is the profound respect which they showed for each other's wisdom and guidance - despite age or gender differences. They genuinely saw each brother or sister as a potential source of many blessings from God. The biographies often convey this symbolically, through the gesture of giving gifts. Although they lived poor, special gifts conveyed profound respect and mutuality: a ring, a bell, a hand-made wooden box, or maybe a horse.
In our day, where western society carries almost toxic levels of suspicion where any heart-closeness is concerned - especially same-gender and cross-generational, these examples are a poignant reminder of what has gone missing. Who will be courageous and humble enough to pioneer such mutuality today?
No comments:
Post a Comment