I am a little man, preoccupied and burdened

Feast day of St Anselm of Canterbury. 21st April, 2020

" Come on now little man, get away from your worldly occupations for a while, escape from your tumultuous thoughts. Lay aside your burdensome cares and put off your laborious exertions. Give yourself over to God for a little while and rest a while in Him. Enter in to the cell of your mind, shut out everything but God".

This is the opening sentence of Anselm's 'Proslogion'. Today his feast is celebrated in the Gregorian calendar. 

My first awareness of Anselm was when 16 and a young teacher of General Studies quoted his sentence "I do not seek to understand so that I may believe, but I believe so that I may understand".The teacher went on to expand questioning our limitations of knowledge and whither knowledge might take us.

What of wisdom, he wanted to know. Is it greater than knowledge?

Since those days I have often pondered that very question.

I recall thinking that the world has the power of atomic energy which can be used for good or for evil. An atomic bomb can be dropped and we will know and see its destructive powers and devastation. Do we know if that devastation will halt and prevent further and greater atrocities?

These are the real questions that face politicians, decision makers, people with authority and power, leadership responsibilities: all of us usually on smaller matters. What makes us know how to use knowledge? Is the dropping of the bomb justified...who decides, who knows? 

There is the very real question as to how involved and caught up we are in our occupations and whether we take time to consider.

What are the principles on which we make decisions and what informs those principles?

The word 'God' is off putting for so many and in my opinion many use the word and concept in a blasphemous, idolatrous and self justifying way.

Recently I read of a terrorist act in which the perpetrator justified his actions by claiming God had spoken to him and he had acted in His name and for His glory. I thought the terrorist insane, his thinking perverted, his god evil for God is the giver of life not the destroyer.

Am I thinking correctly?

The terrorist might believe me to be blasphemous, a mere pawn of a corrupt, narcissistic selfish culture. 

These are real dilemmas.

How do we understand ourselves, each other and decide what is right?

I take it for granted that all life is sacred: not everyone does. I take it for granted that love is the supreme measuring yardstick for action and thought: not all do as we witness daily in domestic violence, slave and sex trafficking, torture and so forth.

I know people who see torture as justified by its end result, as was the dropping of an atomic bomb. 

However one sees God surely Anselm is right in that we need to enter the cell of our minds and seek those truths which I translate as love, wisdom and compassion, tolerance, understanding and kindness, and others such as patience. 

I believe in love.

I seek to understand it and the wisdom to live it.

I seek beyond myself and my prejudices and limitations.

I am a little man preoccupied and burdened. 

#anselm #canterbury #wisdom #understand #destruction #ruptureandrepair #atom #proslogion #gregoriancalender