October 2012 The Road to Daybreak A Spiritual Journey by Henri J M Nouwen

Continue from ...... A Medieval Lesson in Humility One of the stone reliefs of the romanesque portal of the Munster, the splendid cathedral of Freibury dating from about 1210, attempts to nudge the churchgoer in a playful way towards humility. A king is seated in a small basket which is hanging by a cord bound on both ends to the necks of two huge birds. The king holds in his hands two long spits on which two rabbits are impaled. By trying to reach the rabbits with their beaks, the hungry birds lift up the king into the air. This comic relief portrays the story of Alexander the Great, who, after having conquered the whole world, also tries to make it to heaven. Although different versions of the story exist, one of them says that when Alexander saw the earth beneath him as a small hat in a large sea, he realized how tiny the world really is and how ridiculous it had been to spend his life trying to conquer it. Thus Alexander is presented to the pious churchgoer as an example of silly pride. Konrad Kunze, the author of the beautiful book about the Munstr entitled Heaven in Stone, summarizes a sermon of Berthold von Regensbury given around 1260: "Alexander, for whom the world was too msall, becomes in the end only seven feet of dust, just like the poorest man ever born; Alexander thought that he could pull down the highest stars from heaven with his hands. And you, as he, would love to go up in the air, if you could only do it. But the story of Alexander shows the result of such high flying, and proves that the great Alexander was one of the greatest fools the world has ever seen." Well, no subtleties here! I wonder what Berthold would have thought about Boeing 747s. Still ... the Munster itself, with its high-rising Gothic arches, might prove to be as much a sign of civic pride as of humility in the eyes of God. People always had mixed motives! God have mercy on us. Human Grief All the newspapers in 1989, were proclaiming the tragic death of seven astronauts. The United States was grieving. millions who saw it happen on TV were in shock, most of all the children who came to see one of their teachers participate in the great adventure of space exploration. They expected to see human greatness, and they saw human vulnerability. Many people worry about the lasting effects of this tragedy on the children who saw it happen before their eyes. In the United States death has become almost invisible. Suddenly it becomes so visible that its significance can hardly be grasped. How can we grieve and help others to grieve? Do we grieve about a failure in our human ability to conquer space? Do we grieve about the deaths of our heroes, who ricked their lives in the service of human progess? Do we grieve in order to find new energy to continue the work begun with so much self-assurance? When I think about the fact that the United States space programme is closely tied to the defense programme and that this tragedy is at least in part the result of an international race for superiority and world domination, I cannot but wonder if the grief will lead to peace or to a more determined preparation for war. After all, the Strategic Defense Initiative is being prepared for in part by the space shuttle programme.

- To Be Continued - © Copyright Shalom 2012. All rights reserved.