SAINT CHRISTOPHER, PRAY FOR US!

Yes, please do so.

This post is about a certain Bible story as well as a legend about a guy named Christopher. The Bible story and the legend have much in common. Both of them constitute an enlightened spiritual vision as well as a radical ‘call to arms,’ so to speak---a powerful call to arms for social and economic justice, a call to end oppression, discrimination, bigotry, injustice, inequality, poverty, homelessness, statelessness, starvation, sickness, and suffering of all other kinds. 

I love both the Bible story and the legend. Perhaps both are legends. It does not matter. The ‘message’ is eternal, and ever-so-relevant to today’s world.

 

In the 25th chapter of Matthew’s Gospel we read that the personality, essence, and ‘spirit’ of the Divine as revealed in the person of Jesus Christ can be experienced even today as a living presence, for it is said that Jesus comes to us, and visits us, in our homes and in our communities. Most of all, he comes to us in the lives of those who are in great need, those who are marginalized, those whom society tends to reject and ignore.

If I have a theology at all it is very much a 'theology of man,' and it goes something like this.  The Bible says that all are made in the image and likeness of the Divine. Therefore, invoking the language of Christianity, everyone we meet, everyone we serve, is in the image of Jesus. Roman Catholics understand this so much better than Protestants. Yes, the ‘Anonymous Christ,’ as it is known, comes to us in so many ways and, again invoking a Christian metaphor, we fail to recognize that the incarnation of the Christ was not a one-off event but continues all the time, both in us and in other people. Now, we read in Matthew 25:34-40:

 

Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’

Jesus’ followers were originally known as ‘people of the way.’ Jesus, in his vision of the Anonymous Christ, offers all of us, irrespective of whether or not we are Christians, both a vision and a challenge. The call to follow is not a call to worship Jesus. Heaven forbid! No, Jesus never sought nor wanted that. No, the ‘Way of Jesus’ is a call to follow Jesus’ path, to live as he lived, and to serve others as he did. 

Now, here's something very important. The Way of Jesus, which is simply the way of love (for love is the nature and character of the 'Anonymous God' that has many, many names but really has no name as such at all), can be found in all religions and even outside of religion as well. You see, morality and ethics, as well as love, do not depend upon Christianity or upon any religion at all for that matter. Let’s get that perfectly clear once and for all. Okay? Ignore all those who would tell you something altogether different. They believe that they or their ‘god’ has a monopoly on the truth. Rubbish!

Here from Catholic Christianity is a story---actually, a legend---that I like very much. It concerns Saint Christopher (literally, ‘Christ-bearer’) [pictured], the so-called patron saint of travelers, and also especially revered by mariners and ferrymen. As a rather long aside (please forgive me) I remember when I was a young university student back in the early 1970s. I bought and brought home a Saint Christopher medal. I was not then a Catholic, my parents and I all being Protestants. They were much, more nominal in their faith than I was. I have always been incurably interested in religion, even when I have been opposed to it. My parents weren't for the most part, but they were quite anti-Catholic. It was a generational and sectarian phenomenon, and it was quite common. I am glad that sort of silly nonsense has now largely gone. Anyway, I would later convert to Catholicism---after the death of both my parents---when my life was in a horrible mess. My poor parents would have died much earlier than they did----they died far too young in any event---had I converted to the Catholic faith while they were still alive. Anyway, I brought home this rather cheap and nasty Saint Christopher medal, and my mother said to me, ‘What do you have that silly thing for? He is no longer a saint.’ 

Now, that was not the case then, and it is not the case now. Christopher has not been ‘de-sainted,’ if there be such a thing which I don't think there is. True, the Church has from time to time said that some previously canonized saints, found later to be of dubious historicity, are not actually saints, but that is as far as it goes. In the case of Saint Christopher, it is simply the case that in 1969 Pope Paul VI made some changes to the General Roman Calendar for the Catholic Church. Saint Christopher’s feast day was removed from the calendar on the ground that his feast was ‘not part of the ancient Roman tradition.’ There was no elaboration on that point, but the words have been taken to mean that although Saint Christopher is generally regarded as having been martyred for the faith in Syria in 308 CE, the evidence comes more from popular tradition than from the writings of early Church historians.

So, contrary to widespread misconception, Saint Christopher’s sainthood status was not altered. His feast day (traditionally July 25, except in Greece where it was celebrated on March 9), is now left to particular church calendars. In other words, Saint Christopher can still be venerated through inclusion in local calendars, such as those used in a particular diocese or country or by a group of religious. But, as usual, I digress. Saint Christopher had cult-like status in many countries, most notably in Italy, and also among Italian-Americans in countries such as the United States of America and even Australia (where I live). The dear saint is still quite 'visible' and sought after, despite his official status having been somewhat downgraded, so to speak, by the Vatican some 45 years ago.

There are several legends associated with Saint Christopher. This is one of them, and I love it. Saint Christopher, who is said to have been a very big, strong and tall man, met a hermit who instructed him in the Christian faith. Christopher asked the hermit how he could serve Jesus. The hermit first suggested fasting and prayer, but Christopher said he was unable to perform that service. The hermit then suggested that because of his size and strength Christopher could serve and please Jesus by assisting people to cross a dangerous river, where they were perishing in the attempt. That’s what Christopher decided upon.

Now, after Christopher had performed this service for some time, a little child asked him to take him across the river. As Christopher forded the river crossing, the river became swollen, and the child seemed as heavy as lead, indeed steadily increased in weight , so much so that Christopher could scarcely carry him and found himself in great difficulty. Yes, Christopher found his tiny burden so heavy that it was almost impossible to bear. When Christopher finally reached the other side, he said to the child: ‘You have put me in the greatest danger. I do not think the whole world could have been as heavy on my shoulders as you were.’ The child (the ‘holy babe’) replied, ‘You had on your shoulders not only the whole world but Him who made it. I am Christ your king, whom you are serving by this work.’ According to the legend, the child then vanished, but it is said that as a reward for his service Christopher's staff was miraculously transformed into a living tree, and Christopher himself became the patron saint of travellers.

I so much love this story. It is, you see, a re-telling of the ‘Anonymous Christ’ story from the 25th chapter of Matthew’s Gospel. We are following Jesus---carrying or bearing him, so to speak---when we serve and bear the burdens of our fellow human beings, especially those who are marginalized and in greatest need. They are the ones the ‘big end of town’ ignores. They are the ones that conservative, uncompassionate governments ignore. Yet, they are the very ones Jesus devoted his short life and public ministry to helping. Funny, that.

There is another version of the legendary story to the effect that the child/holy babe is said to have replied to Christopher that he (the holy babe, but indirectly and consequentially Christopher as well) carried the world's sins upon his shoulders. However, I prefer the firstmentioned version for a number of reasons. It is not necessary for present purposes to set out those reasons, but they pertain to the whole idea of the doctrine of the Atonement and certain difficulties that I have with at least some of the popular ‘theories’ of that doctrine as expounded by many evangelical, so-called ‘Bible-believing’ Christians. I have written about the matter elsewhere.

Although I am pretty much an apostate (but still quite emotionally attached) Catholic these days I still occasionally wear a Saint Christopher medal, and I have several of them in my various boxes of cufflinks, tie clips, badges, lapel pins, so-called 'holy medals,' and other miscellaneous objects. Now, I do not see the Christopher medal as some sort of ‘good luck charm’ as do some, dare I say it (I will, and must), superstitious Catholics---not that all Catholics are superstitious, but there is a great tendency there for that to occur in Catholicism. I do not believe in so-called good luck. We make, for better or worse, our own luck by the thoughts we think, the decisions we make, and the conduct in which we engage. No, I love the abovementioned legendary story of Saint Christopher because it reminds me of how I must act toward others who are vulnerable, marginalized, rejected, and otherwise in great need.

You know, there is a wonderful Christian group known as the Christophers. Their motto is, 'It's better to light one candle than to curse the darkness.' That's so true. Perhaps this verse from the Bible best sets out the 'message' of the story of Saint Christopher: 'Bear one another's burdens and so you will fulfill the Law of Christ' (Gal 6:2). And what is the 'Law of Christ'? It is the law or principle---and power---of love in action. No matter what your religion, and even if you have none, the practice of love is the all-important thing.

‘Saint Christopher, pray for us!’ Yes, that we may willingly and lovingly bear, carry and relieve the burdens of others. That is all that matters.

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Saint Christopher medal

dating from the 1930s

LET NOTHING DISTURB YOU

Let nothing disturb you,
Let nothing frighten you,
All things are passing away:
God never changes.
Patience obtains all things,
Whoever has God lacks nothing;
God alone suffices.

This little poem of Saint Teresa of Ávila [pictured below] was found in her breviary after her death. Some refer to it as 'Saint Teresa's bookmark.’ Saint Teresa is one of the best-loved saints in Catholic Christianity as well as being a spiritual figure of universal appeal. She was, and remains, a giant in the Christian mystical tradition for which I have great respect.

Now, when the word ‘mystic’ is used, some people think of gurus, swamis, transcendental (or at least ‘altered’) states of expanded consciousness, and all sorts of supernaturalism. Not so. As I’ve said elsewhere, mysticism is not essentially about ‘mystical experiences’---experiences come and go---but is focused on the lasting experience of a greater reality, leading to a transforming union with that reality. For me, that reality is not something ‘out-of-this-world,’ but the extraordinary in the ordinary.

A mystic is a person who is aware of their innate oneness with all life and, in particular, with the stream of life and the sacred ‘essence’ of life. That essence can be sensed in a beautiful sunset or flower, the birth of a baby, and even in the loss of someone dear to us. Yes, even the ‘dark night of the soul’ experience can be a mystical experience. The mystic not only knows that all life is one, they feel and sense its oneness in the deepest part of their being.

Church window at the Convent of St Teresa

Saint Teresa’s verse really speaks for itself. Such good advice isn’t it? We trouble ourselves over so many things, yet all things are transient, temporary and ephemeral, all things pass away (including us). Yes, all things … except One, namely, God. Who or what is God? Well, the word is not the thing, as Krishnamurti would say. The word ‘God’ is just that—a word. The reality behind that word is the important thing. That reality exists even if you do not believe in a traditional God or in any god at all for that matter. What is that reality? Well, for one thing, it is the stream of life itself which marches on inexorably---the stream of which in which all things, including us, live and move and have their being. Things come and go, and wax and wane, but life itself is eternal and unceasing. It alone remains when all other things disappear from view. It is more than enough. That life is all about us, and in us. It existed before we came into this world, and it will exist long after we have left this world. All we have to do in this life is to experience the reality of our being-ness as it truly is. Curiously, and almost paradoxically, the only way we can experience the very essence of life is from one moment to the next. Yes, life---also known as truth or reality---can only be experienced and known from moment to moment. It is something dynamic. It is never static.

This is where mindfulness---in effect, a secular and everyday (indeed, moment to moment) form of the mystic's 'prayer of quiet'---comes into the picture. The regular practice of mindfulness helps you to appreciate the transience and ephemeral nature of all things on the one hand and the permanence of the stream of life itself on the other. As we pay mindful attention ('choiceless awareness') to life unfolding from one moment to the next we become increasingly knowingly aware of, and acute to, the ongoing rhythm of life, its ebb and flow, its highs and lows. (We are knowingly aware when we are aware that we are aware.) We learn to cling to nothing, for all that we cling to will eventually pass away. True, we enjoy, even cherish, those brief, ephemeral moments of love and happiness we have with our loved ones and friends. Those moments are all the more precious when we come to understand that they will not last. But we must be prepared to let them go when it is time so to do.

I said above that Saint Teresa’s verse speaks for itself. Well, almost. There’s one line which seems---at least to me---to be a bit cryptic and seemingly misplaced. The line is, ‘Patience obtains all things.’ What has patience got to do with the main ideas of the poem, namely, that all things pass, God never changes, God alone suffices, so let nothing disturb or frighten you? There is another English word that also begins with the letter ‘p’ that comes close to what Saint Teresa meant by the word ‘patience.’ That word is perseverance, and here is something the mystic said about that matter in some sound advice she gave to her sisters:

... I say that it is very important – it is everything to have a strong and firm resolution, not to stop till we arrive at the water [union with God], come what may, or whatever may be the consequence, or whatever it may cost us. No matter who complains, whether I reach there or die on the way, or have not courage to endure the troubles which I may meet with, or though the world should sink under us ... (The Way of Perfection, Chapter XXI)

Patience. Perseverance. Resolution. No, we are not talking about so-called will power, which is nothing more than the imposition of one desire over all others, thus subjugating the latter. We are talking about something closer to courage and fortitude---guts, some call it. Life is tough, damn hard, and bloody unfair at times. We all know that to be the case. Bad things do indeed happen to good people, assuming for the moment that any of us are truly good. Patience---‘stick-at-it-ness’---obtains all things. What does Teresa mean by ‘all things’? Material things? Riches of a financial kind? No, nothing like that. Those things tend only to result in further disturbance and fear. The words ‘all things’ refer to ‘all things that truly matter’---that is, spiritual riches, enlightenment, God. (Note, in that respect, that the very next line says, ‘Whoever has God lacks nothing.’ Get the point?) Saint Teresa, as I see it, is saying that if we persevere, and are diligent, single-minded and strong, we will come to know that God---our True Self, the very ground of our being---is One. All is One. The One is all. The One becomes the many. We are one of the many. May we come to know that the many are One.

We are truly patient when we know and understand in the very depth of our being that all things pass except life itself. We are truly patient when we so detach ourselves from the everyday ups and downs of life that we are capable of seeing what some have called ‘the larger view,’ namely, the endless stream of life itself of which we are ever a part. We are truly patient when we are prepared to let go of all that holds us back, including all those little ‘false selves’ with which we so closely identify. We then experience a deep sense of life fulfilling itself. Yes, our joys will all come to an end, as will our sufferings. Those we love will eventually vanish from view. Even this world as we now know it will come to an end. God---or, if you wish, life, truth, and love---alone remains … and suffices.

Here’s another word for the type of patience to which Teresa refers---lightness. Yes, if we would travel far, we must travel light. That advice was given to me many decades ago by a bishop when I was confirmed in the Anglican faith. I wish I had heeded that good advice when I first received it. I might not have suffered as much, nor caused as much suffering to others, as I did.

I will finish with another little verse that I like:

GOD AND I

I walked with God, God walked with me,

But which was God, and which was me?

And thus I found, the Truth profound,

I live in God, God lives with me.  Anon.

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This post is dedicated in loving memory to

my father Henry Victor Ellis-Jones (1919-1985),
a true gentleman who always gave of himself selflessly to others

The famous Japanese Zen master and teacher Dōgen Zenji (pictured above), who founded the Sōtō school of Zen in Japan, had this to say about enlightenment:

Enlightenment is like the moon reflected on the water. The moon does not get wet, nor is the water broken. Although its light is wide and great, the moon is reflected even in a puddle an inch wide. The whole moon and the entire sky are reflected in dewdrops on the grass, or even in one drop of water. Enlightenment does not divide you, just as the moon does not break the water. You cannot hinder enlightenment, just as a drop of water does not hinder the moon in the sky. The depth of the drop is the height of the moon. Each reflection, however long or short its duration, manifests the vastness of the dewdrop, and realizes the limitlessness of the moonlight in the sky.

As Dōgen saw it, enlightenment was practice---true spiritual practice, and specifically, zazen, or sitting meditation. Enlightenment, as the present writer sees it, is not something which, having been gained or achieved, is yours forever. Enlightenment does not mean you never get angry again, or lapse in other ways. Enlightenment means living mindfully,  knowing what is spiritually ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ respectively, and knowing ‘the way home.’ As respects the latter, Dōgen  wrote:

But do not ask me where I am going,
As I travel in this limitless world,
Where every step I take is my home.

What is spiritually ‘right’ is that which is at-one with whatever is. Whenever you are choicelessly aware and accepting of life unfolding from one moment to the next---that is, when you are immovable---you are in an enlightened (mindful) state of consciousness. Whenever you resist and oppose what is, whenever you judge others or events, you are anything but enlightened. It’s as simple as that. Dōgen said, 'If you can't find the truth [enlightenment] right where you are, where else do you expect to find it?' Also, being enlightened means doing away with self-delusion---indeed, doing away with all illusions, beliefs and dogmas. All of those things prevent you from living fully in the now. I like these words of Seng-T'san:  'Do not seek the truth, stop having an opinion.' An enlightened person is truly free---free from self-bondage, free from self-will run riot, free from beliefs, dogma and superstition, and free from the past and all conditioning. If you---like millions of so-called religious people---are seeking some supposed 'reality,' whether in this life or in some supposed life to come, ‘promised’ or preached by others, you are definitely not in an enlightened state of consciousness. Enlightenment, in two words, means this---'Wake up!' And it helps to stay awake, too. From moment to moment.

Photo taken by the author at Yakuo-in Buddhist Temple

(officially known as Takaosan Yakuoin Yukiji Temple),

Mount Takao, Japan, October 11, 2012.

The temple, one of the Daihonzan temples of the Chizan School of the Shingon sect,

is said to have been built in 744 by Gyoki Bosatsu under decree from Emperor Shomu.

Enlightenment is, as Dōgen points out, ‘like the moon reflected on the water.’ It is an immovable state of mind, in which one does not react to changing circumstances. Enlightenment ‘does not divide’; rather, it unites that which is in you, as you. Enlightenment is not even something you ‘achieve’ or ‘gain,’ whatever those words mean. Enlightenment happens freely, and more-or-less instantaneously and of its own accord, when you remove the obstacles to its manifestation. First and foremost among those obstacles is self-will---indeed, the very notion of ‘self’ itself.

My late father, Henry Victor [‘Harry’] Ellis-Jones (pictured left), who was an accountant and a company secretary, was a most decent man---a man of great honesty, integrity and principle. All who knew him in business and personal life would attest to that fact. Dad was not a formally religious man. He respected those who were religious---as well as those who weren't---but you couldn't really say that he was a respecter of religious belief per se. Well, not those religious beliefs that he regarded as superstitious or irrational. In his final years his two closest friends (one of them a lawyer) were devout Roman Catholics, but he would often say to me that he couldn't understand how these two otherwise intelligent men could believe a number of Catholic dogmas that he thought were downright silly.

Dad was, I think, an agnostic, but he tended to regard himself as a fellow traveller with Christianity at least as respects its moral and ethical content and the man Jesus. The fact that Dad wasn't into formal, organized religion was probably one of the main reasons for his basic decency and uprightness. I truly mean that. Nevertheless, he understood the problem of sin or selfishness. He would often quote his wartime padre who, in a response to a question from another Australian soldier in the same platoon---the question being, ‘What is sin?’---said this: ‘Sin is rooted in selfishness. Sin has “I” in the middle of it.’

My father was an enlightened man. Despite many problems and difficulties, and some very big losses in his personal life (including his mother's suicide, when Dad was still a young man, and the equally untimely loss of my mother, Dad's wife, to cancer), he remained immovable in the sense described above. As already mentioned, he also understood the problem of sin or selfishness---without having to learn it at church---and he lived his life self-lessly. Indeed, not only was he totally unselfish, he had no sense of a separate or independent ‘self’ at all. He would have made a good Buddhist (ha!), but it was more than sufficient that he was a fine human being. I never had a chance to discuss the subject-matter of this post with him, and he probably would have viewed this whole discussion a total waste of time, yet my father knew and understood the true meaning of enlightenment. He was a man who knew what it meant to 'wake up' and stay awake.

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