Quote of the Week

Very helpful article by Jonathan Sacks in the Times last Saturday. The concluding paragraphs:

Idol worship and magical thinking happen when we believe some institution or person will bend the world to our desires, making problems vanish without effort on our part. The idol can be liberal democracy, the consumer society, science, medicine or genetic engineering.

Religious faith says all these things can be a blessing or a curse, depending on whether they are used with humility, restraint, concern for the common good and care for long-term consequences.

Humility involves the recognition that there is something greater than us to whom we are accountable. Restraint means that not everything we can do we should do. Concern for the common good means recognising that others, not just us, are in the image and likeness of God. Care for long-term consequences means believing in something that will last longer than we will.

Religion is not myth or magic. It is the recognition of how small we are in the scheme of things, and how great is our responsibility to others. It is the still, small voice reminding us that there is no achievement without sacrifice, no freedom without self-restraint. Those who worship the idols of the age perish with the age, while the worship of eternity lives on.

Lord Sacks is Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth

We need I think to be making common cause with the cosmologists (such as Brian Cox) and the psychologists, as those who in time help teach us this humility. They are to some extent perhaps the psalmists and wisdom writers of our world - Solomon, Ecclesiastes, Job, some of the Psalms etc. point us to how little we know, how small we are in the vast scheme of things (as so the cosmologists) - yet in the appropriate places eg Psalm 8, show us how significant we are.

Poem for the Day

Ode

by Joseph Addison

(after Psalm 19:1-6)

The Spacious Firmament on high,
With all the blue Etherial Sky,
And spangled Heav’ns, a Shining Frame,
Their great Original proclaim:
Th’ unwearied Sun, from Day to Day,
Does his Creator’s Power display,
And publishes to every Land
The Work of an Almighty Hand.
Soon as the Evening Shades prevail,
The Moon takes up the Wondrous Tale,
And nightly to the list’ning Earth
Repeats the Story of her Birth:
Whilst all the Stars that round her burn,
And all the Planets, in their turn,
Confirm the Tidings as they rowl,
And spread the Truth from Pole to Pole.
What though, in solemn Silence, all
Move round the dark terrestrial Ball?
What tho’ nor real Voice nor Sound
Amid their radiant Orbs be found?
In Reason’s Ear they all rejoice,
And utter forth a glorious Voice,
For ever singing, as they shine,
‘The Hand that made us is Divine.’