At, May 21, 2010
PERSONAL VERSUS THE ADVENTURE Heritage Collection
My colleague John Arnaud, French in Grenoble, has retained some expressions of Quebec when he studied in Canada there is a forty years after it , cotton ! Today, our contemporary experiences of aggression, whether it be economic or market, military or cultural, verbal or physical, sexual or ideological whenever abusive after, cotton , that is to say extreme!
The cultural context of the contemporary era, "said Marcel Neusch (1) commenting on the book by Francis Euve entitled Fear and Trembling, a story of sin (Seuil, 396 p.), is characterized by the ecological crisis , concern for oneself and relationship with time , insofar as the optimism of progress has been reversed in fascination with disaster. In particular, concern for oneself matches " personal adventure now outweighs collective inheritance. "
Well, I think he A KEY FOR INTERPRETING THE RAGE our contemporaries live, rage against which infringed the freedom and limits the rights or personal choice and sexual orientation in open opposition against the cultural and religious heritages .
So, what we mostly talk these days? The oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, climate change and its consequences, accusations of pedophilia by some members of the Catholic Church and attacks against the Pope. It keeps coming up on Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Greece and the value of the Euro, on the ashes of a volcano in Iceland, which paralyze air transport in Europe. The optimism of progress of the last century gave way to the fascination of the new catastrophic monitored daily on our television screens.
There are three ways to react to events that are summarized in three questions; why, the who , and how the . The reasoning of the Western world is simple: why this and why? In the context of African traditional view, a tragedy can not be explained by reason. We must rather seek who, or who is guilty of an illness or injury or death. Accusations fly. It is an obsession, that of witchcraft, which affects all human relationships in a society which, even today, sees the realities of the world via the power ( magic!) Of spirits or the dead- alive. I invite you to read my article which was published in English on a website (2), where I explain my views on this subject. In short, the question is not whether or not witchcraft exists. It is an essential 'reality' insofar as it acts as a fuel that keeps a form of social cohesion, but built on fear . The collective heritage that is witchcraft becomes a control mechanism paralyzing any form of individual initiative. The contemporary world is acting the same way through the power ( magic!) Science via another language, the language of logic that feeds fuel to the hypotheses and research on infinitesimal to the distant limits of the universe. The fear of the unknown anguish existence and demands an explanation. This collective heritage is from the centuries of the Enlightenment and culture control, "said Father Timothy Radcliffe (3) in a recent paper presented to the clergy of Dublin following acts committed by pedophile priests.
" The personal adventure now outweighs the collective inheritance . "This has a definite impact on the concept of fault," said Francis Euve. Just as an accusation of witchcraft minimizes liability against a personal failure or an unfortunate accident ( this is not me, or is the sorcerer an enemy who gave me a lot!) and blaming the government, oil companies, capitalism or the Church, we also minimize our responsibility knowing that we take advantage of the system if it benefits us (the not my fault, I exercise my right !). In either case, there very little real concern for the common good.
On the other hand, the face of personal adventure is a collective heritage against the excessive power-up, where rabies. We must break the shackles of fear perpetuated by control mechanisms centered on the use and obsession with power (centralization). According to Father Timothy Radcliffe, the church struggled to maintain control of his own life, and often ended up being impregnated by this same culture of power. " I am sure he said that the crisis of sexuality is closely linked to issues of power and how power often works within the Church at all levels (...). All human institutions are centered on the use of power. It is not the power of Jesus, who was meek and humble of heart . "
What else does he? It remains the third question, how! We will never know fully resolve all why. We do not know who causes harm.
So what? How to react to the tragedies and abuses of power? Sadly! Resignation! Abandon! Anger! For my part, I remain hopeful. Christian tradition, against all odds, despite the weaknesses of the institutional Catholic Church announces the good news.
Freedom is defined in my way of being and living the promise of v
ie which has its source from the book of Genesis. The big news is not falling in sin or the catastrophe of paradise lost but this promise of life that Jesus conquered death by his necessarily violent. Why? I still wonder. Satan is the culprit? I dare not say so directly. Evil refuses to deliver its ultimate secret. " But in the light of God's promise, the last word is not evil, but to life. "concluded Marcel Neusch. That! is "the end of the end" ! (1) Marcel Neusch, Sin, and then? In the newspaper La Croix, Thursday, 1 April 2010, page 16.
(2) http://www.fenza.org/files/documents/Serge_St-Arneault_witchcraft_the_right_question.pdf. For the public it is accessible under the "document-section" of our site. ( http://www.fenza.org/documents.html )
Witchcraft - What is the right question? Author: Serge St-Arneault (Malawi). December 2009. (PDF file, 18 KB)
A short article written in response to a number of newspaper articles on witchcraft in Malawi. Witchcraft is there because we want it to be. We hate it, we fear it, we like it, we want it. Basically we cannot live without it. It is up to us to make witchcraft a reality or not. The question is: what do we want in life?
(3) Publié dans le bimensuel "La Documentation catholique" du 4 avril 2010; un discours du Père Timothy Radcliffe prononcé fin 2009.
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