Harper Lee said she would never write another book after “To Kill a Mocking Bird” because she said she would always be judged. She thought she would never measure up to it.
An Overview – Set in the depression in the early 1930s two little children and their dad is a widower and attorney (Atticus) in a backwards town in America (a the fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama). A young semi crippled black man, Tom Robinson, is accused of raping a woman (Mayella Ewell). It is clear that Robinson has not done this. At the end of the trial Atticus has defended him. The black community are all up in the gallery of the trial and yet all the white people are down below. You could cut the air with a knife.At the end of the trial you know which way it is going to go. The jurors come back in and say “guilty”, “guilty”, “guilty” against all the evidence and reason for not being guilty.
“Judge Taylor was saying something. His gabber was in his fist. Busily I saw Atticus pushing papers from the table into his briefcase a snapped it shut. Atticus went to the court reporter and said something. Nodded to Mr Gilmer and whispered something to him. Atticus put his hand on Tom’s shoulder as he whispered. Atticus took his coat off put it from the back of his chair and left the court room. Not by the usual exit. He must have wanted to go home the short way because he walked quickly down the middle isle towards the south exit. I followed the top of his head as he made his way to the door. Someone was punching me, but I was reluctant to take my eyes from the people below us, and from the image of Atticus’s lonely walk down the aisle.
“Miss Jean Louise?”
I looked around. They were standing. All around us and in the balcony on the opposite wall, the Negroes were getting to their feet. Reverend Syke’s voice was as distant as Judge Taylor’s”.
“Miss Jean Louise stand up”
To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 21, p. 233 (Harper Perennial: New York)
In the movie, the scene is slightly different. Thge White community leave, yet the black community stand in honour of what Atticus has done.
The power of presence. Atticus lost the court battle. Tom was lynched. Evil won the day. But you leave this story and situation open and hope that good with triumph in the end. Good might of lost today, but good will triumph in the end. It is embodied in the presence of a man of integrity and a man of goodness. A man who has turned up. A man who has done all he could but for inadequacies. Not being able to bring able goodness.
This is a good example of presence and send chills down my spine when I read that. You can feel the beauty and goodness in the courtroom in the midst of evil. In a sense it is like Moses in the people parting the red sea. Something wonderful is here in the midst of awful trashy evil. This is about presence.
It is also about Creative Waiting. People like Atticus Finch who paved the way for the civil rights movement and brought something beyond the triumph beyond evil.
This is not the only way to move forward in human affairs. This is a very reasonable way to move forward. There are people who move forward in an aggressive sought of way. But through history we can see the more aggressive we are the more we replace one violence with another violence. Revolutions tend to begin that way rather than evolution.
What we find in the example of Marist Father Jean Claude Colin are two examples. His conflict with Bishop Devie and his opposition to a La Mémère paper published by the liberal Capitalism.
In 2005 I gave a paper entitled “Passionate about the process, Detached about the outcome”. This is another way of thinking of Creative Waiting. This takes great maturity too. We want goodness to triumph and we want goodness to triumph today. We want success but not in 20 years time after we are dead and gone. We want success now.
In the 1970s. I went to lectures by Father Ed Farrell who wrote a number of books on prayer. Father Ed was down in South America giving a retreat to the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers and other missionaries there. One the missionaries said “We are like the pilling buried in the mud helping to build the bridge. We will disappear. But if had not been here they could not have built the bridge”.
It is very rare that a person is remembered. You and I are memorable because we happen to know each other. Give 50 or 100 years who is going to remember Michael Whelan? Yet we have a contribution. But we do it not for sacramental reasons, but because of our vocation. As Christians and as Marists.
I would like to begin our day with an exercise. It has three parts to it.
The first part in an exercise in listening and I am going to draw on the work of Eugene Gender.
The second part is a focus on the words of Mary as recorded in Luke’s Gospel. “You see before the Lord’s servant. Let it happen according to your Word”. Or. “Let it be done to me according to your Word”.
The third part it is to place yourself in the Nazareth.
Working backwards through those three. Father Colin said when I am troubled, I place myself at Nazareth. One of his frames of reference was the atmosphere of Jesus, Mary and Joseph’s home in Nazareth. What would it have been like in that house? What would have been the culture? What would they of thought? What were the attitudes? What sought of behaviours? What sought of mood was arising?
Without being idealistic or Pollyanna-ish or too biographical. This is a Jewish family in a particular time in history. No doubt they would have discussed the Romans, tax collectors. The religious authorities. How would they discuss? What would have been the presence like? You can go to a place where people have been and feel their presence. A school has a spirit. A family has the same sought of thing. One of the great challenges for us as human beings is to live in such as way the presence of the Spirit, the moon, the atmosphere, what ever you want to call it in that place wherever those human beings are at is “Creative”.
Just construct it. So that if someone goes into that place. They will come out touched.
Day 2 - Activity
Listen to the audio by clicking the play button above.
Spend 10 minutes in silence and reflective meditation
Place yourself in the Nazareth.
Working backwards through those three. Father Colin said when I am troubled, I place myself at Nazareth.
One of his frames of reference was the atmosphere of Jesus, Mary and Joseph’s home in Nazareth.
Reflect on these questions
What would it have been like in that house? What would have been the culture?
What would they of thought? What were the attitudes? What sought of behaviours?
Listen to the audio by clicking the play button above.
Spend 10 minutes in silence and reflective meditation
Place yourself in the Nazareth.
Working backwards through those three. Father Colin said when I am troubled, I place myself at Nazareth. One of his frames of reference was the atmosphere of Jesus, Mary and Joseph’s home in Nazareth. What would it have been like in that house? What would have been the culture? What would they of thought? What were the attitudes? What sought of behaviours? What sought of mood was arising?
What we find in the example of Marist Father Jean Claude Colin are two examples. His conflict with Bishop Devie and his opposition to a La Mémère paper published by the liberal Capitalism.
The third part it is to place yourself in the Nazareth.
