Scottish Catholic Observer

EVERY year at Christmas time, the same movies come on the telly. One of my favourites, which usually gets a run out at this time of year, is the movie Witness starring Harrison Ford and Kelly MacGillis from 1983, in which Ford plays a tough city cop forced to go undercover among the Amish in rural Pennsylvania.

Ford’s character John Book is a classic fish out of water who eventually adjusts to the gentle and peaceful rhythm of life with the Amish. We get the sense that during his time in this closed community, Book is opening himself up to a calling back to community life and in doing so he is gradually leaving his previous life of criminals and violence behind.

There may be some clues to this idea in Book’s seemingly anglicised German name ‘Buch’ and in the fact that he has some previous skills as a carpenter as displayed in the famous barn raising scene

However, in one pivotal scene Book manages to start the engine of his broken car which is being hidden in a barn, at which point Sam Cooke’s Motown classic Wonderful World suddenly comes on the car radio.

For the first time since his arrival in the community, Book is reminded of the old world from which he came. Similarly, on hearing the music, Kelly Magillis’s character Rachel Lapp is forced to consider the idea that there may be some joy and goodness to be found in the outside—fallen—world.

There is a cognitive dissonance taking place here between rejecting a corrupt world and accepting that we must live in the world and pursue the goodness that is to be found in it through building up the kingdom of Heaven here on Earth.

I believe that those of us who belong to Faith communities can relate to this conflict between that deep yearning we have to withdraw from the cruelty of life in this modern world but also the need to see glimpses of the divine in the ordinary things of daily life (such as Sam Cooke songs) while also seeking a common good with all those outside the Church.

Again, in another scene in the movie, Eli Lapp quotes scripture to his grandson Samuel: ‘Wherefore, come out from among them and be ye separate sayeth the Lord and touch not the unclean thing.’

Indeed, the Bible does often seem to compel us to reclaim the precepts of a people set apart, and who among us does not dream of a life of rural simplicity lived out in the fields and forests? In another verse we are instructed to be as the ‘quiet in the land,’ a term found in Psalm 35:20. In such lives filled with noise, quietness is difficult for most of us to find.

Nevertheless, we should pray ‘that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness’ (1 Tim. 2:2).

Quietness is also a way of growing closer to God, as written in Isaiah 30:15: “In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength.”

Alternatively, other biblical passages, such as Jeremiah 29:7 encouraged us to ‘seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile.’ Even in the Babylonian captivity the Jews are directed to seek the good of the country where they are captives. Under the King of Babylon they must live quiet and peaceable lives patiently waiting for God to bring them deliverance in due time. For me, this seems like a call to seek common good with outsiders and also our so-called enemies.

Even so, these are big questions about how we relate to the outside world, and we cannot pretend to have all the answers, but it always helps to seek advice on such issues from our priests.

For example, our own dear Mgr Gerry recently pointed out to us that the synagogue originated in exile during the aforementioned Babylonian captivity. Not only that, but Mgr Gerry explained to us that it was the Pharisees who fostered the synagogue as a place for communal worship and mutual support outside the Temple. Again, this development took place during the Babylonian captivity.

And so, while the Pharisees get a bad press for their lack of charity and their legalism, they were also innovators who developed a form of Judaism that extended beyond the Temple, applying Jewish law to mundane activities in order to sanctify the everyday world. They created a more participatory and democratic form of Judaism, in which worship could be followed collectively by all.

Therefore, in a weird way, perhaps the answer is for us to try and be a little less like the Pharisees in one way yet a little more like the Pharisees in other ways by seeking new spaces and creative ways to live out our faith in the world.

By working to develop other ways to serve God and build community in the different places we find ourselves just like the Pharisees during the Babylonian captivity.

Moreover, there are many different projects doing exactly this in our Church today. The excellent Just Faith initiative, for example, seeks to share the social justice work of the Church and to encourage Catholics to connect their Faith with action for change.

Its work is inspired by and carried out in the spirit of Catholic social teaching in new and creative ways. Not only that but Just Faith wants to inspire people to look at local and global needs and to act for peace, reconciliation and solidarity, all within the framework of our Catholic faith. Ordinary parishioners from Dunkeld to Argyll are involved in Just Faith.

Meanwhile, here in Paisley, we are in the process of building up a Just Faith network right across the diocese.

Therefore, rather than withdrawing, we must relocate to the ‘abandoned places’ at the margins of society. For it is only there that we can seek practical engagement with the poor and do peacemaking in the midst of violence.

As Dorothy Day teaches, we build a new society within the shell of the old. But we cannot do personalism and carry out works of mercy against the ills of society that rob the most marginalised of their dignity from a position of isolation.

And so, if you are in Paisley diocese (or any diocese) then perhaps give some consideration to getting involved in initiatives like Just Faith.

To quote another gospel song made famous by Sam Cooke: “There will be peace in the valley someday.”