homo incurvatus in se

Christmas is the time of the year when I am made most sharply aware of how narcisistic our society has become. The advertisements that bombard us, the charities that appeal to us for support, the films that are put on specially for the season all conspire to present us with an idealised image of ourselves, and we revel in it. It is the time when I realise how little difference there is between traditional religion (Christianity in the case of this country) and the secular faith that has, in most people's minds, replaced it. In the case of the former, it is assumed that we will fall in line with a series of "culturised" rituals. And fall we do, because it is only once a year, and, in any case, midnight mass and carols make us feel good about ourselves and about the world. As regards the latter, we merrily fall in line with the rituals of consumerism. Our self acceptance, and our acceptance of others, are bound up with the extent to which we and they are able to find a place within one or other of these sets of rituals, or both.

The problem with religions and their rituals, whether or not they are connected in some way with God, is that they require and reward unquestioning conformity. (Films like "Breaking the Waves" spring to mind). These rituals are sometimes represented as being liberating, but often they are actually deeply enslaving. At the time of Pope Leo X, celebrity friars drew huge crowds into churches, cathedrals and town squares to demand money in return for the "indulgences" which would secure the release of their loved ones from the torments of purgatory. Masters of marketing that they were, they blandished their symbols and chanted their jingles: "As soon as pennies in the money chest ring, the souls out of their Purgatory do spring." The upshot of it all was that people, even when they gave, never felt that they had given enough and so they were crippled both by guilt and by the prospect of having to endure these torments themselves. Martin Luther and others brought the truly liberating words and presence of Jesus Christ into this horrific scenario, and every effort was made to drive them out of the public square. Sadly however, the revolution they initiated later gave rise to the imposition of other sets of rituals. Many very religious "self-respecting" protestants still measure themselves against the degree to which they conform, and they are measured by others, often very subtly, by the same standard. And is this phenomenon not a characteristic feature of virtually all religious practice in every culture and society?: you are worth what you contribute, you exist in so far as you "toe the line". I suppose that this is one reason for the resurgence of oriental religion in western societies, and of neo-pagan practices. They seem like a breath of fresh air. They seem to provide the individual with more space to be themselves. But are the rituals that are associated with them actually any more liberating (or any less enslaving) than those that they are a reaction against?

Jesus was born into a deeply religious society. It is worth noting that many of his healing miracles were performed to liberate those for whom "religion" had done nothing. Take the story of the man lying at the pool recorded in John chapter 5. Contemporary religion had come up with this elaborate ritual whereby anyone who could find their way into the water when an angel came down and stirred it up would be healed of whatever problem they had. You had to be quick though, there would be plenty of others trying to get there ahead of you. This cripple had been there for 38 years hoping against hope that one day he would get to the water before anyone else. Needless to say, it never happened. Jesus came and, after asking him if he really did want to be healed (an important question - he might have been wallowing in self-pity) simply ordered him to get up and walk. That is liberation.