Take with you words
Last Chapel services. Yay, God! To be sure, but such endings recall us to a kind of reflection about how Chapel matters and in what ways. At the very least, we confront the questions that never go away, the questions that stay with us. As the philosopher Heraclitus notes, “the way up and the way down are the same.”It is really all about our being with the principle of accountability and truth both in our movement towards such a principle and our going from it. Such is the power of ideas. They matter. Such encounters with the ideas that matter belongs to an education that is worthy of the name, education. We confront things that are bigger than ourselves that challenge our thoughts and actions.
That ideas actually matter belongs to the subversive nature of an education which challenges all of the attempts to control and confine, to conform and comply on the part of the various authorities of our world and day. Instead, we are opened out to the riches of a poetic and philosophical literature that belong to the religions of the world philosophically considered and that speak to the freedom and dignity of our humanity.
Times of ending are poignant and powerful. The poet Ella Wheeler Wilcox reminds us that “it isn’t the bold things … that count the most in the summing up of life at the end of the day./ But it is the doing of old things, / Small acts that are just and right; /And doing them over and over again, no matter what others say; / …. Of walking with feet faith-shod; /And loving, loving through all, no matter how things go / wrong.” And so it has been with Chapel.
Hosea is the great love-prophet of the Jewish Scriptures. His story is itself an image of his understanding of God in relation to Israel. It is about the powerful idea of forgiveness, that there is something more than our follies and foolishnesses, more than our failings and shortcomings. There is the transforming love of God who loves us in spite of our unloveliness. In being open to such ideas, we become learners, discerning and understanding something of what is shown to us.
“Take with you words,”Hosea, says, “and return to the Lord.”We are constantly being reminded to return to the principle of our being and knowing, to the God in whom we find our truth and dignity. Morning after morning here in Chapel you have heard many words. Not just the ramblings of the Rev, but words of deep meaning and power that require of us a kind of thoughtfulness. How to be thoughtful in a thoughtless world is the great challenge. At times it may be perplexing. It may seem that it is often speaking about the incomprehensible to the uncomprehending! But after all, we are in the presence of mysteries: the mystery of God which embraces the mystery of ourselves, individually and collectively, as well as the mysteries of life and death. We find ourselves in the company of those who have thought before us about these things.
My hope and prayer is that you will have taken words with you in your educational journey and that at some point, whether sooner or later, some word that has taken root in you will blossom forth and live more fully in you; some word which you have heard in the rich words of the Scriptures read in Chapel. Some word that however sleepy and preoccupied you might have been in the early morning has somehow stayed with you, even if unawares. Take with you words that have meaning and truth.
Chapel is a morning miracle. I am very thankful for our organists, Mr. Stephen Roe and Will Ahern for playing the hymns and preludes that contribute to a kind of thoughtfulness and reflection. The Chapel Prefects under the leadership of Korolos Sawires have been simply outstanding and have contributed greatly to the smooth running of Chapel, getting servers and readers in a timely fashion. I thank many of you who have taken up the challenge of reading or serving in Chapel, stepping out yourselves for the sake of something greater than yourself and finding that it matters. There are a number of you who have ‘taken ownership’ of serving, like the Iberian/Mexican cohort of Jorge, Ignacio and Gregorio at Senior Chapel, and Alden, Gregory and Thomas and others at Junior Chapel. Korolos Sawires and Michael Hilborn read the Scripture lesson from Hosea at the last Chapel services. It will be the last time they will read as students in Chapel. The Chapel Prefects have provided a wonderful example for those of you in Grade Eleven to follow.
And I want to thank all of you for your respect and consideration, for your attentiveness and thoughtfulness to this integral part of the educational life of the School. I can only hope that you will indeed “take with you words” as you go forth on your way. As always, it is my privilege to be with you as we wrestle and dance with the words that are set before us.
(Rev’d) David Curry
Chaplain, English & ToK teacher
Chair of the Department of Religion and Philosophy