Life as labyrinth
Last calendar week, returning from a half-term break in France, we had a tyre blow out on the autoroute and, since almost everything is airtight on a Sunday in France, we had an unplanned extra twenty-four hours there. We stayed over in St Quentin, a town of ancient foundation which was the majuscule of the war-like Viromandui, a Celtic tribe, during the reign of Caesar Augustus. It takes its name from Quintinus, who was martyred there in the third century; little is known about him, though his cult was popular in the Eye Ages, and several towns are named afterward him.
What I didn't know nearly St Quentin was that its basilica is one of half-dozen important French church buildings which comprise labyrinths, the best known of which is Chartres. The one at St Quentin follows the same pattern as Chartres, though is slightly smaller and based on an octagon rather than a circumvolve, so its lines are straight and segmented rather than curved. But it is superior to Chartres in that it is always accessible to the public, whereas at Chartres the labyrinth is usually covered with chairs, and only cleared for walking on once a week. I have long been interested in labyrinths, and had even fatigued up plans to build one in the theological college where I was on staff. So I took the opportunity to walk around information technology.
I idea that I would generally be struck by the twists and turns of the pathway, and the frustration of not getting to the centre very quickly. (My girl, who walked it, commented three-quarters of the manner through 'Does life really take this long?') I was, merely not quite in the style I had expected. There were three significant phases to the walk.
i. On starting the walk, the path takes you near to the center, though with 1 modest detour. When you get as close to your goal every bit yous tin without reaching it, it is then that you start to turn abroad and meander dorsum outwards. This seems to me to stand for (deliberately or non?) to the free energy and dynamism of youth, which often has the confidence to take the shortest route to a goal. This is not the whole story of life, only information technology is surely an of import role of information technology. Every bit Emma Ineson notes on the Trinity College leadership blog, one of the things young leaders bring is a stimulus to 'get on with it!'
Many younger people are fed upwards with the cynicism and aloofness of previous generations and want to go on with making a difference, irresolute things where they are not as they ought to exist.
There is neat physical and emotional energy that frequently comes with youth and while, of course, younger people need to learn the discipline of stillness and reflection, we must encourage their hunger and willingness to see religion spelled out in deportment. Many of our students in their church placements act as catalysts in their local communities, helping to put feet and hands on the control to feed the hungry, visit the prisoner and spread the good news of Jesus in both word and act.
two. In the center phase, in that location is much walking to and fro, patently retracing one's steps in a like place, though in parallel, rather than on top of, the path that was taken before. Where perhaps I had expected this to signify a sense of frustration when there appeared to exist footling forward progress in life, the effect was rather the reverse. As I watched the path I traced, it spoke of the layered nature of mature thinking and living. Life is much more like a mille feuille than a sponge cake—layered and textured rather than homogenous and uniform.
3. The last phase of the walk was the most surprising. The path is designed so that, having created the multiple layers in the center phase, you then walk around the outside, surveying all the has gone before, and almost reaching the betoken where you started. You so turn towards the middle and, once more with a brusk detour, of a sudden reach your goal—and this time it is for real. Having seen the goal, turned away from it, and meandered for some time, the goal is reached with surprising suddenness.
Information technology was a fascinating and surprising journey—and all the more than poignant given the context. St Quentin was a town that had flourished because of its textile trade, just had also been in the wrong place at the wrong time all through history. It was devasted past the English in the Hundred Years' War. More recently, it was again desperately damaged in the Franco-Prussian war in the 1870s, and once more than devasted in the First World War; the Somme flows through it, and sites of some of the worst fighting are just a few miles away. The nearby Thiepval memorial is inscribed with the names of more 20,000 soldiers whose bodies were never constitute in the mud. Such was the devastation that St Quentin'southward population did not recover to pre-WW1 levels until the mid 1950s.
The day after visiting the labyrinth, I was delivering some teaching on discipleship in Mark's gospel, and found a curious correlation between the narrative shape of Mark and the phases of the St Quentin labyrinth.
The gospel starts off with a very directly opening, presenting the good news of Jesus, Messiah, whose paths are 'fabricated straight' by the messenger who goes ahead of him. After a brief detour on the ministry of John the Baptist, nosotros appear to get straight to the center of the matter—Jesus' announcement of the kingdom of God being at hand, and the urgent need to apologize and believe. Jesus never hesitates in 'getting on with it'—one episode happens 'straightway' after some other in a tumble of free energy and excitement.
After all this straight action, in affiliate eight the disciples appear to 'get it', to understand who he is, the Messiah (Mark 8.29). Merely no sooner has this happened than a greater detour takes place; it is clear that the disciples have picayune grasp of what this might actually mean for Jesus and for them. Following the mode of the cross is a detour that they certainly had non anticipated. Interestingly, Marker (every bit distinct from the other gospel writers) actually builds up the layers of the journeying quite deliberately; the whole of chapter 8 is a parallel retracing of events in chapters 6 and 7, involving a feeding of a oversupply (half-dozen.30, 8.1), a trip in a boat (half-dozen.45, eight.13), education nigh the Pharisees (7.ane, eight.15), and a healing of a man (7.31 and 8.22). Just as the bullheaded man, who after Jesus' starting time healing sees 'people equally copse walking', needs a 2d touch, so the disciples demand a second touch on, a 3rd, a fourth and more, before they really understand.
But after all the detours and the meandering, the end of the gospel comes with a surprising suddenness. After Jesus has encountered the whole range of responses, from the celebration of the women who anoints him, the betrayal of Judas, the rejection by the authorities, and the denial past Peter, his crucifixion becomes a sudden revelation of who he really is, mirroring the opening of the gospel. He who proclaimed the kingdom (1.xv) is identified equally male monarch (15.26). The Messiah of ane.1 who is anointed past the Spirit at his baptism is mockingly called this by the religious leaders (15.23). As the heavens were 'torn' (unique to Mark) to reveal the heavenly vocalization, then the curtain is torn (15.38) to reveal the emptiness of the Holy Place. And just as the phonation from heaven (1.11) proclaimed Jesus as God's beloved Son, so a vocalisation from globe (15.39) recognises this Son of God. The end catches everyone by surprise—even perhaps Marker himself!
So if you have the chance to walk a labyrinth, do take the opportunity. It might teach you more virtually discipleship and the gospel than you kickoff look.
(I ought to credit my wife Maggie for the pictures of the church building building and the labyrinth. They were much amend than the ones I took!)
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