Posted Tuesday 23 June 2009
The Most Rev Brian Smith, Bishop of Edinburgh, considers the traditional phrase ‘Cure of Souls’, used when a priest is given responsibility for a charge.
There is a traditional phrase used when a priest is given responsibility for a charge. It is said that the priest is given the ‘cure of souls’. It is a translation of the Latin cura animarum. It is an odd phrase.
The word ‘cure’ has two overtones. It means ‘care’, and it means ‘cure’ in the sense of ‘healing’. When we use the phrase we are saying that the church has responsibility to care for those in the community, but also has responsibility for bringing healing into people’s souls. It must work to enable their souls to be healthy.
Once we begin to talk in this way, we face further questions. What do we mean by ‘soul’, and what is a ‘healthy soul’. John McNeill in his study of the history of the cure of souls, talks of the soul being the essence of human personality. He writes: ‘It is related to the body, but is not a mere expression or function of bodily life. It is capable of vast ranges of experience and susceptible of disorder and anguish; but it is… endowed with possibilities of blessedness within and beyond the order of time.’ Speaking, of the health of the soul, he comments ‘In our day the science that heals the body has advanced far beyond that which aims to restore the soul.’
Currently global pandemics are in our minds. As I write this letter, swine flu has been declared a global pandemic - a disease of the body spreading rapidly in different parts of the world. But we might also ask whether there might ever be such a thing as a pandemic concerning the health of the soul. Can we ever be caught up into something, something spreading rapidly, concerning our life together, which is not healthy for our soul?
We may recall Blake’s poem:
O Rose, thou art sick!
The invisible worm
That flies in the night
In the howling storm,
Has found out thy bed
Of crimson joy:
And his dark secret love
Does thy life destroy.
Might there be such an ‘invisible worm’ permeating much of our life today? I do not wish to be drawn into debate concerning such matters as the details of MPs’ expenses. There has been enough coverage in the papers about that. I might rather dwell on our attitude to such coverage. Do we delight too much in the exposure of another’s fault? Do we delight too much in seeing other people (people in public life and other ‘celebrities’) brought down?
Writing in this month’s Prospect magazine, Maggie Gee talks about a growing tendency, particularly through a variety of reality television shows, for people to delight in seeing someone else’s deliberate humiliation. She calls for a reinstatement of kindness as a habit of which we might wish to see more in many walks of life.
The late Donald Nicholl, has written about an unfortunate tendency in our society to encourage attitudes of contempt towards others. It is not healthy always to view the world through the spectacles of contempt; it is not healthy to believe that acts of kindness must always mask hidden selfinterest.
To begin to talk in this way does not deny that our society can also be seen as exhibiting immense depths of compassion. It approves of regular support of aid and development charities. It responds well to sudden international emergencies. A generosity of spirit does animate very much of our life together. And there is much growth here.
But what else animates our life together? And what other factors may be growing? Just pause for a second to consider the traditional list of seven deadly sins, and after that pause and ask, how much of our life together almost depends on our being actively animated by them. Consider the list - lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy and pride. Now, as a piece of light-hearted entertainment, watch the advertisements on television, and ask yourself which ‘sin’ is being activated and played upon to sell which product. Then notice that the seven on the list have almost become, not sins, but seven norms of ordinary life as presented and fed to us daily.
It is said that without a healthy diet of fresh vegetables our bodies are not going to be properly fed, and we shall suffer ill health. And we know that it is one thing simply to be able to agree with the truth of this, but it is yet another thing to put ourselves in the way of developing habits of healthy eating! We also know the need to avoid ‘junk food’, but do we actually do this? Knowing the facts about a proper diet, is not the same thing as taking steps to become properly nourished.
But, what of our souls? Are we being fed with the values that make for healthy living? I am sure we could easily rattle off a list of what such values are. But are these the ones that are actually feeding us? Also where are we being fed with what can only be called ‘junk values’? Such matters can start out as a joke, but can soon become societal norms, as anyone who watches the film Cabaret can see. And it was Jesus who reminded us that some of the most significant feeding and nourishment that our souls will receive is from our own developed acts and habits of speaking that are truly grounded in love.
If the church has responsibility for the ‘cure of souls’, it needs to keep alert. It needs to keep alert to the possibility of there occurring a global pandemic affecting the health of our souls - a pandemic fuelled by junk values they are often being fed. And we need to ask ourselves the even more difficult question as to whether we would still be able to recognise such a pandemic if it ever came.
