How do we see?

Bishop Tom Wright concludes his book “The Challenge of Jesus” with an anecdote about a visit to the Louvre in Paris ... to view the ‘Mona Lisa’ ... among other paintings. Their expectation was to see the painting. However, because of damage and the need to protect the painting with a glass casing what they saw were reflections of themselves, of others. ...... Even though the painting was there ...... Post modernism says that all that one can see is mere reflection of ourselves. The bishop challenges -
There is such a thing as a love, a knowing, a hermeneutic of trust rather than suspicion, which is what we most surely need in the twenty-first century:
A Paris newcomer, I’d never been
Followed by those dark eyes, bewitched by that
Half-smile, Meaning, like beauty, teases, dancing
In the soft spaces between portrait, artist,
And the beholder’s eye. But now, twice shy,
She hides behind a veil of wood and glass:
Suspicion, fear, mistrust - projections of
Our own anxieties. Is all our knowing
Only reflection? let me trust, and see,
And let love’s eyes pursue, and set me free.

A Prayer

When happiness is upon you
reflect it to the other
When sadness is upon you
comfort each other
When anger is upon you
Step back to pause
When confusion is upon you
retrace your steps
When success is upon you
together rejoice

In a Gaelic voice to my niece Heather on her wedding day 16th June 2007

Freedom to Speak and Write

Concerning the visit of Antony Loewenstein to Brisbane.
Sep 22nd, 2006 at 6:40 pm
Thank you for coming to Brisbane - I attended the said gathering and appreciated three members of the Jewish family speaking with civil tongues about this topic - My Israel Question. It has seemed to me that tying the existence of the state of Israel to the holocaust involves the tragic transference of the guilt of Europe onto the Palestinians. Not one Palestinian sent a Jew to their death in Europe. Nor was any Palestinian involved in the thousand plus years of progroms in Europe. Yet Golda Meir treated them as non persons. The rabbi at the funeral of the Jewish terrorist who killed Muslims at prayer in a mosque could say - a million Palestinians are not worth the fingernail of a Jew. It doesn’t make sense. If he had said a million Germans or a million Europeans, one could understand - even though it has a bad taste about it.
I trust you received some encouragement from your trip to Brisbane to continue with your voice being heard - for the sake of Israel and for the sake of justice for the Palestinian.
As a Christian, I recognise that I must needs be extremely cautious in what I say or write about Israel given what my co-religionists have done to Jews. But I do know I must address the Zionists within “my Christian family” who have, particularly in the US and to a lesser extent in Australia, influenced the political climate there and here. The way that so many treated Hanan Ashrawi when she came to Australia is indicative of this.