15.04.2012
Archbishop Preaches at Trinity Monday Service
Trinity College Chapel, Dublin: Sermon preached by Michael Jackson (Scholar 1976)
Trinity Monday 16th April 2012 Readings: Ecclesiasticus 44: St Luke 4:14–22.
Ecclesiasticus 44.12: Through them their children are within the covenants – the whole race of their descendants.
The Wisdom Literature, whether canonical or apocryphal, seems to have begun its compilation as a Manual of Instruction for bright young things who were ‘talent–spotted,’ if I may use a rather clumsy verbal construct, for a life in the civil service. Viewed from this perspective, we can see how the corpus grew and grew in volume, like a basement full of records which nobody dares to throw out and yet one which nobody ever really continues to consult, so enormous had it grown to be. People instinctively, automatically and myopically add more and more ‘words of wisdom’ to a corpus which moves rapidly in status to ‘composted clichés.’ Academic communities are very sniffy about popular wisdom, and I can understand why. But the wolves of economic viability and of educational policy themselves sniff around our palisades and force an engagement with many things which might make us wince, were we able to close the shutters and not hear. This is not, nor can it ever be, and for good reason, an option. It does us good to give an account of ourselves, as we are most manifestly doing this morning when we mark and note the Election of Scholars and Fellows for the year 2012. No accolade like this comes without industry and application and rarely does high renown come without an accompanying modesty. And what is more, Trinity College genuinely has nothing to hide. Education is about excellence here, not about elitism, and of that we are rightly but reticently proud. It is what we do and many others think we do it well. Furthermore, it is worth bearing in mind that the things we do best here may indeed be beyond the capacity of crude international league table instruments to measure and to recognize.
Even within living memory, before the descent of de facto Biblical illiteracy, an illiteracy as pervasive as Classical illiteracy, the pithy aphorisms of Ecclesiasticus formed the staple of much domestic religion, of much timely corrective instruction of younger family members by their elders when they manifestly started to stray. The pace of homespun technological change is such today, however, that Granny is probably the one who is being helped out by a digitally versatile four year old to send a text message on her mobile phone. Such is the sea–change in practical wisdom! In the Wisdom Literature, the pattern is substantially short–winded and repetitive. There is a general principle followed by a worked example. Maybe, with the prospect of a College Feast ahead of many in the congregation, I may offer but one nugget: Ecclesiasticus 13.8 and 9: Take care not to be led astray and humiliated when you are enjoying yourself. If a great man invites you, be slow to accept, and he will be the more pressing in his invitation.
More familiar, of course, is the much applied and adapted Ecclesiasticus 30.1: A man who loves his son will not spare the rod, and then in his old age he may have joy of him.
I find something interesting, indeed energizing, in the adaptation, the domestication of Scripture in this way. The contemporary world, I am fully aware, cares little for it, preferring to poke at Blackberries and to listen to i–pods while ostensibly walking the dog or eating its lunch.
The Wisdom Literature suggests that human wisdom is both practical and speculative. The tradition is not fossilized but energetic and surprisingly nuanced and versatile. It is shameless in asserting the connection of divine wisdom with creation and God’s guidance of individuals and nations. In St Luke chapter 4, we hear of Jesus as a teacher of wisdom, endowed with the Spirit, take for example verse 18: The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me; he has sent me to announce good news to the poor …. In the Fathers of the church, this reification and personification of Wisdom continues; there the name: Wisdom is synonymous with the Incarnate Word, the Logos. The tradition is not nor can it ever be monochrome or even predictable. It is the contemporary dance of earlier experiences. In St Luke chapter 4, Jesus returns to Galilee, to Nazareth (Remember the cynicism of Nathanael: Can any good thing come out of Nazareth? St John 1.46) and everything about his presence in the synagogue on the Sabbath seems entirely normal, verging on the everyday. The Scripture (Isaiah 61:1–3) literally falls into his hand and gradually the whole situation changes root and branch. The tradition evolves before our very eyes. Jesus moves from articulation to enactment, from talking about it to doing it and, in effect, being it here and now. This is the point at which tradition bites and begins to hurt. This is the point at which people have to stop believing it is pantomime and accept that they are part of something in relation to which they do not yet know the outcome. As Luke expresses it: They were astonished that words of such grace should fall from his lips. (St Luke 4.22) Like most good things, it did not last. They run him out of town. I can only conclude that once you start doing something with the tradition, it all unravels; but if you do nothing with it, it also unravels. How, then, do you sense you are doing the right thing, if you start upsetting it? Will it just growl at you?
The relationship between wisdom and cliché, between principled theory and practical outworking, is very much at the heart of contemporary universities and their role of challenge and commitment to the shaping of society. The slide from the argument for a skills–based economy to a skill–set education is so easy in an Ireland which, thanks to the irresponsibility of the politicians and the greed of too many of the citizens, has willfully squandered its patrimony and which can now offer us nothing other than uncompromising austerity to cloak its own dearth of solvency and sovereignty. The small rural National School, in whichever, whatever religious tradition, may seem far away from the praise of famous Fellows and Scholars in which we are now engaged. However, throughout history, members of this University of Dublin, with its rather quixotic one constituent College, unlike its Fen–land progenitor, have not always come from ‘strategically clustered resources’ and self–trumpeting ‘centres of excellence.’ Somewhere, somebody encouraged everyone whom we honour today; somewhere, somebody believed that they could do great things because they had the ability, the application, the flair and the nerve. Such people may be long gone or even long forgotten but they just did this as part of their duty, seeking no limelight for themselves. They too exercized a wisdom, a discernment essential to the weave and texture of society. Even though we read in Ecclesiasticus 44.9: Others are unremembered; they have perished as though they had never existed, as though they had never been born, we remember them with thanksgiving here and now.
The relationship between raw merit and expanding opportunity is vital to Trinity. Education has changed structurally as Ireland has changed. Trinity has had to look internationally in strategic and daring ways. The most recent change within Ireland to look down upon us is the suggestion that Junior and Leaving Certificate curricula are, in that glorious phrase, ‘not fit for purpose.’ True as that might genuinely be, we only hope that the deep fiscal embarrassment in which we stand frozen and devoid of real ideas, will not dictate at secondary level ‘learning outcomes’ which by their very nature will make ‘learning inputs’ at tertiary level all the harder to deliver. I suggest that within the next half–decade, as politicians effectively fail to reflate a tired Western and self–referential economic model of human society which somehow suited all of us who are privileged for far too long, we will see more and more people emigrating after they have finished school, in effect cutting out the university and college layer. The runaway train of compounded austerity will mean that for many people, once they do what Americans call ‘the math,’ it simply will not add up. All of this already raises new questions of both quality and elitism in universities country–wide, universities which themselves bought over the model of quantity from the tired economic construct of what Irish society let itself become.
Within the broad sweep of wisdom and tradition, we need always to address questions of criteria. By this I mean: Why do we bother in the first place, and what range of results might we hope to see flow from this effort, expenditure, idealism and hard graft? Breadth and depth in education remain basic, but so does the willingness to be adventurous and exploratory, with an instinct for intellectual curiosity. Those who today are honoured and cherished as Fellows and Scholars are honoured and cherished for their excellence. In this University and College, as I said earlier, excellence and elitism cannot be the same thing. In summary, first I suggest that the purpose of education is to equip for good and responsible citizenship through teaching, learning and research. Such citizenship is more a question of service than of privilege. Secondly, I suggest that the interaction of secular questioning with integrity and religious conviction with understanding is a healthy place in which to live and grow. Too few people in universities today experiment with this mixed diet. The question of the vitality of tradition is clearly and unswervingly posed to us in Ecclesiasticus 44 and in St Luke 4: Does tradition have a role as something living or does it gather dust in well–ventilated basements?
Tradition, uncompromisingly, has to do with interpreting and not with reminiscing. It is the rich cavern which connects wisdom and creation. This is the greatest richness of the Wisdom Tradition itself and its gift to us today. The opening of Proverbs 8 tells us plainly that Wisdom is not afraid to ‘go public’: Hear how Wisdom calls and understanding lifts her voice. She takes her stand at the crossroads, by the wayside, at the top of the hill; beside the gate, at the entrance to the city… And, thirdly, I suggest that unless education engages with issues of justice in the lives of people world–wide it is a self–indulgence. However each one of us interprets and appropriates in our own conscience and life good news to the poor, release for prisoners, recovery of sight for the blind, the release of the broken victims – we are, each one of us, invited to join in the Year of Jubilee when the whole creation starts to dance all over again, accompanied by the sound of joy on that Sabbath of Sabbaths. Nothing can ever quite be the same again for those who proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour. (St Luke 4.19)