...and religiously…

Stage 19 / Friday 15 May / From Conques to Decazeville / 19 km

 

The long stage of yesterday, 35 km across the limestone plateaus dominating gorges and valleys, fortunately has left no effects on my bones and muscles, no longer 20 years old. On the contrary even, instead of aches and pains, my arrival in this haven of greenery, where the medieval architecture of the village of Conques has endured, has almost produced the feeling that I am growing younger. The half-timbered walls and the warm-colored stone roofs which are nestled around the three bell-towers of the abbey church are like chicks around their mother-hen, and I peep with joy in admiring them ! The steeple of the highest bell-tower, octagonal in form, is a beak pointing toward the sky, a connection which links … religiously ... the earth to the sky!

 

Similarly, for centuries, human of all races have everywhere built monuments to their deities. These places, where rites assembled them together, served to draw them out of their daily down-to-earth existence. There, they satisfied their intimate need for comfort in giving themselves the means to soar above reality and the circumstantial. Oratory or chapel, church or temple, pagoda or mosque: sheltered in there were in large part similar incantations, kneeling, polyphonies and processions. Perpetuated there were myths whose evocative richness was fabulous and whose multiple branches often had a common trunk: many of these sacred stories were connected by notions of saviors born of incomparable women, of miracles made possible by asceticism and sacrifices, of purification by prophets, and even healing out of extraordinary intercessors.

 

And the plot and detail, the unfolding of these myths and their evolution was often inscribed in a poetic or epic manner, in order to preserve the memory of them. The framework of these texts was assembled in a compilation of interviews (Confucianism), epics (Hinduism), mythological legends (Greek & Roman), and teachings (Bible, Koran). They would become tools of horizontal communication among scholars and vertical communication with one or more divinities. Comforted, bound, finding new energies (like me on this day), these humans believed it their duty to promote “their” religion!

 

Arts other than writing, such as iconography, sculpture or architecture also contributed to the safeguarding of traditions. They invited one to feel a sacred breath coming from beyond in the decoration of these temples and the beauty of the treasures displayed there. They are still inviting: I felt it yesterday before the famous tympanum of the abbey church and this morning going to see the reliquary of Sainte-Foy. But even though the form and ritual details vary from one religion to another, most have in common the desire to liberate the goodness within each individual. Nearly all would like to transmit a heritage of openness and mutual aid, of fraternity in accepting the constraints which overwhelm us, an invitation to self-abnegation in order to help the other recover his dignity.

 

What a noble intent is this “liberation of all” initially desired by religions! An eminently respectable intent! But most of the religions are stained, alas, with suspicion that their hierarchies only use this initial goal to asphyxiate and subdue. Can you count the centuries before the Christian religion firmly denounced slavery? And where does Islam fit in this area? Is it not symptomatic of a misappropriation of the religion, the general forbidding of women to accede to positions of decision-making among the religious authorities? Why is the word “God” of masculine gender? Why are there only male Cardinals in the Vatican, and no female ones ? Would the latter risk straying from the straight and narrow path?

 

Nonetheless, how much more “religious” is the typical feminine being. Let’s recognize, gentlemen, how intuitive is the ability of your wife in creating connections! Let’s admire her resilient conviction to educate the tiny tots who previously gently rocked in her womb. More gentle, more patient, I am persuaded that the daughters of Eve would know how to bring a straighter and more peaceful spiritual accompaniment to us men. Where have our “too male” sons of Adam in cassocks led us down the centuries, the only occupants of chairs and confessionals? What distances growing to infinity … between Perpetua on her half-line and … Vincent and Emil on their circles from where they greet each other, religiously perhaps, but without ever actually coming together!

 

Interlude: Let’s take off for a short while with plane geometry !

 

 

Vincent may laugh ... Emil less so ... Perpetua never

 

Vincent, Emil and Perpetua’s trajectories which we discovered during stage 15 from Saint-Alban to Malbouzon, and which came back to mind in Decazeville illustrate the difficulty there is to understand each other when we strive in worlds close to each other, but of different shape.

 

Let’s remember: if upon departure, Vincent loses his handkerchief x, he will find it again twice often than Emil who walks on a circle twice as big. Whenever they are within earshot, Vincent and Emil agree to the fact that: « Perpetua seems to be a straight shooter! » But she is constantly drifting upwards and she’ll never find again her handkerchief … And what about conversations between men and women? Have we ever seen lads agree to be with on the same wavelength as the lassie?

 

As for Emil and Vincent, both turning round and round without understanding why, they will drift a part and get close to each other again, but unfortunately without ever truly coming together: their conversation will always remain a challenge, and so it is for the internal discussions between men in many of our religious synods.

 

Please also note that a similar illustration could be used to explain the difficulty between different religions. They may seek to resolve similar issues, but exist in very dissimilar worlds and cultures: how could they ever do better than pass one another by without truly understanding each other?

 

Do we really have to fly so high to gain an outlook of our incapacity for a communal dialog? We must get out of our binary space where everything is either good or bad, everything black or white, everything pure or impure: we seem to never stop spinning, with more or less wide outlooks, or we go off on some different tangent to no longer be seen again! It would be better to accept a universe with nuances, multicolored and multidimensional. Such a universe would surely be the plan of a kind God, if He exists …

 

Fun anecdote, the first names used in the illustration have not been chosen arbitrarily. It is easy to understand that Perpetua drifts “perpetually” away from her lost handkerchief. Subtler, there is a play on word in the French language for Vincent and Emil. Vincent has the sound 20 x 100 (which equals 2000). That is obviously twice a thousand (mille, sounding mil, in French). Vincent will thus double heu …mil … (Emil). No sweat if you do not get it …

 

The fact is that when Vincent will have found his handkerchief 2000 times, he will be able to laugh of the fact that Emil has found his only 1000 times! Meanwhile Perpetua will be sorry of having lost hers forever!