On the Shoulders of Saints and Heroes

Br. James offers this…

 

When I as in grade 10 we read Alan Paton’s powerful novel Cry, The Beloved Country. If you are not familiar with it, it’s about a black South African priest whose son is jailed for murdering a white person in apartheid South Africa. Shortly after reading Cry I discovered Naught for Your Comfort by the great anti-apartheid campaigner, Trevor Huddleston. Huddleston’s book is about his experiences as a member of the Community of the Resurrection and their work in a black township in Johannesburg. I think it is safe to say that these two books changed my life.

Because of these two books, since coming to the community, I’ve always felt somewhat ambivalent about our work in South Africa. I mean, where were we during the struggle for justice in that country? And why did we pull out when things were most critical? But in the last few weeks as I have worked on rewriting the Obituaries that are read each night at Compline, I have begun to discover the story of our community in South Africa and my ambivalence has turned to pride, especially when I discovered the story of  Father Shrive.

The son of a farmer, Father Shrive came to us from the killing fields of World War I. During the Battle of the Somme he lost a foot, an arm and part of his other hand. He went out to South Africa in 1931 and spent the next 51 years at St. Cuthbert’s Mission. He poured out his life for the people of the Mission. In 1951 the local bishop finally ordained him. Because of his War injuries his ordination was first thought not possible and then was put off for years. It was Father Shrive who designed circular churches for the outstations of the Mission. These churches were modeled after the local building style and in place of the cooking fire in the centre of the room, he placed the altar. It was Father Shrive who, after the community withdrew from South Africa in 1970 remained behind and attempted to begin a truly indigenous community, the Brotherhood of St. Joseph with himself and two black South African. When his health necessitated it, he was finally brought back to England in 1981.

Shortly after returning to England, Father Shrive, accompanied by a friend, attended a South African Freedom Rally. Oliver Tambo the President of the African National Congress was to be the speaker. I’ll read the rest from the account:

Once there, Father Shrive was on home territory … he found the seats, and blazed with happiness to see the people, listen to the accents, and delight in the music and dancing of his Beloved Country. As we waited, some press people came and tried to photograph him. We white people were rare enough; but there he was at over six feet tall, straight-backed, with his dark-grey habit, his false arm and his white stick, in his element. He concealed his face behind some papers and said “no photos!” … When Nkosi sikhele Afrika began, it was the old man’s song that boomed forth most patriotically. He couldn’t see at all, but everyone around him turned and looked at him with radiant faces.

After the meeting … he made his way backstage to see President Tambo, whose face lit up, overjoyed at the surprise reunion with his treasured childhood friend. Father Shrive told me [Tambo] had served his mass and even considered training for ministry, until vocation took him to another kind of leadership and service.

While the Nationalists routinely portrayed any freedom activists or human rights campaigners as communists … the larger truth is that many of the prominent, historic leaders of the black people of South Africa working – at least ultimately – for peace and the end to the evil of apartheid were standing on the principals and values they learned from the Church.[1]

One of those places was at the altar of St. Cuthbert’s Mission, where day after day Father Shrive faithfully celebrated the Eucharist, prayed for justice and touched the life of a young man named Oliver.

A few years after Father Shrive’s death, Archbishop Huddleston came to tea at St. Edward’s House in London. In the course of the conversation, Father Shrive’s name came up, to which Huddleston commented: “When I first went out to South Africa, I thought I knew everything I needed. It was Father Shrive who put me straight. He taught me everything I know.”[2]

Years before Father Congreve had gone for a walk with Father Benson. It proved to be a seminal walk both for Father Congreve and for us. During that walk Father Congreve ask if it had been Father Benson’s intention to found the Society for the conversion of others, to which Father Benson responded that the purpose of the Society was for the conversion of its members, and then if it was God’s will for the conversion of others. That conversation has echoed down through the ages in life after life after life of the members of our Society. We see its echo in the life of Father Shrive and we see its result in the South Africa of today. Because of Father Shrive’s faithful seeking after God, South Africa is a different country than it once was.

Brothers, we stand on the shoulders of saints and heroes. At times we may be frustrated, our numbers are too small and the demands on us too great, but we are carried along by the prayers of so many, and today especially the prayers of Father Francis Gordon Shrive of blessed memory.

Homily preached by Brother James Koester SSJE

Feast of the Saints of the Society of Saint John the Evangelist

27 November 2015

[1] Shrive SSJE, Gordon: True Man for a Long Season, Poems of Gordon Shrive SSJE; with introduction by Mark Woodruff, nd, page 17 – 18

[2] Ibid, page 17