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Rector's Letters 2004
September 2004Dear Friends, The news recently has yet again been full of those celebrities whose personal lives are seemingly in quite a mess. So the question is raised, as it has been so many times before, as to whether a person in the public eye should have their personal life blazoned across the tabloids. Surely, the argument goes, what is done in private is of no public interest, even if it is of great interest to the public. After all, we look to people to lead us politically, or as sports personalities, or as royalty, or in numerous other spheres and their private lives are not relevant to the role in which we look up to them for leadership. . or are they? Well, firstly lets be honest and admit that we all, at times, have compartmentalised lives. It is easy for us to separate our “family self” or our “work self” or our “leisure self” from the “private self”. Maybe you can identify a few other selves you know about in your own life. I'm fairly glad my parents did not know all the selves I had as a teenager and there are many bits of my life as an adult, which I know I have not integrated properly. I'm working on it. But I do know that when there are lots of bits which don't fit easily together, I don't feel much at peace. And secondly lets remember that Jesus warned the religious people of his day about putting on a public show when their inner selves were all wrong with God. He likened the pharisees of his day to looking “like white washed tombs, which on the outside look beautiful, but inside are full of the bones of the dead and all kinds of filth” so that they look “righteous to others but inside are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness” (Matthew 23 verses 27-28) Jesus knew that we have to be whole people if we are going to feel at peace with ourselves. He wanted us to be WYSIWYG people What You See Is What You Get people. So maybe when we are faced with the shortcomings of so many celebrities, it might be a little prompt for us to have a good hard look at ourselves and recognise those habits, relationships, bits of antisocial behaviour which we really need to address, before we stand with the crowd criticising the failings of others. Jesus wanted us to get rid of the plank in our own eyes before dealing with the splinter in someone else's not a bad bit of advice, even 2000 years later I guess. yours Gill  Back to Top |
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