By John Beverly, Reader, Springline Parish
Monday – The Good Neighbour.
As we look at neighbourliness in a time of lockdown this week let’s start off with a bit of Jesus’ teaching.
A clever clogs religious bloke got Jesus talking about neighbours and then asked him a trick question. “Who is my neighbour?”
Jesus answered something like this.
There was this bloke with an ‘Immigrants Out’ badge on his jacket travelling on a train from London to Lincoln after attending a far right demo. Some football fans who had just seen their team lose a big game came across the man and beat him up and stole all his stuff, leaving him lying in the compartment and chanting ‘What-a-load-of-rubbish!’ as they went.
Now on that train was a church minister. When he saw the man he was deeply upset. So upset that he had to go into the toilet to pray. Amen to that!
Also on the train was a teacher. She knew all about difficult children. She was so upset she had to go into the buffet car and have a gin and tonic. ‘I really care about the kids,’ she said.
And on that train was a Muslim woman dressed from head to foot in black and a burkah covering half her face. When she saw the man she pulled the emergency handle. ‘Sceeech!’ the train ground to a halt. She took out her iPhone and rang for an ambulance (‘Nee naa, nee naa, nee naa,’ it came). She took off her shawl and put it round the man, and opened her purse and gave him fifty quid. ‘Nee naa, nee naa, nee naa,’ went the ambulance. Off to hospital. A couple of days later on her way back to London she called at the hospital to make sure the bloke was OK (he was).
“Who was that man’s neighbour?” asked Jesus. The clever clogs religious guy said, “The one who looked after him.” (He couldn’t even bring himself to say the words ‘Muslim woman’.)
“Then go and do the same,” said Jesus.
Tuesday – Ultimate Neighbourliness
In order to discourage escapes, Auschwitz had a rule that if someone escaped, ten people would be killed in retaliation. In July 1941 a man from Maximimilian Kolbe’s bunker escaped. The remaining men of the bunker were led out.
‘The fugitive has not been found!’ the commandant Karl Fritsch screamed. ‘You will all pay for this. Ten of you will be locked in the starvation bunker without food or water until they die.’ The prisoners trembled in terror. A few days in this bunker without food and water, and a man’s intestines dried up and his brain turned to fire.
The ten were selected, including Franciszek Gajowniczek, imprisoned for helping the Polish Resistance. He couldn’t help a cry of anguish. ‘My poor wife!’ he sobbed. ‘My poor children! What will they do?’ When he uttered this cry of dismay, Maximilian stepped silently forward, took off his cap, and stood before the commandant and said, ‘I am a Catholic priest. Let me take his place. I am old. He has a wife and children.’
Amazingly, the commandant acceded to the request. Franciszek Gajowniczek was returned to the ranks, and the priest took his place.
The dreadful irony of the story is that the escaped prisoner was later found drowned in a camp latrine, so the terrible reprisals had been exercised without cause.
Father Kolbe was thrown down the stairs of Building 13 along with the other victims and simply left there to starve. Hunger and thirst soon gnawed at the men. Some drank their own urine, others licked moisture on the dank walls. Maximilian Kolbe encouraged the others with prayers, psalms, and meditations on the Passion of Christ. After two weeks, only four were alive. The cell was needed for more victims, and they were injected with a lethal dose of carbolic acid into the left arm of each of the four dying men.
A personal testimony about the way Maximilian Kolbe met death is given by Bruno Borgowiec, one of the few Poles who were assigned to render service to the starvation bunker. He told it to his parish priest before he died in 1947:
‘The ten condemned to death went through terrible days. From the underground cell in which they were shut up there continually arose the echo of prayers and canticles … Since they had grown very weak, prayers were now only whispered. At every inspection, when almost all the others were now lying on the floor, Father Kolbe was seen kneeling or standing in the centre as he looked cheerfully in the face of the SS men.
One of the SS guards remarked: this priest is really a great man. We have never seen anyone like him ..
Father Kolbe, with a prayer on his lips, himself gave his arm to the executioner. Unable to watch this I left under the pretext of work to be done. Immediately after the SS men had left I returned to the cell, where I found Father Kolbe leaning in a sitting position against the back wall with his eyes open and his head drooping sideways. His face was calm and radiant ..’
The cell where Father Kolbe died is now a shrine. Maximilian Kolbe was beatified as Confessor by Paul VI in 1970, and canonized as Martyr by Pope John Paul II in 1981.
No-one has greater love than this – to lay down his like for his friend. Father Kolbe modelled his behaviour on Christ. The ultimate neighbour.
Wednesday – Food
My mate Chris used to work as a dairyman. It was a heavy job which he enjoyed, and which provided for his family. He had an accident where he fractured his neck and was no longer able to perform the heavy work.
This is what Chris said:
Because of the job we had a tied cottage and I lost my home. All of a sudden the good life was gone and I was reduced to £122 a fortnight to look after five children. I had to pay the bills and feed the children. It was getting pretty difficult. So we were given some vouchers to use for Foodbank.
Thank the Lord we got it.
You know, people using Foodbank HATE having to ask. They are people like me who have gone out to work. People who’ve had accidents or even people who go out to work every day and work hard and just can’t make ends meet no matter how hard they try. I just want to say. “Thank you to the people who do Foodbank. Cheers. Than you!”
Chris added:
It’s not like you see on Channel Five. We haven’t got 50 inch televisions and smoke 30 fags a day. We’re just normal people that have come across hard times.
At the start of lockdown when many essential items were being rationed in the supermarkets I know a couple who would both go shopping together (before the government told us that only one person should go). One would buy stuff for their own family. The other would do a separate trolley and give all the stuff to Foodbank.
I remember my Religious Education teacher at school saying that when he spent some money on a luxury (such as a bar of chocolate) he gave an equal amount to charity.
Perhaps a good model of Christian neighbourliness might be to spend as much money on food for Foodbank as you don food for yourself …
… I know that’s not possible for many of us. But please make sure you buy something for Foodbank whenever you go to the supermarket.
Thursday – Robin Hood – My Favourite Theologian
Robin Hood took from the rich and gave to the poor. I know a bloke who used to collect for Christian Aid every year. He would gather about £110. One year he couldn’t do it so he set up a standing order with his bank for £10 a month to compensate.
That was about 40 years ago and he’s been giving ever since. Gradually he increased what he gave and now, in total he’s given about £25,000 but he says that because the standing order has always been there he never noticed it as any hardship. Good neighbour indeed!
One of the things I’m most proud about this country is generosity.
Do you remember “Live 8”?
In 2005 the G8 met in Gleneagles, Edinburgh. As part of the conference the world leaders agreed to cancel unpayable debts to the world’s poorest countries. The Live 8 concerts were held to add pressure on the G8 leaders to act.
However, before the rock stars got involved the work had already been done. Starting in the late nineteen nineties British Christians campaigned for Jubilee 2000 to cancel those debts. The movement came to a head at that G8 meeting. The British politicians pushed for the cancellation of debts and large amounts of those debts have been cancelled resulting in transformation for many poor people who now have food security, some basic health care and education for their children. Things we take for granted.
Gordon Brown said it was because of the work of British Christians that this was possible. They gave the government a constituency – a mandate – by their pressure to follow this through.
We are the fifth wealthiest country in the world. Now, by law, our Government has to give to developing countries a small proportion of our wealth to help. And I’m proud of that as well.
The government often use Christian charities (YEARFUND, Christian Aid, CAFOD) to direct the aid money because they are the most efficient and effective organisations.
Perhaps you could be a good neighbour who sets up a standing order to one of these organisations – to help the people most in need in the world.
Friday – Examples of Neighbourliness During Lockdown
Being neighbourly doesn’t mean you have to be like Father Kolbe.
Locally, about 40 people volunteered to help through Springline Good Neighbour Scheme. As most of the people who are volunteers are retired this provided cover for those now unable to help.
In Ingham these volunteers are used by the local shop who will make up orders for people and use the volunteers to deliver them. One of the local pubs – the Inn On The Green – is offering takeaway meals (at very reasonable prices) and special meals for older people (at even more reasonable prices).
Alexander, an eleven-year-old boy has been using his time during lockdown to practice his baking skills. And then he has distributed his chocolate brownies and biscuits around his village (they were delicious).
Alexander isn’t the only one to show his talent. One woman made hot cross buns (for the first time in her life) and passed them onto her neighbours. She has also bought daffodils for them and made marmalade.
People walking around have noticed little plastic and wooden models of people hanging from trees with some chocolate hanging around with them.
And some children have opened their door in the morning to find chocolate hanging there.
I’ve just watched some people on telly sitting outside their homes, maintaining social distance and playing shouting out to each other across the road. Bingo!
As we’ve gone out for our daily exercise people have all said, “Hi!” Sometimes it’s been tough to get the walk done because people are so (nicely) chatty.
Some people are making special attempts to check out others – ringing them up or using computers to keep in touch online.
Is this a new way of being a community?