Brian’s Reflection: Friday, November 30, 2007

[ Sorry; pictures not available ]


St. Andrew the Apostle, by El Greco (left); traditional icon, right


“ O good cross, made beautiful by the body of my Lord! so long desired,
so anxiously loved, so unceasingly sought after, and now at last ready
for my soul to enjoy! take me from amidst men, and restore me to my
Master; that by thee He may receive me, Who by thee redeemed me.”

Well, I can’t resist. Being a Scot - at least on my father’s side. (My mother’s “side” is English, alas hated by the autonomous Scots!). But, you know what? Though the McHugh’s were “vera Scots” (one of my great uncles, Edward the Gospel Singer, changed his name to MacHugh, lest anyone think he was ….. Irish, horrors!), my paternal great-grandparents were ….. Irish!

Legend says that, in the middle of the 10th century, Andrew (brother of Peter, and called in the Greek Protocletos, “first called”) became the patron Saint of Scotland. And so it is that many years on St. Andrew’s Day, I have donned my kilt (the Orrock tartan, for my paternal grandmother Elspeth Orrock) and celebrated!!

I’m a Scot. I’m a Canadian. I’m also an “American”. All this is inconsequential to me. I don’t live on this lovely Earth to take ethnic or cultural sides! I live here as a free citizen of the World. Oh, if only I could have a United Nations passport! I think of myself as everything! I I am neither “Jew nor Greek”; neither “male nor female”. I am essentially - I choose to be - a citizen of God’s Kingdom - where there are no distinctions. I consider myself to be in the same family as all people.

Friends, give up tribalism. Give up zenophobia. Be a brother or a sister of every other human being. You will be giddy with the sense of relationship. This is what it means to be “one with Christ”. This does not mean “Christian”. It means “A lover of All People”.

Brian+