Patrick Comerford
We are in Ordinary Time, the time between Candlemas and the 40 days of Lent, which begins next week. The Calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today recalls the Martyrs of Japan (1597).
Charlotte and I are travelling to Paris later today. So, in these 11 days in Ordinary Time, my reflections each morning are drawing on the lives of 11 French saints and spiritual writers.
As this series of reflections began, I admitted how I am often uncomfortable with many aspects of French spirituality, and how I need to broaden my reading in French spirituality. So, I have turned to 11 figures or writers you might not otherwise expect. They include men and women, Jews and Christians, immigrants and emigrants, monks and philosophers, Catholics and Protestants, and even a few Anglicans.
I am taking some quiet time early this morning for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:
1, A reflection on a French saint or writer in spirituality;
2, today’s Gospel reading;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.
French saints and writers: 4, Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965):
The Revd Dr Ludwig Philipp Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965) was a theologian, organist, musician, writer, philosopher, physician, Lutheran minister and Nobel laureate, and he challenged the traditional and historical views of Jesus and of Saint Paul.
Albert Schweitzer became the eighth French to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in 1952, but is best remembered for his work at the Hôpital Albert Schweitzer in Lambaréné in French Equatorial Africa, now Gabon.
Albert Schweitzer was born on 14 January 1875 in Kaysersberg in Alsace. Until 1871, it had been part of France, and then became part of the German empire as part of the Imperial Territory of Alsace-Lorraine. He later became a French citizen after World War I when Alsace once again became French.
He was the son of Adèle (née Schillinger) and Louis Théophile Schweitzer. He grew up in Gunsbach in Alsace, where his father was the local Lutheran-Evangelical pastor. The Protestant and Catholic congregations shared mediaeval parish church in the village, with Sunday services in different areas at different times in a compromise dating from the Reformation and the Thirty Years’ War.
Schweitzer went to school in Mulhouse, where he also studied organ in 1885-1893 with Eugène Munch, who inspired him with an enthusiasm for the music of Richard Wagner. When he played at Saint-Sulpice in Paris in 1893 for Charles-Marie Widor, the French organist was deeply impressed and agreed to teach Schweitzer without fee.
Schweitzer studied theology in Strasbourg from 1893, and returned to Paris in 1898 to write a PhD dissertation on the religious philosophy of Kant at the Sorbonne, and to study with Widor.
Schweitzer became a deacon in Saint Nicholas Church, Strasbourg, in 1899. When he completed his licentiate in theology, he was ordained as a curate in 1900. He became Principal of the Theological College of Saint Thomas, from which he graduated, and the appointment was made permanent in 1903.
As a musical scholar and organist, Schweitzer interpreted Bach’s music, drawing on his knowledge of theology and Lutheran hymns. Widor and Schweitzer were among the six musicians who founded the Paris Bach Society in 1905. A pamphlet in 1906 effectively launched the 20th century Orgelbewegung and a major reform in organ building.
Meanwhile Schweitzer first considered missionary work in 1905, but the Society of the Evangelical Missions of Paris was looking for a physician and also considered his Lutheran theology as ‘incorrect.’
His book Geschichte der Leben-Jesu-Forschung (History of Life-of-Jesus research) was published in 1906 and established his theological reputation. It was first published in English in 1910 as The Quest of the Historical Jesus. In The Quest of the Historical Jesus, Schweitzer argued that the life of Jesus must be interpreted in the light of Jesus’ own convictions, which reflected late Jewish eschatology and apocalypticism.
Schweitzer concluded his treatment of Jesus with what has been called the most He words of 20th century theology: ‘He comes to us as One unknown, without a name, as of old, by the lake-side, He came to those men who knew him not. He speaks to us the same word: 'Follow thou me' and sets us to the task which he has to fulfil for our time. He commands. And to those who obey him, whether they be wise or simple, he will reveal himself in the toils, the conflicts, the sufferings which they shall pass through in his fellowship, and as an ineffable mystery, they shall learn in their own experience who he is.’
He returned to university to study medicine in Strasbourg and meanwhile, in June 1912, he married Hélène Bresslau, municipal inspector for orphans and daughter of the Jewish German historian Harry Bresslau.
After receiving his MD degree, Schweitzer offered to work at his own expense as a physician in the Paris Missionary Society’s mission at Lambaréné on the Ogooué River, in what is now Gabon, then a French colony in West Africa. In early 1913, Albert and Helene Schweitzer left to establish the Hôpital Albert Schweitzer, and they had about 2,000 patients in the first nine months, some travelling many days and hundreds of kilometres to reach the hospital.
After World War I began in 1914, life became difficult for the Schweitzers as German citizens in a French colony. They were sent to Bordeaux in 1917 and not released until 1918, when they were transferred to Alsace. After World War I, his parents’ former French citizenship was reinstated and he became a French citizen.
He worked for a time as a medical assistant and assistant pastor in Strasbourg, gave organ recitals and was invited to lecture in the University of Oxford in 1922 on civilisation and ethics. He also spoke in Cambridge, London and Birmingham, where he played the organ to enthusiastic audiences.
Schweitzer returned to Africa in 1924, expanded the hospital wards, buildings and staff, and built a new hospital. He returned to Europe in 1927, but later returned again to Lambaréné and continued working there throughout World War II.
Meanwhile, his theological research, writing and publication continued. He published Mystik des Apostels Paulus (The Mysticism of Paul the Apostle) in 1931, in which he summarises Pauline mysticism as ‘being in Christ’ rather than ‘being in God.’ He argues that the experience of ‘being-in-Christ’ is not a ‘static partaking in the spiritual being of Christ, but as the real co-experiencing of his dying and rising again.’ The ‘realistic’ partaking in the mystery of Jesus is only possible within the solidarity of the Christian community.
Schweitzer argued that rather than reading justification by faith as the main topic of Pauline thought, as set out by Luther, Saint Paul’s emphasis was on the mystical union with God by ‘being in Christ’. After baptism, Christians are continually renewed throughout their lives by participation in the dying and rising with Christ, most notably through the Sacraments.
Unable to return to Europe during World War II, he stayed in Lambaréné from 1939 until 1948, when he returned to Europe for the first time.
After World II, Schweitzer’s practices, standards and attitudes in Lambaréné were criticised by many visitors, including journalists and writers, and he was accused of paternalism in his attitude towards Africans. But he continued to see his work as a medical missionary in Africa to be his response to Jesus’ call to become ‘fishers of men’ and he was a harsh critic of colonialism and ‘the crimes … committed under the pretext of justice.’
Schweitzer was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize of 1952, accepting the prize with the speech, ‘The Problem of Peace.’
He was awarded the Order of Merit in 1955 and honorary Doctorates by Cambridge, Oxford and Edinburgh. The philosopher Bertrand Russell, the composer Vaughan Williams and the painter Augustus John queued up to see him in the restaurant of his friend Emil Mettler in Petty France, London.
The keynote of Schweitzer’s personal philosophy was the idea of Reverence for Life (Ehrfurcht vor dem Leben). From 1952 until his death he worked against nuclear tests and nuclear weapons with Albert Einstein, Otto Hahn and Bertrand Russell. He was one of the founders of the Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy in 1957.
In his ‘Declaration of Conscience’ speech in 1957, Schweitzer appealed for the abolition of nuclear weapons, concluding: ‘The end of further experiments with atom bombs would be like the early sunrays of hope which suffering humanity is longing for.’ His four speeches on Radio Oslo in 1957-1958 were published in Peace or Atomic War.
Albert Schweitzer died on 4 September 1965 at his hospital in Lambaréné. His grave, on the banks of the Ogooué River, is marked by a cross he made himself. His cousin Anne-Marie Schweitzer Sartre was the mother of Jean-Paul Sartre.
Mark 7: 1-13 (NRSVA):
7 Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him, 2 they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them. 3 (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders; 4 and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash it; and there are also many other traditions that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles.) 5 So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, ‘Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?’ 6 He said to them, ‘Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written,
“This people honours me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me;
7 in vain do they worship me,
teaching human precepts as doctrines.”
8 You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.’
9 Then he said to them, ‘You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition! 10 For Moses said, “Honour your father and your mother”; and, “Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must surely die.” 11 But you say that if anyone tells father or mother, “Whatever support you might have had from me is Corban” (that is, an offering to God) – 12 then you no longer permit doing anything for a father or mother, 13 thus making void the word of God through your tradition that you have handed on. And you do many things like this.’
Today’s Prayers (Tuesday 6 February 2024):
The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Gender Justice in Christ.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday by Ellen McMibanga, Zambia Anglican Council Outreach Programme.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (6 February 2024) invites us to pray reflecting on these words:
Blessed is she who had faith that the Lord’s promise would be fulfilled. All generations shall call her blessed (Luke 1:45).
The Collect:
Almighty God,
you have created the heavens and the earth
and made us in your own image:
teach us to discern your hand in all your works
and your likeness in all your children;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who with you and the Holy Spirit reigns supreme over all things,
now and for ever.
The Post-Communion Prayer:
God our creator,
by your gift
the tree of life was set at the heart of the earthly paradise,
and the bread of life at the heart of your Church:
may we who have been nourished at your table on earth
be transformed by the glory of the Saviour’s cross
and enjoy the delights of eternity;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Additional Collect:
Almighty God,
give us reverence for all creation
and respect for every person,
that we may mirror your likeness
in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Yesterday’s Reflection (Eugénie Mouchon-Niboyet, 1796-1883)
Continued Tomorrow (Frederic Cardew, 1866-1942)
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
