One of my friends from university joined the Society of Jesus after graduation, and I was privileged to be invited (with A) to join their community in London for dinner.
The meal was simple but delicious, and we were given a very warm welcome. It reminded me of my days staying and studying at St Deiniol’s Library (now Gladstone’s library): a community of scholars gathered together at the dinner table to discuss what they have read and thought. There were different seniorities at the dinner table, but the conversation flowed freely: it ranged from such topics as 19th century manuals for learning English (“The lightning struck the Postillion”) to the geography of Clapham Junction.
After dinner, we were invited to the study, and F and A and I could catch up our decade away from each other. He has read and been much influenced by Charles Taylor, a Canadian philosopher I have heard of and always wanted to read. It was a moment’s work for me to order the Secular Age and (another book he is reading) Narcissus and Goldmund from the library.
A topic that came out in conversation was Pope Francis’s saying “the Church is not an NGO”. From conversation with F, I (think I) could catch a glimpse of what it means. An NGO has a concrete mission; KPIs; a “job” to do, with all the costs-benefit analysis it entails.
Whatever the Church is, it arguably shouldn’t be like that. It should be a place of friendship, where everyone is taken seriously and given attention and respect, whether they deserve it or not. Sometimes that is what people need, more than any material help: just to be listened to, to be taken seriously, even when they have nothing to show for it.
The house the community lived in is lined with books, and not just religious books either. There was a shelf devoted to poetry and 2 others devoted to the study of Indian cultures. F was learning Arabic himself to help with his work with refugees.
At times I wonder whether it is only in places like this that book culture will be kept alive. Everyone at the dinner table either had or will study 2 years of philosophy and 2 years of theology. Respect for culture, in all its glorious variety, was taken as a given: it was not about grants or impact or any other justification at all.