“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such hostility against himself from sinners, so that you may not grow weary or lose heart.” [Hebrews 12:1-3, NRSV]
[L} Communion of Saints. [R] Cardinal Hume’s monastic life started in Ampleforth and ended in Westminster Cathedral.
Today is All Saints Day. We were a little surprised that the first saintly person we thought of today was the late Cardinal Basil Hume of London.
Through Fr. Howard James, currently the Rector of the Church of St John the Evangelist, Islington, London, we came to know a little about the late cardinal of the Archdiocese of Westminster.
At Fr. Howard’s ordination in 1991 where we encountered Cardinal Hume for the first time, he came across as a kind and gentle fatherly figure. We came to learn a few years later of the affectionate way Fr. Howard related to his cardinal. “Good morning, boss,” announced our friend cheerfully whenever he called on the cardinal at the latter’s office. “I told you not to call me boss, Howard,” the cardinal would chide his playful charge. “Okay, boss,” came the rejoinder. Hearing about an exchange like that leads one to imagine the kind of friendly and caring, accommodating and trusting relationship a young priest had with his cardinal-archbishop. No wonder when the cardinal passed away, Fr. Howard cried his eyes out.
A past-abbot of the English Benedictine monastery of Ampleforth Abbey, Cardinal Basil Hume always appeared as a towering figure steeped in deep monastic spirituality and the English classics. Here was a truly religious man whom the Queen of England herself would hold in high esteem and whom she fondly referred to as “my Cardinal”.
It came as no surprise, but rather as a relishing experience, to learn of his manner of dealing with the Vatican where insolence characterises even junior officers in their attitude towards the bishops of the rest of the world. Combining deep spiritual strength and intellectual competence, the late cardinal was anything but blindly obeisant to Rome in all things big and small. The story was told of the time the papal nuncio came to deliver a letter from the Vatican to Cardinal Hume. The letter, from one of the Vatican offices, referred to the cardinal’s recent pastoral letter to the people of the Archdiocese of Westminster. It said that the pastoral letter had no doctrinal error, but it would propose a few things the cardinal might want to attend to the next time he wrote a pastoral letter to his people. This is what we learned about that exchange:
- On receiving the letter, the cardinal opened it in front of the nuncio, read it to the part where it said there was no doctrinal error but, without going on to read the recommendations for future pastoral letters, folded the letter, put it back into the envelope and handed it back to the nuncio, saying [in effect, although it may not be in exact words]: “It says there is no doctrinal error in my pastoral letter. This letter is therefore irrelevant. You can send it back.”
- On his next trip to the Vatican, the cardinal went straight to the office that wrote him the letter. He asked [again in effect and may not be in exact words]: “Who is the idiot who wrote me a letter about my pastoral letter?” Red-faced, an officer [who, however senior he may be as even a bishop or an archbishop, cannot possibly be more senior than the cardinal] owned up, whereupon he was promptly reprimanded by the cardinal and told in the clearest terms to “never ever write to me again about how I should compose my pastoral letters to my people.”
Fr. Howard gave us a book titled Basil Hume, Ten Years On, edited by William Charles. Three stories in that book explain why Cardinal Hume came to the forefront of our consciousness on this feast day of All Saints.
The first two stories concern his ministry to the poor, the hungry and the homeless. Regardless of where these people may be, he tried to enter into concrete actions to relieve their plight. Reading straight off the book:
- To say the Cardinal would give the homeless the clothes off his back is almost literally true. One of the nuns who worked in the Archbishop’s House once gave a poor man a pair of the Cardinal’s trousers. ‘Hey,’ the man said to the Cardinal some days later, ‘do you know I’m wearing your trousers?’ Basil didn’t mind at all – but he did ask the nun to remove his name tape before giving away the next pair.
- Seeing the images of starving people of Ethiopia on the television screens in October and November 1984, the cardinal said he became ‘haunted’ by a number of biblical passages: Dives and Lazarus, where the rich man Dives ends up in hell, while the beggar Lazarus enjoys eternal life; the Good Samaritan, which he reminded the young people was about ‘the chap who got beaten up and the priest, the Levite walked by and it’s the Samaritan who comes to his help. I said to myself: “Hume, are you the priest walking by? What are you doing about it?”‘; and the story of the Last Judgment, when those condemned plead ‘But when, Lord, did we not fed you? When did we not clothe you?’ and receive the answer, ‘Whatever you do to one of these my little ones, you do to me.’ Basil explained to the young people: ‘I suddenly saw on my television screen, in that old man, in that woman, in that child, the face of Christ, waiting to be served by us.’
The third story concerns praying for each other. This is another very touching story, which we quote:
- One thing was certain: his conviction that every letter coming to his desk should receive a response and be dealt with quickly and courteously. He was particularly attentive to those not well off, not well educated, not used to mixing with cardinals and bishops. During his illness he hoped the great and the good would understand that he could not reply. But one type of letter which was given particular attention was that which began – ‘I have never written to a Cardinal before…’ In the weeks before his death it pleased him enormously to be told that we were at least attempting to acknowledge the sackloads of mail reaching the house from well-wishers.
- A few days after he announced his illness he received a letter saying, ‘You have accepted your illness and you are at peace… I learned I was terminally ill the same day as you made that announcement. I am far from happy – I am frightened and I am angry and I am especially angry with you because everyone will pray for you – but no one will pray for me – a lapsed Catholic who is divorced…’ By return of post the Cardinal replied: ‘Don’t ever say no one will pray for you for from this day on I will pray for you every day’. The response came back just as fast: ‘I was so ashamed when I read your generous letter … I was angry and bitter, forgive me’.
That last story is what prompts us to remember Cardinal Basil Hume on All Saints Day. We pray for each other; that’s what we do as Christians. The Catechism of the Catholic Church # 962 declares: We believe in the communion of all the faithful of Christ, those who are pilgrims on earth, the dead who are being purified, and the blessed in heaven, all together forming one Church; and we believe that in this communion, the merciful love of God and his saints is always [attentive] to our prayers.
Copyright © Dr. Jeffrey & Angie Goh, November 2012. All rights reserved.
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