Summer has already come, and with that a polite question to me:\u00a0\u2018Father, are you going home for your holiday?\u2019<\/i>\u00a0My answer is invariably the same:\u00a0\u2018No, I\u2019m not, because I am at home here.\u2019<\/i>\u00a0It isn\u2019t a courteous phrase or a sort of PR stunt. In my six years long stay here in Scotland I\u2019ve always felt that, and never been homesick. For some of my compatriots my attitude is unforgivingly unacceptable, and for a few of them it\u2019s purely a betrayal. I can understand that, as Poles had to defend their national identity for two centuries, until Poland became sovereign in the 1990s. And it\u2019s not uniquely specific to the Poles.\u00a0 A few years ago a local man gently but staunchly asked me not to call him\u00a0\u2018British\u2019<\/i>, because he was\u00a0\u2018Scottish\u2019<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Recently local councils of the Western and Northern Isles demanded greater power of self-governance after the independence referendum next year, regardless its outcome. Previously in the Shetlands they had pondered on remaining in the UK should Scotland become independent. Another idea could be that of joining Norway due to that country\u2019s influence on the islands. Politics aside it shows that the islanders\u2019 identity is rather more complicated than straightforward. Frankly this is not surprising. Since our ancestors left Africa millions of years ago, we \u2013 as humankind \u2013 have been permanently on the move. I don\u2019t mean just in a geographical sense, but mainly as a mental and cultural ever changing process. For centuries individual identity was suppressed to a certain extent by the tribal one in order to keep a local community together. The luxury of expressing personal individuality was reserved to a handful of people powerful and independent enough to afford it.<\/p>\n
Modern democracy, which is a pretty new thing, unintentionally released individuality from the bonds of social and cultural conventions. People started discovering that their own preferences in many aspects of life were the ultimate criteria of choice. Seemingly people stopped worrying about their family or neighbours\u2019 opinions, following just their own beliefs and gut-feelings. And that\u2019s great! And then we realise that we still define ourselves in conjunction with others. That\u2019s normal. Despite all the social changes of the last century one thing hasn\u2019t changed at all: we are still social animals, and we still desperately need other people to live happy lives.<\/p>\n
In today\u2019s gospel Jesus seems to have a problem with his own identity, because he asks his disciples:\u00a0\u2018Who do the crowds say I am?\u2019<\/i>\u00a0The question seems to come from the same curiosity that makes some of us to google our own names, or to find out public perception of us. Jesus\u2019 disciples quickly and eagerly report what they have heard, quoting some examples. But then Jesus asks another question:\u00a0\u2018Who do you say I am?\u2019<\/i>\u00a0This question shows that Jesus doesn\u2019t have an identity crisis. This question provokes his disciples to think about their personal relationship to Jesus. It was easy to pass on the public perception of him, but it\u2019s not easy to define their own personal opinion; because that opinion describes each one of them. Jesus\u2019 position is a reference point for the disciples. Subsequently their future decisions will reflect this particular event; one of them will betray Jesus for money, while others put their lives in his name.<\/p>\n
Every day, but today in particular, Jesus asks each one of us the same question:\u00a0\u2018Who do\u00a0you<\/b>\u00a0think I am?\u2019<\/i>\u00a0And each one of us must give his or her personal answer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Summer has already come, and with that a polite question to me:\u00a0\u2018Father, are you going home for your holiday?\u2019\u00a0My answer is invariably the same:\u00a0\u2018No, I\u2019m not, because I am at home here.\u2019\u00a0It isn\u2019t a courteous phrase or a sort of PR stunt. In my six years long stay here in Scotland I\u2019ve always felt that, and never been homesick. For some of my compatriots my attitude is unforgivingly unacceptable, and for a few of them it\u2019s purely a betrayal. I can understand that, as Poles had to defend their national identity for two centuries, until Poland became sovereign in the 1990s. And it\u2019s not uniquely specific to the Poles.\u00a0 A few years ago a local man gently but staunchly asked me not to call him\u00a0\u2018British\u2019, because he was\u00a0\u2018Scottish\u2019. Recently local councils of the Western and Northern Isles demanded greater power of self-governance after the independence referendum next year, regardless its outcome. Previously in the Shetlands they had pondered on remaining in the UK should Scotland become independent. Another idea could be that of joining Norway due to that country\u2019s influence on the islands. Politics aside it shows that the islanders\u2019 identity is rather more complicated than straightforward. Frankly this is not surprising. Since our ancestors left Africa millions of years ago, we \u2013 as humankind \u2013 have been permanently on the move. I don\u2019t mean just in a geographical sense, but mainly as a mental and cultural ever changing process. For centuries individual identity was suppressed to a certain extent by the tribal one in order to keep a local community together. The luxury of expressing personal individuality was reserved to a handful of people powerful and independent enough to afford it. Modern democracy, which is a pretty new thing, unintentionally released individuality from the bonds of social and cultural conventions. People started discovering that their own preferences in many aspects of life were the ultimate criteria of choice. Seemingly people stopped worrying about their family or neighbours\u2019 opinions, following just their own beliefs and gut-feelings. And that\u2019s great! And then we realise that we still define ourselves in conjunction with others. That\u2019s normal. Despite all the social changes of the last century one thing hasn\u2019t changed at all: we are still social animals, and we still desperately need other people to live happy lives. In today\u2019s gospel Jesus seems to have a problem with his own identity, because he asks his disciples:\u00a0\u2018Who do the crowds say I am?\u2019\u00a0The question seems to come from the same curiosity that makes some of us to google our own names, or to find out public perception of us. Jesus\u2019 disciples quickly and eagerly report what they have heard, quoting some examples. But then Jesus asks another question:\u00a0\u2018Who do you say I am?\u2019\u00a0This question shows that Jesus doesn\u2019t have an identity crisis. This question provokes his disciples to think about their personal relationship to Jesus. It was easy to pass on the public perception of him, but it\u2019s not easy to define their own personal opinion; because that opinion describes each one of them. Jesus\u2019 position is a reference point for the disciples. Subsequently their future decisions will reflect this particular event; one of them will betray Jesus for money, while others put their lives in his name. Every day, but today in particular, Jesus asks each one of us the same question:\u00a0\u2018Who do\u00a0you\u00a0think I am?\u2019\u00a0And each one of us must give his or her personal answer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermon","category-year-c"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}