A couple of years ago I copied a quotation
from John Mortimer’s Horace Rumpole stories, thinking I might look at it again
some time… Rumpole is addressing the judge in the Old Bailey and informs him: When
my country is no more, and even the Old Bailey will have sunk back into the mud
of the Thames, we will be remembered for three things – the English breakfast,
the Oxford Book of English Verse, and the presumption of innocence.
Now, I wouldn’t normally go to Horace
Rumpole for informed spiritual wisdom, but here he hits (inadvertently, it may
be) upon three features among numerous other features of a healthy, grown-up
spirituality. What will remain in memory,
says Rumpole, is first, the English breakfast. (Bear with me here… I think it comes out
alright in the end…) You may have had a true English breakfast. It is the full version of what Jack Duckworth
called a fry-up, somewhat frowned on in my home. You would have had a pork sausage, maybe two,
fried eggs, slices of bacon, baked beans, black pudding, hash browns,
mushrooms, grilled tomatoes and toast... even, I would personally hope, devilled
kidneys. It is excessive, of course…
once a year is probably enough. But it serves
to remind me that a lively spirituality does includes a grateful, if not always
sensible exuberance about food. We give
thanks for our food. Every meal that sustains
us would be a gift rare for many in this world. Food is quite basic, and Jesus made it
sacramental. Rowan Williams tells a
lovely story from the Desert, in which a brother sees a vision of two boats on
the river. In one of them sits Abba
Arsenius and the Holy Spirit of God… in complete silence. In the other boat is Abba Moses, with the
angels of God – and they are all eating honey cakes, with merriment.[1] In one of his poems Thomas Merton says to a
Severe Nun: I know, Sister… you have chosen / a path too steep for others to
follow. / I take it you prefer to go without them…[2] I am not much of an ascetic, I’m afraid.
Then, said Rumpole, the British people will
be remembered for The Oxford Book of English Verse… He often quotes from this, as a dreamy
response to She Who Must Be Obeyed.
It is good to have a copy at home – it is a lovely antidote to our
dreadful misuse, abuse of words and atrocious plundering of language. God’s Word speaks simplicity and love… He
spake and it was done, says Psalm 33.
Truth, Beauty and economy of words go together – Benedict devotes a
chapter of the Rule of St Benedict to Restraint of Speech. God is in heaven, you upon earth –
therefore let your words be few, says Ecclesiastes.[3]
And thirdly, says Rumpole, the
presumption of innocence. No one may
be convicted of any crime so long as there remains reasonable doubt as to
his/her guilt… otherwise we are presumed innocent… something our media need
constantly to be reminded of. It is,
says Rumpole, the Golden Thread in our common law. But it reflects the insistence that pushes
its way through all biblical truth since earliest times, that God will always
veer towards mercy, pardon, restoration… towards the poor, the disadvantaged,
the widow, the orphan and the stranger. I
have no pleasure in the death of anyone, says the Lord God – turn, then, and
live![4]
Thank you, Rumpole… crusty old
reprobate. I think you have the Dalai
Lama’s accolade, a Good Heart.
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