In my work I sometimes go out into the countryside and meet families of very humble circumstances. I will tell you at first they would offer me things and I would find a way not to take whatever they offered. I was of the opinion that they did not have much so it was wrong for me to accept. I had things so I could go and do for them but they could do nothing for me. I was so wrong.
It is in this exchange that we become equals and it was normally after taking the glass of water that they began to open up and really let me in. I am so grateful to the people of Tabasco for teaching me this.
In the Christian Church St Francis spoke of the same message.....something which has sadly been pushed aside even by the so called Franciscans. Francis saw his community as one that was as poor as the most humble around them. His goal was to take the message as an equal. Not as someone who could come in and make a difference and change your life, but as someone who was equal and could work alongside you putting one stone on another until you had rebuilt the church.
I feel this is an essential part of honouring our Celtic past. We as Monastic Druids need to be equals with all we meet. We need to get in there and build. We need to see the honour in a person.
In contrast, today’s society sees value in how much you have. How much can you buy! Can you get the new cell phone or IPOD? If you can then you have value. You are to be treated with deference. We have turned the whole idea of honour on its head.
We as Pagans have to make a stand and bring back the meaning of honour. We have to give value to your word, to the ability to share, to the fact that you are honest. This is where honour comes and equally we need to point corruption and unfairness and not stand for it. For each time we turn away we diminish our own honour. Let those that take and take for themselves see what value they have......... none .
This world needs rebuilt. We all need to get in there and pick up one stone and put it on another and bind it together with the mortar of honour.