If you forget the past you are not really doomed to repeat it. However, remembering the right things from past can help you find wisdom, live in gratitude, and avoid certain things that would make you look like a doofus.
One English monk who knew this, and helped the church remember its past for centuries after his death was “The Venerable Bede” (c. 672-735).
Two days ago the Western Christianity took time to remember St. Bede. Today is the day the Eastern Church commemorates him. Perhaps the difference is by way of compromise, since yesterday was actually the anniversary of his death.
Bede is the patron saint of historians, and for good reason. He not only wrote the Ecclesiastical History of the English People, but he actually documented everything in the story that he could document. In the process of creating a reliable version of the past he also preserved the evidence that told the story first hand.
My favorite thing preserved in Bede’s work is correspondence between Pope Gregory the Great and his reluctant missionary Augustine of Canterbury. Augustine had lived a sheltered life it seems, and would have been content to stay in his monastery on the continent. He got part way to England and began to question his call to the life of an evangelist. It seems he was shocked, shocked to discover that he didn’t actually know the language. Gregory urged him to stay the course.
And then when he began his missionary labors, he frankly knew nothing about shepherding the Christian community he was helping bring into being. He wrote back time and again with practical questions about counseling people on issues like sexuality and reproduction. And Gregory wrote back.
Because of Bede we all get to see into the personalities of people who shaped the Christian world, and we all get to see the kinds of questions that Christians had to face as a new culture encountered the faith. We get to see the pros and cons of particular approaches to mission and evangelism. We get to appreciate the struggles that brought the faith to our ancestors.
We get to be wiser as we practice Christian discipleship.
I’d love to hear from you in the comments: What is one way that you have found it useful for discipleship to know about the past?
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