THOUGHTS TO PONDER - Timeless Bells

At about 28 minutes past 10 o’clock on a Sunday morning our CD of change-ringing bells is switched off, indicating to laggards that they should hurry into the church building quickly or risk facing a solid closed door on their arrival. The bells mark a moment in time. In churches of a “high” persuasion, jangling bells in the sanctuary or a bell tolled in the tower mark the moments of high drama in the Eucharistic prayer. A joyous peel of bells announces the end of a marriage ceremony and the start of a new life for the couple. Bells in boxing rings, in schools, in clock towers and many other places all mark significant moments in time.

I was recently struck (pun intended) by a very different use of bells. It derives from my fascination with Japanese culture, where individual behaviour and society in general are permeated by Shinto, Buddhist and Confucian ideas and philosophies. Before the Second World War there were 78,000 Buddhist monasteries, each with its own Sacred Bell (Bonsho). Sadly, almost all these bells were melted down in aid of the war effort, much as the railings were melted down in Britain. On the positive side, the tradition continues and the surviving bells and newly founded bells are still greatly valued. Buddhism invites the hearer to use the pealing of the Bonsho as an opportunity to cleanse the mind of temptation and evil, leading to an awakened wisdom of Buddha. A monk explained that the sound of the bell is intended to be heard in three worlds: the past, the present and the future – by the departed, the living and those yet to be born.

This reminded me strongly of our Christian concept of the “communion of the saints” (saints in the original sense of all followers of the Christ). In some “timeless” sense we are said to be somehow “at one” with all those who have gone before. But in this “timelessness” we seldom consider those yet to be born. This added dimension is worth thinking about. We appear to be happy to know that we are at one with those who have gone before. Will new generations in the coming decades, centuries and millennia be pleased to feel at one with us? Perhaps we have something to learn from Buddhism here.

We say together in the Eucharistic prayer: “... in the company of ... all our brothers and sisters living and departed.”. Would it change our perspective on life today if we were to add “...and those yet to be born?”

A thought to ponder.

George Haskell