Spend any time talking to chaplains about their work, and the notion and priority of presence is bound to come up. It is both a supremely practicable principle (it guides one in the best use of time) as well as a deeply theological one. It is rooted in our bodily identity and rightfully privileges being over doing.
The fashion for endless typologies of theology has had the unfortunate consequence of distinguishing incarnational from redemptive theologies. But this separation makes little sense and is certainly not part of our patristic inheritance as even a cursory read of Athanasius’ On the Incarnation will reveal. The presence of God, in fleshly solidarity with us in Jesus Christ, is not simply an exercise in camaraderie; it is an exercise in solidarity for the sake of accomplishing change. To put it crudely, transformation requires ‘soteriological contact’. Connection and change belong together. Calling upon another patristic witness: ‘what is not assumed is not healed’ (Gregory of Nazianzus).
Chaplaincy presence cannot then simply be about walking around ‘being nice’ to people, though for a good deal of the time this is exactly how it can feel! It is about the practice of solidarity for the sake of effecting a change that speaks of the difference God makes. But, it must be admitted, the theological significance of our presence will often times remain implicit, unspoken and, not infrequently, unrecognised.
One highly theologically charged form of presence is hospitality, a delightful way to promote mutual relationships and meaningful exchange. As Christopher Moody (1999) rightfully proposes: “Any genuine act of hospitality creates the possibility of contact with the true nature of God [as Trinity]” (p.24). And in making this suggestion he draws upon the classic passage in Genesis where Abraham entertains three unknown visitors (Gn 18: 1-21). In complementary fashion, Roberta Canning (2007, p.203) points to the inspiration she derives from Roublev’s icon of the Trinity, that is, we might add, from the open invitation to participation in the Trinitarian life of God which stands at the very heart of what Christianity understands by salvation.
Continue to travel along this path of thought and one soon arrives at the notion of sacrament rooted in the logic of incarnation. Drawing upon Aquinas we might say that chaplaincy presence aims at being an efficacious sign of God’s transforming grace; what it might look like to the passing observer, however, is simply two friends drinking coffee.
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