The Henson Journals

[139]

2nd Sunday in Lent, February 24th, 1929, St Matthias.

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Not "nationalism" but the schismatic spirit is the darkest shadow on English Religion today. There are mighty forces working in the world which may be trusted to correct the one, for, in spite of ourselves, we are becoming international in thought and habit, but the other has deeper roots, and grows as rankly in international as in national society. A reunion with foreign Churches, negotiated in private, need imply no extension of fraternity, no increase of charity, only the pleasant indulgence of a hobby and the triumph of an ecclesiastical theory; but reunion with our Christian neighbours, who are meeting us daily, & whose eccentricities (as we think them) of opinion and behaviour try our temper & "get on our nerves", means a triumph of grace over nature which is morally impressive & carries a meaning which none can miss. There is no scandal, & need be no sin, in differences of opinion & habit, but that these differences should hinder Christ's disciples from worshipping & working together must be scandalous & may be sinful.

[140]

I celebrated the Holy Communion in the Chapel at 8 a.m. There were 10 communicants including the 4 Brydens & John.

I wrote to Tony asking for his itinerary as he promised.

Masochism from the name of Leopold von Sacher–Masoch, an Austrian novelist, who described the thing = sexual perversion, in which a member of one sex takes delight in being dominated, even to the extent of violence or cruelty, by one of the other sex. (Oxford Dictionary.)

"spiritual masochism" would, I suppose, ̭be^ the domination of a female penitent by a priest, or rather, the female penitent's enjoyment of it.

I motored to Bishop Middleham, & preached at Evensong. The congregation was larger than I had expected, a circumstance which was accounted for by an influx of Sectaries, who had been evicted from their chapel by burst pipes! "It's an ill wind that brings nobody any good."! This Sunday is the one Sunday in the year when it has ever seemed to me proper to preach on the delicate and difficult subject of purity: and I did so tonight. Most of my hearers were young men & women of the age at which "keeping company" is the central interest in life.

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