Recently I visited Woolsthorpe Manor, Isaac Newton’s home. It’s a powerful place
to visit with wonderful displays about the astonishing discoveries Newton made
in the fields of light, optics, motion, cosmology, gravity and so on. It reminded
me of the time when, in a letter to fellow scientist Robert Hooke, Newton made
his most famous statement: “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the
shoulders of Giants”. Although what he conceived was qualitatively and
disruptively different, he acknowledged that he was building on so many
people’s work.
As we move into All Saints season, closely followed by All Souls, we become
mightily aware that ‘we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses’ (Hebrews
12:1). These can be great saints and holy thinkers who have forged heroic
pathways of mission or developed the Church’s thinking about God in dazzlingly
insightful ways. They are also the unknown, quiet heroes who played a key role in
our lives at various points along our spiritual journey…
