Last week was the week of keys at my place. It started when
I locked myself out. Cold morning: I’d thought I wouldn’t need a jacket; I’d
only be out a few minutes with one of the dogs while the other dog went for his
walk. It never crossed my mind to take a key for a short time. Then the dog
walker came back, put the dog in the back yard and locked the door as she left.
I didn’t wake up to this until I tried to get in.
So here I
was shivering: I was able to get to the front garden but not into the house.
Fortunately I had the mobile, and a text to the dog walker sorted out the key,
which now lives in my pocket forevermore. But that was just the beginning.
Someone
else forgot a key on Sunday. This key turned out to be locked in the boot of
her car, along with music she needed to sing at a concert immediately. A kindly
partner travelled to rescue her music and keys so she could sing. These are
physical keys: the kind I was urged to get cut so a copy could be left
with neighbours. Who has the key? Who can open the door? Do you need a key
to get into your workplace? What about keys you need to open doors for
others?
Then there
are electronic or digital keys, far too many of them in this sceptical and
dubious age. Your computer passwords and your PINS are keys, and you find that
without them you’re persona non grata. One of these keys also failed for me
this week, one of the passwords, which required a visit from the computer
repairer, who fortunately restored access. I couldn’t have done it on my own. There
isn’t much arguing, explanation or complaint possible with electronic keys.
I wonder
about metaphysical keys. Peter is famously given the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, though these might be metaphorical
rather than metaphysical keys, or maybe both. These keys unlock the treasure-houses
of the Kingdom: Peter is made free to give of God’s treasures as perhaps Pope
Francis would hope to do today. The angel in the book of Revelation bears a key
to lock up the dragon (or serpent): the devil. The binding and loosing power of
Peter also has this quality of restraining what is harmful and giving freedom
to what is restrained. Keys: protection (to lock) and release (to unlock).
There may
be magical keys (the Key of Solomon, a textbook which is different to the Wisdom
of Solomon the Queen of the South travelled so far to hear) and musical keys,
of course, and keys to codes and maps, and keys to life from the Egyptian ankh
to DNA, which is itself a code. Anyone who reads the Wisdom of Solomon will
recognise, alas, many politicians and polluters among us who ‘make use of
creation’ and oppress the poor, not sparing the widow or regarding the grey
hairs of the aged. They believe that might makes right, and that everything
weak is also useless.
How different
is Wisdom, the key to creation: all things being created so that they might
exist. What a simple and profound idea. Wisdom is described as ‘a breath of the
power of God’ in these lovely verses: “There is in her a spirit that is
intelligent, holy, unique, manifold, subtle, mobile, clear, unpolluted,
distinct, invulnerable, loving the good, keen, irresistible, beneficent,
humane, steadfast, sure, free from all anxiety, all-powerful, overseeing all … because
of her pureness she pervades and penetrates all things … and she orders all
things well.’
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