Faith in Ihu Karaiti most wonderful taonga of all

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Opinion

Re: Honouring of stars so sad, July 18 letter.

 Cormac O’Duffy

While I personally think it is good to see so many non-Māori learning te reo and the cultural taonga of the Māori — their creation myths and legends — I think it is so important, as Ani says, not to forget the most wonderful taonga of all given to Māori: their faith in Ihu Karaiti — Jesus Christ.

This was the greatest gift given to every people, race and tribe on Earth. It brought peace and understanding, a moral code and a hope for blessing and good relations to all other men of faith and good will.

While all national cultural festivals have their part in creating common understanding whatever the background culture or faith, the most wonderful event that ever happened in New Zealand history was the revival that followed the initial evangelisation of the country, when the missionaries handed over the taonga of God to Nga tangata o te whenua at Waitangi and Paihia and a new nation under God was born — a genuine Godzone. Forgetting that will never bring peace but the opposite — disunity, and dischord, unease and a measure of confusion.

St Paul understood Greek language, culture and religion. He had genuine cultural sensitivity.

When he was at the Areopagus, he quoted the Cretan poet Epimenides with his words: “For in Him we live and move and have our being.” He then alluded to the words of another poet,the Cretan Epimenides ,which were taken from the Hymn to Zeus in which he said: “We are his offspring.” When he came to the monument of worship “to the Unknown God” he declared who that God was that they had been worshipping in ignorance. He explained that “in the past God overlooked such ignorance but now he commanded all people to repent”. ( Acts 17: 30)

Many of the Athenians wanted to know more about this subject. Little by little they came to see the one they called the “Unknown God” they could in fact know personally, and that he was Jesus Christ.

The God who created all those beautiful constellations and stars over Gisborne is the same God as the one St Paul spoke of in Athens. That is the big lesson from all of this.

It is good to understand those myths and legends for whatever they tell us which is good — but the greatest good is in knowing the one who is no legend, who in fact made them all and who is the Truth itself.

■ Cormac O’Duffy is a composer based in South Carolina. He taught and studied in New Zealand during the 2000s, completing a Master of Arts in Māori history.