(Lenten series 3, Friday 18 March 2022)
One
reality in the growing portfolio of crises these days is the retreat from truth
and from rational discussion. To many
people it is evidently now acceptable to exploit language, to grossly overstate
what they feel strongly about… some think it permissible to be openly abusive,
including foul-mouthed, or obstinately unreasonable… There is a rising culture of misinformation…
and evidence that misinformation is now being deliberately assembled, and used
to weaken decency and order. That is now
called disinformation. We have
conspiracy theories… and a sort of obligatory paranoia… a radical abandonment
of trust in the media, in the police, in the government or any authority or
officialdom… and allegations that good and intelligent people are in fact being
duped, or even in bad faith are choosing lies and deceit. Science and scientific method get airily
dismissed. So, many people seem to have
opted simply to be in denial of reality...
and this at a time, oddly enough, when we are having to cope anyway with
the mysterious rising tide of dementia in it various forms... people losing
touch, involuntarily, with reality The
one phenomenon, I know, has nothing to do with the other… but it all adds up to
a crisis in our understanding and our discernment as people of faith. And violence is now prevalent in the ways people
think issues may be resolved… verbal violence, actual violence.
I
have to say that these waters are muddied all the more because so much religion
also has taken leave of sense, become distorted, in the horny hands of the
devout, and aberrant versions of Christian faith, fundamentalism, superstition,
the misuse of power in religious communities… make it difficult to know where
we are. Numerous people have found they
can’t be bothered with it any more… a plague on all your houses… Jesus is not the author of confusion.
The
best wisdom, it seems to me, is that we know how to stop and simplify. It is always good to withdraw, to shut down
for now the worrying, debating, swapping ain’t it awful stories. We are not going to put the world right, we
don’t have solutions, and our opinions sink from sight in the morass of
everyone’s opinions. It is the first
rhythm of contemplative life and prayer… to be still, to cease the chatter, to
be open to God. The gospel records tell
how Jesus, at times of stress, followed such a pattern. It is important to recover steadiness… It
does not mean that we know everything now.
It means we take time and space to connect with that area where we are
not confused, or panicky, or full of anger, or in danger of being led astray.
In
the simple, gentle processes of contemplative prayer, as time goes by, we move
beyond our comfort zones, our need to shore up our defences, to shield
ourselves from calamity, from being misunderstood… This was always largely the
care and feeding of the ego, the self we hope the world sees and respects. All that quietly becomes surplus to
requirements. The self that’s waiting
there is the self God made, always knew, and loved. This self, moreover, is in good order – it is
the ego that has problems. Go into
your room, says Jesus, and shut the door…[1] The self that waits there is truthful, and
loving, and is in company with Jesus in all his simplicity, the way, the
truth, the life[2]. We don’t emerge with any set of solutions –
we emerge knowing humbly and gratefully whose we are and whom we believe.
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