Making a Resolution - RE-SOLUTION

 

This is a reflection based on the spirituality of the International Satsang Association, further details of the Satsang Association in the UK can be found on the clicking on the link to the  UK Local Website.)

 

New Year Re-Solution  :-

 

Theme - Seeing in Silence

Each year we are urged to make 'new year resolutions'  But what is a resolution?  Perhaps , as so often is the case, we could benefit from looking at this word and its root.  Resolution - really means RE- SOLUTION -   Each re-solution is an attempt to resolve our life either by changing direction and/or living life in a different way. This is often more clearly seen when we undergo the loss of a loved one, because when we suffer bereavement there is NO EASY SOLUTION, there is merely a re-solution.

Now Christians are well aware of that puzzling quotation by Jesus, taken from the Gospel of Mark 4 :-   "'they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!" 

These words come near the beginning of Mark's Gospel and suggest that people need to really look and really listen if they are to truly understand.  

 Now, we can so easily see these words either at face value or, more often, as being addressed to people living in Palestine 2000 years ago. But we could all benefit from pausing, reflecting and taking these words into the depths of our inner being. These are words that could provide us with a gateway into our own inner self and encourage and challenge us to really look afresh at our life and re-solve it.

Those of us who believe that there is an underlying MYSTERY at the heart of Creation are Theists. We believe in a Spiritual Basis for the wonders of this evolutionary journey we, and all the Cosmos, are engaged in. In that sense we are Spiritual Pilgrims. +Dom Helder Camara reflected on this aspect of Pilgrimage in his writings. Being a Christian he refers to 'Christians'. However, these words can  readily be applied to all who undertake the Spiritual Journey 

Extract from Dom Helder Camara - Essential Writings 

' The Christian is the well adjusted follower of Christ: one with Christ and made responsive to him and by him to the whole of human life.

The Christian is the universal brother and sister of all, and loves to give prayer a communal dimension .........     I have tried to express all this in the simple and humble words of the following prayer.

Being Responsive to Life - Seeing in Silence

How poor you will remain until you discover

that you do not see best with open eyes.

How naive you will remain until you discover

that when your lips are closed,

there are silences richer than a torrent of words.

How clumsy you will remain

until you understand

that joined hands

can do far more

than restless hands

which may inflict the unintended wound.

Now these words of Camara's begin to make sense of how we can begin to see things as they really are. If we are to begin to see,hear and understand things then we need to look and listen with a great degree of inner mindfulness. If we can begin to do this, then we will gain greater 'Insight' and thus begin to 're-solve' our life and also relate with greater compassion towards ourselves and others.

 So perhaps a good New Year Resolution or Re-Solution would be to open the eyes of our heart and both look and listen with more mindful attention at all aspects of our relating - with self, each other and creation.

Advent- Waiting in Hope

ADVENT – A Time of Hopeful Waiting

Advent, from the Latin word Adventus, which signifies a coming, is a significant and special season in the Christian Calendar. It also marks the beginning of the Christian year. Now it may seem strange and perhaps paradoxical, that the year should begin in a time of darkness, in a time when, in the Northern Hemisphere, the days are shortening and the nights are lengthening. However, this is a time of preparation for the birth of a Saviour, for the birth of Jesus the Christ who brings light into a broken world.

For Christians Advent is the spiritual season of hope. It is a time when every  Christian is called to reflect on their life  and how they might become hope both for themselves and the world. The Christian experience and message of the Mystery, we call God, is one of a “God who comes” (Adventus) and, moreover,  a God who calls us to go to meet him. This is a God, who in Jesus, responds to the Psalmist’s cry ‘I have called to you, Lord, hasten to help me. Hear my voice when I cry to you’. (Ps. 141:1).

Now traditionally, Christian’s begin each New  Christian Year  at the Season of Advent. It begins with the story of John the Baptist, a story of one ‘crying out from the wildernesses.

In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the Desert of Judea and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah:

“A voice of one calling in the desert, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.’” Matthew 3: 1-5

This was a voice that expressed the truth about the prevailing situation, a truth that was unpalatable for many and particularly for those in authority. Yet, rather than be a voice foretelling of impending doom, John’s voice also pointed to the Light ( Jesus) who was coming into our Broken World and a Light which would bring healing and salvation.

Now many in our current times may fail to see the significance of Advent or the story of John the Baptist – the voice crying out in the wilderness. Perhaps it could help to first get in touch with the term – ‘the wilderness’ and second to place the Christian Story in the context of  our present times and situation.

The term wilderness indicates a place of desolation, a place where little grows and where life exists on the edge. It denotes a barren and inhospitable place.  Now , our world has many ‘wildernesses’ and these are not necessarily confined to places such as deserts and the tundra. In our world we have many economic and social ‘wildernesses’. We have places of desolation such as :

v     The desolation of millions of children malnourished and lacking clean water. 

v     The desolation of women, denied their dignity and subject to the control and oppression of systems, culture and patriarchal domination .

v     The desolation of financial chaos, unemployment , financial instability and inequality.

v     The desolation caused by the abuse of power, whether it be financial, aggression or that of  sexual, physical and emotional abuse.

v     The desolation caused by our growing estrangement from our environment, our planet and ultimately our true and real selves.

Yes, we live in a world with many desolations, a world that is increasingly becoming a wilderness for so many of us .

Yet, it is into this world that God, the Mystery at the Heart of Creation, enters. The Christian story of the Advent of Jesus the Christ, offers a light of hope that streams onto these many desolations. It brings hope to those in darkness. For me and many others, the real message and meaning of Advent is to provide us with the opportunity to reflect on our lives and our world and to prepare to renew ourselves and to live life more in tune with our environment, each other and ourselves.