Cape Town’s own Charlie Chaplin protesting (silently) outside parliament this week. Insightfully holding a model airplane (bought during the arms deal) to his head like a gun in the one hand and a copy of our Constitution in the other. I am always inspired to see “Charlie”. He has never spoken to me (or anyone), but he is present among us as a silent but very graphic parable. He is an “old” person yet he gets out and makes his voice “heard”.
This past week has felt heavy. the spilling of blood in Israel / Palestine highlights again the deep veins of fear and hatred that embed our humanity. Even as we pray for the peace deal to take hold we must ask when we will learn that after all the blood has been shed – we will still have to come round a table to talk – so why not learn to do so as the first response and not the last response. This is simple logic but difficult practice!
And even as I reflect on this with regard to international conflict I cannot ignore the fact that it is as true in many of our personal relationships. It is not easy to “be angry and not sin” [Eph. 4:26] or to “speak the truth in love” [Eph. 4:15]. Sometimes we think that because what we are saying is the truth (at least as far as we perceive it to be) then we can say it any way we want to – but this merely plows the field for further animosity to be sown in the field of that person’s life. Oh Jesus help us to learn to speak the truth with the hope that love will flower. But sometimes the desire to see another hurt is too delicious a taste, and let us not be too quick to deny this.
I find the following words from the Swiss psychologist Carl Jung challenging – inviting us to look within ourselves to discover our own inner contradictions that play out as conflict in the world:
Today humanity, as never before, is split into two apparently irreconcilable halves. The psychological rule says that when an inner situation is not made conscious, it happens outside, as fate. That is to say, when the individual remains undivided and does not become conscious of his (sic) inner contradictions, the world must perforce act out the conflict and be torn into opposite halves. C. G. Jung 1959
Some of you are aware of the work of Peter Rollins – a theologian from Ireland. We have reflected on a couple of his parables from his book: The Orthodox Heretic.
Here is an extract from his up-coming book called the Idolatry of God. I find him a challenging author to wrestle with …
Strength for the journey inwards, Alan
Moonlight Mass is this Wednesday evening!
