Words from a poem by Edwin Morgan came to me this morning as Gabrielle and I were on our one permitted walk: ‘ . . . and the land lay still.’ Deserted roads, empty flight path, church bells silent. There was an eeriness about it and yet the poem - The Summons - ends with a sense of expectation, that the stillness is a prelude to something significant happening.
Some voices have have said that this time we are going through will work for our good. When it is behind us we will return to a cleaner, fresher world and better communities where people are more focussed on the welfare of others.
Even now people are detecting a change in the air we breathe. My son living in Brixton London says you can taste the difference. The journalist John Macleod writing from Morningside in Edinburgh says of the air: ‘it is clean, clear, positively Hebridean.‘ Add to this the many stories of people reaching out to the elderly and vulnerable and there is indeed much that we would want to carry forward from these days of Covid-19.
This is not to say that it will be easy getting there. You can take so much of quietness and isolation. Medical experts fear that there will come a point where people can’t take much more and will become reckless in their behaviour. Some reports suggest this is happening even now.
In my days at Glasgow Cathedral I became friendly with some of the priests at St Mungo’s Church. They belonged to the Passionist order and were required at various times to make silent retreats. I remember speaking to one about this and expected him to tell me what a relief it was to get away from the pressures of ministry. I was much mistaken. ‘It’s awful,’ he said. ‘You’ve no idea what it’s like to be in utter silence.’
I was listening to The Moral Maze last night on Radio 4. Giles Fraser was one of the panel. He is an Anglican minister who writes regularly for the Guardian and is a well-known voice on radio and television. He is known as ‘the Loose Canon.‘ The panel were discussing some of the possible outcomes of the lockdown and it was put to him that he should be able to cope better than most because he is used to retreats. He disagreed. He confessed to hating retreats, often breaking out to go to the pub.
The problem is that when you are spending more time with less to do and more conscious of your inner life you can become more uncomfortable with yourself. The idea of being still can be attractive but you have to take yourself into the stillness. That’s when memories of past failure can unsettle you rising like muddy bubbles from a swamp. I heard someone on the wireless this morning saying that this is a good time to feel more happy in your own skin. Easier said than experienced. Even practitioners of Mindfulness which does not necessarily accommodate God are warning of the possible hazards in exploring the inner life.
Maybe you have switched off by now. We’re getting into gloomy territory that we don’t need at present. But is it not the case that facing the dark shadows in our lives is the way to living more in the light? Leonard Cohen sang:
‘Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in.’
Turning to the Scriptures we find there encouragement to face the reality of who we are with all the cracks in our depths and to believe that the Light that is Christ can get through with the forgiveness and renewal only He can give. Remember Psalm 130:
‘If you, LORD, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, so that we can, with reverence, serve you. I wait for the LORD, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope.’ (verses 3-5)
And the Psalmist did not have the assurance that comes from the sacrifice of Jesus and is expressed so powerfully by the Apostle John:
‘If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.’ (1 John 1: 8-9)
Another Apostle took this so much to his heart that he declared himself ‘a new creation.’ (2 Corinthians 5: 17)
So I can go forward in this present stillness in agreement with those who say that this could be the beginning of new attitudes and priorities. If this gives us the opportunity to face the reality of who we are and to realise where can find forgiveness and renewal then we will emerge closer to the new humanity we see modelled in Jesus Christ.
I’ll finish with a a verse from a Psalm which has become something of a personal mantra for me:
‘Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him;
do not fret . . . ‘ (Psalm 37: 7)
It is in being still in His presence that He can go to work to shape our lives according to His good and loving purpose.
