Dear friends,
Today, on the penultimate day of 2019, I saw a rainbow stretched across the sky in a spectrum of light. A rainbow symbolizes a bridge between the present moment and the hope of new life. It inspires us to awaken in the moment to the possibilities of more beauty, justice and compassion so that we realize that pain and grief do not have the final grip on life. The American poet-novelist Aberjhani wrote: “Shine your soul with the same egoless humility as the rainbow does, and no matter where you go in this world or the next, love will find you, attend you and bless you.”
The 2020 theme of the Omega Center is the infinite within, awakening to the light breaking through our dark and fractured lives, the light that is the Christ. When the infinite light shines within the infinite soul, love makes a home in us. To awaken to this light is to expand the heart, like the rainbow, into an arc of compassion, peace, forgiveness and hope. The rainbow invites us therefore to reflect on our lives as we cross the threshold into 2020:
- Are we prepared to move into a new light and see things with a new perspective?
- Are we ready to cross over from one phase of life to another?
- What do we hope for in this new year?
- Are we ready to be engage a new dimension of living?
Teilhard spoke of the human experience as one of inner power, the power of Omega, present, hidden, divine light centering us, pulling us, pushing us, securing us, luring us into a new future grounded in the energies of love. We know what we are up against, as we enter into 2020: global warming, incarcerated immigrants, political instability, religious conflict, racial and gender discrimination and the list goes on. But underneath these chaotic events, there is a steady power of love, a love that is ultimate, incomprehensible, faithful and dynamic; the arc of this love stretches into infinity within us and outside us; for this love is God and God is the power of the future.
In this New Year, may we have faith to know that God is Love and Love creates the world. Our challenge is to see this light of love shining through the darkness. For those who know how to see, the world is diaphanous; God is shining through it. For those who put God in a cage, the world is cold, dark and brutal. Let us live in the arc of love—from one heart to another.
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