Are we telling ourselves the truth?

I have been watching the movie On the Beach. It was made in Melbourne, way back in1959; based on Neville Shute’s novel about a nuclear war and the end of human life on the planet. Perhaps I unconsciously chose the movie because the current conflict in Ukraine is increasing the real risk that someone will fire a nuclear weapon by mistake or in anger. Each side has enough nuclear weapons to kill every person on the planet. We are M.A.D. to keep them.

I hope every movie that we watch, and every thing we read, is a part of our search for the truth. They say that truth is the first thing to be destroyed in a war. Many people are saying what a terrible monster Putin is; and we are right to despise all dictators and all bullying. It is good too, that we are resisting this invasion with nonviolent sanctions. But why are we not teaching in every school, that nonviolence has solved more problems, more successfully, than war. Look at Gandhi’s resistance that helped drive the British Empire out of India; the nonvioence that ended Apartheid in South Africa, and which dismantled the Soviet Union, and Denmark’s nonviolent resistance when Hitler invaded it.

Truth? Every war is a response to provocation. Do we ask why Putin is trying to take over Ukraine? Hasn’t NATO broken its promises not to expand to Russia’s borders? Russia is closely surrounded by US bases and nuclear missiles? How would USA, or Australia, feel, if there were missiles all around our borders?

It is monstrous terrorism to kill Ukranian mothers, babies and grandparents; but wasn’t it also monstrous terrorism to kill them in Vietnam, Iraq or Afghanistan, as Australian and USA troops have done in greater numbers, not long ago? Truth surely is war’s first casualty. Even in our smaller quarrels, when we are angry, don’t we twist many things that our opponent, ever our beloved spouse or friend, said or did in the past? And truth is twisted much worse when arms manufacturers are making billions of dollars by supplying weapons for a war. Those dollars are rolling in, today. How can we avoid being deceived by propaganda? How can we become more truthful, and avoid killing anyone?

The truth about ourselves? We are at the beginning of Lent, our forty-day season before Easter, when we take stock of our lives to prepare for the greatest Christian feast of Christ’s Resurrection. Can we learn from today’s readings about what happened to the people of ancient Israel, and to Jesus, to become more mature, truthful people? The mythical story of Exodus tells us how God helped the ancient Israelites to escape from slavery. Those freed slaves, broken people, would have needed a lot of healing and formation, so they went to Mount Horeb [or Sinai] to have an awesome experience of the God who had saved them. They were then made to wander through the desert for forty years of transition and healing, to prepare for mature life in their final homeland.

A similar thing happened to the young man Jesus of Nazareth. When he was baptised by John in the river Jordan, he got a glimpse of the Infinite, Transcendent Being who made the universe, and realised the profound truth that he was ‘God’s son’. Each one of us gets a chance to glimpse this truth. Not as intensely as Jesus did. But one glimpse is not enough. For Jesus, and for us, it takes time for that true vision take over our whole humanity. Jesus went straight into a forty-day desert retreat, to face all the temptations that we humans have to face. He was tempted to to turn stones into bread: to seek and satisfy himself with every pleasure: food and other comforts, including sex. He was tempted to jump off the temple: do wonderful, sensational things and become famous; to attract and enjoy the admiration of the crowds. He was tempted to seek power over others, to rule kingdoms. He was tempted in every way that we are, but resisted them all.

In these forty days of Lent we are invited to imitate Jesus’ forty-day desert retreat. God does not ‘save us” suddenly, like rescuing a person from floodwaters. Learning the truth about ourselves is a slow process, taking our whole lifetime. Being saved means growing to true maturity. In this Lent, can we do a bit more self-examining? Can we give a little more time to thank God, as the ancient Hebrews were told to do, who gradually frees us from whatever slavery we have suffered?

The truth is, we did not create ourselves or our world. Even our body and mind are gifts from that unknown source. We call it ‘God”, but who knows the full truth of what or who God is? This Lent can we say: ‘Whoever you are,, let me truly thank you, and: let me know you more truly’?

Can we look truthfully at any tendency we have to serve only our selves, our own comfort or pride? Can we look carefully at how we use power over other people, trying to control them? Perhaps we can say each day the lovely psalm 90(91) that followed our First Reading, which says beautifully how God protects us in every situation?

Can we resist any temptation to blame another person without listening deeply to their motives?– even Vladimir Putin? Can we admit the truth that we in Australia, and our allies, have sometimes done, and still do, terrible things to people, especially refugees fleeing from the horrible untruth of war? Isn’t Lent is a time for seeking the truth…and forgiving?

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