Mary Thorne writes that we need our energy for the challenges of 2020 to last beyond the last day of December.

"All good things come to an end”, we were told about holidays and parties. “This, too, will pass”, was the message when the going was tough. Everything ends. This year, 2020, is coming to an end, to the relief of people around the word. It has been a year of uncertainty, anxiety and distress but it has also offered opportunities for quietness, simplicity and new endeavours. Its challenges will extend beyond the last day of December.

Life is made up of comings and goings, ebbs and flows, orbits and seasons. Woven into these patterns are opportunities for pause, reflection and renewal.

Radical Change Needed

Physics tells us that it is a characteristic of matter to continue in its existing state of uniform motion unless changed by an external force. This is inertia. In our human lives, our familiar and mostly comfortable rhythms flow on, moving towards predictable endings with only the odd tweak or diversion.

We don’t relish radical change. In fact, we take great care to avoid it or protect ourselves from it.

In the spheres of human health, education and employment, we accept the need to undergo assessments, examinations and appraisals in order to achieve optimal results. The process of reflecting and discerning individually and corporately is necessary for healthy strong life.

It is possible that in our eagerness to tick things off and move on to the next project, we allow our reviews to be a little perfunctory and don’t search them for the wisdom that could ensure truly meaningful change.

Purpose of Review

Review is not just about the broken bits and the failures; we must give equal attention to strengths and successes. Gladness and thankfulness for what has gone well energises the clear-sighted honesty required to recognise the hard change that needs to be made in order to progress.

Life is a gift that must be tended. It is disrespectful, ungrateful and ultimately destructive to treat life carelessly. Life is dynamic and surges onward, adapting and evolving. The constantly changing nature of aliveness demands that we be vigilant to adjust and renew as required.

Years ago, on the first day of my new job as “Pastoral Associate” in a parish, I was asked by the accountant who chaired the Parish Finance Committee, what my KPIs were. I was baffled, then indignant. How could the business concept of Key Performance Indicators relate to my passionate commitment to assist in the work of addressing the pastoral needs in the community?

I see more clearly now that this man was being a good steward of the parish resources. Transparency and accountability are an essential part of all human interactions; no one is exempt from them although the processes by which they are achieved may have different names.

Pruning to Encourage Life

Individuals can be resistant to critique but serious renewal demands disruption. Gardeners call this pruning. The blossoming and fruiting finish, the sap ebbs and plants become dormant for the winter season in preparation for another spring. In what seems a violent and traumatic process, a drastic cutting back reduces the branches, leaving the plant looking mutilated and diminished. However, next spring, fruit is better and more plentiful after the pruning.

Although much talked about these days, the notions of review, transparency and accountability are ancient. The exhortation to reflect, discern and renew rings out through the Scriptures of our Judeo-Christian faith.

The prophets urged Israel’s leaders to look at themselves, their decisions and their lifestyles which had strayed far from the covenant promises of obedience to God and justice for the widows and orphans. The prophets were advocates of a good pruning.

From Nazareth, Jesus set out to preach renewal to his people. He knew it would be a radical and painful disruption to the status quo. “I come to bring fire to the Earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! I have a baptism with which to be baptised, and what stress I am under until it is completed! Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the Earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!” (Lk 12:49-51).

In the smelting process, fire burns the dross and exposes that which is genuine and valuable. Division is the result of refusal to compromise God’s word for the sake of ease and comfort.

Jesus’s challenge was so radical and disruptive that he had to be killed. And his message to renew, spoken today by the Spirit of God in our midst, is still unwelcome.

Challenge to Alertness

A clear theme in Jesus’s teaching to his followers is to stay awake! Be alert to what is happening and be prudent and proactive in the work of bringing about justice and peace for all of God’s creation.

As well as teaching us to be alert, Jesus tells us that the work is costly. It will take as much courage, energy and commitment as we have. We will have to relinquish some comfort and security.

Act for Earth's Sake

As 2020 ends, there is the oppor-tunity to ponder deeply what changes need to be made in order for life on our planet to be healed and restored. The need for urgent action is clear. Despite the ubiquitous coronavirus, the highest priority is environmental crisis and climate change.

The most recent Rockefeller Foundation-Lancet Commission on Planetary Health report finds improved statistics regarding human life expectancy, poverty and child mortality but serious declines in figures relating to carbon dioxide emissions, ocean acidification, tropical forest loss, water use and fertiliser use. Ecological disruption comprises an unprecedented threat to all life support systems.

A great deal of human inertia has continued within a world view of growth, control and profit. Many are motivated to achieve prosperity at all costs. Our unbridled individualism refuses to be constrained or impinged upon by simpler or more co-operative ways of living together. We hear that wealth alone merits public attention and admiration.

My New Year’s resolutions are usually a bit of a joke. I half-heartedly resolve to take measures to improve my own wellness and fitness (less wine, more exercise) and perhaps do something to contribute to my wider community. By March the intentions have largely fizzled out and are forgotten.

Making Genuine Resolutions

This year I am reflecting more deeply. I want to communicate with my family, parish and wider networks about ways in which we (these vines) can be pruned.

Rigorous attention to what we buy, what we eat and all that we do will help us make long-term change.

There must be potential for us to establish some extensive carpooling, ride-sharing networks and share information and collection/transport opportunities for recycling of electronic waste.

We could encourage reusing rather than throwing away eg, reusable nappies and wipes.

We can retain the Lockdown learning of being content with less. We can talk over societal and family traditions around gift-giving and celebrating.

There will be many ideas and we can allow our love and enthusiasm to push through the barriers of prioritisation and time constraint.

Much at Stake

Former aspirations to “live the dream” are now more widely acknowledged to be the nightmare that destroys our home Earth. It isn’t easy to change world views but it is urgent and it is happening.

So Happy New Year planet Earth and all which abide within your wondrous systems! May your human population find the courage and generosity to forgo some comfort and convenience for a future of abundant fruitfulness.

Tui Motu Magazine. Issue 255 December 2020: 6-7