On Oracles and Resolutions: New Year's Eve.

Can there be a year of good omen? 2014 was always marked: the hundredth anniversary of 4 August, 1914, beginning the vast malignant conflict once known as the war to end all wars. It was embraced ardently by the nations, on their knees as national anthems played. By its end millions lay dead, by battle, by war-caused disease, by civil conflicts continued far into the new century. Scipio Aemilianus on viewing the ruins of Carthage that he had destroyed (146 BCE), is said to have wept fearing the same fate might one day overtake his own land.

            What have we discovered in 2014? Firstly, that all good works can unravel with astounding speed. The word of Isaiah: ‘The villainies of villains are evil; they devise wicked devices to ruin the poor with lying words, even when the plea of the needy is right.’(Isa 32:7) We see invasions, bombing of cities, exiles of peoples, mass murders, taking of slaves, hostage-taking, public beheadings, all the panoply of war in this year of war memorials.

            We see large scale theft and the reign of the rich, decried by the prophets thousands of years ago. We see the earth plundered. Prophetic stuff.

            Our houses are troubled. Family beatings and murders abound: those we hear about — eight children stabbed to death in one home — and those we do not. Weekly. Daily. Correct relationships of respect and protection too often fail.

            2014 was a year of mourning. Planes fall from the sky; some disappear. A year of the plague called Ebola. Shooting of a school full of children. A carpet of flowers over Sydney’s Martin Place in honour of the dead. ‘Consider the lilies of the field, ‘says Jesus, ‘they toil not, neither do they spin’ yet ‘even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.’ I see a carpet of flowers over the whole earth, a tribute, a memorial, and a hope for all in the midst of tragedy.

            This isn’t an exegesis of scripture. Scripture comes to me in word and image to help me make sense of things. Unlike the prophets, I have no oracles for 2015. They’re hardly needed. The prophets of old have already declared them.

            But I have some resolutions. I plan to ask more questions, to view with care the statements made by interested parties, particularly public ones. I mean to set myself straight about the relative importance of my concerns, especially about the past I can’t alter, and the major ones facing the world every day.

            I think it would be a good idea to live in 2015, with as much beauty and kindness as possible, with as much reverence and thoughtfulness as I can. To remember that the carpet of flowers is also a memento mori, meaning we have only so much time on this earth, and that is unknown. Scipio feared that deeds like his could fall upon his own country, and he was not wrong; so be aware of your deeds, as far as you can.

            I have a wish for peace and prosperity in 2015: even a prayer. Peace and prosperity to all.