Spring: the ache for renewal and the sharpness of light

I cannot remember when I have longed for spring more. It is symptomatic, I think, of the hunger for God I have found in my reading and singing, and of the ache for some kind of renewal of our national life after the desolation of the last 13 years of selfish and self-serving politics, bolstering the wealthy and leaving the poor to fend for themselves. Listening to the passionate and deeply thoughtful Andy Burnham at a fantastic IPPR launch presentation on healthy lives and prosperous communities two weeks ago brought it all into focus again: this country is run by about 50 people, tops, and to create real health and prosperity we need a complete overhaul of the political structure of the country, with much greater devolution and local control of health, of employment conditions, of housing and housing benefit. Some days I can feel the ossification of this country’s systems, the inertia, the sheer shallowness of the solutions proffered to the country, the blurring of the language which either becomes sticky and diffuse, or is used to describe the opposite of what the words actually mean. We see this all the time in the current administration, and it is clogging the intellectual arteries of the nation around the silly prejudices of the right. As Bertrand Russell said in The ABC of Relativity:

We all have a tendency to think that the world must conform to our prejudices. The opposite view involves some effort of thought, and most people would die sooner than think—in fact, they do so.

But the faithfulness of God, his eternal commitment to the earth we have sought to destroy for profit, is seen in the brightness of the days, the warmth of the sun and the readiness of trees and plants to set leaves and flowers. A pair of blue tits have taken up residence in our bird box, and their singing, and that of their kind, is everywhere. And on Lodge Lake in Great Holm, the cormorants are back, and have taken up their place in what we call the “cormorant tree.”

Each spring, I feel awakened, both by the demands of spring – garden preparation, planning a planting schedule and enriching the soil – but also by the sharpness of the light. As an artist, I have always loved contrast, which is why relief printmaking appeals to me so strongly. Spring is a time of sharp edges of sky against leaf, against roof, against flower. And the sharpness of the light is a reminder to keep the tools of my mind clean and sharp, to think clearly and in the presence and light of God. This morning, Chloe Lynch, writing a short meditation on Isaiah 50 for the London Institute of Contemporary Christianity, wrote this about John of the Cross’ understanding of the purpose of God withdrawing the experience of his presence:

Through this experience, God is establishing a new capacity for knowing him. John calls this new way of knowing God ‘faith’. Faith is not a denial of knowledge through intellect, but rather indicates a purifying of intellect. It sets our capacity to reason in proper relationship to God’s Word.

“Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the word of his servant?” asks Isaiah. “Let the one who walks in the dark, who has no light, trust in the name of the Lord and rely on their God.”

At the moment, in many ways, we as humanity, especially secular western humanity, are walking in the dark. The best we can hope for is good health and more money, and to die without pain. Lesslie Newbigin once said that because there is no legitimate debate about the ends of humanity, we cannot truly understand what the purpose of human endeavour should be. The Anglican church bangs on about human flourishing but seems reticent to place that in the light of faith, at least in its schools work, where it is happy to accept the prevalent view of neoliberal libertarianism. As Brian Walsh has said – the “economistic worldview is in the air everywhere and the church provides no gas mask.”

Chloe Lynch gives us a clue, in her quote above. Faith purifies our intellect and “sets our capacity to reason in proper relationship to God’s word.”

This, I think, gives sharpness and clarity to our thinking, and de-fuzzes the intellect from the onslaught of false liberal postmodernisms and self-serving right-wing cant. It enables humility and clarity at one stroke. It calls us to worship, to walk with God in the darkness, whilst allowing us to see the light of God as that which gives definition to our thinking.

And somehow, that to me constitutes the essence of spring. Or at least Spring 2024!