one simple word

Hello Hyannis 

I am here to share something I know true for myself and some things I just don't understand. First what I know on a soul level is that the Hebrew word Hineni, which means "here I am"  is for me, the most important spiritual word. Like a child in school answering the teachers roll call we can be present, raise our hand and say to our Creator "Hineni, I am here, here in this moment, in this now, fully present and ready".

It is what Abraham said to G-d as he started his journey which began the Jewish people and the belief in one Supreme being. It is what Moses said at the burning bush before he spoke Truth to Pharaoh’s power and led the people out of slavery.

Hineni is also in Isaiah 6. Isaiah receives his prophetic calling when he hears God ask: "Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?" Isaiah stands up. "Hineni! Send me!" he says. Can we do this too even if it means confronting ourselves around our individual prejudices?   

(Isaiah in verse 58 says  “Is not this instead the kind of behavior acceptable to Spirit:  to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords, to set the oppressed free and break every chain?  Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter— "  to provide the poor wanderer with shelter hmmm

And this is where the things I don't understand come up. Given our human innate ability for compassion regardless of our particular beliefs, how is it that the current leadership of our Salvation Army makes the homeless feel unwelcome and sets up barriers for them instead of providing services with an open heart? How is it that the town of Yarmouth kicks people out of shelter at the beginning of winter with no sustainable, (and sustainable is the key word here) alternative? Who profits? How is it that our media is silent at the suicide in this complex brought on by despair at this eviction?

How is it that we have so, so very many people suffering and dying on the streets? Aren't we, in this, for better or worse, predominately Judeo-Christian country supposed to be our brothers and sisters keepers? What is preventing us from standing together like Moses and Abraham and Isaiah and say " here am I"?

If we can move whatever is in our way and raise our hand a door will open and Light will come into our lives and the world. Like this time of the solstice, Hannuka, Christmas, as the Light is reborn in the sky  saying Hineni is perennial,  like a weekly roll call. Stepping up we become more authentic human beings for Light does not fear Truth nor Truth fear the Light for the Light eradicates ignorance. Just so for us. Are we courageous enough to let go of even our cherished oblivion and blindness?

  Isaiah 58 continues "when you see the naked clothe them, and do not to turn away from your own kin.  Then your light will break forth like the dawn,  and your healing will quickly appear;  then your righteousness will go before you, and glory will be your rear guard.  Then you will call, and you will be answered;  God will say to you: Hineni."

This loving force can be here for us.  All it takes is one simple word.

Who are we?

On New Years Eve in response to an invitation to a New Years Day potluck,  an advocate for the homeless replied, "Unfortunately I cannot attend. A woman was just released to the streets from Cape Cod Hospital after being in a coma for 3 weeks from a domestic beating. I will be too involved tomorrow helping her and also another homeless woman who has MS who is losing her health, lost her house and is now on the street. I've got to figure out other plans for her as she is too weak to come on the overnights." This left me horrified and stunned at the lack of not only compassion but also simple decency, basic humanity, in our community. Is this indicative of who we really are? Where is the outrage?

Every night on the television there are impassioned pleas to help children in far away countries who are hungry, to help homeless and abused animals. How many Cape Codders respond with a donation? While those are all worthy causes, should they take precedence over a neighbor in serious and desperate straits? Is a homeless, abused dog more worthy then a woman? Who are we really?

I got an answer to this in the list of resolutions the following morning in the Cape Cod Times. Not one of those resolutions was in any way about doing a better job of helping those in need, even though, with the homeless memorial a week earlier, the issue was front and center. Frankly I am ashamed. I am ashamed that these women are homeless. I'm ashamed of our priorities in general. I what to shout, to scream, "Friends, it's time to wake up, time to be the better people we really are!" But in one way or another this has been said over and over and over again. Yet, as few as one tenth of one percent of Cape Codders step up to the blessings of this challenge—and those few do so repeatedly. But 99.9 percent of us choose to shut our eyes; we simply don't care. It would be great if in 2011 this was proved wrong. This could happen if everyone reading this, who in 2011 is moved to respond to one of those tear jerking ads, also give double that amount to one of agencies that address the homelessness of our neighbors. This lack of compassion would be overturned if every town on the Cape had at least one home for those who have none. There are people with proven track records willing and able to organize and manage these facilities; all it takes is the will of the people, you, us, insisting that  our town leaders say "here, take this abandoned property off our hands."

What is God (however you define this) asking of you? Who are you? Who are we? Really? And the ironic thing is we reap what we sow. These circumstances are a test. Ultimately , we pass or fail by what comes back to us in this life or at some sort of final accounting of our souls. Put out love and goodness, love and goodness surrounds your life; put out indifference and there will be no one there for you when you are in need. Who do you want to be in this new year, and where do you want to be in the next? Who do you want us to be as a community? When are we going to collectively recognize that we are all integrally and intimately connected, that the entire world — even though it seems to be filled with almost infinite independent parts — is really only one holy, whole presence? Only when we realize and act on this wholeness, can Peace and Love triumph.