Light in the Heart of the Sadness of Paris

Paris, itself the City of Light, was the target for ISIL because it is a place of light. The French involvement in the Syrian conflict was a factor, as was the government's unwelcoming attitude to multi-culturalism, but most of all Paris represents what the rigid fundamentalists hate most of all - enjoyment of life, joie de vivre in every sense. Parisians know how to live life to the maximum through music, good food and wine, sport, through beauty and conviviality, all of which were targeted on Friday by black garbed bigots who wish to destroy the light. Light is life, and Paris is full of life. The Paris massacre symbolises the struggle that is occurring globally between the old and the new state of human consciousness: the era of a mind-based obsession with controlling power and vested self-interest, with making money and conformity are being replaced by an attitude of tolerance and freedom, individuality within a welcoming and self-supporting community. The transition is proving a painful experience, as the chaos in our world is proving. This is indeed the battle between the light and the dark, and it serves us to remember that while ISIL are brutal exponents of the world of shadows, they have their counterparts in the western world too. There are many men and women who walk amongst us who are amoral to an extreme as they exploit and abuse the young and the vulnerable, who hurt and kill, who destroy lives without caring. Is the grief of the husband whose wife was killed as she watched a concert in Paris any more than the grief of the father whose stepson sadistically killed and dismembered his daughter's body in Bristol? What has happened in Paris at the weekend occurs daily in other troubled places, such as in Pakistan or Lebanon or Afghanistan. The difference is that hitherto, largely, the Middle East is where the battleground has been centred, and now the war has moved to an additional and new front. We are being challenged about our values, and being reminded that the war is our war too: we all have a responsibility for the well-being of our human community, which is why the immigration crisis and now (and interlinked with it) a security crisis in the western world are pressing upon us. Our challenge is to react constructively and wisely, and not to make the situation worse. Are we fighting on the side of light or dark, or are we choosing to do nothing? Parisians have reacted with a sad, graceful dignity to the hurt done to their people, honouring the fallen and, in many cases, turning to God and their neighbours for comfort. ISIL cannot suppress the light of Paris, and, ironically, their deeds of darkness have served only to strengthen it instead.   [byline]  ]]>