Reflections
Southern Cross
Written by John Walter Monday, 24 January 2011 17:51
In 2010, at the beginning of the year, I was visiting Sagua La Grande, a river town in Cuba facing the Florida Straits. I had been invited by Pastor Marielys Diaz Aragón of the IPRC Church in Sagua to participate in a multi-lingual prayer gathering. People were to speak in Spanish, Russian, and English.
As we gathered there was an apagón, a blackout, which left the sanctuary with only the battery powered florescent lights kept handy for such occasions; but a strange electrical phenomenon was occurring, the lights flickered on and off spasmodically, receptacles crackled ominously, and then finally the sanctuary and the city descended into total darkness. Candles were found and the service continued despite the somewhat unnerving electrical anomaly. Everyone remained focused on the readings, and all went well with each person reading the same text reverently in their own language.
Just after the service had ended the lights in the sanctuary relit, temporary dazing everyone; but relieved to be able to see again, people mixed in small groups talking before heading home for the evening. Outside the city was hushed, the few streetlights there were threw scant light on the sidewalk.
I’m one of those people always looking up; that night my sky gazing paid off. While standing on the stairs of the church I gazed up and for the first time saw the constellation Southern Cross suspended in the sky directly above me. It seemed gigantic, stretching far across the night sky; and it felt very close to me in a curious sensual way that made me feel exuberantly alive and aware of myself and my surroundings.
I was glad there were so few people nearby; it gave me the necessary time to absorb the energy emanating from the constellation, to attempt to reflect on, and in some sense identify something in its numinous message. I stood there for some ten minutes transfixed by its mesmerizing call until finally members of the congregation began to file out, exchanging their final good nights before departing.
I remembered a song; it was one by Crosby, Stills, and Nash appropriately named: Southern Cross. At first just a few words appeared, but then more came:
When you see the Southern Cross
For the first time,
You’ll understand why you came this way; for
The truth you may be running from is so small,
But it’s as big, as big as the coming age…and the Southern Cross…
This unexpected experience, this truly wonderful surprise brought up questions contained within the text of the song. Gazing transfixed at the sky over me I first considered the words: …why you came this way.
Even in my first trips to Cuba I felt a subtle yet continual force working in me, gently shifting the manner in which I defined my most important life values. The more I visited the more I have committed myself to reducing my biological footprint measuring energy consumption and to increase in whatever way possible the means of communication between our cultures, specifically the Cuban Presbyterian Churches found in El Centro Presbytery.
But these are only preliminary to the deeper questions of spiritual regeneration,…why you came this way…the ongoing changes which take place silently in the soul as one decreases one’s accentuation on physical life and its transient needs to amplify the ever present voice of the Spirit. That night it seemed apparent to me that the Southern Cross called me to declare a new relationship with all who are within and without the community of God, to raise our voices together from this sad place of injustice and self perpetuated personal and cultural isolation, and to celebrate and share the gifts of God..
…for the truth you may be running from is so small… is a phrase that implies being “unconscious or unaware” of some fundamental but significant truth or reality; of having our noses so close to the grindstone of our daily human obligations that we have neither time nor energy for little else, a condition which drowns out our ability to hear the Spirit calling us to put down our burdens for a time and to simply listen for that something that we had been unaware of, unconscious of.
But it’s as big, as big as the coming age…and the Sothern Cross…
The sky above reflects our human portrait as we have defined it from the beginning of time. Each culture has selected a self referring set of signs within its limitless configurations and has attempted to decode its mysteries, thus making the understanding of human life a ritualistic extension of what is perceived as holy from beyond.
as big as the coming age… I personally have no objections to modern music as a prophetic source of shared wisdom. I imagine Stephen Stills, disheartened by a recent divorce, sailing the world in search of a new sign able to guide him in the darkness and finding the Southern Cross as I did, there above in the night sky. For him and for me it betokens a beginning of a new period of challenges in which we can navigate securely, and it calls us to Christ’s cross and the mysterious values of its transforming and healing symbolism.
I hope you have the opportunity to dip down to something like 23.08 N. latitude to see and experience the Sothern Cross for yourself.
John Walter, The Cuba Partnership