Tsunamis and the Trappist Mindset

How can I do anything more then think, more so meditate on the happenings of the last three days?  The Japanese have just experienced the worst earthquake in  1200 years.  Both of their nuclear reactors are in “meltdown” crisis.  It’s not just over there…across the ocean, it’s right here, it’s the world at stake.  Why quibble over material goods when families and all they own have just washed into the ocean and the entire Pacific Rim is feeling the aftershocks.  I received an email from my cousin in Washington DC about Santa Cruz and whether my sister was OK.  Yes, relatively speaking we are OK in California and we need these reminders that there are events in the world that are NOT OK PEOPLE!

Tsunami Japan March 13, 2011

Not wanting to ignore the tragedy of the tsunami I thought that a good movie would give us insight on our world.   So last night, Mark and I saw a beautiful French film whose title in French  is correct “De Hommes et des Deux” which is “Of Men and Gods”.  On the marquee it read “Of Gods and Men” which we found curious.  The movie took place in 1995 and was about Cistercian Trappist Monks who are on mission in Algeria.  These men are faced with the decision to help their village people or to flee the monastery to save their own lives from religious terrorists. The monks fundamentally do the right thing, and stay, united and believing in their cause to serve humanity despite their fear of death. The rituals and pacing of their monastic lives is felt by the audience as you wonder when and how it will all end.  The film gives you enough clues as we the viewers all sat in awe. Wanting to know more about this, in fact true story, I had to check online before going to bed.  After listening to public radio and reading the newspaper reviews I found out that ironically there is another movie with the same American/English title “Of Gods and Men” a documentary that interviews gay men in Haiti and their survival.  Peculiar way that we market these films to win an audience by just twisting the title. To be fully aware is to see both films, so I will make it a point to see the other “Of Men and Gods”.

Des Hommes et des Deux (video)

Of Men and Gods, Haiti (video)

So in thinking though my own experience, trying to understand the mindset of  religious cloister, I can only do so vicariously through remembrances of my Aunt. My Aunt, Sister Gloria Immaculada, is an octogenarian, a cloistered Carmelite nun for over sixty years.  Since I was a child, I never understood why she chose seclusion and why she meditated every day of her life.  What good is that, when I could only understand serving others in an “active” way as a teacher or a nurse?  I chose for my life “active” vocations and I continue to serve.  But now as I am older and a bit wiser “I get it”…I do understand meditation and it’s purpose, my Aunt the Carmelites, the Trappists, the Buddhist priests.  Inconceivable to me, as a full-time vocation but plausible for those with that calling.  In my way, I will meditate/ pray for all those who face loss, both physical and spiritual in this present world.  I suppose there is a higher order and God has many names and faces.