“The existing world order, based on the sovereignty of nations, grows increasingly incapable of resolving modern international issues,” begins a statement entitled Beyond National Sovereignty, issued over 30 years ago by the supreme governing body of Baha’i Faith.
“Crises are present on every front. No nation can stand independent of the affairs affecting every other nation…The earth is an armed camp with the spread of terrorism redefining war and disrupting social stability. How does a nation strike back when the enemy is not another nation but a formless group that blends into the population?”
Today the reality of this statement has been made uncommonly clear with the prevailing order appearing “lamentably defective.” That the world during the past century has been passing through the death pangs of an old era and the birth pangs of a new evident to all.
“The old principles of materialism and self-interest, the old sectarian and patriotic prejudices and animosities are perishing, discredited amidst the ruins they have wrought, and in all lands we se signs of a new spirit of faith, of brotherhood and internationalism that is bursting the old bonds and overrunning the old boundaries. Revolutionary changes of unprecedented magnitude have been occurring n every department of human life…”
Such revolutionary changes began with the witness of a second term of the twin victories of President Obama, the newest contender to appear in the political arena among candidates at that time for the Presidency of this new and revered American nation. Add to this his nationality and purity of purpose and the combination started many seasoned politicians reeling.
By what Divine Intervention then, within weeks of Inauguration of the second Presidential victory, did we have a second prominent figure, Pope Francis, elected to another of the world’s most powerful positions, affecting a large populous of the world, with both possessing humility and compassion unparalleled among their predecessors and peers. Both likewise could find those who would perpetually dig for anything that would discredit them as poli-tricks are of man; but timing is of God!-whether or not we can perceive it.
“But the old era is not yet dead,” the Writings continued. It is engaged in a life and death struggle with the new. Evils there are in plenty, gigantic and formidable, but they are being exposed, investigated, challenged and attacked with new vigor and hope. Clouds there are in plenty, vast and threatening, but the light is breaking through, illumining the path of progress and revealing the obstacles and pitfalls that obstruct the onward way.”
March 21 of each Gregorian year marks the first day of Spring. Likewise with the setting of the sun each March 20, marks the beginning of the Baha’i New Year, heralding a new Spiritual Springtime when “all things are made new!”
“O friends! The Divine Springtime is come! It behooveth you to revive your souls through the gracious favors which in this Divine, this soul-stirring Springtime are being showered upon you…How high the reward of him that hath not deprived himself of so great a bounty, nor failed to recognize the beauty of his Best Beloved in this, His new attire.”
HAPPY (BAHA’I)
NEW YEAR!
