With all the recent activity in television and the print media giving a generous amount of coverage to our movement, it has become increasingly difficult for many members to see the wood for the trees. People I have spoken to seemed either wounded or confused about what they had heard or seen on television. For at least two people I had met, it meant turning the lights off and leaving the movement for good.

Such a dramatic turn of events seemed almost surrealistic. Only a few weeks earlier some level of confusion reigned in my mind when I approached one church official about a particular issue. This person’s explanation of the situation differed dramatically from a previous discussion I had with another church official. In fact three or four discussions had yielded three or four completely disparaging explanations of the same important question I had posed to them.

Which then was the correct one? The case in point was not a matter of opinion, but of fact. After a short period of consideration, I realized that actually in all likelihood, none of them were accurate.

This experience was nothing new for me. However on this occasion it was undermining the faith of several friends, and since I was not able to access a clear answer, it was hard to help clear their concerns. As in most situations like this, it was evident that a much larger scenario was at play, and any one dimensional explanation of the facts was not going to cut it, even though that was what people wanted to hear.

Without expectation I made my way to Belvedere on Sunday morning, September 20th to hear Father speak. I arrived shortly after 6 am. Parents had not arrived and I took a spot on the grass overlooking the dense fog rising from the Hudson River. The place was jammed to the rafters with the flock, not only in anticipation of Parents, but also of the impending television airing that evening on 60 minutes.

As I stood in thought, I glanced above the roof of Belvedere training center towards the Hudson. I must have been standing still for less than ten seconds when the last movement of Bruckner’s Fourth Symphony came crashing into my conscience. Almost simultaneously, one very clear sentence presented itself: "Father only represents God’s viewpoint".

That was it. Since this kind of activity, as dramatic as it was, had happened on numerous occasions, it came as no shock to me. However it managed to clear my mind of the most recent vagrances. Even though Parent’s had not even arrived, I could have left right at that moment and I would have felt completely happy.

If only every day could be so dramatically directional.

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