Spoiler
Alert! 2020 has been a tough year for
many of us; the COVID pandemic, needless deaths, sorrows, the economy, as well
as wars and threats of wars. Perhaps
even some folks who put on happy faces experience some deep, lingering sort of
emotion like an exile, feeling on the outside of it all.
In my
reflection on the scriptures today, they seem to address our experience of
exile (Isaiah 40:25-31). This passage
characterizes exile as people feeling “disregarded” by God, saying, “Haven’t
we suffered enough?”
We’re a people who, unlike God, grow
faint, weary, become weak, and faint at different points in our lives. We all need some sort of vigor, having lost
our youthful strength.
The gospel
invitation from Jesus is so poignant: “Come to me all who are
weary… Learn from me… Take my yoke… Find rest…”
(Matthew 11:28-30)
Some might read this passage and seem to think
that Jesus is promising that things will go well and easily once we turn to
Him. But that isn't at all what is meant
here. Life will continue to be life;
there will be hardships, difficulties, turmoil, and every sort of thing that
arises from people interacting with people. There will be no respite from these things. Think of Our Lady! She was born without sin and remained without
sin and still had to endure escaping to a strange land, losing her Child while
on a pilgrimage, and ultimately watching His passion and death on a cross!
The most
difficult darn thing for people in exile to do is trust again after
disappointment or disillusionment. But that’s
what Jesus invites us to do. And I think
that’s the basic reality that Advent always invites us to face – can we trust
after betrayal, after loss, or after diminishment?
At this time
in the Church year, it may be just the right time to recall how such
experiences might open for us a way of entering the world of refugees, of
people facing famine and starvation, of people who make thirty-five cents an
hour making clothing or shoes for some multi-national corporation in the third
world. Perhaps our sense of exile might
help us form a bond with others who also suffer.
Come, Lord Jesus!
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