Monday, December 8, 2008

GOD WITH US: Meeting God in the Wilderness - December 7, 2008

Have you ever been out to a desert? I don’t mean Las Vegas. Now, that does not count. Why would anyone go out to the wilderness to see a prophet? John the Baptist is hardly a hippie “taking a walk on the wild side”. Would such a prophet attract people to the wilderness? Yes, apparently so. John followed the example of previous Hebrew prophets, living austerely, challenging sinful rulers, calling for repentance, and promising God's justice. He had a large following before Jesus came on the scene. The Gospel writers all pointed John the Baptist to be the forerunner who prepared the way for the Messiah. He is the fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah. He continues the prophetic tradition to be on the outside, calling people to step out of the ordinary to examine themselves.

According to Isaiah 40, there’s a prophetic voice in the wilderness crying, calling for the preparation of the way of the Lord… as in the arrival of a king. Historically, highways connect people and cultures, as wealth and power flowed through the ancient highways and trade routes. But Isaiah imagines a highway that will connect people to God. How does one meet God there?

John the Baptist was also a desert hermit. Later in the 3rd Century, there was a different form of asceticism in the desert fathers. They took on a monastic tradition similar to other religions elsewhere in the world – to escape from the chaos and persecution of a troubled world, seeking refuge in solitude. These are monks who want to seek self-discipline and holiness away from the world. They found God in the wilderness. Jesus often goes into the wilderness for a retreat. The place apart can also be a meeting place for us to encounter God.

Why the wilderness? It is a barren place, seemingly lifeless. But it is filled with life, with its signs very much hidden. Yet, it is a lonely place. Long while ago, I read an article about a couple who went to Africa to study lions and prevented elephant poaching. They ended up in a place the size of Ireland, all desert land, all by their lonesome. They were the only two human beings with all kinds of wild life surrounding them. Now, that is a very different experience! However, they found it incredibly lonely.

As people go through a transition in life, they often end up in a state similar to that of a wilderness. They too feel very lonely. However, what seems to be a total waste of time on the surface may be more productive than we know. It is a special time for us to do some important inner business.

William Bridges in his book, Transitions: Making sense of life’s changes talks about this process. In every kind of change, transition, or to use a bigger word, transformation, it always involves at least 3 stages: an ending, a neutral zone, and a new beginning. The story of the Exodus follows the same three stages: the exit from Egypt led by Moses; the wandering in the wilderness for 40 years; and the eventual entrance into the Promised Land. The natural world also provides for us similar examples: the butterfly that goes through the caterpillar stage, the cocoon stage, before a beautiful butterfly emerges anew.

Therefore, being in the wilderness stage or the transitional stage, we do the work of letting go of what we had before, in order to make room for something or someone new. It is a time for us to disengage from the old, before incorporating the new. In general, it is making room for new life, or as in the image we have in today’s Isaiah passage, clearing a pathway through the wilderness. That’s why wilderness is also the place wherein transformation takes place.

In life, we often need some form of retreat or stepping outside of daily life to be alone, to take stock of life and on what has gone on before. Jesus often goes away from the crowd to pray, to be with God, and to re-charge his battery. Sometimes, we need to look back at where we have been, before we can find out where we are heading toward. We are such a busy people, we often go from day to day, from week to week, without really knowing where we have been and where we are going. It is especially true for us now, when we are stressed out in the month of December.

When we go through transition and losses, we become disoriented. The wilderness experience allows us to be re-oriented, to re-examine and re-shape our identity. It is just like the caterpillar hiding in a cocoon, before the new life of a butterfly can be born anew in metamorphosis.

I can remember one such stage in my life when I was in an absolute wilderness state. At the time, my favourite song was “Dust in the Wind” by the group Kansas. “I closed my eyes, only for a moment and the moment’s gone… All we are is dust in the wind.” It was one of the most pessimistic and depressing song ever written. I was in a stage where I was lost, not knowing where to go next. I missed my friends and family in Hong Kong. I found the academic study no longer challenging and exciting. I found my Christian friends talking about things that really did not concern me. It was a dry spell in my spiritual development. I was not satisfied with all the pat answers given. At the time, I did not realize that I was grieving over my father’s death. Even though I was never close to him, his death was still a significant loss. It was only years later that I came to realize how major an impact his death had on me through those desert years.

On one hand, it seems like such a wasteful time for me, drifting along aimlessly. Yet, it was not a total loss. It became fertile ground only after I kept treading it over and over again; until the time was right for me to move on, and ended the wandering.

The wilderness is never a comfortable place to be in. There is a real temptation to rush through it and get out of there. However, it is important to note that we cannot rush through it as quickly as we wish. To everything there is a right time, and the right amount of time for change and for healing. We cannot rush through grief and try to bypass the pain and the sorrow involved. Any such attempt will backfire, and the pain and grief will come back to haunt us in more harmful ways later. The main function or activity of the neutral zone of transition is to surrender!

The person must give in to the emptiness and stop struggling to escape it. We should try to find meanings in the wilderness experience. Don’t fight it! Instead, try to befriend this loneliness. It is there for a purpose. It allows us to discover new life and new meaning. It is there in the mysterious place of the wilderness that we find powerful agents of change and transformation. It is there we meet God, as Moses found out to his amazement! It is there in Sinai where he received God’s commandments. It is in the wilderness where the people of Israel found their distinct identity among other nations and peoples. It is there in the journey through the desert they became the people of God.

The wilderness provides access to an angle of vision on life that one cannot get anywhere else. It is a very unique angle. That is why the prophet called people out into the wilderness to look at life from a completely different perspective. Very often, we get stuck on looking at life from one particular angle; especially one particular way of looking at the present, when things are not going well. Letting go of that specific interpretation of the present may make it easier to conceive of a new future. Paradoxically, how we get out of the wilderness will depend on how well we find our way in, and how well we make use of the resources the wilderness has provided for us.

Do you have your own wilderness experience? How do you meet God there? Is your experience true of the description given?

Advent is also about a wilderness. It is an in-between time, a time of waiting, where the fulfillment of God’s promises is still on the horizon. Nonetheless, God is there, and God is here with us in the wilderness.

The call of Advent is to prepare the way! Therefor, go to your wilderness, find your bearing there, and build a highway for God. By doing so, we may end up finding a way to take us closer to the heart of God.

Thanks be to God. Amen.

Fr Victor+
www.stjd.ca

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