Hope in the Midst of Desperation

Hope in the Midst of Desperation

December 5, 2012

Wednesday of the First Week in Advent

By Colleen O'Sullivan

On this mountain the Lord of hosts will provide for all peoples a feast of rich food and choice wines, juicy, rich food and pure, choice wines.  On this mountain he will destroy the veil that veils all peoples, the web that is woven over all nations; he will destroy death forever.  The Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces; the reproach of his people he will remove from the whole earth; for the Lord has spoken.  (Isaiah 25:6-8)

At that time: Jesus walked by the Sea of Galilee, went up on the mountain, and sat down there.  Great crowds came to him, having with them the lame, the blind, the deformed, the mute and many others.  They placed them at his feet and he cured them.  Jesus summoned his disciples and said, “My heart is moved with pity for the crowd, for they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat.  I do not want to send them away hungry, for fear they may collapse on the way.”… Then he took the seven loaves and the fish, gave thanks, broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, who in turn gave them to the crowds.  They all ate and were satisfied.   (Matthew 15:29-30, 32, 36-37a) 

Piety

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,

Where there is hatred, let me sow love;

where there is injury, pardon;

where there is doubt, faith;

where there is despair, hope;

where there is darkness, light;

where there is sadness, joy.

(from Prayer of St. Francis)

Study

Our readings this first Wednesday in Advent focus on hope in the midst of desperation.  God’s people find themselves in the wilderness.  The Babylonians had come and captured them, destroyed their place of worship, and scattered them far from home.  They wept; they anguished.  Where is our God?  Have we been abandoned?

Far from forsaking his beloved people, God reaches out to them through his prophet.  Isaiah paints a beautiful, hopeful picture for them of life with God, a life where hunger and thirst will be banished, a life where death will be no more, a life where all tears will be brushed away.  These are words of comfort to cling to in a time of hopelessness.

What Isaiah promises is made real and embodied by our Lord.  In today’s Gospel reading, we find God’s Son healing the brokenness of all who come to him with their infirmities.  I thought of this as I sang with the New Spirit Singers at last Thursday’s diocesan healing Mass.  It is a privilege to be a part of that ministry.  I am always filled with compassion as I watch the long lines of people waiting for someone to lay hands on them, to bring the light of Christ’s healing to the darkest places in their lives and the lives of those they love and pray for.

When Jesus finishes healing the sick and infirm, he reaches out to the crowd and, through the ministrations of his disciples, feeds them.  He takes the little food available and transforms it into more than enough to satisfy the people’s needs, just as he nourishes us in the Eucharist.

With our God there is always hope in the midst of even the most desperate circumstances.

Action

God uses us to be the instruments of his hope.  He used the prophet Isaiah in today’s first reading.  He used the disciples in the Gospel reading.  At the diocesan healing Masses, the Holy Spirit works through the prayer partners.  Who has been a messenger of God’s hope in your life?  Have you ever felt God using you to bring his message of hope and deliverance to someone else? 

If you would like to come to one of the healing Masses held around the diocese, the website for the Arlington Healing Ministry is http://healingministry.net/.  The schedule for 2013 will be posted in the next few weeks.  It’s a wonderful way to experience God’s hope, peace and healing.