I remember my first winter living in
Winnipeg, Canada as a missionary– the cold, dreary gray days; the sub-freezing
temperatures; the darkness that never seemed to end. I felt like I was living in the frozen
tundra of the Artic. I felt so down in the dumps as winter dragged on. I remember going to confession one frigid
dark Friday evening, as I explained my feeling to the priest. His response to me was: It’s Canada in the
middle of winter – most of us are feeling depressed this time of the year–
don’t worry about it – spring will soon be here.
Well, that was how I felt up in Canada in
the middle of winter. Try to imagine how
the Israelites felt in the middle of their journey: tired, hungry, and thirsty.
They gave up hope in the middle of a desert journey that seemed to never
end. They were fed up with their
situation, so they turned against Moses and against God from having brought
them to this hot, desolate, barren place in the middle of the desert. Their life
of bondage in Egypt seemed good in comparison to what they were enduring on the
Exodus. What they did not understand was
that God was in their midst.
It’s often easy for us to slip into
hopelessness and despair in the midst of a crisis or a difficult situation. It is often easy for us to blame someone else
for our misery and agony. When a loved one is sick or dies, when we are
unemployed, when we fail at sometime we put our heart into: where do we find
hope when our lives seem so dark and hopeless?
The Canadian winter felt like it would
never end, but when spring and summer finally came, it was so full of joy and
hope. The Canadians planted beautiful gardens, they spent time outside hiking
or swimming or bike riding. They enjoyed every moment of beautiful weather they
could get, knowing that another winter would be just around the corner. They found God’s presence in the beauty of
nature and in the grandeur of his creation.
I often found God’s presence in those dark, dreary winter days of the
Canadian winters, but sometimes I had to really look for him.
How do we open ourselves to God’s
presence in our lives? We hear in today’s psalm: “O God, hear my prayer and let
my cry come to you.” Just as Moses and
Jesus were able to bring God’s presence to his people in those difficult
moments in their lives, we are also called to bring God’s presence to others in
the midst of their reality, to bring God’s presence as we encounter him in the
here and now. As we continue our journey
in these final days of Lent, may we continuously turn to God as we find him in
the reality of our lives, opening ourselves and others to the love and the life
that are present to us. Let us find hope in the Lord no matter where that
reality finds us.
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