There is a dawning sense of panic when you have been confidently driving in a certain direction and realise you might be lost. You think that you have been here before – but only in the past 10 minutes. You are going round in circles. The first reaction is to think all is well and the buildings must look similar, and so you press on. But there is a growing feeling that you are lost, and then a certain stubbornness can grow, and you think it will be all right soon, when you arrive at the next village or turn of the road. Finally, you stop and check the map, and you realise you have no idea where you are. You really are lost.
There is a profound difference in life between being lost and not knowing it, and the moment when you accept you do not know where you are. Advent has little to say to people who don’t know they are lost. But it is the key to a new direction and hope for those who accept that they need to go in a different direction in their life.
In this Sunday’s first reading, Isaiah (35:1-6) reassures us that God will “strengthen all weary hands, steady all trembling knees and say to all faint hearts: ‘Courage. Do not be afraid,’ ”. For “the eyes of the blind will be opened and the ears of the deaf unsealed”. The unease we experience when we are lost can be a fundamental building block of the spiritual life. We can never become who we are meant to be until we have a sense that something is missing in our life.
When I was vocations director, a common reason why many started their journey of discernment was the realisation that “there must be more to life than this”. We must acknowledge this sense of loss, this unease. In this time of waiting for the Lord, we should be open and honest. St James tells us to “be patient brothers, until the Lord’s coming … do not lose heart, because the Lord’s coming is soon”.
It is very often the patience that can be our greatest test. We know something is not right, and we want the solution to our problem right now. St James (5:7-10) is telling us not to lose heart. But the unease can lead to a dread and fear: when will things change? Is this all there is in my life?
You can sense this in the words of St John the Baptist in his prison cell (Matthew 11:2-11), as he sends his disciples to ask: “Are you the one who is to come, or have we got to wait for someone else?” The response from Jesus resonates down the ages to all who are lost and are looking for salvation. “Go back and tell John what you hear and see; the blind see again, and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised to life and the Good News is proclaimed to the poor; and happy is the man who does not lose faith in me.”
Jesus’s response to John is: open your eyes and see the truth of God’s love unfolding before you, in the healing of the body and the spirit; take to your heart the powerful words “happy is the man who does not lose faith in me”.
Jesus asks us to have faith in his works, and these works lived and proclaimed at the time of Our Lord and passed on to the Church, so that through the ministry of the Church today the truth and love of our Lord and saviour speak to us still.
Maps of life, where we plan our future direction of travel, can be problematic.
Is it the right map? Where are we on the map? Are we holding it the right way up? This is often the reason we get lost in life: we’re using the wrong map.
The teaching of Jesus is not a map; it’s a compass, and it always points in the same direction, not true north, but to the Way, the Truth and the Life.
As we continue along our Advent journey, pray for the courage to accept that we might be lost. Pray that we do not lose heart, and pray for the happiness of those who do not lose faith in the Lord.
Mgr John Armitage is rector of the National Shrine of Our Lady at Walsingham
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