7 Dec 2015
Memorial of St Ambrose
We don’t have too many deserts around here, except one:
Winter. It isn’t quite upon us yet, but
when it does come, we won’t see too many flowers blooming. The snow will cover the ground—and it’ll be
pretty—but everything will be still and quiet, and maybe even a little
harsh. But out of that desert will
spring a little flower, the so-called “Christmas Rose,” the Hellebore.
It’s kind of a odd thing to see a flower (outside) blooming
in the middle of winter. Just like it
would be odd to see what Isaiah is talking about: “Streams will burst forth in
the desert, and rivers in the steppe. The
burning sands will become pools, and the thirsty ground, springs of water.” But that’s what happens when God is at work: the unexpected is seen.
Certainly, the idea of somebody being healed on-the-spot from
paralysis would be unexpected. But that’s
what Jesus did. Right there in that
house, where the people tore a hole in the roof and lowered their friend down
on a stretcher, a “stream burst forth in the desert” of his paralysis, and “the
Christmas Rose bloomed in the middle of the winter” of his fears. And the people said: “We have seen incredible
things today.”
God makes beauty where there is apparent ugliness. He makes truth be known in times of deceit
and disarray. And he makes goodness rise
above evil and hatred. But, in order to see God doing these “incredible things,”
we have to go into the desert. To see
the Christmas Rose, one has to go out into
the winter.
To let God into our lives—to “prepare the way of the Lord”—we
have to admit (first) that we sometimes put up obstacles to keep us from getting too close to God. To admit that, and to realize it, is like
going out into the desert; it’s like going out into the blustery winds of
winter. It’s not a happy thing. It’s an uncomfortable place. But going to that place in our soul and saying:
“Why do I keep God at a distance . . . why do I do that?” opens the way for “incredible
things” to happen.
St Ambrose, a “Doctor” of the Church, would prescribe such a
remedy for our spiritual problems: Go into the desert and into the winter
harshness of self-honesty, and there God is waiting for us. Not to punish, not to scold, but to keep us
warm, and to make a flower of his grace and mercy bloom for us. God makes “incredible things” happen in our
spiritual deserts, in our spiritual winters . . . if we just out there to see
for ourselves.
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