We can easily
forget that every beginning finds its fullness in an ending, and every
ending is the context for a new beginning. As Christians we believe this
happens ultimately in Christ—the one who called himself the Alpha and the Omega,
the beginning and the end.
But how
will we find our way forward when the usual lights that illumined our path no
longer shine? What do we do when we feel our world (personal, ecclesial,
societal, environmental) falling apart? Where do we go when it seems as if
darkness is our only companion, and God is nowhere to be seen? The Gospel,
indeed all salvation history, insists the dark times of life are threshold
moments.
The
temptation is to do something; to fix it, to ease the pain, to escape the
uncertainty, and to get back to what used to be. But we can never go back to
the way it was before the lights went out. God does not undo our life. God redeems
our life. If we allow them, these dark threshold places of life can draw us
more deeply into the divine mystery. They remind us that we do not know
everything. We do not see all possibilities. We can neither predict nor control
anything. We are not in charge. Jesus invites us to receive the
God who comes to us in the darkness of life, even during personally cataclysmic
change.
How? He says
simply: “Learn a lesson from the fig
tree.” Why the fig tree? The fig tree sheds all
its leaves in winter. Its budding is a sign of the coming of summer. Jesus
continues: “When its branch becomes tender and sprouts leaves, you know that
summer is near. In the same way, when you see these things happening, know that
the Son of Man is near, at the gates.” And so, Jesus reminds us that even out of utter destruction and
appearance of death, symbolized by the leafless fig tree in winter, new life
can blossom forth. So also when the darkness overtakes our life, know that the
Son of Man is near. Christ’s constant “coming to us with great power and
glory” in the Holy Spirit, our healing and salvation, always takes place in the
dark and messy parts of life. We have not and never will be abandoned to the
darkness!
Meditation by Father Dominic.
