March 24/Fifth Saturday of Lent
The LORD shall ransom Jacob, he shall redeem him from the hand of his conqueror.
Shouting, they shall mount the heights of Zion, they shall come streaming to the LORD’s blessings. ~ Jer 31.11-12
The “condition we call exile,” to borrow the title of an essay by the late Russian poet Joseph Brodsky, is nothing less than the human condition. Theologically speaking, we begin our existence as exiles, barred from the paradise of closeness to God through willfulness, pride, or any of the myriad names for our sinfulness. “Since then,” Polish author Eva Hoffman writes, “is there anyone who does not—in some way, on some level—feel that they are in exile?” For desperate refugees, exile is a searing reality of everyday life: think of the large-scale forced migrations in Syria, or parts of Africa. For others, exile functions as a metaphor for interior dislocation, a spiritual disequilibrium that sets us back on our heels. To be separated from a place or cut off from people you love, or to be spiritually alienated from yourself and from God, can seem to be a death sentence. Yet as Christians, we believe that the pain and alienation of life-in-exile can and will be redeemed by God. The destruction of Jerusalem and the deportation of its citizens to Babylon in the sixth-century BC was cataclysmic for the people of Israel; today’s psalm imagines the joy of their restoration. Once alienated, now forgiven, they, and we, will one day reclaim the rich blessings of home. As we ready ourselves to follow anew the path of Christ through death to new life, we are reminded that our ultimate destination, too, is to dwell in the presence of God, the place of our redemption.
O Creator of the earth, the heavens, and all living things, Guide me on the way to the paradise of eternity from the exile of this mortal life. Amen.
For today’s readings, click here: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/032418.cfm
