Reflection - Driven

http://usccb.org/bible/readings/121117.cfm
Isaiah 35:1-10
Luke 5:17-26

Above all, Advent is a season of promise and fulfillment, and that’s what connects our two readings for today. Isaiah offers God’s promise; Jesus offers their fulfillment.

I love the poetry in the promises that come through Isaiah, particularly in this passage.

The very soil of the earth exults; it rejoices and bursts into joyful song.
From the top of Mt Carmel to the flat plains of Sharon,
all will be clothed with the
splendor of God.
Water will flow in torrents through the desert.
Burning sands will become pools of cool water.
Scavengers will be forbidden; wild beasts will not offer threat.
The blind will see rainbows; the deaf will hear music.
The lame will dance, and the mute will break forth in song.
A path through the very core of life’s turmoil will be made evident.
And those accepting of salvation will find the road to the heart of God.

So, suck it up! And find courage! Here! Now! Before you is your God.

The man was a master of words. And, even if I give credit to the Spirit for his inspiration, the Spirit still needed something to work with.

Yet, as I read these verses and recall those other passages from Isaiah where the Kingdom is described as a banquet, where swords are beaten into plowshares, and those in which Peace will be named the Kingdom’s Prince, and where justice will rule over all, and how no news will be news of war — when I recall these verses I am amazed at how God speaks to us in promise. When you stop to think about it, those who, throughout history, we have called "driven" have been driven by promise.

Alexander the Great was driven by the promise of empire.

The pilgrims were driven by the promise of freedom.

Napoleon was driven by the promise of conquest.

William Parry was driven by the promise of a Northwest passage.

The list is endless, because it doesn’t end — certainly not with those who have achieved some degree of historical notoriety. The list is endless because it includes each of us; for in one way or another we are all, each of us, driven — driven to seek completion of some deep felt deficiency, driven to fill some heartfelt emptiness, driven to satisfy a hollow core.

We seek completion in companionship.

We embrace it in marriage and family.

We ache for it in our pursuit of love.

We yearn for it in times of hardship and stress.

We crave it in our suffering.

We thirst for it in the dryness of our lives.

We hunger for it in our times of isolation.

My most obvious physical experience of hunger came when I was a smoker, standing outside in the bitter cold, smoking a cigarette because smoking was forbidden inside. My most pressing sensation of inner hunger came when I was a young man and my heart ached from loneliness. Too often we are content to deal with our physical hunger as if we are smokers. Cigarettes are good at that — suppressing the feeling of being hungry, but never satisfying the genuine physical deficiency. Too often we are content to deal with our inner hunger as if our purpose in life was to experiment — find temporary methods of satiating the desire. It’s as if we are content with the momentary high, the passing exhilaration of the youth in the wingsuit soaring through canyon skies.

We describe our awareness of and our response to the many promises from God in a variety of ways. But it seems to me that hunger is the sensation which captures both the depth and intensity of our feeling. While many in the world, or even in our own land, suffer from physical hunger, most often our hunger is recognized and attributed to so many of the desirable, but missing things in our lives — a lasting sufficiency for our physical needs, a community without rancor, the contentment of inner peace, the rule of true justice, an end to our singularity, a surfeit of love.

We are all driven by promise. We were made that way — and for good reason; for it is in promise where God seeks to capture and hold fast our hearts. He promises those very things just mentioned — a lasting sufficiency for our physical needs, a community without rancor, the contentment of inner peace, the rule of true justice, an end to our singularity, a surfeit of love. He tempts us with all those good things we desire in the depths of our hearts. God wants us to be driven — not to find the North Pole, but to find Him; not to pursue personal fulfillment, but to pursue Him; not to be content with the joy of physical union, but to be content only by union with Him.

We hunger for a reason and that reason is to seek the satiation that comes only with the presence of God. So He tempts us with his promises. This is what we hear in the songs of Isaiah. This is what we see realized in the person of Jesus. And through his promises he seeks to entice us to become driven.

We are to be driven with the tenacity of the explorer.

driven with the craving of the conqueror.

driven with the yearning of the lonely.

driven with the thirst of one abandoned in the desert.

driven with the hunger of the starving.

driven with the compulsion of the obsessed.

driven with the passion of the lover.

Hunger — hunger of any kind is a good thing. Whether it is hunger felt or hunger observed, it is there to remind us of how much we still need the power and presence of God in our lives.