Something New is Emerging

Monday March 23

Readings: Is 65:17-21; Jn 4:43-54

After reading the text from Isaiah, I thought to myself, “This sounds like good news to people who have been through some very hard things…”

I know for many people who have experienced trauma, the past holds such a grip on life.  It can be intrusive.  It can negatively change how we view ourselves.  It can cause depression or anxiety.  It can affect our relationships, our sense of belonging or our connectedness in the world.

When this passage was originally written, Israel had been through hell.  They had been captured by the Babylonians and had, essentially, lost everything.  Isaiah speaks for God and says that there’s a “new heavens and a new earth,” on the way and that “the things of the past shall not be remembered or come to mind.” This means that everything would be restored, healed and made whole again.  And that is what people who have been through trauma and suffering need.

This may not mean, however, that it is restored to how it was before or to what we were accustomed.

I have been thinking about this a lot with the corona virus.  I know so many who during this time of crisis long to have things back to the way they were.  I know I do.  It’s what I was familiar with.

But what if the way things were operating was not actually good for the collective.  What if ‘business as usual’ meant pain for many and benefit for just a few?  Even though it is what we knew, it is what we want to return to?

One thing I take from today’s reading from Isaiah is that God is ALWAYS up to something new. Part of our spiritual challenge is to remain open to what is emerging.  Many of us get “stuck” spiritually because we keep expecting that God will keep working in the ways that God has been working or that we are on a “path” and the path is straight.

In today’s gospel reading, we see Jesus’ frustration with the crowd because he’s telling them that what he was doing was the “something new” that God is doing but they do not believe it.   “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe.”  And what he really means is signs and wonders as they define signs and wonder.  We may not be all that much different, right?  We want proof in the form we deem acceptable.

I do think God is up to something new in our midst.  This is not to suggest that God “sends” suffering our way to try to teach us something or punish us.  But even in the midst of suffering, God is working somehow.  I have long loved the quote from Arundhati Roy that, I think, captures the spirit of what today’s readings are trying to say, “Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.”

For today, maybe we can try to trust that something new is emerging – in us, in our relationships, in this world – even if we are not able to see it yet.  And maybe we can become still today to listen carefully for the breath of the new world that is emerging.