Crossing the Finish Line

Dear Friends,

Today is the last Sunday of our liturgical year – the Feast of Christ the King/the 34th Sunday of Ordinary Time. Next Sunday begins Advent, first and gentlest season of the new year.

We can liken the end of this year of political turmoil and daily juggling in our household to completing a race as Paul does in his second letter to Timothy 4.7.
            Crossing the finishing line of any endurance race,
            Will the racer “finish strong?”
            Finishing strong means crossing the threshold
            With energy left,
            With a vision of more races to come…
            And win.

As we finish this especially complicated year,
Hopefully you will finish strong, but also
make room for a song in your heart and on your lips.
            A song of mercy, gratitude, and justice.
            A song of compassion and hope.
            A song that goes on singing within your being
            Even when you don’t realize that the song is an anthem
            About God’s presence in your own personal race.

As Thanksgiving and Advent approach,
the pandemic still has not let go of us.
It insinuates itself into our desires for an ordinary life with
Its ordinary ups and downs, its saving moments and unique pain.
            Will we finish the race of this year strong –
            With a song in our hearts and upon our lips?
            Will gratitude for whatever escapes we have experienced and
            Hopes we have seen realized
            Cause us to fall on our knees and
            Hear the angels’ voices
            Sing to God in gratitude for all of us?

Whether we have dared to be strong or
Whether weakness has so drained us,
            Will we even recognize
            The giftedness that the year has brought?
            The knock on the door
            The child’s question
            The color of the earth awash with rain
            Our loved one’s tenderness recognized
            As is if for the first time
            A lasting intimacy with Jesus?

We can, and we will recognize the holy, the life-giving,
Only if we pray as Jesus bids us:
            When you pray,
            Go away by yourself –
            Enter alone
            Into your heart
            And close the door
            Behind you –
            Wait there quietly
            For God will come…MT.6.5,6

Do that sometime today or during this last week of the liturgical year:
            Wait quietly for God’s presence to reveal itself
            In fresh new ways.

In this time when we approach
The finish line of this year’s race,
Dare to ask:
What is the fate of those who achieve
a lasting intimacy with Jesus?
            Life.
            Not life without pain or sadness,
            But
            Life in its remarkable fullness.

There will be another race to run and finish strong.

Meanwhile, keep the song God inspires in your heart.
Let it fill you with longing and wonder
For what will be
As well as deep satisfaction and thanks to God
For all you have weathered thus far.

~Sister Joan Sobala