<h3>The Winding Road</h3>
Dec
10
Written by:
Sunday, December 10, 2006
2nd Sunday of Advent
December 10, 2006
"The winding roads shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth, and all flesh shall see the salvation of our God" Luke 3:6
Jerusalem was a city built on and surrounded by mountains and, once out of the city, accessed by winding and sometimes rough roads. I remember many years ago I spotted a large while cross up in the mountains, and decided to try to drive closer to climb up to it. The road I was on went up and up and got narrower and narrower until finally it was only a rough dirt road. At this point it was impossible to turn around: I was trapped. What joy I had when I eventually saw a large straight paved highway in the distance.
Most of us, in our life journey will encounter steep, rough roads. Christ did not promise to deliver us from them in this world, but the next one. For a Christian, what makes the difference is that the road we are on has a destination, and that destination is a person, and the person is someone who really and truly loves us.
During the Holidays, many of us go to great lengths to be with people we love. When we have a real destination in mind, and someone we love is at the other end of it, and we are really motivated, we can suffer almost any hardship to get there. In the same way, the road to heaven, the road home can be tough going sometimes; we struggle to do the will of God and with the circumstances we find ourselves in.
Sometimes the hardships we encounter on the road of life are intended to prove our love for Christ. It is important for our human dignity that we struggle on the road that leads home. Love, then, sometimes consists in what we have been through for someone. By strengthening my relationship with Christ through prayer, Mass, charity, and trying to do the will of God, I strengthen that bond of love that will, in turn, allow me to get through anything on the sometimes rough and winding road of life.
Father Gary