“No longer will your Teacher hide himself, but with your own eyes you shall see your Teacher,” says the prophet Isaiah. These words strike a different chord this year of pandemic where so many teachers are teaching digitally. It’s not so much that we are hiding, rather, we are keeping distance. Our students don’t see us through their own eyes but through the eye of the camera. One lesson that probably didn’t make its way into the syllabus was that of patience and hope. We will get through these tough times and one day be united with our teachers and our classmates.
In our spiritual lives, we can find ourselves in a similar situation. We want Christ, our Teacher to show himself to us clearly, directly, unmediated. We are tired. We are scared. We are sick. This Advent let us not lose sight of our hope. We are, after all, not sheep without a shepherd. We know whose we are. In the same way he came to Mary, he has come, does come and will come in so many ways to bind our wounds and heal our broken hearts. Let us be patient and hopeful in our wait for Him.