Shadows and hopes

Shadows and hopes

I invite you to google Plato’s allegory of the cave! He imagines prisoners shackled so that they can only look straight ahead. Behind them is a fire and between them and the fire are people holding up various objects whose shadows are projected on to a wall in front of the prisoners. They see the shadows and imagine they are the real thing.

Our lives are real and our concerns touch us concretely. In the last few days I have met people who tell me of what they are suffering in Zimbabwe today and their troubles seem especially painful. So there is no way I am going to use Plato to liken their woes to mere shadows. It would be an outrage to bring a spiritual solution to a physical problem.

But sometimes we do not see the reality behind our painful woes. We only see the woe itself. We cannot see beyond it because the pain is just too great. It is hard to pray when you have a severe toothache and it won’t help anyway. It would be better to go to a dentist.

Yet we must not miss the reality hidden in the pain. If you read the prophets rapidly you will get nothing from them. But if you ponder them a little a whole new vision emerges. They wrote in a time when hope was almost extinguished in Israel. Take Zechariah, for example; “Rejoice, heart and soul, daughter of Zion. See now how your king comes, riding a donkey. He will proclaim peace for the nations.” (9:9-10).

What is he talking about? Does it make any sense? Is it a sniff of opium to keep the people happy and docile in a time of great trial? No! It is the dazzling reality of God’s promise which we can hold on to despite the weight of our troubles. This is not pious nonsense but a hope that Paul held to in the midst of being flogged, stoned, shipwrecked, famished, cold, betrayed and all the rest (2 Cor.11).

This is the reality behind the words, “come to me all you who are overburdened for my yoke is easy and my burden light.” (Mt 11:30). It is easy to say these things but I do not apologise for going so. A number of films, books and songs today say the same. It doesn’t soften the pain but it gives hope that all this suffering will bear fruit in new life and joy, if we can free ourselves from our shackles and turn and see the reality..

6 July 2014      Sunday 14A

Zechariah 9:9-10         Romans 8:9-13                        Matthew 11:25-30