The famous words of Isaiah, “Comfort, give comfort to my people” (Is 40:1) mark a transition in the prophetic literature of the Old Testament. Until this point, the authentic messengers of God always prophesied war or famine at times when the people of the covenant strayed from right relations to God and neighbor. But here, Isaiah is speaking to the desolated people of Israel. They failed to heed the warnings of the prophets and instead relied on power, oppression and violence rather than peaceful right relationships and paid the price. In exile, their homes destroyed, and only a remnant of the community left, Isaiah speaks words of hope. His message is that of light in the darkness (Is 9:1) and a return to God(Is 51:11); that is, a return to home for a lost people who wander was still possible
From the time of enslavement in Egypt, to the later exile, core to the identity of Israel is the memory that they were once the oppressed people. When the law binds them to show compassion to the stranger in their own land, to provide for the migrant, orphan and the widow, it is linked to this memory. “For, remember, you were slaves in Egypt, and the LORD, your God, redeemed you from there; that is why I command you to do this.” (Dt 24:18) Thus, the experience of exile develops into a tradition of doing justice to all who experience exile today—migrants and refugees in the literal sense, but also everyone on the existential peripheries of society.
In the second meditation of the preparatory retreat for the Synod being held now in Rome, Dominican Friar and former Master of the Order of Preachers, Father Timothy Radcliffe spoke on the theme "At home in God and God at home in us." He drew attention to the fact that at this moment in history we have over 350 million migrants fleeing war and violence in search of a home, and we are confronting a devastation of our common home on earth because of climate change. As we prepare for Advent this year, we again face the horrors of terrorism, war and the humanitarian crisis they have unleashed in the Holy Land. And even in the church itself, which ought to be a home for us all, we find division. We cannot offer a sign of hope to the world if we do not find it for ourselves first.
Fr. Radcliffe’s words of hope come from the first letter of John, “‘Beloved, we are God's children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed.’ (1 John 3. 1 – 2). We know who we are and yet we do not know who we shall be.” This year our Advent reflections attempt to chart a path out of exile to a true sense of home. Radcliffe reminds us that, “To love is to come home to someone… we must remember all those who do not yet feel at home in the Church.” As missionary disciples we will not find our home as a church within the comfort of the walls of a sanctuary, but by coming home, and being home, to one another. To do this requires us going out “from our own comfort zone,” as Pope Francis calls the church to do in The Joy of the Gospel, “in order to reach all the peripheries.” (EG, 20)