The desert. Isaiah speaks often of it. The desert and the parched land will exult (35:1); the most famous prophet of all, John the Baptist, is described by Luke as A voice of one crying out in the desert: Prepare the way of the Lord!
The desert. Madeleine Delbrêl writes: There has been a lot said about “the desert of love.” Love seeks the desert because the desert is where humankind is handed over to God, stripped bare of country, friends, fields, home. In the desert, a person neither possesses what he loves, nor is he possessed by those who love him; he is totally submitted to God in an immense and intimate encounter. That is why in every age the Holy Spirit has compelled all lovers to seek the desert (from We, the Ordinary people of the Street).
The desert. Eusebius of Caesarea says that prophecy makes it clear; not in Jerusalem, but in the wilderness: it is there that the glory of the Lord is to appear, and God’s salvation is to be made known to all mankind (Cap. 40: PG 24, 366).
What is the desert? To some, it is the peace and quiet of recollection (Loretta Ross-Gotta). Ross-Gotta also says that such recollection begets the stark edge of fear that this doing nothing, this being, this offering of oneself for God to be the actor, cannot possibly be enough. It all seems so passive. Do something, perform, earn your keep. And why is the desert questionable? Because, she continues, few of us possess the radical belief such recollection requires.
Do you want to go into the desert? Then follow those who went before you. Follow Mary. As Ross-Gotta notes, The angel summoned Mary…from the rather safe place of conventional wisdom to a realm where few of the old rules would make much sense. She entered that unknown called “virgin territory.” She was on her own there. No one else could judge for her the validity of her experience.
The desert. Go into the desert, and through recollection, find God. It will change your life.
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