Friday After Epiphany
My young adult son recently went on an adventurous camping trip with friends in Big Bend National Park and Guadalupe Mountains National Park in Texas. Desert and mountains in a fairly remote area, they had the somewhat rare experience of being outside of cell service much of the time. Although less concerned about his safety than if he had been alone, I was thankful he was able to be in touch with us on a daily basis. I was also thankful he could have a mostly “off the grid” experience in nature.
In today’s gospel passage from Luke (5:12-16) about Jesus curing a man with leprosy, the verse that stands out to me the most is at the end of the passage, “...great crowds assembled to listen to him and to be cured of their ailments, but he would withdraw to deserted places to pray.”
The Oxford Languages definition of deserted is “(of a place) empty of people.” It might be difficult for some of us to find such a place, but it seems the greater challenge today is withdrawing to a place without the distractions of our phones, smart watches and other technology that keeps us tethered to the rest of the world, for good or for bad.
On Wednesday of this week we read another passage about Jesus retreating to pray. Mark’s gospel tells us that after feeding the five thousand, Jesus dismissed the crowd and “went off to the mountain to pray.”(6:46)
Earlier in Mark’s gospel we also find Jesus seeking time alone for prayer after curing many sick people and driving out demons: “Rising very early before dawn, he left and went off to a deserted place, where he prayed.”(1:35)
I hear myself asking, if Jesus needed time away to pray and recharge spiritually, how much more do we? Are you, too, feeling the pull toward a deserted place to pray? For time “untethered” from your phone or computer? What might that look like? Rising early before dawn? A quiet walk alone? Taking time for a silent retreat? As we enter into this new year, may we pray for the grace to seek and find, like Jesus, “deserted places to pray.”
—Eileen Miller