Change is a fact of life and there would be no life without it. Changes are coming at us faster and faster, making some of us more and more nervous. We need to know some facts about how change takes place and how to handle that change as it unwinds.
Let’s imagine that you have made a decision to initiate some changes in your life – maybe quitting the old job you hate and setting out to look for a better job! Let’s imagine that something has happened in your life that is forcing you to make changes you don’t like it – maybe your spouse has suddenly died, maybe you have been served divorce papers or maybe you have to go to a nursing home. What can you expect to happen after those changes, whether they were initiated by you or forced upon you?
In my estimation, the best scriptural story to explain what happens during a major change, welcomed or not, is the story of the Exodus. We read part of it today. Exodus is the story of people being called to something new, setting out in excitement at first, being tempted in discouragement to back out of the process when things get tough, the decision to keep going and finally arriving at a new level of happiness and satisfaction. In the story, the People of God are trapped in slavery in Egypt. They get an opportunity to escape and go to a country of their own. At first, they were excited and filled with joy thinking that happiness would be theirs almost immediately. They did not realize that making a drastic change meant they had to change and change is hard. Making a decision to change and setting out is the easy part and so many simply try to “go back to Egypt” when the “harshness of the desert” gets to be too much. They yearn for “the good old days” and start telling themselves that they weren’t so bad after all compared to the change they had to go through to get to their “promised land.” They begin to idealize their old life and forget about their slavery by telling themselves that “at least in Egypt we had meat and bread to eat!
Take the example of an abused spouse who gets a chance to escape her abuse. She is happy to be free at last, but once away from her abuser, having been stripped of her self-esteem, she begins to get scared of what is ahead of her. She begins to tell herself, “What if I can’t make it? Where will I live? What if I end up living on the streets? Some tough it out and rebuild their lives, but many often at this point return to their abusers because the fear of the unknown becomes scarier than the abuse. They “returns to Egypt” so to speak. They go back to their abusers because, as bad as it was, it was not as scary as being out there on their own.
Take the example of the person who is an addict. One day, they finally get up the courage to go to their first “recovery” meeting. They get excited about a possible new life. They like the program and the people around them going through recovery. Then a sober life gets to be too hard. It’s gets worse before it has a chance to get better and so they seek relief by going back to alcohol, drugs or serial sexual encounters. They convince themselves that their old life may have been bad, but it was not as bad as trying to stay sober.
Take the example of the changes in the church initiated at Vatican Council II. For many lay people and priests, the control exerted from the very top had become a version of slavery. I remember the excitement after the Council. For me and many of the people who went through it, it was like “leaving the slavery of Egypt.” Looking back, we were pretty naïve. It never crossed our minds that we would have to go through a “desert,” many years of confusion and disappointment. Now some of our members want to “go back to Egypt.” They idealize the “good old days” and tell themselves that they were not that bad after all and much better than the chaos that all this change has brought on! Others, refusing to turn back and determined to get through the chaos of a major change push on! Pope Francis, our modern day Moses, like the Moses of old, keeps telling us to keep going, keep going and don’t look back! Like the Moses of old, he is being cursed by those who want to “return to Egypt” and rebuild the old Pre-Vatican II church! Pope Francis knows that if the Church is to survive, grow and nourish the faith of the next generation, it has to change and adapt as it always has in the past. If it doesn’t, it is doomed to become an inbred little cult that will shrink even more into irrelevance.
Our
country is going through a similar time of chaos and crisis. The country has
been gradually changing for many years now. Some, like women, minorities and
immigrants, like those changes and the freedom that they have brought about. On
the other hand, these changes are forcing others to give up their privileged positions
of power and status. They want to “return to Egypt,” “the way America used to
be,” when things were “better” for them! As much as they try to keep our
country from changing, they are fighting a losing battle. Women are not going
to stand back and shut up! African Americans are not going back to Africa.
Immigrants are not about to give up their time to experience the “American
dream.” Women will lead! Out country will continue to become browner.
Immigrants will continue to arrive, one way or another. We can't go back to Egypt - and we wouldn't like it if we could! Egypt has changed and so have we!
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