For me, the most difficult part of the Boston Marathon is not the hours of anxious waiting in Hopkinton leading up to the start of the race, nor the pounding downhill for the first eight miles that come back to bite you later in the race—or, even Heartbreak Hill. Rather, it’s the short little stretch that occurs well after you’ve hit the wall, are on your last legs, and then the course dips down underneath a bridge into a short tunnel. The transition from light into darkness, then from the darkness back into the light, is shocking and disorienting. You’ve got to keep it together, your feet under you and your heart, mind and eyes focused on the light at the end of the tunnel. The finish line is just a few strides up the road.

In the first reading, Isaiah, on behalf of our ancestors in the faith, looks forward to the new era of the Messiah—when “on that day the deaf shall hear…and out of gloom and darkness, the eyes of the blind shall see.” And here we are in the first days of the Advent Season, in the last days of the semester and in the final weeks of 2020. Christ is coming with healing, new life and light to restore us, many of us who are on our last legs. And there is one thing Christ requires of us as we run through this last, daunting bit of darkness: Faith.

We made it this far. We have a lot of miles in our legs. And many of us have hit the wall—having come face-to-face with our frailty, our weariness and our brokenness. With the difficulties and challenges each of us are currently facing in our lives, as well as uncertainties about the future, we may be tempted to succumb to cynicism, hard-heartedness or spiritual blindness. This is a time when we are in the tunnel and our faith may falter.

Such is true for any Christian on the ultra-marathon that is life on this side of eternity. Therefore, when we realize how weak we have become, and how in need of healing we really are, we must not be afraid to cry out like the two poor souls in the gospel: “[Jesus], have pity on us!” Help us to get our feet back under us and focus us on YOU and on the road ahead.

Jesus is the light at the end of the tunnel. And there he stands, asking: “Do you believe that I can do this? Then let it be done for you according to your faith.”