Isaiah 35:1-10 / Luke 5:17-26
To be exiled would generally means to be away from one's home and country, and forbidden to return and even threatened with imprisonment or death upon return.
Usually the exile is forced upon an individual or a group or a nation, and it also usually means a deportation outside the country of residence.
Israel experienced one such exile in 586 BC when the Babylonians captured Jerusalem and razed the Temple to the ground and the inhabitants were exiled in Babylon.
It is difficult to understand the sufferings of the exile. It is enough to say that it was tragic with everything and all hope being lost.
But the 1st reading was precisely for the exiles in Babylon to give them the hope that God had not abandoned them nor forgotten them.
Triumphant and encouraging words were used: Courage! Do not be afraid. Look, your God is coming, vengeance is coming, the retribution of God; He is coming to save you.
In a way, we can say that the paralysed man in the gospel was in some form of exile - an internal exile.
He might have been forgotten and abandoned but he still had the support of some friends who brought him to Jesus, even though it took more effort than they expected.
Yet in the end, the paralysed man was healed and liberated from that internal exile.
As for ourselves, we are also called to look into our hearts and into our lives to see if we are living in some kind of spiritual exile, as in that we have chosen to stay away from God because of some anger or bitterness or resentment.
But God wants to save us and liberate us. The 1st reading would describe those who are freed and liberated as "shouting for joy, everlasting joy in their faces; joy and gladness will go with them and sorrow and lament be ended".
May we too experience such joy and gladness in our Advent journey towards Christmas.