An article in an magazine mentioned the loneliness of Jesus.
If you think about it, that makes sense. Jesus certainly was misunderstood by His friends and disciples, not to mention by His enemies. Those whom He healed seem to be a mixed bag of some who devoted themselves to Him, others who went on their way back to their former lives, and a few who gossiped about Him and otherwise didn’t follow His instructions.
Jesus was one with the Father, but didn’t always feel God’s presence, and He even felt abandoned at the end.
So, like with most anything else we may experience in our lifetimes, Jesus understands our pain of loneliness.
That is important as most studies show quite an epidemic of loneliness in all ages and kinds of people. Society in general has become harsher and less kind or thoughtful. That may not be changing anytime soon if only because so many people have ceased or curtailed their practice of the Christian faith. We need those weekly teachings about a Christ-like approach to the trials that come to most of us regularly, and we can only benefit from warnings about sin and temptations. Jesus and His Church provide that little mental shakeup most weeks, but only if we show up at Mass.
Loneliness may be the result of being alone — or not. It may be enhanced by illness or lessened abilities or simply result from life experiences that teach us to always be on guard around others. We may find ourselves not trusting anyone, and that is a lonely place to be. We may not have someone to talk to beyond the usual niceties or banalities of weather and entertainment. We may even feel a little on guard when chatting, keeping it being about nothing much.
Perhaps we once had a best friend who died or moved or became less friendly when other, more attractive or interesting people came along. Or we may simply have grown apart in interests and worldviews, losing that common and helpful connection. We may even have discovered that
a person we considered a best friend actually was more of a “frenemy” — a friendly enemy.
Marriage and family may or may not mitigate loneliness throughout our entire lives. Relationships don’t have to be contentious to be unsupportive. And all of us are passed by or ignored or dismissed or unseen at times. It seems to be a natural occurance, since human brains tend to homogenize groups and prevent us from seeing individuals within groups.
Which brings us back to Jesus. We remember at Lent that He came to earth to save us and even offered Himself for us. When we receive the Eucharist, we can remind ourselves that Jesus wants to be with us. He wants us to be with Him. We are loved.
With God — Father, Son and Spirit — we can be ourselves. God already knows us — better than we know ourselves — and He loves us better than we love ourselves. God sees each person as an individual and loves us as His very own child.
Rote prayers (Our Father, Hail Mary) are fine, but our prayer must include some conversation with God — with the One whom we know loves us (as St. Teresa of Jesus of Ávila says). We can have heart-to-heart talks that we need to have with someone — at anytime with Jesus, His Father, His mother, with the Holy Spirit or any of the saints we’ve heard about. They will listen, and we can learn how to listen to them.
None of us is alone, even when we feel that way. God “gets” us. He pays attention to us because He loves us better than any human can. Once we learn to pay attention, we’ll recognize His help as we go through each day.
Let us travel this Lent with some of those with-God heart-to-heart talks done on a regular basis. By Easter, perhaps those visits will be second-nature — and they will sustain us on our journey toward heaven through all the lonely times on earth
May God greatly bless your Lent and may you know that He is close to you.
