On Loneliness
As Christ once said, “In the world you shall have distress,” or in other words, while we live on this earth we will always be faced with sufferings. Of the many crosses we are sure to bear, loneliness is one of those sufferings. Though there are many kinds of sufferings to be had which vary in severity depending on the circumstance; loneliness altogether is a silent pain. For each of us at one time or another has experienced harsh loneliness. The pain of missing companions or having no one to turn to for every day struggles or even just to talk. How are we to cope with such an emptiness especially through the eyes of the Church? As stated before, Christ did say that in this world we would have much distress but rest of that scripture reads, “but have confidence, I have overcome the world,” where that might sound 'easier-said-than-done', there is great truth in this.
Imagine if you will our Lord Jesus, who in the hour of His glorification, awaited His terrible passion in the Garden of Gethsemane. In this grave moment, Jesus went off to pray by Himself as well as feel the full weight of the responsibility of the world's redemption as well as the weight of all sins He was to be crucified with. Three times our Lord came to see His disciples sleeping instead of staying vigilant in prayer. Think of Jesus' loneliness when He came to see His trusted ones dozing off in one of the most critical hours of Christ's life. How about when Jesus was betrayed by one of His own, Judas, and taken to be judged? Recall that ALL the disciples scattered and did not stand with Him in His sufferings. Can you imagine the loneliness Christ experienced after being deserted by His friends? Think of His gruesome passion where He was beaten, scourged, mocked, and completely humiliated beyond belief...Christ had no one in all of this. Sure, His mother could only stand in the crowd and watch painfully but she was given no access to hold Him or be near Him through most of His sufferings. And what about on the cross? Jesus, weeping, calling out to God as though He was abandoned, dying, and all the while still being mocked by many of the onlookers. Even though Jesus was crucified by two other men, Jesus hung on that cross with no consolation what so ever. And as Catholics, we know that Jesus is truly present, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity in the Most Holy Eucharist. We know that Jesus resides truly present in the tabernacle of a Catholic Church...but how long has it been since He has had someone come to Him? How long has it been since Christ had a visitor in Adoration? How many days does our Lord Jesus reside in that tabernacle without any visitors to minister to Him as the angels did for Him in the desert?
As it is for us in loneliness. We too have experienced abandonment by close ones when we needed them in the most critical hours of our lives. We have seen firsthand being let down by those whom we had never thought we do such a thing. When things got hard, we have seen others we thought would support us seek for ways to escape leaving us alone in the matter. We have also been left and in many ways seem to have been forgotten. And there are those that lie in their death beds who never get a visitor, alone, forgotten, and seemingly despised.
But what did Jesus do? Did He not pray for those who hurt Him? Did He not beg the Father to forgive them because they did not know what they were doing? Did He not still love those close to Him who lacked courage to reciprocate love? Did not Jesus lay down His life so that we may have it abundantly? Know also that your loneliness can be a penance. You see, when we lift up our sufferings as a penance for not only ourselves but others for the sake of conversion to Christ's Church, we are doing good and holy things. For heaven revealed to us that many fall into hell because there is no one to pray for them. So therefore use your sufferings as gifts to God that they may be used to merit graces for wayward souls. Your loneliness, though painful, is actually a precious moment to offer God your sufferings. Think also of the saints that suffered terrible loneliness but was able to glorify God because they identified with Christ's sufferings. Recall St. John of the Cross, how he suffered terribly in his loneliness being imprisoned but wrote magnificent poems about God even during his worst torments. Or St. Francis of Assisi, where he was kicked out of his own order, lived in a cave, lost his eye sight, received the Stigmata, and died on the cold stone floor of that very cave. But even through this weary and dreary end, St. Francis was enraptured by devotion to God since all his sufferings he GLADLY accepted to suffer for Christ's namesake. Keep in mind, holy soul, that you may suffer to gain merit or to suffer needlessly. The difference is in how you choose to perceive the suffering. You may allow the suffering to blind you and give opportunity for the devil to weaken your faith and make you bitter or you may uniform yourself with the will of God and gladly take up the cross of your sufferings for a higher purpose. As they say, no pain, no gain. No cross, no glory. We all love the idea of Easter Sunday but just remember, we have to go through Good Friday first. So in your loneliness, take up your sufferings and bring them to Christ...and since your sufferings just so happen to be loneliness, go therefore and solve Christ's loneliness in the Most Blessed Sacrament. There He is waiting, waiting for you. Amen.