In the early hours of
today, Friday, Good Friday, Jesus is praying in the garden, and the disciples
have fallen asleep. At this moment, and really from this moment on, Jesus is
astoundingly alone That aloneness, that loneliness can be very, very heavy. And
as we look around us in the world today, there seems to be increasing
technology. There's ever-increasing ways to communicate with people, and yet,
there also seems to be increasing loneliness. I think one of the things we're
called to do as Christians in the modern world is to look at this problem of
loneliness, to see it as a very real poverty, and to ask ourselves how are we
being called to address this very real poverty of loneliness, because most of
us do not have to go very far geographically or in our family, in circles, and
friends, to find that loneliness manifesting in very real and vivid ways. It's
this loneliness, this aloneness, that can be so stifling to the human spirit.
And it's this loneliness, this stifling aloneness, that Jesus was experiencing
in the garden and, of course, experiences now as he goes on to carry the cross,
as he goes on to be on the cross alone.
And the aloneness theme
then continues. The disciples—they scatter, and they must've felt alone and
afraid. The fear feeds on the aloneness. It was only when they came back
together in community that they found their courage, that they found their
strength, that they reconnected and realigned with the mission that God had
given to them.
And so I think it's
important for us to ask ourselves how are we being called to respond to the
loneliness in our world today. How can we be the answer to somebody's prayer?
Somebody somewhere, not too far from you, is praying that someone will come and
relieve their loneliness, just as Jesus came to his disciples and said: hey
guys, can you not just be with me for now or pray with me for now?
Lord, I pray for all my
Sonshine Friends that the reach out to one another and check to make sure their
neighbor, their friends and family are safe and well. Your prayer on this Good
Friday is a phone call to someone who needs your kind and reassuring voice. Ask
them to go online and listen to Maddie’s Stations of the Cross. https://Holyfamilyncchurch.org/
