Alliance for Catholic Education
"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Mark 15:34)
Reflection
In a crowded celebration, we can feel lonely. In a lunchroom full of chattering classmates, a child can feel completely alone. Standing in front of a room of impatient children, a teacher can feel helpless and abandoned.
All of us have had the experience of loneliness in one of its many forms. Perhaps we have even felt like God has deserted us in these trying times.
Christ understood the deepest form of loneliness. As he hung on the cross, carrying the sins of all humanity, in agony he cried out the words of Psalm 22.
Jesus is walking with us through our feelings of separateness. In our suffering, we experience redemption. And yet we know how the Psalm ends, how the story of Christ's suffering is exalted. Even when we don't have the emotions to grasp it, God's all-encompassing love is holding us close.
Question:
When have you felt God's love comfort you in a time of loneliness?
Prayer:
Loving and compassionate God, You are always by our side. When we feel alone and rejected, help us to turn to You and seek Your guidance. Give us eyes to see and to comfort those around us in need of Your presence. This we ask through Christ, Our Lord. Amen.
Contributed by Mary Jo Adams Kocovski