Never alone
Podcast
Scripture references
Reflection
The Holy Father began a pilgrimage this week to Cameroon and Angola. In many parts of Africa, the Catholic Church is still in its relative infancy. There are reports of vast numbers of baptisms among adults and children alike in various parts of that continent, and among the faithful, there is a fervour for the faith which is sadly lacking in many places on this side of the Atlantic.
Modern-day sociologists have referred to North American society as post-Christian. The enthusiasm which is so palpable in places like West Africa appears to have been replaced on this continent by other concerns born out of the reality that we live in a very privileged society, but the reality is that success as many of us have known has a cunning way of breeding other troubles.
Many of the younger generations have had to move away from Northern Ontario in search of gainful employment, and the separation from home and family can sometimes result in an experience of exile, loneliness and longing for things familiar. On another level, a society which has been privileged for as long as ours has, also breeds a sense within some that there is no need for God in our lives, and this indeed is a far deeper tragedy because without realizing it, victims of this kind of abandonment often find themselves experiencing fear and abandonment from the faith tradition that has held families together in past generations. At its worst, individuals can become desperate when they begin to believe that they have been abandoned even by God.
The true cunning about this kind of abandonment is that human beings are first led to believe that they have no need of God, preferring to long for passing fancies and treasures. Only when we realize that physical and tangible assets are trinkets, do we really begin to understand the value of relationships.
Thankfully, God never does abandon us. The first reading of today’s liturgy recounts the story of the Israelites, our ancestors in faith who were sent into exile as a result of their unfaithfulness (2 Chr 36:14-23) but even as they were punished for their sin, God never abandoned them. Instead he remained at work among them, healing and restoring life.
The same is true for us today. Many of us, or those we know well, spend vast efforts trying to deny the fact that we need God in our lives, yet he never leaves us alone. Sometimes in the dark of night, we come back to him. Like Nicodemus in the gospel today (Jn 3:14-21), we secretly want to follow him, but we may fear the possibility of judgement from peers who might mock us for our choice to follow a different road.
The truth that we celebrate each time we come to pray is that God loved the world so much that he sent his Son to teach us about his love, and so that through believing in him, we too might come to know the fullness of life (Jn 3:16-17). Understanding this promise is something that takes us an entire earthly lifetime, because we only come to appreciate it when we have experienced the mercy and love of God that is capable of waking us up from the world of believing that we can live without faith, and convincing us that thanks to this mercy, we can start anew on the road to knowing, loving, being known and being loved (Eph 2:4-10).
