Thursday of th Fourth Week of Lent

My Dear Good People,

Today, I am comforted by the antiphon for Communion at Mass: Here’s what the Church places on our hearts to pray:

I will place my law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts: I will be their God, and they shall be my people, says the Lord (Jeremiah 31:33).

You might agree with me that the greatest poverty of our times may be the depravity we feel when we aren’t part of something, or we experience a sense of separation from anything meaningful. This is devastating, especially when it lasts for a while with no end in sight. This pandemic has contributed to this. I’m thinking of grandparents who live alone and haven’t been able to see their grandchildren, or a father of a family who loses his job because his company has to fold due to Covid-19.

We lose our anchor, and we feel left out. It’s not how things are supposed to be. We want to crawl in a hole and pull it in after us. Good night, world. Wake me up when I can belong again.

The above prayer at Communion is from a dialogue God had with the prophet Jeremiah which was meant for the People of God. Sin had driven them far away from God, and both God and His own were feeling the loss of each other: God was longing for His people, and they were longing for Him, though without really knowing the source of their loneliness. Chances are we’ve never actually been in that position, but we can understand how it happens. Most of us have had times in our life when we can’t feel Him near.

I was with two young women today here at the Academy, and the older student was encouraging the younger.

She said, I know there will be a time in your life when you’ll think you’ve lost everything: friends, plans, a job, maybe, and you’ll slowly come to realize that all you have left is God. And He will be enough.

And. That. Will.  Be. Plenty.

For one so young, she understands the meaning of God’s promise: I will be your God and you will be my people. As long as we hold that promise in our hearts, we’ll find we are never alone. Sometimes He seems to hide Himself, but He’s not gone. He just wants us to seek Him.

And, if at the end of the day we haven’t found Him, try this:

Just let yourself be found—by Him.

O, Happy Day.