Since I got back home very late the day before yesterday, it wouldn't be wise for me to get up early to attend morning Mass yesterday. Today I was happily back in my own church. I believe people, including some from other parishes, love to come to our church for daily Mass for the following reasons. The church is just a few years old with a simple, bright, nicely designed interior. The tabernacle is beautiful and the seating are rows of movable, comfortable chairs linked together. As the church is not that large and everyone sees each other clearly, you get some of that intimacy of being together in one spacious living room. The priests always give well thought-out homilies too.
The entrance antiphon came from Psalm 25: Turn to me and have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am alone and poor. See my lowliness and suffering and take away all my sins, my God. Indeed, we can't deny that are not alone, poor, lowly, and afflicted. I am just going to talk about feeling alone. We all look for companionship, sympathy, understanding, and love. Although I have so far refrained from telling any friend about my nasty fall two weeks ago when I was away, the urge is there. How can we eradicate feeling alone? Would having millions of friends or followers on a social networking website do it? How about having worldwide fans who adore you for whatever reason? I don't think you'd be happy with either. Even if you have real close friends who truly love you, they are still fallible beings like you who are just here for the time being. Basically, you are alone.
As St Augustine points out, feeling alone is really a blessing from God because he made it so when he created us that we might search for him. That is, we feel alone when we have not found God yet. Well, do I who have already found Jesus still feel alone? No. But to be honest, I must admit that I do feel lonely whenever I face a disconnect between me and those who are still very much of the world, which is nothing compared the oneness I feel with the Lord.
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