A Call to Solitude, not Loneliness (Thursday, Week 26, Year 2, St Therese of Lisieux)

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These days, HIV is not as dreaded as it was before because of the availability of antiretroviral drugs which militate against the growth of the virus in the body. During those times, when it was very much feared (when it inspired great fear and disgust), it was gathered that more people died of abandonment, rejection and loneliness than of the disease itself. Loneliness is a feeling that no one desires to have. And that is why if you want to deter a child from committing some offense again and again, the most fruitful punishment you can met out to him is to lock him or her up in a secluded place; to deny him of any form of playful interaction with other children or with people. After such an experience of bitter seclusion and imprisonment, I am sure he must learn to behave well from that moment. 

We have been reading from the Book of Job, a wisdom book that raises a lot of questions for consideration: Why do good people suffer and why do bad people prosper? If God is good and powerful, why does he permit the innocent to suffer?, and many more questions. This was the situation that Job found himself. As Job strived to understand and reconcile these realities, his friends still insisted that he must have sinned. In chap. 11, one of his friends called Zophar said that Job was suffering because God must have spotted his sins. In chaps. 12 and 13, Job responded that he has become the sport of his friends. In chap. 15, another friend of his called Eliphaz said that Job was too arrogant to admit that he was the cause of his suffering. In 16 and 17, Job responded that God remains his true witness. In chap. 18, Bildad came in with another painful statement that Job deserved his fate. These were the unfortunate statements of pain and abandonment made by friends who should have consoled and understood the painful situation of their afflicted friend. The consequence was that Job felt rejected and abandoned by his friends and neighbours. In the chapter 19 which we read today, Job regained his peace of mind when he took consolation in a statement of faith which he made saying that “He knows that His Redeemer lives”.

Going back to the conditions given out by Jesus yesterday to those who wished to follow him, I am sure the disciples must have felt terribly disturbed by such reminders. The apprehension of those who were sent out in the gospel account of today must have heightened by Jesus’ instructions that they should carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; that they should salute no one on the way; and so on. Despite all these, I am also very sure that the disciples, just like Job, must have gone out fully convinced that their Redeemer lives. And that was why they went out with peace of mind, communicating the same sentiments of peace to those who received them. They didn’t feel abandoned; they felt the ever-abiding presence of God their redeemer who lives.

Sometimes, we may feel lonely; we may feel abandoned. It is an inevitable experience in life. And the most distressing and worst of it all is when we feel that no one understands us or cares about us. At that point in time when it appears as if no one cares how you feel or how you are coping just because you have chosen to live a life different from theirs, retain your peace of mind by being fully aware that God has not abandoned you. If we trust that God is still with us even when others abandon us, we will turn our loneliness into a fruitful solitude. The two (loneliness and solitude) are different. In loneliness, we feel completely abandoned by men and God. But in solitude, we become ever conscious of God’s presence within us even when people abandon us. In solitude, we find a new centre of strength and peace within us, a centre that does not depend on any external circumstances, for God has come to occupy that centre.


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