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APRIL 23
LONELINESS
“Then the Lord God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone; I will
make him a helper as his partner. …The man gave names to all cattle, and
to the birds of the air, and to every animal of the field; but for the man there
was not found a helper as his partner.’” (Gen 2: 18, 20)
Adam is lonely, already in his prelapsarian state (before “the fall”). Adam
is not created as a self-sufficient being, but as one in need of community
and companionship. This is not a “deficiency,” but part of Adam’s Godlike
nature. Adam is created in the image and likeness of God, Who also
exists in community; in the Community of Three Persons, Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit. And God provides us with community in different ways,
throughout Salvation History.
So loneliness is a powerful emotion, particularly because it is “natural.”
My God-given need for community, like all my “natural” needs, is a major
challenge and motivator on my spiritual journey. I motivates me to come
out of myself, reaching out to God and other human beings. It motivates
our creativity, inspiring great works of art and other forms of self-giving.
Conversely, however, the human need for community can drive us to sin,
when we search for it in the wrong places.
Today let me approach with gratitude the “hole in my heart” that is
loneliness, recognizing Who it is that put it there, from the beginning. It
is God, “Creator of heaven and earth, all things visible and invisible,” Who
calls me, through loneliness, to community and communion, with Him
and other human beings.
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