God does not stand aloof when his people suffer and groan in pain. He does not take pleasure in the sufferings of his people. However, he has an appointed time for his works. When this time comes, he appears and manifests his saving power. So when he sends the Prophet Isaiah in the first reading of today saying: “Comfort, comfort my people” (Is. 40:1), it is time for him to do a new thing, a time of mercy and consolation. He speaks tenderly to the people of Judah, who have been suffering in captivity under the king of Babylon. He saw their plight. He heard their cries for help. He is now ready to free them from oppression and give them freedom.
God does not forget. He has not forgotten you and he will never forget you. He knows you personally. He knows you by name (Is. 43:1) and understands your personal circumstances. He knows your joys and sorrows. He knows your strengths and weaknesses. He sees your successes and failures. He is not man, he cannot forget.
Sometimes, we feel that God does not identify with us, when we go through the bitter valley; that he abandoned us to our fate. But such thoughts do not correspond to reality. He told Moses in the burning bush that his name is “I AM WHO I AM”. I like the German translation of this divine name – “Ich bin der ‘ich-bin-da’”. This literally means, “I am the ‘I-am-there’”.
With this name, the Lord is saying, “I am always there. I am the eternal now. I have no yesterday and no tomorrow. I do not live in time and space like man. Therefore, I am the eternal presence. I am in your struggles and in your storms; in your joys and in your feasts. I am present because I care.” Do not therefore ever make the mistake of thinking that you are walking alone, even though it may sometimes seem so. Do not live by sight. Live by faith.
Meanwhile, we are not called to be just the recipients of consolation. We are also invited to be its agents. Jesus told Peter, “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers” (Jn. 22:31-32).
I once came across the heart-warming story of a priest, who serves in a little poor village in Nigeria. One day, this priest was on his usual rounds of visiting the poor and the needy. It was a rainy day. He came into the house of one poor blind man and his family and to his utter dismay, it was also raining in the entire hut. Almost everything in it was wet, the tattered bed, sleeping mats, cooking utensils, the fireplace…. The poor couple and their two children were standing against the wall, where they sought protection from the rain. He looked up and realized that the roofing materials, made of woods and zinc, had almost gone off. The ugly situation meant that, if the family was cooking and it began to rain, they would go hungry. They would also stay awake and curl themselves up in relatively dry little corners in the house, if it rained in the night.
The heart of this priest bled to experience this level of suffering engendered by poverty. He left with painful tears in his eyes. Afterwards, he begged some of his parishioners, friends and family for money and in about three days, he raised a considerable sum. He immediately hired a carpenter and sent him to go and reroof the house of this poor family. He told him, “If they ask you, ‘who sent you’, tell them, ‘it’s the time of consolation. The Lord has not forgotten you.’” It is the mission of every Christian to be a minister of consolation.
May His love be upon us, as we keep placing our hope in Him! Shalom!
Good stuff, thanks