Being Alone Like Jesus

Each of us, no matter how busy, needs to take time from our schedule to reflect and examine ourselves. When driving along a dark road nobody flicks the light on in the car in order to see better. When dark we see the outside clearly. I  need to turn all the lights off and be in solitude and have all my senses turned inwards. A time to be with God and myself. Bible & Life has this topic featured in the recent issue.

A priest in his article reminds us that one third of our time is spent alone. In bed with one's spouse you are alone; even when busy there are times when you are alone. God when he saw that Adam was alone he made Eve to be his companion. Life is composed of times alone and with others.

However, we often think that a person who likes to be alone is fastidious, a loner and resents the presents of others. We need to discard this way of thinking; in the present world it is difficult to find time to be alone. Riding in the subway we see many sitting alone but busy with their smart phones and connected to the world.

Proverbs 4:23 we read: "With closest custody, guard your heart, for in it are the sources of life." In our deepest recesses we have a reservoir that we are not familiar with. When we are alone we can look into this reservoir and meet God. 

To understand this he give us something for our imagination. Someone is sitting by a lake in a forest. Fresh and brisk air fills his being, his head and breast feels free. Like a mirror the water reflects the trees mountains and sky in the lake. He hears the sound of birds and other indistinct sounds from a distance. A bird comes into view as it flies over the lake. As it flew over his head a speck from the wing of the bird fell into the water right in front of him.

He sees and then he doesn't  the small particle in the water, but as the water rings gets bigger the particle  comes to stop at his feet. Many thoughts come to mind but he doesn't  give notice. Being in that place was a gift but he is able to leave at any moment. He reminds us it is only those who are able to be alone that have this peace.

"In the busy world we are in we lose contact with our
true self, and begin to tire of our daily tasks, and our pleasures become boring and being alone brings great joy." These words of a poet are the writers wish for us. Our Lord in John 16:32 --(Yet I can never be alone; the Father is with me.) Jesus was never isolated a loner, he was always one with the Father. This he concludes is the reason we need to find time for silence and being alone.