Isaiah 49:8-15 / John 5:17-30
In a densely populated country like ours, it can be quite difficult to be alone. There seems to be people everywhere.
But as much as we might be surrounded by people and not quite able to be alone, that doesn't mean that we are not lonely.
Even in the midst of being in a crowd, we can feel lonely, especially when we are facing problems alone and there is no one to come to our help, or that no one seems to know, or worse still, that no one seems to care.
In this season of Lent, besides reflecting on our life and on how we have sinned and turned away from God, and hence this feeling of loneliness, we also must meditate on the sufferings of Jesus.
Every Friday, there will be the devotion of the Stations of the Cross and it is there there we reflect and meditate about that final journey of Jesus to Calvary and how He suffered along that way.
Indeed Jesus was alone in His suffering as He carried the Cross. But He wasn't overcome by loneliness despite His disciples deserting, denying and betraying Him.
He knew that God His Father was with Him and He believed that till the end when He gave up His life on the Cross.
It is quite a contrast from the 1st reading when the people complained that the Lord has abandoned them and forgotten them.
But God reiterated that He won't abandoned or forget His people, just like a mother will not forget her baby at the breast.
Yes God will not abandon or forget His people, and neither did he abandon or forget Jesus in His suffering. Neither will He also abandon or forget us in our loneliest moment.