Wednesday of the Fourth Week in Lent

“ You are not alone.”

At he end of the latest Harry Potter movie, Dumbledore reminds Harry that he has friends and more importantly “he is not alone.” Bad times are coming but Harry is not alone.

As children, as young adults, as adults, and in the very end of our lives we fear being alone. We live in a self-absorbed society, but we still fear being alone. We make mistakes fearing being alone. We make life decisions because we fear being alone. I can make a list that would take us to the “moon,” about decisions we make based on this one fear -- being alone.

And at the same time despite all our efforts, each of us feel, at times, very, very alone.

Perhaps that is why we read about Christ’s cry “why have you forsaken me.” It is the most human and feared of emotions. For many, worse than physical pain is the fear of “being alone.” Maybe it is that emotion that Christ had to endure, more than physical suffering, before we could be totally redeemed.

Again, I do not have the answers.

However, if I have any answer during Lent it is this. “We ( you, I, us ) are not alone.” If there is any message that we can glean from the Bible it is “we are not alone.” Maybe each of us is called this Lent to bring this message to our fellow human beings when they experience bad times –”you are not alone.”

Webb