“It’s the most wonderful time of the year,” so goes a popular Christmas song that we hear frequently on our radio’s. But is it? Ask the young mother whose spouse died recently of cancer, as she sits alone with her two small children. Ask the little boy whose father just “ran off” with another woman, leaving the home without a dad. Ask the teenager who has no friends, as she sits alone in her room playing her music. Or ask the deserted old person as she sits alone staring out the window wishing that someday one of her over-committed children would stop in to visit her.
We need to be reminded repeatedly of Mother Teresa’s observation about the United States. She said that the greatest disease in our country is “loneliness.” Is this the true pandemic of our times?
We know that the ultimate solution to loneliness, as well as the true significance of Christmas is Jesus Christ. This cannot be said or preached too much.
St. John at the start of his letter to fellow Christians proclaims this to us (1 John 1:1-4).
“What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we looked up and touched with our hands concerns the Word of life—for the life was made visible…”
God saw the lonely, hopeless people of the world who were living out the pain of Adam and Eve’s decision to separate themselves from God. He was not indifferent to us humans wandering around without a purpose, like sheep without a shepherd. And so, He had pity us and sent his Son to give meaning, direction, and love to lost humanity. St. John who had experienced deep union with God in Jesus was compelled to proclaim this to the world.
“What we have seen and heard we proclaim not to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us: for our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.”
Fellowship is a word that is loosely defined. It can be the after-Mass crowd gathered for coffee and donuts, or the beer-drinking guys cheering for their favorite ball team, or even gang members gathered to plan their next escapade. John, however, means something much deeper. Fellowship is the deep experience of God’s love that is given through Jesus Christ. It is the answer to the deepest desire of our hearts, as we seek to be re-connected to the Father who loves us beyond measure. Christian fellowship is being so saturated with the Father’s love that every void inside us filled to the brim. It is the richest of all experiences. And, thus, this fellowship is the remedy for loneliness.
Sadly, our Church today has grown cold as far as true fellowship is concerned. It is possible that a lonely person can enter church, stay for the service, and leave as lonely as when she came in. This does not line up with the model of Christians community that is presented to us in Acts of the Apostles. The Church is meant to be a home where the hurting can gather, a mustard bush whose branches welcome birds who have no other place to welcome them.
Let’s remember that each of us is a “fellowship generator.” By virtue of our baptism, we have fellowship with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and as we nurture this through Christian relationships, we do as John did—we become to the world an answer to its problems. We offer others the fellowship that the world cannot give.
