The associated reading for this reflection can be found in your Every Sacred Sunday Mass journal or online here.
Something special happens when we visit a church or chapel alone, be it St. Peter’s Basilica or the tiny chapel down the road.
Sometimes the lights are on, or they’re dimmed or even turned off, but we can still see where we’re going, especially when the space is familiar. The pews are open before you, the ends leading you down closer to the altar.
The Blessed Sacrament is reserved in a tabernacle, usually behind or near the altar, a glowing red candle reminding us that the True Presence is in fact present right where we are.
We look around: the stained glass windows shine brighter in the dimly lit sanctuary, shadows appear that we’ve never seen before; the dark wood pews can even shine. The votive candles flicker more when we walk past and then suddenly, even if the church is near the busiest road, it’s suddenly quiet inside our heart.
We might take out a rosary, a breviary or even a journal, but suddenly, especially when we’re alone, the quiet pause is loud. Then soft.
And though we might not always hear it, when we come before the Lord – at Mass, in the Sacraments, or even in genuine relationship with each other – the Lord tells us: “I will rescue them from every place.”
We’ve been to those places. I know I have.
I’ll say at Mass or in prayer: “The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.”
Then, as soon as I leave church or put my rosary away, I’ll find myself going as far away from the Lord as possible – down every pathway, up every creek and through every wall. My prayer life snuffed out like a wick, a soul unsurprisingly heavy with what I can’t seem to drop and weary of looking for what I can’t seem to find.
And then I – we – can find ourselves back in that empty church, where His voice will always tell us: “The lost I will seek out, the strayed I will bring back, the injured I will bind up, the sick I will heal” and “I myself will give them rest.”
Today – wherever you are – come to Him, Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, and find rest in the God who has been, and always will be, looking for us.