“Jesus declared, “Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and l will give you rest. . . . . . . . . . . . For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Excerpt, Gospel Reading, Thursday 18th July 2024 – MATTHEW 11:28-30.
So, from studies, loneliness has been found to raise levels of stress, impede sleep and, in turn, harm the body.
Loneliness can also augment depression or anxiety and may gradually slide into unhealthy habits that may constitute hazards to one’s health.
A 2017 research at the Florida State University College of Medicine also found that, loneliness is associated with a 40 percent increase in a person’s risk of dementia.
Loneliness may not necessarily be from lack of having someone or people around one.
Therefore, one could be in the midst of many people who may include family, friends, colleagues at work and church members but still be seemingly lonely.
The advent of smartphones and social media has helped to aggravate to a higher proportion the degree of individualism in homes which could be one of the causes of loneliness amidst people.
Well, today isn’t about causes and forms of solitude, rather it is about Jesus Christ the solution to loneliness and depression.
In today’s teaching, Christ Jesus offers himself to us, imploring us to come to him when we feel weary and over-burdened.
Christ encourages us to come to him, all those times that we are though in the midst of family and friends yet we still feel lonely.
He says, those times that we get so depressed and frustrated with ourselves, instead of going to the social media to rant, we should rather come to him.
Granted, our communication to him may as well pass for a monologue, but we know very well that he is listening to us and communicates back to our spirit.
Those of us who indulge in long prayers, we know how it feels whenever we emerge from our prayer session. There is always this kind of relief and unburdening that pervades one.
A similar feeling equally comes about when one goes for the sacrament of penance.
Then, one also feels some kind of relief when one just sits idly before the Blessed Sacrament.
All of these are avenues of going to Christ as he demands of us in today’s teaching.
There are some of us, at such moments, since we don’t know how to pray continuously, we therefore, just sing, even when we do not have the singing voice.
Some of us, we dance, even when we do not know how to dance, we just tend to move our bodies to the rhythm of the music.
To some, we go for outdoor exercise or run the treadmill.
Then, there are those of us who just take a walk outdoors and rant to ourselves.
And once we are done with doing any of the above, we usually tend to get some relief from loneliness and depression.
Dear friend, today’s teaching has assured us of the continuous and ever presence of Christ with us.
At such moments and indeed at any other time, he is saying we could talk to him.
We can do this by meditation or even by mumbling inaudible words or we can go on ahead and just rant.
He is most definitely, listening.
Just as today’s Psalm says, “The Lord looked down from heaven to the earth. . . . . . . . . . . . Then he will turn to the prayers of the helpless; He will not despise their prayers.” – PSALM 102.
Have a fantastic day folks.
#Blessed_Carlo_Acutis! #Pray_for_us!
– Akase F. Agabo 18th July 2024