A reading of the holy gospel according to Saint Mark. John's disciples and the Pharisees were accustomed to fast. People came to Jesus with this objection. Why do John's disciples and those of the Pharisees fast while your disciples do not. Jesus replied, how can the guest at a wedding feast?
Or how can the guest at a wedding fast as long as the groom is still among them? So long as the groom stays with them, they cannot fast. They will come, however, when the groom will be taken away from them. On that day, they shall fast. No one sews a patch of untrunk and cloth on an old cloak.
If he should do it, the very thing he has used to cover the hole will pull away the new cloth from the old and rotten cloth. And the tear will get worse. I've experienced that. Similarly, no man pours new wine into old wine skin. If he tries it, the wine will burst the skin, and, both the skin and the wine are lost.
No. New wine can pour into new skin. And this is the gospel of the lord. In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit, amen. When you come into the church and you find the church almost empty, you certainly get a different feeling than when you come in for midnight mass or come to church on Easter Sunday when the church is bursting at the scene with a lot of unfamiliar faces.
Now, there's one thing sooner or later we all have to face, and that's what we call lonely. You know say? It's a big difference coming and speaking from this pulpit to go and see a whole church full of people out there or to see a half a church or to see a handful or sometimes maybe see nobody. Now there's a big that has an impact upon a person. And the thought that strikes me about this matter, we had we're celebrating the feast of Saint Agnes.
We don't know much about her actually. I mean, when it comes to a story, actual fact. But we she represents something. She represents a young girl who stood up, took a stand on her chastity or purity. Of course, we don't even talk about that today.
Really, they're not even mentioned. They're scarcely mentioned. But anyway, she took a stand. Now the point I wanna make, do we realize how lonely it is to take a stand? In many instances.
And when it comes to taking a stand as regards right and wrong, when it comes to taking a stand, should I do this or should I do that because it's the law of God? Or when I take a stand, should I or should not, should I do this because I know it's a worshipful worshipful act? In many instances, we stand alone as far as our compatriots are concerned. We stand alone. And and you see, we say this is contrary to human nature.
We like to be with our fellow human beings by and large. We like we can get immense support from them. Immense Immense support. You can you can scarcely exaggerate the support that you can get from another from some friendly people around you when you're in a in a in a bad situation. And yet, when the chips are down, down, we face what?
We face something alone. Because you see, this this matter, this experience of loneliness isn't something that just comes to Christians or to non Christians. It's it's it's commonplace. It's very commonplace. And it's it's not just a matter of religion or nonreligion.
It applies to almost everything we do. But the Christian seems to me, being a follower of Christ, as it seems to me, otherwise, why are we called Christians, has to look at the cross of Jesus Christ. And remember, this is something I can never get out of my mind. It's so mysterious. It's so hard to comprehend that Christ, the son of god on the cross, doing his father's will.
Remember, back in the garden, he begged god to be freed from what he had to do. He begged him. And and the prospect of of his passion and death, his crucifixion, he sweated blood. That's what the text says. So he he finds himself in this tragic situation.
And among the words he speaks on the cross are, my god, god, why have you abandoned me? Well, I I I you know, those are tremendous words. Tremendous. That when we when we most need god's help, we can feel abandoned. And if it happens to me, I can look at the cross and it say it happened to the son of god.
Now I can't make much sense out of this, but the the fact is that's the way it was. Now my point is that we have got to be prepared to be lonely. We've got to be prepared to be solitary. We have got to be prepared to stand up on our own two feet with a firm stiff backbone. In our culture today, you hear so much about society and community and all of this stuff.
But when they remember, there is no human decision made that isn't an individual product. As our holy father says that all you may in his last letter, you may talk all you want about collective guilt. And remember, if you talk about collective guilt, you could talk about collective virtue. And he says all it amounts to is the collectivity of individual will. He says it's excellent.
And so, let us say that when when sometimes when we most need god's help, it seems most distant. And when that happens, it is very difficult. To put it mildly, it is very difficult. Christ sweated blood. And on the cross, he gave up his life.
So when we are asked to face it, as we are in many instances, I'm not talking about great big decisions. I'm not talking about the the decisions we make day in and day out. It's in the solitude of your own mind. And that's the reason I come back and this is my conclusion. We've got to know the value of solitude.
We've got to know the value of being quiet and listening. We've got to get used to feeling alone. Nobody dies for me. Nobody was born for me. Nobody makes my decisions along the pathway of life except me.
Now, I know there are influences. But remember, your autonomy as a human being is measured in terms of how you surmount all the same persuasion that would take away your freedom of will. And by that we mean to be saying I do or I don't. I will, I will not. That's simple.
Or in a exact complex. So, let us grasp the situations of where we are alone and not to be afraid of it. There's nothing wrong about feeling alone. There's nothing wrong in feeling lonely. Saint Augustine, in the very first sentence of his confession says, thou you, oh lord, have made us for yourself and our hearts will not be at rest until they rest in you.
And my point is this, you can't even be sure you're going to get the consolation when you need it most of feeling that your heart is resting in God. You may be so far distant you can't get a hold. And how do I know that? Well, from experience to a certain extent. But I can look at the cross and say, there it is.
And so, let us realize that we stand before god as an autonomous, as our holy father says, irreplaceable human being. And if we live up to that calling, we are going to find ourselves alone. And the only light that we will get in that dark tone will be the light of faith, which is not to be minimized. After all, today we're celebrating the martyrdom of a young girl who stood up and had the courage because as we know, out of the weakest instrument, God can use it as the most powerful weapon and instrument of his will. So it all comes back to the very simple thing, not my will, but thine be done.
That is the definition of union with God. In the name of the father, son, and holy spirit. Amen.