The School of Love, February 6

The School of Love

LONELINESS
[Continued from yesterday]

...So does God deal with His own, above all with those of His own whom He has chosen to use for others. And the reason is not hard to discover. There are three schools of suffering, each with its own special blessing to bestow - physical, mental, and that inner school which lies behind them both, loneli­ness of soul.

Physical suffering makes for tenderness of heart and a patient judgment. Mental suffering gives a deepened sympathy, an active influence which when "lifted up draws all things to itself."

But loneliness of soul does more than this; it gives independence and strength. Even in the natural plane it secures liberty of spirit, it develops clearness of judgment, it enforces power of will. But this is by no means all.

In the Old Testament Wisdom is heard to say: "Come with me into a silent place apart, and I will speak to thy soul;" and no one who has heard the calling of the Holy Spirit can misunderstand what this means­ - the deafness to His voice that may be caused by the din of men, and the clear ring that is given to His words when they come to us across the desert through the night.

Lone­liness of soul gives wisdom - that breadth of vision that belongs to him who sees all the valley from the hill-top.

Loneliness of soul gives understanding - that further power of seeing beneath the surfaces of life.

Lone­liness of soul gives counsel to sustain another, and fortitude to "endure its own burthen; all the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost come through and are fostered by loneliness of soul.

These are some of the fruits of this special school of suffering. None the less, let it not be forgotten that a school of suffering it is.

We are not speaking here of the loneliness which is a joy and a comfort, in which, as the poptilar phrase goes, one is "never less alone than when alone"; we are speaking of that sense of desertion, of alienation from one's kindred, of being somehow out of joint with all the world, of separation from God Himself, which human nature can scarcely endure; which even our Lord Himself con­sidered to justify a cry for relief.

Physical suffering He foresaw for His disciples, but He merely bade them rejoice at the prospect. Mental suffering He also promised them; this, again, they were to take as a sign that His blessing was upon them. But loneliness of soul He treats quite differently. Its agony He fully recognises; He is not afraid to let them see its effect upon Himself.

In the Garden, on the Cross, His cries had almost scandalised posterity. And as for His whole life - an angel lost and broken­winged in this poor world would be a pitiable, lonely thing; what then must have been the loneliness of the exiled Son of God?....
[continued tomorrow]
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From The School of Love and Other Essays
by The Most Reverend Alban Goodier, S.J.
Burns, Oates, & Washburn, Ltd. 1918