“I Will Never Forget You” by Colleen O’Sullivan
Sing out, O heavens, and rejoice, O earth, break forth into song, you mountains. For the LORD comforts his people and shows mercy to his afflicted. But Zion said, "The LORD has forsaken me; my Lord has forgotten me." Can a mother forget her infant, be without tenderness for the child of her womb? Even should she forget, I will never forget you. (Isaiah 49:13-15)
The LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness. (Psalm 145:8)
"I cannot do anything on my own; I judge as I hear, and my judgment is just because I do not seek my own will but the will of the one who sent me." (John 5:30)
Piety
I will never forget you. I have engraved you on the palm of my hand. (Isaiah 49:15b-16a)
Study
Exile comes in a multitude of forms. As God is assuring the people of his kindness and mercy in our first reading, they are still far from home in Babylon, many bitter over what had happened to them and their families. Will we ever see our homeland again? And if we do, will our children go back with us? Many of our sons and daughters have assimilated to this alien culture, married natives of this land and now have children of their own. They have set down new roots here.
Fast forward to the first century. There are a great number of nobodies here, outcasts from society, the very people Jesus is drawn to. Picture them gathered listening to Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount and the hope that must be filling their hearts as he speaks. Jesus exudes his Father’s mercy and compassion. His audience - the poor, the sick, the grieving, the meek, and the persecuted – must feel themselves being lifted up when they hear Jesus call them blessed and when they hear his promises to them.
Even the Pharisees and the scribes exist in an exile of a sort. This past week I’ve been reading When God Whispers in Your Ear by Max Lucado. At one point, the author asks his readers to consider how many people go to churches but never actually meet Jesus. I thought about that with regard to the Jewish leaders of Jesus’ day. Here they are, busily upholding God’s law, but have they ever really encountered the God whose law they are guarding? Have they ever been the recipient of God’s love and compassion? It certainly doesn’t seem like it. Their hearts are walled off. Their energy is put into preserving their power and prestige. They’re imprisoned; they just don’t realize it and, consequently, aren’t seeking anything from the Lord.
These leaders are out for Jesus’ blood. Just prior to today’s Gospel reading, Jesus heals the man by the pool on the Sabbath and also has the audacity to call God his Father. Clearly, this upstart carpenter needs to go, above all because he is a threat to the establishment’s control over the other Jews. Who knows, the “little people” might get to like this law-breaking healer from Nazareth, who consorts with sinners, tax collectors, and other riffraff. Can’t let that happen.
We don’t have to look far today, either, to see people feeling far from home and abandoned. They’re on our streets, braving the elements in hot weather and cold, rain and snow. They’re the people who used to commute to work alongside you who’ve lost their jobs. They’re your neighbors whose marriages are falling apart. They’re the lonely and confused among us, contemplating ending it all. They’re the victims of sexual abuse, clerical and otherwise. They’re the thousands of people on the Mexico border looking for a place to call home. They’re the people in Mozambique and Malawi whose friends and family members, homes and farmland were recently swept away in massive flooding and who have no food and no place to go.
God is talking to all of us in today’s Scripture readings, especially those of living in any kind of exile. I will never forget you, the Lord assures us. I am the one who created you. Like a mother, I hold you close to my heart. Even if a mother should forget her child, I never will. You are engraved on the palm of my hand. And Jesus feels that same everlasting love for each of us. He tells us in today’s Gospel reading that he seeks the will of the one who sent him to us. God’s will is love, mercy, and forgiveness. Jesus’ will is love, mercy, and forgiveness.
Action
Think of someone, maybe even yourself, who’s going through an exile experience of any sort and entrust that person in prayer to the loving arms of God. Imagine God holding him or her as a mother would, gazing into that person’s eyes with the greatest of kindness, compassion and everlasting love.
Spend a few minutes, if you have time, listening to Carey Landry’s beautiful I Will Never Forget You.
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