Thursday of Week 3 in Ordinary Time (Year I)
Saints Timothy and Titus, Bishops
2 Timothy 1:1-8 | Psalm 95(96):1-3,7-8,10 | Mark 4:21-25
Night and day I thank God, keeping my conscience clear and remembering my duty to him as my ancestors did, and always I remember you in my prayers; I remember your tears and long to see you again to complete my happiness. (2 Timothy 1:3-4)
I visited my old friend’s mother in hospital yesterday. She was asleep, but ever so often, an alarming gurgle erupted from her throat, the suction tube keeping her from drowning in her own mucus.
As she slept, I imagined how she must feel when she wakes up and, deep in the throes of dementia, finds herself surrounded by smiling strangers she once called “family”.
I imagined how her family must feel, losing her mentally long before losing her eventually.
I imagined myself in her place, adrift in a lonely sea. I wondered if I would even be able to remember God any more.
That last bit felt like a stab to the gut.
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It’s been said that dementia first affects recent memory, then progressively erodes our recollection of earlier times. It may also be possible to resist this loss to some extent with constant repetition, but we’ll have to choose our “battles” carefully, saving our energy for the truly meaningful struggles.
So what would we want to keep in mind at any cost? Surely our loved ones, at minimum.
Does that include God?
Why not?
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Brothers and sisters, while we still have the mental capacity to do so, let’s take a hint from St. Paul’s words to Timothy.
Let’s constantly keep in mind our duty to Him as His children, our duty to love each other as He loves us.
Let’s pray every chance we get, that we might always remember Jesus’ tears as He hung in agony on the cross of our collective salvation, and always long to be reunited with Him and our heavenly Father.
Perhaps, if we do this faithfully, we may retain our recollection and connection to the Divine, when all else is lost from our mental map.
Lord, may we never forget that You care for us.
May we never turn away from You in our forgetfulness.
May we never lose our connection to You.
Amen.