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<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cWeep for lost memories that never were.\u00a0 Weep for that which never was.\u00a0 Mourn the memories you do not possess.\u00a0 Mourn the present moment that was not willed to be.\u201d\u00a0 I wrote these words in 2010 while sitting on the back pew of Saint Joseph Catholic Church in Washington, Georgia.\u00a0 The last time I had entered that small, rural parish was mid-December, 1995, a few days before my brother was diagnosed with cancer.\u00a0 I was scheduled to play the piano at Christmas Mass that year, we never made it.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy the rivers of Babylon there we sat weeping when we remembered Zion.\u00a0 On the poplars in its midst we hung up our harps.\u00a0 For there our captors asked us for the words of a song; our tormentors for joy.\u00a0 Sing for us a song of Zion!\u00a0 But how could we sing a song of the Lord in a foreign land?\u00a0 If I forget you Jerusalem, may my right hand wither.\u201d\u00a0 Taken from Psalm 137, these words were written by distraught Israelites while captive in Babylon after the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC.\u00a0 They had lost everything and now they lived in an unknown, distant land.<\/p>\n
Lament is a powerful human emotion.\u00a0 If left unchecked, it can overwhelm those who have experienced great loss.\u00a0 The words of Psalm 137 have always resounded in my heart due to the profound longing they express.\u00a0 While in the seminary in Rome, I heard a priest state this Psalm encapsulated the experience of refugees, or anyone who has lost much (or everything), having to leave behind all that was familiar.\u00a0 Preaching at a Mass for immigrants, he invited us to hang up our harps by the Tiber and to join Israel\u2019s lament.<\/p>\n
As I sat alone at the parish in Washington where I had been confirmed, I realized we have to take the time to mourn those things that never came to fruition in our lives. We sometimes have reasonable expectations of the future that simply do not come about and we have to mourn these anticipated future moments which never became memories. They remained dreams and desires that never materialized due to elements beyond our control.<\/p>\n
It is lamenting over an alternative life that never came to be.\u00a0 It is joining the Israelites weeping by the shores of the rivers of Babylon.<\/p>\n
To remain here however is dangerous because no matter what, the past cannot be changed. We have to accept the twists and turns of life and embrace who we are today as the result of the many events and circumstances of our past. Anything else leads to insanity or despair.\u00a0 Living among \u2018what ifs\u2019 and \u2018what would have beens\u2019 is never helpful because it ravishes the heart preventing one from accepting \u2018what is\u2019 and \u2018what has been.\u2019\u00a0 It is only by trusting in God\u2019s Providence that we are able to sing a song of the Lord wherever we find ourselves, finding the meaning and purpose of our struggles, laments, and pains.<\/p>\n
Picture: The Weeping Angel of Amiens Cathedral, used with permission.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWeep for lost memories that never were.\u00a0 Weep for that which never was.\u00a0 Mourn the memories you do not possess.\u00a0 Mourn the present moment that was not willed to be.\u201d\u00a0 I wrote these words in 2010 while sitting on the back pew of Saint Joseph Catholic Church in Washington, Georgia.\u00a0 The last time I had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2533,"featured_media":2847,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[217],"tags":[30,618,612,218,621,615],"class_list":["post-2835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","tag-catholic","tag-grief","tag-lament","tag-providence","tag-pslam-137","tag-sorrow"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a><\/p>\n