***
I’m sure we’ve all read the popular poem, Footprints in the Sand.
It’s about a person who, in a dream, looks back over their life. Walking along a beach, there are two sets of footprints in the sand: one is theirs and the other is God’s.
When looking back upon times of hardship and grief, however, there was only a single set of footprints.
“I don’t understand why God, when I needed you the most,” the poet continues, “You would leave me.”
“My precious child,” God replies, “I love you and will never leave you…When you saw only one set of footprints it was then that I carried you.”
***
“It was then that I carried you.”
***
Looking back over our lives I’m sure we can all recognize periods of great stress and sadness.
Maybe we had a bout with depression; a marriage ended; our health took a turn for the worse; we lost a loved one, our job, or our home.
At the time, we may have felt terribly alone, asking ourselves, “How am I ever going get through this?”
But we did.
With the gift of hindsight and eyes of faith, we can see that it was God who carried us. Sometimes we need the strength that God alone can give.
***
Such is the case of the disciples in today’s Gospel.
They’ve just encountered the darkest period of their lives. Their best friend, Jesus of Nazareth, was publicly humiliated, beaten, and nailed to a tree.
Now they fear for their own lives. They’re terrified and filled with grief.
Did they foolishly follow someone who claimed to be God? Is there any way out? Or have they come to the end of the road?
***
***
The fact that the disciples are walking away from Jerusalem means they’ve turned their backs to the place where Jesus died.
They’re crushed; just plain lost.
It must’ve felt like a set of footprints was washed away. Whereas the Lord once walked beside them, now he’s gone.
And they’re right. There’s only one set of footprints left on the road to Emmaus. It is the Lord, who’s carrying them.
We this in three different ways.
First, the Lord appears to them seemingly as a stranger, inquiring as to why they’re so sad. Sometimes just being heard starts the process of healing.
Then Jesus opens the scriptures for them, interpreting the sufferings of the Messiah as foretold by the prophets. Jesus came for this very purpose, to lay down his life and pick it up again.
Explaining to them the history of salvation, Jesus assures them that their faith is not in vain.
Finally, he feeds them in the breaking of the bread, a celebration of the Eucharist.
***
Realizing they’re in the presence of the Risen Lord quickly turns the disciples’ sorrow into joy. But Jesus vanishes from their sight.
Only when he does do the disciples realize that the Lord was carrying them all along.
But hindsight is 20/20.
***
How often are we like the disciples, recognizing the presence of God in our lives only in hindsight?
***
Just as the Lord carried us through all of our previous trials, so he will carry us through this Coronavirus pandemic – and whatever burdens we may be carrying.
So where is God in all of this? How can we tell he’s present?
***
The truth is, the Lord appears all the time.
Think of the healthcare workers laboring on the frontlines. Some would call them angels in disguise. They’re risking their lives for the sake of others.
Or think of that phone call you received recently from a friend checking in on you; the neighbor who offered to pick up your groceries; or the consolation you receive from Mass, even while watching online.
God shows up all the time, only we don’t see him the same way the disciples did. We see him in one another.
Think of the countless – often small – acts of kindness that have pulled us through this far. These are moments of grace; moments of God breaking through.
***
As the popular poem, Footprints, reminds us, when we’re challenged the most, it’s then that God carries us.
But he upholds us through the arms of friends.
How, then, might we continue to carry one another this week?
