Being Carried Up To Heaven

From the desk of Fr. Ignatius Waters, cp

Sunday, 2nd June 2019

Jesus talked about the Good Shepherd carrying the lost sheep home on his shoulders. We love that image, don’t we? In St. Luke’s gospel, the Ascension is described as Jesus being “carried up to heaven” And where he has gone, we hope to be carried too. Don’t we?  And still, there’s something about all this carrying that I’m uneasy about. And I don’t know why! What is it about ‘being carried’ that touches such deep feelings within us? Is it that coming into life we were carried for nine long months in our mother’s womb? Or have we memories of hearing that someone ‘had to be carried home’? Or do we dread the day we will no longer be independent or mobile – and need to be carried?

I remember, as a child, being carried on the bar of my father’s bicycle, how often I don’t know, but I know it left deep impressions and feelings that I carry to this day. I remember being surrounded by his warmth and energy; I remember feeling so safe and secure and, strange though this seems, I remember being aware of the extra effort and energy expended on me, small though I was! And I felt guilty about that.

Much later in life, I read how Pope John XX111, when carried into St. Peter’s on his big chair, remembered how, as a child, he was once carried on his father’s shoulders at some religious ceremony and this led him to say, “The secret of everything is to allow the Lord to carry us and to carry the Lord to others.”

‘To be carried’ sounds easy and attractive, doesn’t it? You don’t have to do anything – just allow yourself to be carried! But it’s not one bit easy; it takes great trust; it’s like lying back on the ocean and trusting you won’t drown! It means trusting you’ll be carried to a good place. Even as a child on the bar of the bike, part of me wanted to be doing the cycling myself instead of being carried! And I think for many of us, it is far easier to carry than to be carried; we were trained more in giving than in receiving. It was said about one of our priests that if he went out after the lost sheep, he’d only bring the sheep halfway home!” And why? Because he loved saving the lost sheep and if he brought the lost one home, he’d be out of a job!  Maybe we love the Good Shepherd image because we fancy ourselves in the Jesus role and forget we are more often the lost one in need of help!

Maybe that’s why we almost need to experience our weakness and frailty before we allow God, or anyone, to help us or carry us home.

Yes, it’s great and good to give and to carry but it’s also so necessary to graciously accept the help we need and allow ourselves to be carried.