Lord Walk With Me

Reverend Joseph Castaldi

Pequot Chapel

New London, Connecticut

Sunday, June 2, 2013

We can say with all honesty that our modern instantaneous means of communication create more suffering for us today, much more so than our fore fathers – both physically and emotionally.

Today you can follow the war in Iraq minute by minute.

The Boston massacre was part of our lives for days.

The Oklahoma disaster, we lived minute by minute.

It remains true friends in this human condition that

1)    ignorance is bliss

2)    awareness is suffering

Dale Carnegie wrote, “I am more interested in my hurting toothache than in the 10,000 who lost their lives in some South American Revolution.”

With this situation in mind we turn into ourselves for better or for worse:

1)    Worse – we become self-centered, egotistical, cynical. Patients who ring for the nurse – just for the sake of ringing for the nurse – the husband – bitter and disgruntled – who calls for his wife for the sake of calling for her.

2)    Better – suffering is part of our lives. The nuns used to tell us in just faith “offer it up”.  – Yes we offer it up to Jesus in reparation for the sins of the world and for our own personal sins.

-    The suffering may become a

-        moment of conversion

 

– moment of deep peace

– with great faith we repeat “thy will be done”.

“Footprints in the Sand” tells it all. A man had a dream that he was walking with Jesus along the seashore. He was telling the Lord how he asked for His help in moments of anguish, despair, and terrible suffering and how in those moments only one pair of footprints was imprinted on the sand. The man turned to Jesus and said “Lord where were you in those moments?” And Jesus with great compassion turned to him and said, “when you saw only one set of footprints I was carrying you – you had no strength even to walk.”

We end with this poem:

“Lord walk with me.”

Our Father knows what is best for us;

We would always want sunshine

But He knows there must be rain.

We love the sound of laughter

But our hearts would lose their tenderness

If we never shed a tear.

-         Trees are strengthened when they withstand a storm

-         And the sharp cut of a chisel gives cold marble grace and form

-         So when we are troubled and everything seems to be going wrong

Let us turn to God our Father in faith – and cry out once more

“Lord, walk with me.”