Grabbing God’s hand

There are certain moments that stick with me.

One of those moments happened a few weeks ago at one of the Masses in Spanish at the Catholic Church in Mount Vernon.

As the Eucharistic Prayer began, I noticed a three-year-old wander out into the middle of the aisle.

She started spinning in a circle, a slow spinning, around and around and around.

Her mother became aware of it and she reached out for her.

But, without interrupting her swirl, she stepped back from her mother and kept spinning, around and around and around.

Again, her mother reached out and, again, another step back.

Finally, she began to stagger.

Her mother’s hand was there; she grabbed it and the mother reeled her in taking her up in her arms, where her head flopped onto her mother’s shoulder.

I think it is like that with God at times. We go around in circles, God is there waiting, with a handout, ready to pull us in. But no, no thank you, I can do it by myself, so we step back, God drops back. God lets us spin, around and around and around, until we get to the point where we teeter and then we grasp the hand that has been there, waiting.

There is a sense in which Jesus is always trying to pull us in. Christians have been reading recently from chapter 6 of John’s gospel at Sunday liturgies. Verses tell that the crowd had just eaten the meal of fish and barley loaves. Their stomachs were filled but they were still unsatisfied. They were looking for something more. Such a choice also faced Israel in the desert: to move ahead with God or to go back to Egypt, to slavery and oppression.

With Jesus, again, a choice. “I am the bread come down from heaven.” Will they take the hand God has reached out to them in the shape of this man from Nazareth? Some do; many do not. How about us? How are we doing these days? How are we doing as a community, as individuals? What direction are we moving in? Around and around? Backward? Full speed ahead? Do we move into the future with faith and hope, feeding on the words of Jesus?

Do you remember a moment when you felt that Jesus was right there when you were staggering about? Who looks to you to give them some sense of direction? Scary questions and sometimes even more scary answers. But remember that mother standing off to the side, hand ready to reach out, to catch another hand … reaching out.