AUGUST 04, 2015

 

THE LOST FOOTPRINTS IN THE SAND

 

I have a short piece of metaphorical story which I composed few days ago and it coincidentally somewhat suits the Gospel today. As we celebrate the feast of St. John Marie Vianney, it is also important to reflect on the magnitude of the faith it takes to become a priest of Christ.

 

At times in my life, there is always something which drags my feet away to the shore. My feet are getting cold as the waves touch their tips and my feet are getting itchy to stay for much longer.

 

However, I am very curious as to where the footprints lead its way so I tried to put up resistance and walk farther. As I walk on by, the tide is getting higher and the rolling waves are washing out the footprints in the sand. I was left finding the traces to figure out the next step but they are all gone. I advanced my sight to see where the succeeding steps are leading to but in dismay lost them all. Now, I’m all by myself. I looked behind me and found out that I’ve gone too far. I can’t just back off and stop wandering along into this mysterious find. I have an intuition that something great will show up at the end of this journey. The farther I go, the more I take it as a loss to walk back. I am pressured by the time I wasted struggling along the shore. It keeps me going on and on so as to think I’m getting closer to the end though it never appears to my sight just yet. In my faith to the man behind these footprints, I’ll follow him. Now, I am still in the journey and I enjoy every single moment that happens along the way. It is inevitable not to feel tired. Sometimes, I jump into the sea and play with the waves that used to make me lose the way.

 

The shore is the priestly formation in which we follow the footprints of Jesus Christ in his salvific ministry. We all know that this kind of vocation is usually tagged as “The Road Less Travelled By” not because this road is hard to find but this road is sensibly challenging. Personally, I had been hooked on my mother’s choice though I cannot fully blame her. At first, it was actually a choice of a ‘no choice’ until it became the choice of my choices. Just when I thought I was being pulled out by negative forces it is then that I realize how I have been so strong through the years. I am flooded by the strong waves coming to and fro with bloody head yet remains unbowed. In my story, I lost the footprints being washed out, but I continued walking so that anyone who might see my steps may also find a mystery; a calling in his life. I cannot reckon the number of times I thought of leaving this place, my faith was sinking; I doubted God and myself, but every sunrise seem to be a new hope for me to begin anew, to build up my faith and find the most compelling reasons to hold on with Christ.

 

I cannot doubt my chosen vocation but I rather fear this vocation. We usually take faith as remedy much more to fear than just a doubt for doubt is recuperated through believing. But as long as Christ reaches out his hands to me, to all of us and gives us strength to go on, we do not ignore his invitation to come to Him and walk through the raging waves of the perilous ocean of doubts and fears. Like St. Peter, he does not believe at first that Jesus is right before his eyes walking into the sea, but through his faith he went on and at the end Jesus Christ is glorified.

 

It takes a lot of faith and courage to come to Christ. In the midst of hardships, St. John Marie Vianney struggled along his way most especially in his studies as much as we do. But through it all, he never gave up until he became a priest and even became a saint.

 

May our faith also take us to the hands of Jesus Christ.