We are Never Alone

I walk a labyrinth. I walk slowly, in deep meditation. With each step, I feel an increasing heaviness, as though the weight of my life and my sorrows are increasing. In the center of the labyrinth is an altar. I hesitate before entering. I admit to feeling a little disappointed. I’ve never walked a labyrinth before, and I expected a mystical experience, a magical presence. But I haven’t felt anything but heaviness.

I step into the center, and he is there. The Christ. Really, truly present. I take the waiting bread and wine, and I try not to cry as I stand with him. As I turn to retrace my steps and conclude the labyrinthian journey, I sense him walking beside me. With each step, I feel more and more people walking with us, saints from untold years past, until we are legion.

“This is real, isn’t it?” I whisper to Christ. “I mean, you’re really here with me, aren’t you?”

“Did you think I was make-believe? Did you think the words, ‘Lo I am with you always, even to the end of the age’, were pretend?”

I am never alone. I am totally surrounded by all the saints of every faith and every age; by all people past, present and future. The Christ walks with us at all times, whether or not we sense the Presence. We are never alone.