Someone Must Carry You

 

Learning to be carried in the Father’s arms

12/02/2025

Luke 10:21-24 Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, "I give you praise, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike. Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him." Turning to the disciples in private he said, "Blessed are the eyes that see what you see. For
I say to you, many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it."

Every Friday I drive some students to Ozark Catholic Academy in Tontitown, I’m the bus driver, but I also get to visit my parents for the day in Springdale. To be completely honest, it has been very hard to watch my parents growing older. They are a little more forgetful, move slower, and are not as steady on their feet.

I still want them to be the adventurous, swashbuckling couple who courageously moved their family half-way across the world for a fresh start and brighter futures. They learned new languages and not just English and some Spanish but also the languages of texting and Facebook.

They raised three children in an unfamiliar culture, sent them to Catholic schools, and two are still married and one is a priest. But their biggest challenge was finding decent spices to cook great Indian food. If it is hard for me to accept they can no longer do those things, just imagine how hard it must be for them.

One insight that helps me make the transition to this new stage of their life – and my life – is to see how they are becoming more childlike. And I only mean childlike in the most positive sense. For example, a couple of weeks ago after going out for dinner I helped my father to undress and tuck him into bed.

What a deeply humbling experience for me and for him. I recalled how often as a small boy I fell asleep on the couch at night while watching TV and woke up in my bed the next morning. And by the way, my bedroom was upstairs so my dad had to carry me up a flight of 13 steps – yes I counted – to tuck me in.

I am reminded of God’s words to Moses and the people in Deut 1:31 – some of the most poignant words in the entire Bible – “The Lord your God carried you, as a father carries his son, all along your journey until you arrived in this place.” And “this place”, of course, was the Promised Land.

What a privilege every Friday to help my parents and to return the favor in a small way for the countless sacrifices my swashbuckling parents made for me as a child, and still do today. But the only way to learn that biblical lesson is to become childlike, and take turns carrying each other, until we arrive at “this place”, the Promised Land.

No surprise, then, that in the gospel today Jesus praises those who are childlike. Paraphrasing Deut 1:31, Jesus says: “I give you praise, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned, you have revealed them to the childlike.”

And in some mysterious sense, our Lord adds that even he enjoys a similar position in relation to the Father: “All things have been handed over to me by my Father.” In a sense, just as God the Father has carried the Son from all eternity – more precisely we say the Son is eternally begotten of the Father – so all children of the Father enjoy this privilege of being carried by the Father.

That is, if they are willing to humble themselves and become helpless and childlike, like my parents are in some ways today. In other words, no one walks into Paradise on their own two feet but must be carried into heaven “like a father carries his son, all along your journey, until you arrived in this place.”

One concrete way to practice being childlike is not only to trust in the Father to carry us, but also being docile enough so our Mother, the Church, can teach us. We all struggle with some doctrine or teaching of the Catholic Church: immigration or abortion or same sex marriage or the environment or the death penalty or any host of other teachings that make us cringe, and wish it would change.

But if we can humble ourselves and become more childlike, perhaps we can simply accept the remarkable truth that Jesus promised the Holy Spirit to his apostles who would “guide them into all truth” (Jn 16:13). God the Father carries us and our Mother the Church teaches us, but only if we become childlike.

It’s like how my parents carried me as a child and now I try to return the favor every Friday in helping them. And why does that matter? Because no one walks into heaven on their own two feet. Someone must carry you. Or, changing metaphors, perhaps it’s like a Bridegroom carries a Bride over the threshold into their new home.

Praised be Jesus Christ!