Come Back to Me

By: Ivonne J. Hernandez

Imagine Jesus standing in front of you. Looking at you He asks, “What do you want me to do for you?” (Mk 10:51) What do you say? Does your answer jump out, clear as day, from the depths of your heart, or do you see a sea of requests floating around, waiting for you to pick which one it is that you truly want? And when the answer does come, how badly do you want it? Are you willing to “do whatever He tells you”? (Jn 2:5) What if He says, “Sell what you have… follow me”? (Mt 19:21) Or, “Forget yourself, carry your cross and follow me”? (Mt 16:24) What will your answer be? Will it be “Let it be done to me”? (Lk 1:38) Are you willing to say, “not my will but yours be done”? (Lk 22:42) Or, realizing you are not ready to surrender all, will you “walk away sad”? (Mt 19:22)
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Often, we choose to walk away. But, not only do we walk away from any suffering or sacrifice, but we then try to run away from the sadness. We try to distract ourselves from the pain. We keep busy, we watch TV, we overeat, we shop, we work. But it never works for long. The more we try to run, the bigger the sadness underneath grows. Oh, but if we only would allow ourselves to feel that sadness! If we would be honest with ourselves, we would allow it to inform us, to tell us we are heading the wrong way. It would make us turn to Our Father, who is always waiting, ready to run and embrace us. (Lk 15:20) And in that embrace we will hear Him say, “My child, why did you walk away?” “Don’t you know my yoke is easy, and my burden light?... Come to me, and I will bring you rest.” (Mt 11:28-30)
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