The Lord be With You

By Fr. Christopher Foeckler, MJ • Phoenix, AZ

As we continue through the Jubilee Year of Hope and enjoy the assurance of that “Hope which doesn’t disappoint”, we can find new and meaningful assurances of God’s love and care in our lives that foster this special Hope. Perhaps the greatest assurance of God’s help and support in our difficulties and challenges of life turns out to be one of the most innocuous parts of the Mass that we can miss very easily. How many times have we heard the priest say at the beginning of Mass and other key moments of the same: “The Lord be with you!”? Our response comes quickly and automatically, sometimes without thinking about it. But let’s take a moment to consider how meaningful and how reassuring that simple greeting should be to us. 

When the Lord appeared to Moses in the burning bush and told him that He was sending him to Egypt to tell Pharaoh to let His people go, Moses protested and said, “Who am I to go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” The assurance and encouragement that the Lord offered him was simply, “I will be with you.” Cf Ex 3:11

After Moses led the people through the desert for 40 years and they were at the Jordan River ready to enter, he commissioned Joshua, son of Nun, to lead the people into the Promised Land and to conquer all the cities and peoples there. To encourage and assure Joshua and the whole people, Moses said to him, and to the people separately, “Be brave and steadfast; have no fear or dread of them (the Canaanites and other pagan peoples) for it is the Lord, your God, who marches with you; He will never fail you or forsake you.” Cf. Dt. 31:6-8

Then among the Judges of Israel, Gideon was called by the Lord to save Israel from the Midianites, and he answered, “Please, my Lord, how can I save Israel? My family is the lowest in Manasseh and I am the most insignificant in my father’s house?” And the Lord reassured him saying, “I shall be with you…!” Cf. Judges 6:14ff

At the conclusion of the earthly mission of our Lord Jesus, as He was about to ascend into Heaven, He commissioned the Apostles to go into the whole world and preach to every creature the good news, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit! This “great commissioning” as we call it must have been a bit daunting to the few men our Lord had specially chosen and prepared, so to encourage them, the Lord added, “and know that I am with you always even to the end of the age!” Cf. Mt 28:20 

That the Lord is with us is indeed the greatest assurance of success and safety we can have along our way through life with all its challenges and trials. “If the Lord is for us [and thus with us]”, St. Paul asserts, “who can stand against?” May the Lord be with each one of you!