On Accompanying

“Jesus drew near and walked with them…” [Luke 24:15] It is the image that Pope Francis has offered to us as a way of living out our Christian faith. To walk with someone in life. No judgement. Listening. Asking questions. Being comfortable with silence.

You awaken to the realization that you have been walking with another person. Only then do you purposefully and thoughtfully make the commitment. So much of life is realized and confirmed, in a surprising manner, by looking back and seeing where we’ve been. To reflectively look back on one’s life is to unexpectedly recognize the presence of God where you often seemed to have experienced absence. Funny aspect about our God. God’s presence is to us an absence. All the saints and mystics come to know this spiritual truth through their adversities.

Adversity. I wasn’t sure where I was going. I was in a difficult place in a new parish assignment. An assignment everyone would have thought was a marriage made in heaven. But marriages aren’t made in heaven. They are carved out of the rawness of daily life. I was Unwelcomed. Alone. I seemed to be Drowning. Unable to take the reins of my office and position. Many a night I fell asleep in tears. In anger, I questioned this God of ours not knowing why I was led here.

I asked a colleague to walk with me. Repeatedly. To keep walking with me even when I did not know where I was headed. I had never before admitted to my neediness. There were times when I knew my colleague wanted to leave. Numerous times. He didn’t. I’ve never asked why. This situation was not easy for him either. We walked. I in turn found myself walking with him in his life’s situation. We walked together. “Jesus drew near and walked with them…”

Accompanying another person is, as Luke describes, a drawing near. Jesus draws near to Cleopas and his wife. I can imagine him catching up with those two disciples and asking if he can join them along their way. Jesus does not lead. In this instance the shepherd walks alongside his sheep, not ahead of them. He allows us to lead. We are shoulder to shoulder. Jesus walks with us in the direction we choose. He may question that choice. He may disagree with the path we’ve taken. He knows what will harm us but continues to walk with us.

Presence is primary. A sense of equality is necessary. In essence, even the person drawing near is now being accompanied. There are appropriate times to challenge, ask questions, or make suggestions. The person accompanying must be insightful, patient, and discerning. Accompanying is a form of deep care for another person.

Many of us experience judgement, presumption, or fear from others. These are made without us ever

really being known. I expect it is due to the inadequacy we all feel about ourselves. We live lives of comparison. This jockeying of relationships, of positioning, of besting, of having control over others, causes us to miss so many opportunities with people intersecting our lives. We don’t realize every person, no matter how together they present themselves or how confident they are read by us, are fragile. They are as afraid of us as we are of them.

A wonderful image of this drawing near is the painting, Emmaus, by American German artist Janet Brooks-Gerloff. Two slightly bent, darkened figures. Their backs to us. A third vaguely outlined. Cleopas and his wife are deeply wounded by an experience of loss and sadness. Jesus is marked by his wounds. It is their woundedness that binds Cleopas, his wife and Jesus together. They walk together because they and we simply want to know that we are accepted and not alone.

I wake up each morning to this image on the opposite wall of my bedroom. I am reminded that there are people who have chosen to walk with me. Mind you, I am not an ease walk. I have always been comfortable with fewer but deeper friendships. Few, they are. But I have them. No judgement. Just Listening. Presence. Tears. Laughter. The sharing of Life.

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Very Rev’d David Wm. Mickiewicz, July 2026

Do you accompany someone?

No judgement. Listening. Questioning. Suggesting.

Who has chosen to walk with you?