Footsteps That Stop Outside
Updated: Sep 6
“And Jesus stopped and said, ‘Call him.’”Mark 10:49
You hear someone coming down the corridor. Then the steps pause. There is a short silence before the door opens, or before the person walks on.
In a long corridor that pause is easy to hear. Stopping is already a kind of message. You just do not know what it means.
It may be respect. It may be fear. It may be tiredness. It may be that the person does not know what to say. You rarely know which.
Jesus often stopped before he spoke or acted. A blind man called out from the roadside. Jesus did not rush past. He stopped, and then he asked for the man to be brought to him. The pause belonged to the meeting.
You do not have to guess every pause. You do not have to fill the silence that follows.
At Mass there are pauses too. After the reading. After the prayers. Before we go to the altar. We do not have to cover every silence with words. Christ can use the moment before anyone speaks.
If you are the one standing outside, you may wait until you are ready. If you are the one inside, the hesitation at the door is not always rejection. Sometimes the most honest visit is the one that comes only after the person has been allowed that short stop.