It is common nowadays to speak of Christ “identifying with us” or standing in solidarity with us in our low estate, almost like a form of democratic misery loves company logic. If Christ’s presence with the lowly and downtrodden is not to remain a mere melancholic indulgence by the romantic, then the idea must be cashed out in more substantial terms than vacuous contemporary cant of solidarity or identification.

As per the Law and Gospel logic, God’s presence with the lowly exists not as a static ecstatic rapture freezing us in our lowest moments but as a promise and hope, that God indeed is neither content nor willing to leave us in our lowly estate but desires instead that we be redeemed and saved. It is precisely this faith in Christ, and this hope of our redemption, which constitutes the meaning of Christ with us, not to comfort us in the gutters, but to extend a hand with the command, arise and take up your bed and walk.

It is this voice which perpetually echoes in the hearts of the faithful whereby we daily struggle to rise from our beds, in the hopes that in the fullness of time, we shall indeed walk with the Lord upright in joy, holiness and righteousness, all the days of our lives.