Press On

I recently attended the memorial mass celebrating the 10th anniversary of the passing of Fr. Bob Bedard, CC, our community’s spiritual father. At the end of the service, they played a song that is typically played at funerals called “Press On” by Robert Filoramo. I have been told that this was Fr. Bob’s favourite song. I have heard it many times before, but, on this night, I heard it differently. It spoke to me in ways that it had not before.

When you listen to the song, it refers to life as a battle. The final verse contains the words, “another warrior returns from the fight, another victory for the Lamb of God.”  Now, I am not from a military family, and my reference is only what I have seen in movies or television, but you tend to hear loved one’s say to the departing soldier, “promise me you will come home.”  When I heard this line about the warrior returning, I imagined God the Father at the time he created each one of us, whispering to our hearts “promise me you will come home,” and then celebrating when we do.

I have always referred to life as a pilgrimage ー as it is a journey we are all on.  However, life is not always easy and there are a lot of battles to be fought. I see now that each one of us are pilgrim warriors, fighting the enemy on our way through this life, on the way to heaven. We are heading to where the enemy does not want us to go. There are days we can enjoy the journey and days that we must dress for battle. Ephesians 6:11 tells us to “put on the armor of God that you may be able to stand firm against the tactics of the devil.” At the same time, we need to remember, we are never in the fight alone as Exodus 14:14 states, “the Lord will fight for you; you have only to keep still.”

This sounds like a promise we are making to God the Father. We are saying we will not give up in the fight. We will keep moving forward one step at a time with our eyes fixed on eternity with Him. It is a race we all must run. We must remember that this is not a race with one winner. Each person who crosses that finish line, no matter the time it took, is the winner of their race, especially when the reward is eternal life in heaven.

So, will you join me on this journey? Will you put on your running shoes and run the race? Will you become a pilgrim warrior? The victory has already been won when Jesus died for you and me on the cross. We just need to fight our way to that finish line and claim that crown that is waiting for us.