Category: Discerning the will and action of God in our lives

What Am I Supposed to Do?

You have been told, O mortal, what is good
   and what the Lord requires of you:
Only to do justice and to love goodness,
   and to walk humbly with your God.
(Micah 6:8)

This doesn’t sound right!
   I thought what God expects from me is to obey the Ten Commandments:
   1. – I am the LORD your God: you shall not have strange gods before me.
   2. – You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.
   3. – Remember to keep holy the LORD’S Day.
   4. – Honor your father and your mother.
   5. – You shall not kill.
   6. – You shall not commit adultery.
   7. – You shall not steal.
   8. – You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
   9. – You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife.
   10. – You shall not covet your neighbor’s goods.
   This is not such a hard list to follow—most religious people more or less do!
   Besides the Ten Commandments, I thought what God expects from me is to obey the “Commandments of the Church”:
   1. – Keep Sundays and Holidays of Obligation holy, by hearing Mass and resting from servile work.
   2. – Keep the days of fasting and abstinence appointed by the Church.
   3. – Go to Confession at least once a year.
   4. – Receive the Blessed Sacrament at least once a year, and that about Easter time.
   5. – Contribute to the support of our pastors.
   6. – Not to marry within certain degrees of kindred, nor to solemnize marriage at the forbidden times.
  In practice, this can be a somewhat more specific and demanding list to follow—but most “practicing Catholics” more or less do!

   The danger of having religious laws, rules, and regulations to obey is that we may treat them like civil laws, rules, and regulations—that is to say, if we can “get away” with it, we may not observe and obey them as we should.

Trust in the Lord and do good.
   that you may dwell in the land and
   live secure.
Find your delight in the Lord
   who will give you your heart’s desire.
(Psalm 37:3-4)

This doesn’t sound right either!
   Do justice – love goodness – walk humbly with God – trust in the Lord – do good – find your delight in the Lord.
   This seems like a very easy business, a bit vague but easy enough to do.
   Ah, that’s the temptation—and misunderstanding—just because something sounds simple and easy doesn’t mean that it is!
   A long or short checklist of specific duties, regulations, or rules is much easier to observe and follow than a short list of complex and challenging ideals.
   When we were children, we learned how a good child should behave. When we were taught about going to confession before communion, we had a clear and easy checklist and self-accusations in mind.
   It’s not good enough for us to behave like a child all our lives. It’s not enough to “go to confession” like you were first taught as a child. “Goodness” and “trust in the Lord” are much more than something you breakdown into a sort of spiritual scorecard!
   Micah’s advice was right on—and still is easier said than done!




20 August 2023

Fool of a Tool

   “When did you arrive?”
   “I flew in yesterday.”
   No, you didn’t exactly fly in yesterday. You traveled on an airplane that arrived yesterday.
   If a bird could talk, it might well say, and exactly say, “I flew in yesterday.”
   If an elevator cab could talk, it might well say, “I carried five people up six floors.” But it didn’t actually. The elevator cab itself was lifted up six floors along with the five people in it.
   A pen in a museum might boast that “I signed the Declaration of Independence.” No, dear pen, you were but the tool in the hand of the person signing.
   A nail might claim credit for holding up the picture on the wall. But, actually it was driven into place with someone with a hammer. It has a function, but it needs to be empowered to function by the one hammering—and, of course, sustained by the wall, too.
   What right does the projector have to boast that “I entertained. I showed the movie”?
   Can the stove claim credit for cooking the dinner? Should the piano pride itself on the music you played on it?
   Is the family doctor the reason for the health of the family? Is the pastor the reason for the saint in his congregation? Should a president claim credit for the well-being of the country?
   One could go on and on with similar examples. The point is that having a role to play, large or small, is not the same as being responsible for the success or failure of the entire enterprise or construction.
   But, to be perfectly honest, that’s not what usually happens. Whether it’s delusion, vanity, outright deceit, or naïve ignorance, usually the leader claims credit for the victories and successes and attributes the failures to other people or things.

   It’s odd, we’re much more likely to say “The devil made me do it!” then “God made me do it”. Which, implicitly, is sort of attributing more power and influence over the course of our lives to the devil!
   Hell, no! That’s not the way our lives are supposed to be lived.
   Should the screw be claiming credit when it was the screwdriver that drove it in—or the screwdriver be claiming credit when it was worker who was wielding it? (Or the worker be claiming credit who really was empowered by God!)
   Shakespeare has Macbeth give a bleak sort of answer to this type of questions, more or less giving credit to none:
   Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player,
   That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
   And then is heard no more. It is a tale,
   Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
   Signifying nothing.”
   David, in Psalm 138, has a better, more true response:
   I thank you, Lord, with all my heart;
      in the presence of the angels to you I sing….
   Though I walk in the midst of dangers,
      you guard my life when my enemies rage.
   You stretch out your hand;
      your right hand saves me.
   The Lord is with me to the end.
      Lord, your mercy endures forever.
      Never forsake the work of your hands!
   Tools can’t claim all credit for what a higher power achieves, using them.
   Don’t be fool and forget that you’re a tool in the hands of God!


19 March 2023

Shout with Joy

Shout with joy to the LORD, all the earth;
   break into song; sing praise.
Sing praise to the LORD with the lyre,
   with the lyre and melodious song. With trumpets and the sound of the horn
   shout with joy to the King, the LORD.

Let the sea and what fills it resound,
   the world and those who dwell there. Let the rivers clap their hands,
   the mountains shout with them for joy,
Before the LORD who comes,
   who comes to govern the earth,
To govern the world with justice
   and the peoples with fairness.
(Psalm 98:4-9)

   In 1719, Isaac Watts, an English Congregational minister and hymn writer, inspired by this psalm, composed “Joy to the World”, the now well-known Christmas Carol.
   C.S. Lewis, speaking of joy, said, “Joy…must be sharply distinguished both from Happiness and Pleasure. Joy…has indeed one characteristic, and one only, in common with them; the fact that anyone who has experienced it will want it again… I doubt whether anyone who has tasted it would ever, if both were in his power, exchange it for all the pleasures in the world.”
   The modern world, with all its innovations, diversions, and pleasures, seems strangely joyless.
   St. Luke tells us in his Gospel story of the nativity of Jesus that the angels told the shepherds, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For today in the city of David a savior has been born for you who is Messiah and Lord…”
   Please note, not good news of great happiness nor good news of great pleasure, but good news of great joy!

   Curiously, joy can coexist with pain, with fatigue, with confusion, with difficulties, with fear, with rejection, even with suffering and with death.
   The angels’ good news of great joy was for all people, not just for Mary and Joseph, for the shepherds, for the wise men (Magi), for the children of Israel, for the future followers of the newly born child.
   It still remains good news of great joy for you, for me, for everyone. But, again, it is good news of great joy, not necessarily of great pleasure, happiness, contentment, ease, or satisfaction.
   Joy is something stronger, deeper, more powerful, more lasting. If you’ve ever tasted it, you know what I mean; if you never have, it’s a word that refers to your deepest hunger, yearning, and life search.
   I’m no expert on joy.
   I’ve had moments of indescribable feelings of joy in my life, but not often. I also have had, in spite of so many things to the contrary, a sort of deep strength and fundamental contentment about my life in spite of its many challenges, failures, and successes. This, too, is a kind of joy.
   The message of the angels is still a powerful pointer for each of our lives. Don’t forget it and don’t fear it. But, it’s not a recipe for happiness and pleasure; it probably won’t resolve or respond to your every question, doubt, fear, or yearning.
   Remember, Jesus was born in a stable, far from home, and when he was still only a few days old his parents had to flee with him to a foreign country (Egypt) to escape his certain death.
   In the midst of life’s worst challenges, you too can have and be strengthened by joy!




5 February 2023

They Did Not Remember

How often they defied him in the wilderness
   and caused him pain in the desert!
Yet again they put God to the test
   and grieved the Holy One of Israel.
They did not remember his deeds
   nor the day he saved them from the foe;
(Psalm 78:40-42)

   Often among the psalms there are short references or even long lists, like this one, of the deeds and powerful interventions of God on behalf of his chosen people—deeds which seem to have been forgotten among the discouragements, dangers, and even despair of later years.
   The psalmist bewails their feeble and forgetful faith; his regret is that they don’t remember the so many interventions of God and his guidance in their lives.
   Be careful! It’s not just a criticism of ancient Israelites—it’s also a criticism of the feeble and forgetful faith of you and me!
   This long, lengthy psalm, and others like it, are powerful reminders of the continued interventions and guidance of God in the history of his people.
   Oh, how we forgetful ones need someone or something like the psalmist to remind us of the so many interventions of God in our own lives.
   What’s wrong with you and me that we so easily forget or fail to recognize the so many extraordinary, unexpected, and powerful acts of God in our lives?
   Oh, Lord, forgive me for not remembering!
   As I write this, certain half-forgotten memories are coming back to me, and I’m ashamed to admit how forgotten I let them become.
   These moments and experiences may have altered the course of our lives and led to significant decisions. How could we forget!
   It’s not some small thing that slips from our memories—it’s the direct actions of God in our lives!

   Martin Luther King used to say, “I’ve been up the mountain!” It’s a reference, of course, to Moses’s experience of God on Mt. Sinai.
   Moses never forgot his experience of God, nor did Dr. King—nor should we. We’re meant to remember such things for the rest of our lives, and it’s not for God to constantly remind us.
   We shouldn’t live in the past, but it’s vital that we remember the past key interventions or manifestations of God in our lives—and we have all had them, even if we failed to recognize them for what they were and are.
   From time to time, we need to stop wrestling with our lives, stop allowing its daily diet of distractions and duties to overwhelm us, and, worst of all, stop forgetting what God has done for us.
   If you wonder whether or what God has done for you that you should remember, for starters, think about some basic things like:
   Why am I?
   How is it that I even exist?
   What’s my purpose?
   How have I survived life’s vicissitudes of live?
   Am I grateful for my survival or entrapped by my past?
   Why am I still here?
   Do I dwell more on God’s blessings in my life or my failures?
   Do I celebrate the saving interventions of God instead of blaming others for, or brooding over, my regrets and failures?
   What can I do to compensate for my imprudent and unsuccessful decisions?
   Do I entrust every day and thing to God?
   No matter what, don’t fail to remember!


15 January 2023

Freedom of Spirit

It’s curious how sometimes a relatively familiar thing suddenly catches your eye and all of a sudden you see it in a new light.
   I was praying the Divine Office, when a concluding Morning prayer struck me like that:

   God of power and mercy.
   Protect us from all harm.
   Give us freedom of spirit
   and health in mind and body
   to do your work on earth.

   Of course, I would ask for health of mind and body to work for God—but to ask for freedom of spirit…? (Were I Hamlet, I might say, “there’s the rub!”)
   To work for God usually involves obeying the commandments, following the laws of the Church, and “doing what you’re told.”
   “Freedom of spirit,” that’s skating on thin ice. It implies that you might be going against tradition to work for God—at least in the sense that you become convinced that God is pushing or pulling you in a new direction!
   “Freedom of spirit” implies that you are seeking to be open to the action of God in your life, no matter how strange or innovative it may be for you.
   To exercise freedom of spirit suggests that you are open to new possibilities, that you are not afraid to be a trail blazer, that you may decide to go “where no one has gone before”.
   Of course, this can be a recipe for disaster, too! We can mistake our desires for God’s action and will! We may be courageously stupid!
   But, isn’t that what freedom of spirit implies? We don’t always get things right, especially at first.
   We learn by doing! We learn by trial and error. We learn by experimenting and experiencing.

   From one point of view the Sacred Scriptures, the collection of writings that we call the Bible, are a record of our collective learning experiences over the long past centuries, a record of successes and failures.
   A God-given freedom of spirit includes freedom to make mistakes, to better understand the will of God, to stumble and bumble to get things right.
   From the point of view of keepers of records, of curators of museums, of defenders of the past, it may seem an invitation to chaos.
   A God-given freedom of spirit includes both the courage to risk innovating and the courage to risk failure—in other words, the courage to learn new things.
   The great prophets of the Bible innovated and often paid a steep price for their innovations. Jesus’s teachings were not always fully understood nor accepted.
   It’s curious, when it comes to scientific research and development, we unhesitatingly applaud the great (and successful) experimenters.
   But, when it comes to religion and belief, it’s the opposite; we hesitate to applaud experimenters.
   Doing the work of God absolutely may include experimenting, trial and error, and mistakes and successes. But, all this is part of the plan of God for human life.
  Progress is not possible without freedom of spirit as well as health in mind and body. And, freedom of spirit is not without failures as well as with successes.
    But, beware blithe spirits. Remember, before asking God for freedom of spirit and health in mind and body, we pray to be protected from all harm!


1 January 2023

Actor vs. Spectator

Is it something like Do or Don’t?
   I mean, some people’s lives are busy with living, loving, helping, working, making, or building and others are busy at waiting, watching, judging, applauding, or criticizing.
   Alas, busy doesn’t necessarily mean good. There are busy people whose lives are all about lying, cheating, hurting, harming, or taking advantage of others.
   There are some people who tend to be imaginative, creative, or unconventional, but lead, while others may be inclined to react, praise, or criticize, but follow.
   Some people say all the right things, but don’t necessarily do all the right things. Vice-versa, other people don’t say much or even seem to get it wrong when they do, but are always doing good, helping others, or trying to do what’s right.
   Similarly, there are people highly active and very busy at doing selfish things even harmful to others, while saying all the right things and professing values that they do not put into practice.
   Which is better? To be totally a spectator of life or to be an actor, a player? And, what of bad actors and bad players—are they better than spectators of life or worse?
   In many ways, our culture is filled with “spectator sports”. When we listen to or watch the “news” on radio or television, we are overwhelmed with scattered facts and an abundance of opinion and judgements.
   What are we, sometimes, but no more than spectators of other spectators?
   We may argue about the merits of political, religious, or other popular leaders and their proposals and deeds, but we rarely move from “spectator” to “actor”—that is, we rarely do much more that argue about the relative merits of what other people do!
   Did you ever wonder how could people once cheer to see wild animals tear apart innocent people in the colosseum? Be careful, we have our modern equivalents!

   Better to have fought and lost than not to have fought at all! Better to have tried and failed than not to have tried at all! Better to have lived and died than not to have lived at all! But, of course, it’s far better to win, succeed, and live.
   It’s curious, but actually no one is a player or even a spectator all by themselves. Player usually presumes a team, others who assist at the moment of play or before it and whose experience is valuable. Spectators, too, are affected and at times guided by others. Think of how many times you were guided by another’s “Look at that!”
   In a way, all this is not so very different from a warning and counsel Jesus gave to his followers and disciples:
   “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.” (Mathew 7:21)
   You may decide to follow Jesus, “no turning back, no turning back,” but it’s not merely a matter of words, of saying, affirming, or advising the “right” things—it’s a matter of doing them.
   Actions speak louder than words!
   Are you afraid to make a choice and implement it because you’re not sure you’ve gotten it just right, because you’re afraid of making a mistake?
   Welcome to the human race! We’re all like that! They may call you a “perfectionist,” but that’s not what human beings are, even though they may aspire to be one.
   Only by the grace and help of God can we approach and do our best to do the right thing, the good thing, the holy thing—and with God’s help we may get close to getting it right. By ourselves, alone, no way!


4 December 2022

Discovering England

I always associate Gilbert K. Chesterton’s great book, “Orthodoxy” with the odd but provocative sort of metaphor he used in its introductory chapter about the “English yachtsman who slightly miscalculated his course and discovered England under the impression that it was a new island in the South Seas.”
   It set the tone for the whole, following work. As Chesterton went on to say about his voyager who sailed and searched all around the world and then discovered the riches of what was right under his nose at home, “How can we contrive to be at once astonished at the world and yet at home in it?”
   The challenge of each of our lives is not really about our being at home in the world, but about our being astonished at it—or, rather, our failure to be astonished at it!
   It’s not that “familiarity breeds contempt” (Chaucer), but more that familiarity breeds indifference, taking things for granted, not marveling at the wonder, greatness, and gift of the world and our lives in it.
   If you’re tempted to puzzle over why the world situation is what it is, why there are so many problems unsolved, why things seem to be going from better to worse, try turning off the (bad) news programs and really looking at yourself in the mirror.
   Why me? What’s the expectation for me? How come there is a me? Where is my life going? How much more of it will I have? How can I pick up the broken pieces of it and continue?
   The challenge for us bedazzled viewers, listeners, readers, travelers is to stop! to stop and think! to stop and thank!
   We don’t want to be remembered as “much ado about nothing”.
   For starters, how come you exist, really? Why were you born? Where is your life going? Are you asleep at the wheel? How much longer and more will it take?

   We all need to remember to look at life, and the course of our own lives, with astonishment—with wonder, gladness, gratitude, and thankfulness.
   How can you look forward to an unknown tomorrow with enthusiasm and joy, if you are blind to what is right under your nose, so to speak, right now?
   That we exist at all is a wonder—and wonderful. That each time we awake to a new day is a gift—and we give thanks to God who created us and ever guides our lives.
   What do we use to measure and evaluate our lives? Possessions? Reputation? Power? Privilege? Beauty? Attractiveness? Health? Care? Concern? Generosity? Sacrifice? Humility? Sincerity? Love?
   The human condition and everlasting temptation is that no matter what we’ve done it’s never enough. Of course! We are not totally self-sufficient. We are creatures, and we must to look to our Creator for understanding, guidance, courage, and strength.
   The man who discovered England really is a good metaphor for all of us.
   All that we ever really need to know is right under our noses. What we seem to be yearning, searching, and journeying to find we’ve always had, even though we forget.
   It’s challenging enough to understand anything well, and our lives have a long history of incomplete understandings and misunderstandings. It’s normal enough, although it’s regrettable.
   Anyway, St. Augustine got it right when he said, “Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee.”


27 March 2022

Studying Life

The (Greek) root meaning of Biology is Life-Study. In other words it is the study of life and living things.
   In high school, I had a great Biology teacher. He taught us to use a microscope to study unicellular organisms.
   Amoebas were fascinating, especially their ability to move about, change their shape, and reproduce by dividing into two!
   Some of us liked the Biology class so much that we persuaded the teacher to offer us an additional elective course in Zoology, one of three traditional major branches of Biology. (The others are Botany and Microbiology.)
   Although Biology means the study of life, studying and learning about life embraces much more than Biology, Zoology, or other related sciences. In the broadest sense, every thinking living person is studying, experiencing, and learning about life all the time.
   We’re usually preoccupied by aspects of life, especially of our own lives—physical, emotional, intellectual, psychological, and spiritual to name a few.
   And, it’s a course of study that never quite ends. No matter how old or experienced we may be, we’re still studying, experiencing, and learning about life!
   Faith and religion are part of learning about life, too. They involve studying, experiencing, and learning about the universe we live in, life itself, living things, their relations, and their creator’s designs.
   Hopefully, you had the good fortune to have had good examples and teachers of faith and religion and to have learned to use religious teachings, theology, and scripture to study the meaning and purpose of life.
   Religion is more than a matter of customs, social standards, rules, and regulations that dictate and even restrict personal behavior.
   Social standards, rules, and regulations are changeable and even arbitrary. A good example of this is the ten commandments.

   For example, Exodus 20:8-10 says, Remember the sabbath day [day of rest]—keep it holy. Six days you may labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath of the Lord your God…
   Devote Jews observe this, but Christians do not. Instead their day of rest is the first day of the week, Sunday. Literally, this is disobeying one of the commandments.
   Our understandings of many things religious always have been changing: what’s right and wrong, good and bad, virtue and sin as well as our understandings of God and the will and designs of God, the purpose and destiny of life, the meaning of scripture, theology, and church teachings.
   Sometimes our changed understandings are misunderstandings; sometimes they are rediscoveries of lost or misunderstood original meanings; sometimes they are new or enhanced understandings, new insights into the will and designs of God.
   If we really are studying life and living things, then we are necessarily experiencing change, for better or for worse, and, hopefully, developing and evolving.
   All this is of the very nature of life. The simplest of living things—for instance, the amoebas, move about, change their shape, and reproduce and multiply.
   How much more complicated and complex are our lives, our understandings of our purpose, and our limited insights into the nature of God and his designs and will.
   To bewail and avoid change, always clinging to what is familiar, comfortable, and secure, is to behave like an immobile caterpillar who is reluctant to break out of its enfolding cocoon, never realizing that its ultimate destiny is to fly!


20 March 2022

Experiencing and Experimenting

It’s important to know how words shift, change, and develop in their meaning as centuries pass. If we understand where they came from and how they have evolved, we can use them better and more accurately. For instance:
   The Latin verb experior basically means to try, test, prove, put to the test. Hence it can mean:
   – to make trial of a person
   – to know by having tried, to know by experience
   – to try to do a thing
   – (as a present participle, experiens) enterprising, venturesome
   – (as a past participle, expertus) tested, tried, approved or with experience, experienced
   It’s at the root of the English word, experience, which can mean:
   – a particular instance of personally encountering or undergoing something
   – the process or fact of personally observing, encountering, or undergoing something
   – the observing, encountering, or undergoing of things generally as they occur in the course of time
   – knowledge or practical wisdom gained from what one has observed, encountered, or undergone
   It’s also at the root of the English word, experiment, which can mean:
   – a test, trial, or tentative procedure; an act or operation for the purpose of discovering something unknown or of testing a principle, supposition, etc.
   – the conducting of such operations
   – (as a verb) to try or test, especially in order to discover or prove something

   Generally, the methodology of science includes almost all these meanings, since it involves observing, researching, theorizing, testing, analyzing, and concluding.

   Generally, the methodology of religion includes some of the meanings associated with experience, but hardly at all those associated with experiment.
   In scientific methodology, experiments are necessary to verify the validity and truthfulness of a theory. Whether the experiment succeeds or fails, it has value in the learning process.
   However, in religious methodology, a failed experiment is not usually appreciated as a value in the learning process. Usually it is identified as a moral defect, a negative judgement of the experimenter, and as a violation of accepted rules and regulations.
   Human nature being what it is, most people have grown and developed, instinctively using a methodology that is more “scientific”. In other words, we’ve learned by trial and error.
   We either try and err ourselves or we trust the shared conclusions of others who have tried and erred before us.
   The very essence of our learning process involves making mistakes.
   Actually the trial and error methodology works in religious matters as well. There, too, we learn by trying and erring ourselves or trusting the shared conclusions of others who have tried and erred before us.
   However, in religious affairs often the learning process is thwarted since our trying and erring may be censored and identified as evil and sinful. The expectation usually is that we should totally and exclusively trust and be guided by the wisdom of others who have gone before us.
   Hopefully, our “Last Judgement” won’t confuse our in-good-faith erring with our stubbornly repeating failed experiments!


13 March 2022

Entropy and the Evolving Kingdom of God

Entropy originally referred to the measure in thermodynamics of how much energy is not available to do work—a sort of energy or heat loss. In a broader sense, almost metaphorically, it is about social decline and degeneration.
  It’s hard to apply this concept to living things, since in biology an almost opposite point of view dominates: evolution—that is, that living things are constantly becoming ever more complex and diverse.
   Fr. Teilhard de Chardin, SJ, scientist and theologian, made a brilliant synthesis of the findings and concepts of science and the developing insights of biblical studies and theology.
   He knitted together cosmology, biology, anthropology, and faith into a grand evolutionary vision starting with origin of the universe, through the creation of life, the emergence of humanity, divine revelations, Christ, and the contemporary world, culminating in a final union of all through Christ in God.
   Especially in Jewish, Christian, and Muslim traditions, teachings, and contemporary faith there is a radical optimism about the universe we live in and the direction of its ongoing development.
   This is a realistic optimism, It realizes that there is a certain “entropy” in our lives, a certain sinking to the least common denominator, a kind of decline and loss. Our old words about it were error, failure, disobedience, and sin.
   But, fundamentally, it is an optimism, a point of view that sees each person, all human societies, all life, all creation as essentially good and constantly growing, progressing, developing, and evolving—in spite of occasional “entropic” deviations.
   In the words of St. Augustine, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.”
   That’s a great way of describing evolution!

   Okay, we’re incorrigibly optimistic, confident about evolutionary development, and yearning for an ultimate culminating future for each and all of us.
   What do we call it? The kingdom of God? The Omega Point? The Cosmic Christ? The After-Life? Heaven? Paradise” A Better Life?
   How do we describe it? A place of everlasting happiness? joy? pleasure? wealth? fulfillment? reunion with others? union with God?
   Where is it? No, it’s not up since the world’s not flat. No, it’s not down, either. It’s not a place in the usual use of the word.
   What do we really know about it? The only one who briefly returned to tell us of it and show us the way there was Jesus.
   Actually, he didn’t give us much detailed information at all, but he was pretty clear about directions to get there. He didn’t give us any road maps but he did propose a pattern of life that leads there.
   “Thy will be done…” That’s a sort of title for the detailed lifestyle that Jesus witnessed to and proposed to us.
   It’s very consonant with a vision of a developing and evolving universe, for it’s a vision of each of us as developing and evolving persons.
   St. John said it beautifully (1 John 3:1-2):

   See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.




6 March 2022