Tuesday of the Fifth Week of Lent
In the summer of 2002, my older sister and I had the privilege to go on pilgrimage with our youth group to Toronto for World Youth Day. This once in a lifetime experience, the highlight of which was attending a talk by the now Saint, Pope John Paul II, was truly life changing. It was here that my sister first received her call to the religious life. She has since then followed this call and is a Dominican Sister of the Sisters of Saint Cecilia.
There is something refreshing about spending time with my sister and her fellow Dominican sisters. They possess a contentedness that I have not been able to achieve. When I am with them, I am struck by the peace and joy they bring to their work, their play, their prayer and their lives.
I often reflect on how they can live with such peace and ponder why this peaceful nature feels so unattainable for me. I know the obvious answers of I work full time and have a husband and 4 kids and have to worry about bills, etc. but the peace I see in them runs deeper. I have met lay people, with work and families, who possess this same peace. Today’s gospel finally gave me the words to express what I think may be standing in my way. We hear Jesus say to the Pharisees today, "You belong to what is below, I belong to what is above. You belong to this world, but I do not belong to this world.”
I think I may be more like a Pharisee than I care to admit. I worry about the rules and the expectations of our earthly constructs and lose sight of the bigger picture. I often have a hard time remembering that this world that we live in is not our final destination. We are to live in this world but not be of this world. We have to live and work and function within this human life, while keeping our thoughts focused on what is above, focused on what is yet to come. I once heard it said that this life is merely the overture for the most beautiful symphony ever played. Our time on this Earth is merely the beginning, the prelude to a lifetime in paradise with our Creator.
BUT living amid our daily challenges and struggles – our relationships, our work, our family challenges, daily obligations and bills to pay, it is easy to forget that we are living for something greater. It easy to lose sight of our destination - a kingdom yet to come. And yet, it is precisely in those moments, those daily mundane occurrences, that we are called to remember who and whose we are - a resurrection people, on our journey home.
This Sunday we sang the hymn, Jerusalem My Destiny. It is a beautiful and inspiring song. In it we sing, “this journey is our destiny. Let no one walk alone. The journey makes us one.” We belong to what is above and must stay focused on the kingdom yet to come, BUT we must do that while journeying together in this world. Imagine a world in which we are all more concerned with getting one another to heaven than with getting others to follow our rules. Imagine a world where we are more concerned with being just than with being right. Imagine a world in which our first instinct is to help and raise one another up rather than compete and tear one another down. Imagine if you can, a world in which we make choices based on what is good for the other rather than what is good for me. When we remember that our time on this earth is a mere moment in the timeline of eternity, I think we can embrace sacrifice and suffering in a more beautiful way.
I return to my sister and her congregation and wonder – what makes that peace possible for them? I believe the answer is revealed in the practice they quite literally center their lives around – daily prayer. May we each build a life centered around prayer, prayer that keeps us focused on heaven while journeying together on this Earth. Amen.
-AJ Grimm