Nothing is Forever

"Joe, things are not looking good, we are really….." was the frequent favorite expression of a fellow Irishman.  As I look back on those not so good and not so great days I can now see in them the place where for me, the rubber really began to really hit the road.  I was forced to grow up and live life on life’s terms.  Not in my illusions was I allowed to dwell, Thank You God, I was forced to enter a new way of acting so I could leave behind my old way of thinking, and journey toward new horizons, by a way I had not a clue about.  In that fear-full place of my encounter with deep realities I was blasted into a place I would never have chosen to be my temporary dwelling place. Wherever we are at, it is always temporary. On our spiritual journey there is "no lasting city " We are always "moving on."  Even our most glorious happy moments, and our deepest darkest encounters with reality were all passing moments. Looking back some of the latter moments were really slow moving.  That slow movement eventually led to ever so slow growth in my daily prayer life. That has changed over time.  I can no longer take it one day at a time, I only can survive and sometimes life, one moment at a time.  Each moment is now a sacramental reality.  It Is where I am confronted with the Paschal Mystery, with all of its  slow ego shattering crucifixions.  These pain-full, fear-full, moments are ALWAYS leading to an ever new enlivening, freeing erupting, bubbling up from  our depths. This is the threshold  to a new and more awe-filled, wonder-filled, exciting life.  Suffering and death are not the end but ever new thresholds over which we have to pass again and again.  We enter our Gethsemane and Calvary realities so as to be led into "new heavens and new earths" way beyond our wildest dreams.  Our Gracious Lover’s love is way beyond our understanding.  We are constantly being surprised.