Always in transit
That's our human condition here on earth. We are always in transit because we actually do not have a permanent dwelling here in this world. "For here we do not have an enduring city," the Letter to the Hebrews says, "but we are looking for the city that is to come." (13,14)
Yes, here in this earthly life of ours, we are in some kind of journey. In fact, in spiritual language, we are said to be in a pilgrimage to our sacred destination, that is, to be in heaven, our true home from where we actually came, because we all came from God, and to where we ought to go.
We should always keep this truth in mind so we don't get deluded into thinking that we can stay here in this world in definitely or that after our death, there actually is nothing to hope for. At best, what we can have in this world is just a so journ, a temporary stay. But nonetheless, it is a crucial stay, because how we fare in our earthly so journ determines how we will fare in our eternal destination.
So, the important thing to do is to be discerning as to what is truly essential in our life here on earth so as not to be unduly entangled with the incidentals. In the gospel, we are somehow given a clue as to what is truly essential.
It's in that episode of Christ's visit to the sisters Martha and Mary with their brother Lazarus. There Christ clarified to Martha who was busy doing the many minute details of hospitality, that there only is one thing necessary, and that was what Mary was doing, and it would not be taken away from her.
And that "one thing necessary" is to be as close to Christ as much as possible, that is, through prayer, which was what Mary was doing. All other things are to be subordinated to this "one thing necessary."
Christ did not say that one should not work and that one should simply pray. No. What he means is that everything we do should somehow be an act of prayer, of worshipping and thanking God, and of expiating for our sin and of asking favors. There should be no dichotomy between prayer and everything else in our life. Everything somehow has to be turned into prayer.
Even when we find ourselves in error and in sin, we should be quick to turn that situation into an occasion of prayer precisely by asking God for forgiveness. God will always forgive us. There is actually nothing in our life that cannot be forgiven by God and that cannot be turned into an occasion to pray.
We have to be wary when we get so attached or distracted by our worldly affairs, especially when we happen to enjoy certain successes, that we fail to relate ourselves to God through prayer. Christ himself said: "What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world, but loses his own soul?" (Mk 8,36)
Our earthly sojourn should always be marked by vigilance and by readiness to move forward. And that's simply because our human condition here is marked by dangers and also by a need to move toward a certain destination.
This is what loving is all about, the loving that is a reflection and participation of the love of God, the source, pattern, end and energy of true love. It's because of this love that we somehow are always in transit, because we would be constantly asked to go out of own selves in order to reach out to others and also to look for new frontiers in our own spiritual and apostolic life.
We should be wary of the tendency to get stuck with our own selves and with our own world. We are meant to think always of God and of others. This is the proper formula for our own development. To the extent that we are always thinking of God and of others, finding ways to love and serve them, we achieve our own fulfillment. That's when we would be on our way to our human and Christian maturity and perfection.
To be persons for God and for others is written in our nature. The structure and features of our life, especially our intelligence and will, all demand that we actually need to get out of our own selves,otherwise we get short-circuited. This is what a person is. He is always mindful and thoughtful of God and of others.
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