Man is often not content with the simple and sets out in search of the elaborate, the complex, the seemingly more beautiful, and before he knows it, he is trapped in a maze of mirrors that project distorted reflections and from which he is unable to free himself.
Newsdesk (06/12/2023 18:10, Gaudium Press) The practice of obedience is one of the most difficult virtues to fulfil. Firstly, because in order to obey, we need to pay attention to the instructions we receive, and even write them down if we have difficulty memorising them. Next, we need to trust the person giving us these instructions and, finally, we need to have the humility and courage to give up our own will.
If we take a poll asking people if they want to go to Heaven, it’s likely that 100 per cent of them will answer yes, even those who don’t even believe in the existence of Heaven, because it’s inherent in human beings to desire reward and to dream of a happy ending.
So what causes so many of us to lose our way? How many can answer truthfully: “My life is very simple, my path is straight and I am happy?” Few, very few.
Most of us are caught up in problems that seem bigger, more complex and more numerous than the stars in the sky. We are faced with so many situations that we become incredulous. Not disbelief in the sense of not believing in God, but disbelief at how a person can find themselves in certain situations.
How many women live in abusive relationships, outside of marriage, with men who mistreat them, exploit them, cheat on them, beat them? Yet they remain there, faithful to those relationships that are outside of God’s law, dangerous and without a future.
There are young people who follow false friends who drag them into perdition. They see what is happening, they look around and realise that the place they are entering is surrounded on all sides by abysses. Yet they remain there until they are swallowed up by those abysses.
How many girls and boys go to good schools, go to college, have good families, a healthy environment at home, but they keep sinking, sinking and the next thing they know, they are living on the streets, eating rubbish and drinking water from the drain. They’re begging, they’re stealing, they’re prostituting themselves, hooked on drugs, in a meaningless life with no solution.
Little domestic tyrants
What can we say about parents who spoil their children and fail to give them any correction and so end up dominated by little domestic tyrants who decide on everything in the home and don’t allow their parents any peace?
To ease their consciences a little and to justify their total lack of authority over these rebels, these parents tend to accept diagnoses with other titles to explain away their children’s loss of control and lack of education.
Loss of financial control and health
What are we to make of so many people in debt, without money, desperate? Not because they have had an emergency that has led them to extraordinary but necessary spending, but almost always because of a simple lack of control, the harmful habit of spending more than they earn and using money before they receive it, getting into debts that become snowballs.
They go to church and, with great difficulty, put a coin in the offering bag, but then spend hundreds and thousands of dollars, deceived by offers of lucrative and immediate deals, not being able to resist the siren song…
Unless you’re the heir to a great fortune or have won the lottery, there are no magic formulas for getting rich quick (apart from the act of selling them!). But going bankrupt, losing what you have and becoming very poor can happen very quickly.
There are people with serious health problems because they eat badly, sleep little, don’t exercise and abuse harmful substances. People who should be in good health, but who are enduring painful illnesses that are perfectly avoidable, simply because they can’t take control of their habits and actions.
Shortcuts and detours
And now, let us enter the spiritual field. How many detours there are in this area! Sometimes, when you analyse a person’s life, you can clearly see a narrow but straight, clear and direct path, yet they are deep in the forest, injuring themselves on clumps of thorns, sinking into swamps and marshes or are often lost on the top of steep rocky mountains, where there is nothing and not even visible trails to return to.
In our lives, there is only one path that should be travelled by everyone, but it is travelled by very few. Jesus showed us this when He said that the road that leads to Heaven is narrow, while the one that leads to perdition is wide. When He said it was narrow, He did not mention that it could also be difficult, dark, full of traps and obstacles, potholes, broken bridges and impassable stretches.
However, it is a path to be travelled inch by inch, league by league. It is a path that leads in the right direction, a path on which angels lead us, and on which holy souls have left their footprints to serve as direction markers.
Not carrying too much weight and things that are superfluous
And how do we walk this path? It is to get up in the morning, give thanks for the gift of life, for another day, for family, for work, for health, for food, for opportunities, for challenges; not to procrastinate, but to unravel the beads of the Rosary, like someone throwing rose petals on their own steps and moving forward.
For this journey, let us use the teachings of Sacred Scripture and the word of God as our compass. Let us not carry too much weight or superfluous things in our luggage. Let us admire the birds that sing in the branches of the trees and the butterflies that land on the flowers that line certain stretches of the path, but let us not chase after them, let us not go into the woods chasing illusions. Let us always have an extra piece of bread to share with those who are hungry.
Your destination is Heaven
It is a path that everyone will travel at their own pace, without having to do it alone, because there will always be company: human company and divine company. And because it is a straight path, we will never lack direction.
One thing that shouldn’t be done, but which happens often, is the pernicious habit of taking shortcuts: either because you think the road is too long and too monotonous, or because you are bothered by the silence; because you are afraid it will get even narrower, and you want to find a wider road or venture into the unknown. Or because you want to get there faster or believe that by taking certain shortcuts you can guarantee that you’ll stay here longer.
Well, it doesn’t matter how many adventures and misadventures you’ve been on, how many detours and shortcuts you’ve taken, how many wrong paths you’ve travelled. Your destination is Heaven and, as the old saying goes, all roads lead to Rome, but only one leads to Heaven.
It’s a straight, narrow, simple and very illuminated path. This road has a name and its name is Jesus. He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. Apart from Him, there is absolutely no way to reach your destination. You can try, but you’ll only succeed when you surrender to this sublime, profound and immeasurable love. He is the way, the path and the destination and, apart from Him, there is only disappointment, weeping and gnashing of teeth.
By Afonso Pessoa
