June 4, 2022

There once was a man who experienced a reawakening of his religious faith.  He quit his job and traveled thousands of miles to seek spiritual counsel from a famous rabbi.  When he arrived at the rabbi’s apartment, he knocked on the door, and the rabbi answered, asking him, “Who are you?”  The man replied, “I am a spiritual seeker who has come to learn about God.”  He then looked inside the apartment and noticed how few things this famous rabbi had:  a desk, a chair, a bed, a dresser.  So the man said, “Where’s all of your stuff?”  The rabbi looked at the man’s suitcase and retorted, “Where’s all of your stuff?”  The man said, “I’m just passing through.”  The rabbi replied, “So am I.”  As disciples of Jesus, we have received a very direct vision of the meaning of life, so direct, in fact, that most of our minds cannot bear it.  Indeed, instead of living soberly in the transitoriness of this life, as we await the trial of death, we find all sorts of ways to bury our anxieties about existence so that they can hardly be felt.  Let us therefore take the words of our Lord to heart, “Do not worry about tomorrow” (Mt 6:34), and in doing so, learn how to relinquish our stuff and partner with the living God, which is nothing less than a rehearsal for eternal life.   Ave Crux, Spes Unica.