September 10, 2022

When we were growing up, my brother and I were outstanding backyard football players.  We could throw the deep ball, kick field goals, run through any defense, return punts, block linemen, and tackle anybody who came our way.  Yet, when we entered high school and tried to play football with twenty pounds of equipment on our one hundred pound bodies, we lost both our agility and our passion for the game.  I wonder if this is an analogy for our spiritual lives, that is, when we are young and carefree our relationship with God is so natural,  but as we grow older and get weighed down by religious, intellectual and emotional baggage, we find it increasingly difficult to operate as spiritual people.  Perhaps we have forgotten what it is like to live by the Spirit and have settled for lukewarmness, or maybe we’re just stuck with no end in sight.  Whatever the case may be, we will always have the choice, like Jesus, to put out our hands and be led to new places (Jn 21:18), and it is this willingness to walk in the direction of the living God, into open spaces (Ps 119:45) and new horizons, that allows our burdens to be scraped away and our hearts realigned to the truth of things.  My brother and I eventually found the soccer and rugby pitches – what new fields are awaiting you (Mt 13:44)?  Ave Crux, Spes Unica.