If you’ve ever run a race before, you know that it’s a whole lot easier when you can actually see the finish line. As the announcer exclaims, “And down the stretch they come!”, the jockeys, desperate for victory, crouch low and begin beating their galloping steeds. In track and field, the home stretch is the moment that the half-miler turns on the boosters. Even while jogging, when we imagine getting to the parking lot and slaking our thirst, we suddenly become world class sprinters or cheetahs traversing the savanna. It is the same in the spiritual life, but because the “end” (Jn 19:30) is eternal, infinite and immense, it cannot be grasped by the senses like the checkered flag or represented in our imaginations like the victory tape. Instead, we must know it by negation; that is, we must allow our minds to grow still and dark, appreciating that the essence of our ultimate goal is not like anything we have ever experienced in this life. This via negativa becomes the trusting and patient way by which we are gradually drawn — through no effort of our own — not just across some cosmic finish line, but, in fact, into communion with the “end,” himself (Rev 22:13), who has been loving us to victory all along. Ave Crux, Spes Unica.
October 25, 2025
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