Thursday, May 31, 2018

"I Only Looked Away for a Second"

When Jesus created the world, He intentionally made it parabolic. What does "parabolic" mean? It means that He made it so that the world is filled with stories and images that relate to each other, and (most especially) to the spiritual realm. This applies most particularly (of course) to God Himself. This is important, not just for our personal enjoyment, but also because we cannot see the spiritual realm with our physical eyes; we only see the effects of it. This is the reason why Jesus' parables in the gospels are so helpful to understand the Kingdom of God: Jesus intended the world to be like that. How do I know this to be a fact? One simple verse of the Bible: "Ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made" (Romans 1:20). God has always wanted to show Himself in Creation.

Psalm 19:1-4 speaks similarly:
The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night declares knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words; their voice is not heard; yet their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.
It says that even without any speech, the "words" of Creation go out to tell us about God. In other words, the entire universe is "parabolic". This is one of the reasons that I use illustrations at the beginning of my homilies: it is how God intended for us to see the world; interconnected and interrelated.

Most people are unaware of the many and various parallels that exist in our daily lives. One that I have seen and spoken of quite often came to my attention again recently. How you drive reveals much about how you live. In the past I have only referred to the attitude we have when driving (polite, rude, safe, dangerous, etc). In driving between my three parishes lately (and I drive, on average, about 300 miles a week), I have seen numerous people driving "distractedly"; far more than I ever used to see. It is obvious sometimes; you can look ahead down the road and see a vehicle slowing veering into your lane, then it jumps back to its own lane, then it veers again, etc. The driver is more than likely looking at something on a cell phone and not paying attention to the road. I have seen it many times, and it has been confirmed every time when the vehicle gets closer and passes by -- there is the driver staring down at a rectangular object in his right hand and not looking at the road (if this is you, may I kindly say: stop it now before you die!).

The devil loves it when he can make people become so attached to a piece of technology that they are willing to endanger their own lives, and the lives of others. In the same way, the evil one wants each of us to live our spiritual lives distracted from what really matters. There are many ways that he can do this, and for each of us it will likely be a bit different than for others. If he can send us a problem in our lives that we focus on to the exclusion of more important issues (like prayer and personal devotions), then he has successfully gotten us to "take our eyes off the road".

Those who are bound up in regret and disappointment; those who are living in the past; those who are immersed in lust; those who are spending their time worrying about the future; each of these people has been "pulled away" by things that prevent us from growing in our faith. If you do not spend time each day in prayer, then you can be sure that you have gotten distracted from what really matters (especially if the devil has convinced you of the pitiful lie that, "you don't have time to pray").

Being addicted to anything is wrong, for nothing other than Christ should control us (and He never forces Himself upon us compulsively like an addiction). Today, however, people are addicted to distraction itself. It is as though they are desperately searching for distractions. The very word "distract" comes from a Latin root that means "to draw apart" or "to pull away". If our lives have no meaning and we are wallowing in misery, then we will look for things to "draw us away" from life and cause us distraction in the same way that a drunkard seeks the alcohol to help him forget.

Is this how we are going through life? Are we immersed in distractions and never connecting with reality? Is that what we really want for ourselves? Many people assume that distractions are good, and that each person just needs to choose his favorite distraction. What about focusing on reality? What about paying attention to those "real" things that actually matter; like the things of God? We have become obsessed with wanting our "free time" and assuming that we have a right to play. When entertainment becomes an end in itself, we are bound to become obsessed with it, and then we end up living in that fantasy world of distraction. This always makes it harder to leave fantasy and enter into the reality of heavenly things.

I am not just speaking about avoiding distraction while driving, or while in the Mass. I am speaking about living with distracted hearts; hearts that are always seeking for something "more fun" than what is going on. Things will eventually come full circle and people will see the futility of such living. In the meantime, we need to live with focus, with resolve, and with determination to stay on the path. All it takes is one time to take our eyes "off the road" and we end up crashing. When our soul crashes it takes a lot longer to heal from it than it does when we crash physically. Let us remain attentive to our spiritual duties, never allowing the evil one to pull us away.