As I age even more I find the chasm between the spiritual life (or at least the perception of it) and that of the realities of our living getting wider and wider, rather than closer as the end of our temporal lives comes closer.
As Christians, our avowals to the strict precepts of our Leader, Jesus Christ, get more and more intense, yet we find the daily living of our lives instead veering away more and more from those “hard sayings”.
In no mean terms, Christ has repeatedly intoned that to be like him we must deny ourselves, follow him, and take up our daily crosses. That life is one battle after another, from one cross to another which at times weigh heavier, till our last dying breath. That there is no respite for us in these temporal settings.
The only consolation afforded us mortals has been His words that doing all these, He will send us grace, as a “foretaste” of the eternal kingdom He promised us afterwards. To illustrate this, consider being under extreme thirst from denial of water for many days, and we get a drop of water in our tongues, just enough to experience the thought of relief that water can bring. That is to me what foretaste is.
And yet how far have we strayed from these stringent strictures? We still even in our mellow ages, crave for temporal pleasures brought on by our daily pursuits. The pleasurable trips that we take or planned to take.
The fine rich food we pine for and/or savor. The idle tasks and camaraderie we thirst for among our friends and relations, and loved ones.
In other words, our pursuits still are essentially those that provide us with the fleeting pleasures of earth, rather than the lasting treasures that are supposed to be laid for eternity.
And which can come only with our daily taking of our crosses.
