Life is Like a River

WHAT EXCUSE WILL WE GIVE TO GOD IF WE DO NOT DO HIS WILL?

Often, a young person lets his life life flows along like a river – following the same path traced by so many others that have gone before him, without ever stopping to think about whether that is the right direction. The child becomes a teenager and starts thinking about the future, what he wants to study, what job he wants to have; he goes to school, university, work, and after having a certain stability he thinks about joining his life with someone else and starting a family; if all goes well, they grow old together; his children and grandchildren grow up; and thus ends his brief existence. But when did he stop and reflect on God’s plan? When do we? Why have we been born at this precise moment in history? Why were we created? What does God expect from each of us? One of our founder’s meditations on the first Luminous Mystery explains that the current of the river could be symbolic of the patterns and reasonings of the world, which all tend to go in the same direction (cf. 1Pet 4:4). It is necessary to leave this river of worldly patterns so that we can conform ourselves more and more to Christ and understand what the Lord wants for us.

It is true that it is not always easy to make this move and be different from others...but if we live only to die, what meaning will our existence have? If we simply let ourselves be carried away without reflecting on the mission that God has for each one of us, what will we take with us when we die? And above all, what excuse could we give to God for not doing His will?

Life doesn’t stop, and time doesn’t go back. What if today was the last day of our lives?

--Sr. CMC