IT’S good if we
can often revisit these words of St. Paul:
“It is written, ‘Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor
have entered
into the heart of man the things which God has prepared
for those who
love Him.’” (1 Cor 2,9)
to be stranded and trapped in our own human and worldly
ideas of
heaven and everything that we can expect in
heaven—endless bliss, joy,
peace, ultimate self-fulfilment and perfection when we
see God face to
face, as mentioned in St. John’s first letter: “We know
that when
Christ appears, we will be like Him, for we will see Him
as He is.”
(3,2)
We need to
often remind ourselves of these words of St.
Paul and St. John. We are now in a world where heaven is
either
completely ignored or is replaced by our own idea of what
it is or
what it is supposed to be.
cannot help but observe many people in all stages and
forms of
boredom, either struggling against it or simply
succumbing to it. What
could have been a wonderful moment to meditate on heaven
and other
truths of our faith was simply overtaken by ennui and
efforts to deal
with it.
There were
those who tried to sleep. But since they could
not sleep because of the noise, they tried to fight
sleepiness by
watching a movie on their gadget or on the screen on
board. I noticed
that the movie on the screen was all action-packed with a
plot that
was completely ridiculous. But the movie caught their
attention, at
least for a while.
I felt that the
movie was entirely calculated to tease and
grab the sensual and emotional attention of the people. I
felt that it
was meant to keep the passengers in that level of life.
That was when
I thought that what was shown was meant to compete with
heaven, or
with some spiritual considerations which could have been
done at that
moment when hardly anything else could be done.
Of course, the
problem, I imagine, is that people are not
trained to pray, to meditate or to reflect on spiritual
and religious
matters. When they are separated from their usual work
and routine, as
when they are forced to sit out a two-hour boat trip,
they become
likely victims of boredom.
A saving
feature was that I saw some old women holding on
to their rosary beads, clearly praying and making signs
of the cross.
Bless them. We are not entirely a hopeless case yet. And
yes, before
the trip, some prayers were made in the public system,
though it
sounded more formalistic than real. Still, the fact
remains that many
do not know how to pray, or to make good use of their
time.
We can argue,
of course, that a boat trip is not a good
occasion to do prayer. There is a lot of noise, a lot of
movement, a
lot of distractions. But these are challenges we have to
learn to
tackle. Truth is prayer should be a constant thing with
us, whether we
are in a very solemn, sacred place or in the hustle and
bustle of our
daily life.
And we should
know what should attract us most. It should
be heaven. It should be God and how we can be with him.
But, as it is,
God and heaven are not the priority at all. God is only
considered in
some special or extraordinary moments, like when there is
some danger
of death or some calamity, etc.
We should try
our best that nothing should compete with
God and with heaven at all times!
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