Based on a talk Mark gave at Holy Spirit Parish,
Kelowna, BC, January 7, 2000
Look at your
calendar. Can you believe how time flies? It's the year 2000,
and what do you figure -- time slips by, just like it did last
millennium.
And here is the concern: if we aren't careful,
this Jubilee Year will pass us by, and we may miss out on the
wonderful graces God is extending to each of us. The question
then, is how to receive these graces. While God may pour them
out in very supernatural ways this year, I suspect they'll be
made available to us through the ordinary course of our daily
lives. To be more precise, they will be found in one place alone:
the present moment.
I define the present moment as "the only
point where reality exists." I say this because too many
of us spend most of our time living in the past, which no longer
exists; or we live in the future, which hasn't happened yet.
To live in the future or the past, is to live in an illusion.
To build a house on sand is unwise; building our lives on illusions
is no more stable. Reality is right here, right now. It is the
footing on which the present moment stands.
A year ago at a New Year's Eve celebration,
my wife and I were sitting at a table with friends, laughing
and enjoying the celebrations, when suddenly a man at the table
across from us slumped off his chair onto the floor. Gone, just
like that. Dead. Kaput.
Thirty minutes later, the guy who attempted
CPR on this poor fellow was lifting a child into the air to pop
balloons hanging over the dance floor. The contrast -- the frailty
of life -- was startling. Any one of us could die in a second.
That's why it is senseless to be anxious about anything. Anything.
We may be gone in the next second!
Now, most of us have heard Jesus' words "do
not worry", but how few of us listen to Him! If we only
listened, 90% of our health problems would probably disappear!
Listen again to his words, "Can any of you by worrying
add a moment to your life-span? If even the smallest things are
beyond your control, why are you anxious about the rest?"
Everything that happens to us in life comes from the hand of
God or is allowed by Him. Therefore, everything we need to deal
with the situation will be in his other hand. And his other hand
is extended only in the present moment. To find this hand,
we have to drop what's in our hands -- that is, control
-- so we can take his.
Think of a merry-go-round, the kind you played
on as a child. I can remember getting that thing going really
fast -- so fast I could barely hang on. But I remember that the
closer I came to the middle of the merry-go- round, the easier
it was to hang on. In fact, if I sat at the middle on the hub,
I was barely moving at all.
The present moment is like the center of the
merry-go-
round. It is the place of stillness where one can rest, even
though life is raging all around. The moment we begin to live
in the past or the future, we leave the center and are pulled
to the outside where suddenly great energy is demanded of us
to "hang on," so to speak. The more we give ourselves
over to imagination, living and grieving over the past, or worrying
and sweating about the future, the more were are likely to be
tossed off the merry-go-round of life. Nervous breakdowns, temper
flare-ups, drinking bouts, indulging in sex or food and so on
-- these become ways in which we try to cope with the nausea
of worry consuming us. And these are over the big issues.
Jesus tells us even "the smallest things are beyond our
control." We should worry then about nothing. Nothing.
We can do so by entering into the present
moment and simply living in it, doing what the moment demands
of us, and letting go of the rest. But we need to become aware
of the present moment (funny how many of us aren't). Try this
exercise asking God to teach you to live in the moment:
Simply stop whatever you're doing and take
stock of everything around you. Listen to yourself breathe. Listen
to the sounds of life all around you, from the jackhammer outside
your window, to the fax machine purring, or the children playing
near by. Become aware that you are alive, a living creature.
Recognize you are helpless to alter the future -- that the only
thing in your dominion now is the present moment. Listen in silence.
If your thoughts are noisy, then tell God about it. The idea
here is to live in the moment with God, in reality. As soon as
you start to worry and think into the future -- out of reality
-- stop, and listen again to your presence and life around you.
Look at your surroundings. This is where you are, now. This is
where God is, now. If you are tempted to worry again, imagine
that five seconds from now, you are going to slump over dead
as a doorknob in your chair, and everything you are fretting
about will vanish. As the Russian proverb goes, 'If you do not
die first, you will have time to do it. If you die before it
is done, you don't need to do it.'
Look at the merry-go-round again. It revolves
around an axis which is mounted to the ground. This is the shaft
of eternity which passes through the present moment. It is the
Kingdom of God Jesus commands us to seek first: "...do not
worry anymore... Instead seek his kingdom and [all your needs]
will be given you besides. Do not be afraid any longer, little
flock, for your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom."
Where is the Kingdom that God wants to give
us? Intersecting with the present moment. But you won't receive
the Kingdom if you don't show up! If you are living somewhere
else than where you are, how can you receive what God is giving?
Each and every moment is pregnant with God;
pregnant with the graces of this Jubilee Year. If we live in
the moment, aware of God's presence, then our hearts will become
the cradle of great Peace and Joy. We will experience the Kingdom
of God within and begin to realize that the present moment is
the only moment in which we really live.
--Mark Mallett
