GOD’S CHILDREN — NOW

SABBATH

I sometimes forget things that transpired only recently. They say that when we get older, our short-term memory falters. But there are certain things that took place decades ago that one does not forget. The older one gets, the more his long-term memory shines.        In my storehouse of long-term memories, one particular teaching remains. The present, we were told, is a very good guarantee of the future. Who one is right now would most likely be who one will be in the future. Even Shakespeare said as much: “The child is father to the man.” A child who grows with love learns to be a loving adult, while a child who grows up with criticism and blame learns to be a blaming, finger-pointing adult.It is good to start well. While the same famous English bard once said, “All’s well that ends well,” I would like to add that “all’s probably well that begins well.”        Let us begin with something good. We live in grace. We bask in the glow of God’s love. We belong to God. But all this is neither in the remote past nor in the distant future. All this is now. “We are God’s children now.”        There are people who always live in the past. They can’t let go of what has gone before. Even their profile photos on Facebook are traces of a bygone era. But there are people, too, who live too much in the future. They worry themselves sick over what is possible and what is not yet. The former needs to mourn and let go of what is past. The latter needs to wake up and smell the flowers, and enjoy what is here and now. The past, we all know, is something we cannot change. The future is something we all can shape, according to our desires, in keeping with God’s desires for us all.          Today, John the Evangelist tells us not to belabor something distant, but to focus on what we already have: “We are God’s children now. What we shall be has not yet been revealed.” Accepting and living up to this truth — now — is the guarantee we all are looking for.  Fr. Chito Dimaranan, SDB REFLECTION QUESTIONS: What makes you hesitant to let go of the past? What makes you fear what the future might bring? Help me live in the now, Lord, and let me live it with joy and with gratefulness to You. St. Genevieve, pray for us.