Journey's End
25/August/2007 Filed in:
JottingsWe all have a tendency to indulge in "what ifs" and "if onlys". At one level, that is a perfectly natural expression of our hopes and fears. When we are young, or at least young in heart, our dreams can inspire and shape our whole lives. But the "what ifs" and "if onlys" can be a way of not really facing up to things. How many have tried to bargain with God for the life of a loved one or failed to do something because "the native hue of resolution/ Is sicklied over with the pale cast of thought"? Like the Fourth Wise Man, who journeyed endlessly in search of his new-born Lord and failed, as he thought, to find him, though he met him often enough on his travels, we can be so concentrated on the journey's end that we do not recognize the importance of the journey itself. As Boethius remarked long ago, God is the journey and the journey's end. We must find him here as well as hereafter.