Would it have led you into a quagmire?
My wife and I were heading back after completing paperwork at the Sub-Registrar office located in Varthur, Bangalore. We usually take the route Google Maps directs us to, even though we may prefer another route that we have travelled before. There is security in familiarity. On our way to the Sub-Registrar, we followed Google Maps instructions. All was good. We committed the landmarks to memory to help us on our journey back. The taken road.
There is a cautionary note to living life in the ‘rearview’ mirror. We lost our way on the way back. We drove into a quagmire. Reading the future in a ‘rearview’ does not help retrace the path. The path through the windshield is different from the one in the rearview. A life lesson. Rearview living is not living in the present or future, but avidly returning to the past, reliving missteps, hurts and grievances, persistently, and wishing damnation on those who grieved us. The past is best forgotten. Don’t let it become a leech that sucks the lifeblood out of you. Its value, if any, lies in not repeating the same mistake and reliving the same agony and frustration that may have ensued then and will have to be undergone again. But we do.
Every time we recall the ‘best-forgotten-past’, we etch it deeper and deeper in our memory. It is calcified. The mafia’s most effective way of disposing of evidence (cadavers) was to bury them in cement at some construction site so that they could never be found. Those who have seen the Malayalam movie, ‘Drishyam’, will know what I mean.
Remember, to what we give attention, we give meaning. When we give attention to past hurts and grievances, we give meaning to them. Nip it in the bud when such memories knock on our minds. Don’t pay attention to it. When you don’t pay attention to it, you make it meaningless. You are freed from your past. The reverse of this discipline is to live in the past vividly, robbing ourselves of living in the future. The plans you have for your future will never fructify because of unforgiveness, the greatest roadblock to progressing in life. Those wishing to lead ‘righteous’ lives must know that ‘righteousness’ means ‘living the will of God in our life’. “Father, if Thou be willing, remove this cup from Me; nevertheless, not My will, but Thine be done.” (Lk 22:42)
But when he (John the Baptist) saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptising, he said to them: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise children for Abraham. The axe is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.” (Mt 3:7-10)
Many of us believe we are living righteous lives, me included. I may wake up early, say my prayers, attend Eucharistic Adoration, serve at the altar, fully participate in Mass, including in the Eucharistic Celebrations, joyously praise and worship God, join my wife in the morning for intercessory prayer for the whole family and community we live in, including the Church hierarchy, and specifically for some who need prayers, including our ancestors for cleansing of the family tree, and for the souls in purgatory, the family Rosary and adoration in the evening, fulfilling the daily ‘Holy Hour’, reflections, and meditation on the Readings for the following day.
All these prayers are more sanctimonious than sanctifying, a filthy rag in God’s eyes if I bear unforgiveness in my heart, and I do my will, not God’s will. What good are the sanctimonious prayers that I make in the rarefied precincts of the Church, if at the very first contact with a human being, a rash autodriver, or my wife scolding me for not making the bed in the morning, I lose my temper? The autodriver is not known to me. Once the event is over, he is out of my mind. But if my wife scolds me and I get angry, it only means I still have unforgiveness in my heart toward my wife. What was warranted is an apology, not anger, or an excuse, and peace would reign.
For the record, I always make my bed; I am rarely late for Mass; in fact, I go half an hour early, and my wife did not scold me for not making the bed. And I did not get angry. But angry I do get for other reasons because there’s unforgiveness within me that I must pray for persistently.
Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptised by John. But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptised by you, and do you come to me?” Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfil all righteousness.” Then John consented. As soon as Jesus was baptised, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” (Mt 3:13-16)
Examine what is playing out here. Jesus has lined up with the Pharisees and Sadducees to be baptised to the bewilderment of John. “I need to be baptised by you, and do you come to me?” protested John. Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfil all righteousness.” Then John consented. At that moment heaven was opened.
Recall what ‘righteousness’ means. Righteousness means doing the will of God. Jesus became God Incarnate to do His Father’s will. Jesus knew the implication of becoming human. While he was sinless, he joined the line with the sinners, showing oneness in their desire to seek redemption from sin through active repentance. Willing to be counted among sinners.
In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross! (Phil 2:5-8)
Make the egregious past meaningless. Live life King-style. Do the will of the King of Kings, and it will be done to you beyond what you seek and ask and in complete freedom from affliction and want.
- Mathew Anthony
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