Are YOU on Course?

Everyone is at a different place on their journeys. I keep hearing people make this proclamation. I’m not sure though that I agree with their point, or the point that they are trying to defend, or the people no less they are trying to defend. When someone says that everyone is at a different place on their journey, I think what they really mean, is that it is okay for some people to deny Christ’s teaching, and do what they want, because they just haven’t arrived at the full understanding of what truly living a life for Christ is.

I mean, seriously, isn’t that what they really mean, and isn’t that a way of sugarcoating why people truly are not where they probably should be? You know, because they are just at a different place on their journey, and that seems to be okay for some of us. Why is that, and how do we know that this “place” they are on in their journey isn’t a detour, or a wrong path altogether? I mean seriously, why aren’t we concerned that they are traveling down a wrong road and could any day reach a point of being totally lost, and maybe forever?

It is really difficult for most of us to accept the fact that friends and loved ones are just on the wrong passage, and that they are enjoying the detour. If they are not where they should be, why do we make excuses for them? These excuses are pretty much a cop out. We seem to think that they relieve us of the responsibility of offering some direction, because let’s face it, offering direction might be unpleasant, and difficult. If our loved ones and friends are just not there yet, all we need to do is wait for them to catch up one of these days, right? But what if they don’t catch up? None of us knows when our journeys will end, or be cut short unexpectedly. So what if our neglect of trying to redirect someone on their journey ultimately causes that person to be caught lost on a wrong path that leads them to darkness, destruction and eternal death, rather than glory, radiance and eternal life?

I would imagine that those of us who rationalize these journeys also believe that nobody is ever lost forever, that everyone eventually finds their way. The problem is that this is contrary to Scripture, divine revelation, and Church teaching. When someone walks away or in the opposite direction and gets off course on their journey, that doesn’t mean that they are walking away from the consequences and perils that lie on these other paths. We then, when making excuses and rationalizing this misdirection, bear responsibility for the lack of progress in these individual journeys. Even our civil laws in this country recognize wanton endangerment and criminal negligence in our temporal existence and we hold citizens responsible for the gross neglect of offering assistance to those in peril and danger. Do we really think that we get a free pass when not acting for the benefit of someone’s spiritual health and life? The reality is that not everyone goes to Heaven, and I would presume that most who do not, miss the end destination because we are off on some side street or road that has offered us havens that seem more temporally desirable. We all run into these temptations along our pilgrimage, that offer us wrong direction and delays that inhibit our pace to that final safe harbor, or offer us a landing place that has different rewards. There are many wrong objectives that we get distracted by and offer more focus and attention to the procurement of. Unfortunately many of us will not finish the quest or will finish the wrong campaign and find a land of destitution and suffering, instead of beauty, joy and charity.

We must offer needed redirection now, before it is too late. If we don’t we too may be dragged off on a wrong course. We must at least try, even if it slows us down temporarily, or hinders our own ease and pace. We should be striving for all we know to achieve the same city on a hill we are trekking toward. It is the only resting place that matters.

Since it is the only destination that matters, we must be encouraging our brothers and sisters and offering them a GPS. It is their will to accept or deny, but we must offer the assistance to travel the right path, and be on course for the final destination of Christ. That will be the home that will not disappoint and will satisfy our souls for all of eternity. So, let’s keep our eyes on our Heavenly home, so we can enter into paradise holding the hands of all those who transit with us along this path we call life, so that we can enter the glorious banquet of eternal life and beatific vison, and the peace of having traversed honorably and charitably with love and good will for all our fellow seekers of that glorious and endless plateau.