In 2015, Catholic singer Matt Maher released the song “A future not my own”, in which we hear the following lyrics:
We see the start but you see the end
We see in part but your love sees everything
We plant the seeds but you make them grow
We’re building a house, you’re building a home
This is the great unknown
Love is a long and narrow road
Come chase this heart of stone
I need a future not my own
This world is not my home
I still have miles and miles to go
Come break this heart of stone
I need a future not my own
This is what the readings for the past several weeks have been about. You might even say that this is what Christianity is all about. Through baptism we have been reborn into a new life. A life that is destined to be eternal, through our sharing in the divine life of Christ. It is what we were created for. But it is not something we can earn – it is a gift from God.
But it is mysterious… we cannot see what that eternal life truly will be like. On the other hand, our life here on earth is very concrete. Our earthly existence is what we can see – and in the context of eternal life, it is the start that we see. But God sees all – he sees the glorious end that is not a chronological end but rather a state of eternal glory.
We can try to imagine what that eternal life with God may look like but we cannot know it while we roam this earth. We cannot even really conceive of it because it is not of our making. Everything that is our doing, of our making, is finite and earthly. It can make us happy in the here and now, but it has no real future. Eternal life is an aspect of the divine life.
And yet, we spend so much time focusing on our earthly existence. We tend to associate happiness with success. We tend to spend a lot of energy and resources on avoiding hardships and suffering. We try to pursue the things in life that make us happy – or at least, that make us feel good. We pursue the things that contribute to establishing a comfortable future – an earthly future
But do we give as much attention to our real future? The future that we were created for? The future that is not our own – the future God wants for us?