My two children have just gone back to school after their February half term break. We had a very full and fun filled week, celebrating the seventieth birthday of my Father in Law, and indeed my own birthday in the middle of the week. Somehow we managed to go to the cinema twice, donning our 3D glasses as we did so. The sight of my four year old in them really makes me smile, the glasses are just slightly too big for his little face! Anyway we had a thrilling adventure on the Mysterious Island and another intergalactic escapade courtesy of Star Wars!

I was endlessly and gladly attending to my little ones. Very little time was spent thinking about myself. I know that the time I spend with them now, listening to them, talking to them, caring for them is time well spent, as it will shape their future and have consequences that may reach far into eternity.

My mind is only just settling back into adult mode and as soon as my two were dropped off at their educational institutions, I knew that I needed to get back to this blog. I had planned to write something yesterday but my computer seemed to take an age to install some updates thus preventing any literary activity…and then it was time to pick up my youngest from pre-school.

But as it turns out, that is all well, because at daily Mass today I was reminded of what I need to write. I have realised, since I started to write this blog in September of last year, that there are certain ideas that I keep coming back to. This worried me for a while but now I feel that for the time being it is important for me to write about the merits of humility and also of how we should endlessly consider the eternal consequences of our time on earth.

I almost couldn’t believe it today at Mass, as the readings were said. It was as if all of my most favourite and poignant teachings had been combined into one service, the ones that ricochet around my soul on a daily basis, and I knew then that I had to write about them. Maybe what I write today might encourage someone to think about their eternity and of what they want it to be like…

This realisation has been made even more significant, as yesterday I received some very shocking news that someone I had worked with a few years ago had suddenly and unexpectedly died. It brought home to me again the absolute need to be ready for eternity. I hope and pray very much, that my ex colleague was ready for his future in eternity.

So, today at mass in the first reading I was asked,

‘Do you not know that to be a lover of the world means enmity with God?’.

Wow! Haven’t I spent most of my life feeling this to be true? Haven’t I realised that so much of this world…namely the deceptive materialism, the struggle for worldly acknowledgement serves only to detract from God. The reading went on,

‘Humble yourselves before the Lord and He will exalt you.’

Wow! Haven’t I come to realise that it is through a humble heart that one truly comes to know the ways of God? Haven’t I felt the Love and power of God flooding into my heart when I allowed my self-imposed barriers of pride,self love and vanity to come down?

And then in the Gospel reading Jesus tells his disciples that the Son of Man will be killed, only to rise again after three days. The story tells us that his friends then started to argue amongst themselves over this, quarrelling over who would be the best person to continue the work of Jesus. They were being led by pride and vanity. But Jesus told them, in another of my most favourite passages that,

‘If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all’.

Jesus took a child into his arms and told his disciples that a child signified so much of what constitutes true discipleship. Wow! Haven’t I told anyone who has asked, that for me, faith is like being a little child before God the Father? Looking heavenwards with wide, open and trusting eyes awaiting His instruction. Haven’t I also irritated my husband on many, many occasions…usually when some flash,sleek, black executive car risks everyone’s lives by speedily overtaking our slow, little, old and often muddy transportation on some dangerous road… by suggesting that he who is now first in this world will be last in the next!? Slow down, I cry to the rear lights of the impressive car, where are you really heading?! Will your impressive car really take you there?

So then this half term week, one spent humbly attending to my family, to the souls of my children… has taught me much. In my daily work and through my children, it has reminded me of how to be a joyful and a humble servant. It has reminded me of how quickly this life on earth will pass, how in one moment it can be gone and indeed will be gone…it is only a matter of time. It has taught me again that I need to be ready for my eternity, as I will never know when my time might come. It has taught me of the need to be humble in the midst of this proud and noisy world, because a humble heart is a silent and still one. And it is often in stillness and in silence that we can truly hear what is of most importance…that is, the voice of God who will, if we let Him… lead us to an eternity in Paradise.