Life as a young adult can seem like a never-ending series of changes, some moments more enjoyable than the more tumultuous others. With the passage of freshman, sophomore, and junior year—and the first semester of senior year nearly complete—my heart calls to mind the lines of the great poet Dante: “This mountain is such that even at the beginning below it is tedious, but the higher one goes the less it wearies” (Purgatorio IV, 88-90). Will life get easier upon graduating and finally surmounting the mountains of readings and homework involved in undergraduate studies? On the other hand, I also recall the many blessings my friends and teachers provided me over the last three and a half years at Holy Cross to think critically and contemplate what makes a good life. These gifts instill in me a great hope for the future. Upon graduating, will I set my eyes upon a “Sweet hue of oriental sapphire,” one “gathering in the serene face of the sky” (Purgatorio I, 13-15)? Will I find a place to fully use my talents and one day find rest?
Possibly. However, God announces in the Book of Genesis to the fallen Adam that “In the sweat of thy face thou shalt eat bread, til thou return to the ground” (Genesis 3: 19). Life will be challenging. People inexorably experience sorrow and melancholy following the loss of the persons and goods they encounter and enjoy in the here and now, the things of which cannot abide in our world forever. Only their effects can live on within us as we traverse onwards on our journeys within the cosmos until one day entering, hopefully, a lasting home in the arms of Christ. Fortunately, God promised that “Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth / And all flesh shall see the salvation of God” (Luke 3: 5-6). Christ calms the storm of life: the seething waters and howling winds, the deficiencies and excesses (Luke 8: 23-24). Scripture also encourages us further to “Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil, ” glorify God, and experience uninhibited joy and thanksgiving (Ephesians 6: 11). God mans the parapet of both our physical and spiritual protection.
Due to our limitations, we cannot traverse this life alone, a reality evidenced in history and literature. We must depend on and ask others and ultimately God for help. In J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring, the whimsical and unfallen Tom Bombadil—the master of nature—sings in response to Frodo’s call for aid a command to the demonic Barrow-wight imprisoning the ring bearer and his fellow Hobbits:
Get out, you old wight! Vanish in the sunlight! Shrivel like the cold mist, like the winds go wailing, / Out into the barren lands far beyond the mountains! / Come never here again! Leave your barrows empty!
Indeed, the Barrow-wight departed like an Olympian in the 100-meter dash after hearing the starting gun! Like Tom, Christ wins over any imprisonment and despair in times of ultimate trial. God uncompromisingly protects our souls. Thus, we should foster great hope that our future holds for us good things and blessings that adversity cannot withhold from us. Despite the apparent dictates of our environments, we can fully develop our talents in prayer and service to God and neighbor.
For example, within the KGB’s dreaded Lubyanka prison in Moscow, the Jesuit missionary Fr. Walter Ciszek—from Shenandoah, Pennsylvania—came to the epiphany that “religion, prayer, and love of God do not change reality, but they give it a new meaning.” He then added, “In Lubianka I grew firmer in my conviction that whatever happened in my life was nothing else than a reflection of God’s will for me. And he would protect me” (With God in Russia, 159). A Servant of God, who spent over a decade in prison and the Gulag in Siberia, Ciszek witnessed to the Gospel against all adversity. The story of his life reveals that God will never abandon His children despite their collective shortcomings and brokenness. Placing one’s trust in the immutable, eternal, and omnipotent One, the Savior, opens a triumphant reservoir of grace that provides us courage and strength to do God’s will. Such a life in Christ provides a firm foundation of meaning that cannot be swept away.
In short, God desires His people to enjoy an abundance of life. Thus, upon graduating, there will be more joy, the continuation of friendships and the beginning of new ones, along with the witnessing and participation in the creation of new life. Sadly, we get to know these aspects of the divine only in revelatory glimpses due to changes amidst the passage of time. Although all material things pass away at some point in this life, faith provides a great hope for eternal communion in heaven with the Fullness of the true, good, and beautiful, the angels, and our fellow human travelers on Earth. Thank God!