How do you regard your unfulfilled dreams? - Daily Reflections November 25,2014

TURN, TURN, TURN

 

The 60’s singing group, The Byrds, popularized something that both the Old and the New Testaments taught, as indeed, taught by the passage from Ecclesiastes 3:1-8: “There is a season for everything under heavens.”

       One thing about getting older is that one can look back realistically and see past events for what they were, not for what one wanted them to be. Being young has it advantages definitely, but seeing things in future realistically may not be one of them. One can dream of big things, but what one conjures up in dreams and desires may or may not come true for you and me.

       God knows how many plans I have made, how many projects I started, and how many worthy and unworthy dreams I have conceived, and not everything ended up as what the world calls “success.” In retrospect, not everything was meant to be.

       But Stephen Covey, more than two decades ago, taught us to look realistically at something that is not yet but still to come. “Begin with the end in mind,” he counseled. Start out, not with whimsical dreams, but with a long, hard look at how everything will end up eventually, sooner or later.

       This, in essence, is what today’s readings remind us of — that there is an end to the world and the realm of worldly time as we know them. The readings help us set our sights on the “end” – the reality of the final judgment at the Second Coming of the Lord, at the end of time. This is something that has always been part of the whole teaching of the Church since the beginning (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 1040).

       The past is over and done with, and there is not much we can do about it except accept it. The future is yet unfolding, and while we rightfully think we can do a lot about its outcome, the one certainty that we all would do well to remember is what the liturgy throughout this week reminds us of.

       The time to reap will come! Fr. Chito Dimaranan, SDB

 

REFLECTION QUESTION: How do you regard your unfulfilled dreams?

 

Let me trust in Your ways, Lord — now and for always.