Tag: everlastingsalvaltion

Thought for the Day – 14 July – Meditations with Antonio Cardinal Bacci (1881-1971)

Everlasting Salvation

“Let us consider again, the man on the endless and apparently aimless journey into land after land.
He walked for a long time, through valleys and over mountains, in the heat of the summer and in the sharp cold of the winter months.
It made no difference to him, whether the sun gave him encouragement, or the rain and snow impeded him, he forged ahead, just the same.
He crossed rivers, floods, mountains and hillocks and came down into valleys again.
But, at last, when he had travelled for years, he felt himself tiring.

He turned around and saw another man looking at him with compassion in his eyes.
He approached the stranger, who said to him:  “My friend, you look tired.   Have you been walking for a long time?”
“For a very long time,” he replied, “and, I am very tired.”
“But where are you going?”  the other man asked.   “What is your destination?”
The traveller sighed as if he had just awakened from a deep sleep and murmured:  “Where am I going?   I don’t know!   I have been walking for a long time but, I have no idea where I am going.”
At this, his new friend stared even more pityingly at the traveller, eyeing him as if he were an unfortunate simpleton.

When we reflect a little, do we not feel that we are rather like this poor traveller?
Our journey has lasted a good many hard and weary years.
Have we seriously thought about where we are going?
Have we solved the fundamental problem of our earthly journey – the goal and purpose of our lives?
“What does it profit a man,” Jesus has said to us, “if he gain the whole world but suffer the loss of his own soul?” (Mt 16:26).
Our eternal welfare is the great question which we should ponder continually.”

Antonio Cardinal Bacci