There are three traps of Satan that steal our joy and peace: Regretting the past, fearing the future, and being ungrateful in the present (St. Anthony the Great)
When I first heard the phrase “ Live in the Present,” I thought it was the dumbest statement one could make. “After all”, I said to myself, “where else should we live?” However, the more I reflected on this phrase, the more I realized that most of us live anywhere but in the present.
Contrary to my initial impression, I realized that I spent a good chunk of my time crying over spilled milk and ruminating over past hurts. “Wudda, Cudda, Shudda” were my mantras. I spent long hours reviewing what I would have, could have, or should have done differently for past fumbles and sins. Conversely, it seems that I spent the other half of the time freaking out over the future.
I am no math genius, but by my accounts, 50 percent on the past and 50 percent on the future leave zero percent spent on the present. I have since learned that such a time proportion is fertile soil for sin and strangles any efforts toward the sanctity that we are called to achieve. When it comes to our secular existence in this distorted world, we often live in a time warp, which is often defined[i] as imagining that one time is being lived in another time. If we are to achieve the holiness that is God’s Will for each of us, we need to live in the here and now. It is only by fully savoring the present that we can encounter Christ, who is with us there.[ii]
Saints, Clocks, and Calendars
The evil one is a master of distortion and manipulation (2 Cor 11:14) who will gleefully use our preoccupation and obsession with time to our downfall. Our ultimate sanctity and mission in God’s Will is immersed in our relationship to time on God’s terms, and not ours.
Saints are not made with clocks and calendars, but with hearts, minds, souls, and eyes fully fixed on Christ in each present moment. Just as the Kingdom of God is “already, but not yet” so, too, is our destiny of sanctity “already, but not yet” as well.[iii] Sanctity is not some fixed point in our future, nor some past action in our past. It is a continuous progression toward and in Christ, evolving from our past, through our present, and into our future that must be lived and experienced in each moment of this present opportunity to love, serve, and bring others and ourselves to Christ. Ultimately, Padre Pio, Mother Teresa, and Carlo Acutis did not become saints at noon at some date in the calendar! Each of them continually grew toward Christ, and drew others to follow in their footsteps.
The Past and Future as Fertile Sources for Sin
The past and future can be fertile sources for sanctity, but as feeding streams to the present soil of our present.
Certainly, we should learn from our past as fertile soil for self-awareness and discernment. Often, it is only through “20/20 hindsight” that we can fully grasp the nature and consequences of our past actions and beliefs. The key to fruitful looking back, however, is to do so in a spirit of wisdom and hope rather than regret and condemnation.[iv] We discern and learn from our past and then let it go in the Sacrament of Confession. Holding on to the past, even after Confession, is toxic to our sanctity, for such a stance distrusts in God’s mercy and love.
Regret, resentment, bitterness, and condemnation are all sinful fruits of such obsession and stubborn refusal to release to past to God’s mercy. If God can forget our past in Confession, then what excuse do we have for not forgiving and releasing the past ourselves?
In the same vein, our future can be a fertile source for sin if we live in constant fear and anxiety over what may come. Our Lord told us “Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.” (Mt 6:34)
Clearly, the Devil wants to distract us and inundate the valley of our present with the flooding concerns of the past and the future. We may rightfully ask why he is so preoccupied with such distraction. The answer is obvious. Our Lord is present with and for us in the present time, waiting for our attention and focus.
The Sanctifying Present
Ven. Fulton Sheen often spoke of “sanctifying the present moment”[v] as rendering to the present its proper respect in our sanctification. It is in the present where we can contemplate and unite to Our Lord in prayer, reach out to the needy in charity, see the opportunity to serve which we may have missed, and savor the countless blessings we may have taken for granted.
If the Holy Mass is the present participation in Christ’s Redemptive Sacrifice, and we are to live out the Mass in our daily lives and not just for an hour here and there, then if follows that our sanctity depends on sanctifying each moment of our continuous present by offering each moment to God.
One God, One Time, The Sacred Present
Let us consider how Martha learned to fully appreciate the presence of The Lord, growing from worrying about chores and cooking for their own sake (Lk 10:38-42)to realizing that anything and everything can be sanctified if done for God’s glory. Further, let us note how she later confidently and passionately exclaimed that past sorrows can still be transformed in the present through her Lord (Jn 11:17-22).Likewise, let us consider the Centurion who never doubted that Our Lord could collapse time and space to heal his servant (Mt 8:5-13).
We know that, for God, “A thousand years…are like a day”(Ps 90:4). Clearly, our mundane concerns for time, both past and present, are merely so many obstacles to pure faith and trust in God’s ever-present, sanctifying present itself.
Conclusion: Live Now, Embrace the Process, and Do not Look Back
The path to growing in the sanctity that is our eternal destiny in God’s Will has many keys, and our relationship with time is certainly one of them. The simplicity of living in the present moment, of sanctifying each moment by offering that moment to God, is central to that relationship.
We must entrust our past to God’s mercy, our future to God’s providence, and to live holy, and wholly, in the present[vi] Above all, we must be the salt of the earth, bringing the flavor of Christ’s love and mercy to a world that has lost its taste for God. It is one thing to be the salt of the world, but we must likewise never look back from our present sacred task, attached to that past and its trifles, lest we follow Lot’s wife and become salt itself (Gen 19:26).
[i] https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/time-warp#google_vignette
[ii] https://www.theyoungcatholicwoman.com/archivescollection/living-holy-in-the-present-moment
[iii] https://etcatholic.org/2019/10/thoughts-and-prayers-for-the-faithful-we-are-part-of-the-communion-of-saints-even-now/#:~:text=We%20are%20part%20of%20that,circumstances%20of%20any%20particular%20encounter.
[iv] https://bulldogcatholic.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/hindsight-20_20_-in-good-times-and-in-bad.pdf
[v] https://catholicgentleman.com/2015/10/fultonfridays-sanctifying-the-present-moment/
[vi] https://www.ncregister.com/blog/why-i-love-st-gianna-s-advice-to-live-holy-the-present-moment
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