Setting The World On Fire
Alanna Murray
I love the feeling of being abroad in a foreign place or a big city for the first time. There can be feelings of giddiness, a feeling of opportunity, a feeling like you can be whoever you want to be, and a feeling that you can just maybe even accomplish anything - including your most private dreams. There is an anonymous feeling that can take over too, knowing that you do not know anyone and no one knows you, possibly even making you feel a lack of judgment from others. If you have ever been abroad or in a new place, and have had similar feelings, then you know that there is a kind of boldness and fearlessness that can develop. In some ways, being in a new place can give an overwhelming energy and a superpower-like feeling, that can make one feel like their most true self. Yes, indeed, it is good for us to get out of our comfort zones, to travel, and to try new things.
But why is it, that these feelings happen more often when we go places, rather than when we are in the everyday grind?
Why don’t I feel this enlightened while sitting at home and doing the normal motions? I think when we are out of our “homes” and away from the familiar, we are subconsciously aware that we are. Maybe we feel that our decisions carry less weight, feeding that oh so great carefree traveling spirit. After all, we might say to ourselves, I am just a traveler through this place - so what’s the big deal if I declare my dislike to a new stranger, or perhaps profess my love to a local. The truth is, our decisions would carry a lot more consequences if we were to do these things in the familiar places and to the familiar people we see everyday, which would breed opportunity for much more discord in our lives, and much more opportunity for reminded rejection. To make the point even further, a judgment from a bystander in the streets of Florence for a silly and out-of-character stunt you do, might not hit as hard, knowing that you will be going away soon and never have to see that onlooker again. As a rather intuitive and self-aware person, I know that judgment from others can sometimes bring a sense of slavery to the pleasing of others and their expectations.
But all of this reflecting on being away from the familiar, got me to thinking - what if we were to treat this world as our traveling place, and Heaven as our familiar home to return to? St. Therese of Lisieux reminds us that “The world is thy ship and not thy home.”
If I truly believed this, how would this change the way I act and live? Knowing that this place I am living in (planet Earth) is the foreign territory, and Heaven is the land for my soul to return to? I know I, for one, would care a whole lot less about the judgment of others, for sure. If we were truly to believe in our hearts that we are called home to Heaven, then I think we would be able to better accept who God called us to be. We would do the hard thing God is asking of us. We would detach ourselves from sin and anything else that draws us away from Him, despite the judgment of others. We would trust in the Lord fully, and accept what that outcome might look like to others in the meantime. We would take the risk, do the thing, care less. We would make ourselves a fool for the Lord. We would listen to our consciences and hearts.
I think we all know in our innermost-being who we are called to be. It is St. Catherine of Sienna who says “Be who you were created to be, and you will set the world on fire.”
Sisters, let us pray to have that carefree and lighthearted traveling spirit with an understanding that our time here in the world is a short and temporary part of our journey to become a saint -to be bold and fearless in who God created us to be.
