Does It Really Matter?

Read Isaiah 25:1-12. Do you ever get obsessed by something that really doesn’t matter very much? Or do you overreact to something that someone said or did and you can’t shake it off, even though you know deep down that it isn’t as serious as you’re making it out to be?

When St. Bernard of Clairvaux was faced with the ups and downs of life – the daily problems, cares and hindrances – he would mutter under his breath, “What does it matter in the light of eternity”? In other words, will any of this matter in the end? Maybe it’s something we should mutter under our breath, rather than whatever we usually mutter when things go wrong! He used to say it in Latin, of course: “Quid hoc ad aeternitatem”? Practice it this week!

Repeatedly in Scripture, the Kingdom of God is presented to us. Jesus used stories, parables and metaphors to help explain what he knew but what we find more difficult to understand. Others did too, including the prophet Isaiah in today’s passage.

The Kingdom of God is the big picture of Scripture that tells us what life is really all about and what will really matter at the final reckoning. Jesus invites us to let go of the daily dramas we face, the hurts and slights we endure and our own agendas and to live in the Kingdom of God, to find ourselves in the final and full picture.

Will you join me in this great feast of life as envisaged by Isaiah? Let the passing things of life do just that – pass by – and eat at the Kingdom’s Great Banquet in God.

THINK IT OVER

Think about the following:

•What trivial thing are you fixated about that you need to challenge with the question, “What does it matter in the light of eternity”?