Once upon a time, there was a child playing on the beach, with the ocean on one side and a deep forest with wild animals on the opposite side. As soon as he entered, he noticed a little pool with water similar to that of the ocean, but it was the size of a swimming pool, where he could just swim rather than entering the ocean. He liked it a lot and was playing in the little pool for some time. Then, he felt bored, thinking it was just limited. He dug one more pool, smaller than the original pool, and gathered water from the ocean. He created another pool and started to enjoy it. After some time, he got bored and repeated the process, creating more pools of desirable sizes, big and small, and enjoyed them for some days. Soon, he realized that he was getting bored faster as he built many more pools with different facilities. At last, he decided to jump into the ocean and explore the immense creation. As a good swimmer, he enjoyed it, but there were many challenges around him to get into the ocean, such as heavy winds, tides, dangerous animals, and harsh water temperatures. Sometimes, he was scared and got tempted to enjoy his own built pools rather than the ocean, even though it had the best creatures to enjoy. He left the ocean and started to enjoy the little pools, but this time, since it was sand, they started to dry, no matter how much care he took. He worked hard and poured water, but the sand was unable to hold the water anymore, so the pools collapsed. He felt sad and a sense of emptiness. He used to go to the ocean but was not able to withstand the challenges. He used to come back, sit at the beach, and feel sad and disappointed. He knew that if he could cross the ocean, he could reach the beautiful supernatural island, where he wouldn’t feel thirst, hunger, or emptiness. He could enjoy all goodness unimaginable to his thoughts. He had a strong desire to reach there but didn’t have the support to fulfill one last journey. Miraculously, he found a boat to help him reach there. He got into it with much delight and happiness and started sailing. Despite many struggles and challenges, his desire to reach the island made him reach his final destination, where he was happy forever.

Here ends the story, but let’s have a deeper insight into the story.

The beach corresponds to earthly life, the ocean to the love of Jesus that we experience here on Earth. The little pool corresponds to the love of family, friends, relatives, passions, talents, success, job, wealth, money, health, comforts, power, beauty, attraction, simply the love of our life, and what not. Man gets love from his parents initially after birth. As he grows, he gets, by default or by working hard, to build up the little pools of love with lots of expectations and memories. He feels empty very often because the love is from the world, which corresponds to sand in the story, and love is not stable. “We love because he first loved us.” – 1 John 4:19. The spiritual journey of each one is so different. We get to know the taste of Jesus’ love for the first time, which is so beautiful, and we want it all the time. But sometimes, because of the challenges in the spiritual life, struggles, temptations, testing, not able to withstand the turbulent situations in life, man tends to come out of the ocean. But the thirstiness is not satiated enough, so we try to replace it again with our own little pools! We fail many times in loving the Lord. “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” – Romans 5:8. Through immense grace, we get back again into the ocean, but most fail, or some people are so stable in diving into the ocean, and they reach the island. Saints are the people who, despite hardship, struggles, physical sufferings, swim the ocean. “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved” – Ephesians 2:4-5. By the grace of Jesus Christ and the desire to love the Lord with all their might. There is also a deep forest on the opposite side, which may be a choice for us in times of deep trouble, wanting to run away from the challenges in life and find our possible comfort zone. But Jesus is the one who carries us and brings us back into reality, which is good for eternity.

What is your choice? Forest or Ocean? Working a little hard bit by bit, or enjoying the comfort zone? No matter how many times we fail in reaching the Island, which corresponds to Heaven, through the Ocean, the Good Lord always helps us sail. There will be one final last call, and the boat corresponds to one strong push into spirituality, which is a life-changing moment in understanding Jesus, loving him, following him, being in a relationship with him, no matter what happens, even after the help of the boat, which is prayer, Holy Mass, Rosaries, reading the Bible, retreats, and all other forms of spiritual activities. The hurdles, challenges, struggles are never-ending until we reach Heaven. So, let’s make a strong decision in trusting the mercy of the Lord, hope in him; he is the only one who can help us, and in addition, the intercession of Mother Mary, saints, and our ancestors who are in Heaven are going to save us and help us reach our final destination one day. God bless us all!