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Every person has a very serious problem. This problem is the desires and hankerings of man, which never leave us in peace. They are always demanding, never satisfied. They are like spoilt brats, who first want one thing, and then another. They are restless.

Our appetites never leave us alone. We always crave for more. One time it is money, next time is a better car, then a faster computer. Then our interior emotions - somebody telling us something and before we tell him what we think of his remark........we won't have any peace. Then we start getting worried about our health, or we notice that we are getting fat and start planning on a new fat-free diet. Another time the house seems too small and lacking all comforts and we begin to dream of a bigger, better house. On another occasion it is the children because..........and on and on.....endlessly.

We have become restless people, always jostling from one problem to another, from one worry to another. Nothing pleases us. Everything bothers us. we are pleased with something, and, after a while, we start planning what to do to acquire something else.

Well, well ! Actually, there is nothing wrong with the things that God provides us with - money, home, family, comfort, work....all is good. Therefore, the problem must be in ourselves. We are like a cracked cup, comments St. John of the Cross, no matter how much water we pour into it, the water keeps seeping out and gets lost. We are like a small bird which cannot fly no matter how hard it tries, because it is tied down with a thread. And that thread keeps it down, a thin or a thick thread - it does not matter......

There is one road which can deliver man from this predicament. It is the road that St. John describes with a single word: NADA - nothing. It is the road of those who love nothing except God. They have learnt to put God first. Not money before God, but God before money. Not solace before God, but God before solace. Not man before God, but God before man. This does not mean that we must throw everything away. It means that we have to learn to use everything without becoming attached to anything.


God is a Feast
Fr. Pius Sammut O.C.D.

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