The Sacrament of the Present Moment

Mark Mallet

As I have written here frequently, I believe that Heaven’s treasuries are wide-open. That God is pouring tremendous graces upon whomever will ask for them in these days of change.

The question then, is how to receive these graces. While God may pour them out in very miraculous or supernatural ways, such as in the Sacraments, I believe they are constantly available to us through the ordinary course of our daily lives. To be more precise, they are to be found in the present moment.

AN UNFORGETTABLE NEW YEAR’S EVE

I define the present moment as "the only point where reality exists." I say this because too many of us spend most of our time living in the past, which no longer exists; or we live in the future, which hasn’t happened yet. To live in the future or the past, is to live in an illusion. To build a house on sand is unwise; building our lives on illusions is no more stable.

At a New Year’s Eve celebration, my wife and I were sitting at a table with friends, laughing and enjoying the celebrations, when suddenly a man at the table across from us slumped off his chair onto the floor. Gone—just like that. Thirty minutes later, the guy who attempted CPR on the deceased, was now lifting a child into the air to pop balloons hanging over the dance floor. The contrast—the frailty of life—was startling.

Any one of us could die in the next second. That’s why it is senseless to be anxious about anything. -Anything.

THE MERRY-GO-ROUND

Think of a merry-go-round, the kind you played on as a child. I can remember getting that thing going so fast I could barely hang on. But I remember that the closer I came to the middle of the merry-go-round, the easier it was to hang on. In fact, if at the middle on the hub, you could just sit there—hands free.

The present moment is like the center of the merry-go-round; it is the place of stillness where one can rest, even though life is raging all around. The moment we begin to live in the past or the future, we leave the center and are pulled to the outside where suddenly great energy is demanded of us to "hang on," so to speak. The more we give ourselves over to imagination, living and grieving over the past, or worrying and sweating about the future, the more we are likely to be tossed off the merry-go-round of life. Nervous breakdowns, temper flare-ups, drinking bouts, indulging in sex or food and so on—these become ways in which we try to cope with the nausea of worry consuming us.

And that’s over the big issues. But Jesus tells us,

Even the smallest things are beyond your control. (Luke 12:26)

We should worry then about nothing. Nothing.We can do so by entering into the present moment and simply living in it, doing what the moment demands of us, and letting go of the rest. But we need to become aware of the present moment.

Let nothing trouble you. —St. Teresa of Avila

WAKING FROM WORRY

Simply stop whatever you’re doing and recognize you are helpless to alter the past or future—that the only thing in your dominion now is the present moment, that is, reality.

If your thoughts are noisy, then tell God about it. Say, "God, all I can think about is tomorrow, yesterday, this or that… I give to you my worry, because I can’t seem to stop." Sometimes you have to do that several times over the course of a single minute!

As soon as you start to worry about the beyond, bring yourself back into the present moment. This is where you are, now. This is where God is, now. If you are tempted to worry again, imagine that five seconds from now, you are going to slump over dead as a doorknob in your chair, and everything you are fretting about will vanish. (It was St. Thomas Moore who kept a skull on his desk to remind him of his mortality.)

As the Russian proverb goes,

If you do not die first, you will have time to do it. If you die before it is done, you don’t need to do it.

SHAFT OF ETERNITY: SACRAMENT OF THE MOMENT

The merry-go-round revolves around an axis mounted in the ground. This is the shaft of eternity which passes through the present moment, making it a "sacrament." Hidden within it is the Kingdom of God which Jesus commands us to seek first in our lives.

…do not worry anymore… Instead seek his kingdom and all your needs will be given you besides. Do not be afraid any longer, little flock, for your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom. (Luke 12:29, 31-32)

Where is the Kingdom that God wants to give us? Intersecting with the present moment. If you are living somewhere else than where you are, how can you receive what God is giving?

Each and every moment is pregnant with God, pregnant with the graces of the Kingdom. If you enter into the sacrament of the present moment, you will discover a tremendous freedom, for,

Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. (2 Cor 3:17)

You will begin to experience the Kingdom of God within, and begin to realize that the present moment is the only moment in which we really live.

You have no idea what your life will be like tomorrow. You are a puff of smoke that appears briefly and then disappears. Instead you should say, "If the Lord wills it, we shall live to do this or that." (James 4:14-15)

FOOTNOTE

How do we deal with the "prophetic words" which seem to speak of events which lie on the horizon? The answer is this: we cannot have the strength for tomorrow, unless we walk in the present moment with God today.

Whether we hear words of encouragement or words of warning, their intended purpose is always to bring us back to the present moment, back to the center-hub where God is. There, we will find we no longer need to "hold on."

For God will be the one holding us.

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Source. Illustration.