Who wouldn’t be fazed by this? You could hardly be called human not to be….. After all, opportunities in life to love and to do the best we can for the glory of God, and the wellbeing of life need to be able to be properly recognized for what they are so they can be cherished and lived out to the maximum potential they offer.

But all too often (so it has been the case from within the slipstream of my own personal experience), these opportunities were not recognizable, and neither were the consequences of certain types of choices made unmistakably clear to me, prior to making those choices. Moreover, there was never any real core inner conviction or compunction by the Holy Spirit – in spite of me being raised by my mother within the protective spiritual canopy that is the Sacramental life of Holy Mother Church – to properly reflect on any of this in my life at that time, which btw, was the time I lived every day more or less on autopilot. I simply lived in that rhythm of autopilot to such a degree that this very rhythm blotted out any thought of the importance of personal reflection in these areas on a regular-enough basis, to successfully avoid the spiritual pitfalls of carelessness in these areas. And so I was trapped in a death cycle that disenabled me to take a few steps back to observe what exactly it was that I was doing and how poorly I was doing it…And the fact that although I went to Mass with my mother every Sunday without fail, we never actually prayed consistently with my father as a unified family. My father was Lutheran but a very spiritually interested one in that he was keenly aware of the immense benefits of religious education and an upbringing that was foundationally anchored in Christ-centered values. However, because of the laxity of our collective prayer-life as a family and also because of our sheer lack of awareness back then regarding:

1. Issues of spiritual warfare and

2. The need to develop a spiritually switched-on interior life 24/7

Hence, the devil found a way in and through this laxity in our family life, to make a very big mess indeed.

While I heartily laud the quotation chosen by Fr Leo Clifford for this episode (see image below), I do not ascribe to the shonky theology often promoted by many of the learned regarding the theme of ‘missed opportunities’, for the precise reasons alluded to in my account above.

Sometimes we hear shonky theology on the topic of life opportunities – even theological greats such as Karl Rahner are guilty of it. Platitudes like mistakes and wrong choices leading us to literally ‘miss out on never again livable opportunities for relational engagement and positive spiritual fulfilment’ are often touted by those people too fortunate in their own lived experience to have ever been faced with such dire or morbid outcomes in their own life – to serve as ‘warnings’ to the faithful. But tragically, what these pundits don’t often realize is that they are in a strange kind of way, pushing the notion held high by the Prodigal Son’s brother as though his condescending view of his repentant brother somehow takes precedence theologically over that of the merciful Father.

It is a fact though, one which we need to grapple with more in our theological musings rather than skirt around the edges of or push away altogether, that there can be those things in this earthly life that were obviously and only recognizable in hindsight, since often (although not always), these were influenced by circumstances beyond our control. That’s the nature of our fallen human experience and precisely because of our limited vision (unlike the angels), we cannot be expected to make choices in the manner of the perfection that they make them. And further, it is true that some people are naturally endowed with more ability to see far and wide in this respect than others are, they are gifted with a broader peripheral vision in matters of decisions and choices, making their capacity for seeing and analysing; and circumstantially being able to harness the ins and outs of their choice-making all the more clearer before they actually step out into something.

Hence my preference for the following approach in formating a title for this EWTN program:

It’s the sensitivity in the choice of words for Fr Brian Mullady’s program title, (shown here in the above image) which I am contrasting in this essay with the poorly chosen title for the Fr Clifford program.

But that said, I do see the need also to try and cultivate in ourselves as well as others a conscientious awareness of the need to do as much good wherever and whenever we possibly can. And that’s the positive takeaway from the Fr Leo Clifford program synopsis minus the scary title. It’s like what Fr Joseph Mary Wolfe was saying the other day, when he quoted this awesome one-liner from the Catechism:

“The more one does what is good, the freer he/she becomes.”

And back to the quotation put forward by Fr Leo Clifford. It actually comes from Stephen Grellet who was a French Quaker missionary in the United States. Indeed, the quotation is beautiful and life affirming –

“I shall pass through this world but once. Any good, therefore, that I can do or any kindness I can show [to any human being or any of God’s beloved creatures], let me do it now. Let me not defer it or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.”

And this should impress upon our hearts the need for us to be watchful of the way we treat others in situations big or small.

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Keywords: Autopilot, Catechism, Prodigal Son, Quakers, Hindsight, Spiritual Warfare, Interior Life