“Perhaps our greatest desire, often unexpressed, is to be content, to be at peace, to be happy”
I would like to welcome our guest blogger today, Mr. Rudyard Kipling. My comments will follow. All yours Rudy.
When Earth’s Last Picture is Painted
When Earth’s last picture is painted and the tubes are twisted and dried,
When the oldest colors have faded, and the youngest critic has died,
We shall rest, and faith, we shall need it – lie down for an aeon or two,
Till the Master of All Good Workmen Shall put us to work anew.
And those that were good shall be happy: they shall sit in a golden chair;
They shall splash at a ten-league canvas with brushes of comet’s hair.
They shall find real saints to draw from – Magdalene, Peter, and Paul;
They shall work for an age at a sitting and never be tired at all!
And only the Master shall praise us, and only the Master shall blame;
And no one will work for the money, and no one will work for the fame,
But each for the joy of the working, and each, in his separate star,
Shall draw the Thing as he sees It for the God of Things as They are!
(When Earth’s Last Picture is Painted, 1892)
The Artistic Calling
What do you think of when you imagine the life of an artist? Do you envision a person struggling with tuberculosis, living in a drafty garret, sacrificing for his or her personal artistic vision? Or maybe you conjure up an image of the well to do Belle Epoque artist in a lavish studio spending his time painting nudes. Or maybe you call to mind the modern artist that makes millions turning out abstracts that you think could have been painted by a five year old with finger paints.
While of course there may be exceptions, none of these truly reflect the life of an artist. The typical artist struggles to make ends meet while they answer this call, this vocation of beauty, that God has placed on their hearts. If they are fortunate they can make that living directly from their art. But the vast majority od artists have support either from another person or another job that may have nothing to do with their calling.
Why do they continue such a struggle? In “The Agony and the Ecstasy” author Irving Stone wrote, “One should not become an artist because he can, but because he must. It is only for those who would be miserable without it.”
Like everyone else, that artist uses (or should use) their gifts in the pursuit of Truth, Goodness, and Beauty. In a sense, that is why all of us are here, to show the Goodness, Truth, and Beauty of God to the world through the gifts He has given us. We do this so that at the end of all things we will hear the words of the Master, “well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of the Master’s house.”
End Times
In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus gives us many signs by which we will know that the “End of Days” is imminent. But finally He reminds us that we cannot know the exact day, only the Father knows that.
For two thousand years many have claimed to know the date of the end of the world. They have all been wrong. This should not surprise us. And even though it sometimes seems as if the world is in such a state that the end must surely be near, God Himself has told us that we cannot calculate the day or the hour.
But it isn’t really important that we know. What is important is that we accept God, and trust in him, regardless of the fortunes the world brings us or takes away from us.
One of the many stories told about St. Francis of Assisi recounts a day when he was interrupted from his gardening by one of his brothers.
“Brother Francis, if you knew that today was the Day of Judgment, and that the Lord would come at any moment, what would you do?”
And without hesitation Saint Francis replied,
“I would finish my gardening.”
Perhaps our greatest desire, often unexpressed, is to be content, to be at peace with ourselves and our God, to be happy, to be able to continue our gardening even as all things of this world come to an end.
The key to finding that contentment, is to find the vocation God is calling you to and embrace it with your whole heart.
Choosing to follow your vocation is not always an easy path. If you are called to be an artist, a writer, a singer, and so on, you choose a path that more often than not does not come with a steady paycheck. The call that is important in the eyes of God is not always the one that reaps financial rewards. But ignoring the call will only leave us dissatisfied, longing to fill a hole in our hearts.
There is a peace and contentment that is known only by answering that call. Only by becoming the person God meant for you to be can you know the freedom that allows you to stand anywhere and be in your own kingdom.
Yes it can be scary, because we put our trust completely in something beyond our control. Blind skiers are first taught how to turn left and right on a shallow slope. Then they ski down a steep slope accompanied by a sighted skier who calls out to them “left” or “right.” The blind skier reaches the safety of the bottom of the slope by trusting in the guidance of a person they cannot see. Our lives are like that. We navigate through the world by listening to the voice in our hearts that comes from one we cannot see.
Our greatest guide in answering God’s call, to living a contented life because we trust ourselves completely to Him, is a conscience that is well formed in faith.
If we choose life, and He who is life itself, we should not be apprehensive about the end. We can trust in the promises made to us, that if we live as the Lord has commanded us to, if we are always ready, we need not fear.
“Those that were good will be happy”
Pax Vobiscum
33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time