Excitement and Expectation

Last Sunday's Baptism 

I steer right away from publicly sharing personal shots but this week I make an exception because this picture expresses so much meaning and feeling, pertaining to the key part of my week. 

It shows a baptism I did last Sunday at the cathedral.  The father posted this picture on his Facebook page where I saw it and immediately it just so powerfully struck me how it expresses the excitement and expectation held by two parents at seeing their young son being baptised.

For me, this photo is a classic symbol of what our real task is in life. 

What really matters in life is not simply focusing on the presented woes and frustrations of our world.  Yes, they are best met and not ignored, but not under the leadership of people who are abusive, who exert control for their own purposes and who are guided by their own agenda.  These people lead us nowhere good, except to where they want to take us under the guise of their own dark view of the world and its evil forces. 

What matters in life is that we are about nurturing people and helping others to do the same.  As Pope Francis so aptly says -
"The future is in the hands of those people who recognise the other as a YOU and themselves as part of an US.  We all need each other."

We do not have to be overcome by a world that appears unfriendly and hostile.  What we see when we meet and engage real others is how good our world is and how much we can do to build up what we all share and hold dear - humanity and creation. The future is in our joined hands; it is in the hands of the good others we meet in our daily life, wherever we are.