November 14: The Present Moment / El Momento Presente

The challenge to live in the present moment, the “now,” is a challenge that never leaves us. Ancient mystics used to say that, in meditation, each moment is the end of the world, the consummation. We may not use the same words, but their ancient advice remains the same for us today: don’t go back to the past, trying to salvage something from there; don’t even look back. But don’t look forward either, that’s how we postpone our life in the here and now, endlessly deferring the things that could satisfy the heart, while longing for things that may or may not ever come. 

So, it is by living in the present that we find not only the fulfillment of all that has come before, but also the only road that leads to the future. Jesus tells us in the Gospels that the Kingdom of God is already among us and we are invited to live in it already, in the humblest and the most truthful of all moments: the “now.”

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Cristo está con nosotros y, según El, su Reino ha llegado ya. Junto con Él podemos mejorar a nuestro mundo, erradicando la violencia y las guerras. Podemos derrotar al rencor y al odio con la amistad. Mantengamos nuestras cabezas bien altas, porque el Señor Jesús está con nosotros y con Él hay esperanza y un futuro mejor. Sigamos esperando, haciendo todo posible para vivir en el momento presente – que es un gran regalo.