Born to Fly

So, I'm driving to class this morning, listening to the country radio station (those of you who have just begun to sniff disdainfully, remember that it's my car and my ears), and one of the songs that made it on during the course of the drive has the following as a refrain:

"But how do you wait for heaven?
And who has that much time?
And how do you keep your feet on the ground
When you know, that you were born, you were born to fly?"

Sara Evans is the artist who performs it, but that is irrelevant to my reason for posting.

Basically, the refrain here addressed a topic I've thought a little about lately: wannabe-martyrs. "Martyrs?" you ask.

Martyrs.

See, the thing about quite a number saints is that, typically when they were younger, they really, really wanted to become missionaries in some dangerous foreign country--for the sole purpose of achieving martyrdom. Now, to my way of thinking, this is a cop-out. Why did these saints want to die a painful gruesome death? Not out of a desire of pain, I assure you, but out of a desire to make it to Heaven--for sure. Hence the cop-out. Sure, you can go get yourself killed in some foreign country, and yes, that does simultaneously give you pretty much automatic entry to Heaven and saves you the Hellfire-worthy job of suicide.

The REAL saints, to my way of thinking, are the ones who willingly (or resignedly), have to slog their way through a life of eighty-some years of temptation, regular suffering and the general toss-up chances of making it into Heaven. You know... the NORMAL saints.

And here's where the song comes in. Who CAN wait for Heaven? Why would anyone want to stay here in this world, when the option of going to Heaven faster is out there? Seriously... Heaven is leaps and bounds beyond this world, and in every way possible. And, as the song's analogy goes, who wants to walk when they were born to fly? And born to fly we were. We were made for Heaven.

On further reflection, however, I retain my opinion that opting out of life in the quickest way possible isn't the right thing to do. And I'll use the priestly vocation to demonstrate why. It is, of course, my belief that if I'm called to be a priest (which happens to be what I believe), then I was called from the moment of my conception. And, naturally, I yearn to fulfill that vocation, and be ordained. It's only the proper order of things, if you want to do God's will, to be eager for the vocation he's called me to.

That does not mean that I should be skipping over years of childhood and seminary. Every one of those eight years of seminary is necessary before I'm ordained. I may desperately want to be a priest, and that my be where God is calling me... but all in due time. And when I'm ordained, assuming I'm like 95% of priests, I'm going to look back on Seminary as some of (if not all of) the best years of my life.

Similarly, we are supposed to live long and healthy lives, I hold. Martyrdom remains something to be bravely endured--not sought out. We should enjoy and relish this life. Eternity is eternal, so there's no rush to get there. This life has a point.


And...

On a totally differnt note, you know that Spring is here when you start seeing more female skin cropping up between pants and shirt in class.