By: Ken Rolheiser

The road up and the road down (are the same road)

Heraclitus said, “It is better to hide ignorance, but it is hard to do this when we relax over wine.” I have cast aside the wine bottle to write this.

This week a friend asked me to write a Faith story, some event that reflects my conversion or some deep faith experience. I decided to ponder before coming up with an answer.

Heraclitus also said: “Good character is not formed in a week or a month. It is created little by little, day by day. Protracted and patient effort is needed to develop good character.” And so it is with your life and mine. To most of us Divine Revelation comes by slow degrees.

My “conversion” experience follows this principle. I can recall events such as my Confirmation. I remember riding home from the church on the back of my Dad’s half-ton Chev realising that I had no deep understandings of faith. My head was empty.

I do recount a slow maturing in a family of solid religious values. Church going was simply every opportunity, whether Sunday or weekday. Daily family prayer was a constant. Examples of faith were abundant. God worked on us through our parents and our Christian community.

I tell you this not to brag about myself, but simply to show how I arrived at my present state of trying to be a good steward of God’s Word and the revelation given to us by Jesus Christ. We are invited to come forward with our gifts to serve others.

Sin is a part of our human existence and I am as frail as the next fellow is. As Hamlet put it, “I am indifferent honest, yet I could accuse me of such stuff it were better my mother had not borne me.” This is also me.

One of the lessons I learned from a Sunday homily compares us to fenced cattle, stretching our necks through the wire, reaching for the forbidden food. The true Christian is one who turns his back on the wire and seeks the truth at its source.

Heraclitus also said, “The road up and the road down are one and the same.” On the road of life it is more a question of which direction we choose to face, heaven or hell. Once we make a positive choice, then little by little, day by day, through patient effort we develop good character.

Once we have chosen God as our travel companion on the path of life, we move with hope. The mystery of what lies beyond the next hill is easier to accept. The cool breeze of God’s presence protects us, and we travel with light hearts.