Our lives make a difference in time and even eternity

A very unusual church can be found at the upper level of the Spanish Steps, an architectural landmark in Rome. In the crypt of Santa Maria della Concezione are skeletons of more than 4,000 friars and destitute poor of Rome.

When a new Capuchin monastery was built in 1631, the graves of the friars and the poor buried at the monastery’s prior location were exhumed and brought to the new location. Instead of being reburied, the skulls and bones were arranged along the walls and ceilings of five underground chapels in the Baroque and Rococo artistic style. Here, the Capuchins would come to pray and reflect before retiring for the night.

A plaque in one of the chapels states, “What you are now, we once were; what we are now, you shall be,” written in three languages.

In their book “The Time Paradox (2008), psychologists Philip Zimbardo and John Boyd write: “We live in time like the fish lives in water. Time is the water that moves our stream of consciousness but despite its centrality in our lives, we seldom reflect upon the ways in which time draws boundaries and gives direction and depth to our lives.”

The ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus reflected on the passage of time and concluded, “No man ever steps into the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.”

Outside of the few who rise to a place in recorded history, the rest of us will have lost most of our significance to the living within three generations even if our lives have been fruitful and interactive with many others. In situations where all of our hard work seems to come to naught, we might wonder about the purpose of our lives and question all that we had come to trust and value.

Every person in every generation of time and throughout every type of economic situation experiences a range of success and failure, hope and discouragement, and joy and sorrow. Even Christ felt that he had failed to convince the apostles of the importance of His teaching when they did not stand by Him the night before His crucifixion. He even felt abandoned by the Father as he approached death on the cross, showing us that He experienced and understands human emotions.

Christ’s parables about the mustard seed and the lost sheep describe the potential and the value of the individual life. Every gardener confirms this belief as tiny seeds and seedlings are planted and nurtured in the expectation of a bountiful harvest or beautiful flowers.

Insignificant grains of sand carried by water can excavate deep canyons, and when borne by the wind will wear down high mountains. Even one grain can produce a valued pearl.

I once participated in a guided meditation where the leader asked the group to imagine walking along a sandy beach and picking up some sand in our hand. After trying to isolate just one grain of sand, we were to imagine the grain enlarged so that we could find the potential within it.

Almost immediately, without any prompting, my grain of sand turned into a little two-seater flying saucer, and I found myself in the co-pilot’s seat. As I looked to the left, I saw a Jesus-type of an individual with long, brown hair, sandals and a flowing, white robe that billowed out of the craft like a scene in the film “The English Patient.”

There was such a vibrant sense of joy and excitement in his demeanor as he instructed me in the use of the controls. We were to dart around the world and find people at the brink of desperation. He said it was my job to take aim and release a ray of light that would immediately change the countenance of the individual so that you knew the grace of God had penetrated the heart of the person.

There was so much joy in that imaginary grain-of-sand spacecraft that it was difficult to return my attention to the speaker in the conference room. Perhaps when each of us reaches out to another with a smile, a helping hand or a random act of kindness, we do make a difference, not only in time but also in eternity.

XDr. Agnes Martinko is a member of St. Edward Church, Youngstown.