– Brought to you by Fr. Bernardino Andrade: (bernardinodandrade@gmail.com)
In a mother’s womb were two babies; one asked the other: «Do you believe in life after delivery? ». The other replied «Why, of course. There has to be something after delivery. Maybe we are here to prepare ourselves for what we will be later. » …
« Nonsense », said the first, « There is no life after delivery. What kind of life would that be? ».
The second said «I don’t know, but there will be more light than here. Maybe we will walk with our legs and eat from our mouth. Maybe we will have other senses that we can’t understand now».
The first replied – «That is absurd. Walking is impossible. And eating with our mouths? Ridiculous! The umbilical cord supplies nutrition and everything we need. But the umbilical cord is so short. Life after delivery is to be logically excluded. ».
The second insisted – «Well I think there is something, and maybe it’s different from life here. Maybe we won’t need this physical cord anymore. ».
The first replied: « Nonsense. And moreover, if there is life, then why has no one ever come back from there? Delivery is the end of life, and in the after-delivery there is nothing but darkness and silence and oblivion. It takes nowhere. ».
«Well, I don’t know, » said the second, «but certainly we will meet Mother and she will take care of us. ».
The first replied «Mother? You actually believe in Mother? That’s laughable. If Mother exists then where is She now? ».
The second said: «She is all around us. We are surrounded by her. We are of Her. It is in Her that we live. Without Her this world would not and could not exist. ».
«Well I don’t see her, so it is only logical that she doesn’t exist», said the first, to which the second replied: «Sometimes, when you’re in silence and you focus and listen, you can hear Her loving voice, calling down from above. ».
Sometimes we are like the two babies in the story, and we ask: “Is there life after death?”… “Does God exist?”
I have heard that even though birds are surrounded by air, they don’t see the air. Fish are surrounded by water, but the last thing they see is the water. We are so immersed in God. We are completely soaked in God like a sponge with water. We are completely surrounded by God like babies by their mother’s wombs, like birds by air and fish by water but we are so distracted by the «life» and the «needs» created by us that we take the risk of even saying and feeling that God doesn’t exist unless like the second baby says «Sometimes, when you are in silence and focus and listen we can hear HIS loving voice, calling down from above».
Love and Peace,
Fr. Bernardino Andrade