Fr. Rolheiser writes that he is old enough to have known another time when things were different when many of life’s pleasures weren’t available, and people made due, celebrating what there was to celebrate and not over-expecting. Back then, few expected or demanded the whole pie. Heaven was seen as something for later. There is today too little talk, in our churches and in the world, about the “vale of tears” and the incompleteness of our present lives. Spiritualities of the resurrection and psychologies of self-actualization, whatever their other strengths, no longer give us permission to be in pain, to be unwhole, ill, unattractive, aged, unfulfilled, or even just alone on a Friday night. Unless every pleasure that we yearn for can be tasted, we cannot be happy. Because of this, we over-expect. We stand before life and love in a greedy posture and with unrealistic expectations, demanding the resolution of all our eros and tension. However, life in this world can never give us that. We are pilgrims on earth, exiles journeying towards home. The world is passing away. We have God’s word for it. And we need God’s word for it! Too much in our experience today militates against the fact that here in this life, all symphonies remain unfinished Somehow, we have come to believe that a final solution for the burning tensions within us lies within our present grasp. I am not sure who or what gives us this idea. In a culture (and, at times, in a church) that tells us that no happiness is possible unless every ache and restlessness inside of us is fulfilled, how hard it is to be happy. Yet we must remember the Creator did not just make us for life after death; He also intended some life after birth! We are meant to rest joyfully in God’s great gifts – life, love, youth, health, friendship, and sexuality – even as they are limitedly given in this life. Those who live this philosophy in life, I am sure, are much more restful on Friday nights!