In Thai we have an expression, ไม่มีอนาคต (to have no future). It can commonly be used by someone who is full, unable to eat more food. This means that the person has no future in eating. The road’s over. The road’s at an end. No future!

Well, I have a friend who cannot eat as much as her friends. What does she do? She often gives part of her meal to others. What is her logic? “I give my future away so that I can have a future.”

It’s a joke, a play on words, a fun turn of phrase.

But it’s also profoundly true.

It’s like the spiritual life. To hold onto our future means to not have a future.  To give our future away and be empty and able to receive – from our neighbours through the direct or indirect mediation of the Church, from our God himself – means to have a future. “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it” (Mt 16:25; cf Mt 10:39, Lk 9:24).

To have no future is the only way to have a future.