The celebrated 1992 movie 1492: Conquest of Paradise prompted me to reflect on a very basic question which nowadays, due to the hustle and bustle of life, risks being neglected. Can paradise be conquered?

Before addressing this question, I would like to ask and reply to another fundamental question: what is paradise in the first place? If by paradise we are meaning a state of eternal harmony, joy, contemplation and being one with the universe, then God is paradise. Psalm 16, 11 says: “Thou dost show me the path of life; in thy presence there is fullness of joy, in thy right hand are pleasures for evermore.”

God’s glorifying presence is perfect order and harmony. St Paul in his letter to the Ephesians alludes to this reality when he writes: “The God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory …[who] fills all in all” (Eph 1, 17. 23). It is He, the Father, who sends through Christ the Holy Spirit, “the Spirit of truth” (Jn 15, 26), the Spirit of eternal order, so that those who receive him in faith can live in God’s heavenly kingdom from this world.

The letter to the Romans tells us clearly that “the kingdom of God is not food and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Rom 14, 17). Are not righteousness, peace and joy the values which we long for? How can we achieve them?

The question needs to be reformulated. How can we let righteousness, peace and joy of the Holy Spirit master us? How can we afford to be conquered by God’s holy presence?

How can we permit paradise to conquer us? The answer is simple: recommitting ourselves to the Holy Spirit, our true neighbour.

Twice the book of the Song of Songs encourages us to let God conquer us: “I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine” (Song 2, 16; 6, 3).

Lord, you are my beloved. You are mine and I am yours. Set me as a seal upon your heart. I ask this in Jesus’ precious name. AMEN.

Fr Mario Attard OFM Cap

San Gwann