One of the books on my high school required reading list was Sean Covey’s The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teens, an adaptation of his father Stephen Covey’s The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Twenty years later, I cannot recite all seven habits, but one habit has stayed with me, “Begin with the end in mind.”
I find myself returning to this advice when thinking about work deadlines, planning events, or tackling home improvement projects. What is it that I am trying to accomplish? From there, I work backwards and devise a plan to reach that end. Whether it is a short-term goal, like cleaning out the garage over the weekend, or a six-month work project, making a plan can feel empowering. It gives us a sense of hope that we can accomplish whatever it is that we have set out to do.
Reaching the end of the project can provide a feeling of accomplishment and perhaps even fulfillment, albeit usually brief, because before long, we are on to the next goal. The life that unfolds between these two moments, making the plan and reaching the goal, is where things get interesting. This is where the actual living takes place!
In the daily ins and outs of life, I can easily forget to apply the same habit to my life as a whole. In a truly eschatological sense, we are called to begin with the end in mind. Not simply the end of our lives on earth, but the end for which we are created: eternal communion with God. Chapter One of the Catechism begins, “The desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created by God and for God; and God never ceases to draw man to himself. Only in God will he find the truth and happiness he never stops searching for” (27).
If we consider our first personal encounter with Jesus Christ and coming to know him through the Sacraments as our starting point, and eternal life with him as our ultimate destination, everything in between is where the art of living comes into play. How we live each day should be shaped by this ultimate goal: growing in friendship with the Lord, in this life and the next. Praise God that this goal is already written in the human heart!
In his general audience on Wednesday, October 15, 2025, Pope Leo XIV spoke about our lives, this ‘time in between,’ as a pilgrimage of hope:
Our lives are marked by countless events, full of different nuances and experiences. At times we feel joyful, other times sad, other times fulfilled or stressed, gratified or demotivated. We live busy lives, we concentrate on achieving results, and we even attain lofty, prestigious goals. Conversely, we remain suspended, precarious, awaiting success and recognition that are delayed or do not arrive at all. In short, we find ourselves experiencing a paradoxical situation: we would like to be happy, and yet it is very difficult to be happy in a continuous way, without any shadows. We come to terms with our limitations and, at the same time, with the irrepressible urge to try to overcome them. We feel deep down that we are always missing something….
In truth, we were not created for lack, but for fullness, to rejoice in life, and life in abundance, according to Jesus’ expression in the Gospel of John (cf. 10:10).
This deep desire in our hearts can find its ultimate answer not in roles, not in power, not in having, but in the certainty that there is someone who guarantees this constitutive impulse of our humanity; in the awareness that this expectation will not be disappointed or thwarted. This certainty coincides with hope. This does not mean thinking in an optimistic way: often optimism lets us down, causing our expectations to implode, whereas hope promises and fulfils.
Sisters and brothers, the Risen Jesus is the guarantee of this deliverance! He is the wellspring that satisfies our thirst, the infinite thirst for fullness that the Holy Spirit imbues into our hearts. Indeed, the Resurrection of Christ is not a simple event of human history, but the event that transformed it from within.
Pope Leo XIV reminds us that the short-lived accomplishments, events, and prestigious goals of this world will not lead to our ultimate fulfillment. Our earthly lives are marked by the eschatological tension of the already, but not yet. The Kingdom of God is already at hand through Jesus Christ, his Incarnation, death, and Resurrection. Yet suffering, sin, and brokenness remain because we have not yet entered the fullness of his Kingdom. We experience this tension in our hearts and deep down, we can sense that something is still missing.
Pope Leo reminds us that we are not created for this lack that we experience. We are created for fullness! The longing that we experience points us to the One alone who can satisfy it.
We know the end of the story! But how easily we forget!
The Church, in her wisdom, continually reminds us of the hope we have in the Risen Christ. Through the liturgical seasons, we journey again and again through the life, death, and Resurrection of Christ. Even more profoundly, at every Mass, when the Church celebrates the Eucharist, the central event of our salvation becomes really present and we participate in the mystery of faith. This gives us the firm hope that Pope Leo is referring to!
In Ecclesia de Eucharistia, Saint John Paul II describes the Eucharist as a foretaste of heaven, an anticipation of the fullness of joy promised to us by Christ (cf. Jn 15:11). We do not have to wait until the end of our earthly pilgrimage to begin experiencing eternal life. As he reminds us, in the Eucharist, everything speaks of confident waiting “in joyful hope for the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ.”
Perhaps this is where we begin to understand the art of living. Beginning with the end in mind, then, is not about accomplishing a goal. It is about allowing our ultimate destination to shape how we live along the way. It is learning how to be a hopeful and Eucharistic people who recognize Christ in the ordinary moments of our lives and allowing our friendship with him to shape everything we do.
Amy Eschelbach is the Director of Programming for the National Eucharistic Congress. She holds a master’s in Pastoral Theology and has spent many years working in Catholic youth ministry. Her patron saint is Rose Philippine Duchesne and she resides in St. Louis, MO.
