Shortcut to heaven

“Race you to our house, Grandma!” Freddie challenged his grandmother as he stepped out of her house.

“You’re on, Freddie!” She surprised him with her eager acceptance.

Without a word, Freddie dashed out and headed straight for his house.

“Not fair, kiddo!” his grandma screamed. “We should run off together.” But it was too late; Freddie was too far and deaf to her protest.

The boy ran as fast as he could and in no time reached the curve where his house was. He jumped the porch landing and cheered, “I win! I win!”

He opened the door and headed for the kitchen for a rewarding ice-cold juice drink. As he entered the kitchen, the backdoor swung open and to his surprise his grandmother appeared.

“Whuh!” He gaped at his grandmother. “Ho . . . how did you get here so fast, Grandma?” He totally forgot about his thirst.

“Oh, really nothing, kiddo! No sweat at all!” She clipped a stray silver hair lock behind her ear. “Fix you a drink, Mr. Speedy? Oh! But you look so tired and you’re sweating all over.”

Freddie could not believe what he heard. He arrived first, but how did his grandma arrive fresh as a daisy? He was disappointed.

“It’s not fair!” Freddie began crying. “How did you get here so fast without even getting tired?

“Look, Freddie dear, it’s not about running fast. It’s about knowing what route to take. In other words”—she winked at him—“I took a secret shortcut!”

“A shortcut? You cheated!” Freddie cried even more.

“Hey, cut the crying,” his grandma said. “You’re the one who took off without even waiting for me to get ready. That wasn’t fair, but I didn’t complain, did I?”

“No,” said Freddie and stopped crying.

“So you want some juice, dear?”

“Yes (sniffling), but can you teach me the secret shortcut?”

“Of course!” She handed him some juice.

“How did you learn about the shortcut, Grandma?”

“When Mom and Dad got married, they lived in this house. Sometimes there were emergencies when she needed me to help in like parties, and even some housekeeping.”

“So . . . ?”

“So I had to get here really quick, and I discovered that by cutting through some bushes and passing under some hedges, I could get here faster than running up the road.”

“Teach me, Grandma! Teach me! Pleeease!”

“We’ll have to leave that for tomorrow ’coz it’s already late.”

“Oh, okay, but you promise!”

“I don’t have to promise, Freddie. I will gladly teach you.”

“Thank you, Grandma.”

“But why do you want to learn it?”

“So I can beat Stella?” he said grinning mischievously.

“You naughty boy,” his grandma jokingly scolded him. “But you know, Freddie, it’s more important to know a shortcut to heaven.”

“Shortcut to heaven?”

“Yeah, didn’t your mom tell you about it?”

“Nope, what would that shortcut be, Granny?”

“It’s the rosary.” She pulled out her beads.

“No thanks! That’s a very looong prayer,” Freddie complained.

“But don’t you want to go to heaven?” his grandma asked.

“Yes, but isn’t the rosary lohhhng and bohhhring?”

“It may be at first, but it’s a shortcut because it compresses everything about Jesus and Mary, in one wonderful prayer, which is like an easy ladder of beads to climb to heaven.”

“Compressed?”

“Yes, like put together intensely . . .”

“You mean like multivitamins!”

“That’s a nice way of putting it, but yes, also.”

“Okay, but can I start not so compressed?”

“What do you mean?”

“Like if we can say the rosary shortcut?”

“How would that be?”

“You say half and I say the other,” was his practical reply.

“You’re being a smart-alec, Freddie. Just remember that the more you try to cut corners, the more corners there are,” his grandma said.

* * *

There are no shorter cuts for what are already shortcuts. Besides, when one is in love, that is, when one understands what he does and the reason behind it, then there is nothing that will be either too long or burdensome because love surpasses all obstacles. If we find the rosary long or boring, perhaps, our love is short.

Blessed John Paul II says that the rosary is the “true doorway to the depths of the Heart of Christ, ocean of joy and of light, of suffering and of glory.” But so we can imagine to enter such a door, we must become small like children—by being simple and docile—so that we can slip easily into Christ’s heart.

Thus, St. Josemaría recommends in his little book on the Rosary, “My friend, if you want to be great, become little. To be little it is necessary to believe as children believe, to love as children love, to give yourself up as children give themselves up . . . to pray as children pray. And all of this is necessary to accomplish what I am going to reveal to you in these lines: ‘The beginning of the way,’ at the end of which you will find yourself completely carried away with love for Jesus, is a confident love for Mary.”