The road to heaven

by Dr Raymond Perrier · January 26, 2014

There is an activity that we might spend more time doing than eating, watching TV, shopping, talking to our friends or even praying. It permeates our lives and causes many deaths. And yet do we ever reflect on how we find God in this? It is driving.

Some 1300 people were killed on our roads this festive season. So, do we take driving seriously? (Photo: Jusben/Morguefile)

Like many readers, I recently returned to a daily work schedule which involves driving to work, from work, and for work. After work, I even drive to a gym so I can then walk on a treadmill! And during those now distant weeks of holiday, I also spent many hours driving.

So where do we find God in this all-consuming activity? I have never read a spiritual book, attended a theology class or heard a homily that dealt with the morality of driving. A priest I know tells me that he has rarely heard anyone confess to bad, careless or drunken driving.

And yet whether we drive, how we drive and how we behave when we drive, all have deeply moral implications.

Some might be tempted to dismiss this as a trivial reflection but let me put some hard figures on it. During the �festive season� over 1300 people were killed on South Africa�s roads (and an additional 28000 were seriously injured). In fact, in relation to the size of population, South Africa is in the Global Top 10 in terms of road deaths.

Each of those deaths, as well as being a personal tragedy, has serious implications in terms of family life, national economic development, use of limited healthcare resources and the wasting of public and private time. The number of 1300 deaths is the equivalent of 30 Marikana shootings in the space of one month.

The road to heaven may be paved with good intentions but it is also littered with accidents, death and mayhem.

I fear that the fundamental problem is that we do not take driving seriously.

Imagine if an inventor came up with some great new device called an autogizmo. This clever thing would make life massively more convenient if used well. But if used carelessly or without proper training or while under the influence of alcohol, it would certainly be lethal to the user and to other passers-by.

Would we give this autogizmo to 17-year-olds to use unsupervised? Would we delight in adverts and films that glamorise the careless use of the gadget? Would we make jokes at parties about fellow guests who were going to use the autogizmo while drunk? Would we not feel ashamed if we ourselves were found using the gadget in a way that put other lives at risk?

We have become so addicted to our cars that we forget that when used carelessly they are also lethal weapons. I have seen middle-class mothers collecting their precious children from the school gates in expensive 4-wheel drives so that they face no possible risk�and then drive away with one hand on the wheel and the other hand and half their brains attached to a cellphone.

Many people have in their cars a rosary or a medallion of Our Lady or even of St Christopher. I fear that some Catholics treat these as a kind of talisman or lucky charm which will guard them against injury and so almost gives them permission to drive as badly as they like.

I suggest that instead we think of such religious images as a conscience reminder: if you can�t have your mother in the car all the time telling you to slow down, maybe the imagined voice of Our Blessed Mother will have the same calming effect. Or imagine if St Christopher�s voice acted as a kind of theological GPS offering us Scriptural verses to guide us on the roads ahead:

� When you are tempted to cut up someone who has cut you up: �Blessed are the merciful, for they will have mercy shown to them� (Mt 5:7).

� When you have been stopped by traffic cops and are tempted to offer a bribe: �Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness� (Is 5:20).

� When you are driving and feel that that cellphone call is more important than someone�s life: �Do not sweep my soul away with sinners in whose hands are evil devices and whose right hands are full of bribes� (Ps 26:9-10).

� When someone offers you �one for the road�: �Woe to him who makes his neighbours drink� (Hab 2:15).

� When you are tempted to fly into a rage at someone else�s bad driving: �Whoever says �you fool� will be liable to the judgment of hell� (Mt 5:22).

� When you drive past the hitch-hiker so obviously in need of a lift: �By chance a priest was going down the road and when he saw him he passed by on the other side� (Lk 10:31).

� When you drive over the speed limit because you think the speed cameras are not watching: �For we are brought to an end by your anger; you have set our iniquities before you; our secret sins in the light of your presence� (Ps 90:7-8).

� When you slip through a red light thinking� that it was so recently green: �Let your Yes be Yes and your No be No� (Mt 5:37).

I wish us all safe driving in 2014 and hope that we do not anticipate Heaven for ourselves or anyone else earlier than we are due.