Charles “Chuck” Yeager, after entering the United States Air Force pilot training school, had an extensive professional career comprising several important moments. Perhaps the most important, or at least the one that made him famous, happened on October 14, 1947.
That day, while piloting the Bell X-1 aircraft, which he named “Glamorous Glennis” in honor of his wife, he broke the sound barrier, and along with it several scientific myths that were taken for granted at that time. The best known of these myths was held by researchers who claimed to have reliable scientific data confirming that it was impossible to overcome the sound barrier because the aircraft would be destroyed when it reached such speed.
Chuck, who had the rare ability to convert his subjective flight experiences into objective data for the engineers monitoring his flights, was not intimidated by the supposed scientific data and accepted the challenge of breaking the sound barrier. He would later say: “I flew at supersonic speeds for 18 seconds. There was no buffet, no jolt, no shock. Above all, no brick wall to smash into. I was alive.” He then reflected: “I realized that the mission had to end in a let-down because the real barrier wasn’t in the sky but in our knowledge and experience of supersonic flight.”
In the Christian life we can have a similar experience. Many of our defects, imperfections, and vices seem like they are impenetrable barriers or impossible to overcome; or that we cannot live without them; or that life will become impossible for us if we try to live it virtuously, stripped of those temporal pleasures, and we give up in the face of the challenge, instead of trying like Chuck did.
The Christian life, the path of virtue and the Gospel values, contains a beauty and a joy that is hidden from those people who do not live it fully, those who live as if stumbling along by constantly following the sinful inclinations of their passions and who do not decide to overcome the barrier of those inclinations.
The experience of the saints teaches us that, once the barrier of the sinful inclinations of our passions is overcome, life, like Chuck’s flight, no longer has buffets, jolts, or shocks; on the contrary, it begins to be a serene and calm life, fully joyful with a joy that only those who have overcome that barrier can experience.
We must not pay attention to the “scientific” myths of our passions that tell us that it is impossible to overcome the barrier of evil, but rather we must encourage ourselves to cross that barrier in order to transform our life. Then we will see that this barrier, as Chuck said speaking of the sound barrier, is not real, but exists only in our head, and that life becomes more satisfying and rewarding once it is overcome.
