God's children

"See what great love the Father has lavished on us by letting us be called God's children - which is what we are!" (1 John 3:1)
What an unbelievable affirmation! In a world where we need to prove ourselves in order to matter, this is indeed too good to be true. But it is.
We are not orphans. We have a mother and a father in God.
Let this unprecedented gift sink in. Open your heart to God. It won't make your life easier, but it sure will make your life worth living.

A haunting image

May we really learn to weep in the face of others' suffering.
When we weep on behalf of people we don't even know, it is a sign that we have finally understood that we are all brothers and sisters, we are all one family.
We should be ashamed to flaunt our riches and so-called progress when we allow our brothers and sisters, especially the most helpless ones, to struggle to defend the most basic right that we have, the right to life.

May there be no more weeping children

For yesterday's Feast of the Holy Innocents

Dear God,
we pray for all the innocent children who are daily brought to the slaughterhouse, condemned to die without defense. Their crime? They are "not in our plans". They upset our projects. Please grant them eternal peace, a special place in heaven where there is no more weeping, where they can be as carefree as they want to be, for they are children, after all.
We have blood in our hands. We confess our sins of ignorance, indifference, greed and self-centeredness. We have our values turned upside down. Forgive us.
May there be no more weeping of mothers who are forced to lose their children. May there be no more Herods blinded with insecurity who turn into lunatic murderers. May there be no more children deprived of the light of day because of human decision.
Amen.

Mothers

Yesterday was Mother's Day. Since it was a Sunday, I didn't open my Facebook page (it is sort of a personal discipline for me that I don't use the internet on Sundays) and missed a wonderful message from a dear friend:
"Mother's day is a wonderful time for each of us to take a moment and honor motherhood. Motherhood is not merely defined by the bearing and raising of children but is rather a statement regarding the divine nature of women. All women, whether or not they bear children, can fulfill the role of mothers. The work they do should also be remembered as we celebrate Mother's Day. Happy Mother's Day ..., thank you for all that you do and for taking good care of our youth...the hope of our future, the future of our Church. God bless always."

I pray that all women may not renounce their unique privilege of being mothers, God's collaborators in creating life and in making it grow. 
May we look at our children as God's gifts, not as product of our arrogant and sophisticated intelligence.
May we respect our children as unique individuals with a life of their own, not as trophies to banner around when we want to. 
May we patiently teach our children, first through our life and then through words, that life has a purpose that is found only in a true relationship with God.
May we be guardians of life, of each person's equal right to it, despite the gloomy external circumstances.
May we be expressions of the God who delights at our happiness and wipes away the tears when we are heartbroken.

Free

Jesus came not to abolish the law but to bring it to completion. And what is the completion of the law? That we don't need laws anymore because we have come to the profound realization that, since we are children of God, we are free. As St. Paul said, we don't use our freedom as a cloak for vice but to pursue true love.

Looking for joy

I have often wondered why people want to amass so much money than they can spend in their lifetime ...
or why people march behind the battlecry "freedom to do what I want" ...
or why people engage or remain in abusive relationships and habits ...
or why people spend a good deal of their time and energy in running after success, accomplishments and recognition ...
I think that at the root of each of this is really the cry of the human heart to be happy. In whatever age or situation, we look for joy. Even our faith in God is, to a great extent, motivated by the quest for joy.
The problem is, we forget about this "end" of our searching. We focus on the means, the ones I've listed above. Like blind persons running around in circles, we accomplish them yet we crave for more. We are never satiated because we forget, in the first place, what we are looking for: it's not money, nor beauty, nor health, nor success... It's all about joy, the real one.
I think we should shift gears. We should stop running after things, people, fleeting pleasures, etc. because our very experiences tell us that they will never give us true joy.
Instead, we must acquire the eyes of a child that is capable of awe and wonder in front of the most ordinary, everyday thing.
Joy is always before us, within our grasp, through the most unexpected ways.
We must let go of our adult, sophisticated ways and become like children.

"I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike." (Mt 11:25)
"Unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven." (Mt 18:3)

Children of the World