Embraced by mystery

 

It is Christmas. We welcome the Word-made flesh among us, as the greatest manifestation of God's love. Our life has meaning. The incompleteness, the never-ending journey of living life's questions and paradoxes without desiring to have all the answers, is sustained by our experience of God's tender love. He is the dawn from on high that slowly illumines the darkness. Yes, slowly, almost in a hidden way. And if we are willing to wait, God gives us a glimpse of the mystery.

Taking my life seriously

To fully live life is to decide to go through the painstaking process called growth. Growth requires patience and perseverance. Nothing that is valuable is ever achieved the easy way. Unfortunately, we look at waiting as a waste of time. We want to reach the top without any effort at all, using magical and instant solutions. Perhaps that is why we have no depth. That is why we run from one thrill to another, and another, and we are never satiated. That is why long-standing and permanent commitments are considered taboo. Fidelity is scoffed at as a sign of some personality disorder. Respect and decency are considered cowardice.
It is time to take our life seriously, after all, it is the only life we have. Let us not let the mob rule it. is this the life that I truly want? When I turn 80, will there be no regrets in the way I have lived my life? Will I be proud to say that, of course, my life is not perfect! I do have my share of failures and setbacks, but I tried to listen to the voice of my heart and live a life that is worth being called human.

God-centered

Today's Gospel was the Conversion of Saint Paul. The priest very wisely reminded us that conversion is first of all interior, allowing God to be the Lord of my life. What is seen on the outside is a natural consequence of the change within.
Perhaps the reason why my many resolutions fail within a day or two is that I focus more on the right thing to do, the right thng to say, the right thing to feel. Instead, I should be more focused on who is really the "hinge" that moves me.
What happened to Saint Paul is what happens to us when we allow God to take hold of our heart. There is no room for volunteerism, only for waiting, for opening ourselves to receive God as pure gift. Our weaknesses, our relapses will not frighten us, because we give up our agenda, we renounce the desire to have control.
And when we are no longer focused on "being" good and in "doing" good, but just on God, that is conversion. It is when we really start to be good and to do good.

God bless all families

We didn't come into this world by ourselves. We weren't born alone. Our birth may have had different circumstances but it was always by way of another person. Good or bad, in joy or in sorrow, we cannot deny that we are tied to our families. With a little humility and sincerity, we will say that we owe our life to our family.
No family is perfect, as nothing in this world is perfect.
Let us pray for families: those who courageously face life's challenges; the weak and wounded families; those who are suffering; those who dream a better future; those who only live for the present moment, without a higher horizon; those who struggle to put together the broken pieces of their life; those who wait, because circumstances force them to, and those who wait with trust in their heart because God is faithful to His promises.
Lord Jesus, you who chose to be born in a family, bless all families of the world. Amen.

Waiting for God's time

To wait for God's time is not to wait until God does what we want.
To wait for God's time is to wait until our hearts are transformed to see God in whatever happens.

A prayer for one who is in pain

If I can only make things better for you, I will do so. But we know that each one of us must make our own journey and write our own life story with the God of love.
I entrust you to Mother Mary. May you rest in her arms where she cradles you as you cry your silent tears. May her hands, seasoned by life's experiences, wipe away the tears in your eyes so that you may see shafts of light, one at a time, until you are able to see and touch again the rainbow that has always been there in the horizon.

New life

It is one of the great paradoxes that in order to have life one must die. And what is death if not the cutting off of everything that is familiar!
When we were born we had to leave the security of our mother's womb. This deatchment is rendered more clearly by the cutting of the umbilical cord.
Then we pass on from the safety of our home to something bigger. On our first day in school we had to struggle, holding on to mommy's hand. It wasn't easy to let go of that familiar hand but we knew that we cannot go and run around with the other kids unless we let go of that hand.
And so our life is marked by different kinds of dying; some of them more painful and more permanent than the others. There is always the resistance to enter into the unknown, to let go of the present state of things since, for all its imperfections, the present state gives us a sense of security.
But you know, deep in your heart, that you have to make a choice. You may either let go of the present and enter into the unknown, armed only with the certainty that the One who has been with you through your many deaths will continue to be with you; or you may choose to resist, to wallow in bitterness and disappointment or to live in a dream world that is only in your mind .
We were born without our permission, but our birth into new life is a choice only we can make.

Time

 "This experience has marked my life. I am never the same. Suddenly I feel as if my heart has been torn apart and it is going to take a long time to heal. I will take this time and be gentle with myself. I will entrust myself to Jesus, the friend who never fails. He alone can heal me.
I hope that when you read this, you will be okay.
Take care always and remember, especially in your difficult moments, what an amazingly strong woman you have become." 

I wrote this to myself a year ago. I don't even remember having written this letter to myself. As I read and re-read every line, it dawned on me how time is a great healer.
I am okay now. In fact, I could say that I am in a good place.
But I had to respect the law of time. Time is its own rule. It cannot be hurried. It cannot be brought back, nor can it be anticipated.
And it turns out that what I wished for myself a year ago all came true.
But it took time...

On the pains of growing

There are no shortcuts to growth. And there are no proxies, either.