I Take off the MASK!

Perfect joy could not be joy alone but must be a joy that somehow contains our past grief and sadness and longing. – Jessica Mesman Griffith, Love and Salt

To really grieve for something is to have truly valued it, for if we grieve not for a thing lost, we have not found that thing at all.

We can console ourselves by saying that what’s truly important is the journey, and the time of togetherness, but deep within our hearts, we ask, “What good is our time of meeting if sooner or later, we must part?”

Those who say it is but sufficient to love for a moment have not truly loved, for love always desires to last forever. It isn’t enough to have loved for a single day. It isn’t enough to love for a lifetime. It isn’t enough to love for ten thousand years. If we truly love, we want to love without end for only in love is there life.

Grieve if you must, for it has shown that you have loved. We grieve as much as we have been made happy. We grieve as much as we have been made alive.

Grief is our bridge towards joy – joy that has passed, and joy that is to come. Only those who grieve desire to hope, for hope is our only consolation in our time of parting. With God, we know that we do not hope in vain for time shall surely come when our grief shall turn to joy again and that joy can never ever be taken away!

Therefore you now have sorrow, but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you. – John 16:22, WEB-BE

You are the light of the world. A city located on a hill can’t be hidden. Neither do you light a lamp, and put it under a measuring basket, but on a stand; and it shines to all who are in the house. Even so, let your light shine before men; that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven. – Matthew 5:14-16, WEB-BE

We can either multiply goodness or we can multiply what’s bad. We can be channels of positive energy, or we can be channels of negative emotions.

We can start the day whining and spread feelings of discontent all around us. Or we can start it with cheerfulness and inspire others with our smile.

Quite often we may feel powerless to change the world. And we use this as an excuse to withdraw our contribution. Yet whether we are aware of it or not, we are always contributing something to our environment.

We cannot know for certain, but right where we are, we can already be either promoters of despair, or we can be models of perseverance. Other people may be catching our sarcasm or they may be catching our faith.

Given the chance, what would you like to pass on that will make ever increasing ripples around you? I hope you choose to multiply what is good.

The sin which we have in us emerges from us and spreads outside ourselves, setting up a contagion of sin. Thus, when we are in a temper, those around us grow angry… But at the contact of a perfectly pure being there is a transmutation, and the sin becomes suffering. Such is the function of the just servant of Isaiah, of the Lamb of God. Such is redemptive suffering. All the criminal violence of the Roman Empire ran up against Christ, and in him it became pure suffering. – Simone Weil

“Everything beautiful has a mark of eternity.”
-Simone Weil, Lectures on Philosophy

Whenever we see true beauty, there is a desire deep within our souls to keep it. We want it to last. Such is the power of beauty. It transcends time and sends us forth towards eternity.

Somehow, there is a part of us that protests against something beautiful fading away. It just doesn’t seem right for a beautiful thing to die.

Why must something beautiful be brought to decay? Why must something that took us away from our sorrowful pre-occupations be lost forever, never to be found again? Where is comfort to be found?

When we see eternity in the beauty of a rose, we find comfort in knowing that though the rose itself may wither, its beauty remains forever in our hearts. And with this we wonder that perhaps there could really be an immortal soul. For if the soul itself cannot contain all memories of the beautiful, where must all such beauty go?

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in their hearts… – Ecclesiastes 3:11, WEB-BE

“Imaginary evil is romantic and varied; real evil is gloomy, monotonous, barren, boring. Imaginary good is boring; real good is always new, marvelous, intoxicating.” – Simone Weil

Try to see things for what they really are, not for what they appear to be. There are some things which appear to be good but are indeed evil. And there are some things that appear to be bad, but are truly good for you.

Evil often wears a mask. It deceives us into thinking it is always pleasurable and always to our benefit. While it may be pleasurable, it gives us a lie, because whatever pleasure it can give us is only temporary, it could never last.

On the other hand, the reason why we fail to see the true face of goodness is that we fail to develop the spiritual eyes to see it. For so long, we have been accustomed to seeing only what’s corruptible and fleeting that our eyes are strained once we begin to look at what’s truly beautiful and eternal.

With prayer however, we can be granted the eyes to see what’s beautiful and true. With God’s grace, our spiritual eyes can be purified so we can see what’s pure.

Now the natural man doesn’t receive the things of God’s Spirit, for they are foolishness to him, and he can’t know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual discerns all things, and he himself is judged by no one. “For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he should instruct him?” But we have Christ’s mind. – 1 Corinthians 2:14-16, WEB-BE

For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. – 2 Timothy 1:7, KJV

It takes a lot of courage to face life. To continuously perform our obligations, to face the loss of people we value so much, to undergo excruciating physical and emotional pain – these are just some of the problems that wrench our hearts and tempt us to seek means of alleviation and escape.

Some find their escape in bad habits. Some find it in illusions. Some try to find it in people who only fail them one after the other.

There are some however, who, instead of trying to escape, try their very best to face the challenges coming their way. They too, know their weaknesses, and they too, fear much the problems and sufferings coming their way.

But deep within them, they know they couldn’t just give up. Deep within them, they know that though the struggle wouldn’t be easy, there is no other option but to fight and carry on. Why? Because the urge to love has become in them more important than the urge to escape. Because more than their fear of pain or suffering, they fear of love being extinguished from their hearts.

Thus, though they frightened, they gain courage. Though they fall, they rise again. They choose hope instead of despair. They choose life instead of escaping it.

Fill your hearts then with as much love as it can contain. Consider not yourselves alone but others who need you and care for you. Consider God Himself who goes with you through your darkest sufferings. You are never alone, never unloved. Fear not your weaknesses. If you have much love, you will also have much strength.

“Faced with today’s problems and disappointments, many people will try to escape from their responsibility. Escape in selfishness, escape in sexual pleasure, escape in drugs, escape in violence, escape in indifference and cynical attitudes. I propose to you the option of love, which is the opposite of escape.”- Pope John Paul II