I Take off the MASK!

Grief and Healing - Download the eBook

Put faith into practice by thinking on these four truths: God is always present. Nothing happens without his permission or outside of his will. Anything we do to others we do to him. All kindness and goodness are in him. – St. Bernadette

God is protecting us. In ways unknown and invisible, in ways mysterious and wise. We may not see it, we may not feel it; but God is keeping us from harm.

O, if we could only see the invisible walls surrounding us, defending us from evils we cannot see. If we only knew how many times we have been saved from harm, protected from crosses too hard for us to bear! Without this shield, who knows what tragedies we’d have faced already, or what enemies would have already entered into our lives?

God loves us so much that He would not allow any pain or problem to touch us if it would not lead to our greater good and glory. He watches over us and has put us under the shadow of His wings.

Haven’t you made a hedge around him, and around his house, and around all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land. – Job 1:10 (WEB)

When pride comes, then comes shame, but with humility comes wisdom. – Proverbs 11, WEB

What is true humility? It is being able to see who we are and who God is. It is acknowledging that we make mistakes, and without God’s grace, we can certainly make bigger ones. It is seeing ourselves in others who lose their way, in those who seem unlovable from the outside, in those who continue to fall no matter how good their intentions were.

Humility is truth and truth is humility. It is not a pretense. It is not a call to devalue oneself or to lose one’s sense of worth. Humility is seeing our true worth in God’s own eyes, and therefore also the worth of others who are created in God’s own image.

Do not imagine that if you meet a really humble man he will be what most people call “humble” nowadays: he will not be a sort of greasy, swarmy person, who is always telling you that, of course, he is nobody. Probably all you will think about him is that he seems a cheerful, intelligent chap who took a real interest in what you said to him. If you do dislike him it will be because you feel a little envious of anyone who seems to enjoy life so easily. He will not be thinking about humility: he will not be thinking about himself at all. – C.S.Lewis

It would be easier to forgive others if we do not judge them quickly of guilt and evil intentions. Yes, this is difficult, at times, almost impossible! And this is most challenging for offenses that seem blatantly grievous and hurting. Our own rational thinking can’t find a way to even imagine how a person with good intentions could actually end up committing serious sins. But then let us be humble enough to admit that even the most intelligent among us can be wrong, and even the most good intentioned people hurt others sometimes.

This is not to lose our discernment between what is right or wrong. And this is not to be negligent by allowing abuse on those who hurt us again and again.

But this is to put a benefit of the doubt to help us avoid judging others too soon. While we can judge their act or their tendency to commit sins, we must leave room somewhere and let God be the one to decide if such people are beyond redemption, and if such people are without any sort of goodness remaining in their souls. Only God can truly see everything. Let us not burden our hearts with things our limited vision can see.

If I see people do anything which clearly seems to be sin, I cannot make up my mind that they have offended God; and if I dwell upon this at all,–which happens rarely or never,–I never can make up my mind, though I see it plainly enough . It seems to me that everybody is as anxious to serve God as I am. And herein God has been very gracious unto me, for I never dwell on an evil deed, to remember it afterwards and if I do remember it, I see some virtue or other in that person. – Life of St. TERESA of Avila

Luke 6:36-38 (WEB) “Therefore be merciful, even as your Father is also merciful. Don’t judge, and you won’t be judged. Don’t condemn, and you won’t be condemned. Set free, and you will be set free.
“Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, will be given to you.For with the same measure you measure it will be measured back to you.”

Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, outcry, and slander be put away from you… be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving each other, just as God also in Christ forgave you. -Ephesians 4, WEB

Sometimes we find it hard to forgive because we feel that it isn’t fair for us to just let go of our grudge against someone. We feel that the people who offended or hurt us deserve our hatred, not our love. But O, how great a sacrifice on our part! How we suffer from lack of peace. And how our hearts are burdened by the pain of their transgressions.

Letting go of our grudge is not a sign of weakness but of strength. It is not being unkind to ourselves, but of truly loving ourselves.

It is never an easy task to let go of negative emotions. But we should do our very best and ask also for God’s help so that we may be able to let go of them.

Only when we’re able to free our hearts from the darkness would we be able to feel the light. And this light is the peace and happiness we have long been searching for.

When we are tempted to break God’s law, we must love ourselves too much to risk committing a… sin. – St. Bernadette