I Take off the MASK!

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“Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.” – Luke 23:34, WEB-BE

Sometimes, people are not really as bad as they seem to be. That is why we should give a little more room to doubt rather than judgment, and to forgiveness rather than hate.

It’s not always easy to understand where people are coming from. We can try our very best to guess, but that doesn’t mean we’d be a hundred percent correct.

We may see people acting in annoying ways today and then see them doing kindly deeds tomorrow. We may hear people saying hurtful words today and then see them encouraging others sometime soon.

We can easily get discouraged if we judge people just by what we see and know about them today. But there is hope when we remember that every human being has been created in the very image of God. Somehow, this hope can lead us to believe in the goodness that can still remain in one’s soul. Somehow, we can humble ourselves in not knowing whether the people we find so sinful today will be the heroic saints of tomorrow, praying for us and guiding us when we ourselves have lost our way.

“For myself, I find I become less cynical rather than more–remembering my own sins and follies; and realize that men’s hearts are not often as bad as their acts, and very seldom as bad as their words.” – J.R.R. Tolkien, The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien

“Love cannot be love if it doesn’t get angry with evil. God cannot be truly merciful if He cannot be just.” – Jocelyn Soriano

When he opened the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been killed for the Word of God, and for the testimony of the Lamb which they had. They cried with a loud voice, saying, “How long, Master, the holy and true, until you judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” – Revelations 6:9-10, WEB-B=E

We should never presume so quickly that our anger is just, for we often get angry for all the wrong reasons. We are also prone to exaggerating both the wrongs done to us and the punishment that our transgressors deserve.

But there is an anger that is just, an anger that seeks for God’s mercy and for God’s vengeance. There is an anger that is lit by a true thirst for justice and for virtue. There is such an anger that is almost like a prayer. It ascends towards heaven and reaches the ears of God.

“You shall not take advantage of any widow or fatherless child. If you take advantage of them at all, and they cry at all to me, I will surely hear their cry; and my wrath will grow hot, and I will kill you with the sword; and your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless.

“If you lend money to any of my people with you who is poor, you shall not be to him as a creditor. You shall not charge him interest. If you take your neighbour’s garment as collateral, you shall restore it to him before the sun goes down, for that is his only covering, it is his garment for his skin. What would he sleep in? It will happen, when he cries to me, that I will hear, for I am gracious.

-Exodus 22:22-27, WEB-BE

God of my praise, don’t remain silent,
for they have opened the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of deceit against me.
They have spoken to me with a lying tongue.
They have also surrounded me with words of hatred,
and fought against me without a cause.
In return for my love, they are my adversaries;
but I am in prayer.
They have rewarded me evil for good,
and hatred for my love.
Set a wicked man over him.
Let an adversary stand at his right hand.
When he is judged, let him come out guilty.
Let his prayer be turned into sin.
…
because he didn’t remember to show kindness,
but persecuted the poor and needy man,
the broken in heart, to kill them.
-Psalm 109:1-7,16 WEB-BE

“We may run, walk, stumble. drive, or fly, but let us never lose sight of the reason for the journey, or miss a chance to see a rainbow on the way.” – Gloria Gaither

1. Unexpected things happen. Both the desirable and the undesirable. Learn to accept both.

2. Not everything is going to be perfect, but the journey itself can still be considered blessed where the truly important things are protected.

3. Make the most of the place where you are. You may not pass that way again.

4. Some things are meant to happen no matter how much we try to prepare for everything.

5. God’s provisions are always enough.

6. Be grateful for moments of consolation and inspiration.

7. Be patient in times of waiting.

8. Rest when you can no longer go on.

9. There will be times of conflict and exhaustion. Remember that these will only be temporary.

10. Never give up!

“I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you shall go.” – Psalm 32:8, WEB-BE

“It has been said that life has treated me harshly; and sometimes I have complained in my heart because many pleasures of human experience have been withheld from me…if much has been denied me, much, very much, has been given me…” – Helen Keller (deaf and blind author, lecturer and political activist)

We all suffer some kind of loss somehow. Few are those who are able to go through life unscarred. Some suffer the loss of a job. Some suffer the loss of health. Some suffer the loss of a dream. Some suffer the loss of relationships. Some suffer the loss of the people they love the most.

It’s in the nature of this life to suffer loss. No sooner do clouds form that they lose themselves and fall down upon us as rain. No sooner does the moon shine that it suffers the loss of night and it gives way towards a brand new sunrise for all of us. Even a seed loses itself and gets buried deep into the ground to give way for a growth that allows it to rise higher than it could ever think it could.

We are not the only ones who suffer some kind of loss. But we are also not the only ones who are continuously been given opportunities to gain something else. Another job perhaps, another dream, or other friends who can embrace us and share both our deepest griefs and our highest joys.

Not that anything else can replace what we have lost. Not that we could ever fill the emptiness the important people have left in our hearts. But that in time, our hearts are healed and we increase in our capacity to receive other valuable things in our lives. In time, we begin to understand God’s great design where things are lost but for a moment, to give way for all the other things that will bring us happiness for all eternity.

Therefore we don’t faint, but though our outward man is decaying, yet our inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is for the moment, works for us more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory; while we don’t look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. – 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, WEB-BE

“Without mercy we have little chance nowadays of becoming part of a world of ‘wounded’ persons in need of understanding, forgiveness, love.”- Pope Francis

Those who seem tough aren’t always the strongest. Those who always seem to know it all aren’t always the wisest. Those who seem righteous aren’t always the holiest ones.

With this insight, can we now begin to see others not for the masks they wear, but for who they really are? Can we now begin to feel less insecure or less angry, knowing that the person who seems to speak the loudest may be the one who hurts or fears the most deep in his heart?

May God give us eyes to see what’s truly in another person’s soul. May He give us eyes that are not quick to judge, but that which is patient in ever searching for what’s worth loving in others, especially those who seem most unworthy of our love.

But when they continued asking him, he looked up and said to them, “He who is without sin amongst you, let him throw the first stone at her.” – John 8:7, WEB-BE