Wednesday, December 16, 2009 (No. 44)
Hey you!
The root of man’s joy is the harmony he enjoys with himself. He lives in this affirmation. And only one who can accept himself can also accept the you, can accept the world. The reason why an individual cannot accept the you, cannot come to terms with him, is that he does not like his own I and, for that reason, cannot accept a you. Something strange happens here. We have seen that the inability to accept one’s I leads to the inability to accept a you. But how does one go about affirming, assenting to, one’s I? The answer may perhaps be unexpected: we cannot do so by our own efforts alone. Of ourselves, we cannot come to terms with ourselves. Our I becomes acceptable to us only if it has first become acceptable to another I. We can love ourselves only if we have first been loved by someone else. The life a mother gives to her child is not just physical life; she gives total life when she takes the child’s tears and turns them into smiles. It is only when life has been accepted and is perceived as accepted that it becomes also acceptable. Man is that strange creature that needs not just physical birth but also appreciation if he is to subsist… If an individual is to accept himself, someone must say to him: “It is good that you exist”—must say it, not with words, but with that act of the entire being that we call love. For it is the way of love to will the other’s existence and, at the same time, to bring that existence forth again. The key to the I likes with the you; the way to the you leads through the I.
God loved you first. That’s why you are here. That’s why our students are here. It is indeed good that you exist.
And to show us how to be fully a you and an I, Jesus came to be with us in a very real and tangible way, to live and be with us in every way but sin.
In the first chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, it is announced, “Behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel, which means ‘God is with us.’” At the end of the last chapter in Matthew, the last recorded words of Jesus are, “And behold, I Am with you always, until the end of the age.”
Through Him, with Him, in Him… May your heart be open wide to the graces of a merry and joyful Christmas.
Our Lady of Mercy, pray for us.
Monday, June 8, 2009 (No. 43)
Your life, your being, your very existence, is gift.
It is a gift given to you, for you to be you, for you to share.
The choice is yours.
Each new day is a gift.
Are you going to smile at it?
Or frown at it?
This is not some new age, psycho-babble hype.
The saints, sages, and shaman have been saying this for millenia.
Your life is a gift.
You are a gift to others around you,
to family, to friends, to neighbors, even to strangers.
You cannot add one day, hour, minute, or second to your life.
Come to think of it, even your next breath is gift,
despite your best attempts to try to control it at times.
True happiness and joy come only from a deep sense of gratitude.
And perhaps an honest smile can only come from a joyful heart.
Gratitude, to be grateful or not, that is the question.
The choice is yours.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009 (No. 42)
Today is the traditional solemn feast day of the Epiphany of the Lord. It celebrates the visit of the magi who followed the star from the east to see the “newborn king of the Jews” in Bethlehem. It also marks the twelfth and final day of Christmas.
The gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh in the beginning of His life are often associated with the threefold mission of Jesus Christ as priest, prophet, and king, which in turn, as Dorothy Day observes below, is intimately connected with the end of His life.
In Christ’s life there were always a few who made up for the neglect of the crowd. The shepherds did it; their hurrying to the crib atoned for the people who would flee from Christ. The wise men did it; their journey across the world made up for those who refused to stir one hand’s breadth from the routine of their lives to go to Christ. Even the gifts the wise men brought have in themselves an obscure recompense and atonement for what would follow later in this Child’s life. For they brought gold, the king’s emblem, to make up for the crown of thorns that he would wear; they offered incense, the symbol of praise, to make up for the mockery and the spitting; they gave him myrrh, to heal and soothe, and he was wounded from head to foot and no one bathed his wounds. The women at the foot of the cross did it too, making up for the crowd who stood by and sneered.
On the twelfth day of Christmas, my True Love gave to me…
Epiphany means manifestation of the divine, revelation, sudden insight, recognition. How many people are troubled because God does not show himself in the way they expect?
Our Lady of Mercy, pray for us.
