"The Way" (III)

Do penance: bury your negligences, offenses and sins in the deep pit dug by your humility. Thus does the farmer bury rotten fruit, dead twigs and fallen leaves at the foot of the tree that bore them. And what was unfruitful, even harmful, makes a real contribution to a new fertility. Learn to draw from your falls a new impulse: from death, life.

Say to your body: “I would rather keep you in slavery than be myself your slave.”

I want you to be happy on earth. But you won’t be if you don’t get rid of that fear of suffering. For as long as we are “wayfarers,” it is precisely in suffering that our happiness lies.

Make this firm and determined resolution: to recall, when you receive honors and praise, everything that brings you shame and embarrassment. The shame and embarrassment are yours; the praise and the glory are God’s.

Conduct yourself well “now,” without looking back on “yesterday,” which is really going, and without worrying about “tomorrow,” which for you may never come.

Said a prayerful soul: In intentions, may Jesus be our end; in affections, our love; in speech, our theme; in actions, our model.

I don’t doubt your good intentions. I know you act in the presence of God. But—and there is a “but”!—your actions are witnessed or may be witnessed by men who judge by human standards… And you must set a good example for them.

Sadness, depression. I’m not surprised: it’s the cloud of dust raised by your fall. But… enough of it! Can’t you see that the cloud has been borne far away by the breath of grace? Moreover, your sadness—if you don’t reject it—could very well be the cloak of your pride. Did you really think yourself perfect and sinless?

Don’t think any more about your fall. Besides overwhelming and crushing you under its weight, that recollection may easily be an occasion for future temptation. Christ has forgiven you! Forget the ‘old man’—your former self.

“Father,” said that big fellow, a good student of the University of Madrid, “I was thinking of what you told me—that I’m a son of God!—and I found myself walking along the street, head up, chin out, and a feeling of pride inside… a son of God!” With sure conscience I advised him to foster that “pride.”

It’s necessary to be convinced that God is always near us. Too often we live as though our Lord were somewhere far off—where the stars shine. We fail to realize that he is also by our side—always. For he is a loving Father. He loves each one of us more than all the mothers in the world can love their children, helping us and inspiring us, blessing… and forgiving. How often we’ve erased the frowns from our parents’ brows, telling them after some prank, “I won’t do it again!” Maybe that same day we fall again… And our father, with feigned harshness in his voice and a serious face, reproves us, while at the same time his heart is softened because he knows our weakness. “Poor boy,” he thinks, “How hard he tries to behave well!” We have to be completely convinced, realizing it to the full, that our Lord, who is close to us and in Heaven, is a Father, and very much our Father.