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Friday, July 13, 2007
Mother Elvira: Morning Welcoming
We should all know this festival begins within us: if we are not able to radiate life we are at risk of not living it. The festival starts off with a big smile. How can you celebrate without smiling? There are some you who think that this is not a festival because your parents did not arrive; but guys, do you remember how you were in the past? The first thing in having a good relationship with those around you is not to expect anything from them. Many times our expectations lead us into sadness because we start to have negative thoughts and we judge others for not having done what we expected of them and this is a sin.
Each one of us wants to live the freedom that God has given us and this consists precisely in letting others live freely, without expectation and without imposition. We can hold these expectations on ourselves but not on others! When we want to discover the image of God, look at smiling child. Today children, adolescents, and parents do not smile, they do not speak with a smile on their face because there have too many problems confronting them. What problems?! What do we do if there is no joy?! A smile is an expression of true joy; it does not come from taking the easy road, because this is not joy but pleasure: "…my father bought me a car…” Joy is something else. Joy is often born through pain, from a small thorn planted in your heart, because of a wrongdoing that you witnessed or endured. We cannot "point the gun" at someone because they hurt us. The Lord says that we must forgive seventy times seven and those who do not forgive cannot live His joy fully and will forever be sad because they were waiting for the others to take the first step.
Just think how lucky we are, there are many people in the world who do not know the goodness and Mercy of God. We have been redressed several times with His Mercy because we are all sinners; whether we accept it or not. We have to learn to ask for forgiveness and to forgive one another. The first thing I say to a man and a woman desiring to have a family is that they cannot keep a frown on their face for more than one minute. They must overcome fear and bad humor because it can change into rage, antipathy, and in the end, loneliness and all of this comes about only because we are not capable of forgiving each other, like the Lord so many times has forgiven us.
We must be capable to live love; to live that which we are. We have been born into the source of life that is the God of Love, God of Mercy, God of Peace, God of Beauty and God of Dialogue.
Why have so many chosen to stay in Community, a community that is very demanding, that asks you to give all that you have, all that is life? Well, why have so many chosen to stay even if there is no coca cola, motorcycles, nightclubs. . ? Because when there are no longer these things your conscience comes to life. It is Life that counts, not things that you have! They remained because deep down they were looking for a little bit of peace and for loyal friendships, without conditions, friendships founded in truth. They searched and they found this here because true friendship exists, love and peace exist. Mercy and forgiveness are values that are already inside of us that we are called to develop.
Those that have come into community want to taste what for too long of a time they have searched for and now have discovered through the cross, through sacrifice and by not receiving everything immediately, because that is not love. It is not love when you give everything: you give your child what they desire so that they leave you alone. This is poisoned love because that child grows up with many expectations. It is a false love, for example, when you offer a child an entire candy bar, instead you should teach him how to divide and share it with others. Otherwise how can a child learn how to help the poor and to think of those less fortunate? That is the true joy; helping others and making them feel loved!
If we do not teach them as children, they will remain self-centered and will always have the need for many things. Then there will be situations that cannot be accepted: "What do you want to eat this evening?" says a mom to her six year old child. In this manner the mother becomes the child and the child takes on the role of the mother having to decide what is for dinner… but how can he choose? Let’s learn how to live our role in life well, let’s not win over a child by eluding and confusing them with a false love. Let us learn to live without fearing the cross, without fearing sacrifice and sufferance, let these moments mature within us a different kind of love, a true love: the Love of Christ.
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