When I think of purity, I, immediately think of sexuality-
saving myself for marriage- but in terms of spirituality purity goes beyond
physical abstinence. I was in the
confessional, and Father advised me to lead an honest life, days later my Bible
study dealt with truth and then I heard a homily on integrity and I felt like God
was asking me to focus on purity of heart and mind.
One of the characteristics I value most in others is honesty because I
like to give the same in return. I think the fewer
the lies the healthier the relationship and in my associations that’s how I like
to lead my life. Yet, it’s easy to slip
to think one white lie won’t hurt…
Recently, I have had a few interviews and
sometimes the stress can be so overwhelming that I jokingly told my parents
that I was going to take Francis with me and say that he was my emotional support
animal (smile). When interviewing for a
job I find it the most difficult to remain truthful, I want to win my interviewers
over, but I want to do so being uniquely me without exaggerations. Sometimes, though it feels that without
hyperbole my simple self won’t do. I
think that’s why many of us lie because we feel like our ordinary self won’t
do. Like without the photo filter we are
not good enough- I have even seen parents use filters on their already cute babies
and that breaks my heart.
Last year, at the Via Crucis on the beach one of my students
took a picture of the sunset along the coast and then she added a filter and
she showed me proudly how great the touched up photo looked and I remember telling
her that I thought the natural picture was perfect and didn’t need filtering. Does distorting an image count as a lie? I
just know that too much filtering can absolutely have an affect on others. I have heard of people who are on dating apps
being disappointed when they meet one another in real life because they look
nothing like the filtered images used online.
Yet, this is nothing new for years magazines have distorted images of women (they elongate the legs, take in the waist, erase the wrinkles…) and only in
recent times have some begin to stand up against the unrealistic beauty
standards they sell. A few brave
celebrities have also been adamant of not allowing their images to be
photoshopped, but not enough to stop the distortion.
Though sometimes I do like to travel away from my ordinary
life and jump into the plot of a great narrative- I do believe in living
honestly. Growing up, I always felt
ordinary and for awhile I fought to be extraordinary- but as I mature in years,
I have come to realize that God created me.
There’s only one of me, I am one-of-a-kind, even if the world doesn’t
see me that way... The writings of Brother
Lawrence have only inspired me because they echo the sentiments of Saint Therese:
small as we are, we can still be saints- sans filter. I am attracted to people with
simple hearts who know their weaknesses and smallness and through that humility
God is able to work marvels. Brother Lawrence hoped
that monastic life would make him smart and rid him of his faults and awkwardness only to learn that God was satisfied with Him just as he was. This revelation, gave Brother Lawrence hope
that his ordinary life (doing the most commonplace tasks) could glorify God and
that’s just what he did. When we know
who created us, and how much He loves us there’s no need for filters. Ordinary
reality is pretty special when there’s nothing to prove, no one to impress only
to glorify God in our smallness. There’s
this song that I love that describes the lover trying to do all these things to
impress the beloved only to learn that the beloved is the one making the
biggest impression. When there is love - authenticity
and realness is what wins hearts. That’s
why to come to God we need to have pure hearts, hearts that delight in the honest
truth.
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