In my life I have had many blessings – adventures that I
thought would only remain in my dreams.
I got to be the first in my family (both immediate and extended) to go
and graduate from college. I’ve been
able to travel to places that I seriously never thought would be possible for a
girl from a small town in Mexico. I was
able to leave the hood and have a house in the nice part of town with a room of
my own. I’ve had jobs were I have met queens and the elite of society. Now there’s not a place that I feel like I don’t
belong, even the nice restaurants with the Titanic settings no longer have
invisible “keep out” signs… I look back
at my life and I can’t believe the journey that I have walked, but in all the
blessings the one that changed me the most was returning to my faith. Sometimes, I feel cheated that I didn’t
discover that faith and science complement each other sooner or that my
questions do have intelligent answers- nobody told me about the richness of the
Catholic Church. Or maybe they did and I
just refused to listen. However long it
took me to arrive at the place of faith perhaps is of little importance what
matters is that I have arrived and remain.
I have come to love the philosophy and theology of
Christianity – even if it opposes the law that society tells us to follow. Saint John Paul says that “the Law of the Gift”
means “Man, who is the only creature on earth which God willed for itself, can
fully find himself only through the sincere gift of himself.” Here’s the secret
your being increases the more you give it away.
We find this truth in scripture in the many different testimonies of
faith. Mary, Paul, Peter – they give
without refrain and though their life is filled with agony they remain calm in
the storm. I’ve shared how a wise priest
saved me from my depression when he told me to go and help others even in my brokenness
to give to those in worse situations than me.
I remember volunteering at Saint Francis Senior Home offering a little
conversation and company to the many abandoned elderly and how seeing these
women forgotten by their families smile and get excited because I was there
visiting - healed me.
Years of therapy of hearing that I should do things for me
to make myself feel better felt like a lifetime of lies – only broken by God’s
truth. The paradox that the more we give of ourselves the fuller we become is a
difficult practice because our society is at constant odds, but giving of
ourselves can be as simple as giving of our time, talents or earnings. It’s also about seeing people as human beings
not just what we can gain from them, the barista at Starbucks is a human being
not just a person who I get my coffee from.
Training ourselves to be giving is difficult, but our faith is full of
examples of men and women who live this teaching authentically. Through the study of the life of the saints,
of Jesus and his fab possee we can learn how to better give ourselves
away. Mother Teresa understood this, “if
you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love.” I think of my mom and I see how selfless she
is and I want to be more like her. Every
day she gives herself completely and she’s always at peace. If I had studied her all of my life I would
have seen “the Law of the Gift” actively at work in her, but sometimes we need an
outside source to help us see what is right in front of us. Every day I am thankful that my journey led
me to God because He has taken me on the greatest adventure and He’s not done
with me yet (smile)!
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