I had the most amazing church experience last week during the Wednesday, Novena mass. The Cardinal of the Philippines came and visited our local parish church and gave the most inspiring homily I have heard in a long while. He touched on three important virtues which are humility, love and forgiveness. Here’s my reflections on what he talked about and maybe some of you will agree with me, some of you might not, but I want to share what I walked away with. My only hope is to create awareness to whoever will read this and examine your personal views.
Humility is never having to boast about our accomplishments, who we’ve helped, or how pious we are. It’s not about self-praising. If we have helped someone in the past, there’s no need to run around and seek egoistic gratification from the crowd because God is all knowing and he will reward us in heaven accordingly. But if we choose to have the people around us sing our praises then we took it upon our hands to reward ourselves already, hence we should not expect anything more from God. On the same note, the opposite of humility is arrogance or pride. This is a vice that are more often than not gets confused with humility. Arrogance is offering someone a lending hand but expecting more than what was given in return. An arrogant person offers aid but feels that they are entitled to superior importance or rights. It is a conditional form of assistance full of false self gratification. A prideful person assumes superiority over the weak. The next time you are placed in a position to help someone, be conscious of which role you will play, will you be the humble servant or will you be the boisterous one sounding your own trumpet?
If you look up the definition of “LOVE” in the dictionary, you will notice that the word LOVE is a verb. With that being said, LOVE is action! Love takes work, nurturing, careful handling and most importantly sharing. When you love yourself, you take care of yourself by making sure that your daily needs are met. Those simple acts of daily nourishments are things that you do because you love yourself enough to make sure that you are not wasting away. Love is sharing because even though you might think that you can survive on your own without any help from anyone, I’m sorry to tell you my friend but you are deeply mistaken. The love I speak of here is not the Eros type of love that is shared intimately between couples. I am referring to the love for humanity. Love people, extend your kindness to them. We are all here for a reason. We are not here by accident. The people that we meet whether they stay for a long time of just for a short while, will leave imprints in our hearts and in our minds. Some alter our lives more so than others but always be grateful for the lessons that we learn from each other. We are all teachers and students by nature. We teach and learn from each other. There is an unseen connection among us. The connection that binds us all together is God. We are all children of God so be compassionate, loving and kind to each other. We are all here for a reason; the people in our lives are here for a reason. It is a never ending cycle so be kind to each other because what goes around, comes around.
Forgiveness is probably one of the toughest of all virtues to achieve but if God was able to forgive all of humanity for all our sins, then what is stopping us from doing so. Learning to forgive is not an easy step. It is a process much like how an infant learns how to walk. After the first step is taken, they will still fall down several times in the process but they don’t give up. It is the sheer determination of wanting to walk that keeps them from trying to take the baby steps until one day, walking becomes second nature. The same analogy can be applied to all of us. We can learn to forgive but it will not happen overnight. It will take several attempts and we will falter along the way but we need to keep at it, so that one day, forgiveness will be as natural to us as breathing. Circling back to the infant to toddler analogy of learning how to walk, we should first of all learn how to forgive ourselves. I know it is a funny way of looking at it but think of it this way. How can you forgive someone without first forgiving yourself? If you don’t have forgiveness how can you expect to give out something you don’t have? Learn to forgive yourself and extend it to others.
Another topic that Cardinal Rosales touched on was the subject of silence. He said that in silence we will find the most beautiful things in life. When a woman first finds out that she is pregnant, there was a point in time when the child in her womb was conceived without her knowledge. The seed of life was planted and patiently waits to be discovered. Until then, the new life sits in silence in all its beauty. When we pray throughout the day or during a mass we do so in silence. We silently ask God for our personal intentions, pleading for guidance and wisdom. Silence in prayers is an intimate moment between you and God and that intimacy is beauty in it itself. Tying it all together in the end, humility is about being silent and giving from the heart and not needing to be praised loudly, love is not boastful and forgiveness is also given without sounding any trumpets but acknowledging in your heart that you have forgiven yourself and render the forgiveness to others. Silence is Golden because in silence you will find beauty, humility, love and forgiveness among other things and to have found all that is a worthy treasure.
This is a quotation from John Donne (1572-1631). It appears in Devotions upon Emergent Occasions, Meditation XVII:
"All mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated...As therefore the bell that rings to a sermon, calls not upon the preacher only, but upon the congregation to come: so this bell calls us all: but how much more me, who am brought so near the door by this sickness....No man is an island, entire of itself...any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."
jakey
