If we embrace people and events in the same way God does, Prayer becomes an encounter with God. That simple daily encounter of the passionate search for the Countenance of God is the one that breaks down the barriers in our hearts time and time again. And furthermore this encounter is what incessantly motivates us to follow in the footsteps of Jesus.
Those who vividly feel that God is my “father” will also feel that the person at their side is “my brother”.
The main cause of our behavior tends to be the pleasure code: avoid the unpleasant and obtain that which is pleasant. Not even the principles of a good education or psychological orientation can neutralize these spontaneous impulses.
How can it be possible to grant pardon when our instinct is clamoring for revenge? Who can act with gentleness when the heart demands violence and who can act with sweetness wherever there is bitterness? Who can organize this revolution? Only Jesus Christ.
Only God can go down into the primordial depths of man to calm the waves, control the energy and transform it all into love.
With eternal patience, God obtains much more from us than our attacks of anger do. In essence, it all has to do with a tremendous misunderstanding: we want to start up the mechanism of fury by saying: let`s root out evil by getting rid of those who are evil. But basically, it only has to do with one thing only: the inability to love.
Our daily experience has shown us an infinite amount of times that God does not participate in our impatience, in our fears, nor in our desire for punishment. Because the best word for defining God is: compassion. It admirably expresses the main characteristics of the divine countenance. Furthermore, it is the favorite daughter of love and the sister of wisdom, it is born and is surrounded by forgiveness and affection.
To grow in wisdom is to understand that no human being is capable of understanding truth in its entirety, and that there is no error or mistake that does not contain some degree of truth. And this is why we ask the Holy Spirit to engrave the prayer of Francis of Assisi on our hearts with fire:
I will not despise those who despise. I will not curse those who curse. I will not judge those who condemn. I will not hate those who exploit. I will love those who do not love. I will exclude no one from my heart…I will greatly love those who are not lovable.
Based on Father Ignacio Larrañaga’s book, “The Meaning of Life”
