Friday, January 19, 2007 Blessings By Rene Lizada Papa's Table
RECENTLY I had a talk with a good friend. And in the course of our conversation he told me that if I wanted to have peace of mind then I should do something. Of course I wanted to have peace of mind and of course I asked him what I needed to do. And he said that is actually very simple. He said that he learned the secret from another friend of his. And he said that the secret of having peace of mind is to bless everything.
Yes, to bless every situation, event, experience and yes perhaps the most difficult of all, to bless all persons. And when I replied all, he chuckled and said yes, all, especially those you really do not like.
After that conversation of ours I got to think about that secret of his. To bless everything and to bless everyone. It is very easy to bless blessings and celebrations. We do not have a problem to bless events that are joyous and happy.
Weddings, birthdays, graduations, annulments (?), passing of the bar and board, anniversaries. There is no problem with that. Our words of thanksgiving come out with ease when beautiful experiences like those come our way. It is the same thing with persons we like and love. It is so easy to bless our family and friends.
We really do not have to be forced to look into these persons and circumstances to realize that these people are graces and gifts and should be blessed. There is no pain in blessing those that are blessed to us.
But it is entirely different when the circumstances are painful and the persons are just plain mean and cruel. Those pose a challenge. How can you bless something when you are crying over it? How can you possibly see the lesson when all you can see is the sorrow? It takes a lot of maturity to see past things. How can you bless something, which looks like a curse?
Sometime ago three people attacked me. I could not understand their viciousness and their cruelty. They spat words like they had no consciences, they wrote things without thinking of what they were saying and they acted like they ruled the world.
They attacked and abused me and the only thing I could do at that time was to bow my head because I did not want to stoop to that level of theirs. Of course these three people misinterpreted what I did but that was not surprising. After they attacked me I fell into a reflective mood and I started thinking. Strangely I found myself rehearsing in my mind what I would do to them if ever they did it again. I conjured up situations and imagined ways of hitting back.
In short I became like them in my mind. I was also attacking them. It was just a good thing that I was able to cut my thoughts of revenge and anger. If not then I would have become just like them. I caught myself at the right time. And I thanked myself for that. I thanked God for that. And I guess that is what it means when my friend told me that everything is a blessing.
Without that circumstance in my life then I would have probably not seen the truth about myself. I did not fight back, I could have but I chose not to. That was my choice. And that was a blessing. Oh yes I would be a hypocrite to say that I did not entertain vengeful thoughts because I did. I wanted very much to act on my feelings but I chose not to. I controlled myself. Today as I look back at that experience I can bless it say, I did the right thing.
In our conversation with that friend I asked him how can you bless people whom you do not like, whom you hate. He smiled at me and said try to look for something good in them. I tried to think about the good in those three people who attacked me and I have to say that it really was difficult because I finally got to know what they are really like.
My friend who was staring at me said, "mahirap ba?" And he smiled. And I smiled. He said well if it is so hard then here is something else that you can do. Take a close look at all those you dislike or even hate. There must be something good in them.
All of us have an image of God seared in our selves. No one is that evil. Those you hate can be blessing simply because you are not like them. Magpasalamat ka na hindi ka gaya nila. It was that clear.
I had to agree with my friend. I am very grateful that I am not like them. And that is a blessing by itself. I have this dream of lining up all those who do not like me, or those who have hurt me. I would like to line them up and give each of them a flower with a small note saying, thank you so much for teaching me the lesson of truth.
Wouldn't that that be nice? We can all gather our enemies in one room and thank them for teaching us lessons that we would have never have learned were it not for them. We could even throw a party for them. Friends teach us but enemies well they teach us even more. Christ was right. Love your enemies.
Whether we admit or not, a lot of us today are stronger and wiser not because of our friends but because of those who hurt us. We are kinder because of their cruelty. We are more giving because of their selfishness. We are made humble because of their arrogance. We are richer because of their poverty of character. We are more tolerant because of their bigotry. We see more because of their blindness. We are more truthful because of their hypocrisy. We are true because of their lies.
If we pray for family and friends, let us pray even more for those who wish evil of us because in truth they are the ones who really need prayers. Let us bless our enemies because they give us graces.
