“Shalom!”: the First Aid Choice”

If you say you love someone, as much as possible, you want to “Save the best for last”.  If  there is something to correct in the attitude and way of thinking of the person you love, you will try on many ways to bring out the best from that person.  Even if it would come to the point when you almost suffer every bit of pain because that person opted to just listen to what he thinks is true based on his opinion, yet,  you will still strive to save him/her from further hard luck as consequence of his/her stubborn actions and decisions.

In effect, you would even be so persecuted, much that it would lead to disagreements, conflicts, fighting and the worse, broken relationships: friendship, boy-girl steady, parent-child, husband-wife.  “more often than not”, you would struggle, yet be tempted to just give up your fight of winning their heart because you only get too pained while they would never want to realize & understand your intention of helping them to be healthier in mind.

But because you love that much, just as what  Jesus did in today’s gospel where He suffered much to death, yet on the 3^rd day He rose again and did a “sign of peace” to all especially to those who betrayed and denied Him,   you also need to die to the pain brought by  misinterpretations and misunderstandings and extend your humble “Shalom” to the person/s who’ve hurt you so much instead of holding on to grudges.

“Shalom” is our first-aid to rescue and save our relationships before we could eventually open the minds of unwilling hearts. Wounds may be fresh and just as Jesus did in today’s Luke account where He showed his bruised hands and feet to show that He is real, we can also tell the person/s concerned how much they’ve hurt us so that they would realize how much forgiveness we have humbled down for them.

It’s never easy though swallowing your pride when you allow “peace” despite the fact that you were pained just because you want minds of people whom you care for, to be stretched in new directions. Just like what Jesus had to go through after His resurrection when some still did not believe, He had to extend “Shalom” as a sign of compromise until He was eventually able to open the minds of His disciples.

To charge this to our present time &  relationships specially within our families, parents should also strive to fulfil certain three-fold mission:

(1)     no matter how much kids would complain and unfavourably react against the worthy things which we want them to indulge in, we should always strive to find ways so that our children’s minds would eventually be opened to the reality that we are preparing them for the future which they would soon have to manage on their own;

(2)     we have to first learn before our kids can. We should strive to “walk our talk”: as in, if we tell them to be positive, we should also illustrate such positiveness in our words, actions and perceptions;

(3)     we, as parents should commit ourselves to be “at peace” with one another, treating each other as “partners” instead as each other’s competitor while doing things together to fulfil God’s will in our life time.

These missions are ideal – difficult to accomplish in reality because along the way, the opponent may use even your own family to challenge your faith – while they may cause you a lot of silent cries and may bring you to stressful situations which would later on break you down and eventually prompt you to give-in to your human frailties.

However, because you have committed yourself to spread the good news that we can enjoy repentance and forgiveness in every Shalom, your family would soon understand that the sacrifice which you are striving to endure today will be the royalty that they will benefit from specially by the time when we are already called to claim the glory of Eternal Easter which was already won for us by Christ in His Resurrection.

Let every “Shalom” aid us while we BOUNCE to rise up to our indifference in our family and even in any kind of relationship 🙂

“Holding onto the Art of Letting Go”

credits to http://paradox/conniejoy.files.wordpress.com

What a PARADOX … HOLD-ON, yet LET GO!

“Mas madalas kesa minsan, saka lang natin sinasabi lahat ng maganda at mabuting nagawa ng tao kapag di nya na ito naririnig. Saka lang natin naaalala mga maganda nyang sinabi kapag di na sya nagsasalita. Saka lang natin pinipilit baguhin ang mga bagay na pinanghinaan na nya ay di pa din natin ipinagbago kapag di na nya makikita na nagbago na tayo.”

In the Gospel of John 12:20-33, God wants us to realize that in  real life scenario, we are actually tasked to mission-out like Jesus; only that, we do not recognize and would not even want to partake in this task just because, IT’S NEVER EASY making others realize their mistakes while they misinterpret our intentions. Much as we could avoid these chances, we would rather divert our attention to other easier things – that is, if we would only have a choice.

Yes, but then no!  Among all others, yes, parents may have the choice not to partake in Jesus’ difficult mission; but then, they can never really say NO if they really love the family whom they committed to raise.  Along the way, parents has to endure every painful complaints, every justifiable and unreasonable tantrums, misinterpreted intentions, intended & unintended disrespects, hard-headedness, plus in effect, misunderstandings between parents themselves despite the both good intentions yet wrong choice of words or chances of bringing things up maybe, and other causes of stress and chaos. Difficult as we could ever imagine,  these scenarios could lead to “silent cries” because we get so hurt.  

Yet, as Jesus said in John 12:24 “unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” — a mom & a dad should let go of such pain and instead, hold-on & never give up fulfilling their mission to raise their kids until they become the person that they should be when its already their turn to continue the responsibility and commitment – the way they were trained within the family – their training ground – the same thing that Jesus did to His chosen Disciples when He coached them the roles they should get through just before His earthly mission ended.

To my hope, may this reflection teach the young generation to HOLD ON to the responsibility which they should have learned from their training grounds. LET GO of their tendencies to justify some not so good actuations; yet, hold on to whatever they have started good and let go of the impending emotions that would hinder them from producing the FRUIT which their parents should see while they still have all the chance to enjoy the reward of their kids’ willingness to LISTEN not only with their ears, but much with their HEART!

In the same way, may this Gospel challenge us, adults, to learn “the art of letting go and letting God!” so that we could maximize the chances of still bearing much fruit —  while pondering within: “unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit”! #