I came across a reflection on acceptance in Christine Watkins’ book Mary’s mantle consecration, which I would like to share. We must realize that the way we view things can have a detrimental or a beneficial effect on our mental health. This time of pandemic is no different. We cannot change that there is a pandemic, but we can all change the things we do, say and think. When we think, act and speak, we need to remember the two great commandments: Love God first and foremost and secondly love your neighbour (Matthew 22:37-39). Here is the excerpt from her book:
The human being, without having tried or wished for it, finds herself on earth. She did not choose her parents. She did not choose her hometown or her looks. Those realities that she never wanted or chose can become a curse. In frustration, she releases emotional aggression in order to attack and destroy them in her mind.
A person can come to live a perpetual battle against all that displeases her. Ashamed and saddened, she rejects herself and her circumstances: her weight, her nose, her temperament, her commute, her moodiness, her acquaintances, her political enemies, her relatives, mosquitoes, and withering heat (and now the cold)... She resists everything that she dislikes but cannot change, and she labels it her adversary. As a result, she becomes depressed, anxious, and suspicious.
If I abhor my reflection in the mirror, it is my enemy. If I reject the shrill voice of my neighbour, it is my enemy. My adversaries, therefore, live within me to the extent that I give them life through my resistance.
Yet within me are also friends. The first stage of inner freedom involves befriending myself. If I accept my ageing eyes or my awkward gait, they become my friends. The problem is not with my slowness in math or inability to deliver a good punchline but in my rejection of my deficits and failures. No matter how unlikeable another may be, if I embrace him, he is my friend. In acceptance, this ill-timed storm becomes brother storm; this influenza virus becomes sister flu. And if I accept my life’s end, I have befriended death. Thus, no matter who I am or the circumstances of my existence, I can choose to live in the crossfire of a battle zone of my own making or within the boundaries of a peaceful, temperate forest.
The power lies within me to embrace or reject those things I cannot change; thus, the power to turn evil into good rests in the palm of my hands.”
Deacon Norbert Gaudet, RC church, Raymore
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Disclaimer: opinions expressed are those of the writer.