May no one read sadness or sorrow in your face, when you spread
in the world around you the sweet smell of your sacrifice: the children
of God should always be sowers of peace and joy. (Furrow, 59)
Being children of God, how can we be sad? Sadness is the end
product of selfishness. If we truly want to live for God, we will never
lack cheerfulness, even when we discover our errors and wretchedness.
Cheerfulness finds its way into our life of prayer, so much so that we
cannot help singing for joy. For we are in love, and singing is a thing
that lovers do.
If we live our lives in this way, we shall be
bringing peace to the world. We shall be making God’s service attractive
to others, because ‘God loves a cheerful giver’. Christians are
ordinary people, but their hearts overflow with the joy that comes when
we set out to fulfil, with the constant help of grace, the will of the
Father. Christians don’t see themselves as victims, underrated, or
restricted in their behaviour. They walk head on high, because they are
men and children of God.
Our faith brings out the full meaning of
these human virtues, which no one should ever neglect. Christians should
be second to none as human beings. Those who follow Christ are able
(not by their own merit but by the grace of God) to communicate to those
around them what they at times suspect but cannot quite grasp: that
true happiness, a genuine spirit of serving our neighbour, can only come
by passing through the Heart of our Redeemer, perfectus Deus, perfectus homo. (Friends of God, 92-93)
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