"When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. Because I myself will give you an eloquence and a wisdom that no one will be able to contradict or compare."
Gospel of Matthew
I was recently reading a story about a famous movie actress who died in her eighties. As her beauty became ravaged by old age, she grew desperately unhappy, and as a result, turned into a recluse. She was over-identified with her external appearance. First her gift of beauty gave her a happy sense of self, but as it faded, an unhappy one. If she was able to connect with the formless and the timeless beauty within, she may have been able to watch the fading of her external beauty in serenity and peace.
Moreover, her external form would have become increasingly transparent to the light shining through her ageless true nature. Her beauty would not have faded, but simply changed with the passing of time.
I heard another story recently of the man who lost most of his wealth during the 1929 depression. He committed suicide after going into a deep despair over his loss. He was happy with his condition as a person with wealth, but could not stand himself when his wealth was gone. If only he was able to recognize that the road to interior freedom can only be found in the letting go of that which holds us prisoner. He failed to see that to over-identify with impermanent things only separates us from our true identity within, the only place where true peace and joy can be found.
The Gospels about the "end of times" are not ones that we normally like to hear about. "End of times" or "death" often cause disturbing feelings to arise for most of us. But in our Church year, "end of times" Gospels lead to Advent, a time of expectation, hope, and rebirth.
Some common facts about endings:
1. In order that we may experience rebirth to hope and expectancy, then something else has to end.
2. Endings and new beginnings are very much a part of the natural flow and cycle of life. It has been incorporated into the flow of life by God.
3. Most of our suffering and anguish comes from our resistance to this natural flow and cycle of life.
4. Often, we want to seal in concrete those things that exist in our external reality. Yet all external things are impermanent, changing, dying, rebirthing.
We often become like the actress, embittered and unhappy at the loss of her external beauty to the point that the grace that is meant for her senior years cannot be born.
Jesus says something quite remarkable in the Gospel of Matthew: "When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. Because I myself will give you an eloquence and a wisdom that no one will be able to contradict or compare."
Recognize each day as a gift of life to you. Place your hope on that which you can find interiorly in your heart. Listen to the still voice within, the voice that speaks of faith in God who loves us without end.
The exterior world may appear to be working against us, but metaphorically, not a hair on our heads will be lost. Are we to spend our time mourning the day which has just past, or are we to celebrate the new day giving birth with all of its possibilities?
If the actress had know Christ, if she could hear Jesus' words of consolation and love for her, she could have gracefully let her exterior beauty go with each passing day. She could then discover and embrace her interior beauty that was given birth as her attention to the exterior faded. A soul ignited by Christ's love shines more brightly in the darkness of the world than any complexion or feature or thing that we may externally possess.
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