There was a time in my childhood when I imagined heaven as the ultimate prize, and that this life was like an elimination race, where the people who perform best are the ones who arrive first, and the rest… well, let them settle for purgatory. .<\/p>\n
At that stage of my childhood, I imagined that the church was like a previous room to heaven, and that if I didn’t behave excellently, I risked my final entrance to heaven.<\/p>\n
At home, before leaving for mass, it was about getting ready and looking good. Church was a place where families met, greeted each other and chatted briefly before or after the service. Sometimes, when we were done, we would go somewhere to eat.<\/p>\n
In my family, as in many others, going to mass required us to wear clothes that were a little more elegant than the rest of the week. In my case, it was the occasion to put on a dress, and my mom spent additional time making me a hairstyle of her choice.<\/p>\n
As time passed, I asked my mom why we got so dressed up. To which she responded: \u201cGod sees us every Sunday, and what better way than for him to see us beautiful.\u201d That answer was satisfactory to my 6 or 8 year old mind.<\/p>\n
I didn’t realize it at the time, but what happened was that I developed a belief that I would only show myself to God when I was well dressed, and only on my best behavior. Although I understand the purpose, my perception was incomplete.<\/p>\n
It is true, God might surely be happy to see us together in community, in the party that is the Sunday service. We were told that mass is a celebration, and that is why we had to wear party clothes.<\/p>\n
What was your experience? What feeling did you have when you were getting ready to go to church?<\/p>\n
My early conclusions were that God was in \u201chis house\u201d (the temple), waiting for us every Sunday for a party in which many other children and adults fell asleep. In the end, the celebration was when we went out, because I could \u201cbe a girl\u201d again, and not a doll that was always well behaved.<\/p>\n
Now I can look back on that stage of my life fondly, but it wasn’t always like that. There was a time when I assumed that the way to present oneself to God had to be only the best. And what I understood to be only the best, was without faults, errors, bad behaviors, confusions. That is, \u201cthe bad\u201d is not shown to God. Dressing ourselves in Sunday clothes was transmitted to also dressing the appearance of the soul.<\/p>\n
Perhaps many of us have heard comments that \u201cit is not okay to get angry,\u201d and we must avoid it at all costs, because the good thing is to be a grateful person. What this caused me was to associate being angry with something bad.<\/p>\n
What was your experience with feeling angry? What did you think or feel when you saw someone angry?<\/p>\n
Personally, I had to undergo psychotherapy, in part to integrate my anger into my life.<\/p>\n
Later, I learned that anger is neither good nor bad. It is information. What is good or bad is what we do with the anger.<\/p>\n
I want to share with you an example that I was given, and that helped me a lot. Ready? Emotions can be understood as the lights on the dashboard of your car. When one lights up, it tells you that there is something you need to pay attention to. When you pay attention to it, the light turns off. If you don’t pay attention to it, and ignore it, and it’s still on, there can be increasing damage.<\/p>\n
Anger is an emotion that is part of our humanity, it informs us that there is something we need to pay attention to. Maybe it is an injustice, or personal boundaries that are not respected, abuse, lies, or other things.<\/p>\n
Anger exists, and when we ignore it, like the lights on the dashboard of our car, the result is not good. In the long run, the damage is greater. However, when anger moves us to act appropriately, it is very healthy.<\/p>\n
Learning to live and coexist healthily with our own anger can be an art.<\/p>\n
One time my car was breaking down, and it quickly overheated while driving. It was a big risk for me to continue. I was on a highway during heavy traffic, and decided to stop until the temperature dropped.<\/p>\n
There have been times when anger overwhelms me, and the appropriate thing has been to stop, until it is healthy for me to continue. Getting to this point has cost me many, many mistakes.<\/p>\n
And how are you doing with your anger? Do you handle it, or it handles you…<\/p>\n
For Jesus, his anger, well was… he caused controversy with his actions, and he assumed the consequences. He did not hide, nor did he blame anyone for what he did while he was angry. And this is a great example of taking responsibility for our own emotions.<\/p>\n
Whether it is Sunday or not, now we can practice showing our soul and interior to God no matter how it is. This practice is an art that we can continue working from within, from the heart.<\/p>\n
No one else can do it for you, and no one else can do it for me.<\/p>\n
Marisol<\/p>\n
P.S. To hear the story of when Jesus was very angry, you can refer to the Gospel from the III Sunday of Lent, cycle B<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There was a time in my childhood when I imagined heaven as the ultimate prize, and that this life was like an elimination race, where the people who perform best are the ones who arrive first, and the rest… well, let them settle for purgatory. . At that stage of my childhood, I imagined that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7696,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-2-2"],"yoast_head":"\n