“I came into the world as light, so that everyone who believes in me might not remain in darkness. And if anyone hears my words and does not observe them, I do not condemn him, for I did not come into the world to condemn the world but to save the world.” (John 12:44-50, from the Gospel at today’s Fourth Week of Easter Mass)
Jesus in his words and deeds shows us how to be happy and live at peace. If we show we do not believe in his words and actions by not following them, then it is we who condemn ourselves. We choose our own lot in life, our own unhappiness. Jesus has clearly shown the ways of our Father.
“Before, I always lived in anticipation…that it was all a preparation for something else, something ‘greater,’ more ‘genuine.’ But that feeling has dropped away from me completely. I live here and now, this minute, this day, to the full, and this life is worth living.”
“Ultimately, we have just one moral duty: to reclaim large areas of peace in ourselves, more and more peace, and to reflect it towards others. And the more peace there is in us, the more peace there will be in our troubled world.”
Etty Hillesum (1914-1943), known as the Mystic of the Holocaust, was a young Jewish woman who lived in Amsterdam during the Nazi occupation and died as one of the million of victims of the Holocaust. In her short remarkable life, Etty grew to see God in the depths of her own soul as well as in all other people.
