
Victory! 
The meaning of life? What a question!
All the animals in the forest had their
word
to assert!
The bird said, "Life is a song."
The earthworm retorted, "Life is more
of a constant struggle against darkness."
The butterfly disagreed, "Life is joy
and happiness."
The bee answered her, "No, life is work."
Up above, the eagle called out, "Life
is liberty!"
The cloud was very cynical, "Life is
bitter crying and tears."
Who is right?
The wife of Martin Luther is reputed
to have
solved the problem of life this way.
Luther
had his own struggles with depressive
moods.
He would wake up in the morning gloomy,
reticent,
and antisocial. One day his wife decided
to do something drastic. She changed
her
clothes, put on a black dress and prepared
breakfast for him.
"Someone died? " he asked,
seeing
her dressed in mourning attire.
"Yes, don't you know?!" she
answered.
"No, who has died?" he repeated.
"God," she told him, trying
to
keep a straight face!
"What the heck are you saying!?
Have
you gone crazy? God cannot die!"
"Well, if God is not dead, why
on earth
are you so down this morning?"
was her
snappy retort.'
It is not recorded whether Martin Luther
smiled at this quip!
A cloistered Carmelite nun solved the
problem
of life this way. Her name was Sister
Catherine.
She was preparing the midday meal for
the
sisters in her convent in Spain. She
finished
early. Nothing to do! So while waiting
for
the bell to announce the time of prayer,
she took up four pots, put them on
her head,
and started a balancing skit in the
small
kitchen! She had hardly reached the
door,
when in came Mother Teresa of Jesus.
Obviously,
Mother Teresa could not help laughing
seeing
Sister Catherine doing this performance
in
the kitchen! "Gosh, Sister, what
in
the world are you doing?!" And
then
she remarked, "You are so lively!
Even
to heaven, you will laughing...."
To
which Sister Catherine immediately
answered
... "Why, Mother, is there any
other
way of going to heaven?!
When our Holy Mother, Teresa of Jesus,
disappointed
by the difficulties she was encountering,
no longer wished to make foundations,
Jesus
Christ himself told her : "What
are
you afraid of? When have I let you
down?
What I have been, I still am!"
(Foundations
29 :6)
This is the reason of our joy! Catherine
of Siena says "all the way to
heaven
is heaven!'
This is the meaning of life!
How right was this agnostic who wrote,
"I
need to see you Christians depressed
because
in this way you confirm my thesis that
God
does not exist. It is when I see that
you
are happy that are perplex me!!"
Why should we be sad when we are following
One who is eternally victorious?
Yes, why?!
(c) Fr. Pius Sammut, OCD. Permission is hereby
granted for any non-commercial use, provided
that the content is unaltered from its original
state, if this copyright notice is included.
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