This exclamation haunts me since the beginning of the epidemic in Belgium. One of the tiniest creatures in existence is holding the whole world hostage. Our life has been reduced to nothing better to do than staying home as much as possible! Mind-blowing!
No more eating out, trips, sports, leisure activities, shopping, hanging out with friends, cinema, tennis, golf, horse-riding, fitness exercising… For children, no more meeting with friends, no more school, horse-riding, tennis and football, to name a few. It has takeneverything away from us, destroyed everything. All the activities we enjoyed are cut down to nothing. Mind-blowing!
In his book, The Cancer Ward, Soljenitsyne, puts in the mouth of his characters (a couple who had lost all their belongings) this amazing phrase, “It is not the quality of life that makes the happiness of man but heartsattached to each other.”Indeed, the one thing that even this tiny living creature cannot take away from me is my interior joy. Mind-blowing!
In reality, I discover that the frenetic pace of theworld that supposedly defines quality of life prevents me from entering within, into my interior depth. This “me” in my deepest interior self, can give life to trust, affection, sensitivity, sincerity and joy. The depth of mybeing – my soul – is the place where God dwellsin me, where the “me-ego,” the “me-in-God” dwell. Mind-blowing!
It is that ferocious, aggressive little killer that today gives methetime to enjoy a marvelous interior journey, to connect with the story of my life between my heart and the heart of God, to, in peace and serenity, reset this heart to heart. Mind-blowing!
I am now equipped to listen to the heart ofGod that wells up from the heart of humankind, echoes of God’s acts of goodness, imagination, support, generosity, of concern for others, encouragement and creativity resonate within me.
In the evening at their windows in my street, humans have recovered their smile; they applaud life, timidly in the early days but gradually becoming noisier, encouraged by the pealing of the bells of our proud steeples. Mind-blowing!
Tomorrow, with the Church, let us pray that wemay continue to marvel at the mind-blowing promise of a better world; that, in the future, humankind, with a new understanding, can reset and believe in itself as a promoter of love instead of a consumer of material goods.
Françoise L.
Oblate Missionaryof Mary Immaculate (I.S.)
