I was a kid and children forebode kindness in adults. Because of that, since the first time I saw him, I knew he was a good person as testified by his smile, his gentleness.
I do not remember ever to have talked to him but to have met him, many times, in the street. And he would always smile when passing by. I never saw him angry, arguing, offending anyone.
He was tall, thin, his face marked by the wrinkles of God-knows-which-sorrows, possible reasons that made him a drunk and, because of that, a pariah. He was, nevertheless, a smiling drunk who was kind to children.
People say that once, in a Sunday morning of sun and already drunk, he entered the Cathedral when the 9 a.m. mass was going on. This was known then as the "mass of the rich", who could wake up later...
The priest, in the altar, was delivering the sermon of the day. Disturbed by the small commotion created by the drunk that dared to enter the temple, he ordered the sacristan to take him out.
When the obedient sexton was pushing him, firmly, in the direction of the way out door, his words of protest and revolt resounded, stronger than the priest's voice:
"Shame! Shame! They want to kick Jesus out of the church!"
The drunk Jesus was sent out of the temple but not from the memory of the child who never forgot his smile and gentleness.
(Barcelona, Spain, 31.10.2004)
In the beginning, many years ago, I could not understand that was the way things were. Since then, repeated occasions taught me one of the strangest lessons of Life: what sometimes looks evil and brings pain, suffering and anguish, reveals itself, as time goes by, as the purest source of our happiness!
The greatest treasure, in my life, is my Son. He is the reason and origin of my happiness. Nevertheless, for me to meet him again, many years of search were needed as well as many moments of perplexity as I faced situations that, although looking as tragic obstacles, were only providential help that was driving me to the right way and would, at the end, allow me to find him.
So, today, I thank people that I even detested when they were nothing but instruments of destiny, as I ignored their true role in my life. People that, when trying to be evil were, in fact, helping me to find Good.
The purposes of things that happen to us, in Life, are very strange indeed. Only distance in time allows us to see clearly what really happened, not what seemed to be happening, then. After all, if one is in the middle of the fire, burning and suffering, can not have the necessary serenity to grasp how the fire came to be and how to extinguish it.
Time, as the waters of a river, knows where it came from and where it is going to. As for us, we only find out such things after we learn to accept and understand that, as we are being taken by the waters of Time, we have time to comprehend where we are being taken to and why.
To be able to see Life through the eyes of Truth we have to close our eyes to the appearances of what is happening, what only seems to be happening. And wait. Until the waters appease and the fire is extinguished.
Barcelona, Spain.