Getting into the spirit of things can sometimes be difficult.  Have you ever felt happy at a time when you are supposed to feel sad?  Or deeply miserable when all around you are celebrating something?  It is tempting to try to ‘snap out of’ these seemingly inappropriate feelings, or to try to make sense of them by tracing them back to an unrelated event or association.  Either way, it seems at the time that we should try to change and feel the right feeling for the occasion.

 

But it might be better to simply accept the way we feel as something which simply ‘is’ in that moment. Self acceptance is the beginning of real growth into spiritual maturity.  If we are always fighting the feelings we do not understand, or would rather not be having, we can never move beyond them into a place of forgiveness, the kind of self forgiveness which leads into wisdom.

 

Jesus is the embodiment of Wisdom. Wisdom, as it is to be found in him, should not be confused with cleverness or even with masterful self control.  It consists only in understanding for which we need time and compassion.