Snow, Symbol of Purity... A Moment of True Self-Reflection and Rebirth
Confronting oneself is the path to a new birth. God created humans with an innate longing for a connection with heaven, a yearning for spiritual life, holiness, and purity. However, human roots attract towards temptation and evil. Life becomes colored with earthly nature, filled with desires, self-love, and the deepening of sinful tendencies, resulting in thoughts, actions, intentions, and spiritual death.
When one avoids facing oneself and the reality it has become, the will for salvation dies within. The individual succumbs to the disease, with no resurrection or cure. Over time, the separation from God widens. Every person needs a moment of true self-reflection, abandoning pretense and adornment, stripping away the masks that conceal sins, facing oneself in honesty, examining oneself in the light of God's holiness.
The moment of honesty with oneself before God is an open door through which God sheds light on our hidden selves, allowing us to recognize our weaknesses and needs. The moment of honesty with oneself
ignites our hearts with a desire for repentance, a longing for a new life cleansed in the purity of heaven. In the moment of honesty with oneself, we know, we confess, and we are born anew!
In your attempts to know yourself, beware of:
· Comparison: Avoid investing time and effort in comparing yourself to others, as negative comparison is destructive to the self.
· Criticism: It is a side effect of comparison. Constant self-criticism makes you lose trust in yourself and hinders self-love and acceptance.
· Negative opinions of others, especially those planted in you when you were young, causing ongoing self-torment.
· Unrealistic goals: Unrealized goals due to lacking conditions and sufficient time breed frustration.
· Start now: Begin your journey to self-discovery with an honest and genuine perspective, remembering the wise words of Francesco Scavullo: "Inside each of us, there is beauty. What matters is what you do with it. And if you lose it - the site of beauty - it's as if you've lost your soul."
Father Faisal Hajazin
