Today, while I was doing the dishes, I remembered that as a good single person, when I had just moved in and had not yet acquired a stove, things were much "easier", no stove and therefore no pot, no cooking, just baking and ready-made food. Then, while I was thinking about it, everything seemed to me as if at that time my house was more or less "empty"; and above all, I quickly changed my mind, remembering that today I eat much healthier and more balanced, even if it meant a certain housework (cooking and cleaning). And above all, the Lord God brought back to my mind this warning of the Lord Jesus Christ once formulated in these terms:
“When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he saith, I will return unto my house whence I came out. And when he cometh, he findeth it swept and garnished.Then goeth he, and taketh to him seven other spirits more wicked than himself; and they enter in, and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first.”
An empty and decorated house suggests a house that is not disordered since it is human activities that cause “disorder”; but in fact, if there is “disorder,” that is not the goal: the goal is life, but in its organization, things are often jostled and must therefore be continually tidied up. The secret of happiness is therefore not an uninhabited house (even, as the Lord indicates, it could not remain so indefinitely, at least on the spiritual level), but rather the secret of happiness is to have a well-inhabited house and to accept the “burdens” of this dwelling.
To support our argument, beyond the very simple anecdotal illustration taken in the introduction, we will take the case of social life (household, professional environment, Church) and that of Faith.
Most of people, after a few months of glamorous married life, very often seem to fall abruptly from a great height, wondering about the appropriateness of their marriage, whether it was really necessary, whether it was the right time, whether it was with the right person? ... In fact, it happens that in the past, they were in the tranquility of an “empty house”, empty and therefore without “disorder”. But in fact also, a “house” defenseless against bad weather, a life most often unbalanced. Now if the presence of an “other” person comes to disturb our “quiet” habits and therefore put “disorder” in our life, they come above all to highlight the failures of our “house”, they come to highlight our multiple shortcomings of which we were perhaps not sufficiently aware of the extent and their potential harm to others. It could be laziness, impatience, excessive pride, ... That which then appears as disorder due to the habitation of someone (else) in our “house” is then a singular and exceptional opportunity that we have to improve ourselves. Like circumcision which is the stripping of the flesh, it will certainly be painful, but only a circumcised heart can engender life. Abraham, before circumcision could only give birth to Ishmael from the bondmaid, but it was only after the circumcision of his father, that Israel, the son of the promise, was conceived from the freewoman. (Galatians 4:22-27; Genesis 17:22-27; Genesis 18:1-3, 10) So let us denounce this lie of the devil insinuating that one must live alone to be happy, no one must not live alone, but well accompanied, and above all accept the circumcision of the heart.
Let us go further, however, it could even be that the choice of your spouse is called into question, but that will not change in any way the proper circumcision that is imposed on you. This is why, if as in many cases, our partner is the right one or at least has good dispositions of heart for a happy life together. God will however allow that around us, there are people with dispositions that are clearly less praiseworthy. The goal is to teach us to live in humility, to live in adversity or what seems to us to be, without any longer backing down in the face of the slightest annoyance, without any longer distancing ourselves at the slightest frustration. Community universally recognizes such values, this is also why even employers have a certain “weakness” for married personnel, knowing that through trials they have acquired a certain maturity. And if the world recognizes it, all the more so the Church.
Love is humility, it is forgiveness, it is patience. Love can be born from a pleasant feeling, but finds its greatest demonstration, its best proof, in the absence of merit of the other. This is why the Scriptures tell us that God loved us while we were yet sinners (Romans 5:6-8), while we were yet outrageous and blasphemous. It is not after our conversion, after we have acquired the Grace to render to God a worship of adoration in spirit and in truth, a worship pleasing to His eyes, that He began to love us. Also, as his children, as good disciples of Christ, we must also learn to love our fellow men, whatever the nature of our relationship (spouse, business partner, colleague in service, neighbor, brother in the faith, ...). It will not be a question of us voluntarily putting ourselves in contact with people who would plunge us into trouble, but when God allows for a time or even for our whole life that this is the case, then by the Grace of God let us know how to have the attitude which honors Him, Him, the most Holy God.
In Christ Jesus!
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