Turning your life into a new leaf


TURNING YOUR LIFE INTO A NEW LEAF

Cl. Mario D’Couto sdb

            The story of Rapunzel is one of the popular stories found among the fairy tale books of children. But it has a value to teach. Just to mention the story in brief, there was a little girl named Rapunzel who was very beautiful. She was captured by a witch, who knew that if she wanted to hold on to the little girl, she had to convince her that she was ugly. If she knew she was beautiful, she would go off with one of the many young men who came to consult the witch. If on the other hand, she knew she was ugly, she would be afraid of being seen by them and would therefore hide when they were around. So the witch gradually convinced Rapunzel that she was ugly and she hid for fear of being seen when anyone who came to the witch’s house.
            One day when she was combing her hair in her room, she became conscious of someone looking at her through the window. Instinctively she looked up. It was then that she saw in the eyes of the young man gazing at her through the window that she was beautiful. Gradually, as she learned to believe this, her fear was replaced by joy. She set off on the long journey of freeing herself from the deadening influence of the witch in order to accept the life and happiness which the young man’s love made available to her.
            As it was mentioned, the story of Rapunzel does have something to teach. What is striking about the story of Rapunzel is the central influence of the vision or image we have of ourselves. Being on the way to life means basically believing in the image of ourselves which Jesus reflects back to us. Believing the witch’s vision, on the other hand, is what leads to ‘destruction’. Applying this story in the religious context, the prince is ‘Jesus’ and Rapunzel is ‘us’ while the witch represents the ‘negativities’ in our lives or even the devil himself.
            Just as it is written in the book of Wisdom, “the consciousness of evil can throw good thing into the shade” (Wisdom 4:12), it is interesting to note how one might notice a small black spot on a sheet of white paper which can capture one’s eye. Even though it may occupy only 5% or less of the page, it can still dominate our attention. The solution to the problem is not to try and bury the dark side of life, but to seek freedom from its dominance. We can do this by seeing our life in perspective, by seeing the 5% that is bad against the background of the 95% that is good. We need to build up our sense of the white sheet of paper that symbolizes all the ways we are loved, gifted and graced by God. Losing touch with this is disastrous. It is this lack of awareness of how deeply we are loved, that is truly ‘the way that leads to destruction’.
            The vocation of the Christian to ‘repent and believe in the gospel’ can be clearly seen in the light of the Rapunzel story. In its terms, we are being asked to let go of the witch’s illusion (our own negativities) and to accept the way God sees us. This is the Good News that we are called to believe in – that we are loved by God in a rich variety of ways.

Popular posts from this blog

In the world yet not of the world

Image
  IN THE WORLD YET NOT OF THE WORLD MARIO D’COUTO           Being in the world and yet not of it is something that can be a struggle, at least for me and what I mean by that is in as much as we desire to be good and to do good, God is not going to put a glass jar over us and say that just because we choose to love Him and follow Him more closely, that He is going to shield us from the temptations of this world. To make things clear though, this is not to say that the world in itself is bad or evil nor are the things found in the world either but how we deal with it is what will make us or break us. We all have responsibilities and important things that need our attention. If we are not careful though, our hearts and minds can be consumed with the task of keeping them afloat. Rather than centering ourselves in Christ and letting the other elements of our lives take their rightful place around that center, we can end up shifting our attention fr...
Read more

The Gift of Life

  THE GIFT OF LIFE  Mario D’Couto  The above video may seem to put human existence in a rather pessimistic way as if to say that our lives did not really matter and while no doubt there is some element of truth in it, I still feel that if lived well, there is meaning and purpose to our lives and that none of our lives is some sort of haphazard creation.  As I celebrate my gift of life tomorrow, I suddenly began to think that if we compare ourselves to the vastness of the universe and everything else that exists in it, we may perhaps be nothing more than a tiny dot floating on the surface of the earth and yet in as much as such a thing may appear insignificant, the One who created everything chooses to have a personal relationship with that tiny dot, that is, ourselves. This is something truly uplifting, which gives meaning and purpose to our lives and our existence. At the same time, it is also a reminder for us to stay grounded especially in those moments when w...
Read more

Are you creative?

Image
  ARE YOU CREATIVE? Mario D’Couto                         Can you imagine a world without creativity? What would the world look like if there was no creativity? Well, for all we can expect, it would be pretty boring and dull. There would be no speech, no songs, no tools, no ideas such as love, freedom or democracy. It would be an existence so mechanical and impoverished that none of us would want to be a part of.             To achieve the kind of world we consider human, some people had to dare to break the thrall of tradition. Next, they had to find ways of recording those new ideas or procedures that improved on what went on before. Finally, they had to find ways of transmitting the new knowledge to the generation to come. Those who were involved in this process we call creative. What we call culture or those parts of our selves that we internalized from the social...
Read more