Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 4, 21-25
He said to them, ‘Is a lamp brought in to be put under the bushel basket, or under the bed, and not on the lampstand? For there is nothing hidden, except to be disclosed; nor is anything secret, except to come to light. Let anyone with ears to hear listen!’ And he said to them, ‘Pay attention to what you hear; the measure you give will be the measure you get, and still more will be given you. For to those who have, more will be given; and from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.’
Excesses take away light
1) Depression. It is the excess of looking back to the past. You are constantly looking back at the mistakes you made, coupled with guilt, or wishing you had happy moments because you are not happy now. This leads you to overshadow yourself and lose the ability to shine before others. Looking back makes you lose everything you could achieve today; you are blind to what God has in store for you today. Please feed your life with the present and a clear objective for the future. Leave the past behind, learn from your mistakes but do not let the past rule you because this leads to excess guilt and sadness.
2) Stress. In other words, this is the excess of the present. When you are constantly looking at what you have to do, how to put in 24 hours the hundred and fifty thousand things you have to do, you become stressed. When you are conscious of the many things you have to do in the day, it may seem overwhelming because there is not enough time to get things done. When you miscalculate your time to always be busy non-stop, it leads to stress. You fall into a pattern of rushing through the day, trying to figure out everything in your head. Problems and more problems. This destroys the light in you, because it takes away your peace, and peace is like that oil that allows your light to shine brighter.
3) Anxiety. This also takes away your light because it is the excess of looking towards the future. You become too dependent on what you think might happen. This is scary because you do not know if it will or will not go as planned. You begin to create different scenarios in your head that are filled with ghosts that make you live in unreality, and you even suffer over things that have not yet happened. This makes you forget about your people and about enjoying life.
Do not let these excesses take over your life. Do as Mother Theresa says “Live your life like it was your first, last and only day.” You can be a provider of light, I assure you.
God bless you in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. And don’t forget that Heaven is our goal.
