“People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway. If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies. Succeed anyway. If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you. Be honest and sincere anyway. What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight. Create anyway. If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous. Be happy anyway. The good you do today, will often be forgotten. Do good anyway. Give the best you have, and it will never be enough. Give your best anyway. In the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.”
St. Teresa of Calcutta is the attributed author of the prayer above. It is a popular prayer. The beauty of the prayer is contained in its penultimate sentence, “In the final analysis, it is between you and God.” In our Gospel reading, we hear Jesus say that the point of our mortal life is to be able to stand in front of the Son of Man. Our life culminates in an encounter with Jesus. We do not find our ultimate meaning in our successes, the number of friends we have, our legacy, or a sense of completion in our lives. They are not bad to have, but they are secondary in importance.
What is primary is gazing at Jesus face to face in the end. Seeing his smiling, kind countenance wipes away the tears we have shed in this life. Being with Jesus gives meaning to our failures, to our toils, and generosity towards one another. Our failures connect us with a Christ who failed. Our toils unite us with God who continues to labor for our salvation. Our generosity towards one another allows us to see glimpses of the face of Christ in one another.
Let us pray for the grace to meet the challenge of the task before us: to seek the face of Jesus in all that we do. While anxieties, carelessness, or despair will take possession of our hearts at time, may God preserve in us the desire to find Jesus in all that we do so that we may be prepared to stand before him in the end.
How do I seek the face of Jesus in my life? Where have I found Jesus gazing at me and smiling?