Excellence and nobility

Monday, February 3, 2025

*Noris Capin

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We have reached the beginning of a new year, a new cycle of life. It is not an inauguration or a carnivalesque event or an imaginary opening, but rather a season of transformation and goodwill. And I say goodwill because it is when the desire arises to make amends for times when we have faltered, to deepen faith, to expand personal knowledge and to flourish. Flourish with all the excellence and nobility we deserve.

And what I propose to you in this new year is not difficult. Rather, I am giving you guidance that life involves a constant metamorphosis, which adjusts to the desires for renewal and mercy to intensify life with songs of freshness—like a new spring bloom.

The key is to become genuine people, men and women who are bearers of good, of justice that, in all its splendor, keeps us away from disorder and personal abandonment; I mean from apathy: orphanhood and intimate nakedness that uncovers us and confuses us.

Nothing excludes us from being bearers of all the good that is within reach and, often, without us knowing it, our life shifts towards what is popular, what is trendy, which in a certain way separates us from the things of God.

Every man comes into this world for a limited time established by God; we do not have the power to design our lives as we wish, but we can discern our way forward. We must pray and discern our path in life always with good judgement and sound minds, to play an active role in God’s will.

How beautiful it would be to think that at the time of our birth there had been a sign above the cradle that read: "A noble person was born and will be heir of goodness and nobility." For that is precisely what God called us to life for, as heirs of nobility to always live virtuously, as a gift that was provided to us without asking for it.

Often women and men want to experience life apart from God and go astray in deplorable ways.  Women, and I don't mean all of them, want to "live" and "feel" the mundane lullaby, the hubbub of the frivolous, the worldly drives that, in the end or almost always, disappoint.  Because materialism, abundance, waste and ostentation lead people to cross the line that upholds essential values.  But in this world, where the tangible weighs more than the spiritual, man tends to live in confusion and wants to have it all, to probe, to test what is imagined as he walks the path that brings instant and at the same time superficial and fleeting joy.

But the joy of the Lord cannot be bought with plastic coins or fake medals, nor is it even acquired with profit or business agreements. The joy of God is manifested when there is a call, when par excellence we feel the desire to live in internal happiness because we know that money and partying do not lead us to the intrinsic joy that God has in store for us.

And I am not saying—please--that living well is a crime or an infraction or a threat to the good life, but I reaffirm that the consolation of man, the joy, the deep pleasure of the human experience lie in the courts of God and costs us nothing.

Living in excellence and nobility puts us on a straight path, but often we must give way to the normal setbacks of life. God would like this to be a divine paradise for humanity adorned with flowers without thorns or darts. God puts our feet on the ground and places us in the center of daily contradictions, in sadness, and exposes us to the miseries of the world without us understanding how this can happen if we follow God. And we ask ourselves: How is it possible to suffer and cry if the Lord has put us on His path and in the truth of His Kingdom? Why do we suffer, why do we endure things that are contrary to God? Why, if we follow the ways of the Lord, can it be possible for tears of blood to roll down our faces?

The intimate joy of God consists of knowing how to endure anguish, how to transcend the consumerism that binds us, how to overcome fear, how to soothe wounds. It teaches us to forgive, to let go of what is impure, what is vitiated, to simply be valued human beings, holy men and women who grow in excellence and nobility with the overwhelming power of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the Lord. He tests us.

And the Word of God says: because my ideas are not like yours, and my way of acting is not like yours. Just as the sky is above the earth, so my ideas and my way of acting are above yours. The Lord affirms it in Isaiah 55: 8,9.