AUTHENTICITY

              AUTHENTICITY

Oh soul, you who are groaning within me,

yearning to be

what you truly are

in the depths of your being.

Why do I want to feign what I am not,

seeking to be appreciated and loved  by human beings,

when I have the Love of my Divine Beloved,

who embraces and transforms me,

loving me just as I am,

with all my defects and weaknesses,

in my misery and selfishness?

Why do I want to live in my image,

like someone important and valuable,

appropriating all the gifts

that my Divine Beloved has placed in my being,

in the nothingness of my “self,”

made in His image?

Why do I want to interfere with the flow of life

–the manifestation of Love–

with my mental schemes of good and of evil,

in my pride-filled “self”?

Why am I constantly thwarting the impulses of my soul,

my liberty,

that wants to manifest itself with sincerity and authenticity

and thus to fly and return to its true being?

Why are I selling my soul

in order to buy the appreciation of men

and in order  to avoid, in my sensitivity,

their criticism and rejection?

Why am I enslaved to the creature, the gift,

when the Giver has come forth to meet me,

freely offering me his Love,

without my  meriting it,

accepting me just as I am,

without considering my “merits” or  defects?

Why do I go, like a hungry beggar,

chasing after the “crumbs” of human love

when my true food

is to do the Will of my Divine Beloved?

Oh souls, orphan of Love!

Why do you go seeking life, love,

in the filthy puddles of our egoism,

imitating the enemy of old,

the serpent eating his own tail,

wrapped up in himself,

swallowing the “tail” of his own being,

in a total absence of love?

Enough of this!

I want to be my Reality,

spark and explosion of the loving manifestation

of the Active Force of my true Being.

I want to seek my Divine Beloved,

in my inner silence,

in the emptying of the denial-of-self

in order to hear His “voice,”

letting myself be carried by Him,

like the dry leaf that I am,

ceasing to be me so that He may be in me;

thus I will find a peace,

a happiness and a Love

that nothing and no one

will ever be able to take away from me.

Francis Elmo