Broken Glass

A vase is broken. The easiest thing to do is to throw it away and buy another to replace it. But if this vase is one of a kind, special and has sentimental value to us, no other similar vase can replace it. We can painstakingly use glue to rejoin all the broken pieces but it can never look beautiful again with all its crack lines. If we are skilled, we can meltdown the glass and remake the vase. Although it may not be exactly the same as before, it contains in it the same substance as before. And being of the same substance, we can still relate to it sentimentally as we did previously. But how many of us know about glass making? 

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Today's homily was about being rejected and hurt. What do we do? This topic is relevant to every human person who has ever lived alongside another person. We are all sinful and capable of inflicting hurt on one another. We are insecure and vulnerable creatures, subjected to the hurts of others too. So what do we do with our wounded hearts? How do we find joy and peace again? How do we restore the wholeness of our broken hearts? 


Like the broken vase, the easiest solution is the first - quick, indifference, move on. Plainly ignores the natural occurrence of our emotions. Escapism. Can a heart be so swiftly replaced? Only if we were never quite connected with it anyway. 


Or like the second solution, we could force the broken pieces to hold still in its place by plastering them into place. The glue may cover the lines but because the glue is visible, it becomes the most visible scars that will never go away. Time will heal. That's what people say. We force it over time to 'heal' by 'covering up', by suppression. What a heavy burden. A walking time bomb waiting to explode at the first instant of stress. 


The third. Passing on our hearts to the skilled Craftsman since we are not one ourselves. He who knows our broken hearts because His heart is broken too. Rejection, insult, hurt, betrayal, abandonment, accusations... He has experienced them all. Why will He not know what it feels like? Why will He not know how we feel? In all these, we are never alone. Even if the entire human kind does not understand us, He does. And He will know how best to mend the brokenness. Isn't that the greatest comfort? The one and only Craftsman... Surely, we can entrust our brokenness to Him. 


07 July 2012, Saturday