HIDDEN ROOTS

An Argentine poet, many years ago, wrote a poem to express what he had discovered: what we suffered for, what we cried for, what we lost, it only makes sense if it led us to good goals, to encounters, to undying loves.

Here is his poem:

“If to regain what I regained,

I first had to lose what I lost;

If to achieve what I achieved,

I had to endure what I endured;

If to be in love now

First I had to be hurt,

I consider what I suffered well suffered,

I consider what I wept for as well wept for.

Because in the end I came to see

That we do not really enjoy what we enjoyed

Unless we have suffered for it.

For in the end I realized

That the blossoms on the tree

Draw life from what lies buried beneath”.

(Francisco Luis Bernárdez, "Soneto", in "Cielo de Tierra", Buenos Aires 1937).

Yes, we have experienced it more than once. The things that made us suffer or cry acquire their importance if we discover that they brought us closer to a love or to a greater good.

In Christian words, it is worth to suffer everything in order to grow in love for God and for our neighbor.

Then, like the poet, we discover that the flowers of the tree obtain their life from the hidden roots. Or, as Christ teaches in the Gospel, we recognize that the kernel of wheat that dies produces many seeds... (cf. Jn 12:24).