To Save Yourself or the Art of Living

When we say “save yourself”, we do not refer to Christian salvation which Christ gained for us and which will be consummated in eternity. Rather, we understand this phrase in its popular sense of sparing oneself from fear, from anguish, from tedium, and from suffering.

More concretely, when we use the phrase “save yourself” we understand that it refers to some of those ways and means that every person may use in the conquest of any kind of suffering.

My observation of life has taught me that faith is the most powerful anesthetic in calming the pains that life brings. Unfortunately, however, there are only a handful of individuals who possess so powerful a faith as to transform suffering into a source of peace.

There is no specialist who can free you from human suffering simply through analysis and therapy. Saving oneself is an art for living; and yet this art is learned by living. And no one can live your life or live it for you. You can and ought to save yourself from anguish by recovering peace of mind and joy of living.

You must be convinced that every human being is a bearer of immense capabilities that, in normal circumstances, may be quite asleep. But once they are awakened and put into action, the human being can do much more than imagined. Therefore, one has to begin by believing in oneself and in one’s capacity to “save” oneself.

Extracted from the book The art of Living by Fr. Ignacio Larrañaga