"1997, a few weeks before the Valentines Day weekend... I had just graduated college and was still looking for a job. My mom's coworker mistakenly signed me up to do the next Men's Cursillo weekend. I was indifferent to going but was curious to see how "brainwashing" was done. I am and was a very rational being and at that time, I couldn't see past the joyfulness of those who had gone through a Cursillo weekend, especially my mom. She had changed too much to not have been brainwashed. Or so I thought.
"Most of what I remembered of that weekend where the advise that were given to me by the Cursillistas that 1st night: "Keep an open mind and heart!" So although I was analyzing during that whole weekend, I DID listen to the talks with an open mind and saw that those men truly had a genuine faith in God. Through all their faults and shame, they lived out their beliefs and were repentant and hopeful.
"By Saturday, I was less analytical and more full of heart in wonder. Those men did not just talk about Faith but lived it out with action - in their lives. By their freely giving time and their sacrificing so much for us who were attending, said a lot. Then at one of our usual breaks I saw that it was more than ordinary. Although I can't tell you about it in detail, I can say that it was an amazing expression of love! Truly wondrous in ways none of us expected. And then came out the women of Cursillo, to share and be Jesus to us and give us His love. They too volunteered their time. All that for us!..."
"...I couldn't understand it in my overly investigating mind. Why go to all that trouble for strangers, for men you don't know... and promising them God's love when those Cursillistas don't even know the dark tragedy that haunted them? Then I saw my mom hiding behind some of the women. It then hit me! My mom who had said nothing all her life but gave and sacrificed so much for her husband and children, gave also to strangers... but this time, to me as well. Growing up with very little hugs from my parents, I then suddenly felt my mother's tight embrace through her just being there... and I understood. I suddenly understood. God's love! Something so wondrous, it was beyond me, beyond my mother, beyond my analytical mind, beyond anything we can ever understand!
"Unthinkingly I jumped out to her and hugged her as if I was a kid again and have come home from being lost in a forest. I couldn't stop my tears and neither could she. I didn't want to let go. I had so much to tell her. I wanted to thank her for more reasons than I could count. But after a moment, she let me go and with a great loving smile in her face, told me that the women had to go and that I had to finish my weekend. I felt like I already did at that moment but I did what she said and I went back. She was right. I had to finish my weekend..."
"We heard more talks and more sharing. I gave more to the discussions. I was less afraid. At the end of Sunday, I wanted and knew I could give a talk myself. Sunday ended, we went home and woke up the next day. When I went to brush my teeth still a bit groggy, I noticed something different in my eyes. It was full of love! It was strangely beautiful. I looked closer at the mirror and realized: those eyes weren't mine- they were Jesus's eyes! Tears welled up and I collapsed on the floor sobbing. His eyes looked back at me with so much love that my heart burned! I kept thinking, "but I don't deserve You to love me so." Yet the words that replied were, "but I adore you just so." They were not really words but more like feelings that seemed like words. I stood up and looked back at the mirror to prove myself hallucinating. But Jesus's eyes peered back at me still. I wiped my eyes dry to see more clearly and touched the mirror. His eyes were still there! After a while my eyes came back in the reflection yet I knew that Jesus was still with me. It was really a brand new day! I had come back to the mundane changed as if I've only just opened my eyes. The world was different. And in its midst... Jesus - arms wide waiting."