The things of God or just our own things?

WE should never forget this basic character of our life here on earth. Whatever we do, whatever situation we may find ourselves in, we should realize that we are always given a choice of whether we want to do the things of God, to follow his will and ways, or we just want to do our own things, our own will. 

 Perhaps, not many people realize this. And so, it is now a big challenge for us to make this truth of our faith about our life here on earth known and acted upon. We need to always be interested and do the things of God, since that would comprise what is proper to us as children of God, and not just children of our parents, of the world and of our own selves. 

 We should be focused on the things of God rather than on our own things. Not that our own things or our earthly affairs are not important. They are, but only as a means or an occasion to lead us to God. Our usual problem is that we get trapped in the drama of our temporal affairs without referring them to what has eternal value, and that is, to be with God, to be like God. That is how we can be rich in the things of God. 

 We need to see to it that in our temporal affairs, even as we take care of their technical and other human and natural aspects and requirements, we should build up things like the virtues of honesty, integrity, patience, compassion, etc., because these are what would make us rich in what matters to God. 

 We have to have the good sense of living the basic social principles of the common good, subsidiarity and solidarity that would constitute the proper sense of responsibility for us. And we have to understand that by the common good, we mean God first before we think of any good for man. 

 To be rich in what matters to God is not so much a matter of how much wealth and possessions we have as it is of how much love we have for God which is always translated in our love for the others, expressed in deeds and not just in intentions. 

 We may be rich or poor in our worldly standards, but what should be pursued with extreme care and seriousness is that our heart gets filled with love for God and love for the others. 

 This, of course, will require tremendous struggle and constant purification and rectification of our intentions and ways, given the fact that we are always prone to get attached to the things of this world and to the ways of greed, envy and the like. 

 We have to continually check ourselves especially these days when we are bombarded with many tantalizing and intoxicating things that can capture our heart and remove God from it. It always pays to lead a very simple and austere life in spite of the great wealth that we may have. 

 And to be clear about this also: that the more wealth we have, the greater also would be our responsibility to show our love for God and others with deeds. The scope and range of that love should grow exponentially, so to speak. 

 We should be wary of our tendency to get complacent in this duty of living true Christian poverty and detachment. We really have to fight tooth and nail against this tendency because the likelihood for us to fall for this sweet poison of the new things today is high. 

 At the end of the day, we should be able to say that with our struggles and rectitude of intention, we are truly getting rich in what matters to God!

Keeping the vigil of faith

THIS is how our life should be lived. No matter how brilliant and intellectually and naturally gifted we are, we should always be guided by faith, making it the abiding light of our life, otherwise we would miss the most important goal of our life. 

 Faith is God’s gift to us, his way of sharing the knowledge that he has about himself, about ourselves and about everything else. It is what would give us hope, confidence and sense of security as we journey through the valley of tears that our earthly life can’t help but be. It is what would give us joy and true love that can handle any situation and condition in our life. 

 An appropriate prayer that we can use in this regard could be the following: “Turn our eyes to seek the truth of your judgments, Lord, that, when our spirits are tried by fire, the anticipation of seeing you may make us rejoice in your justice.” 

 Or we can also repeat often some words spoken by different characters in the gospel like: “I believe, help my unbelief!” (Mk 9,24) or “Increase our faith.” (Lk 17,5) We can never say that we have enough faith. We should never be complacent in this regard. Faith is an ever-dynamic thing that needs to grow and grow as well as to inspire us more deeply, thoroughly and consistently. 

 We need to make it grow to cope with our natural needs. In this level alone, we always need faith to make things very clear for us, even if in theory we can handle the natural challenges and difficulties we can encounter in life. 

 We cannot deny that there are just too many of these natural challenges and difficulties for us to handle with a certain ease and confidence. Especially these days when the pace of development is faster, and the developments themselves are more complicated and tricky, we need the light of faith to see things properly. 

 Besides, it is faith that gives the ultimate meaning and proper direction to all our human knowledge and endeavors. It is what gives the original perspective to all events, good or bad, in our life. Otherwise, we would end up confused and lost. 

 We also need to make our faith grow to cope with the multiplying infranatural consequences of our human condition that is weakened by sin. There’s no other way to manage and survive the consequences of sin, ours and those of others, personal as well as the collective and structural, than by relying first of all on our faith. Without faith, we will find no exit, no relief from this wounded status of ours. 

 Also, we need to make our faith grow to cope with the tremendous goal of attaining our supernatural goal in life, that of becoming the true image and likeness of God in which we have been created. Our human and natural powers simply cannot handle this aspiration. It would require nothing less than God’s help which starts by giving us the gift of faith which we have to receive and make full use of. 

 We should not be surprised that life and all the challenges and trials we are going to face in it will always demand from us things beyond our powers and resources. And that’s simply because we are meant to go to God for all our needs, without neglecting any effort we can give along the way.

Christian morality is not just natural morality

THAT’S right! Christian morality goes beyond natural morality that pursues only some earthly and temporal goals. It goes beyond these earthly goals, not suppressing them, but elevating and purifying them to the supernatural order. 

 And that’s because Christian morality is based on the most basic identity of man as God’s image and likeness, sharers of his divine life and nature. We are not just natural beings. We are meant to go and be supernatural. Otherwise, we can only go infranatural. There is no such thing as a purely natural state of man. We are given a choice of whether we want to go up or to go down. 

 More than anything else, Christian morality is not simply based on what is reasonable or what is acceptable by a wide consensus of people. While all these criteria or standards are considered, what distinguishes Christian morality is its being animated by nothing less than God’s grace. And love for God and for everyone, including our enemies, is the beginning, end and everything in it. 

 In other words, to have a good moral sense is none other than having an abiding awareness that all our human acts, starting with our thoughts and desires, and then our words and deeds, should be good in the sense that they ought to be inspired and oriented toward nothing less than love for God and for others. 

 That’s why St. Paul once said in his praise of charity (love of God): “If I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. 

 “And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I should have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. 

 “And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profits me nothing.” (1 Cor 13,1-3) 

 No human act is good unless it begins and ends with God, and as a corollary, with others. This has to be made clear because we often supplant that truth with our own version of goodness based on practicality, popularity, and other worldly criteria that in themselves are good, but can only be truly good if they are related to love for God and for others. 

 In other words, the goodness of our human acts does not depend on us alone. It depends fundamentally and indispensably on God. We cannot help but think theologically if we are truly concerned about the morality of our human acts. 

 That’s because more than just depending on our own individual consciences and collective consensus, we need to depend first on faith, the gift God gives to us to start sharing who he is and what he has, since we are his image and likeness and adopted children of his, expected to share in the very life of God. And faith gives us a basis for hope as we go through this vale of tears of ours, and then also for charity. 

 We need to make a conscious effort to get in touch with God, because only then can we fairly think that we are moral in our actuations. That’s why we need to pray, to act and live in his presence, always purifying and rectifying our intentions, etc.