November blues?

With its overshadowing commemoration of the dead, November may evoke
somber notes. My friends in business, especially store owners, also tell me November is a dead month, business-wise.

But I must say that like any month, it should connote joy. Memory, let’s remember, has better modes other than sentimental nostalgia and foggy melancholy. Of course, for this we have to widen our perspective.

Reasons to be happy abound. For one, let’s not forget that it begins with the Solemnity of All Saints, a vivid reminder of what the Church teaches as the communion of saints. We all are called to it. We all truly belong to it. We are God’s people, God’s family.

This means that we have a very glorious beginning, because we come from the hands of God. And we are meant for an even more glorious end, because we are destined to share the very life of God. This is God’s will, before it becomes our own.

This thought should abide in us permanently, forming our basic attitudes and outlook in life. This should not just be an intellectual thing. It’s a fundamental truth meant to infuse every pore of our being.

Let’s not worry too much about the means to achieve this. We are told that what God begins, he ends, what he starts, he completes and perfects. Of course, all this will require our cooperation.

Yes, we know all too well that we are sinners. Still we cannot deny that it’s God’s will that we be holy like him, since we are his children, not just any creature. “Be holy as your heavenly Father is holy.”

We need to expand our mind and heart to conform ourselves more fully to this reality. That’s the challenge we have. We tend to have a very narrow and shallow view of things, which we have to correct.

With weak faith, we invite doubts and fears. We would live in a world of uncertainties. We then become vulnerable to skepticism, even cynicism. The slide to worse things, even faith’s loss, becomes inevitable.

To strengthen our faith, we need among other things to be deeply grounded
on the doctrine of our faith. We have to study our catechism, assimilate and master it.

And since we always live in society, we need to help one another in this regard. There’s so much religious ignorance and doctrinal confusion that we have to overcome. The challenge is truly daunting, but not impossible.

Nowadays, we need to be more precise in our understanding of the articles of our faith. There’s this disturbing talk about invincible ignorance, in the face of which the suggested action to take is just to let the parties concerned be.

These doctrines of our faith are not simply ideas. We need them to immerse ourselves in the very life and mystery of God, in his mercy and justice. We need them to take part in Christ’s salvific work. We have to be careful with our tendency to simply “intellectualize” them.

Let’s hope that we can be more aware of this grave responsibility to study our doctrines seriously. Even more, that we be truly adept in fulfilling it, putting all sorts of initiatives our loving creativity could occasion.

Catechesis should be a continuing activity especially at homes. More than in schools and parishes, it’s in homes, the domestic church, where the teaching and deepening in Christian doctrine should be carried out.

Parents especially should take active part in this task. Theirs is not simply a matter of feeding and clothing their children, sheltering them, sending them to schools. Parenthood means a lot more than these.

Participating in the creativity of God, parents do not only beget children. They educate and form them not only to be their children but also God’s children.

Educating children should not be limited to the merely human aspects. It has to go all the way to the spiritual and supernatural dimensions of our life, to its religious aspect. This is the core of education.

This is one way of effectively blowing the so-called November blues away!