WE need to be more aware of our duty to establish, build up
and
strengthen the unity in our life. We only have one life, made up of
many parts, aspects, stages and levels, and subject to all sorts of
conditions, big and small, favorable and unfavorable, etc. The
challenge is how to put all these things together in harmony.
Strengthening that unity of our life insures us that we would be on
the right track toward the goal proper to us, that we would be
effective in what we are doing, and healthy and resistant to anything
that can weaken us or lead us astray.
Everyday we should be conscious that amid the mind-boggling diversity
of conditions and circumstances defining our daily life, like the
pressures and challenges we have to contend with, we are consistently
working out this unity of life.
We have to avoid getting distracted or entangled by things that,
while unavoidable and also important to us, do not comprise our
ultimate end. We have to be wary when we get confused and disoriented,
and succumb to the worldly appeals to be merely practical,
influential, rich, famous, etc.
Thus, we need to have a clear idea of what would represent a
distraction or swerving from the right path to take, because often we
do not even know when are already getting distracted or entangled or
confused.
There even are indications nowadays that point to the disturbing
phenomenon that the wrong and immoral things are now considered all
right. In fact, the distinction between good and evil, moral and
immoral seems to be thinning beyond recognition. It’s like the
distinction is mauled by a lion.
All this means that we have to be clear with the belief that the
source and end of the unity of our life is God. It cannot be any
other. Working for our unity of life would depend on where our faith
lies. Is it with God or simply with our own selves, our own estimation
of things?
How important therefore it is to reinforce our life of faith, because
with this respect to this particular issue, a vague and weak faith
would certainly lead us nowhere in any effort to establish that unity.
With a weak or even missing faith, any appearance of unity we may be
able to show in life would be grounded on shifting sand, not on terra
firma. It would be a unity that cannot cope with all the demands unity
requires, all the questions and issues it can raise.
A unity based only on social, political or economic grounds would not
know what to do when the opposite of what we consider to be the ideal
in these fields takes place instead. It’s a unity that would not know
how to cope with contradictions.
It’s only with God as revealed fully in Christ and perpetuated by the
Holy Spirit in the Church that even the defeats and losses, the pains
and misfortunes that we suffer in this life can contribute, rather
than undermine, the true unity we ought to seek, the unity based
precisely on God.
As St. Paul said: “To them that love God, all things work together
unto good…” (Rom 8,28) The same idea is reiterated in many of his
epistles. “The weak things of the world has God chosen, that he may
confound the strong.” (1 Cor 1,27) “It’s when I am weak that I am
strong.”
The wisdom behind these words cannot be captured by any human
estimation of what is good for us, of what can possibly contribute to
building up our unity in our individual person and also among
ourselves as a people.
The merely human criteria we may use to establish unity will always
be vulnerable to the many contradictions and mysterious situations,
the so-called crossroads, we are bound to meet in life.
At the moment there seems to be a trend to bash the Church because
some people attribute a wrong notion of triumphalism to the Church.
Any violation of this notion therefore forfeits the right of any
Church leader concerned to say anything about faith and morals.
This attitude is, of course, unfair. Even Christ told his disciples
that they may follow what the Jewish leaders were preaching though
they should not follow what the leaders were doing, since they did not
practice what they preached.
To build our unity, we need to know also, following the teaching of
Christ, how to cope with our mistakes and failures.
strengthen the unity in our life. We only have one life, made up of
many parts, aspects, stages and levels, and subject to all sorts of
conditions, big and small, favorable and unfavorable, etc. The
challenge is how to put all these things together in harmony.
Strengthening that unity of our life insures us that we would be on
the right track toward the goal proper to us, that we would be
effective in what we are doing, and healthy and resistant to anything
that can weaken us or lead us astray.
Everyday we should be conscious that amid the mind-boggling diversity
of conditions and circumstances defining our daily life, like the
pressures and challenges we have to contend with, we are consistently
working out this unity of life.
We have to avoid getting distracted or entangled by things that,
while unavoidable and also important to us, do not comprise our
ultimate end. We have to be wary when we get confused and disoriented,
and succumb to the worldly appeals to be merely practical,
influential, rich, famous, etc.
Thus, we need to have a clear idea of what would represent a
distraction or swerving from the right path to take, because often we
do not even know when are already getting distracted or entangled or
confused.
There even are indications nowadays that point to the disturbing
phenomenon that the wrong and immoral things are now considered all
right. In fact, the distinction between good and evil, moral and
immoral seems to be thinning beyond recognition. It’s like the
distinction is mauled by a lion.
All this means that we have to be clear with the belief that the
source and end of the unity of our life is God. It cannot be any
other. Working for our unity of life would depend on where our faith
lies. Is it with God or simply with our own selves, our own estimation
of things?
How important therefore it is to reinforce our life of faith, because
with this respect to this particular issue, a vague and weak faith
would certainly lead us nowhere in any effort to establish that unity.
With a weak or even missing faith, any appearance of unity we may be
able to show in life would be grounded on shifting sand, not on terra
firma. It would be a unity that cannot cope with all the demands unity
requires, all the questions and issues it can raise.
A unity based only on social, political or economic grounds would not
know what to do when the opposite of what we consider to be the ideal
in these fields takes place instead. It’s a unity that would not know
how to cope with contradictions.
It’s only with God as revealed fully in Christ and perpetuated by the
Holy Spirit in the Church that even the defeats and losses, the pains
and misfortunes that we suffer in this life can contribute, rather
than undermine, the true unity we ought to seek, the unity based
precisely on God.
As St. Paul said: “To them that love God, all things work together
unto good…” (Rom 8,28) The same idea is reiterated in many of his
epistles. “The weak things of the world has God chosen, that he may
confound the strong.” (1 Cor 1,27) “It’s when I am weak that I am
strong.”
The wisdom behind these words cannot be captured by any human
estimation of what is good for us, of what can possibly contribute to
building up our unity in our individual person and also among
ourselves as a people.
The merely human criteria we may use to establish unity will always
be vulnerable to the many contradictions and mysterious situations,
the so-called crossroads, we are bound to meet in life.
At the moment there seems to be a trend to bash the Church because
some people attribute a wrong notion of triumphalism to the Church.
Any violation of this notion therefore forfeits the right of any
Church leader concerned to say anything about faith and morals.
This attitude is, of course, unfair. Even Christ told his disciples
that they may follow what the Jewish leaders were preaching though
they should not follow what the leaders were doing, since they did not
practice what they preached.
To build our unity, we need to know also, following the teaching of
Christ, how to cope with our mistakes and failures.
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