Our life is also supernatural

WE should not doubt about this. Our life is not simply natural, ruled by reason and will alone, supported by our emotions, memory, imagination and the whole gamut of bodily senses, organs and systems.

            Nor is it simply conditioned by social trends, economic and political developments, or historical and cultural factors. 

            It is also supernatural, not only in its goal or orientation, but even now, as in, here and now as we breathe. And that’s simply because there’s something spiritual in us. We are not purely material beings. 

            Our spirituality, which is found in the way we think, desire, use our will and exercise our freedom, etc., cannot but flow from God, its creator, and tend toward him, its proper end. It has that potentiality which is actualized first of all by God’s grace, which is given to us in abundance, and also by our cooperation.

            We have to be more aware of the spiritual and supernatural character of our life, and learn how to develop and live it as best as we can, always with God’s grace. But sad to say, to a large extent, we have been neglecting this duty.

            To be sure, while there will always be some moments of tension and awkwardness in carrying out this duty of taking care of our spiritual and supernatural life, we should realize more deeply that the spiritual does not contradict the material in us, nor the supernatural annul the natural in us.

            They can go together as they are supposed to be, the former actually giving the proper life and perfection to the latter. Our spiritual soul animates our body to make it human and not just animalistic, and the supernatural dimension purifies and elevates our nature, so that not only would we be thinking persons but also God’s children, intimately sharing the life of God.

            Obviously, these truths are not simply natural truths but also supernatural truths that need to be appreciated through faith. Thus, we need to exercise our faith more, so that we can be more aware of them and start to act on them.

            The supernatural life is a life of faith, hope and charity, virtues that actually are given to us freely and in abundance, but which we have to develop. They come to us, in a manner of speaking, in seed form. We have the duty to nurture them to their fullness.

            Let’s hope that we can be more determined to take this duty more seriously, cultivating the necessary attitude and picking up the pertinent practices to sustain this supernatural life from hereon.

            We have need to learn to pray, to study the doctrine of our faith, develop virtues, live in God’s presence to such an extent that we would be able to see God in everything and to relate everything to him. In other words, that we would know how to be contemplatives even if we are immersed and dirtied by the things of this world.

            We need to have recourse to the sacraments, especially that of the Holy Eucharist, because the sacraments are the ordinary channels through which God’s grace comes to us. How wonderful if we get to understand the true significance of the sacraments which are the effective signs of Christ’s continuing presence and redemptive work among us! 

            In other words, we have to develop a certain unity of life that is founded on the truth that our life is supernatural, and not just natural. We have to learn how to blend prayer with action, the sacred with the mundane, the spiritual with the material, the eternal with the temporal, etc.

            Our consciousness and outlook should not just be natural, but also supernatural. We have to follow what St. Paul once indicated. “As we have borne the image of the earthly, let us bear also the image of the heavenly.” (1 Cor 15,48) We have to learn how to keep our mind and heart in heaven even while our feet are firmly rooted on the ground.

            Let’s hope that from everyone’s serious effort to cultivate this supernatural life, we can develop a culture that is infused with a supernatural ethos. This might sound quixotic at the moment, but let’s continue to be hopeful and to persevere in working it out.

            If now we are enjoying some technological marvels that were deemed impossible some years ago, we should also entertain the hope that what may seem unreachable insofar as the supernatural life is concerned, will, with God’s grace and our cooperation, become a breathing reality among us.