We need to be strong and tough

OF course, without compromising our need also to be tender and gentle. We are not meant to be strong and tough like the brute and the monster. We need to have the strength of charity that knows also how to bend, to understand, to forgive.

            It’s a matter of discernment and prudence. They actually can and should go together—our toughness and gentleness.

            But their manifestations vary according to the situation, and we just have to learn how to show and live both anytime, or highlight one over the other given the circumstance or the need of the moment.

            Christ, of course, is the ultimate model of all this. The saints have reflected this integrated quality well. We too need to learn and live this virtue, if we want to be truly human, let alone, Christian.

            We need to be strong and tough, first of all, because our life will always involve, if not, require nothing less than continuing effort and struggle. Christ himself said it clearly: “From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and men of violence take it by force.” (Mt 11,12)

            This is because there are goals and challenges to reach. And they are not merely natural, social or human goals. They are spiritual and supernatural that obviously need both grace and nothing less than our all-out effort.

            Besides, given our wounded human condition, there obviously are problems and difficulties to face, temptations and consequences of our sins, mistakes and failures. There will always be issues that we need to resolve.

            This is not to mention that each one of us has his own personal weaknesses to tackle. Everyone is prone to laziness and complacency, to narrow-mindedness and shortsightedness, if not blindness to spiritual and supernatural realities, all of which can lead to complications in our life.

            We have to deal with the concupiscence of the eyes and the flesh, the pride of life, our tendency to be vain and self-centered, and to be dominated by the urges of lust and sensuality, greed and avarice, gluttony, and the many other disordinate passions we have.

            We have to know the peculiarities of our emotional and psychological make-up, so we can be prepared to deal with the ups and downs of our life, twists and turns of life’s drama that can lead us to wild mood swings and to more serious conditions like falling into bipolar and similar mental and emotional illnesses.

            This is not to mention that we have to learn how to cope with the consequences of the other extreme of committing mistakes and sins, suffering defeat, being a failure that can plunge us to depression, self-pity and despair. Or the sweet poison of success that can spoil us.

            Let’s never forget that we also have to deal with spiritual and supernatural enemies of our soul. We are actually ranged against powerful spiritual enemies.

            We indeed have to learn how to be strong and tough, ever patient, hopeful, trusting in God’s never-failing and ever-wise-and-merciful providence, and optimistic, cheerful, serene and confident. The ideal Christian life is one of being zealous and aggressive, not passive and completely defensive.

            We need to pause and probe deeply into this truth of our faith so we can have a clearer idea of what, aside from God’s grace that we should always ask, we can do to deal with our different predicaments in life.

            Yes, it’s true that we have to be sensitive and delicate, especially in our conscience, but it’s also true that we have to learn how to be thick-skinned, how to be indifferent and to ignore certain things, and just to move on, in spite of cuts and bruises we may suffer along the way.

            Christ told us that it’s better to be one-eyed and to cut one hand off than to have both eyes and hands if one part of the pair becomes an occasion of sin for us. We have to learn to suffer, always trusting in the end in the ever-powerful and wise will of God.

            Let’s remember that Christ himself pleaded with the Father to take the cup away from him, but in the end, he simply submitted to his Father’s will. “Not my will but yours be done.” And he resurrected, and with it, conquered sin and death for us.

            In this Easter season, we need to have the mind of the Risen Christ. Like him, let’s have the mind of a victor, a conqueror who is willing to take on anything and still wins.