rapidity of modern, highly technological life, we need to
re-study how
to change gears not only in our whole life in general,
but also in our
day-to-day routine. What we of the older generation used
to know and
use about this skill may not be helpful anymore now with
the
Generation Y.
At least, we
need to tweak it a little, if not do some
major changes, adjustments and adaptations, or we may
need to
completely reinvent ourselves. This seems to be the call
of the times.
Yes, there are things that should not change, but we
cannot deny there
also are many things that need to change.
Virtues will
always be virtues, and vices will always be
vices. But the way they are established, expressed and
developed have
changed quite significantly. The terrain is now very
different from
what it used to be.
We have to be
most wary of the almost irresistible pull of
the modern technologies. They tend to rivet us to a
particular field
of interest, confining us there often with the sensation
we are doing
all right. We fail to realize we are neglecting other
aspects that are
even more important and fundamental in life.
This is when we
can unwittingly fall into some bad habits
and even addictions. We lose the proper sense of
objectivity and get
more buried under an increasingly invincible
subjectivism, often
driven and dominated by the blind impulses of the flesh
and the
passing values of the worldly spirit.
We have to
update our skills in changing gears. We have to
learn how to differentiate, blend and practice in their
proper places
and times our meditative and active modes, our prayer,
work, study,
hobbies and rest, our family, social and professional
obligations, our
private and public lives.
We have to
learn how to pay due attention to our spiritual
and material needs, our practice of the theological
virtues of faith,
hope and charity as well as the human cardinal virtues of
prudence,
justice, fortitude and temperance. This should be given
more teeth and
made real, and stop being a mere theory and dream.
We have to be
more discerning of the many facets and
aspects of our life and to give the proper attention to
each one of
them in a healthy hierarchy of values that reflects our
dignity as
persons and citizens, as image and likeness of God, and
as children of
God.
In this regard,
what is most helpful is for us to make use
of some workable plan of life, a dynamic, living
structure that puts
some order into the many elements of our life as well as
being open to
new, unexpected developments that can come along.
Basic to this
plan is to give due time to our need to
pray, study, work and rest. We need to further specify
how to go about
these fundamental activities so we can truly say that
they are
functional and are clearly helping us in pursuing our
ultimate
objective of loving God and loving everybody else,
whoever and however
he may be.
What is also
helpful is to continue purifying and
disciplining ourselves so that we can avoid being held
captive by mere
sensations and emotions, or by mere trends and fads.
That’s precisely
why Christ told us that if we want to follow him, we need
to deny
ourselves and carry the cross.
So we should
have no doubt about the essential role that
the spirit of sacrifice, mortification and penance plays
in our life.
When we are not open to this spirit, when we tend to shy
away from it,
let’s be convinced that we would be disabling ourselves
to change
gears properly and promptly.
The skill of
changing gears in our life is ultimately a
matter of our constant awareness that God is always with
us, is always
intervening in our lives, is speaking to us through all
the events of
our life.
It is therefore
also a matter of always recognizing the
presence of God in everything, and of discerning what is
trying to
tell us at every moment and situation. This will require
tremendous
faith and a strong, vibrant piety, which hopefully would
be nourished
by that plan of life we referred to earlier.
Let’s be
convinced that being aware of God’s presence all
the time, and actively corresponding to his will and ways
is really
what matters in our life after all is said and done.
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