IF we believe that God is everything
to us, that he is
most relevant to our life and to our needs, since he is at the very
core of it all, being our creator and father who is the very giver and
keeper of our existence and nature and who loves us no end, then the
least thing we can do other than keeping him simply in our mind and
heart is to talk about him, and doing so openly. This ought to be our
normal behaviour.
Besides, it is what the world needs, especially now when
we see a clear drift toward godlessness, worldliness, materialism,
etc. People need to hear about God other than what they hear in
churches and other formal religious occasions. We have to recover the
warmth of God’s abiding presence and love for us in a world that is
growing cold and indifferent to him.
Christ himself commands us to do so. “Go therefore and
make disciples of all nations,” (Mt 28,19) he told his disciples. In
another occasion, he said, “Whoever acknowledges me before men I will
also acknowledge him before my Father who is in heaven. Whoever denies
me before men, I will also deny before my Father.” (Mt 10,32) With
these words, I suppose we just cannot be quiet about God.
Obviously, we have to do all this with naturalness, having
a keen sense of timing and proper tone and appropriate words and
arguments. In other words, to speak with a gift of gab, which is also
God-given. But not to the extent that we would hardly talk about him
among our friends and even in some public fora. Sad to say, this is
what we are observing these days.
We even hardly hear, “Thank you, Lord,” for the many
blessings we have received. Not only do we seldom hear about God in
our ordinary daily dealings, we also seem to be afraid or ashamed to
talk about him.
I remember that in the few occasions I had casual meetings
with the now-Blessed Alvaro del Portillo in the 90s, I would often
hear the expression, “Gracias a Dios” (Thanks to God) to everything
that I would tell him. That left me with deep impression of him.
We tend to take God for granted very often. We consider
talking about him in our daily activities as out of place or not
politically or socially correct. What has he got to do with our
politics, our business, our sciences, our entertainment, some people
ask. Precisely in these fields so vulnerable to be abused, we need to
talk a lot about God.
And so we go against the very basic truth of our faith and
the most fundamental fact of life, and that is that we need God
always, that he’s always relevant to our needs, that he holds the key
to our proper understanding of things.
We have to overcome this predicament of ours. Keeping
quiet about him can only lead us to many dangers. Our weaknesses would
easily get provoked. Temptations start to hound us. Falling into sin
would just be a matter of time. Misunderstanding and misrepresenting
people and things can easily afflict us.
First of all, we need to thank God because whatever we
know, discover or invent can only have God as the basis and goal. Then
we need to talk about how what we know or handle have a relation with
God’s abiding providence, for everything is always under God’s
omnipotent, wise and merciful providence.
It would be funny if we think that there are things in our
life that have nothing to do with God. Even our mistakes and failures
have a special relation with God. They can reveal God’s mercy, and can
occasion in us a deeper understanding about ourselves and about the
world in general.
Let us remember that there is only one thing necessary in
our life, and that is our own sanctification. The story of Martha and
Mary is very illustrative of this point. (cfr Lk 10,38-42) The work of
Martha, no matter how good it was, cannot replace what Mary did. And
St. Paul says it also quite directly, “This is the will of God, our
sanctification.” (1 Thes 4,3)
There may be difficulties involved in fulfilling this
need. But they precisely should be motives to study and talk more
about God, rather than to remain quiet and passive. Our concern for
naturalness and discretion is no excuse to be silent about God in our
daily affairs. God himself is the first to be concerned about these
things.
most relevant to our life and to our needs, since he is at the very
core of it all, being our creator and father who is the very giver and
keeper of our existence and nature and who loves us no end, then the
least thing we can do other than keeping him simply in our mind and
heart is to talk about him, and doing so openly. This ought to be our
normal behaviour.
Besides, it is what the world needs, especially now when
we see a clear drift toward godlessness, worldliness, materialism,
etc. People need to hear about God other than what they hear in
churches and other formal religious occasions. We have to recover the
warmth of God’s abiding presence and love for us in a world that is
growing cold and indifferent to him.
Christ himself commands us to do so. “Go therefore and
make disciples of all nations,” (Mt 28,19) he told his disciples. In
another occasion, he said, “Whoever acknowledges me before men I will
also acknowledge him before my Father who is in heaven. Whoever denies
me before men, I will also deny before my Father.” (Mt 10,32) With
these words, I suppose we just cannot be quiet about God.
Obviously, we have to do all this with naturalness, having
a keen sense of timing and proper tone and appropriate words and
arguments. In other words, to speak with a gift of gab, which is also
God-given. But not to the extent that we would hardly talk about him
among our friends and even in some public fora. Sad to say, this is
what we are observing these days.
We even hardly hear, “Thank you, Lord,” for the many
blessings we have received. Not only do we seldom hear about God in
our ordinary daily dealings, we also seem to be afraid or ashamed to
talk about him.
I remember that in the few occasions I had casual meetings
with the now-Blessed Alvaro del Portillo in the 90s, I would often
hear the expression, “Gracias a Dios” (Thanks to God) to everything
that I would tell him. That left me with deep impression of him.
We tend to take God for granted very often. We consider
talking about him in our daily activities as out of place or not
politically or socially correct. What has he got to do with our
politics, our business, our sciences, our entertainment, some people
ask. Precisely in these fields so vulnerable to be abused, we need to
talk a lot about God.
And so we go against the very basic truth of our faith and
the most fundamental fact of life, and that is that we need God
always, that he’s always relevant to our needs, that he holds the key
to our proper understanding of things.
We have to overcome this predicament of ours. Keeping
quiet about him can only lead us to many dangers. Our weaknesses would
easily get provoked. Temptations start to hound us. Falling into sin
would just be a matter of time. Misunderstanding and misrepresenting
people and things can easily afflict us.
First of all, we need to thank God because whatever we
know, discover or invent can only have God as the basis and goal. Then
we need to talk about how what we know or handle have a relation with
God’s abiding providence, for everything is always under God’s
omnipotent, wise and merciful providence.
It would be funny if we think that there are things in our
life that have nothing to do with God. Even our mistakes and failures
have a special relation with God. They can reveal God’s mercy, and can
occasion in us a deeper understanding about ourselves and about the
world in general.
Let us remember that there is only one thing necessary in
our life, and that is our own sanctification. The story of Martha and
Mary is very illustrative of this point. (cfr Lk 10,38-42) The work of
Martha, no matter how good it was, cannot replace what Mary did. And
St. Paul says it also quite directly, “This is the will of God, our
sanctification.” (1 Thes 4,3)
There may be difficulties involved in fulfilling this
need. But they precisely should be motives to study and talk more
about God, rather than to remain quiet and passive. Our concern for
naturalness and discretion is no excuse to be silent about God in our
daily affairs. God himself is the first to be concerned about these
things.
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