IT all started with our first
parents. After being created
in the divine image and likeness and endowed with the best of things,
they eventually disobeyed God’s law and strayed away.
It’s a sad fact of life that continues to take place even
up to now. We seem to get easily spoiled by whatever goodness,
blessing or privilege is given to us. We need to be more prepared to
cope with this proneness, cultivating the relevant attitude, skills
and virtues.
The basic problem we have is that we tend to forget God
and fail to thank him for whatever good we have and enjoy in life. As
a result, we tend to make our own world, creating a bubble of life
that sooner or later will just burst to nothingness.
Let’s remember that all goodness comes from him even if
it’s also true that that goodness could also be a result of our own
efforts. Nothing actually is truly good unless it somehow comes from
God.
Our sense of gratitude is what keeps us always in touch
with our Creator and the indispensable maintainer of our existence and
source of whatever good we enjoy in life. We should do everything to
sharpen that sense as we go along. It’s what reminds us of the basic
relationship we have with him whom we tend to forget or take for
granted.
Our greatest passion should be to be thankful to God
always. If there’s some passion we have that is greater than this,
then we can be sure that we would be treading on a dangerous path in
life.
Let’s always remember what Christ told us about what God’s
greatest commandment is for us. We should “love God with all our might
and strength.” That love has to involve our whole being, not only our
spiritual and intellectual part, but also and all the way to our
feelings, emotions and passions.
And that’s simply because if our strongest passion is not
love for God expressed in part by always being thankful to him, then
it would be something else. And most likely it would be something that
is not proper to us, but rather one that may offer us some human good
that will eventually separate us from God.
This is what is happening these days with all the
advantages and privileges afforded us by the new technologies. They
offer us a lot of good, but if not related to God, they can become a
competitor of God. They can become our god.
And the most subtle of this danger is when it is done in
the field of religion itself. During the time of Christ, this was a
rampant problem. The leading men got so stuck with their own religious
laws and practices that they failed to recognize the God who became
man. They were so convinced with the goodness of their laws and
practices that they absolutized them, and made them their god, instead
of God who became man.
Nowadays, we see a lot of self-righteous people who have
their own version of what is true, good and beautiful, without
referring it to the one who is all true, good and beautiful. They are
now redefining things and building their own tower of Babel.
We should try our best to always keep God the center and
focus of our life. We need to remind ourselves of this fundamental
truth, because like toddlers who can go on with their childish ways
unmindful of the people around, we too can go on with our many
temporal affairs and concerns unmindful of God.
We should never forget that we cannot outgrow our
dependence on God, and that the more mature and more accomplished we
become, the more dependent we ought to be on God. We need to remind
ourselves of this truth constantly, making many deliberate acts of
faith and thanksgiving during the day.
That’s why there is always a need also to cultivate the
sense of spiritual childhood, that awareness that in the eyes of God
we will always be children in need of his help and guidance.
Even if we are totally free and responsible for our life
and actions, such freedom is no excuse for declaring independence from
God who is the author, law and pattern, as well as goal of our
freedom.
We need to educate ourselves to make many acts of
thanksgiving all throughout the day, and feel in our flesh our
complete dependence on God. Let’s not be ingrates who arrogate to
ourselves what actually belongs to God.
in the divine image and likeness and endowed with the best of things,
they eventually disobeyed God’s law and strayed away.
It’s a sad fact of life that continues to take place even
up to now. We seem to get easily spoiled by whatever goodness,
blessing or privilege is given to us. We need to be more prepared to
cope with this proneness, cultivating the relevant attitude, skills
and virtues.
The basic problem we have is that we tend to forget God
and fail to thank him for whatever good we have and enjoy in life. As
a result, we tend to make our own world, creating a bubble of life
that sooner or later will just burst to nothingness.
Let’s remember that all goodness comes from him even if
it’s also true that that goodness could also be a result of our own
efforts. Nothing actually is truly good unless it somehow comes from
God.
Our sense of gratitude is what keeps us always in touch
with our Creator and the indispensable maintainer of our existence and
source of whatever good we enjoy in life. We should do everything to
sharpen that sense as we go along. It’s what reminds us of the basic
relationship we have with him whom we tend to forget or take for
granted.
Our greatest passion should be to be thankful to God
always. If there’s some passion we have that is greater than this,
then we can be sure that we would be treading on a dangerous path in
life.
Let’s always remember what Christ told us about what God’s
greatest commandment is for us. We should “love God with all our might
and strength.” That love has to involve our whole being, not only our
spiritual and intellectual part, but also and all the way to our
feelings, emotions and passions.
And that’s simply because if our strongest passion is not
love for God expressed in part by always being thankful to him, then
it would be something else. And most likely it would be something that
is not proper to us, but rather one that may offer us some human good
that will eventually separate us from God.
This is what is happening these days with all the
advantages and privileges afforded us by the new technologies. They
offer us a lot of good, but if not related to God, they can become a
competitor of God. They can become our god.
And the most subtle of this danger is when it is done in
the field of religion itself. During the time of Christ, this was a
rampant problem. The leading men got so stuck with their own religious
laws and practices that they failed to recognize the God who became
man. They were so convinced with the goodness of their laws and
practices that they absolutized them, and made them their god, instead
of God who became man.
Nowadays, we see a lot of self-righteous people who have
their own version of what is true, good and beautiful, without
referring it to the one who is all true, good and beautiful. They are
now redefining things and building their own tower of Babel.
We should try our best to always keep God the center and
focus of our life. We need to remind ourselves of this fundamental
truth, because like toddlers who can go on with their childish ways
unmindful of the people around, we too can go on with our many
temporal affairs and concerns unmindful of God.
We should never forget that we cannot outgrow our
dependence on God, and that the more mature and more accomplished we
become, the more dependent we ought to be on God. We need to remind
ourselves of this truth constantly, making many deliberate acts of
faith and thanksgiving during the day.
That’s why there is always a need also to cultivate the
sense of spiritual childhood, that awareness that in the eyes of God
we will always be children in need of his help and guidance.
Even if we are totally free and responsible for our life
and actions, such freedom is no excuse for declaring independence from
God who is the author, law and pattern, as well as goal of our
freedom.
We need to educate ourselves to make many acts of
thanksgiving all throughout the day, and feel in our flesh our
complete dependence on God. Let’s not be ingrates who arrogate to
ourselves what actually belongs to God.
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