THIS is the ideal way to live. We
need to be with Christ,
the Way, the Truth and the Life for us, not only from time to time,
but all the time. To put it bluntly, we cannot be in the right way, we
cannot find the truth about ourselves and everything else, we cannot
have true eternal life, without him.
He, being the second person of the Blessed Trinity, the
perfect image God has of himself, is the very pattern of our humanity
who has been made also in God’s image and likeness. Besides, as the
Son of God who became man, he is our redeemer who can reconcile us
with our Father God from whom we have been alienated because of our
sin.
We need to be clear about the abiding presence and love of
Christ for us. “Remember, I am with you each and every day until the
end of the age,” he assured his apostles who can include all of us if
we choose to believe and follow him. (Mt 28,20)
We need to remind ourselves constantly that only through
Christ can we truly discover who and what we really are. As a Church
document puts it: “The truth is that only in the mystery of the
incarnate Word (Christ) does the mystery of man take on light. Christ
fully reveals man to man himself and makes his supreme calling clear.”
(Gaudium et spes, 22)
These very lofty and theological words about the relation
between Christ and us should not detract from the fact that Christ
actually intervenes in our life in every moment, 24/7. His
interventions in our life are not limited to some special and
extraordinary occasions in our life. He is with us all the time, alive
and constantly telling us things. It’s us who tend to take him for
granted.
As St. Augustine would put it: “Lo, you were within, but I
outside, seeking there for you...You were with me, but I was not with
you.” This is the usual predicament we find ourselves in.
We need to do something about this. We need to exercise
our faith, more than just depending on our senses, feelings and our
understanding of things in general, to enter into that most wonderful
reality that Christ is actually in us always. We are never alone
actually.
His presence is never just passive. He loves us and
understands us always. As such, he will enlighten us in our darkness,
will console us in our sadness, will guide us in our daily routine. He
will always be with us in any situation, good or bad, and will show us
what to think and understand, how to react and what to do. We have to
learn how to correspond to this reality.
We have to understand that we will always need him, like a
child will always need his father, except that in our relation with
Christ, we can never outgrow that dependence on him, while a child can
outgrow his dependence on his father, and will in fact, after a time,
be the one to take care of his father.
Not so with us with respect to our dependence on Christ.
In fact, the older we get, the more knowledge and experience we gain,
the more dependent we ought to be on Christ. And that’s simply because
our growth in stature, knowledge and experience will always lead us to
more complicated situations that would need more guidance from Christ.
We cannot deny that we tend to lose our innocence, our
goodness the more knowledge and experience we gain. We tend to fall
into pride and vanity, to be self-seeking and self-absorbed the more
we progress in life.
We have to remember that Christ has always something to
say about anything in our life, be it good or bad, a victory or a
defeat, a cause for joy or for sadness. Yes, even in the most mundane
and technical things, and in the most social and political issues,
Christ has something to say. Let’s never think that there is something
in our life where Christ is irrelevant or is not needed.
It’s important that we be with him always. We may not
understand or catch everything that he is showing us, but as long as
we are with him, things will just turn out right. As St. Paul would
put it:
“We know that God causes all things to work together for
good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his
purpose.” (Rom 8,28)
the Way, the Truth and the Life for us, not only from time to time,
but all the time. To put it bluntly, we cannot be in the right way, we
cannot find the truth about ourselves and everything else, we cannot
have true eternal life, without him.
He, being the second person of the Blessed Trinity, the
perfect image God has of himself, is the very pattern of our humanity
who has been made also in God’s image and likeness. Besides, as the
Son of God who became man, he is our redeemer who can reconcile us
with our Father God from whom we have been alienated because of our
sin.
We need to be clear about the abiding presence and love of
Christ for us. “Remember, I am with you each and every day until the
end of the age,” he assured his apostles who can include all of us if
we choose to believe and follow him. (Mt 28,20)
We need to remind ourselves constantly that only through
Christ can we truly discover who and what we really are. As a Church
document puts it: “The truth is that only in the mystery of the
incarnate Word (Christ) does the mystery of man take on light. Christ
fully reveals man to man himself and makes his supreme calling clear.”
(Gaudium et spes, 22)
These very lofty and theological words about the relation
between Christ and us should not detract from the fact that Christ
actually intervenes in our life in every moment, 24/7. His
interventions in our life are not limited to some special and
extraordinary occasions in our life. He is with us all the time, alive
and constantly telling us things. It’s us who tend to take him for
granted.
As St. Augustine would put it: “Lo, you were within, but I
outside, seeking there for you...You were with me, but I was not with
you.” This is the usual predicament we find ourselves in.
We need to do something about this. We need to exercise
our faith, more than just depending on our senses, feelings and our
understanding of things in general, to enter into that most wonderful
reality that Christ is actually in us always. We are never alone
actually.
His presence is never just passive. He loves us and
understands us always. As such, he will enlighten us in our darkness,
will console us in our sadness, will guide us in our daily routine. He
will always be with us in any situation, good or bad, and will show us
what to think and understand, how to react and what to do. We have to
learn how to correspond to this reality.
We have to understand that we will always need him, like a
child will always need his father, except that in our relation with
Christ, we can never outgrow that dependence on him, while a child can
outgrow his dependence on his father, and will in fact, after a time,
be the one to take care of his father.
Not so with us with respect to our dependence on Christ.
In fact, the older we get, the more knowledge and experience we gain,
the more dependent we ought to be on Christ. And that’s simply because
our growth in stature, knowledge and experience will always lead us to
more complicated situations that would need more guidance from Christ.
We cannot deny that we tend to lose our innocence, our
goodness the more knowledge and experience we gain. We tend to fall
into pride and vanity, to be self-seeking and self-absorbed the more
we progress in life.
We have to remember that Christ has always something to
say about anything in our life, be it good or bad, a victory or a
defeat, a cause for joy or for sadness. Yes, even in the most mundane
and technical things, and in the most social and political issues,
Christ has something to say. Let’s never think that there is something
in our life where Christ is irrelevant or is not needed.
It’s important that we be with him always. We may not
understand or catch everything that he is showing us, but as long as
we are with him, things will just turn out right. As St. Paul would
put it:
“We know that God causes all things to work together for
good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his
purpose.” (Rom 8,28)
No comments:
Post a Comment