WE will always have issues to
resolve, problems to solve,
endless challenges to face and tackle, and that’s why we need to
realize that we have to be adequately prepared for them by undertaking
a lifelong battle for formation.
Social, political and economic issues will always be
around. And at the moment, the world is going through a keen phase of
change and tension. The current standards and systems seem to be
cracking up in the face of new, emerging problems. Things look like we
are rife for a drastic paradigm shift in our earthly affairs.
Yes, we need to be keyed up for all this. At the very
least, we need to be instructed, informed, educated, and more than
these, we need to toughen our spirit not only to absorb the tremendous
pressures but also to eke out a new way, a higher level of human and
global development.
This is where our need for formation enters. We have to go
beyond simply accumulating data and discovering and exploring human
sciences and technologies. No matter how indispensable they are, they
are not enough.
Without proper formation, we most likely will abuse or
misuse our sophisticated scientific and technological products. It’s
like giving a little child some matches to play with, or an adolescent
too much money to go around.
We need to pay attention to the proper maturity of our
spirit, the only thing capable of seeing through and fathoming all
these challenges. And of survival, no matter what happens to the
world, since it’s the spirit that will transcend our death and bring
everything else in us to our ultimate end, God, if we still abide by
our faith.
We have to be positive about all these fast events. We
have to get out of the dark fear-and-anxiety syndrome, and get into a
sense of adventure, brightened by hope and confidence.
And trust in God, because after everything is said and
done, the only thing left for us if everything else has to fail, is
God, our faith and trust in him. This is what formation means. All our
effort and pursuit for human knowledge and conquest should immerse us
more in God, rather than in ourselves, in our power and ways.
We should never forget this. We have to outgrow that bias
of pitting the human against the divine, the natural against the
supernatural, the material against the spiritual. In short, man
against God.
This bias, known also as secularism, relativism,
materialism, etc., has been afflicting the world for quite some time
now. It’s already begging to be dismantled. We need to acknowledge
both the unity and distinction between these dualities—their inner,
inherent relations among themselves and their respective autonomy.
We have to double-time in this need for formation, because
it has been neglected for long and is awfully lagging behind. It’s
unfortunate that many big schools and universities are giving more
attention to secular sciences while practically ignoring religion.
Our formation should help us discover God in everything we
do or get involved in. Since we come from God and belong to God, we
have to understand that all our thoughts, words and deeds should also
begin and end with God, as expressed in many of our liturgical
prayers.
All our similarities and differences, our agreements and
disagreements, our successes and failures, the correct and the wrong
things we do in our earthly affairs should not compromise our love for
God. On the contrary, they should make us love God more.
We should not be contented with our own ideas alone, no
matter how brilliant and practical they may be. Without God, these
ideas and initiatives would lack their proper foundation and purpose.
They would just be at the mercy of men’s machinations, and
that can only mean immorality, not just because of our limitations,
but mainly because of the temptations and pressures around.
In the study and research, the experimentation and
instruction involved in our formation, we have to see to it that the
abiding attitude should be to know and love God better, and to get a
deeper understanding of God’s plan for the world.
They should not just be pursued purely on so-called
scientific or rational motives, because without being grounded and
oriented toward God, they can only give us dangerous and confusing
signals.
This formation will also lead us to truly live charity,
with its companions of justice and mercy, since doing things with God
and for God will bring us to love everybody else as God wants them to
be loved.
endless challenges to face and tackle, and that’s why we need to
realize that we have to be adequately prepared for them by undertaking
a lifelong battle for formation.
Social, political and economic issues will always be
around. And at the moment, the world is going through a keen phase of
change and tension. The current standards and systems seem to be
cracking up in the face of new, emerging problems. Things look like we
are rife for a drastic paradigm shift in our earthly affairs.
Yes, we need to be keyed up for all this. At the very
least, we need to be instructed, informed, educated, and more than
these, we need to toughen our spirit not only to absorb the tremendous
pressures but also to eke out a new way, a higher level of human and
global development.
This is where our need for formation enters. We have to go
beyond simply accumulating data and discovering and exploring human
sciences and technologies. No matter how indispensable they are, they
are not enough.
Without proper formation, we most likely will abuse or
misuse our sophisticated scientific and technological products. It’s
like giving a little child some matches to play with, or an adolescent
too much money to go around.
We need to pay attention to the proper maturity of our
spirit, the only thing capable of seeing through and fathoming all
these challenges. And of survival, no matter what happens to the
world, since it’s the spirit that will transcend our death and bring
everything else in us to our ultimate end, God, if we still abide by
our faith.
We have to be positive about all these fast events. We
have to get out of the dark fear-and-anxiety syndrome, and get into a
sense of adventure, brightened by hope and confidence.
And trust in God, because after everything is said and
done, the only thing left for us if everything else has to fail, is
God, our faith and trust in him. This is what formation means. All our
effort and pursuit for human knowledge and conquest should immerse us
more in God, rather than in ourselves, in our power and ways.
We should never forget this. We have to outgrow that bias
of pitting the human against the divine, the natural against the
supernatural, the material against the spiritual. In short, man
against God.
This bias, known also as secularism, relativism,
materialism, etc., has been afflicting the world for quite some time
now. It’s already begging to be dismantled. We need to acknowledge
both the unity and distinction between these dualities—their inner,
inherent relations among themselves and their respective autonomy.
We have to double-time in this need for formation, because
it has been neglected for long and is awfully lagging behind. It’s
unfortunate that many big schools and universities are giving more
attention to secular sciences while practically ignoring religion.
Our formation should help us discover God in everything we
do or get involved in. Since we come from God and belong to God, we
have to understand that all our thoughts, words and deeds should also
begin and end with God, as expressed in many of our liturgical
prayers.
All our similarities and differences, our agreements and
disagreements, our successes and failures, the correct and the wrong
things we do in our earthly affairs should not compromise our love for
God. On the contrary, they should make us love God more.
We should not be contented with our own ideas alone, no
matter how brilliant and practical they may be. Without God, these
ideas and initiatives would lack their proper foundation and purpose.
They would just be at the mercy of men’s machinations, and
that can only mean immorality, not just because of our limitations,
but mainly because of the temptations and pressures around.
In the study and research, the experimentation and
instruction involved in our formation, we have to see to it that the
abiding attitude should be to know and love God better, and to get a
deeper understanding of God’s plan for the world.
They should not just be pursued purely on so-called
scientific or rational motives, because without being grounded and
oriented toward God, they can only give us dangerous and confusing
signals.
This formation will also lead us to truly live charity,
with its companions of justice and mercy, since doing things with God
and for God will bring us to love everybody else as God wants them to
be loved.
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