WE should not forget that while everything depends on God,
everything
also depends on us. It’s a 100%-100% proposition. God’s full
responsibility over our sanctification and its corollary duty to do
apostolate does not detract any bit from our full responsibility over
our own sanctification and apostolic work.
We need to take initiatives in developing our spiritual and apostolic
life. This has to be a personal affair, involving our most intimate
human faculties, our intelligence and will, our mind and heart.
Of course, we also need some structures to make our initiatives
prosper. They are there to put our initiatives on the path of
prudence. But let's see to it that these helpful structures are not
abused such that we become overdependent on them and thereby undermine
our spirit of initiative. Both have to be given due attention, with
the structures playing a subsidiary role to our spirit of initiative.
Let us remember always that we are not ruled mainly by structures, but
rather by freedom and love as shown by always making initiatives.
That’s how we have been designed, meant for, geared and outfitted.
Of course, structures and programs are always necessary. But let’s
remember that there will be no perfect structure applicable to
everyone everywhere. Each has its advantages and disadvantages. Let’s
just make some kind of consensus so we can live in relative peace.
We, for example, can go through the motions of sanctification and
apostolate, making the appearances of prayer, sacrifices, virtues,
etc., but still miss the true object—complete albeit dynamic
identification with God that, in the end, is what sanctity is all
about.
That’s why we can see that in spite of our impressive regimen of
spiritual exercises and practices of piety, we still can see gaps and
inconsistencies, as we easily fall into rash judgments, shy away from
sacrifices and occasions of self-denial, secretly splurge on
self-indulgence and self-absorption, etc.
We may manage to be impressive in our external piety and in our
apostolate, in our theological thinking and reasoning, in assuming
certain characteristics of a charismatic person, but we may still be
far from true holiness. The scribes and Pharisees of old were also
good in some forms of piety, but they were far off the mark insofar as
holiness was concerned.
To be sure, sanctification is not simply a matter of collecting pious
activities, the personal and the popular ones, but rather that through
these activities we get to have an actual encounter with the person of
Christ who is always intervening in our lives.
True sanctification entails getting involved in God’s continuing work
of human redemption. It’s not just a status. It involves a till-death
active cooperation in the saving providence of God for mankind and the
whole world. That's why true sanctification will always involve doing
apostolate.
It would be a real pity if after going through so many pious acts, we
still would miss the mark. It would be like what Shakespeare once
said: “It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
signifying nothing.”
True sanctity involves all aspects of our being. It’s not just a
matter of good intentions and desires, and nice pious words. It
involves our feelings and passions. It is readily shown in our
behavior that does not shun from sacrifices and can well tackle heroic
challenges and trials.
We have to take initiatives in developing our spiritual and apostolic
life. We can never say enough—that we are already ok. There will
always be new challenges. Our weakened and erratic human condition
will take care of that. God will always be asking for more even as he
gives us more graces. He will always be asking us to look for new
frontiers in our effort of personal sanctification and apostolate.
Everyday, we have to set some goals to reach, pursuing them with all
our effort. It can be in the way we pray, develop virtues, concern
ourselves in the lives of others. It’s important that we concretize
these goals and identify the appropriate means. The strategies we make
should captivate us as fully as possible and trigger us into constant
action.
It would be good if everyday we make some apostolic plans in terms of
what to do with those with whom we are dealing at the moment, as well
as of expanding our apostolic base.
Let's never forget the marching orders Christ gave to his apostles
before he ascended to heaven—to go to all the nations, preaching the
gospel and baptizing them. These marching orders are now ours too.
also depends on us. It’s a 100%-100% proposition. God’s full
responsibility over our sanctification and its corollary duty to do
apostolate does not detract any bit from our full responsibility over
our own sanctification and apostolic work.
We need to take initiatives in developing our spiritual and apostolic
life. This has to be a personal affair, involving our most intimate
human faculties, our intelligence and will, our mind and heart.
Of course, we also need some structures to make our initiatives
prosper. They are there to put our initiatives on the path of
prudence. But let's see to it that these helpful structures are not
abused such that we become overdependent on them and thereby undermine
our spirit of initiative. Both have to be given due attention, with
the structures playing a subsidiary role to our spirit of initiative.
Let us remember always that we are not ruled mainly by structures, but
rather by freedom and love as shown by always making initiatives.
That’s how we have been designed, meant for, geared and outfitted.
Of course, structures and programs are always necessary. But let’s
remember that there will be no perfect structure applicable to
everyone everywhere. Each has its advantages and disadvantages. Let’s
just make some kind of consensus so we can live in relative peace.
We, for example, can go through the motions of sanctification and
apostolate, making the appearances of prayer, sacrifices, virtues,
etc., but still miss the true object—complete albeit dynamic
identification with God that, in the end, is what sanctity is all
about.
That’s why we can see that in spite of our impressive regimen of
spiritual exercises and practices of piety, we still can see gaps and
inconsistencies, as we easily fall into rash judgments, shy away from
sacrifices and occasions of self-denial, secretly splurge on
self-indulgence and self-absorption, etc.
We may manage to be impressive in our external piety and in our
apostolate, in our theological thinking and reasoning, in assuming
certain characteristics of a charismatic person, but we may still be
far from true holiness. The scribes and Pharisees of old were also
good in some forms of piety, but they were far off the mark insofar as
holiness was concerned.
To be sure, sanctification is not simply a matter of collecting pious
activities, the personal and the popular ones, but rather that through
these activities we get to have an actual encounter with the person of
Christ who is always intervening in our lives.
True sanctification entails getting involved in God’s continuing work
of human redemption. It’s not just a status. It involves a till-death
active cooperation in the saving providence of God for mankind and the
whole world. That's why true sanctification will always involve doing
apostolate.
It would be a real pity if after going through so many pious acts, we
still would miss the mark. It would be like what Shakespeare once
said: “It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
signifying nothing.”
True sanctity involves all aspects of our being. It’s not just a
matter of good intentions and desires, and nice pious words. It
involves our feelings and passions. It is readily shown in our
behavior that does not shun from sacrifices and can well tackle heroic
challenges and trials.
We have to take initiatives in developing our spiritual and apostolic
life. We can never say enough—that we are already ok. There will
always be new challenges. Our weakened and erratic human condition
will take care of that. God will always be asking for more even as he
gives us more graces. He will always be asking us to look for new
frontiers in our effort of personal sanctification and apostolate.
Everyday, we have to set some goals to reach, pursuing them with all
our effort. It can be in the way we pray, develop virtues, concern
ourselves in the lives of others. It’s important that we concretize
these goals and identify the appropriate means. The strategies we make
should captivate us as fully as possible and trigger us into constant
action.
It would be good if everyday we make some apostolic plans in terms of
what to do with those with whom we are dealing at the moment, as well
as of expanding our apostolic base.
Let's never forget the marching orders Christ gave to his apostles
before he ascended to heaven—to go to all the nations, preaching the
gospel and baptizing them. These marching orders are now ours too.
No comments:
Post a Comment