“VULTUM tuum, Domine, requiram.” That’s Latin for “I long to see your
face, Lord,” a passage from the psalms (27,8) that should express the
strongest desire we should have in our life.
Unless we have this fundamental and abiding desire, all our desiring
would be vain and futile. We need to realize this truth of our faith,
and do our best to cultivate such desire in our life.
It may not be easy, given our human condition, limited as it is by our
nature and handicapped further by the effects of sin, ours and those
of others. But once we know this truth of our faith, we can always do
something about this challenge.
To be sure, God, on his part, has already given us everything. The
ball is actually in our court. We just have to pick up the means and
start the ball rolling. To begin, we can make many acts of faith, hope
and charity.
St. Augustine expressed this truth of faith very clearly: “The entire
life of a good Christian is in fact an exercise of holy desire.” This
assertion is certainly based on what God himself said: “Seek my face”
(Ps 27,8), and on what Christ said: “Seek first the kingdom of God and
his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.” (Mt
6,33)
St. Augustine said that since we don’t see heaven now and yet we long
for it, we need to keep on desiring it to prepare ourselves for it.
That desire not only has to be maintained. It also has to increase as
time passes. The time of our life, the time of waiting to see our
ultimate end, God, is a time to cultivate our holy desire to the max.
His argument for this is beautiful. “Suppose you are going to fill
some container and you know you will be given a large amount. Then you
set about stretching your container.” It is to make room for the
tremendous amount we will receive—God himself.
The idea of stretching or enlarging the container to receive a
tremendous amount that we expect can be translated into not only
keeping but also increasing our desire of God whom we expect to come
to us in overwhelming abundance. In short, we have to make that desire
fervent! We need to constantly feed it to keep it burning.
We can increase our desire of God by growing in the virtues—more
humility, more faith and charity, more patience and understanding—in
the tenor of what Christ himself said once: “For them do I sanctify
myself, that they also may be sanctified in the truth.” (Jn 17,19)
Imagine…Christ himself, who is already God, feels the need to sanctify
himself that we also may be sanctified in the truth!
Obviously, given our shortcomings and our tendency to be big in desire
and intention but small and unstable in performance, we also need to
increase our trust in God’s providence, since he knows how to make use
even of our defects and failures to fulfill the ultimate design and
purpose for us.
We have to be wary of abandoning this trust especially when we suffer
some persistent human misery. Let’s always remember St. Paul’s words:
“It’s when I am weak that I am strong,” (2 Cor 12,10) that tell us
that we can use our shortcomings and failures to get even closer to
God.
It should be part of our holy desire for holiness to grow always in
our trust in God’s ever-merciful providence. Perhaps a prayer we can
use to trigger this holy desire as we start the day every morning
could be the following:
“As this day begins, fill our hearts with a desire to serve you. May
our thoughts and our actions give you glory. Purify our hearts from
all desire for evil. Let us seek to do your will. Open wide our hearts
to the needs of all our brethren. May they not be deprived of our
love. Amen.”
We have to be wary of our tendency to doubt the mercy of God and to
rely more on our own estimations of things when we fall into some
predicament. It’s the devil’s work when we hesitate to go to God and
to see things the way God sees them. It’s the devil’s work when we
fall either into presumption or despair, because both come as a result
of a distorted view of things.
We need to sharpen our longing for God in every circumstance of our life.
face, Lord,” a passage from the psalms (27,8) that should express the
strongest desire we should have in our life.
Unless we have this fundamental and abiding desire, all our desiring
would be vain and futile. We need to realize this truth of our faith,
and do our best to cultivate such desire in our life.
It may not be easy, given our human condition, limited as it is by our
nature and handicapped further by the effects of sin, ours and those
of others. But once we know this truth of our faith, we can always do
something about this challenge.
To be sure, God, on his part, has already given us everything. The
ball is actually in our court. We just have to pick up the means and
start the ball rolling. To begin, we can make many acts of faith, hope
and charity.
St. Augustine expressed this truth of faith very clearly: “The entire
life of a good Christian is in fact an exercise of holy desire.” This
assertion is certainly based on what God himself said: “Seek my face”
(Ps 27,8), and on what Christ said: “Seek first the kingdom of God and
his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.” (Mt
6,33)
St. Augustine said that since we don’t see heaven now and yet we long
for it, we need to keep on desiring it to prepare ourselves for it.
That desire not only has to be maintained. It also has to increase as
time passes. The time of our life, the time of waiting to see our
ultimate end, God, is a time to cultivate our holy desire to the max.
His argument for this is beautiful. “Suppose you are going to fill
some container and you know you will be given a large amount. Then you
set about stretching your container.” It is to make room for the
tremendous amount we will receive—God himself.
The idea of stretching or enlarging the container to receive a
tremendous amount that we expect can be translated into not only
keeping but also increasing our desire of God whom we expect to come
to us in overwhelming abundance. In short, we have to make that desire
fervent! We need to constantly feed it to keep it burning.
We can increase our desire of God by growing in the virtues—more
humility, more faith and charity, more patience and understanding—in
the tenor of what Christ himself said once: “For them do I sanctify
myself, that they also may be sanctified in the truth.” (Jn 17,19)
Imagine…Christ himself, who is already God, feels the need to sanctify
himself that we also may be sanctified in the truth!
Obviously, given our shortcomings and our tendency to be big in desire
and intention but small and unstable in performance, we also need to
increase our trust in God’s providence, since he knows how to make use
even of our defects and failures to fulfill the ultimate design and
purpose for us.
We have to be wary of abandoning this trust especially when we suffer
some persistent human misery. Let’s always remember St. Paul’s words:
“It’s when I am weak that I am strong,” (2 Cor 12,10) that tell us
that we can use our shortcomings and failures to get even closer to
God.
It should be part of our holy desire for holiness to grow always in
our trust in God’s ever-merciful providence. Perhaps a prayer we can
use to trigger this holy desire as we start the day every morning
could be the following:
“As this day begins, fill our hearts with a desire to serve you. May
our thoughts and our actions give you glory. Purify our hearts from
all desire for evil. Let us seek to do your will. Open wide our hearts
to the needs of all our brethren. May they not be deprived of our
love. Amen.”
We have to be wary of our tendency to doubt the mercy of God and to
rely more on our own estimations of things when we fall into some
predicament. It’s the devil’s work when we hesitate to go to God and
to see things the way God sees them. It’s the devil’s work when we
fall either into presumption or despair, because both come as a result
of a distorted view of things.
We need to sharpen our longing for God in every circumstance of our life.
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