SORRY, but I have to disagree with
that naughty meme often
seen on jeepneys and other public utility vehicles that say that
drivers are great lovers. No, they are not, unless they learn to be
contemplatives who can always think and see God and other loved ones
in everything or whatever they may be doing.
When a person is truly in love he will always have his
beloved in mind. He is driven with a passion to serve his beloved and
to make the beloved happy.
It’s time to examine ourselves if indeed we are truly in
love because we always think of God and of the others and are driven
to make them happy by doing precisely those things that would make
them happy.
Very often, we just say we love God or we love this person
or that. But such affirmations remain only in intention and words.
They are not actualized. They are not translated into deeds. In fact,
soon after making those affirmations, we forget our beloved and
proceed to pursue our own interests.
That is why it is important that we learn how to be truly
contemplatives. Loving is not just doing things without thinking of
the beloved and without offering the things that we do for our
beloved. Loving will always require an abiding spirit of
contemplation.
Without this contemplative spirit, we often get lost,
carried away by other forces and impulses. We end up doing things
simply for our own good and not for that of the beloved.
Without this contemplative spirit, we will miss that
crucial element of loving that involves a continuing renewal of our
energies. We end up feeling simply tired and exhausted, empty and
used, and quite prone to looking for bad forms of self-compensations
like drugs, sex, or simply wasting time, etc.
That’s why Christ told us to “seek first the kingdom of
God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you
as well.” (Mt 6,33) It’s when we have this attitude and behavior that
we can truly say we are both contemplatives and lovers. In this way,
we keep ourselves like branches vitally attached to the vine from
where we continue to receive the necessary power to love.
How important it is therefore to encourage and train
everyone in the art of contemplation that is driven by love.
Especially for those couples who plan to enter into marriage, one of
the basic and important things to check is whether they know how to be
true contemplatives in all the circumstances of life. It’s an
indispensable operation of every lover. We should explode all the
other myths and fables about love.
It should be obvious that all this effort to be true
contemplatives in order to be true lovers would require constant
effort and struggle. We should not forget that we have to contend with
tremendous enemies, foremost among whom are our own selves.
In this, what might be helpful is to make use of human
devices that would always remind us, encourage us and move us to love.
No matter how little and insignificant they seem, they actually are
effective in starting and keeping alive the dynamics of love.
If our contemplative spirit is properly grounded and
focused, that is, on God first before anything or anybody else, we can
go beyond our material and temporal dimensions, our many worldly and
human conditionings, and enter into the true and ultimate workings of
love that has God as its source.
Whatever happens in the drama of our life of love, as long
as we have God as the source and end of our love, we would know how to
react and behave, how to continue loving, even in the worst of
scenarios.
seen on jeepneys and other public utility vehicles that say that
drivers are great lovers. No, they are not, unless they learn to be
contemplatives who can always think and see God and other loved ones
in everything or whatever they may be doing.
When a person is truly in love he will always have his
beloved in mind. He is driven with a passion to serve his beloved and
to make the beloved happy.
It’s time to examine ourselves if indeed we are truly in
love because we always think of God and of the others and are driven
to make them happy by doing precisely those things that would make
them happy.
Very often, we just say we love God or we love this person
or that. But such affirmations remain only in intention and words.
They are not actualized. They are not translated into deeds. In fact,
soon after making those affirmations, we forget our beloved and
proceed to pursue our own interests.
That is why it is important that we learn how to be truly
contemplatives. Loving is not just doing things without thinking of
the beloved and without offering the things that we do for our
beloved. Loving will always require an abiding spirit of
contemplation.
Without this contemplative spirit, we often get lost,
carried away by other forces and impulses. We end up doing things
simply for our own good and not for that of the beloved.
Without this contemplative spirit, we will miss that
crucial element of loving that involves a continuing renewal of our
energies. We end up feeling simply tired and exhausted, empty and
used, and quite prone to looking for bad forms of self-compensations
like drugs, sex, or simply wasting time, etc.
That’s why Christ told us to “seek first the kingdom of
God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you
as well.” (Mt 6,33) It’s when we have this attitude and behavior that
we can truly say we are both contemplatives and lovers. In this way,
we keep ourselves like branches vitally attached to the vine from
where we continue to receive the necessary power to love.
How important it is therefore to encourage and train
everyone in the art of contemplation that is driven by love.
Especially for those couples who plan to enter into marriage, one of
the basic and important things to check is whether they know how to be
true contemplatives in all the circumstances of life. It’s an
indispensable operation of every lover. We should explode all the
other myths and fables about love.
It should be obvious that all this effort to be true
contemplatives in order to be true lovers would require constant
effort and struggle. We should not forget that we have to contend with
tremendous enemies, foremost among whom are our own selves.
In this, what might be helpful is to make use of human
devices that would always remind us, encourage us and move us to love.
No matter how little and insignificant they seem, they actually are
effective in starting and keeping alive the dynamics of love.
If our contemplative spirit is properly grounded and
focused, that is, on God first before anything or anybody else, we can
go beyond our material and temporal dimensions, our many worldly and
human conditionings, and enter into the true and ultimate workings of
love that has God as its source.
Whatever happens in the drama of our life of love, as long
as we have God as the source and end of our love, we would know how to
react and behave, how to continue loving, even in the worst of
scenarios.
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