A certain immunization needed

WITH all the new and very vicious viruses spreading around

these days, we need to have a certain immunization to tackle this

disturbing fact of life. And more than having a kind of medical

immunization, what is more needed is moral immunization.

  

            We should learn, for example, not to be easily affected by

pornographic and other inane pop-ups that would just suddenly appear

on the computer screens when navigating in the Internet. These days,

these pop-ups are unavoidable, and we cannot afford anymore to be too

delicate or too sensitive. Otherwise, we end up isolating ourselves

from the world improperly.

             These days, many people, especially the young, get

dangerously entangled in their work and study because of these

unwelcome electronic guests. Given their vulnerable condition, they

get easily collared and floored. Of course, other worse things can

happen after that.

             We actually are somehow endowed with a built-in defense

mechanism in our bodily system. We have some natural antibodies to

neutralize harmful bacteria and other poisonous elements that get into

us.

  

            In our spiritual and moral life, something similar takes

place. With our conscience, we have some natural mechanisms to help us

identify what is right and wrong, and to behave accordingly. It’s

important that we give due attention to the care of our conscience. We

just cannot leave it alone, growing and developing on its own.

  

            We have to realize that our conscience needs to be trained

and formed also. Due to our weakened condition, it may come out, at

least in some instances, doubtful, perplexed, scrupulous, lax, or

outright erroneous. It has to be given the proper moral principles and

supported by virtues to facilitate its work.

  

            But definitely, for our conscience to be properly formed,

it has to have the mind and will of Christ himself. That is the only

way we can consider our conscience to be the right condition.

Obviously, this will involve the study of the moral doctrine, the

development of the proper virtues, especially those of prudence and

temperance, etc.

             But we should never forget that all that study and pursuit

for the virtues should somehow reflect the things Christ himself did

for him to go all the way of bearing all our sins without committing

them.

  

            And what do we see in him? First of all, he lived poverty

and humility to the full. He was detached from human glory from birth

to death even as he undertook the most ambitious and heroic task—the

salvation of mankind.

             He prayed a lot. He spent forty days and nights in the

desert praying and fasting before beginning his public life. He became

so spiritually strong that even the most vicious temptations hurled on

him by the devil after those days did not affect him at all.

  

            He was extremely obedient to his Father and to Mary and

Joseph, and to all human authorities. He had no other business other

than to do the will of his Father, even to the point of offering his

life on the cross.

  

            Here we get an idea of how to produce the necessary

antibodies, the antigens and antidotes for the many kinds of moral

viruses spreading around in the world today. We should never take for

granted our extreme and inalienable need for prayer and sacrifice.

             Christ himself spent hours and even entire nights in

prayer. If he, being God and our redeemer, would need to pray so much,

how can we ever think that our need for prayer can be less than his?

  

            So we have a big problem to solve these days, because it

is quite clear that we are not praying as much as Christ prayed.