How should our consciousness be?

THE answer to this question is crucial in our life. That’s

why we have to raise this question often and strive to give the proper

answer. And from there, to work further to develop the proper

attitudes and skills to conform our consciousness to what is truly

meant for us.

  

            Our consciousness should not remain in the level of the

physical, material and temporal alone. There obviously are a lot more

than what simply meets the eyes or are perceived by our senses. In

fact, there are still a lot more than what our intelligence can

capture and understand, despite the fact that our intelligence, poised

toward the infinite, can cover a lot of things.

  

            Neither should our consciousness simply revolve around

ourselves. We have to exert the effort to stretch our consciousness to

ever expanding scope of people, things, events in the past, present

and future. In fact, we have a natural tendency for this effort.

  

            But even if that consciousness is already a lot, it is

still not enough. In fact, such consciousness would still be missing

the most important element. And that is that we have to have God at

the center of our consciousness.

  

            Without God, our consciousness, for all its extensive and

complex coverage, would not be much different from that of an animal.

It definitely is superior to that of the animal, but in the end, it is

still more like that of an animal than what is proper to us. In fact,

some animals can have better consciousness of things that are below

and beyond the range of our consciousness.

  

            We have to make sure that God is the center of our

consciousness because that is what is proper to us. As image and

likeness of God, and as children of God, our objective identity cannot

be and should not be separated from God. We are not just by ourselves.

We are necessarily, by definition, with God. And he should be the

first one that we have to be conscious of.

             Of course, this is a truth of faith that goes beyond what

our human sciences can discover. But in the end, it’s faith that holds

the ultimate and complete truth about ourselves, and we just have to

abide by it no matter how mysterious it is and how awkward we are at

it.

   

            We have to arrive at that point where we can echo St.

Paul’s words: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.”

(Gal 2,20) It is Christ who as the Son of God and the perfect image

that God has of himself is both the pattern of our humanity and the

redeemer of our damaged humanity.

  

            To be sure, having Christ at the center of our

consciousness would give us the proper appreciation of persons, things

and events. He would show us how to understand and react to them with

the view of our own sanctification and the good of all.

             We would see them in a different light, far superior than

what our senses and our sciences can show us. We should do everything

to develop our consciousness properly.