Friday, September 29, 2017

Eternity-ready

THE other day, a very accomplished businessman talked to
me about preparing the students of CITE to be future-ready. I was
intrigued by that expression, though I immediately got what he meant.
And a thought started to stir my mind.
  
            Indeed, we have to prepare the young ones for the many
exciting developments, challenges and opportunities that we can expect
in the future. At the rate things are going now, the future should be
very exciting! Thanks to God, we already have a good glimpse of how
things will be a few years from now.
   
            We need to equip the young ones with the proper training
and the relevant skills which should not be in the technical level
alone. At the moment, we can expect the future to be more complex,
requiring a greater maturity in the people, greater grasp of
interdisciplinary sciences, etc.
  
            It’s amazing that many of the youngsters, especially those
coming from the low-income families, actually carry a heavy baggage of
problems, emotional, psychological, social. They appear to be victims
of all kinds of unresolved problems in the family and society in
general.
  
            Many find it hard, for example, to relate with others in a
meaningful and stable way. They tend to revolve around the superficial
level. It’s quite obvious that many do not have the basic virtues of
hope and patience, fortitude and prudence, temperance and order. It’s
indeed a tall order to tackle all these challenges, given the limited
time we can spend with them.
  
            But these issues just have to be faced. They need to be
resolved properly because these will just clamp these young people
down in their pursuit for a successful and happy life. These
youngsters really need to be accompanied and mentored, their talents
and potentials identified and developed. They need to be stably
motivated, until they can become self-propelled.
  
            It’s very moving to note that many of these students
actually have great hidden talents that need to be developed. They are
actually a rich ore that need to be refined and polished. But they
often have very low self-esteem precisely because of the load of
problems they carry. This is where the concern for motivating them has
to begin.
  
            That is why I often tell them to strengthen their belief
in God as the common father of all of us, irrespective of whether one
is rich or poor. Once they get it, then they can start discovering the
many other wonderful truths about themselves that are useful for their
own development. They would know which things to pay attention to and
which to ignore.
  
            They would know what is of absolute value and what only
has relative value. They would have a more global picture of life in
general, aware always of the ever-abiding providence of God. This
would inject in them a lot of optimism in spite of the difficulties,
challenges and possible mistakes of the present.
   
            In this regard, it is important that these youngsters know
how to pray, how to strengthen their faith, hope and charity, how to
relate everything in their earthly life to the ultimate eternal life.
They have to be eternity-ready, not just future-ready, with the
figurative go-bag always by their side.
  
            This is not going to be an easy job. But it can be done.
In fact, it has to be done, no matter what the cost!


Thursday, September 28, 2017

No rights, just duties

A PERSON who is truly in love with his beloved will
happily invoke his right to reject all his rights and just assume all
the duties toward his beloved. This is the ultimate language of love
where one just gives himself completely to his beloved without
expecting any return.
   
            We have to aim at that kind of love because that is the
love that Christ himself has shown and has given to us. In fact, he
commanded us to love one another as he himself has loved us. And we
know that his love for us goes all the way to giving up his life on
the cross, assuming all our sins and giving us a way to extricate
ourselves from the grip of our sinfulness.
  
            It is a completely gratuitous love, a love given without
measure and calculation. And the curious thing about this love is that
what seems to get lost by living it or what we give up by loving, will
actually gain for us a lot more than what is lost or given up.
  
            Christ reassured us of this when he said that when we give
up even the most precious things in our life, we would actually regain
them a hundredfold. “Whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but
whoever loses his life more me will find it.” (Mt 16,25) And he walked
his talk precisely by resurrecting three days after his most
ignominious death.
  
            We have to feel reassured of the effectiveness of this
kind of love. We have to convince ourselves that it is all worthwhile
to discard our rights and just think of duties with respect to loving.
In this way, we live in ourselves what Christ said of his own self:
“The Son of Man came to serve and not to be served.”
  
            A strong faith, of course, is needed here. And we just
have to make that faith filter down to our heart and emotions so that
we can get excited with the self-surrender involved in loving and that
we find meaning in it.
  
            Let’s find ways everyday to serve. Perhaps one good way is
to start the day, as we wake up, by saying, “Serviam,” I will serve,
addressing it to God and to everyone, whoever he may be. We should try
not to make distinctions as to whom to serve.
   
            Obviously, our serving others, which is the reason for
discarding all our rights and just assuming duties, should be done in
the context of God’s law of love, that can lend itself in different
ways to the needs of all kinds of people, whether they deserve it or
not, etc.
  
            Sooner or later, we will notice that instead of depleting
ourselves of energy, we will find ourselves filled with an unspeakable
kind of satisfaction. Indeed, Christ’s words about losing in order to
gain, really works.
  
            In a sense, we live out the following words of Christ:
“Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just
a grain of wheat. But if it dies, it produces much fruit.” (Jn 12,24)
We should not be afraid to lose our rights. Just fulfill the duty to
love everyone as Christ has loved and continues to love us!


Wednesday, September 27, 2017

Building a healthy self-esteem

WE should be concerned also about this matter. We cannot
and should not take this for granted. Many are now the problems
arising from this area of concern, and they are getting worse by the
day. We need to act!

            I notice that even among young people today, the lack of a
healthy self-esteem is growing. Many of them are already experiencing
depression and extreme forms of discouragement. Some of them have gone
to the extent of inflicting self-harm and becoming suicidal even.
Others react the other way by becoming wild and violent.
  
            Still many others get imprisoned in their own shells due
to forms of shyness, fear, shame, and a very low regard of their own
selves. It is really a pity because if we get to know them better, we
also get convinced that they actually possess good potentials for
greatness. Something is keeping them enchained. We need to free them.
  
            It’s good that young people are really attended to very
closely. We need to get to know them and nourish their spiritual,
mental and emotional life properly. Everyone, of course, has his own
share of defects and weaknesses. But these are no reasons at all to
lose confidence in oneself. If anything at all, these can be used as
an occasion to build a healthy self-esteem.
  
            A healthy self-esteem is not simply a function of good
things in life. It’s not just a matter of having the good fortune of
being rich, talented, intelligent, famous, etc. It’s not even a matter
of temperament. A self-esteem based on these foundations is deceptive,
will not last long and cannot cope with all the challenges of life.

              A healthy self-esteem is simply a matter of being
invincibly aware that no matter what human condition we may be in, we
are all children of God, object of his unfailing love, for whom God
became man to save us by dying on the cross.

             This is the very core of a healthy self-esteem. We need to
embed this truth deeply in the mind and heart of the people,
especially the young ones. This may not be very easy to do, since for
many reason, people can resist this truth. But if we are persistent,
patient and inventive, I am sure we can make it.
  
            The important thing to do is to really reach out to
everyone, get to know them well, accompanying them spiritually,
intellectually and emotionally. We need to reassure them always,
motivating them to do what they are supposed to do, helping them to
cope with their difficulties, defects and mistakes.

             We have to reassure them of the effectiveness of all the
basic and indispensable spiritual and supernatural means, as well as
help them acquire the appropriate attitudes, skills, virtues that go
into the making of a healthy self-esteem.
  
            Once they get it, they will exude a stable self-confidence
that would enable them do their responsibilities whatever the
conditions may be. There will be poise, optimism and realism, joy and
peace, fruitfulness and productivity in their lives.

             Ultimately, they will manage to relate themselves properly
to God and to others, always thankful for everything! We have to
devise strategies to build a healthy self-esteem in everyone, starting
with those by our side.


Monday, September 25, 2017

Focused, engaging, agile

IN all our dealings with the others, which one way or
another should never lose the apostolic dimension, we should try our
best to be laser-focused, very engaging and agile in handling any
situation those dealings might produce.
   
            We have to remember that since we are Christians, we
cannot but be apostles also—with eagerness always to do apostolate.
Apostolate for us should not just be an intermittent concern. It is a
permanent activity we do, an inherent part of our Christian identity.
We just don’t do apostolate. We are apostles, first and last.
  
            Toward this end, we need to be truly identified with
Christ, well-versed in his teaching, and willing to follow Christ
irrespective of how our life and concerns turn. We should be willing
to follow him till the end, till death, willing to deny ourselves and
carry the cross, as he himself said.
   
            That should be our main focus, and everything else will
just follow as a consequence. If we have him in our mind and heart, we
cannot but have a universal love for everybody, irrespective of how
they are toward us, whether they are friendly or unfriendly, etc.
Christ commanded us to love everybody, including our enemies.
  
            We should try to do everything for us to be able to engage
ourselves with everybody else. To be sure, it would greatly help if we
develop our social skills, if we keep an open-minded outlook, if we
show warmth towards all, with a smiling friendliness to boot.
  
            For this to happen, I imagine that what we need to do also
is to forget ourselves and to adapt the mind and heart of Christ
instead. That way we can be full of mercy and compassion, patience and
understanding. We don’t waste time getting entangled in our
unavoidable differences and conflicts among ourselves as well as in
our own personal problems.
  
            That was what St. Paul said of Christ himself. “He emptied
himself, taking the form of a servant…” (Phil 2,7) We have to
understand that by emptying ourselves like Christ, we put ourselves in
condition to serve the others.
  
            We have to find ways to foster interaction among
ourselves. We don’t wait for these opportunities to interact with
others to come. We look for them. We create them. That is why we need
to be inventive and creative also. We should not allow ourselves to be
fully at the mercy of events. We should try to create, shape and
direct the events of our life.
  
            And when unexpected things come, let’s be agile to handle
them. Somehow, we should expect the unexpected and the surprises. They
are part of our life. We cannot avoid them, and so we just have to be
prepared for them as much as we can.
  
            The important thing, as mentioned before, is to be
laser-focused on Christ. He will provide us with everything we need in
making ourselves a true apostle of his. Whatever the circumstance,
whether it is favorable or not, we somehow would be able to do
apostolate if we have Christ in our mind and heart. We avoid getting
lost or confused in maze of things.


Sunday, September 24, 2017

The best security

WE worry about all kinds of security. And it’s all
understandable. We need them for some peace of mind. We want to have
security from physical harm, security in our job so that we can have
steady source of income, security in some unavoidable conditions like
old age, sickness, etc.
  
            We cannot overemphasize the effort we exert to attain as
much security as possible. And it’s good that we already some
significant structures to provide all these kinds of security.
  
            But we have to remember that the most fundamental and
indispensable security we can and should have is that of maximizing as
much as we can our faith, hope and charity in God and in others. This
is the kind of security that underwrites all the others. Whatever
happens, it’s in our faith, hope and charity that will bring us afloat
to our final and definitive destination.
  
            As St. Paul would put it, “I have learned, in whatever
state I am, to be content. I know how to be abased, and I know how to
abound. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of
facing plenty and hunger, abundance and want. I can do all things in
him who strengthens me.” (Phil 4,11-13)
   
            Of course, this fundamental spiritual and supernatural
sense of security should never be made to undermine all the effort we
need to attain the necessary security in the temporal and worldly
sense.
  
            We have to guard ourselves from lapsing into some kind of
superstitious and fideist attitude that precisely relies exclusively
on one’s so-called faith without the corresponding human effort to put
that faith into practice. We qualify the word, faith, with
“so-called,” because a faith treated that way is no faith at all.
  
            This anomaly can happen just as much as that of the other
extreme, when we would just rely solely on our human powers without
any recourse to faith, hope and charity. Yes, it’s true that we should
try our best to be self-reliant, but our self-reliance should not come
at the expense of our absolute dependence on God.
  
            We need both. The perfect balance is when we can truly say
that we depend on God 100% and also depend on ourselves 100%. It’s not
a 50%-50% proposition, nor any combination that divides the 100%
ideal.
  
            Thus, both our spiritual and supernatural life, on one
hand, and our natural life of work and human ingenuity, on the other,
should be at their best state. Everything has to be done to achieve
that ideal.
  
            In the school where I work, this is the thrust I am
pushing with the help of all the other teachers and mentors. The
students have to be trained to be both spiritual and practical. And so
far, my experience has been that the students have a deep stock of
potentials in both the spiritual and the practical.
  
            If dealt with properly, the students correspond well to
the challenges not only in the school but most especially all the
challenges in life in general. They possess a deep sense of security
that is above the ups and downs of earthly life. No matter what
happens, they can afford to be at peace and to be certain of where
they are going.


Saturday, September 23, 2017

Contented with what we have

WHILE we are always a work in progress, always moving on
and pursuing our dreams and aspirations, we should not forget that we
have to be contented and thankful with what we already have and
accomplished. Let’s count our blessings, and avoiding complacency,
let’s make use of what we have to get to our dreams and aspirations.
  
            Somehow this is the message of the gospel of the 25th
Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A, which is about the parable of the
landowner hiring workers at different hours for the usual daily wage.
(Mt 20,1-16)
   
            The worker hired at the first hour compared himself with
the one hired at the last hour and thought that he would be given more
than what the last worker received, since he obviously worked longer
than the other.
  
            But the thing was that the wage was fixed and agreed upon
before the first-hour worker was taken in. He ended up complaining
against the magnanimity and generosity of the landowner who just
wanted to give the same amount to the workers who only worked for one
hour.
  
            We should refrain from comparing ourselves with others to
the point that we fall into envy and later fault God himself for not
giving us what we want. That would be a disaster!
  
            God has his reasons to apportion his graces and blessings
in different ways and amount to each one of us. Ours is simply to ask
for these graces and to make use of them as best as we can. We should
not waste time comparing what we have with what the others have
received from God.
  
            If ever we have to consider what the others have, it is
for the purpose of establishing how what we have can work in tandem
with what the others have. Since we always live in some form of
communion, we cannot help but work together with others, harmonizing
our different gifts for the good of all.
  
            And so, we have to slay envy everytime it makes us its
port of call. We have to let it know immediately that it is unwelcome.
And the way to do it is to go to Christ immediately, praying,
sacrificing, and reminding ourselves of Christ’s example and teaching.
  
            We need to remember that we are all brothers and sisters
in Christ, however we are placed and situated in life. Not everyone
can be bright, talented, successful, etc. Some have to do the menial
job, take care of the little things, be at the background.
  
            We should not feel inferior to anyone because we are all
children of God, equally loved by him although shown in different
ways. Everyone has the same dignity and vocation, though lived and
pursued in different ways.
  
            We have to love everyone as Christ has loved all of us,
without exception. He even told us to love our enemies. But given our
human weakness, we need to be more pro-active in living out what St.
Paul once advised: “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but
with humility of mind regard one another as more important than
yourselves.” (Phil 2,3)
  
            It’s important that we understand this piece of Pauline
advice well and let’s be comforted by these words of his:

              “God has chosen what is foolish in the world to shame the
wise,” he says. “God has chosen what is weak in the world to shame the
strong.” (1 Cor 1,27)
  
            In this regard, we have to be most careful in handling our
intentions. They play a strategic role in our life, for how and where
we direct them would determine whether we want to be with God and
simply be with our own selves.
  
        Our intentions express who and where in the end we want to
be. Do we choose God, or do we simply choose ourselves, or the world
in general? It’s actually a choice between good and evil.

           Even if we are not aware, or refuse to be aware, of this
choice, which is usually the case, the choice between God and us,
between good and evil, is always made with every human act we do.
   
            We need to realize then that we have to take utmost care
of our intention, making it as explicit as possible, and honing it to
get engaged with its proper and ultimate object who is God.

             We should try our best to shun being simply casual or
cavalier about this responsibility. We can easily play around with it,
since intentions are almost invariably hidden from public knowledge.


Thursday, September 21, 2017

Trivializing the sacred

WE have to be most careful with this possibility which,
sad to say, is becoming a common occurrence. We have to distinguish
between the sacred and the mundane, and even if both categories come
from God, there however are distinctive qualities of each one that
should be respected and never confused.
   
            The sacred are those things that are related directly to
God—his words, his sacraments, his Church. We cannot treat them as if
we are simply handling ordinary, worldly things like our work, our
business, our politics, etc.
  
            With the sacred, all we have to do is utmost reverence,
putting all our faith in them, knowing that through natural and human
elements, we are touching the supernatural dimension of our life, we
are touching the very life of God.
  
            This reality should never be lost in our consciousness.
Whenever we get involved in the sacred, as when we attend Mass or go
to confession, or read the gospel, etc., we need to make many acts of
faith, hope and charity to be able to capture the wonderful reality of
being intimate with God.
  
            We have to be careful because nowadays, with all the
galloping pace of our earthly concerns and developments, we can easily
end up treating the sacred things as one more item to be attended to,
often with a cursory attitude.
  
            We need to put all our mind and heart, all our senses and
faculties into the celebration of these sacred things. Our whole
selves should be involved there. We have to be aware with the reality
of who we are dealing with in these sacred acts. We are not dealing
with people only, much less with things only. We are directly dealing
with God!
  
            It therefore stands to reason that before we get involved
in these sacred activities, we prepare ourselves properly. We have to
stir up our faith and devotion, priming our heart and mind to attune
themselves with the reality involved.
  
            That is why we need to spend time preparing ourselves
before the celebration of the liturgy, especially the Holy Mass. This
is especially so with priests. We, priests, have to spend some time in
prayer before celebrating the Mass to see to it that we are assuming
the very name and person of Christ who is both priest and victim, the
one who both offers and is offered.

            It raises some concern to note that some people have
complained about priests treating the Mass as if it’s just one more
item in their daily routine. They seem to see the Mass as one
bureaucratic activity of the priest. They even go to the extent of
saying that some priests have converted the Mass more into a show
rather than the sacrament of the passion and death of Christ.
  
            Of course, it goes without saying that many people have
also lost the sense of the sacred when they go to Mass. They go there
more to meet some social obligation and expectations. There’s
definitely a need for more catechesis regarding the Mass and the whole
issue about how to handle the sacred.
   
            Do we know how to make the sign of the cross, or a most
reverent genuflection before the Blessed Sacrament, for example?


Wednesday, September 20, 2017

The fullness of our brotherhood

WE are all brothers and sisters for the simple reason that
we are all children of God. Unless we relate our relationship with one
another with our relationship with God can we come to that conclusion
that we indeed form one family, committed to love one another
irrespective of whatever.
  
            Otherwise, our attitude and behavior toward all the others
would simply be constrained by the many conditionings here on
earth—biological, cultural, historical, social, political, etc. These
factors, while having their legitimate value and role in our life, do
not capture the whole truth about our relationship with one another.
  
            Of course, to be aware of this wonderful, fundamental
truth about ourselves, we need to stir ourselves constantly by the
impulses of our faith. We need to do this to ward off the danger of
getting so familiar with the others as to fail to recognize the
fullness of our brotherhood and to behave accordingly.
  
            We need to see others the way Christ sees all of us. It is
he who shows us how to treat one another. He commanded us to love one
another as he himself has loved us. And his love that went all the way
to offering his life for all of us.
  
            We have to be most wary of our tendency to take the others
for granted, considering them only physically or socially or
politically, etc.  Let’s remember what happened to Christ when he
visited his own people in the synagogue. (cfr. Mt 13,54-58)
  
            They did not realize that Christ was the very Son of God
who came to save all of us. They were scandalized by the many good
things that he did and said, since they considered him only too
humanly. “Is he not the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother named
Mary…”  They could not consider him beyond those human categories.
This is a classic example of the saying, “Familiarity breeds
contempt.”
  
            This can happen to us in our relationship with the others.
We can look at them only too humanly that we fail to realize that each
one of us, no matter what human condition one is in, is a child of
God, an image and likeness of God, who may have sinned, but who is
also redeemed by Christ. Christ died for each one of us!
  
            We need to train ourselves to consider the others beyond
our human categories and natural conditionings. And, of course, the
model for this is none other than Christ himself.
  
            We have to train ourselves to consider the others beyond
our unavoidable differences, let alone, the mistakes and offenses that
we can commit among ourselves. Each one of us has an intrinsic dignity
that is above the sum of all our thoughts, words and deeds.

            Even if a person is completely dumb or is a criminal, he
is still a child of God unless that person himself knowingly,
willingly and therefore culpably disowns God. Otherwise, he is still
our brother whom we have to love with the love of Christ. It’s a love
that understands everyone, is willing to bear all the weaknesses and
sins of men, is eager to offer forgiveness, etc.
  
            This is the fullness of brotherhood that we are supposed
to live among ourselves!


Tuesday, September 19, 2017

Keeping pace


SENIOR citizens like myself may start feeling that our
lives are already made and that there is not much more that can be
done in this life. In a sense, we have reason to think and feel that
way. But in another sense, we should be careful of being trapped by
that attitude, because whether we like it or not, there is actually
still a lot more to be done and should be done.
  
            We just have to keep on moving, keeping pace with today’s
developments that definitely are galloping like mad. It may not be
easy, but we all know that one important law of our life is that not
all things are easy, and the difficult ones are actually the ones that
usually matter. We should be game enough to play and dance the many
twists and turns of life.

            The other day, I was in the company of young men, usually
labeled as yuppies, who in their young age appear to have already
achieved a lot. They were talking about things that sounded too
technical to me.
  
            I was very impressed, and I suddenly remembered those
words from the song, “What a wonderful world”: I see babies cry / and
I watched them grow / They’ll learn much more than I’ll ever know…
   
            Just the same, we have to try to keep pace with the new
developments without forgetting to impart the many precious lessons we
have also learned in our own time. The inter-generational relation
should be kept alive and vibrant. A lot of good for all parties
involved can be derived from such effort.
  
            In this regard, I guess the initiative should come from
us, the elderly ones. Instead of distancing ourselves from the young
ones, we should approach them and ask them to teach us the new
technologies. I suppose they would feel good to do that favor to their
elders.
  
            It’s in this kind of situation that while the young ones
can teach us the modern technologies, we can also show them in
different ways the more important values that should guide the young
ones in their life.
   
            In that way, the journey of life becomes more meaningful
and fruitful. We avoid that some people get behind in the real march
of progress, which is not simply toward more earthly welfare, wealth
and power but more toward our heavenly goal.
   
            This will require openness of mind and heart among us, the
seniors, continuing to humble ourselves so as to be of service to the
young ones. We need to try to learn their language and ways, even if
we ourselves have our own. We should try to avoid getting siloed in
the culture of our own generation. We have to learn to reach out, to
network with them.
  
            We should be thrilled when they show us the many
possibilities of the digital world, but let’s also thrill them with
the real challenges and adventure of the spiritual and moral life. I
am sure they will appreciate that if we know how to do our part.
  
            That’s why we should make sure that our own personal life
is in order, one that is solidly built upon the foundations of the
essential values and virtues in life.


Monday, September 18, 2017

With the gentleness and patience of Christ

THOSE are words of St. Paul who expressed the ideal way of how he
should preach. (2 Cor 10,1) He was aware that with his strong
character, he tended to preach like a bully.
  
“I beg you,” he said, “that when I come I may not have to be as bold
as I expect to be toward some people who think that we live by the
standards of this world.” He had to struggle with that personal
predicament of his. And, boy, what effort he made to tackle that
problem of his!
  
We obviously have a lot of differences—in temperament, in speaking
style, in opinions, in personal tastes, in cultures, etc. This is a
fact of life which we have to know how to live with.
  
Like Christ and with his grace, we have to learn how to adapt
ourselves to the others without getting lost in the essential by
getting entangled in the incidentals. Like St. Paul, we should try our
best to be “all things to all men” for the sake of human redemption.
That is really what matters.
  
In a seminar that I attended sometime ago, one of the speakers had a
style that I considered as that of a bully. The softest tone of his
voice sounded like a thunderbolt to me. It was strident and irritating
to the ears.
  
Worse, his discussion was more argumentative than encouraging and
constructive. And I felt that he tended to be finding fault in other
people or some events, and rather self-praising, putting himself often
as an example of something. At least to me, he gave the impression he
was know-it-all guy, and his words sounded so final that left no room
for other and even contrary opinions.
  
How uncomfortable I felt, at first. But later on, I reminded myself
that something good can still be learned from a speaker who can be
considered as bad, ill-prepared or ill-mannered. God is always behind
everything. We just have to find out what God is trying to tell us in
this kind of situation.
  
Just the same, I think it helps a lot if all of us who have to discuss
something in public, and especially us, priests, who have to preach,
would meditate often on these Pauline words that would remind us of
the ideal we ought to aim at when speaking in public.
  
We should try to give concrete expressions of how this “gentleness and
patience of Christ” can also be lived by us. We will obviously have
different ideas and interpretations of these words, but at least there
would be effort to relate our style with that of Christ.
  
Let’s remember that Christ said, “Learn from me for I am meek and
humble of heart.” (Mt 11,29) He had his moments of anger, but his
anger was righteous and constructive. Most of the time, his preaching
was characterized by clarity and simplicity.

He was always appealing to people’s faith rather than to their
emotions. But he also tried his best to attune himself to the
mentality of the people despite the tremendous mysteries that he had
to convey.
  
In the end, he bore all the weaknesses of men by dying on the cross.
That’s how far Christ’s gentleness and patience went! Are we willing
to also go the distance?


Sunday, September 17, 2017

Collegiality and consensus-making

IN any governing body, the spirit of collegiality is
highly recommended. No leader should just rule by himself without
consulting with some people whom he trusts and who have the competence
to take part in the decision-making. No matter how confident one is in
governance, he should realize that he cannot know everything that
needs to be considered. He has to consult with the others.

             It may not be a perfect system, but at least the
requirements of prudence and effectiveness would somehow be better
served that way. Everyone in that governing body, both the head and
the members, should know how to express their views without fear, as
well as listen to each other. They have to learn how to dialogue and
ultimately make some kind of consensus.

            Collegiality is an art that cannot be improvised. It has
to be studied and acquired little by little. Perhaps the first thing
that we have to do is to kill the tyrant or dictator that is usually
inside each one of us. Even if one is the leader, he has to consult
with others. In fact, it is more so when one is the leader.
  
            I imagine that everyone in that governing body has to
study the issues well before taking them up in a meeting or session.
As much as possible, the head and the members have to study those
issues from as many angles as possible, coming up possible scenarios
and recommendations and alternatives.
  
            In this regard, it would be good if everyone approaches
the issues with an interdisciplinary tack. Yes, it’s true that
everyone may have his own specialization and preferences which, of
course, have their legitimate value. But care should be made that such
specialization and preferences do not lead them to have a silo
mentality.
  
            There should be mutual sharing of relevant information and
data. Constant interaction among the members should be facilitated.
For this to happen, appropriate attitudes and dispositions should be
cultivated—like openness and friendliness. Petty or serious envies
should be eliminated, and especially so with one-upmanship.
   
            In fact, the more one feels to be superior to others
because of training or experience, the more he should humble himself
to be more receptive to the views of the others. It would not be a
sign of weakness in one’s leadership to act that way. In fact, it
would show his strength, for the strong can bear the weak but not
vice-versa.
  
            St. Paul in his Letter to the Romans said as much: “We who
are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to
please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to
edify him.” (15,1-2)

              The decisions arising from any consensus made by the
governing body should be such that while they may favor the majority
of the people concerned, they should not put the minority in some
unbearable situation. We obviously cannot please everyone, no matter
how well we try to resolve things.
  
            As much as possible, the decisions should reflect what St.
Paul once said: “He who gathered much had nothing over, and he who
gathered little had no lack.” (2 Cor 8,15)


Saturday, September 16, 2017

The phoenix and the turnaround artist

MIGHT be good to be familiar with these terms or
phenomena. They can be useful and relevant to us, especially because
in our life we would always be in need of renewal, of having to move
on in spite of setbacks and other forms of contradictions.

            The phoenix is a bird in classical mythology that lived
for centuries in the Arabian desert. And after that time, it burns
itself but rises again from the ashes with renewed youth to live
through another cycle.

            A turnaround artist is someone who takes an organization,
event or something large that is broken and repairs it and makes it
work again, and in many cases, profitable and beyond successful.

            Yes, we somehow have to have the qualities of the phoenix
and the turnaround artist. And the secret again is to be vitally
united with Christ who, as the gospel says, will make everything new.
(cfr. Rev 21,5) Obviously, this will require nothing less than full
faith in Christ, and everything that that faith would demand from us.

            Let’s foster our need for renewal. Let’s not take it for
granted. Nor should we just mindlessly hitch it to some automatic
mechanism brought about by social or economic forces, or by some
cultural, fashion or temporal trends.

            Let’s do it intentionally, making use of both human and
supernatural means, because this is what is proper to us as persons
and as children of God. We have to realize that this need is constant
and will last till the end of life.

            In this regard, we need to know how to blend the
traditional and the innovative, the old and the new, the absolute and
the relative, the more or less stable culture and the appropriate
passing fads.

            In a higher level, we need to know how to put into an
organic whole the sacred and the mundane, the faith and the sciences,
arts and the technologies, the eternal and the temporal aspects of our
life, etc.

            Given the naked reality on the ground, we need to examine
and question the status quo of our life many times, since we tend to
do well at the beginning of any endeavor, then start to deteriorate as
we go along, until we end up badly.

            This has always been our lot and we should not be
surprised by it anymore. And much less should we feel helpless about
it, since there are many things we can do to renew ourselves
continually, neutralizing the bad effects of our complacency, if not
taking advantage of it to produce a greater virtue.

            Among the things that we can do to counter our tendency to
get accustomed to things and to fall victim to the desensitizing
effect of complacency, routine and lukewarmness are the daily effort
to make a good examination of conscience, a monthly recourse to a day
of recollection, and a yearly spiritual exercise called a closed
retreat.

            These are good occasions to look more closely into how our
spiritual and moral life has been faring, and to see, in a manner of
speaking, what parts of our spiritual and moral life need to be
cleaned up, oiled, or perhaps changed, revised or reengineered to
adapt to changing circumstances.

            We need to hone up our desire to do these things because,
given again our weaknesses, we usually do not like to them. We should
not forget that we like to enjoy more than to exert effort. Laziness
and comfort-seeking is a legacy of our fallen nature.

            These exercises can actually bring us to an indescribable
sense of adventure, since we will realize sooner or later that there
are many new things that are truly helpful to us and are waiting for
us to discover. These new things would give us the sensation that we
are flowing with the times, not stuck at a certain corner of time or a
certain mould of culture.

            We will soon discover that we have many more potentials
that are just waiting to be tapped. These exercises help us in
unleashing these potentials and putting them to optimal use and
effectiveness for our own good and the good of all, and all for the
glory of God.

            Let’s hope that these considerations would help us acquire
the qualities of a phoenix and a turnaround artist.


Friday, September 15, 2017

God always offers us forgiveness

THAT’S true. Whatever situation or predicament we are in,
even if we find ourselves in the worst possible scenario, morally
speaking, God is always willing to forgive us. It’s just for us to ask
for it.

            We should not delay in asking for that forgiveness. If God
is quick to forgive, let us also be quick to ask for forgiveness. And
then focus again on what we are supposed to be doing, as God and
everybody else want it.

            We should not waste time feeling sad and depressed, or
complaining and reacting in some wild, irrational way because of our
sins and mistakes. Time, we have to remember, is a very precious
resource given to us. Every minute and second should be used to be
productive and fruitful.

            That God is always willing to forgive us no matter what,
is beyond doubt. His mercy is abiding and is forever. There is nothing
that can’t be tackled by it. He is not scandalized by anything. His
mercy can take on anything. Not even our most grievous mistakes and
most stupid blunders can frustrate it.

            Let’s remember that God in Christ and now in the Holy
Spirit not only preached what is right and wrong, what is good and
evil, but also assumed all the sinfulness of man by offering his life
on the cross. He came to save, not to condemn. He was slow to anger,
quick to forgive. We should be happy and feel reassured with this
wonderful truth of our faith.

            Let’s remember that Christ was open to everyone, even to
the most vile men who repented. He only had hard words on those who
refused to acknowledge his divinity in spite of all the evidence
shown. In short, on those who refused to live by faith which is a gift
given to all of us. Or on those who are self-righteous.

            In one episode, he clearly spelled out his attitude of
mercy by saying that it is the sick, meaning the sinner, who needs the
doctor. That’s why he went with those who were generally considered
then as public sinners, a fact that elicited criticism from the
leading men of that time.

            Let’s follow the observation of St. Paul who once said
that where sin has abounded, the grace of God has abounded even more.
Paraphrasing that statement, we can say that no matter how miserable
we may be in our weaknesses and sinfulness, the mercy of God will
always be available and in abundance.

            In one juncture, Christ was asked how many times should a
person be forgiven, seven times? Seven times in the culture of that
time meant many times. Christ replied, not only seven times, but
seventy times seven. Meaning, again in the culture of that time,
always or as often as needed. There’s no limit to divine mercy.

          It might be good to call to mind the example of the
repentant thief who managed to be forgiven just before passing away.
And most especially, those famous words of Christ, “Forgive them,
Father, for they know not what they do.”

            We need to reassure everyone, especially those penitents
in the throes of despair, that there is always hope, because God
always forgives and that it is not yet the end of the world.


Thursday, September 14, 2017

Seat of wisdom

IT’S a title applied to Mary, the mother of God because
she is the mother of Christ. She also is our mother, because Christ
himself gave her to us through St. John. “Behold your mother,” Christ
told the youthful apostle just before dying on the cross.

            Mary is the seat of wisdom simply for being the mother of
Christ himself, who is wisdom himself, who has all the truth in its
immediate and ultimate dimensions. Christ is the very personification
of all the truth and love that there is in the whole world.

            And Mary was not the mother of Christ in name alone. She
did not only conceive him in her womb, and give birth to him. She took
care of him, and knowing who he really was, continued to identify
herself with him. Her ‘fiat,’ her willingness to obey God’s will, was
a continuing affair all the way to the cross and all throughout her
lifetime.

We cannot overemphasize the strategic role of Mary in our search for
truth and ultimately for wisdom which is “a gift which perfects the
virtue of charity by enabling us to discern God and divine things in
their ultimate principles, and by giving us a relish for them.”

In the Book of Revelation, wisdom is the light that abides in a
person, such that “night shall be no more, and they shall not need the
light of the lamp, nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God
shall enlighten them.” (22,5)

Wisdom can be had by anyone, anytime, anywhere. Everything can be made
use of to find, develop and exercise wisdom. The poet and the farmer,
with God’s grace received with the proper disposition, can have it.
They can arrive at the same truth even if pursued through different
ways.

Our predicament is that our natural tendency for truth, and everything
that truth stands for—joy, peace, beauty, harmony, etc.—is almost
always abducted and frustrated by an endless number of causes and
factors.

We tend to get stuck at a certain point, or at a certain level. We
don’t want to go on, since we tend to be held captive perhaps by
comfort, laziness, ignorance, lack of faith, pride, greed, attachments
to worldly things, anger and the unruly movements of our passions,
etc.

In short, we use our powerful faculties not to seek and love God, who
is the ultimate and constant truth for all of us, but to seek and love
ourselves.

And so we fall into the predicament spelled out in the Letter of St.
James: “Who is wise and instructed among you? Let him by his good
behavior show his work in the meekness of wisdom.

“But if you have bitter jealousy and contentions in your hearts, do
not glory and be liars against the truth. This is not the wisdom that
descends from above. It is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where there
is envy and contentiousness, there is instability and every wicked
deed.

“But the wisdom that is from above is first of all chaste, then
peaceable, moderate, docile, in harmony with good things, full of
mercy and good fruits, without judging, without dissimulation.”
(3,13-18)

Mary, by always pondering the things she observed in Christ and
completely identifying herself with her son, earned that title of Seat
of Wisdom.


Wednesday, September 13, 2017

The crosses in our life

WE should be quick to relate all the crosses we can
encounter in this life to the Cross of Christ whose feast of its
exaltation we celebrate on September 14. That way, we infuse these
crosses with a lot of meaning and with redemptive value. We convert
them into a means of our victory, and not just a state of suffering
and defeat.
  
            To be sure, all our earthly crosses have already been
subsumed by Christ’s Cross. There is no negative event in our life
that is not taken care of by Christ’s redemptive death on the Cross.
This truth of our faith should sink deep in our consciousness so we
don’t waste time feeling bad and sad because of our crosses.
  
            In other words, we should make these crosses lead us to
Christ, because Christ can surely be found in his Cross where he
showed his supreme act of love for us. That’s because by dying on the
cross, Christ showed his tremendous generosity and love for everyone.
  
            We should frequently meditate on the Passion and Death of
Christ so as to correspond generously to the gift of his own self to
us. And such correspondence actually does us a lot of good.
  
          By meditating on the Passion and Death of Christ, we are
shown how to handle our suffering and ultimately death. The Son of God
has to become man to assume all the sins of men and with his passion
and death and later his resurrection, convert those sins into the
basis for a new creature, the new, re-created man in Christ.
  
            We have to understand this very well. Unless we love the
cross, we can never say that we are loving enough. Of course, we have
to qualify that assertion. It’s when we love the cross the way God
wills it—the way Christ loves it—that we can really say that we are
loving as we should, or loving with the fullness of love.
  
            We have to be wary of our tendency to limit our loving to
ways and forms that give us some benefits alone, be it material, moral
or spiritual. While they are also a form of love, they are not yet the
fullness of love.
  
            The cross, which is the symbol of all our sinfulness and
the death that is the consequence of our sin, has not led God to hate
us and to condemn us forever. Rather, it has moved God to love us with
a love greater than that of creating us to be his image and likeness.
   
            Yes, there is justice also involved, and there is
punishment, divine anger and retribution always in play. But in the
end, God is always moved to mercy and compassion for us, and this is
actualized and personalized in God becoming man, Jesus Christ, who in
the end offered his life on the cross as a supreme act of love for us.
  
            We need to make some drastic adjustments in our
understanding of love, in our attitudes, and the relevant practices
and skills involved in this divine love. We should not be afraid of
the cross. On the contrary, we have to look for it, in all its forms
and expressions, with eagerness.
  
            Loving with the cross of Christ makes our love spiritual
and supernatural, a love that leads us to our eternal destination. It
extricates our loving from the mere play of our passions and urges. It
purifies and elevates our love without annulling its human, natural,
physical and emotional dimensions.


Tuesday, September 12, 2017

The “etiam pro ignotis”

 IT means, “also the things that we are not aware of,” or
words to that effect. It refers to both the good things, like the
blessings and opportunities given to us that we may not be aware of,
as well as the bad things, like the mistakes, harm and damage we may
have caused on others without our realizing it.
  
            Life is so complex and complicated, and wrapped in
mysterious laws and ways, that there can be many blessings we have
received that have escaped our notice. Also, there can be many things
we have done, even with our best efforts and with the best of
intentions, that actually caused harm on others.
  
            We need to somehow thank God for the many blessings we can
always presume to be given to us without realizing them, and apologize
and atone for the unintended errors and damage we have done.
  
            This should be part of our daily prayers. In this way, we
can be in a better relation with God, and we would put ourselves in a
better position to know more about him and his will and ways
especially in very tricky situations.
  
            This is how we can be more intimate with God. We have to
be more conscious of this phenomenon for that can only attract more
blessings from God. To pray for the “etiam pro ignotis” would enable
us to be more keen in discerning God’s will and ways, and to carry
them out. It would sustain a supernatural tone of our life.
   
            For sure, it will contribute to make our spiritual life
more vibrant, more generous and creative. It will help us to cooperate
more closely with God’s providence which is how all our activities
should aim at. We then can play in God’s game, and not just our own
game.
  
            All we have to do is to try our best to do things with
God, in spite of our weaknesses and mistakes. We know that he reveals
himself to the weak and simple, and so whatever claim of weakness and
inadequacy we have can actually be our passport to be intimate with
him. With him, everything will always work for the good, in spite of
our mistakes.
  
            He even goes to the extent, as in the case of St. Paul, to
reveal himself to one who was hostile to him. We just have to be quick
in thanking God for whatever grace and blessing he has given us
without realizing it, and in apologizing for whatever evil we may have
committed without intending it.
  
            I lately have been reading books and viewing documentaries
of massive programs undertaken by governments and other groups to help
those in need. And yet, despite all the good intentions of these
programs, many of them actually caused more harm than help on the
people they tried to aid.
  
            We should not anymore be surprised by these developments.
They are part of our weakened human condition. But we can always do
something about them. By atoning for the mistakes “etiam pro ignotis”
we can somehow turn them into something good, if not now then later.


Monday, September 11, 2017

Leveling up

THERE’S no other way but to level up. With all the new
developments exploding in the world today, we are faced with new
challenges as well as opportunities, and we just have to be properly
equipped to tackle them.
  
            The technical aspects alone of these developments are
formidable enough. They require nothing less than tremendous energy
from us. But the fundamental spiritual requirements are even more
formidable. We should not only worry about the software. We need to
give due attention to the hardware.
  
            We can never outgrow what Christ said: “Seek first the
kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be
added to you.” (Mt 6,33) This gives us the proper sense of priority,
otherwise we would just get lost.
  
            Remember what Christ again said: “For what shall it profit
a man if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” (Mk
8,36) We need to be firmly convinced that with God first, all the
other things in the world would come in their proper order.
  
            Of course, there is a learning curve involved here. We
just have to be game enough to go through it, like having an
adventure. We should not mind so much the effort to be exerted, and
the ups and downs, the trials and errors we can expect. We just have
to remain focused on what we are supposed to do in the face of all
these new developments.

              For one thing, we have to learn how to discipline
ourselves and deepen our virtue of order. It cannot be denied that we
can easily get distracted, overdo certain things at the expense of
more important duties we have. We can get carried away by the
excitement of the moment and forget the bigger picture of things.
  
            For example, we now have a lot of people plunged in social
media, spending hours and hours there, even forgetting their meals.
While the social media definitely serve a good purpose, it should not
undermine the need for us to have direct personal contact with people.
We have to learn how to properly blend personal contact with
automation.
  
            Our cellphones, if not used prudently, can harm family
life and other relations we have. Imagine a family dinner with all the
members quiet because everyone is tinkering with his cellphone. This
unfortunately is becoming a common sight.
  
            And the idea of rest is fast getting distorted. For many
people now, rest simply means to do nothing, to be idle and to go into
some man cave to indulge oneself in purely selfish pleasures.
  
            Rest is not meant to cut us off from God and from others.
It simply means a change of place, of activity, of pace and rhythm,
where we can recover our energies and reignite our passion for God and
for others. Remember Christ saying, “Come to me and I will give you
rest.” It’s like a farmland that is not for a while planted with
things so as to allow it to fallow and recover its natural elements.
  
            We can read books to expand our knowledge of things, study
the new techniques offered by the new technologies, and go to deeper
meditations to get to know and love God and others better. This is how
we ought to level up. The secret, I think, is to leverage the new
things while keeping tab on the limits we have to respect. This is
prudence.