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.
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