Friday, December 1, 2017

Fundamental and radical

IT’S good that we from time to time revisit the truth of
our creation, since that comprises the most fundamental and radical
truth about ourselves. Such consideration would definitely give us the
most basic as well as global picture about ourselves. It would remind
us to develop the proper attitude, outlook and perspective of our
life.

            Now that we are beginning a new liturgical year with the
celebration of the First Sunday of Advent, I feel this revisiting of
our creation is timely.

            Revisiting the truth about creation will certainly show us
that God is the source of all reality, of what is true, good and
beautiful. He is the foundation of the unity of all the creatures. He
spells out the proper relationship that should develop among us and
all the creatures.

            Nowadays, with all the galloping developments around, we
tend to forget about who we really are, what the real purpose of our
life is, and how we ought to behave as a consequence.

            Nowadays, we seem to be simply reacting to what we have at
the moment, much like a knee-jerk reaction that definitely will miss a
lot of things, especially the essential ones.

            There are now a lot of distractions. Our proper focus in
life is vitiated, a situation that is a fertile ground for many other
anomalies to arise. This religious indifference and ignorance can
easily give rise to all sorts of isms—agnosticism, atheism,
polytheism, materialism, etc. These are what we are seeing these days.

            We need to return to the basics, to the fundamental and
the radical. We have to reaffirm the truth that there is God who
created everything. The least thing that we can do in reaction to this
truth is that we have to relate everything to God—at least to thank
him and ultimately to glorify him, since that is the final purpose of
our life.

            Forgetting or ignoring God will only lead us to an unreal
world which to us can seem to be real because of our capacity to know
and to will. We don’t realize that our creation by God is an ongoing
affair, not a one-shot deal, since it’s the very existence of
creatures that is involved.

            God does not only fabricate us and leave us on our own
once our fabrication is finished. His creation means that he gives us
existence and keeps that existence which, in our case, since we are
made also spiritual, will last forever. His creation is a continuing,
never-ending affair. What we call as providence or God’s continuing
governance over his creation is just another name for his continuing
creation.

            There is a big difference between a fabricator or
manufacturer and the Creator. Only God is the Creator. We are only a
fabricator, or at best, a procreator as is the case of parents who
beget children. In the latter case, the parents simply cooperate in
the creation of another human being. That’s why their conjugal act is
a very sacred act that should not be degraded into a merely sexual
act.

            It’s indeed a big challenge now to spread this basic truth
about the implications of our creation by God. Our life is a shared
life with God. A direct corollary to this is that we ought always to
be aware of God’s presence and interventions in our life. In fact, as
much as possible we should try to feel the divine even while we are
immersed in the things of the world.



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