Wednesday, February 28, 2018

Starting the day right


THIS may look like just a minor detail in our life, but it
actually plays an important, strategic role. If we know how to start
our day well, most likely our whole day will run and end well too.
Ignoring this detail will most likely leave us always struggling to
prime ourselves to do what we are supposed to do the whole day. It
would really be quite a drag.

              Starting our day right can mean many things. But one
thing, for sure, it is about the habit of greeting God right upon
waking up, then thanking him at least for the sleep regardless of how
it went, and then begin to offer the whole day to him.
  
            That way we start to burn the fire of love in us. Let’s
always remember that loving is the ideal condition to be in, and the
earlier we set ourselves in it, the better. We are actually meant for
loving. We demean our humanity if we fail to love.
  
            And the first object of our love should be God since he is
the very essence of love, and the source, end, pattern and power of
love. We need to make acts of faith to be able to feel the urge to
love God first and last, because only through him can we love
everybody and everything else properly.
  
            That morning offering we make as we wake up will provide
us with the proper spiritual and supernatural tone to our attitudes,
our thoughts, desires, words and deeds. It will remind us that our
whole life is and should be an offering for it to be a life of love
meant for us.
  
            Yes, our life ought to be spent as an offering. It has to
be lived as a gift, because it is first of all a gift also from God to
us. In other words, our life has to mirror the life of God himself,
whose image and likeness we are. Since God is love, is self-giving,
then we too have to live in love and in self-giving.
  
            Let us remember to renew many times during the day that
initial offering we do as we wake up, so that the fire of love will
continue not only to burn, but to also to grow until we are totally
consumed by it at the end of the day.
  
            That’s when we can say we have completed or perfected our
offering of ourselves to God and to others. That’s when we can say we
have loved fully. That’s when we can say we have consummated our
humanity for that day.
  
            We need to renew our morning offering often during the day
since we have to contend with many things that will try to ebb away
our love. We have our own personal weaknesses, our laziness and
complacency. We also have to contend with the many temptations around
that tend to make us self-centered instead of being focused on God and
on others.
  
            Renewing our morning offering often during the day will
launch us into some kind of divine adventure where we will be happily
and gamely confronted with challenges and trials. There will be ups
and downs, successes and failures, etc. But then again, as long as we
offer everything to God, all will just be fine.
  
            Let us make it a habit to make this morning offering
everyday as we wake up. When we manage to start the day right, we are
bound to end that day right too, that is, with God and in communion
with everybody else somehow.


Monday, February 26, 2018

Prowling for the ruin of souls


THE warning is actually meant for everyone, but I believe
it is meant especially for priests who carry the most delicate task of
ministering the people of God so that Christ, not the priests, would
always be shown to them, and that Christ’s words, not the priests’
words, opinions, theories, etc., are what the people hear.
  
            The warning comes from the first letter of St. Peter: “Be
alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a
roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” (5,8) We, priests, should
take these words very seriously.
  
            It cannot be denied that a certain worldly culture, so
prevalent these days, can easily lend credence to the subject of this
warning. Priests are the best target of the devils because when they
fall, they don’t fall alone but bring many others with them. The
devils are shrewd and they know about the so-called “economy of
scale.”
  
            And we have to understand that when we get closer to God
because of our work of sanctification and our position in the Church
and society, the devil works double-time to trick and trap us. He will
use very subtle means, coming up with many good-looking and
sweet-tasting ploys that are injected with his venom.
  
            We should always be most discerning. We cannot let our
guard down at any time, because the devil does not take vacation until
he succeeds with his plots against us.
  
            We, priests, should know how to do spiritual combats with
the devil. We ought to know the art of offense and defense. And this
can only happen if we try our best to keep our spiritual and
supernatural bearing.
   
            We should be the first one to heed what St. Paul said:
“Put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you
may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything,
to stand.” (Eph 6,13)
  
            We, priests, should take our life of prayer and sacrifice
seriously. We should be the first to wage continuing interior
struggle, never falling into complacency in this regard. Doing all
these does not alienate us from the people, but rather would attract
them to us properly.
  
            We have to overcome the myth that by being serious with
our spiritual and supernatural identity, we end up acting strange and
weird, unable to relate ourselves with the realities on the ground.
Hardly anything can be farther from the truth. By being close to
Christ, we in fact would know how to act with total naturalness,
knowing how to blend with anyone and anything, without compromising
the essential.
  
            Let us follow Christ’s advice to deny ourselves and carry
the cross with him. That is how we can keep ourselves safe from the
deceptive tricks of the devil. That is also how we can effectively
show Christ to one and all in an abiding manner, and not just
intermittently.

            Let us just focus on what we are supposed to do, and give
our all there. We are promised that what we give will actually return
to us a hundredfold. It’s the best deal that we can have.
   
            One good prayer that we can say everyday in this regard is
that addressed to St. Michael:
  
            “St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle. Be our
defense against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke
him, we humbly pray, and do you, O Prince of the heavenly hosts, by
the power of God, thrust into hell Satan, and all the evil spirits,
who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.”


Sunday, February 25, 2018

Evolving with the world


BECAUSE we are told through our first parents to “be
fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and
have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air,
and over every living animal that moveth upon the earth,” (Gen 1,28)
the world cannot help but to evolve with us as the motor of such
evolution.
  
            Of course, we can only carry out that task with God,
following his will and ways, following his commandments. In other
words, we are made his stewards of the world he created for us. We
have a great responsibility over it.

            Obviously, the world has its inherent God-given law, its
God-given nature which we should respect and develop. What makes our
task more exciting and challenging is that our sins—starting with
those of our first parents down to those of us in the present—have
left their mark in the world and we also have to contend with the
effects and consequences of our sins, as we as its steward develop and
care for it.

            When we say that we have to evolve with the world, it
means that we ourselves have to evolve to adapt to the continuing and
changing challenges the world poses on us. We cannot remain in a
static way of handling the world, because the world is constantly
evolving. We have to try to dominate it rather than be dominated by
it. This is the constant challenge.

            To properly evolve with the world, we have to be truly
identified with God, its creator and provident keeper. Otherwise,
there’s no way but to be confused and to get lost. God in dealing with
the world goes all the way to “send his only-begotten son” so that we
do not perish but rather gain eternal life. (cfr Jn 3,16) Without him,
we cannot dominate the world but rather be dominated by it.

            God himself, in converting his eternal designs for the
world into time to accommodate our human condition, has to send his
son who became man. He completely adapted himself to the condition of
man, including assuming all the consequences of sin without committing
sin.

            This is how we also have to evolve and adapt to the world.
With Christ, we should be willing to go all the way to assuming the
ways of the world that are affected by our sins without committing
sin.

            That’s the ideal. The reality is that no matter how
careful we are in dealing with the world, we always manage to err and
fall into sin. And yet, as long as we return to Christ, quickly asking
for forgiveness and his grace, what may seem impossible for us to do
can become possible, what is broken is fixed. And we just have to
continue dominating the world even as we evolve with it, following
God’s will as best as we can.

            This can mean many things in practical terms. We have to
learn how to be faithful and consistent in following God’s will while
being dynamic, open-minded and versatile in dealing with the world.

            We should not run away from the challenges of the world,
but face them properly, with due preparation. We should be willing to
get dirty even as we try not to get dirty in what is important and
essential to us. And if we get dirty inside, that is, if we commit
sin, we can always find ways to clean up.
  
            The world has to be dealt with the way it is, warts and
all, and not the way we want it to be. With Christ, we can do all
things, bear all things, etc.


Friday, February 23, 2018

Heroic sanctity


GENUINE sanctity, and not just the many forms of apparent
and fake holiness sadly proliferating in the world today, will always
require heroism. And it need not be lived and achieved in some
extraordinary situations. It can be attained even in the very ordinary
things of our daily life, but pursued in utmost heroism in following
God’s will and ways.
  
            In other words, it does not flaunt its performance and
achievements. In fact, it likes to pass unnoticed. It’s never showy,
although something in it will always attract the attention of those
who have faith. Of course, it may turn off those who are hostile to
the faith.
  
            This is the sanctity that comes from Christ who, in spite
of the many wonderful miracles he made, tried his best not to show off
because of them. Rather, he preferred that people get attracted to him
when he would already be on the cross, as testified by his words: “And
I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to
myself.” (Jn 12,32)
  
            Genuine sanctity can never sit well with complacency,
laziness, self-satisfaction, the attitude that we can say enough in
our self-giving and the like. It will always demand more and more from
us, and we correspond to that demand with utmost freedom and love,
never feeling pressured or coerced to do so.
  
            It is something done, developed and lived gratuitously,
reflecting the very gratuitousness of the love of God for us. The
dedication and devotion involved in sanctity is freely given, with no
strings attached, even if we know that God will richly reward such
self-giving.
  
            And in situations where there can be many legitimate
options, the one pursuing genuine sanctity will choose the worst
option, that is, the one that give the most disadvantage to him, again
without seeking any earthly reward.
  
            In that way, he gains more merit in the eyes of God since
he would be approximating the example of Christ who chose, of all the
options to redeem us, the one where he had to bear all our sins by
offering his life on the cross.
  
            This way of behaving echoes what Christ himself said:
“When you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your
right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your
Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you...” (Mt
6,3-4)
  
            In other words, we have to do things out of love for God
only and for no other reason. We should avoid trying to fish for some
human or worldly glory. The intention should be entirely pure, without
any mixture of self-aggrandizement.
  
            In fact, on the contrary, we will seek and choose what
will keep us always humble, reflecting the example of Christ himself
and that of St. Paul, who said:
  
            “Whatever was an asset to me, I count as loss for the sake
of Christ. More than that, I count all things as loss compared to the
surpassing excellence of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I
have lost all things...” (Phil 3,7-8)
  
            This is the heroism involved in the pursuit of genuine
sanctity. We need to train ourselves to develop this spirit and
attitude that should inspire our every thought, word and deed.
  
            That is why we can never exaggerate the need to humble
ourselves all the time, seeing to it that we have a firm grip on our
egos whose most subtle form of pride is to project an image of
sanctity that is not truly inspired by the love of God, but rather by
one’s self-love.
  
            We have to be most wary of this very likely possibility!


Thursday, February 22, 2018

On priestly celibacy


THE other day, the Cebu clergy held their monthly
afternoon of recollection with priestly celibacy as the theme for
consideration and reflection. This topic, of course, is part of the
line-up meant for this Year of the Clergy and Consecrated Persons.
  
            While the speaker gave a very thorough and also very
humorous treatment of the topic, what struck me first was that the
main approach sounded more like priestly celibacy as a burden rather
than a gift of God.
  
            I have always believed that priestly celibacy is first of
all a gift—in fact, a great gift and treasure—in the life of the
persons involved and of the Church in general. It should make priests
more happy and welcoming rather than worried and hesitant.
  
            And that’s simply because priestly celibacy conforms one
to Christ as head of the Church in a more intense way. With celibacy,
a priest like Christ can be more available to the people in their
spiritual and moral needs.
  
            Besides, priestly celibacy holds the so-called
eschatological meaning of reminding everyone here on earth that in our
definitive state of life in heaven, all of us will be celibate.
  
            And that’s because Christ clarified in that gospel episode
where he was asked whose wife a woman was who got married to seven
brothers, that in the resurrection on the last day and in heaven we
will be like angels. (cfr Lk 20,27-40)
  
            In other words, in heaven our resurrected body will be
completely spiritualized, like that of Christ after his resurrection.
There will be no need for any carnal or marital activity since the
population there will be fixed. There will be no more births nor
deaths. That is why priests and consecrated persons have to dress up
and behave in such a way as to give some kind of public witness to
this truth of our faith.
  
            How I wished this aspect of the reason for priestly
celibacy had been more highlighted!
  
            I believe the problem was because the main approach to the
theme was that of priestly celibacy as an ecclesiastical requirement
rather than a gift and treasure. It gave more focus on the frailties
of men rather than on the grace and mercy of God and the beauty of
celibacy itself.
  
            Of course, it cannot be denied that priestly celibacy
would require nothing less than heroic efforts from those who are
obliged to live it. Given our weaknesses, not to mention the growing
temptations around, we cannot exaggerate the need for this kind of
efforts that should correspond as faithfully as possible to God’s
abundant grace.
  
            Without detracting from the more fundamental truth that
priestly celibacy is a divine gift, we should be realistic enough
about the grave duties and responsibilities we priests and consecrated
persons have in living that gift.
  
            That is why the need for a life of genuine prayer and
sacrifice, of vigilance and spiritual struggle, of developing the
appropriate virtues and skills, cannot be overemphasized. There’s no
way one can live priestly celibacy if these means are not taken up
seriously.
  
            In a recent statement, Pope Francis confessed that he had
been talking to victims of clerical sex abuse and that he considered
this scandal of erring clerics as the “greatest desolation that the
Church is undergoing.” He also said that the scandal expresses both
the Church’s fragility as well as its level of hypocrisy.
  
            Those are truly strong words that should stir up in all
those concerned the need to get very serious in loving God and others
more and more, because only with that love can one truly live priestly
celibacy. Only with that love will one continually wage war against
his human frailty and the many temptations and sins around.


Wednesday, February 21, 2018

Organic innovations

THERE’S no doubt that if we want to survive in our
increasingly complicated times, we need to be flexible, adaptive,
versatile and innovative. This should be our constant mindset. We
should not get stuck with the modes and ways of the past that while
helpful in their own time, may be impractical today.
  
            Just the same, we neither should just discard the things
of the past in an indiscriminating way. That would lead us to a lot of
dangers. We have to know what in them are still useful, because the
new things just cannot arise out of thin air.
  
            The innovations can only come out from the ground of the
past. They bud and flower from the rich soil of our traditions and
especially of the absolute truths of our faith and morals that serve
as the ultimate criteria of what are deemed good in our innovations.
  
            Yes, we need to be innovative always, but of the kind that
is organic, knowing how to blend the old and the new. It’s good that
we develop the skill of thinking out of the box, but neither should we
forget the things of the past that can serve as the launching pad for
the new things.
  
            For sure, we need some structure—like a daily schedule or
plan of action, etc.—to facilitate our innovations. We just have to
remember that we also should not be too schedule-or plan-bound because
surprises can come anytime and we have to be quick to make adjustments
for them.
  
            Thus, we need to be prudent and discerning of things, and
especially of what the Holy Spirit is actually prompting us to do. We
should not forget that the Holy Spirit is always intervening in our
lives and that we need to be most sensitive to his promptings.
  
            We may also have to do some consultations with the
appropriate persons. For this, we need to be humble and open-minded to
acknowledge our limitations and our need for help.

            It also helps that we practice a certain degree of
restraint in our eagerness to innovate. We cannot deny that sometimes
we can be over-eager and we may have to exert extraordinary effort to
deny ourselves in some innovations that are clearly sinful.

              In all this, we just have to be sport and game. We should
not be afraid to do some experiments and suffer some failures. As
someone said, if Plan A does not work, we still have a lot of letters
in the alphabet that we can use to continue with our experimentations.
We just have to learn how to begin and begin again. Our failures and
setbacks are actually good sources of precious lessons.
  
            The important thing is that our motives are earnest and
sincere, founded ultimately on our love for God and for others, and
not just some personal interest. We may have to take some calculated
risks. They are unavoidable in the adventure of our life.
  
            Of course, we need to pause from time to time to see how
things are going. Are we still on the right course? Are our motives
and intentions still pure, or are they slowly contaminated by egoistic
impulses? Is everything done really for the glory of God and for love
of the others, or is already driven by a me-first attitude? Are we
still humble and simple, keeping our right spiritual and supernatural
bearing, or are things deviating from that course?
   
            It’s good that we be demanding in our self-examination so
that we don’t spoil what otherwise is a good initiative to be
innovative, and so that we can map out the relevant strategies to
pursue the ideal of organic innovations.


Monday, February 19, 2018

Always renew and purify our love


THAT’S simply because of the tension between our nature
and our supernatural goal, not to mention our present wounded human
condition that is prone to temptation and sin and to all kinds of
weaknesses. We unavoidably contend with these conditions in our
earthly life.
  
            We can always start with good intentions and the best of
our efforts in anything that we do. But if we do not constantly renew
and purify our love for God and neighbour that should inspire all our
actions, we simply cannot go the distance.

              Somewhere along the way, our energy will weaken, our
motives will get warped, our objectives will get displaced. We should
be realistic and humble enough to acknowledge this fact of life and do
something about it. In this life, the law that we ought to follow is
to always renew and purify our love for God and neighbour.
   
            Yes, there is struggle involved. In fact, we are already
told by our Christian faith that our life here on earth is a warfare.
“The life of man upon earth is a warfare.” (Job 7,1) We need to be
always prepared to do battle with the enemies of our soul and of God
that undermine our true love.
  
            These enemies are identified as the world itself with its
lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh and the pride of life and the
devil himself. St. Paul reminds us that our spiritual enemies are no
joke.
  
            He said that “we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but
against principalities, against powers, against the rules of the
darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in heavenly
places.” (Eph 6,12)
  
            To constantly renew and purify our love means to steadily
conform our love to the love God has for us as shown to us by Christ
and as effected in us through the Holy Spirit. That is why at one
point Christ himself said that we have to love one another as he
himself has loved us. (cfr. Jn 13,34)
  
            Given our unstable human condition, we need to make
constant effort to conform our love to Christ’s love that goes all the
way to assuming all our sins and offering us his mercy.
  
            Everyday we have to make plans and strategies of how to
make our love reflect Christ’s love better. This means that we really
have to actively look at Christ and follow his example more closely.
Like him, we should be willing to do a lot of good and be patient,
understanding and merciful with those who do not practice Christian
love.
   
            In this, we have to be willing to suffer. That’s why the
love for the cross is a sure sign that we are truly loving. We have to
learn how to overcome our tendency to be self-absorbed and
self-centered, interested more in our own good than in the good of the
others.
  
            The usual events of our day actually offer us many
opportunities to renew and purify our love. There are challenges to
tackle, setbacks and disappointments to suffer, etc. These and many
others are good sources to conform our love to Christ’s love. Let’s
not take them for granted.
  
            If our love is real, that is, if it truly reflects
Christ’s love, we will always enjoy a certain sense of peace and joy
in spite of the suffering we can encounter. We may die with Christ,
but we will surely resurrect with him also.
  
            We need to see to it that everyday, we are conscious of
renewing and purifying our love for God and others often. We should
never take this for granted.


Sunday, February 18, 2018

The name to call always


THAT’S Jesus. He is the Savior God who continues to be at
work in us (cfr. Phil 2,13). He is always there for us. All we have to
do is call his name.
  
            As St. Paul said, “God has highly exalted and bestowed the
name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee
should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every
tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the
Father.” (Phil 2,9-11).
  
            In the Collect of the Mass of the Most Holy Name of Jesus,
we pray that God gives us the mercy we implore, “so that all may know
there is no other name to be invoked but the name of your Only
Begotten Son.”
  
            We have to develop the habit of calling on the name of
Jesus always, both in good times and in bad, because in the end, he is
really what matters in any situation we may find ourselves in.
  
            His ways may be different and even in conflict with what
we want, but he always listens to us and resolves things in the best
way for our own good. He will never fail us. But we just have to be
game enough to go through his mysterious and inscrutable ways. Yes,
there will be suffering but he has assured us: “In this world you will
have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (Jn 16,33)
  
            Let’s remember that with his death and resurrection,
Christ already has conquered all evils and has resolved all our
problems, especially our grave mistakes and sins that can compromise
our eternal destiny. St. Paul expressed this truth of our faith when
he said: “God works all things together for the good of those who love
Him, who are called according to His purpose.” (Rom 8,28)
  
            The name Jesus means “God saves,” as can be gleaned from
that episode where Joseph was told in a dream to take Mary as his wife
who was found pregnant before they lived together.
  
            “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary your wife,
for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. She will
bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his
people from their sins.” (Mt 1,20-21)
  
            Jesus, being God who became man for our sake, is always
with us, is always attentive to our needs, is always shaping us and
redeeming us so we can be patterned after him. We are meant to be
“alter Christus” because Christ is the perfect image that God has of
himself and we are supposed to be created in God’s image and likeness
as well.
  
            Even if Jesus is always with us, it is good that we always
call his name so that we can be always aware of our need for him. The
problem we have is that we tend to ignore and forget him, which is
just a step before we go against him. Without him, we find no meaning
in the difficulties, trials, failures and sins that we can commit.
  
            Let us develop the habit of calling his name to the point
that Jesus’ name is somehow mentioned with our every breath. That may
sound quixotic and fantastic, but if we have faith, it certainly can
be achieved. In fact, that is the ideal state to be in our life.
  
            Jesus has made everything available for us to be what we
ought to be: “alter Christus,” another Christ!


Friday, February 16, 2018

Saving the salvageable


IT’S an art we have to learn. Especially these days when
what is good can be flooded by an ocean of evil things, we have to
know how to identify that good and try our best to save it and turn it
into an agent to convert evil to good or at least to derive some good
from evil.
  
            Christ himself is the perfect model for this. First, being
God he became man and assumed our sinfulness without committing sin if
only to save us. And he did this by converting the consequences of
sin—our pains and difficulties and death itself—into the very means of
our salvation.
  
            He went to the extent of offering his life on the cross
for us and thus removing the sting of death with his resurrection. We
can say that he was game to this game plan, so to speak.
  
            We should try to have the same attitude toward our life
and the many complicated situations we can find ourselves in. This is
what is actually proper to us. Instead of simply being dominated by
evil, let’s try to find some good in any predicament we have, and turn
it into some kind of reagent to change any bad situation into
something that is morally acceptable.
  
            Christ always looked for what is salvageable in a
situation that is filled with hopelessness. This was dramatized for
example when he talked about the parable of the dishonest steward.
(cfr. Lk 16,1-13)
  
            A steward was about to be dismissed from work, and since
he was afraid he could not find work anymore after being fired, he
curried favour with his master’s debtors by remitting parts of their
debts.

            For what this steward did, Christ praised him, not because
of his dishonesty that clearly is wrong, but because of his astuteness
even if such cleverness was at the immediate service of the steward’s
dishonesty.
  
            Such astuteness has the potential of being used for a good
cause, and so it deserves to be praised. That Christ did not approve
the dishonesty of the steward can be seen when later on in that gospel
episode, he clearly said that “no servant can serve two masters.” (cfr
Lk 16,13)
   
            This attitude was also highlighted when then Pope Benedict
XIII said that the use of condoms may be justified in some special
circumstances. In explaining the papal statement, the then papal
spokesman said:
  
            “The Pope considered an exceptional situation in which the
exercise of sexuality represents a real risk to the lives of others.
In this case, the Pope does not morally justify the exercise of
disordered sexuality, but believes that the use of condoms to reduce
the risk of infection is a 'first step on the road to a more human
sexuality', rather than not to use it and risking the lives of
others."
  
            We need to be astute and clever without losing our
spiritual and moral bearing in dealing with the many issues and
predicaments in our life. That is what Christ also said: “Behold, I am
sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as
serpents and innocent as doves.” (Mt 10,16)
  
            And so we need to be tough and game in this life, not
easily affected and scandalized by the dirt and the evils that are
unavoidable in this life. We have to know how to be patient and
optimistic, no matter how dark and seemingly hopeless a particular
situation may look to us.
  
            We have to sharpen our skill of discerning the moral
qualities of the different situations we can find ourselves in and
that also of making the right judgments. In this we have to help one
another, always praying, reflecting and consulting when necessary.
  
            But we just have to learn how to save the salvageable and
use it for a good purpose or, at least, to start on the road toward
reconciliation with God and others.


Thursday, February 15, 2018

Sharpening our combat skills


THE season of Lent is meant for sharpening our skills in
spiritual warfare. This should be foremost in our mind as we go
through the highly recommended acts of penance and mortification
during these days of Lent.
  
            We cannot deny that our life here on earth is an endless
struggle between good and evil, between obeying God’s will  and
following our own will, etc. Our freedom is such that we can choose to
be God-like, as God our Creator wants us to be and has endowed us with
all the means, or we can prefer to be by ourselves, whichever way our
will tilts.
  
            This 40-day period that leads to the commemoration of
Christ’s supreme act of loving us by saving us through his passion,
death and resurrection is the best occasion to learn and improve in
our skills in dealing with our weaknesses, temptations and sins.
  
            As we pass through another year of trying to be faithful
to God, we must have gained more insights, lessons and experiences
regarding our weaknesses and failures. We should consider them in
God’s presence and see what we can do to tackle them more effectively.
  
            One thing for certain is that all this need for spiritual
struggle is first of all a matter of growing in our love for God and
for others. Our spiritual health, strength and invincibility will
depend mainly on this requirement. Everything else that we need to do
to protect ourselves from all forms of evil should begin with a
vibrating love for God and for others. Without this, we make ourselves
easy prey to the enemies of our soul.
  
            And this love for God and others can be nourished every
time we pray or we make acts of faith, hope and charity, or when we
carry out the duties of our state in life, our profession and other
positions we have in society, with gusto.
  
            We need to see to it that at any given time, we are at
least conscious that all we are doing is really out of love for God
and for others. We should not take this point for granted. When this
motivation for our thoughts, words and deed is not clear and strong,
then we are giving an opening for our enemies—our own flesh, the
alienated world and the devil himself—to take advantage of us.

             Perhaps, one concrete way to handle this requirement well
is to pause from time to time during the day to recover our proper
spiritual and supernatural bearing, seeing to it that it is real love
that motivates and drives us into action.
  
            Having said that, we should do the consequences and
implications of such love. We have to discipline our wounded flesh
that is so inclined to concupiscence. This concupiscence can be in the
form of the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh and the pride of
life. We have to realize that this will be a lifelong struggle. We
should banish the myth that there can be a time or a state where we
can be exempted from all these.
  
            Then we have to learn how to deal with the world and the
devil himself. With the world, we have to be most prudent by learning
to distinguish between what is inherently good in it and what is
already corrupted by sin and therefore can be dangerous. We have to
make the appropriate plans and strategies for this.
  
            With the devil, Pope Francis recently advised us not to
argue with him, since he is much more clever than us.  We just have to
avoid him, cutting any dialogue with him as soon as possible. Truth is
we hardly have any good resistance to his apparently convincing
sophistries.


Wednesday, February 14, 2018

A healthy spirit of abandonment


WITH all the things that we have to contend with in this
life, we certainly need to have a healthy sense of trust in God’s
loving and wise providence, abandoning ourselves in his will and ways
that often are mysterious to us and can appear to be contrary to what
we would like to have.
  
            A healthy spirit of abandonment in God’s hands is
necessary even as we exhaust all possible human means to achieve our
goals or simply to tackle all the challenges, trials and predicaments
of our life. We should never forget this truth of our faith.
  
            Let us quote some words of Christ that form the basis for
this belief:
  
                “Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow
nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
Are you not of more value than they?  Which of you by worrying can add
one cubit to his stature?
  
            “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies
of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say
to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of
these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is,
and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe
you, O you of little faith?
   
            “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or
‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these
things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need
all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His
righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.  Therefore
do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own
things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” (Mt 6,26-34)
  
            We need to engrave these words in our heart so that
whatever difficulty we encounter in our life, we would know how to
react. Very often, we tend to face things simply on our own, relying
only on our own powers that no matter how impressive can only do so
much.
  
            We always have to go to God through Christ in the Holy
Spirit. This is not an exercise of surrender and futility, but rather
of conquest and victory. With God, everything always works for the
good. (cfr. Rom 8,28)
  
            St. Paul precisely recommended this move. “Do not be
anxious about anything,” he said, “but in every situation, by prayer
and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the
peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your
hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Phil 6,6-7)
  
            Let’s take note that St. Paul said that the peace of God
transcends all understanding. That means that God’s peace may impact
on us in a way that can seem to be the opposite of what we want.
  
            And so, we just have to see to it that we always activate
our faith in reacting to our difficulties in life, because left to our
own devices, there is no way we can be calm and be at peace. And the
sufferings that are unavoidable in this life will mean nothing to us.

             We just have to learn and develop a healthy sense of
abandonment in the mysterious will and ways of God. What can help in
this regard is to cultivate also a sporting attitude to life. We win
some, we lose some, but in the end God takes care of everything as
long as we always go to him!


Monday, February 12, 2018

Let’s welcome Lent


WITH Ash Wednesday, we enter a new season of Lent. In
spite of the gloom and austerity usually associated with it, there’s
actually something new and bright to it. That’s because Lent involves
a certain dying to ourselves so we can be born again in Christ.
  
            That’s the plain truth about Lent. All the sacrifices,
mortifications and penance, the fasting and abstinence, are meant to
cure us of our old man so we can be a new man in Christ. (cfr Eph
4,22-24)
  
            Let’s not forget that Christ’s redemptive sacrifice would
not be complete without his resurrection. The whole Lenten season,
with its epicenter on Good Friday, would be meaningless without Easter
Sunday. Lent cannot be but end in the joy of Easter. It has to show
the passage from defeat to triumph, from death to life everlasting.
  
            Lent should put our full attention to the necessity of the
Christ’s Cross in our life. It is what re-creates us. It perfects the
precarious condition of our first creation, when we only knew how to
enjoy the good but would not know what to do when we get into the ways
of evil.
  
            The Cross brings us to Christ. “If any man will come after
me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” (Mt
16,24) This is actually a formula we should always engrave in our
hearts.
  
            The Cross teaches us the true and complete ways of love.
We often have our own ideas of love that are usually sweet and sugary,
but actually incomplete, even twisted and detached from its true
source and pattern.
  
            The Cross extends the dimensions of our life, going beyond
our natural limits so it can merge with God’s own life. We are meant
for this. We have been designed for this.
  
            Lent reminds us that we need to weep and mourn somehow. We
tend to get so absorbed with our earthly affairs and concerns, dancing
to their twists and turns, that we forget we need to be with God. We
have to acknowledge our need for purification and conversion.
  
            That is why in the first reading of the Mass for Ash
Wednesday, which marks the beginning of Lent, we are told, “Even now,
says the Lord, return to me with your whole heart, with fasting, and
weeping, and mourning…” (Joel 2,12)
   
            Yes, we have to remember this invitation of God to us. We
have to go back to him with our whole heart that would first need to
be purified through fasting, weeping and mourning. And the second
reading, from the Second Letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians, tells
us “now is the acceptable time, now is the day of salvation.” (6,2)



            This liturgical season of Lent highlights a basic need,
that of conversion, from the inmost part of our being, our heart and
mind, to the most social and global dimension of our life.
   
            This is the be-all and end-all of Lent, supposed to be a
permanent feature in our consciousness, not to serve as a wet blanket,
but rather as a stimulus for us to return to the orbit proper to us.
It’s like a corrective maintenance for us.
  
            We have to be wary of the many factors, especially in our
current culture and world environment, that tend to weaken our
awareness of this need, and even to distort and annul it.
   
            We have been warned so many times before by saints and
Church leaders that our sense of sin down the ages has been quite
skewed and left out of sync with our faith in God’s plan for us.

             Directly said, we need conversion because we have fallen
away from our God, our Creator and Father. Yes, it’s time to remind
ourselves that we come from God, not just from dust, and that we are
meant to live our life with him and to return to him.


Sunday, February 11, 2018

Beware of clericalism and laicism


SINCE 2018 is declared by our bishops to be the Year of
the Clergy and Consecrated Persons with the thrust on clerics and
religious to be renewed servant-leaders for the New Evangelization, we
should encourage everyone, especially the laity, to contribute
whatever he or she can to make this campaign successful.
   
            Yes, the lay people can do a lot in helping us, the clergy
and consecrated persons. Rather than staying on the background since
the focus is on the clerics, the laity should be emboldened to help
their bishops, priests and other consecrated persons, so that we, the
clerics and religious, will remain consistent to our calling and
ministry and not stray to other areas where they are not meant to be.
  
            We need to remember that there is supposed to be an
“organic cooperation” between clergy and the laity in the Church,
since both have the same calling for holiness, though this is pursued
in different ways. The laity should never be regarded, and worse,
should never regard themselves as secondary citizens in the Church.
  
            There is a fundamental equality between clergy and laity.
No one is superior or inferior to the other. This is the reality about
the clergy and the laity. Therefore, we should avoid two extremes that
does damage to this reality. These are clericalism and laicism.
  
            Clericalism is, in a nutshell, when the clerics think or
are regarded as superior to the laity. This anomaly can lend itself in
many manifestations. Laicism is the opposite. It’s when the laity
thinks the clerics are completely irrelevant in their lives. Again,
this error can be expressed in many ways and in different degrees.
  
            For years, decades and centuries, many and big parts of
the world´s population have been under the wrong notion that the
Church is mainly if not exclusively the responsibility of the priests
and bishops. The lay people only play a supporting cameo role if not
just an extra.
  
            Priests and laity, by their baptism, enjoy a fundamental
equality in that being conformed to Christ all of us are called to aim
at genuine holiness and to participate in carrying out the mission of
the Church, each one in the way proper to his condition.
  
            It's true that there's distinction of how priests and
laity carry out their mission, a distinction that's meant to nourish
their mutual cooperation. But it's this fundamental equality that
needs to be aired out more fully to erase some wrong ideas about the
laity's role in the Church.
  
            These erroneous ideas can be called the clerical mentality
that has been afflicting us here in the Philippines, in spite of our
long Christian tradition. It gives undue importance to the role of
priests and bishops at the expense of the laity.
  
            Its usual manifestations are the tendency to make the lay
people as some kind of assistants, servants and longa manus of the
clergy or the attitude of regarding the priests as the sole agents of
the Church mission.
  
            The laity can be active in the life of the Church, first
of all, by fulfilling their primary duty of sanctifying the world
where they live and work. They also can help the clergy in carrying
out certain Church work.

             But they should not hesitate to make suggestions and even
corrections to priests who need to carry out their ministry as
faithfully as possible according to the mind of Christ and the laws of
the Church.

             In this Year of the Clergy and Consecrated Persons, let
all of us, clerics, lay and religious, examine ourselves more deeply
and root out whatever traces of clericalism or laicism there may be in
our understanding of things and in our lifestyle.


Friday, February 9, 2018

Learning to be contemplative


EVERYONE should learn to be contemplative. We are actually
meant for it. Equipped and wired for it, we reach our ideal situation
when we manage to become contemplatives even in the middle of the
world. We have to start with ourselves before we can dare to teach the
others, especially the young ones, how to be so.
  
            To be a contemplative is to see Christ in everyone and in
everything. It is to see God in every situation, in every
circumstance, convinced that God is everywhere, and his presence is
not just passive but is rather full of love and solicitude.
   
            Remember Christ saying, “I am with you always, to the very
end of the age.” (Mt 28,20) He did not say he will be with us in such
and such a situation, or in such and such a person or thing. He just
said, “I am with you always...”

            Besides, God as the Creator can never be absent from his
creatures, because the creatures’ existence completely depends on the
Creator who precisely gives and keeps the existence of his creatures.
Without him, the creature reverts to nothing.
  
            Now, in our case, as man endowed with intelligence and
will, that is, enabled to know and to love, we are meant at least to
be aware of God and to try our best to correspond to his will and
ways. God as Creator continues to shape us in our whole life until our
creation is completed.
   
            The completion of our creation is when we are finally
formed according to God’s image and likeness, which is how God wants
us to be. “God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God
he created them; male and female he created them.” (Gen 1,27)
  
            And that means, until we become “alter Christus,” another
Christ, who as the Son of God is God’s perfect image of himself and
thus, the pattern of our humanity, and who as God who became man, is
the redeemer of our humanity that is damaged by our sin.
  
            That is why St. Paul said: “He who began a good work in
you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”
(Phil 1,6)
  
            As a corollary to this truth of faith is that God or
Christ is always with us. There is no time, no situation, no
circumstance, no matter how considered it is in human terms, where God
or Christ is not there.
  
            When we are in the heights of our successes and
accomplishments, or in the depths of our defeats and all forms of
human misery, God is there. We need to learn to correspond to that
reality because that is the most important and indispensable part of
our life, of our world, of our reality.
   
            That God became man means that God adapts himself to our
condition, whatever it is. He has even made himself like sin without
committing sin, as St. Paul said, so that we can become the very
righteousness of God! (cfr 2 Cor 5,21)
  
            Let’s hope that we can warm ourselves up to this truth of
our faith, and start behaving according to it. We should not worry too
much about the initial awkwardness, because if we know the full
character of what it is to be contemplative, we would realize that we
can be so whether we are in the church or in the farm or in our
bedroom, or whether we are doing some intellectual or manual work,
etc.
  
            Christ adapts himself completely to us even in our worst
situation when we would be in a state of grave sin! God will always
love us. He will never reject us. It is us who are capable of
rejecting him.
  
            To be a real contemplative is to give our heart to him.


Thursday, February 8, 2018

Some notes on preaching


ALREADY for a number of years, I have been preaching and
also being preached to. I thought of sharing my experiences for
whatever they are worth.
  
            First of all, preaching is definitely not just a
performance, although we priests should try our best to perform as
best as we can as preachers. The people appreciate good performers.
And we just have to try our best to meet their expectations in that
department.
  
            Just the same, preaching is not merely a performance. The
clarification is important because preaching involves much more than
just being a good performer or a good actor. The preacher has to be a
faithful minister of Christ.

              As such, he is duty-bound, after he has been sacramentally
conformed to Christ as priest, head of the Church, to assume the very
mind and heart of Christ, the thoughts, desires and words of Christ as
head of the Church.
  
            He can only talk about God, whatever the situation or
circumstances may be. He has to present the living Christ, not a
theoretical Christ, and much less, his own self. The people should
take home a vivid, and even stirring memory of Christ, not someone or
something else.
  
            This, of course, is a lifelong affair that involves the
priest’s total commitment at praying, meditating and assimilating the
words of Christ, making them their very own and relating them to the
current issues, the temper of the times, the cultures of the people,
etc.
  
            In other words, the priest is primarily required to live a
unity of life that is patterned closely to that of Christ as priest,
head of the Church. This is a tremendous, if not an overwhelming task,
but it can and should be done, since all the means are already made
available in abundance. It would just need the priest’s free
cooperation and correspondence.
  
            The priest should prepare his preaching spiritually, by
praying and offering sacrifices. Then he has to study and start
composing his thoughts and words, always keeping in mind both Christ
and the people he has to preach to. Of course, he has to give due
consideration to the different circumstances—place, time, issues, etc.
  
            There are just a few points that I would like to
highlight. In preaching, we priests should present Christ in a
positive and encouraging manner, helping people how to relate to him,
and not to alienate them by threatening, scolding or lecturing to
them. We need to use the appropriate tone and words, avoiding a
condescending tone and being ever sensitive to the sensitivities of
the people.
  
            And while we priests may propose, suggest or even
recommend a particular way of doing things, we should not give the
impression that it is the only way when many other legitimate ways can
also be resorted to.
  
            We should always respect the freedom of the people, always
treating them the way they are but also keeping in mind the way they
ought to be. This can only take place when we exert the effort to
imitate Christ who is the very personification of the proper blend
between the exclusivity of truth and the inclusivity of charity.
  
            We priests should not just remain in the level of saying
“do this or do that.” We have to give people many ideas of how to “do
this or do that.” And more than giving ideas, we should be the first
to give living testimony of what we preach, to such an extent that
people can say we practice what we preach.


Wednesday, February 7, 2018

What prayer builds up in us


IF we understand that our creation is still a work in
progress, that our life here on earth is a life with God in Christ
through the Holy Spirit who is still shaping and directing it until we
become his image and likeness, and children of his in Christ, then we
will realize how important and indispensable it is to pray.
  
            Prayer is our basic correspondence to God’s continuing
work of creation and redemption in us. We need it much more than we
need air or food. Thus, we need to do our part in learning it and in
doing it all our life.
  
            In other words, with prayer we do our part in building up
in ourselves the image of God who is fully revealed, given and shared
with us in Christ through the Holy Spirit. Christ is the pattern of
our humanity and the redeemer of our damaged humanity. We are supposed
to be “alter Christus,” another Christ.
  
            This should not be breaking news anymore. In fact, one way
or another we actually do some form of prayer, because even if we are
not talking with God, we would still be conversing with someone,
usually with our own selves or with some other entity. Prayer is
actually unavoidable in our life. It is part of our nature.
  
            But we need to pray properly. We need to talk with God,
and not just with ourselves or anybody else. God is our Creator and
Savior, our source and end and, of course, in-between. In other words,
God is everything to us.
  
            Of course, we have to exert due effort to learn how to
pray, just like anything else in our life. But once learned, then we
can launch ourselves in a divine adventure that is initiated by God
himself and will be completed and perfected by him.
  
            We have to continually ask ourselves, especially at the
end of the day when we do some examination of conscience, whether we
manage to pray properly, whether we can say that there is some
progress in ourselves becoming more and more like Christ, etc.
  
            In the end, that is the purpose of prayer. We just do not
solve or resolve some human problems and worldly issues when we pray,
although these too can be taken up in our prayer. We have to see to it
that we are becoming more and more like Christ through these problems,
issues and whatever circumstances and situations we can have in this
life.
  
            In fact, any moment can and should be a moment of prayer,
since we can and should always relate everything to Christ. But we
certainly would need some special moments of greater intimacy with him
by spending time in mental prayer, meditation and contemplation.
  
            Such exercise should put us in closer contact with God,
and should be the opportunity where we can see things better, discern
more closely God’s will and ways for us, and get energized to do a lot
of good in spite of difficulties. We get a better view of the entire
reality of our life, and can somehow find meaning for any happening in
our life.
  
            If at the end of a mental prayer, for example, we feel
tired and bored, it would be a clear sign that we have not done our
prayer well, or that it was not prayer we were doing.
  
            The ultimate proof of a good prayer is when we build up
the conviction that we are becoming more and more like Christ, that
our mind and heart are in communion with Christ. We reflect the power
of Christ.