Count the blessing, not the cost

HAPPY Easter! Christ is risen, alleluia, alleluia. We now

have the possibility of being a new creation in Christ, patterned

after him and empowered by him!

            If we are truly good men and women, let alone good

Christians, we should just count the many blessings we receive from

God, and be most thankful for them, thinking of how we can best use

them, rather than count the cost and then grumble for the effort and

the deficiencies that may be involved in raising it.

            The basic reality is that we have received a lot more from

God than what we can account for. We should try our best to

acknowledge these many blessings as best as we could. This basic

reality dominates much more than what we think are our deficiencies,

misfortunes and miseries we can have in life.

            And if we sincerely feel that we lack something that we

consider to be necessary in our life, then we can always ask God for

it, with faith, humility and patience, knowing that God is always in

control of things. We should not feel bad, much less, angry or sad or

desperate because of this lack.

            The important thing to do is to discern what God has in

mind for us at any given moment, because that would give us a good

picture of why we have what we have and why we don’t have what we

think we should have.

            In any event, it is always possible that what we have and

what we don’t have are God’s ways of relating us to him. They are not

meant to make us live our life independently of God.

            We can always presume that God always provides us with

everything that we need to live our life and vocation as well as carry

out our mission properly. So we can validly presume that what we have

and what we don’t have are just right for us at the moment.

            Just the same, since our life is like a pilgrimage, we can

also presume that God may want us to discard certain things that we

have at the moment, and look for those that we still do not have.

            Given these two possibilities, what is important is, as

said earlier, to relate ourselves to God always. Without relating

ourselves and our current condition to God, it is possible that the

many blessings we have received from God can harm us rather than do us

good or help us do the things we are supposed to do.

            Again, without relating ourselves and our current

condition to God, it is very likely that we can fall into all sorts of

frustration, anger and even desperation. We can fail to realize that

perhaps it is God’s way of making us go to him, to beg him for this

favor, and in the process, strengthen our relationship with him.

            What we can gather from all these considerations so far is

that we should try to be calm always, so that we can see and judge

things properly. This way we can act with greater prudence, as we can

get to see things more objectively and ultimately to see God’s will

and ways.

          It’s very important that we are always humble. In fact,

our humility should always grow deeper, because this is the only way

for us to see things and judge things properly. It allows faith to act

on us fully as testified by Christ himself who said:

            “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because

you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed

them to little children.” (Mt 11,25)

            St. James echoes the same idea in his letter: “God opposes

the proud but shows favor to the humble.” (4,6)

The real anti-aging

MANY people today, especially the women and some men, are

quite concerned about aging. And they can get obsessed with how to

slow or delay it, if not avoid it altogether.

            This, to me, is quite understandable, because deep within

our heart and soul, we want to live forever, we want to go beyond the

limits of time and space, which is actually a manifestation of the

spiritual part of our nature.

            And if we want to be philosophical about this, we can say

that we are actually meant for immortality. We have a certain

connaturality with immortality and eternal life. The spiritual

dimension of our nature is wired and equipped for this purpose. But we

need to know how we can turn this longing into a reality.

            If our spiritual soul is mainly dominated by our bodily

aspects, then it cannot help but age with our own flesh. No amount of

creams, pills and Zumba exercises, of Belo and Calayan make-overs can

stop the process. At best, they can only do so much. Sooner or later,

age will catch up with them.

            But if it is animated by the spirit of God, with whom we

are actually intimately united, then our spiritual soul can transcend

the limits of our material nature and can enter into the eternal life

of bliss with God, even starting here on earth. The body can body

enter into a process of perpetual renewal and rejuvenation.

            This spiritual anti-aging knows how to deal with our

mistakes and sins that causes aging and ultimately will lead us to

death. And this means that our anti-aging ‘agent’ should be none other

than Christ, the pattern of our humanity and the savior of our damaged

humanity.

            Yes, it’s only in Christ, it’s only when we are fully

animated by Christ’s spirit that we can manage to remain ageless

irrespective of the varying conditions of our body that will

unavoidably lead to its deterioration. Let’s never forget that as St.

Peter said in his second letter, “With the Lord a day is like a

thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.” (3,8) This can

only mean that we would be ageless with Christ.

            We need to do everything to be so animated by the spirit

of Christ that whatever situation and condition we may be in life, we

can still remain fresh and young, and reflect what the Book of

Revelation said:

            “The dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with

them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and

be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be

no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of

things has passed away. He who was seated on the throne said, ‘I am

making everything new!’” (21,4-5)

            It’s important that we do not take this truth of our faith

for granted. We have to return to it and meditate on it often to

reassure ourselves of the possibility of our true immortality. We need

to do this because nowadays there are also other ideologies with

tremendous charm powers that promise immortality outside of God’s

power, and these claims can only be false.

            Of course, there are also ideologies that do not promise

immortality anymore. They simply believe that there is no more life

after death, and all this talk about eternal life is trash. But they

contradict a basic and undeniable longing we hold in our hearts.

            We need to strengthen our conviction that before we take

on any human effort to be always youthful, it is only in Christ who is

the real anti-aging agent for us, even while here on earth. Christ who

died and rose from the dead, Christ who conquered sin and death

itself. All of this, out of love. Loving in and with Christ is what

makes us forever young.

Up or down?

LET’S never forget that because of our freedom, we always

have the possibility and capability either to go up or down, to turn

right or left, to move on or to stop not only physically but also

morally and spiritually.

            In fact, in the spiritual and moral realm, the

possibilities are infinite, while in the physical dimension we

certainly have clear limits. Yes, we can be a saint or a sinner, a

hero or a villain. It’s our choice.

            Said in another way, the possibility is always there for

us to betray Christ like Judas, or to deny him like Peter. Or we can

be another Christ, as is what is most ideal, who remain faithful till

the end, whatever it takes, in our love for God and for everybody

else.

            We should try our best that we make the proper choice. All

the means needed for that purpose are already made available. It’s

really up to us now to make the proper choice and to be faithful to it

by availing ourselves of the means.

            For sure, there is always a need to wage a continuing

spiritual struggle. As long as we struggle interiorly, we would be

nourishing our relationship with God and with others. We would manage

to be faithful to whatever commitment we have entered into.

            We have to remember that is life is very dynamic, with all

sorts of challenges to face, problems to solve, issues to be

clarified. We need to see to it that our interior life, our spiritual

life, our thoughts, desires and intentions are firmly rooted on God,

their proper foundation.

            We need not only to purify our thoughts and intentions

from any stain of pride, vanity, lust, envy, sloth, gluttony, anger,

etc. We need to also fill them and rev them up with true love and

wisdom. These are the reasons why we have to engage in a lifelong

interior or spiritual struggle.

            The ideal situation should be that we are always in awe at

the presence of God in our life, making him the principle and

objective of all our thoughts, words and deeds. We have to be

spiritually fit before we can be fit anywhere else—family-wise,

professionally, socially, politically, etc.

            We have to strongly remind ourselves that our thoughts and

desires should somehow start and end with God in heaven, from whom we

come and to whom we belong.

            This much, at least St. Paul tells us in very clear terms:

“Set your hearts on heavenly things, not the things that are on

earth.” (Col 3)

            It’s not that we ignore the earthly things. The most

obvious and undeniable reality is that we are here one earth, and we

just cannot and should not be indifferent to its affairs.

            What we are rather reminded of is that we learn how to

relate everything to God, and not get entangled with our merely

earthly and temporal affairs. Everything is meant to start and end

with God who is the Creator of everything and the very foundation of

reality. All our earthly affairs should be an occasion and a means to

relate ourselves to him.

            Our problem that we often do not realize is that we live

our life as if everything is just a matter of our concerns here.

There’s hardly any reference to heaven. We need to wake up from this

lethargy, make the necessary changes in our attitude and actuations,

and get to conforming our whole life to this truth of our faith.

            If we manage to resolve this problem, we can also manage

to be faithful to Christ until we become like him, and avoid the

possibility of betraying him like Judas and denying him like Peter.

We should die so as to live

THIS is again one of the paradoxes in Christian life.

These paradoxes are unavoidable since we have to deal with the many

conflicts and oppositions we have within ourselves and among

ourselves, not to mention the tension among the different dimensions

and aspects of our earthly life—the material and the spiritual, the

natural and the supernatural, the temporal and the eternal, etc.

            We have to learn how to be cool with this condition in our

life, and avoid falling into unnecessary stress and worries. This is

part of the territory. We can handle it perfectly well. We just have

to have the right attitudes and skills.

            Christ somehow referred to this particular paradox when he

said: “Truly, truly, I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the

ground and dies, it remains only a seed. But if it dies, it bears much

fruit. Whoever loves his life will lose it, but whoever hates his life

in this world will keep it for eternal life…” (Jn 12, 24-25) And he

acted it out himself when he finally died on the cross and then

resurrected after three days.

            It would be good if we keep this paradigm in mind always.

We need to die in order to have eternal life with God. And this can

happen if we die with Christ, that is, with faith, hope and charity,

because only then can we share also in the resurrection of Christ.

            St. Paul said as much: “If we have been united with him

(Christ) in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in

a resurrection like his…If we have died with Christ, we believe that

we shall also live with him.” (Rom 6,5-8)

            We have to find ways to die a little everyday so that

little by little also we can achieve a certain degree of the life that

God meant for us, he who created us to be his image and likeness. We

have to avoid simply developing our life purely according to our

designs.

            We need to chisel out those parts in ourselves that are

not in conformity with God’s designs for us—our sins, our defects and

weaknesses. We have to render death to our pride, vanity, lust, greed,

laziness, etc.

            These of course will require a lot of time and effort, but

before anything else, we would need nothing less than the grace of God

to conquer them or at least to have control over them. And God himself

gives us this grace abundantly.

            This is what is meant by dying a little every day. We have

to pray and make sacrifices, denying ourselves of something, even the

legitimate ones, like food and drinks and some means of comfort

without compromising our health, spiritual, physical and otherwise.

            We have to learn to detach ourselves from earthly things

while using them, so that our heart can only be filled with love for

God, and with that love, we can love everybody and everything else

properly.

            We have to see to it that while we die a little everyday

according to what is suggested above, there should also be some kind

of awareness that we are being purified, liberated from some burden,

etc. In other words, while there is some pain, there should also be a

corresponding feeling of joy and peace, otherwise our dying would be

dying for nothing.

            There definitely should be some feeling that we are

getting more intimate with God and with all the others, irrespective

of how they are to us. This is how we ought to die so as to live the

life proper to us.

Doubt Christ no more

IN the run-up toward the culminating act of his redemptive

mission here on earth, Christ finally was quite open about who he

really was. That is, that he was the Christ, the expected Redeemer,

the son of God who became man for our sake.

            And yet in spite of all the miracles and the wonderful

teachings he gave them, many of the people continued to be doubtful

and even suspicious of him. On several occasions, they even tried to

harm and eliminate him.          Of course, in the end they got their

way. They managed to put Christ to death in the most ignominious way

to die, i.e., to be crucified.

            It is a phenomenon that continues to take place today, in

spite of the most convincing of the miracles of Christ—his own

resurrection that later led to his ascension into heaven that was

witnessed by a good number of people.

            That many of us continue to doubt and even to be

suspicious of him can be seen in the fact that we continue to take him

for granted, to put him aside from our daily affairs as if he is

irrelevant or just a drag to our activities, and even to openly reject

and to be hostile to him.

            We need to correct this predicament immediately and

strongly, otherwise we would be fully cut off from the very source and

keeper of our humanity. There are many ways to resolve this problem.

We obviously cannot cover all of them, but we can at least mention a

few.

            One way is to disabuse ourselves from banking our belief

in Christ mainly on some tremendous miracles and extraordinary events.

That would be like testing or doubting God always. We should believe

in Christ, with or without miracles.

            Christ himself complained about this. “Unless you people

see signs and wonders you will not believe,” he said to a court

official whose daughter was dying. (Jn 4,48)

            We need to keep our faith alive and burning. We should

never allow it to cool down. That’s why we should strive to develop a

vibrant life of piety that is supported by a concrete plan for which

we should not be sparing in our efforts and sacrifices. It cannot be

denied that a plan to support our life of faith and piety will always

involve a lot of effort and sacrifice.

            Things should come to the point when we somehow can see

Christ in all the situations of our life, and discern his will for us

at any moment. In other words, that we practically make ourselves

contemplative souls even the midst of the world.

            This is not falling into fantasies. This is, in fact,

making ourselves most realistic, because in spite of our limitations,

we cannot deny that Christ is in everything and is actually

intervening in our life always. This is because being God, Christ is

the very foundation of all reality. He is everywhere.

            Let us hope that we can have a vivid awareness of the

presence of Christ all throughout the day, 24/7, and that we can be

drawn always to correspond to his loving and merciful will. We should

feel as much as possible God’s continuous love for us, and we should

try to repay that love with our love. Let’s never set him aside.

            The ideal to aim at is that we get fully conscious of

being with Christ all the time, and that it is he who is actually

guiding us and showing us the way of how to proceed in any endeavor.

That is why we need to set aside some time for some meditative prayer

so as to discern more clearly God’s will and ways.

Our capacity to suffer

SINCE suffering and death are unavoidable in our life, we

just have to see to it that we develop the appropriate skill and

capacity to suffer and die. In this regard, the only way to proceed is

to be vitally identified with Christ who knew how to suffer and die,

how to conquer sin and the suffering and the death that come as a

consequence of sin.

            And let’s take note of this important point. Not only is

he teaching us how to suffer. He actually accompanies us in our

suffering and death. He is willing to suffer and to die with us!

            This is what we can gather as we go through the passion,

death and resurrection of Christ during the celebration of what is

known as the Easter triduum that starts in the evening of Holy

Thursday with the Mass of the Last Supper, then the Passion and Death

of Christ on Good Friday and his Resurrection on Easter Sunday.

            It would be good if we find time to meditate more deeply

and slowly on this most important event in the liturgical calendar

that actually culminates and summarizes the redemptive work of Christ.

            We have to understand that Christ’s passion, death and

resurrection are what complete our creation, providing us with

everything we need to be reconciled with God our Creator and Father

and to be what we ought to be.

            And all we have to do now is to apply the merits of

Christ’s redemptive work on ourselves. Let’s remember that Christ does

not impose his good designs for us on us. We have to freely accept and

correspond to them.

            So, we really need to know how to suffer with Christ. Any

problem that we encounter in life, in whatever form and degree it

comes, should always be referred and united to the suffering of

Christ. We have to avoid going through our suffering simply on our

own. That would simply be disastrous.

            With Christ, we would know why suffering comes, why it can

be a redemptive means, a clear expression of love and of obedience to

the will of God. With Christ, we would lose the fear of suffering and

would even develop a welcoming attitude toward it, considering that it

is not only good for us only, but also for others. We would realize

that it has tremendous sanctifying, purifying and atoning power.

            Any form of suffering is actually an invitation for us to

unite ourselves with Christ more intimately, and to join him in the

continuing work of the redemption of man. That is why suffering has a

very positive value.

            We need to process these truths and considerations more

slowly so that we can develop the appropriate attitude and the

relevant skills. We should learn to suffer not only in silence but

also in joy and optimism. The truth is that Christ has taken up all

our suffering. We really have nothing to worry about. Our role is only

to have some share of it to enable us to relate ourselves to Christ.

Isn’t that wonderful?

            Suffering therefore can and should be a happy event for

us. And when due to our human weakness, we cannot help but feel

burdened and pained, Christ also has reassured us to go to him so he

can refresh us. (cfr. Mt 11,28) So we should not delay in having

recourse to him whenever we in some way feel down, low and out.

            Thus, our suffering should not be a hindrance in doing

what we are supposed to do—sanctifying ourselves, sanctifying our

duties and the world in general, and helping others to sanctify

themselves. It can be a tremendous aid in carrying out the essential

tasks and responsibilities we have in life.

Beware of the Frankenstein effect

WE have to be most wary of the so-called Frankenstein

effect of our new technologies. As defined by some dictionary, the

Frankenstein effect is “any agency or creation that slips from the

control of and ultimately destroys its creator.” It is like a sweet

poison, a friendly fire.

            We cannot deny that many of our wonderful inventions, the

new technologies and gadgets that have given us tremendous advantages

and conveniences, have spoiled and practically destroyed lives of many

people, especially the young ones who are very vulnerable since they

do not know yet the art of prudence and self-discipline in their use.

            No wonder some prominent people involved in the making and

selling of these new technologies and gadgets regret making or selling

them because of the great harm and damage these things have caused.

            Some of them even have gone to the extent of refusing to

use these gadgets anymore. Or they prohibit their children to use them

especially while in the bedroom, for example, where they are most

vulnerable.

            But these disturbing developments should not translate

into banning all these technologies and gadgets altogether. What they

should provoke and inspire is for us to make serious effort to teach

and learn prudence and self-discipline in the use of these things.

          And there’s only one main principle we have to follow for

all of us to learn prudence and self-discipline in this regard. And

that is that we all train ourselves to be God-centered. If we are not

clear about this or are weak in this area, there is no way we can

derive a true good from these wonderful human inventions.

            We cannot over-emphasize what Christ said in this regard.

“Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these

things will be added unto you.” (Mt 6,33) We have to do everything so

that this clear indication of Christ becomes our fundamental attitude

toward our worldly affairs, and especially toward our use of the new

technologies.

            Let’s hope that we can live out what Psalm 27,7-9 says:

“Hear, O LORD, when I cry with my voice, And be gracious to me and

answer me. When You said, ‘Seek My face,’ my heart said to You, ‘Your

face, O Lord, I shall seek.’ Do not hide Your face from me, Do not

turn Your servant away in anger; You have been my help; Do not abandon

me nor forsake me, O God of my salvation!”

            It’s good that we carve these words deep in our heart so

we can always recall them especially in our times of difficulty or

trouble. But more than that, we should try to build up our desire to

see Christ in everything, in everyone and in every situation, good or

bad.

            Everyday, let’s see to it that what drives us is the

desire to seek Christ. From the moment we wake up in the morning till

the time when we are about to retire, let us keep that desire strong

and vibrant. That is the only way we can avoid the pitfalls of our

weaknesses, the many temptations around and the consequences of sin,

both ours and those of others.

          We should realize that it’s when we are vitally united and

identified with Christ that we would experience the peace that only

Christ can give and not the way the world gives peace. Besides peace,

we can experience a deep sense of confidence and security despite the

difficulties we have to face.

            Most of all, we can manage to be prudent and disciplined

in the use of the many fascinating worldly inventions and thus avoid

getting spoiled and destroyed by them. We can avoid the Frankenstein

effect!

The family as center of formation

THERE’S a certain urgency to make the family today an

effective center of formation. With all the growing developments and

complicated challenges of our times, we cannot afford to sit pretty

and just allow blind fate to take its course. We have to take the bull

by the horns.

            We need to remember that the family plays a very strategic

role in the development of a person and of society in general. It

should be able to handle the duties and responsibilities inherent to

its nature and purpose.

            We cannot deny the fact that many people have inadequate,

if not erroneous understanding of what the family and its closely

related institution of marriage are. In the US today, for example,

they are now legalizing and are openly promoting the soc-called

same-sex marriage and open marriages.

            It’s no wonder that we have many broken marriages and

dysfunctional families nowadays with matching complicated

consequences. Of course, the recourse to divorce does not solve the

problem. It can even make things worse.

            Everything has to be done to address this fundamental

problem. And all the subsidiary institutions and offices—the Church,

government, schools, NGOs, etc.—should lend a hand.

            Continuing formation and evangelization about marriage and

family has to be pursued without letup. Of course, the Church can take

the lead in this, but this can be done also by many other people in

the secular field. In this regard, the laity should also take a lot of

initiative, since this matter concerns them more than the clergy, and

they have the experience and the competence to talk about this matter.

            For one, couples planning to marry should be made to

realize clearly that their marriage brings with it the duty to make

their family the basic center of formation for their children. They

should be prepared and equipped to carry out this delicate duty.

            As the basic center for formation, the family that is led

by the parents should know how to lay the foundations of the human

virtues and the life of faith and piety of the children. It should be

well-versed with the doctrine of faith and the traditions of piety so

that as early as possible the children would have the right attitudes

and outlook in life.

            Parents, for example, should know how to distinguish the

different characters and temperaments of their children as well as how

to motivate each one of them as he or she is. For this, parents may

need some basic training themselves which can be offered by the

parishes and schools, and even public and private offices.

            Parents should be ready by acquiring the necessary

competence to face the modern challenges of raising children,

especially the teen-agers, today. They must know how to run a home,

how to be good administrators of money and the things of the house,

how to understand the character of the children, how to get the

children improve in their individual behaviours, etc.

            Parents should know how to inspire their children to pray

and work, to develop virtues and the skills in dealing with pressures

and temptations around. A clear plan of formation should be

articulated with due diligence such that in time a certain healthy

family life and culture are established.

            Parents should realize that their own formation is also

something they should take care of. They have to update themselves

regarding marriage and family life through an ongoing plan of

formation. In this, they can also take initiatives, with the help of

other parents and other experts, to organize classes, talks and chats

for this purpose.

            The important thing to remember is that the family is made

an effective basic center of formation for the children.

What to tell Grade 6 graduates?

I WAS asked recently to say the Baccaluareate Mass for the

Grade 6 graduates of a certain school here in Cebu. That immediately

brought me to think about what to tell these young boys and girls.

More precisely, I thought of what Christ would tell them especially at

this juncture of rapid world development.

            Definitely, these graduates have to be inspired and

encouraged to look forward unafraid to the next stage of their

education and to the future in general. They have to be reassured that

things are looking good and that there are now more and more

opportunities for them to grow in knowledge, to learn new skills, to

meet more friends and people, etc.

            But neither can we be blind to the dangers that also lurk

along the way. We cannot deny that these dangers are not only many but

also are most tricky and subtle. How to alert these graduates of these

clear and present dangers without frightening them is the challenge to

face. More than that, how to train and equip them to tackle the

challenges and trials of the times is an urgent task to do.

            But before anything, it should be made clear to them that

everything depends on their relationship with God. And precisely the

purpose of education, to put it bluntly, is to make the students know,

love and serve God.

            Another way of saying that is to tell them that they have

to aim at becoming ‘another Christ’ who is the pattern of our humanity

and the redeemer of our damaged humanity. It would be good that as

early as possible these young boys and girls realize deeply that their

creation by God is still ongoing and that the finished product of

their creation is precisely for them to be ‘another Christ.’

            They should be instilled with a deep sense of religion and

piety, especially these days when the culture of secularism and

worldliness is getting invasive and becoming dominant. They have to be

made to realize that everything has to have God as the constant

reference point. In this, we have to teach and show them how to do it.

            Aside from a deep sense of religion and piety, the

graduates have to be encouraged to cultivate a deep sense of family.

We cannot deny that there are nowadays very strong forces that tend to

weaken family life. There are now, sad to say, many broken and

dysfunctional families. This problem has to be addressed urgently.

            Things should be done so that the graduates can enjoy a

healthy family life where they can feel very much at home with

everybody, where they feel loved and grow in their love for the

others, where they grow in the virtues, especially order, hard work,

etc.

            And lastly, the graduates have to be taught to develop a

strong and healthy personal, spiritual life. In this regard, they have

to be taught the value and the art of prayer and sacrifice. This is a

very delicate affair that has to be handled properly, giving these

young boys and girls the proper motivations.

            They should be encouraged to open up with someone whom

they can trust—their parents, first of all, and then their teachers

who should try to be their mentors, perhaps some priests and friends

who have the competence to guide them. They should feel reassured by

the help these people can give them. They should avoid keeping things

to themselves, especially when they have problems and difficulties.

            There actually are many more and even endless things to

tell them, but we do not have enough space for them now. Let’s just

pray for them and wish them all the best!