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.