IN anything
that we do, let’s see to it that our
intentions are pure. That is to say, that we have to be
motivated
always by love for God and neighbor. And by love, we mean
that we
follow God’s commandments as clearly articulated by
Christ himself:
“If you love me, keep my commandments.” (Jn 14,15)
And the epitome
of this obedience to God’s commandments is
Christ himself, who said: “I have come down from heaven,
not to do my
own will, but to do the will of him who sent me.” (Jn
6,38) The secret
therefore of love, which is obeying God’s will, is to
have the mind
and heart of Christ. That is to say, to be ‘another
Christ’ which we
can always attain because Christ himself has given us all
the means.
We should be
most careful nowadays because it is now easy
to stray from God’s commandments and feel convinced that
we are still
ok. With our man-made laws that are supposed to reflect
the spirit of
God’s will and ways but often fail, at least partially if
not
completely, it is now easy for us to hide and justify
such anomalies
as greed, pride, vanity, envy, corruption, etc.
We can be so
self-deluded that we would not know anymore
that we are already going against common sense and the
barest of
delicadeza.
For this
self-delusion to take place, all that is needed
is a clever and manipulative mind, often using the
sophistry of the
devil himself. Let’s remember that in tempting Christ,
the devil even
cited Scriptural passages to justify his temptations.
(cfr. Mt 4,1-11)
But Christ corrected him by giving him the proper
interpretation and
context of those passages.
If we are not
clearly with Christ, there is no way but to
succumb to the tricks of the devil who is the father of
lies. (cfr. Jn
8,44) He is so clever and manipulative, using every trick
in the book
and beyond, that if we engage him in a dialogue, we would
surely lose.
At least this
is also what Pope Francis warned us about a
few months ago. He said that the devil is like a dying
crocodile, who
hunters advise not to approach because it can still
strike you with
its tail. He is dangerous and his proposals are all lies.
The Pope also
said that the devil knows how to seduce us
in our vanity and curiosity. The devil can use lofty
words that would
promise us things like pleasure, comfort, convenience,
profit,
practicality, popularity and the like. Where our weakness
is, that’s
where he attacks.
We should never
separate ourselves from Christ. For this,
we should follow what St. Paul advised, “Rejoice always,
pray without
ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is
the will of God
in Christ Jesus for you.” (1 Thes 5,16-18)
This praying
without ceasing can always be done. All that
is needed is to exercise our faith. It is to live our
faith which can
go beyond words. It is a matter of attitude that is first
of all a
spirit before it is shown in words and deeds.
We should not
worry about the practicability of prayer. We
already have been given the different forms of
prayer—vocal,
liturgical, mental, meditative, contemplative, etc. We
have enough
doctrine of our faith that would so enable us to have a
good picture
of God as to develop an intimate relationship with him.
We have the
sacraments that make Christ present and the merits of his
redemptive
work applied to us.
We have the
precious legacies of saints and the living
testimonies of many holy men and women even at present to
edify and
inspire us. There’s no excuse that we cannot be with
Christ and have
his mind and heart so that we can always have purity of
intentions in
all our actions.
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