Repeating and varying

I SUPPOSE this is what we observe in life in general, and

especially when as priests we have to preach. We do the same things,

we say more or less the same message, but we should also see to it

that there is some variation in all that we do. Otherwise there is no

way but to fall into boredom and complacency for all the parties

involved.

  

            This is actually a big challenge especially to those whose

effectiveness and success in life and in his mission depends on saying

or doing the same things everyday. These people can be the clerics who

have to say Mass everyday, preach more or less the same message. These

can also be people in the media who have to write or say something

everyday, etc.

  

            These people can also be the audience who have to listen

to more or less the same things everyday. They have to learn how to

make some variations in the same things that they do, say, hear, read

and handle everyday.

  

            The secret, I imagine, is for one to be truly a man of God

who, in the Book of Revelation, is the one referred to as saying:

“Behold, I am making all things new.” (21,5) With God, everything will

be new. Nothing becomes old and stale no matter how many times

something is repeated.

  

            To be sure, this business of how to make repetitious

things look and sound new will bring to mind the need for creativity

and continuing innovation. But we just have to understand also that

creativity and innovation are not simply a function of human effort

and genius. God’s grace is always needed before anything else would

come to the picture.

  

            We have to realize more deeply that the ability to vary

the same things that we do and say everyday, the ability to be

creative and innovative, is not only a matter of techniques. There has

to be a living spirit behind it. And that spirit cannot be other than

God ultimately.

  

            When we are truly inspired by the God’s spirit, that is,

the Holy Spirit, we would be able to say the same things in some new

ways. We would not even know how this would happen. It goes beyond

mere repackaging of things or mere rhetorical tricks and devices.

   

            When we are truly inspired by the Holy Spirit, we would be

like being born again and would be acting like the wind, just as

Christ described it. “You must be born again,” he said. “The wind

blows where it wishes. You hear its sound, but you do not know where

it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the

Spirit.” (Jn 3,7-8)

  

            It is when we are inspired by the Holy Spirit that we

would be driven with love for God and for others and empowered to

transcend the limits of our human and earthly powers.

  

            With God’s grace, with love for God and for others,

nothing will actually be the same even if materially, physically,

socially, things appear to be the same.

  

            We have to do everything to be vitally engaged with God,

always asking for his grace and developing our love in accordance to

God’s love. That is when we can transcend but not contradict the laws

of nature and be swept away by the spiritual laws of God’s grace and

love.

  

            For this to happen, we need to pray, to cultivate a

recollected and contemplative lifestyle even as we are immersed in the

things of the world. We need to discipline our bodily and human powers

so they don’t hinder but rather facilitate the way of God who makes

all things new. In this way, we can manage to vary the way we do and

say things even if we have to repeat them often everyday.