“TEACH us how to live in this passing world
with our heart
set
on the world that will never end.” This is part of a Eucharistic
Preface
for Lent which reminds us that we should have our focus on the
ultimate
goal of life without getting confused and lost as we immerse
ourselves
in the passing things of this world.
This point echoes what St. Paul said in his
Letter to the
Colossians:
“Since you have been raised with Christ, strive for the
things
above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set
your
minds on things above, not on earthly things.” (3,1-2)
More or less the same idea is reiterated in
another
liturgical
prayer which says, “May we receive the grace to cast off
the
old way of life and to redirect our course toward the life of
heaven.”
We should be mindful of this need of ours to
have the
proper
focus in our life. We should do everything to be able to have
that
focus, given the fact that in our earthly life, we cannot help
but
get immersed in so many earthly and temporal things.
May we know how to relate the things of this
world to our
ultimate
heavenly and eternal goal. May we know how to avoid getting
stranded,
stuck or entangled with the things of this world, with all
the
technicalities of our earthly affairs, with all kinds of
distractions
that the world is now full of.
Everything in our earthly life, whether good
or bad in
human
terms, can and should be related to God. Everything can be an
occasion,
a path and a means to know, love and serve God and others.
Relating everything to God is an art and
skill that we
need
to learn and master. And for that ideal to become real, effective
and
operative, we certainly have to develop our spiritual life that
would
involve many things.
For one, we have to learn how to pray. Of
course, we have
to
be convinced first of all of the indispensability and
practicability
of prayer in our life. We have to know, for example,
why
we have to pray, what the purposes and kinds of prayer are, etc.
We
have to develop the discipline and habit of praying. The problem we
have
now is that many people do not know how to pray, or that they
don’t
even care to pray.
Then we have to deepen our knowledge of the
doctrine of
our
faith so we can be more familiar and hopefully become more able to
carry
out God’s will. Let’s remember that God revealed himself
completely
to us through Christ, and that revelation is not only
historical
but also existential.
That revelation continues to take place even
now till the
end
of time through God’s power. But we have to do our part in
corresponding
to it as faithfully as possible. And, to be sure, it is
not
only revelation that is being done. Again through his mysterious
power
and ways, God continues to deal with us directly and wants to
identify
himself with us since he wants us to be his image and
likeness.
Yes, we have to study the doctrine of our
faith with the
view
of conforming our mind and will to God’s mind and will, and later
on
to reflect in our life the very life of God himself. This may sound
like
a very fantastic, incredible assertion to make, but that happens
to
be what God wants for us.
We just have to believe that this can be
done, not so much
because
of our effort, though we are asked to do our best, but because
of
God’s power. What is impossible with us is always possible with
God.
But we need to go along as best as we can with God’s will and
ways,
echoing Christ’s words:
“For I have come down from heaven, not to do
my own will,
but
the will of him who sent me.” (Jn 6,38)
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