The teleological mind

The word “teleological” may sound Greek to us at the moment.

And it should not surprise us, for true enough it is of Greek origin.

But the word actually refers to almost everything that we usually do.

Whenever we do something, we always have a reason or purpose for doing

so. That is what being teleological means.

   

          To have a teleological mind is to always have a purpose in

all our actuations, or to refer things to the purpose, reason or end

why they were done. It is opposed to any attitude that makes us do

things simply at random or without a purpose. That would be inhuman,

to say the least.

  

          To have a teleological mind can also mean that anything that

happens is due to some purpose or design of things in general. Nothing

happens by mere chance. Everything has a reason, no matter how

unreasonable things may seem to us at the moment. To have a

teleological mind always refers us to the end or purpose of things, to

the design of things.

  

          It presumes that there is already an over-all design in the

universe under which everything is governed. Yes, including our free

human acts that can go any which way. These acts would still fall

under some law or design that can explain why we acted in a particular

way.

  

          This truth is succinctly expressed in the Book of

Ecclesiastes when it talked about “vanity of vanities,” because

whatever we do, even if we do them purely under our own will that can

even be against God’s will, things are still under God’s law. There is

nothing new under the sun, we are told.

  

          It’s good to be more aware of the need to develop a

teleological mind that goes all the way. We should not just do things

with a short-term purpose. Neither a long-term one. Neither should we

do things with some earthly value in mind only, no matter how

brilliant and legitimate it may be.

   

          We should strive to do things with our final end in mind!

And that is none other than to be with God in eternity, fully

transformed into his image and likeness which is what God designs us

to. This is our be-all and end-all. We should do things in view of

eternity.

  

          This obviously is not an easy task to carry out. It will

require all our resources, plus, of course, the grace of God, without

which nothing of eternal value can be achieved. But we can always

start somewhere. The important thing is that we start and do something

about it.

   

          First of all, we need to activate our faith, because without

it our over-all vision would simply be earth-and-time-bound. Faith

takes us to another level of reality where we have a chance to be in

communion with God and the spiritual and supernatural realities.

  

          Of course, with faith we have to exercise the virtue of hope

given our earthly condition of still being a work in progress where we

have to our part in completing with God our own creation and

redemption. Then, our faith is perfected in charity.

   

          That we are meant for God and for the spiritual and

supernatural realities can be explained by the fact that we have the

capacity to know and love with our intelligence and will. These human

faculties are not meant to be used only on natural things alone.

  

          With our intelligence and will we have the capacity to be

elevated to the supernatural order of God. This is what is called the

“obediential potency” of our intelligence and will which can get

actualized when we receive and correspond to the grace of God.

  

          To have a teleological mind is to always refer ourselves to

God in everything that we do or in everything that happens to us. He

is our final end, and no matter how mysterious he is to us, we just

have to try to refer everything to him.

Our best is never enough

IT’S indeed laudable that in whatever we do, we try to

give it our best shot. We should just remember that our best will

never be enough insofar as pleasing God and everybody else is

concerned. Our best can always be made better.

  

            This should not surprise us, much less, cause us to worry.

But we should acknowledge it so that we avoid getting self-satisfied

with what we have done and then fall into self-complacency. That’s

when we stop growing and improving as a human person and as a child of

God.

  

            We have to remember that we are meant for the infinite,

for the spiritual and the supernatural. That’s a goal that we can

never fully reach in our life here on earth. But we are meant to keep

on trying.

              What can keep us going in this regard is certainly not our

own effort alone, much less our desire and ambition for fame, power or

wealth. It’s not pride or some form of obsessions. These have a short

prescription period. A ceiling is always set above them. In time, we

will realize that everything we have done was just “vanity of

vanities.”

  

            It is God’s grace that does the trick. It’s when we

correspond sincerely to God’s love for us that we get a

self-perpetuating energy to do our best in any given moment. It’s when

we can manage to do the impossible.

   

            It’s a correspondence that definitely requires a lot of

humility because we all have the inclination to be proud of our

accomplishments that would kill any desire to do better. It’s also a

correspondence that is always respectful of our human condition, given

our strengths and weaknesses, our assets and limitations.

  

            It is devoid of what is called as bitter zeal. In fact,

there is a certain sweetness to it in spite of the amount of effort

and sacrifices involved. A sense of joy and peace will always be felt.

It also knows how to pass unnoticed, avoiding attracting unnecessary

attention from others.

  

            It is important that this attitude be instilled actively

in all of us, since it is what is proper to us as persons and children

of God. At the moment, what we can readily see around is naked pursuit

for power, fame, wealth, etc., all for the sake of human glory.

  

            And once the supposed goal is reached, then a lot of

flaunting, gloating and all other forms of self-glorification can be

observed, blind to the fact that such behavior actually demeans our

human dignity.

   

            We need to help each other to do and give our best in

whatever task we have out of sheer love for God and neighbor. The

appropriate training should be established in homes, schools and

everywhere. The proper climate and environment should be created for

this purpose.

  

            Everyone has to be reminded that everything that we do

should always be for the glory of God. To be sure, this attitude would

not take away the autonomy we enjoy in expressing different and even

conflicting views and opinions on certain issues. It will not lead us

to have a rigidly uniform way of life. It, in fact, can foster

plurality and diversity.

  

            But with it, our differences and conflicts would always be

tackled with due respect for everyone. With it, the plurality and

diversity of our conditions cease to be a divisive agent. Rather they

become enriching elements that can benefit everyone in his own way.

  

            We should all strive to do better than our previous best

mark or record. This is always possible because in the first place the

field to do better is limitless, and God’s grace is always available.

It would just depend on us to take the challenge of God who wants us

to be his “image and likeness,” no less.

Watch that tongue!

YES, we have to be watchful with our tongue. It many times

can be like a loose cannon, spewing all of kinds of inconsiderate and

reckless comments. We have to have a good grip on it because it tends

to be simply guided by emotions and passions and to be largely

beholden to external factors and conditionings with hardly any

consideration to the real score of things. In other words, we can be

very tactless!

  

            Christ somehow referred to this when he lamented over the

misjudgments of some people of his time: “John the Baptist came

neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon!’

The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look at this

glutton and drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and of sinners.’” (Lk

7,33-34)

  

            This is, of course, a common phenomenon, now getting very

serious in some places where the means of communication are well

developed but the commentators are not as developed. There is so much

bashing, slamming and bullying, fault-finding and inane, frivolous

talk. 

  

            Especially in the area of politics, a lot of negativity is

created and we cannot deny that we now have a thick smog of

contaminating views and opinions that are so biased and subjective

that even the basic requirement of fact-checking is thrown out of the

window. Sometimes, commentators are caught merely inventing things,

and they do not seem to mind even if they are caught with their pants

down.

  

            Perhaps, it is not so much in our country, thank God, as

in other countries, like the more developed ones like the US and

Europe where the media is powerful and the people are getting more and

more articulate and expressive, albeit very biased, creating a perfect

formula for toxic contentiousness.

  

            We really have to be watchful with our tongue. Let’s

remember what St. James said about it:

  

            “A small rudder makes a huge ship turn wherever the pilot

chooses to go, even though the winds are strong. In the same way, the

tongue is a small thing that makes grand speeches. But a tiny spark

can set a great forest on fire. And among all the parts of the body,

the tongue is a flame of fire. It is a whole world of wickedness,

corrupting your entire body. It can set your whole life on fire, for

it is set on fire by hell itself.” (3,4-6)

  

            We should be very concerned about disciplining and taming

our tongue, putting it strictly at the service of prudent reasoning

that is inspired by faith, hope and charity. There is no other way to

tame our tongue. Otherwise, it would just be at the mercy of

instincts, emotions, passions, biases, and all sorts of conditionings.

  

            With such discipline, we would know when and how to talk

and when to keep quiet. We would know that in spite of our unavoidable

differences and conflicts, we are all brothers and sisters, children

of God, bound to love one another.

   

            We should therefore be very delicate in our speech. This

does not take away the forcefulness we would like to have in

expressing our views. Forcefulness should not be seen as an excuse for

bad manners.

   

            We have to avoid gossiping. If we have to talk about

somebody else, we should focus on the positive side rather than on the

negative, even if a person has clearly made a mistake, and even a

terrible one at that.

  

            We have to be ready always with good and edifying stories,

anecdotes and jokes if only to spice up our commentaries. That is why

it is always good to make it a habit to collect good stories and

anecdotes, and to be always prepared to speak well, avoiding as much

as possible speaking off the cuff.

Orchestrating the different gifts

WE know that the Church is both hierarchical and

charismatic in nature. As charismatic, the Church continues to receive

from God through Christ in the Holy Spirit special gifts and charisms

to keep the Church strong, vibrant and faithful. These gifts and

charisms are first given to certain persons who have to try their best

to live out those charisms for the good of the whole Church.

   

            To be sure, these gifts and charisms are not meant only

for the persons who are the direct recipients of such gifts and

charisms, nor for the institutions that are inspired by these

charisms. These gifts and charisms are meant for the whole Church.

  

            While each gift and charism has its distinctive character

and purpose, and those involved with it should be faithful to it, it

has to be understood also that no gift and charism can stand on its

own alone. It has to refer itself to the hierarchy of the Church and

to the other gifts and charisms that the whole Church has received.

  

            Between the hierarchical and the charismatic aspects of

the Church, the former has dominance over the latter, since it is the

hierarchical aspect that Christ established in a visible way from the

Church’s foundation, while the latter, though already present in the

beginning of the Church, is largely invisible and therefore needs to

be acknowledged and regulated by the former.

  

            This means that those involved with these special gifts

and charisms should submit themselves to the Church hierarchy. They

should also try their best to relate themselves to those of the other

gifts and charisms in the Church, so that a certain synergy can be

achieved among them for the good of the whole Church. What should be

avoided is to have an individualistic and isolationist outlook, and to

fall into petty rivalries, envies and fault-finding among themselves.

  

            This way, they live out what St. Paul said about the

different parts of the body that work together under the same spirit

for the good of the body. These are his words: “Just as each of us has

one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same

function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member

belongs to all the others.

  

            “We have different gifts, according to the grace given to

each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance

with your faith; if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then

teach; if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is

giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if

it is show mercy, do it cheerfully.” (Rom 12,4-8)

  

            Obviously, the hierarchy has the great responsibility not

only of supervising and encouraging those with these special gifts and

charisms, but also and more importantly of orchestrating all these

gifts and charisms so that the ideal synergy can be achieved among all

of them for the good of the Church.

   

            The practical implications of this concern can be that

those in the hierarchy should develop the keen interest in knowing

more about each of these special gifts and charisms, spending time

with those involved, knowing and monitoring the developments in those

charism-inspired institutions, etc.

  

            Those of the hierarchy obviously have many things on their

plate, but this fact does not excuse them from their grave

responsibility toward those with special gifts and charisms. They have

to have a pro-active attitude toward them, an attitude that should be

nourished in their prayers and sacrifices.

  

            They certainly have to thoroughly study about how to

orchestrate these different gifts and charisms, always asking for

guidance from the Holy Spirit.

Reaching out

IF we truly want to follow Christ, we should always feel

the urge and the passion for reaching out to those who are lost,

separated from him and his Church, those who are confused and in

error, those in the peripheries in whatever sense “peripheries” can be

understood, whether in terms of spirituality and morals or in social

and economic terms, etc.

  

            This, I suppose, is to have that universal attitude of

Christ to save all men as evidenced by what St. Paul once said: that

God our Savior “desires all men to be saved and come to the knowledge

of the truth.” (1 Tim 2,4)

  

            That is why Christ himself, before he went up to heaven,

told his apostles, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to

every creature.” (Mk 16,15) And if we preach that gospel integrally,

we should not fail to realize that Christ gave special, solicitous

attention to the lost, to the sinners, the weak and the sick, etc.

  

            He, for sure, loved everyone, but he gave special

attention to the lost, the sinners, the weak, the sick. He was

uncomfortable only with those who were self-righteous, rigid in their

own old ideas and ways of what is good and bad, what is to be with God

and what is to go against him. They seem unable to improve on what

they already have defined.

  

            This truth of our faith can be seen in the lessons we can

learn from the parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin and the

prodigal son. (cfr. Lk 15,3-32) And all over the gospel, we can always

see Christ giving special attention to the sinners and less

privileged. “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to

repentance,” he very clearly said. (Lk 5,32)

   

            We should try our best to adapt this same attitude of

Christ. Like him we should be willing to make sacrifices just to reach

out to those who are lost. We should not be afraid to get dirty, and

more importantly, we should find new ways to be able to reach out to

them.

  

            That some people are lost can mean that the usual ways of

dealing with souls and the status quo of the spiritualities around, do

not quite work with them anymore. We have to find new ways, inspired

always by the Holy Spirit, to deal more effectively with their

predicament.

  

            This is not to go against the old and traditional, or

against what already has been defined by the Church’s magisterium. It

is rather to find new ways and to innovate, but always under the

guidance of the Holy Spirit who never runs out of new things while

retaining the old ones.

  

            This can be seen as part of Christ’s teaching as when he,

in that parable of the lost sheep, said that the shepherd left behind

the 99 of his 100 sheep that were already secure, just to look after

the lost one.

  

            We can just imagine what imaginative, creative and

innovative things the shepherd had to do, not to mention, the effort

and sacrifices he had to endure, just find the lost sheep. Even in our

own spiritual lives where there will always be something that is not

working well, thus, we always need find new, innovative ways to deal

with it. We cannot remain with the status quo of our spiritual life.

  

            Thus, in dealing with those who are far from God or from

the Church, we have to find ways of how to effectively deal with them.

Some give-and-take will have to be made without compromising what is

essential. And what is essential is in the end the spirit of love that

Christ showed us, a love that goes all the way to assuming the sins of

men and offering his life on the cross.

We live in an imperfect world

THIS should be no surprise to us, no breaking news. We

just have to acknowledge this very obvious fact and avoid falling into

two extremes. One is that of perfectionism, when we think everything

will just be rigidly perfect, and anything that stains and distorts it

should be rejected at all costs. The other is complete laxity, when we

think that just about anything should be ok with us.

            Yes, we are in an imperfect world, but a world that is

always in the process of perfecting itself through the interplay of

God’s grace and our effort and correspondence to that grace. We are in

a world in the making, a work in progress, aiming at becoming “a new

heaven and a new earth.” (cfr. Jn 21,1)

  

            Besides, what makes our world more imperfect is that we

all have fallen into sin which would make our correspondence to God’s

grace more complicated. Given this reality, we just have to learn to

help one another to cope properly with this condition.

             Things depend both on God and on us, with God always

taking the initiative and bent on completing what he started. Ours is

simply to play along with God’s will and ways, but knowingly and

freely and lovingly, as befit our dignity as God’s image and likeness,

as children of his. Our part, of course, is no laughing matter. It

requires everything that we have got.

              In this regard, we have to see to it that while we should

try our best to know what is right and wrong as defined by God our

Creator, and live our life according to that law, we should not ignore

the fact that evil will always be around, harassing us, and we just

have to learn how to live with that.

  

            Yes, we should try always to be clean, even squeaky clean

as much as possible, but let’s not forget that one way or another,

sooner or later, we somehow get dirty. So we just have to learn to

clean ourselves again as soon as possible, and move on without much

delay.

  

            That we should not be overly rigid in our desire to be

perfect is somehow illustrated in that parable of the unjust or shrewd

steward. (cfr Lk 16,1-13) The steward was about to be fired by his

master because he was reported to be squandering his master’s goods.

  

            Since he was not too strong to dig and was ashamed to beg,

what he did to secure his future was to curry favor with his master’s

debtors who hopefully would return the favour once he got out of job.

  

            The master apparently knew about this but just the same he

commended the steward for acting with shrewdness. And Christ, deriving

the lesson from that parable, said that while what the steward did was

wrong, he did right in being shrewd.

  

            Christ was clear about not serving two masters, God and

mammon. But he also said, “make friends for yourselves by unrighteous

mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting

home.” (Lk 16,9)

   

            What the parable tries to tell us is that we should just

do what we can to survive, even if it is wrong. When we would be

cornered already with no other possibility for survival, we can play

shrewd. We should just make up later for whatever wrongdoing we may be

pressured to do.

  

            It’s like saying that in this world, we cannot help but be

dirty, what with all the evil elements and powerful structures of sin

around. We should just bear with it and try to clean ourselves as soon

as the chance comes along.

  

            Of course, if the choice between good and evil takes place

at our final moment, there is no doubt that we should just learn to

suffer the inconveniences of good over the perks of evil.

Pseudo-profound nonsense

I WAS amused to read recently an article that claimed that

we might be living now in an age of pseudo-profound nonsense. It was

referring to supposedly inspirational quotes now proliferating in the

social media and expressed by all kinds of people who try to define

what “living fully” is.

   

            I was amused because I cannot help but agree with the many

observations the author of the article made. It seems that all of a

sudden everyone, including the millennials and the post-millennials,

is now an expert in what is to have a full and happy, contented life

on earth.

  

            Of course, when you read lines that come from advertisers,

politicians and some people in the media, we can easily get the

immediate impression that things are being bloated to the limits and,

therefore, should be taken with a grain of salt.

   

            These people want attention and they will do anything to

achieve that, including exaggerating things, indulging in fantasies,

or just telling sweet, nice lies that will always look and sound true

but actually are not.

  

            Of course also, clerics, at least some of us, are not

exempted from that mischief. If we choose to be unscrupulous, tricky

and foxy, we can easily take advantage of the abstruse spiritual and

supernatural messages of the gospel and the gullibility of many people

today to invent attention-grabbing ideas, doctrines and other

teachings that are not anymore in line with what the Church

magisterium teaches. The possibilities for doing this are actually

limitless.

   

            And so what Shakespeare wrote once can come true: “A tale

told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” There

is a lot of embellishment, hyperbole and sophistry involved, all made

to serve one’s self-interest rather than to give glory to God and

serve the common good.

   

            We have to be wary of this emerging phenomenon and be

reminded of the need to be most faithful to the source of all truth

and beauty. While it’s true that we should try our best to be

inventive, creative, innovative, we should also be strongly reminded

that we need to always stick firmly to the objective perennial truths

that should remain unchanged even if they have to be continually

dressed up differently as times and circumstances vary.

  

            In all those so-called pseudo-profound nonsense that tried

to explain what “living fully” means, what is clear is that everything

is made to serve men’s self-centeredness. There is no reference to

God. Just one’s own so-called intelligence and wisdom.

  

            It is actually a useless attempt because no matter how

smart we think we are in defining “living fully” by our own light

alone, we cannot change the law given to us by our Creator. All that

effort is described in the Bible as “vanity of vanities.”

(Ecclesiastes 12,8) No matter what we do, it is God’s will that will

prevail, if not now then later. God will always have the last word.

   

            We cannot alter the gospel truth about where the fullness

of man and our joy can be found—in God, in Christ who taught us that

we have to be completely detached from earthly things so we can give

our heart fully to him, and with him, we can have everything else that

we need.

  

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

all these things will be added to you,” (Mt 6,33) Christ told us. We

have to give our total trust in these words of Christ rather than in

the sophisms of many of our self-proclaimed wise guys in the world

today.

  

            Besides, if we want to truly wise in describing what

“living fully” is, our description would be, in the words of St.

James, “pure, then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of

mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.” (3,17) It is not

arrogant, vain, conceited.

“Where he’s coming from”

A POPULAR consideration that many people nowadays make

when they try to understand someone who has a different view from

theirs is to try to figure out “where that person is coming from.” I

hear that expression very often these days. It’s a laudable gesture

that is meant to keep a meaningful dialogue with others.

              Of course, the expression, “where he’s coming from,” is a

reminder of the basic principle that a person sees, understands and

reacts to things according to the way he is. An old Latin adage

already expresses this phenomenon. “Operare sequitur esse.” Action

follows being. One behaves the way he is.

   

            If that person is male or female, rich or poor, a

socialite or a farm worker, a liberal or a conservative, a racist or a

feminist, etc., these conditions are somehow reflected in his views

and his over-all actuations. In other words, we all have our biases

and preferences. Some can be valid and legitimate. But others may not.

It is the latter that we have to be most careful about.

  

            To see where one is coming from is, of course, a very

logical consideration to make. But then again, we do not work by logic

alone, since we can also be very logical in our error.

   

            Logic does not go the distance. We need to go

metaphysical, considering things way beyond the many conditionings

that describe person. We have to go to the original and the ultimate

objective truth about ourselves and about where we come from before

the conditionings add their trappings on it.

            And this original and ultimate truth about where we come

from is that we all come from God. All creatures, of course, come from

God, but in our case, we come from him in a very intimate way since we

are created in his image and likeness, meant to share the very life of

God.

             We just did not come from our parents. We are not merely

biological creatures. We are not simply products of our social and

historico-cultural environment. We also are spiritual creatures who

are very intimately linked to our Creator God. We are not merely the

image and likeness of our parents. We, first of all, are the image and

likeness of God.

            While it’s true and correct to consider the personal,

social, cultural background, etc. of a person to know where he is

coming from when he expresses his views, we should not neglect the

most basic consideration of the truth that we all come from God.

  

             We are supposed to be God’s image and likeness, reflecting

in ourselves as much as possible God’s goodness, love, mercy, wisdom,

etc. In our dealings with others, in our discussions and exchanges, we

should not forget that we all are children of God, we all are brothers

and sisters, meant to love one another as Christ has loved us. (cfr.

Jn 13,34)

   

            As a consequence, we have to learn how to see the image

and likeness of God in everyone, no matter how unlovable a person is

to us. And also, we have to remind ourselves, that in spite of our

personal idiosyncracies and peculiarities, we are also the image and

likeness of God who are meant to see, understand and react to things

the way God sees, understands and reacts to them.

  

            For this, we have to look closely at the teaching and

example of Christ who is the fullness of the revelation of God. He is

“the way, the truth and the life” for us. We are patterned after him

and we have to follow him to be what we ought to be.

   

            And Christ makes himself alive in us through his word and

the sacraments. Thus we cannot overemphasize the need to study the

gospel, the catechism, etc., and to have recourse to the sacraments,

especially the Holy Eucharist, to figure out where everyone is coming

from.

Fear the cross no more

WE have to learn to lose any fear of the cross. That

instinct of ours to be afraid and to flee from the cross has to be

reversed, and made into an instinct of love for the cross.

            This may take time and effort, this may require a lot of

thinking and discipline, this may involve some drastic and even

painful adjustments in our understanding of things, but it is all

worthwhile to do so.

            When we lose the fear of the cross and develop the love

for it instead we would have the proper light to guide us in our life

here on earth. Not only that, we can have the invincible peace and joy

that is proper to us as persons and as children of God.

            Opus Dei founder, St. Josemaria Escriva, often repeated

the motto, “Lux in cruce, gaudium in cruce, requies in cruce,” (light

in the cross, joy in the cross, peace in the cross), to remind himself

and everybody else that it is in the cross of Christ where we have the

path and the instrument of our human salvation.

            Again it’s good to be theological in our understanding of

the cross because the mere human attitude toward the cross can never

fathom the crucial and indispensable significance the cross of Christ

possesses.

            Christ’s cross, which Christ himself told us to carry

(cfr. Mt 16,24), converts that tree of death that led to the downfall

of our pristine humanity in Adam and Eve into a tree of life that

brings us back again to God, our Father and Creator.

            It is this cross that assumes all the sins of men and

destroys them. It is this cross that reopens the gates of heaven to us

after it was closed due to our sins. We need to engrave these

theological truths of the cross so we can be guided properly.

            In other words, this cross enables us to handle the worst

condition that can happen to us in this life, and to convert that

condition into a means of our salvation. Thus, whenever we have the

cross, in whatever concrete form it comes—whether physical, moral or

spiritual—we have to bear it with Christ always. It would then become

Christ’s cross, and not just any cross, and as such it is a redemptive

cross.

            It would also be a cross that is not simply ours, borne

only by our own selves. It becomes the cross of Christ who has assumed

all the sinfulness of men without committing sin. (cfr. 2 Cor 5,21)

Somehow it is a cross that is not as heavy as when it is simply ours,

carrying it without Christ carrying it for and with us.

            We obviously have to adapt our attitude, thinking and

reactions towards the cross according to what our faith teaches us. We

have to go theological in this, not merely physical, emotional or

mental. Thus, we have to be ready to follow what Christ told us

whenever we encounter crosses in our life.

            Like, we have to learn to love our enemies, to pray for

them. We have to offer the other cheek when we are slapped in one

cheek. We have to learn to be charitable and magnanimous when we are

misunderstood, mistreated, insulted, offended. We have to learn to be

patient and humble when humiliated. We have to regard others as better

than us, always concerned about their interest rather than focusing

simply on ours.

            There are many more forms of how to bear our cross the way

Christ bore his, and thus make our cross also the cross of Christ, a

cross that is redemptive and worthy of being loved and exalted.

            We should not only lose fear of the cross, but rather love

it, and actively look for it, since that is the only way to our

salvation, given our wounded and sinful condition.

No spirituality has it all

THAT’S right. No spirituality has the exclusive right to

Christianity. No spirituality can claim to be the only way to

holiness. No matter how effective and appropriate to some people, no

spirituality can claim a universal coverage of all the faithful in the

Church.

            But, yes, each spirituality can be the only way to

holiness for some people, for that is what is truly meant for them.

That, of course, is something that only God can judge.

            And so we cannot make judgments as to whether a person is

meant for this particular spirituality or that. That matter is between

God and the person concerned alone. It’s a matter of conscience. And

so we just have to respect one another in this matter and offer some

help, if we can.

            There are different spiritualities in the Church and in

the world. There’s the religious spirituality that can lend itself to

many variations—Jesuit, Redemptorist, Dominican, etc., and the lay

spirituality. But even if we already have a good number of

spiritualities, we can never say that we already have reached the

maximum and that no other new spirituality that can found. That would

be tying the hands of the Holy Spirit.

            Ours is, of course, to discern what spirituality is proper

to us. For this, we need to be most judicious, going deep into prayer

and contemplation to know God’s will and availing of all the means to

help us see the spirituality most appropriate for us. This is a very

important task that each one of us should give due attention and

effort. In fact, this the most important task of our life here on

earth.

            And given that we already have a good idea of the

spirituality meant for us, we should, of course, embrace it and live

it as faithfully as possible. But we have to realize that we have to

be not only respectful of the other spiritualities, including those

that may be different and in some ways and practices in conflict with

ours, but also know how to work together with them for the good of

all.

            In other words, no spirituality should be so isolated and

detached from the others that it would have no relation with them. To

clarify, it might be good to remit some words of St. Paul in this

regard, to wit:

            “There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit

distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same

Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in

everyone it is the same God at work.

            “Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given

for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit a

message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the

same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of

healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another

prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another

speaking in different kinds of tongues, and still another the

interpretation of tongues.

            “All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he

distributes them to each one, just as he determines. Just as a body,

though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so

it is with Christ.

            “For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one

body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the

one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but

of many.” (! Cor 12,4-14)

            Let us hope that each one of us is faithful to the

spirituality meant for him, and knows how to work or interact with

those of the other spiritualities for the good of whole Church, the

mystical body of Christ.

Life’s unavoidable dirt

WE cannot deny that no matter how much we try to keep

ourselves clean, not only physically but also morally and spiritually,

we cannot avoid the dirt that there is always in the world.

            Some of this dirt today can appear to be so nice that we

can feel at home with it already. We should not be afraid to get

dirty, without compromising what is essential in life. And if we fall,

we should know what to do.

            Yes, nowadays we have to contend with formidable, almost

irresistible moral dirt, since we have to grapple not only with

clearly evil things but also with the many confusing elements that mix

good and evil. These can be produced by powerful structures of sin

that are now deeply embedded even in today’s world culture. Just

consider the wide network of corruption and pornography in the world

today.

            While we have to be realistic and acknowledge this fact of

life as objectively as possible, and learn how to live with it, we

cannot be naïve and think that everything is just fine. We have to do

something about it. We have to regularly clean ourselves up, much like

our need to take a shower everyday and wash ourselves every so often

to keep ourselves clean.

            That’s why we have to regularly pray and offer sacrifices,

make many acts of contrition and atonement, regularly go to confession

and receive our Lord in Holy Communion. These spiritual and

supernatural means are very effective since not only would we be

reliant on our own powers but we also let God’s power to protect us.

            More than that, we have to develop our spiritual combat

skills and a certain kind of immunity from the world’s dirt so that we

would not be unduly affected by them. We have to develop the

appropriate defense mechanisms, learning how to ignore certain things

while intensifying our presence of God.

            Still more, we have to undertake the duty of cleaning up

not only ourselves individually but also of helping to clean up others

and the world in general.

            Of course, we have to start with our own selves. And in

this regard, it would be helpful to educate our conscience to be most

sensitive and clear about what is morally right and wrong without

falling into scrupulosity and paranoia. We also have to train our

conscience to be resistant to all evils, knowing how to ride them out

without falling into laxity and insensitivity.

            It also helps to develop a sporting spirit and a good

sense of humor, since these would facilitate our survival in the

unavoidable disappointments, worries, fears, failures, etc. that we

can expect to happen as we tackle the drama of our daily life.

            We have to have a clear understanding of the kind of

cooperation in evil that is tolerable. This is what is called the

material cooperation in evil, not the formal one. We can have recourse

to this when we somehow are forced or pressured to be in a situation

where some cooperation in evil is unavoidable. In fact, nowadays there

is hardly any instance when we do not cooperate in evil one way or

another. So we have to be prepared for this.

            It is also good that even as we keep ourselves clean and

adequately protected from the world’s unavoidable dirt, we should also

instill in ourselves a keen desire to clean up the world. We can

always start somewhere—at home, in the neighborhood, in the schools

and offices, in the media, in the fields of entertainment, business,

politics and sports, etc.

            For this we have to be truly strong so we can handle the

formidable challenge well. This is where we can indulge in some

healthy kind of activism, pursuing advocacies that are for the good of

all.

God and truthfulness

ONCE again we need to reiterate this basic truth. We can

never be truthful unless we refer things to God. In fact, what would

really assure us that we would be fully in the truth despite truth’s

many levels, aspects, angles, etc., is when we are with God through

Christ in the Holy Spirit. There is no other way to be truthful!

            This means that we have to be vitally identified with

Christ who told Pilate that he came to bear witness to the truth.

(cfr. Jn 18,37-38) Only in Christ can we be in the truth. Only when we

look, understand and react to things the way Christ did would we be in

the truth.

            This Christ-inspired truth will always come with charity,

because a fact, a piece of information and data presented as truth

without charity, is never the truth. Truth and charity are inseparable

and interchangeable.

            Charity may make truth appear as going against reason,

common sense, the evidence of facts and data, but that should be

expected. There is a certain madness in charity because charity

involves not only natural things, but also spiritual and supernatural

realities that can overwhelm our human ways of understanding things.

            We just have to adjust our ways of understanding what

truth really is and what it would involve. Seeking and finding it,

proclaiming, protecting and defending it is the same as seeking,

finding, proclaiming, protecting and defending charity which is the

very essence of God. It is the same as seeking, finding, proclaiming,

protecting and defending God.

            This will obviously require a lot of restraint in our

relation with truth. And that’s simply because we have the tendency to

be overtaken by our emotions and passions, or even by our merely

rational operations. While these human faculties are important, they

would be out on a limb if they are not inspired by the charity of God.

            We have to understand truthfulness not only as the

conformity of our mind with reality, but also as the conformity of our

mind with the reality that conforms with the mind of God who is the

very source of reality. This latter is called the ontological truth

which we should try our best to capture.

            Of course, capturing this ontological truth would require

God’s grace itself. We just cannot get it by our own efforts alone,

although we have to exert all our efforts too. That is why to be

truthful requires a deep humility and faith, nothing less than denying

ourselves and carrying the cross as Christ himself told us. Otherwise

we would make our own brand of truthfulness that despite its powerful

appeal would not hit the mark.

            In other words, to be truthful is to have the mind of God

who is all too willing to share it with us. God’s mind is revealed to

us in Christ who is made present to us now in the Holy Spirit.  (cfr.

Jn 14,26) To be truthful will always be a matter of our intimate

relationship with God. It will always be a religious affair, not just

a strictly human affair.

            As such, it will always involve some mysteries that can

only be appreciated through the power of God’s grace. That’s when we

can understand why we would be in the truth when we follow Christ’s

teaching about loving the enemy and about the beatitudes where we are

considered blessed if we are poor in spirit, hungry, meek, pure in

heart, persecuted for the sake of Christ, etc.

            To have the mind of God, we have to listen to St. Paul who

talked about becoming a spiritual man and not just a carnal man. “The

spiritual man judges all things, but he himself is not subject to

anyone’s judgment. For who has known the mind of the Lord...? But we

have the mind of Christ.” (1 Cor 2,15-16)

Faith and ideology

WE have to learn to distinguish the faith from the many

human ideologies that can be inspired by faith. First of all, faith is

a supernatural gift, while an ideology is a system of ideas and ideals

that forms the basis of some human behavior. The former is a divine

gift, while the latter is of human making.

          As a divine gift, the faith will always require God’s grace

for it to be received and lived properly by us. A life of faith will

always be something spiritual and supernatural. On the other hand, the

ideology is just our human way of systematizing what we think is good

and ideal for us. It is a human affair that may or may not be open to

God’s grace. It may or may not be spiritual and supernatural.

          In the wake of the controversy surrounding the Synod on the

Amazon, many church people are accusing others, including the Pope who

also returned the favor, that the faith is being reduced to a human

ideology.

          Now, this is a very intriguing development aside from being

unfortunate and saddening, because all of us would be put into a

quandary as to who really has the faith and who simply is indulging or

developing a human ideology. Are the so-called conservative churchmen

and theologians the only ones with the faith, while the so-called

liberal ones are only having or are just developing an ideology?

          What I know is that faith, being supernatural, will always

involve mysteries and other supernatural truths beyond our capacity to

understand. As such, it requires trust from the believers who exercise

their faith precisely when they would just trust God and the ones God

has given the authority to teach something as coming or revealed by

God.

          They believe not because they understand, but rather because

they trust in the one who presents the truth of our faith. Our faith

just cannot be ruled by our reason alone nor by any other human ways

of knowing things. It will always involve God’s grace.

          This is how the Catechism describes faith:

          “What moves us to believe is not the fact that revealed

truths appear as true and intelligible in the light of our natural

reason: we believe because of the authority of God himself who reveals

them, who can neither deceive nor be deceived.

          “So that the submission of our faith might nevertheless be

in accordance with reason, God willed that external proofs of his

Revelation should be joined to the internal helps of the Holy Spirit.

          “Thus the miracles of Christ and the saints, prophecies, the

Church’s growth and holiness, and her fruitfulness and stability, are

the most certain signs of divine Revelation, adapted to the

intelligence of all; they are motives of credibility which show that

the assent of faith is by no means a blind impulse of the mind.” (CCC

156)

          Faith will always challenge us to know more, to understand

more, to behave better and to be better ourselves. It will never stop

demanding from us. Our ideology, being a human system, somehow gives

us some sense of stability since it is meant to guide us with some

rules and policies. But if it has to be a good ideology, it has to be

open to the impulses of faith.

          It’s in this business of trying to correspond to the

impulses of faith that we, of course, as the Church and individually,

have to find ample ways. We, of course, have to have recourse first to

the spiritual and supernatural means of prayers, sacrifice,

sacraments, etc. But we also need to find the appropriate human means

for this.

          Thus, in the Church, there have been councils and synods and

other collegial ways, led by the proper authority who is the Pope,

that were convoked to discern what the Holy Spirit is trying to tell

us today regarding concrete issues.

Who defines orthodoxy?

THE quick answer is the Holy Spirit. It is God, of course,

who is the source and end of everything.

            But insofar as orthodoxy is a humanly-mediated affair, it

is the official teaching office of the Church, the Magisterium, who

has been entrusted the power to define, proclaim and defend the truths

of our faith by Christ himself, who said to Peter, the first

recipient: “Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and

whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” (Mt 18,18)

            These are words that have to be taken by faith, otherwise

there is no way we can make sense of them, given the limitations of

Peter and the men who succeed him to whom these words can be addressed

through the ages.

            No matter how brilliant these men are, they just cannot be

correct all the time. It is rather this divine guarantee that should

make us feel assured of the orthodoxy of the doctrine of our faith as

defined by the Magisterium, the Church’s official teaching office.

            This point has to be kept in mind as we go through this

messy and complicated issue of the Amazonian Synod that has lately

stirred ecclesiastical circles intensely. In it, Pope Francis is

launching a very bold move to question some current ways of

understanding what orthodoxy is.

            For one, orthodoxy does not mean maintaining the status

quo. There certainly are things that need to change given the changes

of circumstances. These are things that can and should change.

            Of course, to identify which things as currently

understood and held can change may not be easy to do. And that is why

the Pope is asking that those in the Synod, which is a collegial way

of figuring out what the Holy Spirit is telling the Church today, to

speak in ‘parrhesia,’ that is to say, to speak candidly.

            That, of course, does not mean that what one says in

parrhesia is correct. But everyone should feel free to speak what is

in his mind and heart openly. In that way, things are put into the

open and can be sorted out, in a manner of speaking, in a collegial

way, which is the best way to discern what the Holy Spirit is telling

us.

            Of course, the collegial way means the Pope always with

all those who comprise the college. It is the Pope, being the

successor of Peter, who has the authority to bind and to loose that

was first given to Peter.

            There are many issues to be taken up in this Amazonian

Synod, and one of them is the possibility of ordaining married men to

the priesthood to fill the dire need for priests in that region of the

world. This brings to the fore the question of whether there can be

exception to the priestly celibacy rule.

            Obviously, such exception can be done. It already has been

done to some married Anglican pastors who converted to Catholicism. Of

course, these exceptions are given with clear conditions.

            As to the question that giving these exceptions would

usually lead to abuses, that is another matter that has to be resolved

accordingly. But we have to realistic. We have been abusing God’s laws

all the time, since Adam and Eve. We just cannot negate giving

exceptions to some rule due to the possible abuses. We are not in a

perfect world.

            The priestly celibacy rule is a disciplinary and not a

dogmatic thing. And as such, some exceptions can be made. It is

different when we talk about ordination of women which is already a

dogmatic doctrine. No exception can be made here.

            In any event, as the Pope has begged, we just have to pray

a lot so that this Synod would truly reflect what the Holy Spirit is

telling us regarding the Church in the Amazon today.