It’s Advent time again!

HERE we go again! These words may be spoken either in

cynicism or with much hope, expectation and excitement as we begin

another liturgical year with the celebration of the Advent season.

  

            Of course, we should try our best that we speak these

words with joy and expectation as we make another proximate

preparation for the birth of Christ, our redeemer. With Advent we put

ourselves in the liturgical dynamics of Christian life where we go

through another year doing everything not only by ourselves, but also

with Christ with the view of reaching our ultimate goal and not just

any temporal goal.

  

            That’s what the liturgy means. Christ, through the

sacramental signs, takes the initiative to come and live with us,

guiding and leading us to where we should be even as we immerse

ourselves in our different conditions and circumstances in the world.

  

            We need to be most aware of this basic truth of our faith.

We are not living by ourselves alone. We are living with Christ who

continues to create and re-create us with his redemptive work. It

would be a great pity to miss the significance of the liturgy and

therefore fail to do our part in corresponding to Christ’s continuing

redeeming action on us.

  

            As we start another liturgical year, let us try to assume

that attitude once expressed beautifully by St. Paul: “Do you not know

that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run

in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games

goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not

last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.

   

            “Therefore, I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I

do not fight like a boxer beating the air. No, I strike a blow to my

body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I

myself will not be disqualified for the prize.” (1 Cor 9,24-27)

   

            With another liturgical year opening for us, we are given

another chance to run our life with Christ. The different liturgical

seasons, namely, Advent, Christmas, Ordinary Time, Lent, Easter,

Pentecost, Ordinary Time again, provide us the complete life and

teaching of Christ that is necessary for us to live our Christian life

amid the different circumstances of our life.

   

            Everyone of us should try our best to follow the

liturgical cycle to be able to follow Christ closely and to be a more

effective member of the Church, working together with Christ for the

salvation of all humanity.

   

            In other words, our life should be liturgical. It should

develop at the instance of the liturgy which nourishes our moral and

spiritual life, our love for God and for everybody else. It’s in the

liturgy that we can be with Christ in the most intimate way here in

our earthly sojourn.

  

            Obviously, our participation in the liturgy should not be

passive. Even if in the liturgy Christ takes the initiative and its

effectiveness lies more on Christ’s power than on our disposition,

just the same we are expected to correspond to Christ’s action in the

liturgy as actively as we can. We should try our best to know what is

happening in any liturgical celebration and what we are supposed to do

to correspond to Christ’s action.

   

            We have to do a lot of catechesis in this regard, because

we cannot deny that nowadays, many people, especially the young, are

ignorant of the true significance of the liturgy in our life.

  

            Of course, we cannot ignore either the many efforts of

some people to do some catechesis especially in the different cells of

the Basic Ecclesial Communities (BEC) established in the different

parishes in our country.

Our most sublime moment on earth

THIS is none other than the celebration or participation

in the Holy Mass. And that is simply because in the Holy Mass, we have

the sacramental renewal of the supreme act of love that Christ has

done for us. Such sacramental renewal is practically an actual making

present of what Christ did to recover our lost dignity as children of

God.

            Through sacramental signs and the ministry of priests, we

make Christ present, and Christ as he goes through his passion, death

and resurrection that culminates and summarizes everything that he did

and said for our salvation.

            In the Holy Mass, we have no one less than Christ as both

priest and victim, both offering and being offered as a sacrifice to

God the Father for the salvation of mankind, or as ransom for our

liberation from sin. It is the perfect sacrifice that fully satisfies

or repays the debt we owe to God due to our sin.

            There, therefore, cannot be anything more important than

the Holy Mass. That is why the Holy Mass has been described as the

“source and summit of Christian life.” St. Josemaria Escriva describes

it as “the root and center” of the interior or spiritual life of a

person. In it, we are made contemporaries of Christ and sharers in his

supreme, perfect sacrifice that is most pleasing and acceptable to God

the Father.

            We need to realize more deeply this truth of our faith

about the Holy Mass so that we can more properly celebrate or

participate in it. If one is a priest who celebrates the Holy Mass, he

has to realize that he is acting as Christ himself. He should lend all

his faculties to Christ, so that despite his unworthiness, this most

sublime reality would really take place.

            The effectiveness of the Holy Mass does not depend so much

on the disposition or qualities of both the celebrating priest and the

participating faithful as on Christ’s power and merits.

            If one is a faithful participating or attending the Holy

Mass, he has to realize that he is joining Christ in that very act of

offering himself to God the Father as payment for our sin. It is also

our most excellent way of adoring God, of thanking him and petitioning

him for some favour. As St. Pope Paul VI once said, “the Holy Mass is

the most perfect form of prayer.”

            Here are some powerful testimonies saints have made about

the Holy Mass. St. Leonard of Port Maurice said: “The principal

excellence of the most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass consists in being

essentially, and in the very highest degree, identical with that which

was offered on the Cross of Calvary.

            “The sole difference is that the sacrifice on the Cross

was bloody, and made once for all, and did on that one occasion

satisfy fully for all the sins of the world; while the sacrifice of

the altar is an unbloody sacrifice, which can be repeated an infinite

number of times, and was instituted in order to apply in detail that

universal ransom which Jesus paid for us on Calvary.”

            St. John Vianney said: “If we really understood the Mass,

we would die of joy.” The doctor of the Church, St. Gregory, said:

“The heavens open and multitudes of angels come to assist in the Holy

Sacrifice of the Mass.”

            St. John Chrysostom said: “When Mass is being celebrated,

the sanctuary is filled with countless angels who adore the divine

victim immolated on the altar.” And apparently, one time, St. Teresa

of Avila was overwhelmed with God’s goodness and asked our Lord, ‘How

can I thank you?’ Our Lord replied, ‘Attend one Mass.’”

            There is no doubt that celebrating or participating in the

Holy Mass is the most sublime moment we can have on earth!

The kingdom of heaven

WE often think of heaven or of the kingdom of God as so

inaccessible here on earth that we think it only exists in our dreams,

in our fantasies or in our desires. It cannot be here and now.

            And because of that, we often fail to consider it in our

thoughts, words and deeds when in fact it is a very important and

indispensable parameter in the way we live our life here on earth.

            Truth to tell, heaven is and should be a constant element

to consider so we would know if we are still doing right, if we are

still on the right track. We should never ignore heaven in any way,

because that is the final destination for all of us.

            Yet in all the supposed ineffableness of heaven, Christ

described it in very down-to-earth terms. In Chapter 13 of the Gospel

of St. Matthew, we are given a series of parables that Christ said to

describe the kingdom of heaven.

            In these parables, Christ compared the kingdom of heaven:

-      with the man sowing seeds on different kinds of ground;

-      with the man who sowed good seeds of wheat only for his enemy

to sow weeds also;

-      with the mustard seed that is small and yet grows into a big tree;

-      with a leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of

flour till it was all leavened;

-      with a treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and

covered up; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys

that field;

-      with a merchant in search of fine pearls and finding one of

great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it;

-      with a net which was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of

every kind. When it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and

sorted the good into vessels, but threw away the bad.

         Hardly anything can be more down-to-earth, matter-of-fact, realistic

and practical than these descriptions of heaven. And the lessons they impart are

actually simple. They are no rocket-science lessons, though we have to

admit that to live these lessons we need nothing less than God’s grace

and our all-out effort.

            We have to overcome our tendency to think of heaven as

unobtainable. It is not far from us. It is, in fact, in us already.

Christ said so. When asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God

was coming, he answered: “The kingdom of God is not coming with signs

to be observed; nor will they say, ‘Lo, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for

behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.” (Lk 17,20-21)

            Every time we follow Christ, every time we do good things

out of love for God, we are establishing and already living in the

kingdom of God. Of course, the definitive kingdom will take place

after our death when we truly become God’s image and likeness as he

wants us to be.

            But for as long as we try to follow and identify ourselves

with Christ here on earth, we are already living in the kingdom of

God. The elements of heaven would already be with us, though the

fullness of heaven is yet to come.

            Of course, the seeds of the kingdom here on earth would

include some suffering, the need for patience, for faith, hope and

charity. The seeds of the kingdom would include our effort for our

personal sanctification with its inseparable duty to do apostolate, to

continue the redeeming work of Christ.

            The bliss and the indescribable joy associated with heaven

can only take place after our death when we truly become one with

Christ. But while we are still a work in progress in the hands of God

here on earth, we have to expect some suffering and ultimately death.

But we are assured of the resurrection.

“It’s my own body”

I JUST find it extremely unbelievable that some women, in

justifying their so-called right to abort their babies, would say,

“It’s my own body,” as if to say it’s none of your business to meddle

in their choices. So, back off!

            I don’t know exactly what kind of reasoning that is, what

the basis is. We all know that everyone of us has a body and that we

can use it in any way we want, but obviously under certain conditions

and with laws and standards to be observed.

            There are things that we can do with our body that are

legitimate and moral, but there also are things that we should not do

with it, because they are illegitimate and immoral. To mutilate it

without good reason, to expose it indiscriminately to all kinds of

danger, for example, definitely are things that we should try to

avoid.

            Obviously, when a woman is pregnant, she should take great

care that her pregnancy is not put in danger in any way. What she has

in her body, in her womb, is not just food that she has to expel at a

certain point. It’s a fetus, a baby in the making, a human person.

It’s not just a pile of cells that one may remove if she wants.

            Sad to say, many pro-abortion women try to redefine what a

fetus is. They say it’s not a human person, because it is not yet out

of the womb. It’s still part of their body, as if trying to say that

the fetus can be considered an unwelcome growth in their body, a tumor

that can and should be removed.

            Nowadays, there are already some of them, now backed by

politicians, who say that they also have a right not only to abort a

baby while inside the womb, but also to practically kill the baby just

out of the womb. This is really a demonic reasoning.

            Some of them rationalize their position by saying that it

is better to abort a baby than to add more problems in our society by

letting the baby to be born. Again, this is difficult to see where

this kind of reasoning is coming from.

            I know of great persons whose mothers were asked to

consider aborting them when they were still inside their mother’s womb

for one reason or another. But their mothers refused. And, thank God,

they are a great blessing to all of us. The singer, Andrea Bocelli, is

one of them.

            Of course, it goes without saying that everyone also gives

problems to us, something that we should not be surprised about, since

this has always been the case even during the time of Adam and Eve.

But we can also find solutions other than killing them.

            If we allow killing babies not only inside the womb but

also already outside of it, what would prevent us from killing other

people considered to be problems to us, like the old people, those

with disabilities, and others whom we may consider as useless?

Abortion is like positioning ourselves in a slippery slope to worse

things.

            I believe the main problem here is that people are losing

the sense of sin because they are alienating themselves from God. They

are making themselves their own God, the ultimate author of what is

right and wrong.

            This is what St. Pope John Paul II once said about this

sad phenomenon: “The current tragic situation…is largely due to the

loss of the sense of sin…Consciences must recover the sense of God,

his mercy, of the gratuitousness of his gifts to be able to recognize

the gravity of sin which sets man against his Creator.

            “Personal freedom should be recognized and defended as a

precious gift of God, resisting the tendency to lose it in the

structures of social conditioning or to remove it from its inalienable

reference to the Creator.”

Always old and new

THAT’S how the word of God, as recorded in the Gospel, can

be described. It’s old since it comes from eternity, even before time

started. It’s also new because being an eternal word, it will never

grow old in human terms, becoming obsolete and irrelevant at a certain

point. It will always give us something new. It can give us surprises,

and even shockers.

            We can never say that we already have all of God’s word in

the bag. Not only little new things can arise from God’s word. Even

huge new things can emerge. Thus, we have to be most careful to freeze

the eternal dynamics of God’s word, as when we think that the

doctrine, standards, criteria, laws, principles, etc., we so far have

derived from God’s word cannot anymore be improved, deepened,

enriched, updated, adapted.

            We have to be wary of our tendency to get stuck with the

status quo in our understanding and application of God’s word to our

daily life. We have been amply warned that if we do not grow

organically in our understanding of God’s word as the Spirit prompts

us, our spiritual life will not only stand still. It will retrogress.

            We should not forget that God’s word is always applicable

to all possible conditions and situations of human life. It can tackle

any problem, any issue, any challenge. That’s how powerful and full of

wisdom God’s word is. There’s nothing in our life, no matter how

difficult, how humanly impossible, that cannot be handled by God’s

word.

            Remember what the Letter to the Hebrews says about God’s

word. “The word of God is living and active,” it says. “Sharper than

any double-edged sword, it pierces even to dividing soul and spirit,

joints and marrow. It judges the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is

uncovered and exposed before the eyes of Him to whom we must give

account.” (4,12-13)

            We have to realize that while there are things that are

essential and as such are not meant to change, there are also things

that are not essential and are in constant change. This is the case of

many elements in our different cultures and our different generations

where changes are constantly occurring.

            We, for example, cannot and should not indiscriminately

apply God’s word on those in the Western culture in the same way as

those in the Eastern culture. We cannot and should not consider or

expect as identical the behavior of the young people during our

grandparents’ time with that of the youth of today. God’s word should

be applied on them in the way they are.

            Otherwise, we would be no different from the scribes and

Pharisees during Christ’s time who clung to their own ideas of what is

right and wrong, and ignoring and even going against the very author

of reality himself.

            In all these differences, and sometimes conflicts, God’s

word is always applicable. But we just have to find a way of how to

apply it in the proper way without compromising what is essential in

it.

            We cannot deny that identifying what goes into the essence

of God’s word and what does not when assessing our human situations

can be difficult. The tension in trying to put together the

exclusivity of truth and the inclusivity of charity can be very

daunting. That is why there is a great need for discernment, for which

we have to do a lot of monitoring and dialoguing, praying and studying

a lot, consulting, and a lot of etcetera.

            This is where we have to make a lot of sacrifices, since

as said earlier, we cannot remain in the status quo insofar as our

understanding and application of God’s word to our varying conditions

and situations are concerned.

God has the final word

WE always have to defer to God for everything that we say

or affirm. Even if we are fully convinced that we are right in

affirming something, we have to realize that we cannot be fully right

unless we affirm it together with God.

            God has the final word, and his word is such that it will

always transcend our human understanding of things. We can try to

conform our mind and will to God’s mind and will as we should try our

best to do, but we cannot and should never equate God’s mind and will

with ours.

            While it’s true that we are God’s image and likeness in

the fullness of our humanity, and therefore our mind and will are

meant to reflect God’s mind and will in our most ideal condition, we

cannot and should not confuse the mind and will of the Creator with

the mind and will of the creature.

            Despite the similarity between God and us, there’s an

infinity of difference between the two. The distinction should always

be maintained, so we will always be aware of who we are in relation to

God and avoid falling into thinking we are God ourselves. We are only

creatures, and a creature cannot be without his Creator.

            Relevant Bible passages to support this point would be the

following:

-      “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways

my ways, declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth,

so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your

thoughts.” (Is 55,8-9)

-      “For who among men knows the thoughts of man except his own

spirit within him? So too, no one knows the thoughts of God except the

Spirit of God.” (1 Cor 2,11)

This clarification is important because in our dealings with others, we should realize that while we always make judgments since that is how we get

to know things, our judgments cannot be final. It is only God who can

make the final judgment. He has the final word.

            And while we have laws, rules, standards, criteria to

guide us in our dealings, we should never regard these instruments to

be the ultimate guide in making judgments. No human law can fully

capture the richness of the wisdom of God which is the ultimate basis

of the justice proper to all of us.

            Thus, while our judgments and sense of justice are guided

by these human laws, we should always defer to God’s law whenever we

make judgments. We should not allow our human laws to replace God’s

law, if not God himself. Doing so would constitute what is termed as

self-righteousness.

            Our human laws should be understood simply as guides and

not as the ultimate end itself. They cannot be the basis of the final

judgment of a person. We have to remember that we can find many

exceptions to our human laws because of their inability to capture all

the possible situations that we can get into, let alone, the complete

measure of our human dignity which only God can know.

            That is why many of our human laws become obsolete after

some time, or are even outrightly rescinded, or at least updated,

modified, fine-tuned, etc.

            Even the sacred laws can suffer changes as situations

demand. Take the example of the Sabbath law of the Jews as dramatized

in Matthew 12,1-8. Some Pharisees faulted Christ’s disciples for

picking and eating grain on a Sabbath. But Christ immediately

corrected them.

            He explained that exceptions can be made. “Have you not

read what David did when he and his companions were hungry,” he said,

“when he and his companions were hungry, how he went into the house of

God and ate the bread of offering, which neither he nor his companions

but only the priests could lawfully eat?”

Let’s be good activists

IF we are really good citizens of our country, truly

concerned about how things are, then we should be, one way or another,

a good activist pursuing advocacies that can make authentic

improvements in the different fields of our social and political life.

            We cannot deny that there are serious issues and problems

besetting our collective life and we should not just be indifferent to

them. We have to feel the responsibility of doing something about

them, since we, as persons and as children of God, are meant to be

responsible for one another and for the whole society in general.

            We should just find a practicable way of how we can be

good activists without compromising our basic personal necessities,

especially in the moral and spiritual aspects. We have to observe the

proper priorities, although it cannot be denied that sacrifices, even

the extreme ones, cannot be avoided.

            To be an activist can only mean that we have reached a

certain level of maturity and have formed a personality and character

that now covers a scope of concern wider than just the purely personal

and individual.

            In practically all aspects of our life, we need activists.

From the most material and physical aspects, to the personal, social,

political, etc., there are serious matters that need to be improved

on.

            Yes, we may focus on physical cleanliness in our

environment only, but that would already be a good and worthwhile

effort. But I am sure that there are many other issues regarding the

environment that need to be tackled.

            To me, the advocacies with fundamental importance would be

those that are related to the protection of life, basic human rights,

family, education, moral and spiritual ecology.

            These advocacies can be pursued individually or, better,

by groups. But these should be inspired and guided by the Holy Spirit.

They should not just be motivated by some certain sense of social or

political concern, because unless clearly inspired and guided by the

Holy Spirit, these advocacies will most likely turn into something

where lack of charity and the dominance of biases and prejudices would

prevail.

            We have to be careful not to be activists who are simply

obsessed with something, no matter how legitimate in itself. Such

condition can only lead us to bitter zeal, if not to violence.

            A good activist will always be respectful to everyone and

will pursue his cause with great delicacy to the people’s different

views and conditions. The forcefulness of his advocacy will never

compromise anyone’s freedom. Rather it will come as a result of the

clarity and fairness of his views and actions.

            A good activist is willing to suffer anything and is not

scandalized by any wrong thing that can happen along the way, which

will always be likely to happen. He refrains from making rash

judgments and from simply finding faults in the others. He is willing

to listen to everyone, including those who differ with him.

            Amid differences and conflicts, he knows how to find

common ground with everyone, always listening to everyone and open to

a continuing dialogue. At times he may have to give in without giving

up over something that may pose as an obstacle for moving on with the

advocacies. If it is something essential, he may have to be patient in

waiting for the proper time to recover what was unfairly lost.

            He would know how to behave properly in both those times

when things are favorable to him and to his group and when they are

not. He is always game and sport, not allowing setbacks,

disappointments and frustrations to discourage him.

            He is also quick to learn from the others, knowing that he

does not have the exclusive claim of what is right and fair. He is

very welcoming to others and knows how to adapt to everyone according

to the way they are.

The importance of ejaculatory prayers

WE need to be more familiar with what are known as

ejaculatory prayers, otherwise known also as aspirations. They are

short prayers that spring rather quite spontaneously from the heart

that is going through the different situations in life—happy, sad,

tense, tired, excited, bored, etc. They reflect one’s relation with

God and are inspired by faith, hope and charity.

            To me, ejaculatory prayers are very helpful in quickly and

easily putting ourselves in God’s presence, especially when we immerse

ourselves deeply in the things of the world as we ought.

            They help us relate ourselves and everything that happens

to us to God, again as we ought. They help us in keeping a spiritual

and supernatural outlook as we go through the different events of the

day. In short, they help in keeping us spiritually alive, and not just

alive in the body and to the world.

            They help us see things better in the sense that we just

would not see them with our senses and our human understanding alone,

but also and more importantly with our faith, which is what is ideal

and proper to us. They somehow put us in an intimate relation with our

Father God. With them we will never feel alone nor distant from God.

            My personal experience with ejaculatory prayers shows that

they are very helpful even in making me calm and rested even in the

middle of a tense situation for the mind or for the body. They help in

making me breathe more deeply and thus give some relief.

            Also, not to forget is that they are very helpful in

protecting and defending us from temptations and sin. They make the

spiritual combat and ascetical struggle, so unavoidable in life, more

manageable.

            They also help in preparing us for the more serious forms

in our relationship with God as when we have to do our prayers, our

sacrifices and our recourse to the sacraments.

            We should all do our best to make it a habit to say

ejaculatory prayers often during the day. Any short and earnest

expression of our faith and piety will do. And also in this regard,

the many vocal prayers that are already available can be very useful.

The “Our Father’s,” “Hail Mary’s” and “Glory be’s” are truly helpful.

            We do not have to invent more prayers to be used as

ejaculatory prayers. We may just even say, “Lord, I love you, I

believe in you, I trust you,” or words to that effect. There are also

many other prayers addressed to Our Lady, to St. Joseph, to St.

Michael, and to other saints that can be used.

            The important thing is that they are said with sincerity

of heart and rectitude of intention. They definitely do not hamper us

in our daily work and concerns. In fact, the contrary is true. They

facilitate things a lot.

            This business of saying ejaculatory prayers often during

the day should be taught to children as early as possible. You cannot

imagine what great benefits they will enjoy when they learn to do it

as a habit when they grow up and get exposed to all sorts of things.

            Let’s encourage everyone to do the same. There may be a

little awkwardness in the beginning, but it’s not something that

cannot be overcome. Especially when people experience the many

benefits of the ejaculatory prayers, they will readily acquire the

practice, since these prayers do not require a lot of effort to say

them.

            Let’s hope that we can create a general culture where the

saying of ejaculatory prayers often during the day becomes an organic

part of everyone’s life. There definitely will be an improvement in

the quality of the spiritual life of people and society in general.

Keep the faith supernatural always

WE need to understand that our Christian faith is first of

all God’s gift to us to enable us to have the possibility of sharing

the supernatural life of God, of whom we have been created as his

image and likeness. That’s how God wants us to be.

            That gift of faith is, of course, adapted to our human

condition, especially to the aspect of our woundedness. It is meant to

redeem us, to recover us and to reconcile us with God.

            While we have to correspond to it duly and as fully as

possible, we have to understand that the initiative comes from God

first. Ours is only to reciprocate to it, much like the moon

reflecting the light of the sun. This is, of course, no mean thing

either, because what is involved should be our whole selves in the

full use of our God-given faculties and powers.

            But let us just make sure that in our effort to correspond

to this divine gift of faith, we do not commit the mistake of making

it too human and natural as to undermine or even negate its original

supernatural character.

  

            This can happen when our understanding of faith includes

the possibility of understanding everything in it with our reason and

other ways of human estimation alone. We do not anymore believe that

there can be mysteries and that our ultimate goal of being the image

and likeness of God can be achieved with our human efforts alone.

            It can also happen that our understanding of fidelity to

our Christian faith means rigidly sticking to the literal articulation

of the doctrine of our faith, negating the possibility of adaptation,

innovation, deepening and further development of the doctrine.

            That would mean that the Holy Spirit has stopped prompting

us or that we have no more need for the Holy Spirit since we believe

that we already know everything even as we go through the changing

situations in time.

            By keeping our faith always supernatural can mean that we

always have need to deepen our knowledge of it through constant study

and meditation, trying to discern what the Holy Spirit is trying to

prompt us, always allowing the possibility that He can prompt us with

something that is quite radical but still homogeneous with the old,

traditional understanding of our faith.

            By keeping our faith always supernatural can also mean

that aside from all the human and natural means to deepen our

understanding of our faith, we really need to make use of the

spiritual and supernatural means of prayer, sacrifice and recourse to

the sacraments. Yes, we need to study individually and collectively,

make consultations and discussions, but we also need to give priority

to the spiritual and supernatural means.

            This is how we can detect more clearly what the Holy

Spirit is telling us in every moment and in every epoch with its

characteristic general circumstances. Otherwise, our faith would

degenerate into a mere human ideology which, definitely, can have some

good and correct points, but would not have the proper spirit.

            As such, that faith turned into a human ideology can

present us with some brilliant ideas that can mislead us more than

lead us properly to our true end. This is something we have to be most

careful about.

            And for this purpose, we really would need to be humble so

that we would always see the priority of the spiritual and

supernatural means over the human and natural. And that our study,

articulation and proclamation of our faith would always be marked by

prudence and we would be more certain that we are being guided by the

Holy Spirit more than just our dominant human interests at the moment.

            This, of course, is no easy thing to do. So, we just have

to move really slowly but steadily, trusting always in God’s loving

providence over us.

Hounded by bad thoughts and images?

CASES like this are unfortunately getting plenty. I am

referring to those individuals who have succeeded in converting from

their colorful past but are still being assailed, almost constantly,

by the bad thoughts and images of the past, with matching feelings.

  

            Especially in their weak moments, when they are alone and

tired, about to sleep or have just waken up, they feel the assault

sharply, and it seems that their efforts to ward them off are not

enough. There are times when they want to give up, and in fact, from

time to time, they fall.

  

            I usually advise them not to worry at all, since worrying

will just make things worse. Instead, with great confidence, they just

have to continue to pray, asking always for God’s grace, and to try

not to mind those thoughts and images.

  

            I tell them to repeat many vocal prayers, looking piously

at holy images, clutching a crucifix more tightly, kissing ‘stampitas’

more devoutly, sprinkling holy water, etc. I encourage them to just

ride out the storm, letting those thoughts, images and feelings to

play out in the end spent and exhausted.

  

            In the worst scenario, it may also be more practical to

make the radical sacrifice of getting up immediately, taking a shower,

doing some exercises or corporal mortifications. But never give those

bad thoughts and images any opening by making the mind and heart, body

and soul idle and empty in any given moment or, worse, by dialoguing

with them.

  

            Deny them even the first base. Instead, ask God for the

grace that good thoughts, images and feelings replace them. In this

regard, it would be good that we keep a good armory of devotional

prayers, sacramentals, and holy images. Also ask for the powerful

intercession of the Blessed Mother, the angels and the saints.

  

            It cannot be denied that we all bear the spoiled remnants

and dregs of the past. They leave some mark in our body and soul,

thus, those thoughts, images and feelings. We should not be surprised

by this fact anymore. In fact, we have to expect them to come and give

us some trouble from time to time, and we just have to be ready for

them.

  

            Life, we are told, is a constant warfare. We can hardly

expect any truce, since the enemies of God and, therefore, also of our

soul, will always try to frustrate God’s loving designs for us. The

devil, the sinful world and our own wounded flesh will always be in

conspiracy against us.

  

            We have to remember that, as one saint would put it, while

conversion is a matter of a moment, sanctification which will always

involve the need to struggle, grow and improve, will always be a

matter of a lifetime.

  

            That these bad thoughts, images and feelings come only

means that we are in constant need for purification. This should be

considered as a given, and we should just devise an appropriate

lifetime plan to address this issue in our life. We should never take

this concern for granted, ignoring the many ascetical means already

made available in the Church.

  

            But neither should we over-react to these things. Let us

never forget that God is always in control and is on our side, even if

we do not feel that we deserve it. He will never abandon us. Let us

take comfort in what St. Paul told us in this regard:

  

            “No temptation has seized you except what is common to

man. And God is faithful. He will not let you be tempted beyond what

you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide an

escape, so that you can stand up under it.” (1 Cor 10,13)

  

            Just the same, in the event that we fall, we can and

should always rise up immediately, asking again for pardon especially

through sacramental confession.

Intimacy with God first

INTIMACY is the ideal condition in all our relationships.

But we have to be intimate with God first before we can be intimate

with everybody and everything else in the proper way.

   

            This need for intimacy is, of course, a necessary

consequence of being a person and not just a thing. We are meant to

enter into relationships because that is how we are designed. We are,

in fact, meant to live in communion with God and with everybody.

  

            It’s when we get intimate that we achieve the best

condition in our relationships. As I wrote in a previous article some

time ago, the simple reason is that we need it.  It is in our intimacy

where we can really see ourselves and others as we truly are, in our

rawest and unvarnished selves. Intimacy is where the most fundamental

expressions of our humanity are made, where we become aware of our

personhood, and where our identity is established and defined.

             It’s where we know and uphold our uniqueness and

distinctiveness. At the same time, it’s where our need to relate

ourselves to God and to others is felt primarily and properly. It’s so

important and indispensable that without it, we certainly would

compromise or at least damage and harm our personhood and humanity,

and our relationships.

  

            We have to understand that we have to exert conscious

effort to develop our proper sense of intimacy. We should not allow it

to develop simply by chance or by some random initiatives. We have to

be very serious about it, always coming up with concrete plans and

strategies to put it in place and to keep it going.

  

            And the reason for this is that especially today, with so

many things grabbing our attention, we always have the tendency to

treat God and others in a very casual way, if at all. And so our

relationships will most likely remain in the superficial level and are

mainly driven by self-serving motivations and not by love, which is

the proper spirit that should animate our relationships.

  

            We have to do everything to grow in our intimacy with God

everyday. This should be a constant concern of ours. This is the most

ideal condition that we can and should be in, and we just have to

figure out how it can be achieved.

  

            To be sure, this is no pipe dream. This is not only

possible and feasible. It is first of all God’s will and he has given

us everything so that we can truly get intimate with him, and be privy

to his will and ways.

  

            Let’s remember that the world gives us a lot of options to

do what we want to do. And though we are given an autonomy to do what

we want, and all of them can be moral, valid and legitimate, we should

try our best to choose the one that we are convinced is what God wants

us to do in a given moment.

  

            This is to make sure that what we are doing is always in

synch with God’s will and ways. Our life is always a life with God. It

is supposed to be the time of our corresponding to God’s continuing

work of creating and redeeming us until we become to be what he likes

us to be—his image and likeness, his children in Christ.

  

            That is why we always need a period of serious, more

direct and personal conversations with him in our mental prayers or

meditations and other spiritual exercises so that that ideal intimate

relation with him can be established, nourished and maintained amid

the drama of life.

  

            With that very intimate relationship with him, we would

know how to react and behave in every situation of our life, as well

as how to shape and direct our life properly.

The value of the vocal prayers

WE should never underestimate the power of the vocal

prayers. They may sound trite and worn-out after years of simply

mechanically praying them, but they actually are the quickest and

easiest way we can make use of to put ourselves truly and divinely

inspired.

  

            And the simple reason is that these prayers are truly

inspired prayers. They are not just human inventions, products of our

pious creativity. They come directly from Christ, as is the case of

the Lord’s Prayer, or from the lips of important biblical characters

as is the case of the Hail Mary and many other prayers.

  

            Of course, there are also many other vocal prayers that

are composed by saints and by Church authorities who are given such

power by Christ himself. The liturgical prayers at Mass and in the

celebration of the other sacraments, as well as breviary of the

priests, are very enlightening and helpful, to say the least.

  

            If we would just put our mind and heart into praying them,

if we would just pray them with faith and piety, there is no way but

for us to be transported deep into the spiritual and supernatural

world where our deepest yearnings are satisfied, at least for a time.

  

            These prayers also teach us what to say when we pray, what

to ask from God, what attitudes and sentiments we ought to have toward

God, others and everything else in this life, especially the different

situations and predicaments that we can encounter in life.

  

            They have the power to educate our mind and heart,

conforming them to the mind and heart of Christ, which is what

actually is proper to us, since we are being created and redeemed to

be God’s image and likeness, children of his in Christ.

  

            In fact, when we pray the vocal prayers, we would praying

together with and through the Holy Spirit. Our prayer would not just

be our own prayer, but also that of the Holy Spirit, of Christ and of

his Church, since the Church is the mystical body of Christ! We should

never feel alone when we pray the vocal prayers. We have to realize

that we are in very good company when we pray them.

  

            If we only know what is involved when we pray the vocal

prayers, I am sure that we would be deeply motivated to make use of

them very often, especially in our moments of difficulty and special

need.

   

            That is why the vocal prayers should be taught to

everybody as early as possible, as in teaching them to little

children, explaining well their importance and effectiveness, and

supporting such catechesis with clear examples of the elders.

  

            Let’s remember that the little ones learn more from what

they see than from what they hear. When they see their parents and

older siblings praying the vocal prayers with fervor and piety, it

would not take long before these kids would do the same. Their

capacity to follow or imitate what they see is big. Thus, the practice

of the family rosary is most recommendable.

  

            Of course, we should pray these vocal prayers with

naturalness, without exaggerated gestures that can only betray some

hidden motives of a misunderstood sense of holy pride, vanity and

piosity, the caricature of piety.

  

            But naturalness does not mean that we shy away from some

public display in praying the vocal prayers, as when we do

pilgrimages, etc. The vocal prayers should not be considered as simply

something personal and private. They have a strong social and public

character also. They actually do a lot of good to people in general.

  

            These prayers should not be regarded as only for children

or old women who have nothing better to do than to pray the whole day.

Such attitude can only betray one’s ignorance of the value of the

vocal prayers, if not one’s defense mechanism to justify his laziness,

lack of faith, etc.

Our faith and our works

THERE is, of course, a close relation between our faith

and our works. As St. James said in his letter, “show me your faith

apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith.”

(2,18)

   

            He said earlier that faith by itself, if it has no works,

is dead. It profits a man nothing if he says he has faith but has no

works. “Can his faith save him?,” he asked. “If a brother or sister is

ill-clad and in lack of daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go

in peace, be warmed and filled,’ without giving him the things needed

for the body, what does it profit?” So, faith if real will always be

shown in works.

  

            But we need to be clear about one thing in this

relationship. While there is a close relationship between our faith

and our works, they cannot be held equal and identical. Faith is faith

which is a supernatural gift. While our works are a product of our own

effort which can never be made supernatural unless done with faith or

with God’s grace.

  

            To think that we can achieve sanctity by faith alone is to

fall into an anomaly or a heresy called Gnosticism. While to consider

that sanctity can be attained through our human works alone without

the faith is to fall into the heresy of Pelagianism. These two

heresies have been recently denounced in that document of Pope

Francis, “Gaudete et exsultate.”

            Let us remember that there are abundant pieces of evidence

of people who think and say they are holy or saintly but their evil

works betray their fervent profession of their faith. And also, there

are people who do a lot of good works and yet they are not holy

because their works lead them to the sins of pride, vanity, greed and

the like.

  

            Yes, we should have as strong and deep a faith as possible

and it should be somehow verified by our works. Our faith should so

inspire and shape our life and everything in it, especially our works,

should show that faith.

  

            Our works, to be truly good and capable of sanctifying us,

should be sanctified first of all by our faith and the grace of God.

Without the latter, our works would only be apparently good and can

occasion many other dangers to us.

  

            We need to see to it that we take care of growing in our

faith and of making it affect, as in inspiring and shaping, all the

aspects of our life. We can never say we have enough faith. Our life

can never be made supernatural, nor can it be conformed to Christ who

is the pattern of our humanity, if it is not a life shaped by our

faith.

  

            Of course, our faith has to be translated into action and

into life itself. That is the role of our human works which are also

indispensable. For faith without works, as St. James again said, is

dead.

   

            We have to learn how to begin and end everything that we

do with God. This is what is meant in that liturgical prayer: “Ut

cuncta nostra oratio et operatio a te semper incipiat and per te

coepta finiatur,” that all our prayers and acts may always begin with

you (God) and through you are completed.

  

            This should be the normal way of behaving, for without

God, without faith, no matter how brilliant our acts may be according

to human standards, they simply will not bring us to our proper end.

In fact, they may even pose as a danger to us.

             This proper understanding of the relation between our

faith and our works has to be taught and spread far and wide, starting

with the family and the schools and in all other levels of our

society.

Celibacy, chastity, charity

“VOS estis lux mundi.” That’s Latin for “Your are the

light of the world,” words addressed by Christ to his disciples,

telling them how they ought to be. (cfr. Mt 5,14 ) Pope Francis used

these words as title to his Motu Proprio Apostolic Letter that deals

with how the Church officials should go about cases of clerical sexual

abuses, a screaming scandal in recent times. This was released on May

7, 2019.

            In that document, the dioceses are asked to propose a

system on how to report, investigate, judge and do other actions

pertinent to such delicate cases. I am sure that once this system is

put in place, there will be more transparency on the part of the

Church regarding these cases, and hopefully will lessen, if not

eliminate, these scandals.

  

            Of course, that wish may largely be considered as a pipe

dream. Man is man and whether one is a priest or layperson, a Pope or

a farmer, very honorable in stature or not, we should not forget that

we are all made of the same stuff. We have the same hormones and

libido running through our body, giving impulses and urges, etc.,

especially during one’s adolescent stage when things can get volcanic

in intensity.

  

            We may have impressive qualities, but let’s never forget

that we all have feet of clay. We have a treasure in vessels of clay.

The person who may look like an angel and a virgin during the day may

turn into a demon and a maniac in the night.

  

            We just have to be realistic about this condition of ours

and try our best to do something about it. There’s always hope. God is

always in control. Where sin has abounded, God’s grace has abounded

even more. (cfr. Rom 5,20)

  

            Yes, that’s all that we can do—just try and try, struggle

all the way like a good soldier. But we actually can do a lot in this

department. First, we have to understand that especially for priests

and bishops, celibacy is a matter of living chastity well, and

chastity in turn is a result of genuine love that comes from God, and

not from the urgings of the flesh, nor the many seductive

conditionings of the environment, etc.

  

            This basic equation should be imparted as early as

possible in everyone, starting in the family which is the first center

of formation for all of us, and especially when one starts his

priestly formation in the seminaries.

  

            Let’s hope that parents take this responsibility

seriously, especially these days when there are more challenges and

issues regarding human sexuality. Most likely, parents themselves also

need to be given the proper formation in this regard by the Church.

  

            The seminary formators and spiritual directors should

already be proven experts in this area and masters in the virtue of

priestly celibacy, chastity and love. Let’s hope that with their mere

presence and example, seminarians can already get inspired and feel

reinforced in their desire to live the virtue of chastity in celibacy,

a virtue that should spring out of genuine love.

  

            The formators and spiritual directors should really get to

know the seminarians thoroughly well, and give them the proper

guidance. They should try their best to win the confidence and

friendship of the seminarians so that a candid look into the

seminarians’ spiritual life, especially in the area of continence,

chastity and capacity for celibacy can be assessed properly.

  

            The formators and spiritual directors should know whether

there is genuine love for God and souls in the seminarians’ heart, or

at least know how to help them develop such love. They should know at

least the state in which these virtues are lived by the seminarians,

so that the proper guidance can be given.

  

            This is, of course, a delicate task to carry out, for

which a lot of spiritual and supernatural means have to be used

without neglecting the appropriate human means.