Order more than ever

WITH all the rapid pace of the developments and the

multiplying number of things grabbing our attention today, we really

need to get hold of a stable foundation, something that offers an

anchor or at least a rudder to maneuver ourselves with some sense of

direction and purpose along the strong and confusing currents that

mark our life today.

            That is why we cannot overemphasize the need for the

virtue of order that would give us the proper priorities that should

guide our sense of direction and purpose. We have to concretize that

virtue of order by specifying plans, strategies and structures that

would make things clear to us as to what is most important and

necessary in life, what should come first before anything else.

            We have already been warned by Christ that what is most

important is that we be saints, that we be as God wants us to be—his

image and likeness, sharers of his divine life and nature.

            “Whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever

loses his life for my sake and for the gospel will save it,” he said.

“What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his

soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Mk 8,35-37)

            With these words, we are given in general terms what is

truly necessary for us, for which everything else would serve only as

a means, an occasion or reason to achieve it.

            Sad to say, there are some people, quite powerful and

influential in their fields, who would disparage these words, saying

that they just express some religious sentiments that have no

practical and real value in life.

            This is precisely the kind of attitude that undermines the

virtue of order at the very root. To set aside the value of religion

and our relation with God, or even just to look down on the role of

faith, of things spiritual and supernatural, would already throw us

into a world of disorder.

            Let’s remember that everything comes from God and belongs

to him. He is the one who sets the law and order in all his creation.

We need to refer ourselves to him if we are to go along with what is

proper in life, if we want to know what is true and false, what is

good and evil, what the proper priorities are in our life.

            So, we cannot exaggerate the need for certain practices

that would always uphold the priority of the role of God in our life

over everything else. A plan that would make us develop a growing

intimacy with God as we immerse ourselves in our worldly and temporal

affairs is, of course, a must.

            It should be a plan that would include some moments of

prayer and other practices that would sustain the constant presence of

God in our daily routine like regular reading of the gospel, recourse

to the sacraments, visits to the Blessed Sacrament, some devotions

like the rosary and pilgrimages, etc.

            It also would be helpful if we develop the habit of saying

many aspirations or ejaculatory prayers during the day, and if we make

use of human devices that would help us maintain presence of God and

keep a supernatural outlook as we tackle all sorts of issues,

challenges, trials, situations and predicaments in life.

            It would be good if we set these practices in some clear

structure or strategy so that even in the dizzying pace of our daily

affairs, we would not get confused and much less, lost.

            This virtue of order should be promoted relentlessly,

especially today when it is most needed. It should be taught and

inculcated in everyone as early as possible, and that means that right

in our homes, the virtue should be lived and shown to edify everyone!