Let’s be properly occupied

WITH all this restricted life we are having these days,

let’s see to it that we are properly occupied. Let us, of course,

avoid idleness, but even if we fill ourselves with activities, let’s

see to it that we are properly occupied.

            The most important thing to remember is that whatever we

are doing should be done with love for God and for others. This, we

can say, is what can be considered as the subjective requirement of

how we ought to occupy ourselves properly these days.

            Without this requirement, our activities would be

practically worthless and can even pose as a danger, even if these

activities appear to be impressive in human terms. But with it, even

our smallest and most hidden act of service would acquire tremendous

value for all of us. Let’s do all we can to see to it that it is love

that inspires and moves us to do whatever we may be doing.

            Obviously, this subjective requirement of how to be

properly occupied has its objective counterpart. And this means that

we have to have the proper sense of priority over the many options we

can have in spending our time during these stay-home dispensation. In

the end, things depend on what in our conscience God is telling us to

do.

            We just cannot do anything to fill up our time. Of course,

we have already said that as long as there is love, anything can be

pleasing to God. But again, we can also say that if there is real

love, we also would have a keen sense of order as to which activity

has greater importance over another. We would not just be doing things

simply for the sake of doing.

            In other words, in choosing the things to do out of love,

there has to be a certain order of priority. That’s because not

everything has the same value. Obviously, the things that relate

directly to God and others have priority over the things that simply

are related to our own legitimate personal interests.

            Thus, spiritual activities and the acts of piety have

priority over our mundane and secular activities. Also, those

activities that have more impact on others have priority over those

that simply benefit us more.

            It’s important that we plan our day well so that we can

really say that we are occupying ourselves properly. We should not

just be whiling away our time by filling ourselves with all sorts of

random activities that simply do not reflect true love for God and for

others.

            In this, of course, we have to expect things that may not

be to our liking. This is when we can show the genuineness of our love

as motive for doing things. This is where we can live out those words

of Christ: “If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and

take up his cross and follow Me.” (Mt 16,24)

            We can project the same drama Christ underwent in his

passion, especially during his agony in the garden when he “bargained”

with his Father by saying, “Father, if it is your will, let this cup

pass by me, but not my will but yours be done.” (Mt 26,39)

            So you see, we don’t need extraordinary situations to live

out the passion of Christ. We can practically do it while cooking,

doing laundry, cleaning house, doing repairs, etc., as long as we do

them with love and with the proper sense of priority and spirit of

sacrifice.

            Let’s take advantage of our stay-home time to cultivate,

polish if not perfect the way we can occupy our time properly. This

present dispensation can serve as a basic school to train ourselves in

that department.

            Part of this art of occupying ourselves properly is the

development of skills of resilience and quick adaptation, since there

will always be surprises and plans may have to be modified and revised

as we go along.

Learn to leave all behind

THIS is not meant to be a morbid piece. Far from it.

Rather, it’s meant for us to be realistic and to really focus on what

is absolutely necessary and essential in our life, without getting

unduly entangled with the things in this life that at best only have a

relative value.

            Our present condition, where we are deprived of certain

comforts, conveniences, privileges, etc., is a good occasion for us to

learn the art of how to leave everything behind , because one day it

will be our turn to go, and what is left with us would be what we have

in our heart.

            This is what we are going to present to our Creator when

we go back to him on judgment day. This is the only thing necessary.

(cfr. Lk 10,42) Of course, that love can only be proven by the way we

handle all the things in this life—whether we did them or lived them

always with love for God and for others in mind and heart.

            Love for God and others should always be the motive of

everything that we do—from our thoughts and intentions, to our words,

and to our work. It should also be the motive when we have to go

through the different circumstances of our life, the good ones as well

as the bad ones, our fortunes and our misfortunes.

            We have to be wary of our tendency to get entrapped in our

earthly and temporal affairs or when we fail to live love for God and

for others in the different events and circumstances of our life.

            We usually have the strong tendency to be motivated only

by human and earthly values in everything that we do. We have to be

more wary of this danger and do everything to avoid it or correct it.

            As St. Paul once said: “Whether you eat or drink or

whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” (1 Cor 10,31) Not

contented with this, he again said: “Set your minds on things above,

not on earthly things.” (Col 3,2)

            Not that our earthly and temporal affairs are not

important. They are! They are very important, in fact. But as means

and occasions to love God and others. Failing in that love, we can be

accused of what Christ once said: “What shall it profit a man, if he

shall gain the whole world, but loses his soul?” (Mk 8,36)

            As said earlier, our earthly and temporal affairs only

have a relative value, and they acquire that value only when it is

related to the absolute value, which is none other than love for God

and others.

            That relative value of our earthly and temporal affairs

certainly would lead us to love them—and we can love them with a

certain passion—but also with a certain detachment. We should not

consider them as our ultimate end.

            A saint once said that our affairs in this world can and

should be the “divine paths of the earth.” It is there where God

intervenes in our life in his continuing work of creation and

redemption. Because of this truth, he even went to the extent of

“passionately loving the world.” But, of course, without becoming

worldly.

            Thus, we always need to rectify our intentions and

motives, because we are easily seduced and beholden to worldly values

only. In this we have to constantly examine ourselves. Our human

condition here on earth is very precarious insofar as our proper

motives for doing things are concerned.

            Toward this end, we definitely need frequent reminders and

appropriate practices of piety, like doing examinations of conscience,

saying many ejaculatory prayers and aspirations all throughout the

day, as well as some human devices like looking at the crucifix and

religious images if only to put us in the proper spiritual and

supernatural mode as we go through our earthly affairs.

Our ghostly foes

NOW that the ECQ is extended to May 15, let’s be more

skillful in dealing with the extended condition of our restricted

lifestyle. And among the things to consider are what we may refer to

as our ghostly foes that include not only the invisible Corona virus

but also the more nasty dark and negative thoughts we can have, our

fears, anxieties and even depression that can eat us up like worms.

            But more importantly, let us not disregard the wiles and

tricks of the bad spirits, the demons who can easily take advantage of

our predicament these days. Let’s never ignore them. They are always

around. In fact, these days I am receiving more reports of demonic

activities afflicting many people, and requests for deliverance and

exorcism have gone up. Let’s be forewarned to be forearmed.

            In the meantime, let’s continue praying that we can find

the necessary cure or vaccine for this deadly virus that has been

menacing us already for months and that we can return to some degree

of normalcy. Prayer should always be the basic weapon to use in these

times. Let’s never be tempted to abandon it, thinking that we would be

more successful if we simply rely on science, medicine and our wild

politics.

            These ghostly foes of ours should be tackled head-on. We

should not think that by ignoring them they would just go away. The

contrary is true. The more we ignore them, the more they become

stronger and more dangerous. We have to drive them away forthright.

            With these ghostly foes of ours, what we have to do is to

strengthen our spiritual and supernatural life. These trying times we

are having now are actually good occasions for us to truly live the

life in the spirit with God. We are no match against these ghostly

foes if we would just depend on our human and natural powers.

            If we live by the spirit of God, using to the hilt our

God-given faith, hope and charity, we would be convinced beyond any

trace of doubt that we have no reason to be afraid, over-anxious or

sad. God takes of everything, and he knows how to derive good from

evil. With him, everything, including our difficulties and disasters,

will always work for the good. (cfr. Rom 8,28)

            We should just train our natural powers to be enlightened,

guided and strengthened by the supernatural power of God who likes to

share it with us by precisely giving us the theological virtues of

faith, hope and charity.

            Let us have a good grip on our thoughts and feelings so

they would not stray away from the path of our faith. We should never

dare to think that we are just living on our own, that we are alone

and lonely. God is always with us. We have to feel his immense and

abiding love for us.

            Regarding the evil spirits, neither should we be too

afraid of them. They actually cannot do anything against us unless we

allow them. But we have to acknowledge that they are the smartest of

all conspirators. Just the same, they cannot do anything unless God

allows them to tempt us. And if God allows them to do that, it is

because a greater good can be derived from such situation.

  

            This is a truth of faith that should always be kept in our

mind. We have no reason to be afraid of them, but neither should we be

welcoming of them, much less, enter into some dialogue with them.

Let’s always remember that being spiritual beings, they are far

smarter than us no matter how brilliant and smart we think we are.

They can always outsmart us.

            The thing to do is to dismiss them outright. That is the

example Christ himself gave us when he was tempted after his forty

days of praying and fasting before he started his public life. (cfr.

Mt 4)

Fighting boredom and dryness

IT cannot be denied that even with all our best efforts,

the danger of slipping into boredom and dryness is always there, what

with all this somewhat ‘forced’ stay-at-home dispensation we are

having these days. It’s truly a big challenge for us to be resilient

and practical, but we know that we have our limitations.

            Unless we let it, this should not be a big problem. We

just have to be constantly aware of that danger and do something about

it. There is always hope. As St. Paul said, “God will not let you be

tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will

also provide a way out so that you can endure it.” (1 Cor 10,13) So,

let’s not exaggerate our predicament.

            But, yes, we have to learn how to fight boredom and

dryness. They usually come when the heart is not anymore beating with

love, or is weakening in that vital function. What we have to do is to

stir it up again, asking first for God’s grace but without ever

neglecting the appropriate human effort we have to exert.

            Of course, the effort we are expected to exert is no walk

in the park. We have to be ready to be heroic, to go to the extreme of

our self-giving. Let’s take comfort in the thought that God cannot be

outdone in generosity. If we are heroically generous with him, you can

just imagine how generous he will also be with us! Let’s always

remember that he promised to give a return of a hundredfold to

whatever we give him and others out of love. (cfr. Mk 10,30)

            But, yes, we have to be practical in this. What comes to

my mind is, of course, to see to it that we are always praying

whatever we may be doing at any given moment. Every activity that we

do should somehow be a form of prayer. And let’s see to it that our

prayer is a real encounter and conversation with God. It should not be

just a make-believe thing.

            Concretely, we have to see to it that our awareness of the

presence of God is constant. For this, we may have to do many acts of

faith, hope and charity, some short ejaculatory prayers or aspirations

that truly voice out what is in our heart. God, being a father, will

always understand us, no matter how much we complain in a filial way.

            It will also greatly help if we can have a list of

intentions to pray for and to offer our tasks for. These days, these

intentions are endless. There are just so many people in great need of

things, both material and spiritual. We have to do whatever we can to

help them meet those needs.

            Of course, real love is not just a matter of good

intentions and sweet words. By its very essence, it has to be

expressed in deeds. And nowadays, despite the stay-at-home order,

there will always be things to do.

            Usually they are small tasks, even menial in character.

But if done out of love for God and for others, they can acquire

tremendous power to help people in their needs. God’s mysterious ways

and the Christian doctrine about the communion of saints will see to

it that even in our hidden work done with love can reach out to people

we may not even know.

            It is also good that we come out always with some plan or

schedule of activities during the day, so that we do not get lost and

confused easily, and so that we can manage our energies properly. We

have to realize that while God’s grace can make the impossible

possible, we continue to remain human with our natural limitations.

            Let’s hope that in the end, we are always on the move,

acting with zeal. That way, we can effectively fight boredom and

dryness!

Staying on course

OUR earthly life, it is said, is a matter of a journey, a

pilgrimage toward our eternal destination. Given our conditions here

where we have to contend with all sorts of things, there is great need

for us to stay on course, avoiding getting diverted and lost along the

way.

            To be sure, we already have been given everything for us

to stay on the right track. And that’s nothing else or no one else

than Christ himself who tells us that he is “the way, the truth, and

the life.” The constant order of the day for us, therefore, is how to

be identified with Christ all the time.

            We need to be deeply and permanently convinced of this

truth of our faith and also of its practicability, otherwise we would

be wasting time. That’s because we can appear to be doing a lot of

things and yet miss the goal to which we are meant to reach.

            Especially these days when we have to contend with more

and more things brought about by our technological progress, we can

find ourselves losing focus and getting confused and lost. Our

attention can easily get scattered, our thoughts become shallow and

narrow, our reactions automatic, mindless and involuntary.

            That is why we can never overemphasize the need to be

always vigilant, ever rectifying our intentions to make sure that

whatever we are doing or whatever situation or circumstance we can

find ourselves in, we are always focused on God and on his will and

ways.

            God is both the principle and end of our life, as well as

the pattern of our life as shown to us by Christ who is made alive to

us by the Holy Spirit. He is the one that enables us to blend all

aspects, situations and circumstances of our life into one consistent

unity. In short, that’s when we can have unity of life.

            We need to be wary of our tendency to get easily entangled

in our worldly and temporal affairs. Even if we are pursuing lofty

earthly goals, like philanthropy, social justice, economic well-being,

etc., we would still end up a big failure if all these otherwise

legitimate pursuits are not inspired and aimed at the twin love of God

and neighbor.

            When we notice, for example, that we are doing well in our

business and other professions, but are rather cold and indifferent to

our duty to do apostolate and to help others get closer to God, then

we actually are not loving God by doing his will. We are simply

pursuing our own self-interests. We are apt to be reproached by Christ

who once said: “What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the world,

and lose his own soul?” (Mk 8,36)

            We cannot deny that this is the common phenomenon

nowadays. Many people are just after their own things at the expense

of their duty toward God and others. We need to see to it that in all

our activities, plans and concerns, there should only be one

objective. And that is to love God and neighbor, as we have been

commanded.

            We therefore need to devise some kind of plan of life

where everything mutually influences each other in pursuit of our

ultimate goal of loving God and others. For example, our prayer should

inspire our work just as our work should give fuel and inspiration to

our prayer.

            We need to close the gap between our life of prayer or our

contemplative life, on the hand, and our active life of work and our

involvement in worldly affairs, on the other hand. Our thoughts should

always be both in heaven and on earth, not one without the other.

            This means that we should develop and grow in our

spiritual life as we get more and more immersed in our earthly

concerns. This is what is ideal for us, and it can be achieved if we

just put our whole mind and heart into this pursuit. It’s not an

impossible dream. We can always count on God’s grace.

            We need to see the intimate union between the natural and

supernatural, the material and the spiritual, the temporal and the

eternal. These are dimensions and parameters that are involved in our

life, and we just have to learn how to deal with them.

            As said earlier, we already have been given everything for

us to stay on the right track as we go through our life. We just have

to be constantly vigilant, making the necessary corrections along the

way.

Win by losing

THAT assertion certainly raises eyebrows. How on earth, in

the commonest of common sense, can one win by losing? It’s just pure

contradiction. If you win, you win. And if you lose, you lose. Period.

It’s as contradictory as white is to black, up is to down.

            But, alas, Christ tells us so in so many words. “Whoever

finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for My sake

will find it.” (Mt 10,39) Still in another instance, he says:

“Everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or

mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a

hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.” (Mt 19,29)

            I am sure we are scratching our head as we read these

words. Try as we might, we neither cannot just dismiss these words

since they are spoken by no less than Christ himself. There must be

something to them that our best intelligence just cannot cope.

            That’s right. These words simply have to be taken in

faith, that supernatural gift given to us to which we also have to

correspond not so much with our intelligence and understanding as with

the obedience of faith.

            Yes, we have to make an obedience of faith, that act of

believing not because we understand things presented to us but more

because they are spoken by someone who neither deceives nor be

deceived. (cfr. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 143,156)

            In other words, we believe that we can indeed win by

losing on the authority of Christ who precisely won by losing when he

willingly died on the cross but rose on the third day. In so doing, he

guaranteed the salvation of man, although we also have to do our part

of at least believing him.

            We have to understand then that what is involved here is

not just a natural truth, but a supernatural one, a truth that does

not necessarily go against our nature but rather transcends. It’s a

truth that partakes of the divine nature of God. That’s why Christ

said that we can gain and win from what may appear to be a loss if we

do things for “My sake.”

            This truth of our Christian faith is very relevant these

days as we go through a variety of privations and sacrifices and

expressions and modes of loss and defeat. Let’s hope that we come out

of this pandemic not having a kind of survivor frame of mind, but

rather that of a winner, a victor, a conqueror.

            We should see to it that we come out of this crisis

feeling enriched not impoverished, happy not sad. And the secret is

because we go through this crisis by getting closer to Christ.

            This means in concrete terms that we are growing more in

love with God and with others. We would be willing to make sacrifices.

We would be more generous in our self-giving. The privations and

sacrifices we are going through are the catalysts that would make love

for God and others deeper and stronger.

            This is how we win by losing. By growing more in love,

which is another way of saying by becoming more and more like Christ

who is God, who is love himself, we can win by losing in the sense

that we follow the very example of Christ whose supreme love for us

was shown by offering his life on the cross for our sins.

            He does not mind the cost involved. His sense of justice

is not the strict quid-pro-quo type. It is a justice totally inspired

by charity and mercy, completely gratuitous even if it is not

reciprocated properly by us.

            We need to be more familiar with this truth about winning

by losing. Let’s live out what a proverb said: “Those who give

generously receive more, but those who are stingy with what is

appropriate will grow needy.” (11,24)

Reaching out amid lockdown

I KNOW we can never wipe out poverty entirely. There will

always be poor, suffering people. Christ himself said as much. “The

poor you will always have with you…” (Mt 26,11) But this does not mean

that we should not do anything, at least to mitigate that problem,

helping poor people as much as we can. This is the very basic aspect

of Christian charity.

            With the present dispensation of lockdowns and

quarantines, we can just imagine how the poor people, already

suffering a lot during normal times, are suffering today. I know that

we ourselves have our own share of privations, discomfort and

inconvenience brought about by these restrictions. But this does not

detract us from our duty to do whatever we can to help the more

disadvantaged ones.

            We simply cannot be aloof to the graver predicaments of

the others. Let’s be wary of the tendency to be unmindful of the

others simply because we may not be suffering as much. We can still

eat and have our comfortable time. Our fridges are still well-stocked.

            Let’s be careful because we can easily fall into a severe

case of quiet and deceptive self-indulgence. We can think that we are

not doing anything wrong because we are just by ourselves. This is a

subtle form of self-indulgence and is definitely a sin. Christ wants

us to love everybody as he has loved us, and love is not just not

doing anything wrong to others. It is being truly concerned for them,

expressed in deeds.

            Let us always remember that if we want to follow Christ as

we should, we have to deny ourselves and carry the cross. (cfr. Mt

16,24) This is always the rule to follow, in good times and in bad.

            The very least thing we can do to help is at least to

practice some form of self-denial, especially in our food, drinks,

comfort, use of gadgets, if only to show solidarity with those who are

denied of the basic necessities of life during these times. Let us be

very generous in this level of self-denial and self-giving.

            But for sure, we can do a lot more. We should not forget that many

people, with families to feed, have lost their job and their

livelihood. And because of the many restrictions nowadays, many cannot

report for work while many others cannot go home, stranded and quite

broke. People in all forms of helplessness are numberless. Human

misery has sunk quite drastically deeply these days.

            We have to reach out to them. How? That’s another

challenge to face. But there are always some ways. We are not yet dead

when we cannot do anything anymore. Where there is a will, there will

always be a way! The human spirit, especially animated by divine love,

can always find a way.

            It does not mean we be imprudent and reckless in our zeal

to help others. There certainly are risks to take. But if we plan

things well, and bring them to our prayer, we can be sure that we can

do a lot to help others in these difficult times with so many

restrictions to contend with.

            Offhand, I notice there are already some people organizing

themselves to do some feeding programs to many. This is a very good

initiative. They have tapped their own personal networks and other

organizations for this purpose, and it’s working.

            What I find more challenging is to identify those who seem

not to need some help because they enjoyed a level of comfort during

the normal times, but actually are in great need of help these days.

The overt poor are always easy to identify. And we already have some

appropriate structures for them. It’s the hidden and the new poor that

are quite difficult to identify and to extend help.

            If we bring this concern in our prayer, I am sure we can

find the appropriate ways to reach out to them.

Drain the swamp

THIS is not, of course, a political piece, much less, a

partisan one, though the title is a phrase that was popularized by US

President Trump during his presidential campaign way back in 2016. He

actually did not coin it, but with the way he is and how the state of

US politics can be described, this expression enjoyed tremendous

following.

            Wikipedia describes this expression as alluding “to the

physical draining of swamps to keep mosquito populations low to combat

malaria.” But it is often used by politicians to refer to their effort

to root out systemic corruption or whatever has become systemically

wrong in the government bureaucracy or in the political world.

            It is an expression that definitely can also be applied to

whatever is wrong at any level of the Church structure, especially

when what is wrong there has become systemic.

            We should not be surprised by this phenomenon. Given our

own weaknesses and the many temptations around, we cannot deny that in

spite of everything that Christ has given us to make us holy

individually and collectively, we always have the possibility of

lapsing into subtle compromises with error and sin until their

consequences become endemic to a particular Church structure.

            Even during the time of Christ, this draining of the swamp

was already done. Christ had to contend with the warped understanding

of religion that the leading Jews of that time had.

            Remember those lamentations Christ made against the

Pharisees and the scribes as recorded in Chapter 23 in the Gospel of

St. Matthew. Some words of Christ may be helpful to give us a savor of

how he felt about the swamp that was the state of religion at that

time:

            “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat, so do

and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For

they preach, but do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to

bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not

willing to move them with their finger. They do all their deeds to be

seen by others, etc., etc.”

            We really need to be very sharply aware of this danger and

should be prepared to take the necessary precautions and, if needed,

to do battle with it. That’s when we have to learn the art of draining

the swamp, starting with our own selves by seeing to it that we avoid

complacency, spiritual lukewarmness and any compromise with error and

sin, no matter how slight.

            And when we see signs of systemic compromises in any level

of our Church structure, we should react immediately. In fact, it

would be better that we nip these compromises in the bud. But if these

compromises have already gained some ground, then we really should

react with appropriate vigor and prudence.

            It is our duty to keep the Church structure fit to

sacramentalize the Body of Christ or the People of God that the Church

is. In this regard, our Catechism tells us that the Church, “clasping

sinners to her bosom, at once holy and always in need of purification,

follows constantly the path of penance and renewal. All members of the

Church, including her ministers, must acknowledge that they are

sinners. In everyone, the weeds of sin will still be mixed with the

good wheat of the Gospel until the end of time.” (CCC 827)

            So we are all asked to continue the work of penance and

conversion, purification and renewal. This is something that we should

not forget, especially when we tend to believe that we are already

good or holy. We still have feet of clay, and the possibility of

falling is always there.

            Of course, in draining the swamp in the Church structure,

we should always practice charity. Bitter zeal has no place in the

Church. Better to suffer than to lack charity!