Let’s beg with strong faith

WITH the pandemic still ongoing, and with some areas still

having another spike of cases, we cannot help but feel as if we are

already on the brink of despair. Let’s turn this situation around by

begging Christ for a miracle, but begging him with a strong, operative

faith.

            Let’s be like those characters in the gospel who were

already in helpless conditions but who managed to live their faith

heroically and made it to bear on their misery. Despite the

difficulties, they approached Christ, and from the bottom of their

heart, they asked to be cured. And they were cured!

            In all those instances, Christ always referred to their

strong faith. Remember that time when Christ was pursued by two blind

men (cfr Mt 9,27-31). They shouted, “Lord, have pity on us.” But

Christ asked them if they have faith. “Do you believe that I can do

this?” “Yes, Lord,” they immediately replied. Then Christ told them,

“Let it be done to you according to your faith.” And they were cured.

            In all the other miraculous cures narrated in the gospel,

faith played a very crucial role. The woman who was cured of her

hemorrhage was also commended by Christ because of her faith. “Be of

good heart, daughter, your faith has made you whole…” (Mt 9,22)

            The same with the blind man, Bartimaeus, and the father of

the possessed boy who in his great distress told our Lord earnestly,

“I believe, but help my unbelief.” And that centurion who asked for

the healing of his sick servant (cfr. Mt 8,5-17), Christ was amazed at

his faith.

            “Sir,” the centurion told Christ, “I am not worthy to have

you under my roof; just give the word and my servant will be cured.

For I am under authority myself and have soldiers under me; and I say

to one man, ‘Go,’ and he goes; to another, ‘Come here,’ and he comes…”

Christ was so taken by this reaction that he said, “In truth I tell

you, in no one in Israel have I found faith as great as this!”

            Miracles are always a matter of faith. We just have to

rectify our tendency to ask for miracles accompanied by doubts instead

of faith, or to associate miracles with big, extraordinary things.

Unless a blind man sees again, or a lame starts to walk, or a dead

rises to life again, people nowadays say there can be no miracles

taking place.

            It’s a question of faith.  When one has faith, even if it

is just little, we can actually see the marvels of God taking place

all around us everyday. That one perseveres in prayer, or decides to

confess his sins after a long period of sinfulness, or a husband being

faithful to his wife in spite of the strong temptations, etc., these

are miracles too.

            It is faith that lets us enter into the spiritual and

supernatural world. It brings us to share in God’s wisdom and power.

Remember those stirring words of Christ: “If you have faith as a grain

of mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain, Remove from there,

and it shall remove, and nothing shall be impossible to you.” ((Mt

17,20)

            Imagine, if we express our faith in some extraordinary way

given a special favor we are asking Christ regarding the pandemic we

are having! If we band together in storming heaven for the miracle of

banishing this pandemic, for certain Christ will take pity on us and

give us what we want.

            Let’s strengthen our faith, making it operative and

demonstrating it with all sorts of sacrifices that we can think of,

and we can be sure that Christ will give in. We need not do this in

some showy way. It would be enough that in our heart of hearts, we beg

Christ for this miracle!

Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul

JUNE 29, of course, is the Solemnity of Sts. Peter and

Paul, two prominent apostles who, together with the others, are

considered as the pillars of the Church. St. Peter is known as the

“Prince of the Apostles,” while St. Paul is the special vessel chosen

by Christ to be the “Apostle of the Gentiles.”

            The solemnity is a good occasion for us to remind

ourselves that our faith, while a supernatural gift from God, has to

be understood the way the apostles received, understood and taught it.

It is also an occasion to realize more deeply the divinely-guaranteed

continuity between the apostles and their successors—the Popes and the

bishops.

            Yes, in spite of the human weaknesses that we all have as

human beings, and that, for sure, the apostles as well as their

successors also have, that continuity that links us to Christ all

throughout time is kept.

            And that is simply because Christ said so. Remember that

time Christ gave St. Peter the keys to heaven. From the gospel of St.

Matthew, Chapter 16, we have this dramatic scene: “And you,” Jesus

asked the apostles, “who do you say that I am?” “You are the Messiah,”

Simon Peter answered, “the Son of the living God!”

            Jesus replied, “Blest are you, Simon son of John! No mere

man has revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. I for my part

declare to you, you are ‘Rock,’ and on this rock I will build my

church, and the jaws of death shall not prevail against it.

            “I will entrust to you the keys of the kingdom of heaven.

Whatever you declare bound on earth shall be bound in heaven. Whatever

you declare loosed on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

            We need to meditate on these words often to strengthen our

faith in the apostles and their successors, especially when some

quarters start to sow doubts and intrigues about their integrity and

fidelity.

            Today, for example, there are some people who are casting

doubts as to whether Pope Francis is faithful to the office he

occupies. They remind me of those who split from the Church and formed

their own sects or cults because they accused some Popes in the past

and other Church leaders as having gone astray from the right path.

They even accused those Popes as the Antichrist.

            It’s like saying that these people had cracked the mystery

regarding who or what this Antichrist really was, and had the boldness

to present themselves as the Messiah or the savior of humanity of some

sort.

            It’s a pity because what we know is that Christ founded

only one church and that he has given that guarantee of continuity

that in spite of our human weaknesses, the gates of hell, the jaws of

death cannot prevail against it.

            Obviously, in the history of the Church the weaknesses of

men, including those on the top positions in the Church, would always

come out. But Christ assured us in very concrete terms that everything

will just be all right. They keys to heaven have been given to some

men, regardless of their weaknesses.

            We know that St. Peter himself was not a perfect man. He

had weaknesses, and in some instances was even scolded by Christ. St.

Paul talked about the thorn of the flesh that he was bearing. We can

imagine how the other apostles were.

            What we have to do is to fully trust in God’s providence

especially insofar as the Church leadership is concerned. If there is

something to clarify, we can always bring it up, but always in the

spirit of charity and filial piety.

            Let’s always remember that there will always be mysteries

in our life, in the world and in the Church. They may overwhelm us at

some points, but if we would just hold on to Christ and to what he has

left us, everything will just be taken care of!

The hierarchy of love

ALTHOUGH we have been saying that the love for God is

inseparable from our duty to love others (cfr. Mt 22,36-40),  and that

how we love or do not love our neighbor can also indicate our real

relationship with God (cfr. 1 Jn 4,20), we have to be clear about the

preeminence of the former over the latter. Without the love for God,

our love the others would be, at best, fake.

            Christ clarified this point when he said: “Whoever loves

father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves

son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” (Mt 10,37)

            We have to understand these words of Christ well. It does

not mean that our love for our parents or children should be less than

how we want it to be. It is just that we have to make sure that our

love for them is inspired by our love for God, who is the source, the

pattern, the power and the end of our love should be.

            And how do we know this love? How can we live it? This

love has been manifested to us in full by Christ himself and can be

made actual through the power of the Holy Spirit as we go through the

different circumstances of our life.

            Thus, Christ gave that new commandment that summarized and

perfected all the previous commandments. And that is that we love one

another as he, Christ, has loved us. (cfr. Jn 13,34) It’s a love that

goes all the way, and its scope is universal. It’s a love that can

take care of everything, including the difficulties.

            Remember St. Paul saying that charity, which is the real

love that comes from God through Christ in the Holy Spirit, “bears all

things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” (1

Cor 13,7)

            To be sure, this love can be lived by us because Christ

himself will empower us to do so, if we care to truly identify

ourselves with him. That love is actually all there for the taking.

Christ makes it available to us. Better said, Christ makes himself

available to us so we can love the way he loves all of us, without

exception.

            We need to bring these words of Christ to heart because we

are notorious for having that tendency to have our own version of love

that can never be real love, no matter how fervent and ardent we feel

it to be, unless it is inspired by our love for God.

            These words of Christ have to be acted on by us, as he

himself has told us. “Everyone who listens to these words of mine and

acts on them will be like a sensible man who built his house on rock.

Rain came down, floods rose, gales blew and hurled themselves against

that house, and it did not fall. It was found on rock.” (Mt 7,24-25)

            Thus, St. Paul said: “Not the hearers of the law are just

before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.” (Rom 2,13)

And St. James: “Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving

your own selves.” (1,22)

            We have to be convinced that having this proper hierarchy

of love is what is best for us. It may require some self-denial and

sacrifices, but that is only because we are always in need of

discipline, purification and the healthy detachment we ought to have

with respect to the things of this world.

            We cannot deny that we are prone to be taken over by the

things of the flesh and of the world, if not of the devil himself,

that would alienate us not only from God but also from everybody else.

A love that is inspired by the flesh, the worldly things and the devil

himself can only be deceptive. It is a sweet poison!

The sense of transcendence

WE have to be more aware of our need to develop and

sharpen our sense of transcendence. It is to help us cope with the

fullness of the reality that governs us. It is the reality that

includes the spiritual which we cannot see and touch because it is not

accessible to the senses, and the supernatural which we cannot reach

with our own natural powers alone but only with God’s grace, through

faith, hope and charity that work on our natural powers.

            We have to realize that the sense of transcendence does

not mean that we ignore or have no need or simply give little

importance to the here and now, to the material and natural dimensions

of our life. Rather, we have to realize that our sense of

transcendence can only be exercised through these natural dimensions

of our life, but we need to go beyond them, not trapped in them.

            A sense of transcendence that belittles or disregards the

role of the here and now, the material and the natural dimensions of

our life, will not be an authentic sense of transcendence. It would

not be able to go the distance. The here and now and the material and

the natural dimensions of our life are, in fact, the launching pad

from which we can enter into the world of the spiritual and

supernatural.

            We have to be wary of the tendency to exaggerate the

importance of the spiritual and the supernatural to the extent that it

would lead us to look down on the material and the natural. This

phenomenon can be described as the disorder of spiritualism and

pietism that considers the spiritual and supernatural as the only

reality.

            Of course, we have to wary of the other disorder called

materialism that regards material universe as the only reality,

completely oblivious of the spiritual and the supernatural world. We

have to avoid both extremes, and try to find a way to see the unity,

the blend between the material and the spiritual, the natural and the

supernatural, the temporal and the eternal.

            We have to realize more deeply that the reality created by

God for us includes both the material and spiritual, the natural and

the supernatural, the temporal and the eternal in one organic whole.

We cannot have one without the other, though the spiritual and the

supernatural have priority over the material and the natural. As

Christ said, we are in the world, but we are not of the world. We are

in the world but we are not worldly. (cfr. Jn 17,16)

            In this regard, we have to learn the art of how to be both

active in the middle of the world while being contemplative as well.

We have to learn how to put our hands and feet on the ground while

setting our heart on heaven, “on the things above,” as St. Paul

recommended. (cfr. Col 3,2)

            We need to help one another in developing and sharpening

this sense of the transcendence, trying to inculcate it as early as

possible in the children, first in the setting of the home, then in

the other settings as the children grow and get into the other levels

of society. Everything in society should reinforce this basic human

need of ours.

            We have to help everyone learn the art of prayer, of

discerning the presence of God and reading his will in every moment.

We all have to be aware that our earthly life is God’s time in his

eternity to create and redeem us. He is actually intervening in our

lives always, and we are supposed to correspond to those

interventions.

            We also have to convince ourselves that by developing this

sense of transcendence, we would be approaching the fullness of our

humanity. Contrary to what some people think, this sense of

transcendence does not undermine our humanity, but rather perfects it.

The saint of the ordinary life

THAT’S how St. Josemaria Escriva, founder of Opus Dei,

whose feast is celebrated on June 26, was often dubbed. And that’s

simply because he popularized the idea that everybody is called to

holiness and for most of us, this quest for sanctity is done for the

most part in the ordinary circumstances and events in our daily life.

            In a way, he brought the high and sacred ideal of personal

sanctification with its inseparable duty of doing personal apostolate

to the mundane aspect of our life without neglecting, of course, the

sacred aspect.

            It’s like saying that God is not only found inside

churches and other holy, sacred places. He is found everywhere, and

for the most part of our day, he is in the little ordinary things.

            Thus, at one point, St. Josemaria said, “God is calling

you to serve him in and from the ordinary…There is something holy,

something divine hidden in the most ordinary situations, and it is up

to each one of you to discover it.”

            In other words, the dynamic of love, which is the essence

of sanctity, need not be reserved for some special occasions. It can

be done and lived, and in fact it should be done and lived, in the

ordinary and usual events of our day, composed mainly of little,

mundane concerns and affairs.

            This thrust of his preaching, which sprang from a special

vocation he received from God, somehow made a kind of revolution in

the world of spirituality. That’s because with the way Christianity

developed historically and culturally from its beginning—what with all

the persecution of the early Christians and the aggressive paganism of

the world—spiritual life was associated more with the attitude of the

“contemptus mundi” (contempt for the world).

            St. Josemaria promoted the idea of passionately loving the

world instead, because in the first place the world is a creation of

God and so it is good in itself before it is corrupted by our sin.

            Secondly, St. Josemaria pointed out that it is in the

world that God has placed us to test us, to see if through the things

of the world we can make the proper choice of loving God rather than

of loving our own selves.

            We should therefore understand that our mundane and

temporal affairs are no obstacle in our relationship with God and with

others. In fact, for most people, these matters and affairs are the

very occasion, material and motive for developing the love for God and

for others, and thus, they also serve as the means for their own

sanctification.

            While we have to take utmost care in carrying out our

sacred duties of praying, offering sacrifices, having recourse to the

sacraments, availing of the spiritual means of formation, etc., we

should not forget that our ordinary secular duties and

responsibilities play an important role in our spiritual life.

            It’s in these latter duties that most people have their

usual encounter with Christ. It’s in them that most people have the

opportunity to correspond to God’s continuing work of creation and

redemption on them.

            This was what St. Josemaria highlighted in his preaching,

for which he was misunderstood by many people, even by those whom he

considered to be “good people.” But in all of those misunderstandings,

he said he never lost his charity for everyone.

            It was with this heroic integrity and consistency between

his word and his life that, I think, enabled him to accomplish many

great things in the lives of many people and in the Church itself. He

is, in fact, considered as the precursor—or, at least, one of them—of

what is now known as the lay spirituality in the Church because of the

mission that he carried out with total self-giving.

            I believe that St. Josemaria can greatly help many people

find sanctity with its duty of personal apostolate in the middle of

the world. May the devotion to him grow!

Charity is the fulfillment of the law

YES, that’s what St. Paul said in his Letter to the

Romans. And if we believe that St. Paul was an apostle, a special

vessel Christ chose to preach to the Gentiles, then his words ought to

be believed. The complete passage is as follows:

            “Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing

debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the

law. The commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ ‘You shall not

murder,’ ‘You shall not steal,’ ‘You shall not covet,’ and whatever

other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: ‘Love

your neighbor as yourself.’ Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore

love is the fulfillment of the law.” (13,8-10)

            With these words, we are made to understand that it is

love or charity that summarizes and fulfills all the laws there

are—those that come directly from God and those that are man-made

which are supposed to reflect God’s laws.

            We just have to understand what this love or charity is,

because we can also have all kinds of charity that may not exactly be

the charity as it should be. We all know that we are notorious in

doing this. Thus, we should first find where we can have the true

essence of charity.

            We know that charity is the very essence of God. St. John,

in his first letter, said it clearly. “God is love.” (4,8) And that

charity was lived and continues to be lived, shown and taught to us by

Christ, who is the fullness of the revelation of God to us.

            Christ himself summarized and perfected all the divine

commandments given to us by revealing to us a new commandment—that we

love one another as he himself has loved us. (cfr. Jn 13,34) The

question to ask is: How has Christ loved us and continues to do so?

            We know that Christ is the Son of God who became man to

save us. He went all the way to assume everything human, except sin,

though he was made like sin, just to adapt himself to us for the sake

of our salvation. (cfr. 2 Cor 5,21)

            He, of course, preached about what is good and evil, what

is right and wrong. But given man’s condition as a free being like God

himself, he did not force us to believe him. If we believe him, it is

because we want to. It should be a free act.

            But given man’s wounded condition and proneness to sin,

Christ was and continues to be most understanding, compassionate,

patient and merciful to all of us, especially those who have fallen

away. This fact was dramatized in the parables of the lost sheep, the

lost coin, and the prodigal son. (cfr. Lk 15)

            And finally, in spite of all that he taught and did,

performing a lot of miracles if only to elicit from us the faith in

God, he consummated everything by offering his life on the cross,

thereby bearing all the sins of men and offering forgiveness and

salvation to everyone, yes, including those who crucified him.

            This is the charity that we are supposed to live among

ourselves. This is the charity that proves that we truly love God.

Yes, it tells us to be always on the right as much as possible, to do

all the good that we can, and to encourage everyone to do the same,

even with some forcefulness.

            But again, given the way we are, with all our weaknesses,

limitations and sins, we cannot insist too much on what is right and

wrong. We just have to be like Christ who showed us how to truly love.

And that is to be understanding, patient, merciful, willing to bear

the sins of the others, etc.!

            It’s up to the others to correspond or not. That was the

attitude of Christ. That should also be our attitude. That is what

truly fulfills the law!

The link between God and neighbor

WE have to realize this reality more deeply. We often take

it for granted. While we may appear to be close to God because we

pray, we profess our faith in him publicly, etc., it may turn out to

be only a sham, because how we treat our neighbor, who actually can be

anybody and everybody, belies our supposed closeness to God.

            This is because how we treat others can actually show how

we treat God. If we are indifferent to the others, we can actually say

that we are also indifferent to God, even if our appearance may seem

otherwise. If we hate someone, we can also say that we are hating God.

            Why? Because if we truly are believers and lovers of God,

then there’s no other way but also for us to truly be lovers of

everyone else, no matter, how the other is. God loves everyone, even

if not everyone may love him in return.

            Let’s remember that our love for God cannot be separated

from our love for others. Christ spelled out this point clearly when

he clarified what the greatest commandment was. He immediately added

that while the greatest commandment is to love God with all our

strength, the second greatest commandment is to love our neighbor.

(cfr. Mt 22,36-40)

            Loving God and loving our neighbor are inseparable. If we

love God, then we have to love our neighbor. And this love for

neighbor was further clarified by Christ when he gave us the new

commandment which is to love our neighbor as he himself has loved us.

(cfr. Jn 13,34)

            We know that the love of God for us as shown and lived in

full by Christ is universal and inclusive. It excludes no one. It is

even offered to those who do not love God. This is the kind of love

that we have to live and give to everyone, just as God in Christ gave

it on the cross and continues to give to everyone until forever.

            This universal love for our neighbor should be shown from

our heart of hearts through our attitude towards everyone, through our

intentions, words and deeds towards others, through our willingness to

bear the burdens of the others, etc.

            Thus, we can say that how we are with the others would

also show how we are with God. How we look at them, how we deal with

them, etc., would also show how we look and deal with God.

            St. John said it very succinctly that “we cannot love God,

whom we have not seen, if we do not love others, whom we have seen.”

(1 Jn 4,20) Christ himself reiterated this point when he said,

“whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you

did for me.” (Mt 25,40)

            We all need to examine how our attitude is toward

everyone, because that would really show in concrete ways how our

attitude is toward God. Do we still have negative thoughts against

someone? Do we still hold grudges against someone, finding it

difficult to forgive? Etc.

            Let’s remember what Christ said in this regard. “If you

forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive

you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your

Father forgive yours.” (Mt 6,14-15)

            Do we really keep a keen interest in others, trying to

know and love them the way they are without forgetting to help them to

be the way they ought to be? This is how Christ treated us and

continues to treat us. He is all there for us.

            In other words, to see if we really love God, all we need

to do is to see if we really love everyone, not only in intentions and

nice, sweet words, but also in deeds!

Bring in the Christian perspective

IN tackling issues that are always open to a variety of

opinions, we should always let the Christian perspective to bear on

them. If we are truly faithful to that Christian perspective, we would

know how to resolve contentious matters with a certain precision that

is never just a matter of a simplistic black-and-white approach but

rather one that will always be characterized by a sober pursuit for

truth and fairness in the spirit of charity.

  

            It’s when we depart from this Christian perspective and

would just rely on some ideologies, and much less on mere off-the-cuff

opinions based simply on what we consider as common sense and other

human ways of perception, that we can get into trouble. Instead of

attaining the real common good, we can only generate more division and

polarization that will leave a trail of anger, hatred and the like.

            We have to seriously take this duty of learning how to

bring in the Christian perspective into our collective discussions and

exchanges. We cannot deny that this way of discussing about issues is

lamentably missing. We can even say that some people have gone to the

extent that this so-called Christian perspective is unrealistic and

impractical.

            To be sure, to have a Christian perspective in tackling

issues does not mean that we can only have one uniform position or

view. It can lend itself to a variety of legitimate positions given

the variety of situations and circumstances that we can find

ourselves. Its precision is never rigid. It will always be open to any

position no matter how different and conflicting they may be, as long

as in the end that position or view is animated by charity.

            Let’s remember that it is charity that will always presume

and perfect the other two theological virtues of faith and hope.

Without it, no matter how much we think we are right in something

because of our faith and hope, we would still be wrong.

            Remember St. Paul talking about the preeminence of charity

over all the other virtues: “Love never fails. Where there are

prophecies, they will cease. Where there are tongues, they will be

stilled. Where there is knowledge, it will pass away…Faith, hope and

love remain. But the greatest of these is love.” (1 Cor 13,8.13)

            And this charity is shown to us fully in Christ who

commands us to live it ourselves also. “A new commandment I give you,

that you love one another as I have loved you,” he said. (Jn 13,34)

            The Christian perspective is always characterized by

charity more than anything else. It is this charity, as shown by

Christ, that is willing to take on anything, understanding everyone,

giving compassion and offering mercy to everyone, willing to suffer

and die for everyone.

            The truth according to our faith, of course, would be

offered, explained and clarified, propagated and defended, but in the

end the ultimate truth is in the charity as shown and lived by Christ.

            So, let us train ourselves always to be charitable in our

discussions and exchanges. This may involve a certain open-mindedness,

willingness to listen to everyone, the practice of restraint,

moderation and delicacy even as we may push our position forcefully.

            Definitely, we need to be humble because it is pride that

can spoil everything. With humility we can actually continue to learn

even from our mistakes and those of the others.

            We have to be quick to ask forgiveness if we happen to

commit a mistake which is always a possibility, as well as to be

quickly forgiving when other parties commit mistakes. Yes, we have to

be prudent and tactful in our speech. Most of all, we should be

willing to suffer, because in this life, no matter how right we may be

in a certain issue, suffering and misunderstanding can always arise.

            The Christian perspective is not so much in determining

who is right or wrong. It’s in living charity in our diversity!