Mary and the shepherds

JANUARY 1 is, of course, Happy New Year’s Day! A new beginning is offered to us. Let’s be happy and hopeful. Yes, we will always have challenges and trials, etc., but let’s never forget that we have God as our Father who takes care of everything. We just have to do our part in the best way that we can. 

 Liturgically, January 1 celebrates the divine motherhood of Mary. It’s a tremendous truth of our Christian faith if we consider the question of how a creature can become the mother of the Creator. It surely defies all human logic and understanding. 

 To me, what comes to mind is the reinforcement of the truth of our faith that man has truly been created in God’s image and likeness. That Mary, a human being, a creature of God, becomes the mother of God, proves that point of our connaturality with God. 

 In spite of our natural and infranatural limitations due to our sin, there is a certain connaturality we enjoy with God. Such connaturality can be to such an extent that we can conclude that how God is also how we ought to be. Incredible? Of course, it is, but that’s how our faith tells us. 

 Obviously, it can only be achieved through God’s grace. We can try to go along with God’s will and ways, but we all know very well that we can only go so far. It will be God, through his grace and mercy, that would enable us to acquire our connaturality with God. Tremendous faith is required of us to believe and say, “Amen,” to this truth of our faith. 

 In the gospel of this feast’s celebration, (Lk 2,16-21) we are told about the shepherds who hurried to look for the newborn Christ after they were informed by a host of angels. Let’s hope that we can also have such eagerness to look for Christ not only as a newborn but also as our Savior who redeems us with his passion, death and resurrection. Like them, let’s spread far and wide without let-up the Good News about Christ. 

 Such attitude would surely put us in the right condition to be consistent with our Christian belief even as we immerse ourselves in our earthly and temporal affairs that often lead us to get entangled, confused and lost. Let’s see to it that we can always be driven by an urge to look for Christ the way the shepherds were. 

 In the same gospel, we are also told about how Mary kept and reflected in her heart the good things she heard from the shepherds. It’s a stable trait of Mary to always ponder things that she heard from Christ and about Christ. 

 May that trait also be ours! We cannot deny that we often find ourselves carried away and swallowed by earthly forces. We forget that we are supposed to live a shared life with God. God should be the beginning, the end and a constant presence in all our thoughts, intentions, words and deeds. 

 Let us develop the habit of meditating and contemplating the presence of God at every moment of the day. It’s truly a discipline worth learning. It should not be considered as meant only for some ‘special’ people like the religious nuns and hermits. It’s for all of us. 

 As we begin another year, let’s clarify our priorities and establish the proper plans, structures and programs so that we can really say we are truly engaged in pursuing the real purpose of our life here on earth. 

 Again, a Happy New Year to all!

We are children of God

WE have to develop the awareness and the conviction that we are truly God’s children, meant to share his life, since we have been created in his image and likeness. Despite the tremendous disbelief this truth of our faith tells us, we just have to do whatever we can to achieve that awareness and conviction and so to act and live accordingly. 

 This truth of our faith is highlighted in the prologue of the Gospel of St. John where it talks about how things were at the beginning of time when God in all his eternity decided to create man. Despite the human arrogance to reject God, God did not turn his back on all of us. 

 As the gospel narrates, “He (Christ) came to what was his own, but his own people did not accept him. But those who did accept him he gave power to become children of God, to those who believe in his name, who were born not by natural generation nor by human choice nor by a man’s decision but of God.” (Jn 1,11-13) 

 This basic truth of our faith about ourselves behooves us to develop what may be called the spirit of divine filiation, precisely the belief that we are God’s children. We need to develop this spirit of divine filiation. While it’s a result of divine grace, it’s also something we have to work out. We need to load ourselves, to borrow a mobile-phone term, with a boosting awareness that we are God’s children. 

 We can go to the extent of psychologizing ourselves into it, repeating the expression until it becomes our breath and heartbeat and drives our stream of consciousness, enabling us to go deeper into its meaning, to instill its character into our thoughts, will, feelings and deeds. 

 This certainly would not just be a psychological exercise, for it is based on something real, not invented, though it’s a reality that can be accessed not so much by our senses and our reason alone as by our faith. 

 This point, I believe, is worth reiterating. It is what truly grounds us to the foundation of our life and nature, giving us the meaning and purpose of our existence. It’s a source of joy, confidence and serenity. It tells us what our filial rights and duties are. 

 More importantly, it tells us who we are and gives us an abiding sense that we are never alone, or worse, just on our own. It fills us with the conviction that we are children of God, that no matter what happens God will always be with us unless we reject him. 

 In other words, our life, whether considered in its purely natural aspect or in its supernaturally oriented spiritual dimension, that is, particularly our Christian life, is by definition a shared life. 

 I think we need to be reminded of this fundamental truth about ourselves, since there are now many tricky factors around us that tend to undermine this important character of our life. They make us think our life is just our own. 

 It’s heartbreaking to see that because they don’t have this sense of divine filiation, many souls fall into what we may call as Dickensian Great-Expectations syndrome, where one feels he is succeeding and prospering in life when in reality he is being impoverished and corrupted inside. 

 But I must also confess that I’ve met a good number who, precisely because of their faith and simplicity, enjoy the true blessings of this spirit of divine filiation.

Perseverance in our commitments

THE gospel story of Anna, the prophetess, (cfr. Lk 2,36-40) gives us the precious lesson of how important it is to persevere in our commitments. It that story, it is said that she was already advanced in years and never left the temple, worshipping night and day with fasting and prayer. 

 And when she finally saw the promised Redeemer when the child Jesus was presented in the temple, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were awaiting the redemption of Jerusalem. 

 Her life story should somehow reflect the life story of each one of us. Like her, we should be waiting, for the coming of Christ at our death and at the end of time. We should do this with a deep sense of commitment, a commitment of love, no less. 

 This is a common challenge we all face. We often are good only at the beginning of some commitment like in our love for someone, but we many times cannot go very far. Yes, we savor and relish the sweet and intoxicating feelings when we fall in love. But to persevere in it? We often find ourselves failing, or at best, doddering in an erratic fashion, like an old man even if we are still young. 

 How do we keep our commitment of love—of God and of everybody else—till forever? How do we keep the flame of love ever burning despite the cold and the dust that can come our way? I believe the answer is in our understanding of the very nature of the commitment of love. 

 For many of us, we understand the commitment of love more as a matter of feelings or of material, bodily or carnal attraction. Of course, it is true that in love, everything that we have and we are, are involved. The emotions and the passions play an important role. Except that in true love, we have to give the primary role to our spiritual faculties of the intelligence and the will. 

 It’s these faculties or powers that would enable us to enter into the spiritual and supernatural dimension of love. And it’s in these dimensions where we can find the true source, pattern, energy and purpose of our commitment of love, who in the end is God. It’s in these dimensions that can make our commitment persevere and constantly burning despite the ups and downs of our life, or the dizzying drama of our earthly sojourn. 

 The commitment of love that is a participation in the love of God can take on anything. The good things would not spoil us, making us proud, conceited, vain, complacent, etc. And the bad things would neither put us down, no, not even the scandals and betrayals of those close to us. 

 This true commitment of love will always stay on course, just like what couples on their wedding promise to love and honor each other “for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part.” 

 We have to make sure then that the spiritual and supernatural dimensions of our commitment of love are always nourished. Failing in this can only mean that we are simply indulging on a fake kind of love. 

 This means that in spite of the busy schedule we may have, we just have to find time praying, reflecting and meditating on God’s love for us and on how we can reflect that love in our daily affairs.

Let’s be ready to be contradicted

IF we have to be consistent with our Christian identity, then we have to ready to be a sign of contradiction, as Christ himself was and continues to be. Let’s not forget that prophecy made by Simeon when the child Jesus was presented in the temple. “Behold, this child is destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be contradicted and you yourself (Mary) a sword will pierce so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.” (Lk 2,34-35) 

 We have to train ourselves to be tough with the toughness of Christ so we can take on any and all forms of contradictions that we can encounter in life. Yes, we can be misunderstood, slandered, mocked, persecuted and even martyred in this life. But we should not worry, because as Christ himself assured us, “In the world you will have tribulation. But take courage; I have overcome the world!” (Jn 16,33) 

 Our toughness should be the toughness of Christ who was and continues to be willing to bear all the problems of men, and goes all the way to offer his life for the salvation of men. 

 With Christ and in him, our toughness would also know how to be tender and gentle, how to be understanding, compassionate and empathetic, as described in this passage from the gospel of St. Matthew: “A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not extinguish, till he leads justice to victory.” (12,20) 

 While our toughness will always be a fruit, first of all, of God’s grace, it will also depend on our proper attitude, skills and virtues. What we have to do first is to rein in but not suppress our emotions and passions, subjecting them to the tenets of our faith rather than just the impulses of our hormones. 

 We have to learn how not to overdramatize the pain and suffering involved in bearing the burdens of the others. This is important because this will help us to think more objectively, and therefore enabling us to make better judgments and assessments of things. 

 What can also be helpful is the consideration that when we exert the effort—sometimes the heroic effort—to bear the burdens of the others with Christ, we are actually already helping them greatly. It is the truth about the communion of saints that assures us that whatever we suffer for the others will always redound to their own good. 

 We need to remember that everything is under God’s control. If some bad things happen to us, it must be because there is a reason and a purpose behind it. We need to see the bigger picture that God provides us through our faith, hope and charity. We should not be guided simply by our own estimation of things. We have to go to God. 

 Let’s remember that as long as we are with God, as long as we believe and love him, everything will always work out for the good. (cfr. Rom 8,28) He knows how to derive good from evil, since everything depends on him, he being the Creator of all things. No matter how a creature goes against him, that creature cannot overcome him. 

 We need to channel and assimilate this wonderful truth of our faith into our emotional and psychological systems which are where our useless worrying takes place.

Dreams as God’s channels with us

THE Feast of the Holy Innocents on December 28 (cfr. Mt 2,13-18) obviously reminds us that like those martyred babies, we too can be martyred anytime as collateral victims in our life drama when we try to be consistent with our Christian faith. Therefore, we should be ready for it, strengthening our faith and love for God and others, and losing the fear of suffering and martyrdom. 

 The Feast also reminds us that dreams can be a very effective vehicle for God’s message to reach us. We can see this clearly in the case of the two Josephs in the Bible, one in the Old Testament and the other in the New. 

 In the case of Joseph, the son of Jacob, his brothers branded him as a dreamer out of envy. He told them of a dream about his sheaf of crop standing out and those of his brothers bowing down to his. Also, he dreamt of the sun, moon, and 11 stars bowing down to him, which further stirred the envy of his brothers. 

 This was later on realized when even Jacob and Joseph’s brothers had to bow down to him, already as a governor of Egypt who was in charge of dispensing grain during the time of famine. This part of the story of Joseph is most moving, for it shows his magnanimity and how good a person he was in spite of the grave injustice inflicted on him by own brothers. 

 Somehow the Old Testament Joseph prefigures the New Testament St. Joseph. Like the former, the latter also had dreams that shaped his life. He was clarified about his vocation and mission in life through a dream. Like the former, the latter also had to go to Egypt because of the rampage of killing of the innocents. 

 We can only wish that we have dreams like those of the two Josephs. This should be part of our constant prayers. Even if we should not pay much attention to our dreams, since they are beyond our control, we should realize that dreams somehow play an important role of our life. They can tell us many things about ourselves, and about others also, and many other things.

 We have to know how to handle them, when to take them seriously and when not. The proper and basic attitude, I think, is not to be afraid of them and to remain calm, especially when they are distressing. We should also bring them to our prayers, always asking for light from God. 

 I suppose that for this wonderful possibility of our dreams to take place, we should put ourselves in the proper condition so that our dreams can truly be channels through which God’s messages can reach us. For this, we should see to it that all throughout the day, we live a clean life, full of love and goodness to everyone. Let’s be humble and simple and yet very active in battling against the enemies of God and of our soul. 

 Yes, dreams can express the content of our subconscious mind and heart, our fears, hidden desires and pent-up emotions. When this is the case, it can only mean that we have to improve on our integrity and simplicity, our unity of life, resolving with the grace of God and our efforts whatever inner contradictions we harbor in our hearts, especially the tension between our spirit and our wounded flesh. 

 I believe that’s when our dreams can truly be an effective link between God and us!

Let’s be like St. John, the Apostle

ON the Feast of St. John, the Apostle and Evangelist, on December 27, let’s try to capture his youthful love for Christ that would truly help us in our spiritual life. Like him, we should be both most eager to look for Christ and yet restrained to observe what we may also consider as some legitimate earthly protocols. 

 Yes, let’s be forceful and eager in our love for God and yet know how to be discreet and natural about it, given our human and earthly conditions. 

 This was shown in that gospel episode where the apostles were told about the empty tomb of Christ, and Peter and John immediately proceeded to check on it, but it was John who arrived at the tomb first. And yet he waited for Peter, the head of the apostles, to arrive before entering into the tomb. (cfr. Jn 20,1-8) 

 Here we can clearly see how the youthful John is showing the vigor of his love and fidelity to Christ. It was also this kind of love and fidelity that enabled him to be the first one to recognize Christ in that episode where the risen Christ appeared in the shore where the apostles were fishing. (cfr. Jn 21,7) 

 When the risen Christ at the shore first asked the apostles whether they had caught some fish, they did not at first recognize him. It was John who, by his youthful love for Christ, immediately recognize him. “It is the Lord,” he said. 

 We have to see to it that our love for Christ is authentic and not just something that we profess but not supported by our deeds. If there is true love, there is some kind of forcefulness and eagerness to do things, even at great cost, that would be unavoidable. 

 It’s true that where there is love, there is also some kind of forcefulness, an abiding state of being driven despite the variations of our bodily and other earthly conditions. 

Where there is love, we can only echo what Christ himself said: “I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing!” (Lk 12,49) Where there is love, we would be clear about what the real and ultimate purpose of our life is, we would have a good sense of direction even if we are presented with many alternative options, we would not mind the many difficulties and challenges we can encounter as we go along. In fact, we would find great meaning in them. 

 This is the ideal condition for all of us. Even if we are endowed only with the most phlegmatic and melancholic temperaments, something must be burning inside our heart that cannot help but burst into a flame, a flame of love, of self-giving, of serving without expecting any return, without counting the cost. If it is not yet there, then let’s enkindle it. 

 For this Christian instinct to develop in us, we have to learn how to look for Him in everything that we do and handle so we can find him. And finding him, we can be drawn to serve him. This, I believe, is what loving Christ actually entails. 

 This should be like a healthy obsession that we have to cultivate. This obviously goes beyond our natural powers. The grace of God is needed, but we should also do our part. Let’s ask the intercession of St. John the Apostle for this intention!

The family and today’s challenges

WE are right in the midst of the happy Christmas season when the family plays a very crucial role in everyone’s life. It’s time to look again into the current challenges of this most natural, most basic and most indispensable social unit, since on it hangs much of the fate of our lives. 

 Definitely we cannot be blind to the many challenges and difficulties that the contemporary family faces. The number of broken and dysfunctional families is increasing. Its nature, purpose and requirements are getting vaguer and vaguer to many people, especially the young. 

 Many developments today, while offering some good, are also wreaking havoc on the family because they are not understood well nor assimilated properly to the needs of the family. There’s so much concern for the economic viability of the family at the expense of taking care of its spiritual and moral vitality which is more important. 

 There are many absentee parents. They often delegate their parenthood to others. Besides, parenthood is many times restricted to the act of begetting children alone, without the necessary complementing duty of bringing up children properly. Many do not know anymore what it is to be truly a parent. 

 Quite often, the parental responsibilities are confined to the material and temporal needs of the family. There can be an overdrive of the emotional side of family life, which to a certain extent is good, but the spiritual and moral upbringing of the children is often untouched. 

 In fact, that the family is a domestic church remains at best a theory. It is more commonly ignored and not understood, its practical implications unknown to many. That it is in the family where faith, hope and charity ought to be nourished, where the art of prayer and the development of virtues are taught and pursued, is hardly felt by many. 

 We need to strengthen the family, and within the family, the institution of marriage, because it is what keeps the family alive and healthy. Parents and the other elders in the family should realize that more than attending to the material needs of the family members, it is the spiritual and moral needs that should be given priority. 

 This is the primary duty of the parents, before it becomes a duty of the teachers, priests, nuns, and other officials and personages involved in the continuing education of children and people in general. 

 Parents therefore have to be properly trained for this grave responsibility. They have to feel more urgently the need for the appropriate formation. They need to know the intricacies of spirituality and morality involved in the different stages of the growth of the family members. 

 Let’s always remember that the education of children always starts at home within the family atmosphere. The parents are the primary teachers and the home is the first school. Schools play only a subsidiary role. 

 Let’s hope that more and more parents realize this. We cannot deny that many parents think that the education of their children is mainly the responsibility of schools, teachers, tutors, and other specialists. We have to explode that myth. 

 That’s why parents should first of all realize very deeply that they themselves need a good and ongoing human and spiritual formation. Let’s remember that this aspect of formation serves as the foundation for any education and training children receive.

What Christmas is all about

CHRISTMAS always evokes a very romantic sensation of joy, and that’s very understandable since what takes place there on December 25 is the birth of our Savior, the Son of God who became man to bring us back to where we came from, and thus providing us with what is most important in our life. 

 As we celebrate this Solemnity liturgically, we know through our faith that the birth of Christ is made present before our eyes. Imagine if our faith captures this wonderful truth, what tremendous joy we can have! 

 But going beyond the mere fact that Christ is born on Christmas Day, what we should perceive even more sharply is that Christ wants to be born in us, so that he and us can only be one, as we are meant to be in God’s plan for us. 

 Yes, Christ wants to be born in us. That, in a nutshell, is the meaning of Christmas. All the festivities and merrymaking associated with this day should point us to this truth. We have to correspond to it and act on it as best that we can. 

 Let’s hope that the beautiful decorations we have everywhere, especially the Christmas crèche, Christmas tree, lanterns, the Santa Clauses, etc., lead us to this realization, instead of being distractions or, worse, a sweet poison to our soul. 

 Let’s hope that when we look at the Child Jesus in the belen, we get moved to thank him for wanting to be born in us, and to promise him that we will do our part to welcome and receive him in the best way we can. 

 Christ wants to be born in us because he is our savior who comes to re-make us after we have fallen into sin. Let’s remember that we are children of God, made in his image and likeness. 

 Christ wants to be born in us so he can start and continue with his work of redemption which takes place in the whole span of our earthly life. He wants to grow and live with us, experience what we experience so he can guide us. Let us always remember then that all events in our life are an occasion for us to correspond to Christ’s constant interventions in our life. 

 But do we welcome him? Are we willing to have Christ in us, to work in us and with us? Do we actively cooperate in his redemptive work in us? Are we willing to be another Christ, “alter Christus,” as we ought to be, so we can recover and enrich the dignity God intended for us? 

 Christmas is a time of rebirth, of another conversion so that our identification with Christ, the pattern of our humanity and savior of our damaged humanity, becomes ever tighter. We have to realize ever more deeply that we need to be reborn. We have to do whatever is needed to make this need felt sharply by us. We cannot deny that today’s conditions seem to desensitize us of this most basic need of ours. 

 Precisely for his purpose, Christ made himself so easily available to us that he makes himself not only present to us up to now, but to give himself to us completely especially in the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. 

 To be reborn in Christ, who is our “way, truth and life,” to be “alter Christus” if not “ipse Christus” (another Christ, Christ himself) as we ought to be, is not a pipe dream. Christ is all there for the taking! A Merry and Blessed Christmas to all!

God is a tremendous lover

THAT “Benedictus” prayer that was said by Zechariah, John the Baptist’s father, as an expression of a most profound sense of praise, thanksgiving and blessing for the great favor he received, highlights the reality of the tremendous love God has for all of us. (cfr. Lk 1,67-79) 

 “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; for he has come to his people and set them free. He has raised up for us a mighty Savior, born of the house of his servant David…” And Zechariah went on, pouring his heart out, and in the process was actually making a most wonderful prophecy. 

 Why does God love us so much? It makes us to wonder why. Just consider these points which I am sure are not complete. In fact, they are still very far from complete, even if we think they are already quite exhaustive and overwhelming. 

 First, He created us when there was no need for him to do so. More than that, He created us in his very own image and likeness, taking the risk that we can replace him ourselves. 

 And when finally we, in Adam and Eve, fell to that temptation of replacing God, he continues to love by sending his own son to redeem us. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (Jn 3,16) 

 And the son assumed all our sins by dying on the cross and resurrecting. There can be no greater love than this. God has done this because the Son, the second person of the Blessed Trinity, is the perfect image of God himself. And since we are the image and likeness of God, the Son has to repair that divine image of ours that has been deformed by our sin. 

 God in Christ continues to go through the process of redeeming us by dying and resurrecting all throughout time by sending the Holy Spirit, founding the Church and the instituting the sacraments, especially that of the Holy Eucharist. St. Josemaria Escriva has described the Holy Eucharist as God’s madness of love for us. 

 And the list goes on and on. It will never end. Again, why does God love us so much? We can only repeat some words of the Psalms: “What is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?” (8,4) 

 We can only wager some possible answers. One of them could be that it is precisely because we have been created in his image and likeness that God cannot leave us alone. In a way, we can say that he sees himself in us, no matter how much we deform that divine image in us. 

 In this regard, God is like the mother mentioned in the Book of Isaiah. “Can a woman forget her nursing child and have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, but I will not forget you.” (49,15) 

 Besides, even in the natural plane, there is hardly any mother who will not clean her child no matter how dirty the child is. It’s instinctive of her to do whatever is needed to clean the child or to get him out of any predicament. 

 That, at the very least, is how God sees and treats us. He of course does a lot more.

The inscrutable ways of God

THE gospel story of the circumcision of St. John the Baptist, eight days after his birth, again tells us about the inscrutable ways of God. (cfr. Lk 1,57-66) We have to learn to go along with this reality of our life, just following what our God-given faith tells us rather than be guided mainly by our human estimation of things. 

 As the story goes, the neighbors and relatives of Elizabeth, the mother of John, were surprised why the baby would be named John. “There is no one among your relatives who has this name,” they said. 

 But the father, Zechariah, who till then was made dumb because of his initial unbelief to what the Archangel Gabriel told him about the conception of his son, clarified that John be the name of the boy. With that clarification, Zechariah regained his speech which left the neighbors and relatives amazed and led to believe that God is behind the name of John. 

 As it turns out, John actually means “graced by God.” Being chosen as the precursor of Christ, he was given that appropriate name and status. In fact, at one time Christ described John the Baptist in this way: “Among those born of women there has been none greater than John the Baptist.” Though he also clarified that “the least in the Kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” (Mt 11,11) 

 We should just be humble enough to realize that our certainties can never cope with all the mysteries of life. No matter how objective and scientific these certainties are derived, no matter how deep and exhaustive our philosophies, theologies and ideologies are made, our certainties just cannot take all the mysteries in our life. 

 Even in the world of nature where in theory we have the capacity to know things conclusively, we often find ourselves in situations of tentativeness and even of outright error. That is why we are always in the process of discoveries and we would not know when we can end it, that is to say, when we can say that we have known everything to be known in the world of nature. 

 This does not mean that our certainties can never know the truth, even the absolute, and not just relative, truths. Yes, we can, but the best that we can do is to project ourselves to infinite possibilities, because even the absolute truths are not things that are frozen. They are always dynamic. 

 Our certainties can only tackle some aspects and levels of the reality that is proper to us. We need to realize more deeply that we have to contend not only with natural and even spiritual realities but also with supernatural realities that simply are above our nature to know, unless some revelation is made which should be corresponded to with our act of belief. 

 We just have to learn to abandon ourselves to the mysterious ways of God who in his wise providence takes care of everything. We are not expected to know and understand everything. What is expected of us is to have faith in God so we can always be with him no matter how things turn. 

 With all the things that we have to contend with in this life, we certainly need to have a healthy sense of trust in God’s loving and wise providence, abandoning ourselves in his will and ways that often are mysterious to us and can appear to be contrary to what we would like to have.

What does our soul magnify?

IT’S a question we have to ask ourselves, especially these days when we are hounded by a heavy wave of darkness, uncertainty and even pessimism, what with the pandemic and the spoiler Odette still gripping us in abnormal conditions. If what excites us the most are earthly and temporal things, then we would be very vulnerable to the predicaments of sadness and depression. 

 We should see to it that what should excite us the most, what our soul should magnify is God, our Creator, Father and Savior. We need to train our mind and heart, our feelings and all our other faculties and powers we have to make God as the ultimate and constant source of our joy. 

 We are reminded of this truth about ourselves in that beautiful prayer, the Magnificat, that Mary said upon visiting her cousin, Elizabeth. (cfr. Lk 1,46-56) It’s a most wonderful prayer that simply drips with the highest aspirations and noblest sentiments any human being can and should have. 

 Yes, we have every reason to feel intense joy and thanksgiving and to feel blessed, regardless of whatever, because the Son of God, the very pattern of our humanity, has himself become man to bring us back to where we all come from and to whom we belong. Whatever situation we find ourselves in, good or bad, happy or sad, should always be infused by the spirit of the Magnificat. 

 We should repeat the words of the Magnificat daily, and, in fact, often during the day. We should repeat them from the heart, especially when we encounter difficulties and failures in life, because they remind us that God never fails to bless us. Yes, we should always feel blessed even amidst our problems and mistakes. 

 Feeling blessed is important and indispensable to us. Without it, we would be putting ourselves in great danger as we would simply stand on an unstable ground, totally dependent on the shifting world of chance, luck and fortune. 

 To us, the Magnificat should be the pledge that God loves and blesses us, no matter how undeserving we are, as well as the means to face all the vagaries of life, praising God, thanking him, asking for pardon and favors with confidence. 

 The Magnificat should remind us that even in our worst predicaments, God is always around and Mary is showing us how we can be united or reunited with her Son. She would infuse confidence into our heart especially at a time when we would be most vulnerable to lose that confidence and opt to become a fugitive from God. 

 The Magnificat is like a most precious and useful family treasure in a Christian’s life. It’s not meant to be kept in some secret vault. It has to be used frequently, for it has tremendous power to bring us back to a vibrant Christian life if we have slackened or to keep the fire of love burning, full of action and not just of desires. 

 Like Mary who quickly visited her cousin to help, we too can quickly involve ourselves in the lives of others. Let’s always remember that our relationship with God and with all the saints in heaven develops through our relationship with others in our present life. 

 Loving God is inseparable from loving others. We should try our best that we truly involve ourselves in the lives of others, helping them in any way we can, since that involvement can only prove our love for them and for God.

Upgrading the status of servants

IT’S never a shame to be a servant, to have the mentality and the attitude of one. In fact, to be a servant is an integral part of our dignity as children of God, made in his image and likeness. 

 We are reminded of this basic truth about ourselves in that gospel story of the visit of Our Lady to her cousin, Elizabeth. (cfr. Lk 1,39-45) Though she already knew that she was the mother of the Son of God, her first action after being told that was to go “in haste” to her cousin to be of help. 

 We have to clarify our understanding and attitude toward the status of servants. Very often, we tend to think of them in a lowly way. It’s a very restrictive, way-off-the-mark understanding of the real essence of servanthood. 

 We are actually made to serve, since to serve is the very action of love that is supposed to be the very essence of our humanity, since it is the essence of God himself in whose image and likeness we are made. 

 Irrespective of our conditions in our earthly life, whether we are rich or poor, powerful or not so, highly-placed or lowly in social status, etc., we are meant to serve. Otherwise we would actually be contradicting the very essence of our humanity, let alone, our Christianity. 

 And let’s see to it that to be a servant means we really should enter into the lives of others, getting involved in their life’s drama, so we can truly be of help. We should not limit our serving on the material and external aspects of people’s needs. We should go all the way to serving them in their most important need, which is their own salvation, the health of their spiritual and moral lives, their ultimate need for God. 

 This definitely would require a lot of sacrifice. And Christ is showing us the way. To serve us in order to save us, to make us holy, to make us children of God, image and likeness of God, sharers of his divine life, he offered his life on the cross. 

 We should have no doubt that to be a servant like Christ and our Lady, we should be willing to make a lot of sacrifices, and to follow what Christ himself told us—that we deny ourselves and carry the cross. 

 There is no other way to develop the proper life of a servant. We just have to ask for God’s grace always, since it’s only through grace that we can manage to be a servant as Christ and Our Lady themselves were servants. 

 Let’s remember that Christ himself said that he came to serve and not to be served. Thus, we should be wary when we enjoy certain privileges in life that may tempt us to think that we ought to be served. Obviously, we cannot help but be served somehow since we are always in need of something. But we should try not to be served in those areas which we can take care of ourselves. 

 We should also try to serve without attracting unnecessary attention from others. As much as possible, we should pass unnoticed while serving. That way, we can help assure ourselves that our intentions are pure and that we rid ourselves of some ulterior motives. 

 Let’s remember that serving should be done in joy, convinced that by serving we are making ourselves like Christ who is our greatest joy!

Born again in Christ

THAT gospel story about the Archangel Gabriel visiting Mary to tell her that she was going to be the mother of the son of God (cfr. Lk 1,26-38) reminds us that like Mary, we too should say, “Fiat,” (Be it done) to whatever the will of God is for us, so that not only can we be born again in Christ but also become more and more like Christ until we are made “another Christ” as God wants us to be. 

 This is the will of God for us which we should be clear about so that we would not be confused, much less, lost, as to the real purpose of our life here on earth. We have to realize that we have an active role to play in this “divine project.” While God is the main agent of this project, we too have to be his co-agent. 

 In a sense, we are his co-creator and co-redeemer, understood properly in that it is only God who creates and redeems us, but we need to cooperate and to correspond to his creative and redemptive work on us. That’s how we have to understand these expressions. 

 The secret, of course, is that we obey God’s will for us, whatever it is and whatever it takes. We should expect some difficult and even impossible things to tackle, since this divine project is eminently spiritual and supernatural in nature. 

 But with God, we would also be given the grace so that what we cannot do through our natural powers, given our weaknesses and limitations, his power can do it for us as long as we go along with him. 

 It is our spiritual powers of intelligence and will that would enable us to receive the supernatural power of God’s grace. These spiritual powers of ours have what is called as the obediential potency to receive the supernatural grace of God. 

 This is what it means to be born again in Christ and to live our life with him, in him and through him. We should always be aware of this basic truth about ourselves and learn to act on it daily, making use of some practices of piety, like prayer and recourse to the sacraments, and always undertaking the ascetical struggle so that our mind and heart would always be with God. 

 Let us always keep in mind that our life here on earth is the time God uses in his eternity to create and redeem us. He is still shaping and directing us, helping and cleaning us of our sins, mainly through the ordinary events of our life. Yes, we have to be keenly aware of this reality of our ordinary daily life. God is actively intervening in our life through these events, regardless of whether they are humanly good or bad. 

 We have to understand that this is the ideal way to live. We need to be with Christ, the Way, the Truth and the Life for us, not only from time to time, but all the time. To put it bluntly, we cannot be in the right way, we cannot find the truth about ourselves and everything else, we cannot have true eternal life, without him. 

 We need to be clear about the abiding presence and love of Christ for us. “Remember, I am with you each and every day until the end of the age,” he assured his apostles who can include all of us if we choose to believe and follow him. (Mt 28,20)

Lessons from the Visitation

THE gospel of the 4th Sunday of Advent this year (Year C) tells us of the many precious lessons we can learn from that beautiful episode of Mary visiting her cousin Elizabeth soon after she learned that she was going to be the mother of the Son of God and that her aging and barren cousin was already heavy with child in her womb. (cfr. Lk 1,39-45) 

 In that gospel episode, it is mentioned that Mary went “in haste.” It is an example worth emulating by everyone, for it is clearly what is proper to us. A truly good person, a holy one so close and identified with God, would be quick to serve everybody else, because that is simply the expression of love. Love is always a matter of deeds and service, and not just sweet words and good intentions. 

 This eagerness to serve would really identify us with Christ who is our “way, truth and life.” He being God became man to save us, the greatest service anyone can do. And all throughout his earthly life, serving was the constant rule that he followed. He was always at the beck and call of anyone who had need of something. 

 Definitely, to be able to serve, one has to be humble. And that’s what we see in our Lady, and of course, in Christ, first of all. Pride and all its allies would always extinguish any desire to serve others. They only are interested in serving their own selves. 

 We need to humble ourselves so that we can serve everyone, and not just those whom we like. We have to serve even those whom we don’t like and who may not like us. If we are truly humble, our spirit of service would not make any discrimination among the people. We would serve everyone, whether they deserve to be served or not. 

 A Christian and Marian spirit of service would neither give rise in us to a certain sense of entitlement and privilege because of whatever claim of authority or superiority we may have over others. 

 While it’s true that we obviously are entitled to our rights, we should not feel entitled to privileges and favors that are above our rights and needs. If they come and we cannot avoid them, then let’s be thankful. 

 But let’s be reminded that these privileges, favors and blessings are meant for us to strengthen our desire to serve and not to be served. But as it is, we should try to avoid them, since they tend only to spoil and corrupt us. 

 We have to be most wary when we happen to enjoy some privileged positions or status in life because we tend to think that we deserve more entitlements. And not only would we expect them. We may even demand them for us. 

 Remember what Christ said once: “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.” (Mt 6,1) 

 We need to acquire the mentality of a servant which is actually the mentality of Christ himself. Let us readjust our human standards to conform to what is actually proper to us as taught and lived by Christ. We usually look down on the status of servants. This has to change! We should be convinced that by becoming a servant we would be making ourselves like Christ. Let’s say NO to entitlements.

The sacred humanity of Christ

THAT gospel narrative tracing the genealogy of Christ (cfr. Mt 1,1-17) simply tells us that Christ is first of all God who became man in order to redeem us. He is both God and man, “perfectus Deus, perfectus homo,” as expressed in Latin. He is not half God, nor half man, or some kind of a hybrid. 

 It’s, of course, a mystery, a supernatural truth, and an essential part of our Christian faith. Any belief that considers Christ as God only who appears like man, or man only who appears like God, is a heresy. 

 That gospel narrative invites us to develop a deep devotion to the sacred humanity of Christ since it is through his humanity that we are given a way to become like God, as we ought, since God created us in his image and likeness. 

 Thus, at the one point, Christ clearly said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one goes to the Father except through me.” (Jn 14,6) In the Catechism, we are told that the Son of God became man “to save us by reconciling us with God,” (457) “so that we might know God’s love,” (458) “to be our model of holiness, (459) “to make us partakers of the divine nature.” (460) 

 Because Christ is God who is also man, the Catechism teaches us that he “enables us to live in him all that he himself lived, and he lives it in us.” (521) It further says that “by his Incarnation, he, the Son of God, has in a certain way united himself with each man. We are called to become one with him.” In other words, we are meant to be like Christ, to be “another Christ.” 

 We have to realize then that is it is indispensable for us to know Christ so well as to love him, and to love him so well as to become identified with him, since love tends to make the lover to be one with the beloved. 

 How important therefore it is for us to really know Christ as much as we can, studying his life and teachings in the gospel, and carrying out the new commandment he gave us before he ascended into heaven, which is to love one another as he himself loved us. (cfr. Jn 13,34) 

 We should therefore conquer our heart for Christ. We have to learn to wholly give it to him. We have to learn to engage the heart with the right treasure, the ultimately genuine one, the one that lasts forever, and not the many pseudo-treasures that the world offers. 

 Thus, we should often echo those words in Scriptures in our ears: “My son, give me your heart, and let your eyes delight in my ways.” (Prov 23,26) Or, Christ’s words: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart…” (Lk 10,27) Here God both begs and commands for our heart. 

 This, of course, requires some effort, and even gargantuan effort, because the human heart is actually very difficult to read, let alone manage. It can be tricky and very slippery to handle. St. Augustine’s words can come in handy here: 

 “Man is a great deep, Lord.” he said. “You number his very hairs and they are not lost in your sight. But the hairs of his head are easier to number than his affections and the movements of his heart.” 

 Let’s always ask for God’s grace even as try to give our all to pursue this goal.

The serious duty to prepare

“What did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is the one about whom Scripture says: Behold, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, he will prepare your way before you. I tell you, among those born of women, no one is greater than John; yet the least in the Kingdom of God is greater than he.” (Lk 7,26-28) 

 This tremendous praise made by Christ to St. John the Baptist can only highlight the most important task St. John has done in the whole economy of human salvation. And we have to realize that that task somehow is also ours. We have to realize more deeply that we have the serious duty to prepare ourselves for the ultimate purpose of our life, which is none other than to be ‘another Christ.’ 

 We have to help one another in the pursuit of this real goal of our life without getting confused, entangled and lost in our earthly affairs. If ever, these earthly and temporal affairs only serve as means and constant occasions to aim at that goal. They are our pathways to heaven and to God, to share in his divine life as we are meant to do. 

 We should be very clear about this basic truth about the world in general or about the whole of nature that has been created by God. We need to realize that as God’s creation, the whole world of nature has been imprinted with God’s laws that are meant to give glory to God and to lead us also to him, giving him glory as well. In other words, depending on how we see the world, it is actually a pathway to heaven, to God. 

 Everything that we discover and make use of in the world should lead us to ask ourselves whether what we are discovering are truly in accordance to God’s will, to his true designs of the world, and whether we can discern how they can be used to give glory to God, which is a matter of loving him and serving the whole of humanity. 

 We have to be wary of the danger of discovering and using things simply in accordance to our own understanding of them and also to our interest only. This is a common and abiding danger that we have to be most wary about. We have to do everything to avoid and overcome that danger. 

 Thus, we have to develop that strong and deep attitude of always referring things to God before we put our hands on them. That way, we would be putting ourselves on the right track that hopefully will lead us to God and to see and use things the way they should be seen and used. 

 This attitude, of course, would require us to be guided always by our Christian faith, instead of just being guided by our human estimation of things. And for that faith to be effective in us, we obviously need to be humble. Without humility, there is no way faith can have any effect on us. 

 We should be looking for God always in everything that we get involved in. In all the things that we do or handle, we should be asking what are there in those things that are for God, rather than being interested only on what are there in those things that are for us. 

 This basically is what would comprise as our proper duty to prepare for our ultimate end.

Continuing discipleship

WE, of course, are meant to be ‘another Christ.’ That is our radical identity, since we have been created in God’s image and likeness. And since Christ as the Son of God is that perfect image God has of himself, we can say that we are patterned after him, and as Son of God who became man, Christ is the savior of our damaged humanity. 

 We have to understand though that for us to be truly ‘another Christ’ would require the supernatural power of God. We cannot achieve that status by our powers alone, although we have to put ourselves in the proper condition to be elevated to that dignity. It is Christ who will do it for us, but, of course, with our free cooperation. 

 This is where the duty for us to be Christ’s disciples comes in. To be ‘another Christ’ we need to constantly look for him, find him, follow him, love him and do the things he wants us to do. That, in a nutshell, is what Christian discipleship is all about. We have to find ways of how we can turn this theoretical definition of Christian discipleship into a living reality, spanning our whole life. 

 We are reminded of this truth of faith about ourselves in that gospel episode where John the Baptist sent two of his disciples to see Christ and ask him if Christ was really the one they were expecting or whether they should still look for another one. (Lk 7,18-23) Let’s hope that the need for us to be Christ’s disciples is sharply and abidingly felt by us. 

 At the moment we can examine ourselves if we have the proper understanding of the ultimate purpose of our life, the ultimate status and dignity that is meant for us, that is, we are supposed to be ‘alter Christus.’ We also need to ask ourselves whether we realize that we need to be a true disciple of Christ to put ourselves to become ‘alter Christus’ ourselves, as God wants us to be. 

 To be a true disciple of Christ requires us first of all to look for him and find him. Encountering Christ should not be a problem, since Christ is always with us. It’s rather us who have to learn to acknowledge his presence and to start dealing with him. We should have the same interest in Christ as those who first met Christ had. 

 From the gospel of St. Matthew (8,18-22), we have this interesting episode of a scribe who approached Christ and said, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” He must have felt such a serious admiration for Christ that he had to say this intention and his willingness to follow Christ wherever he would go. 

 To which Christ responded by telling him what to expect. “Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head.” In other words, to be Christ’s disciple is no joke. It will entail extreme difficulties and inconveniences. 

 We can get an idea of the kind of difficulties we can expect as a disciple of Christ when someone told him, “Lord, let me go first and bury my father.” But Christ answered him saying, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their dead.” This can only mean that we have to be willing to leave everything behind, even those who are dear to us, just to follow Christ. 

 We have to understand then that to be a true disciple of Christ we have to learn how to be properly detached from everything in our life.

Doing God’s will

WE need to realize more deeply the crucial role of doing the will of God in our life. We have to understand that it is doing God’s will that would make us his image and likeness as we are meant to be. It’s how we live our life with God, as it is meant to be. This truth of faith should be very clear in our mind and should be made an operative principle in our daily life. 

 We are reminded of this truth of our faith when Christ talked about the two sons who were asked by their father to work in the vineyard. (cfr. Mt 21,28-32) The first said, yes, but actually did not go, while the second said, no, but eventually went. 

 Christ concluded, of course, that of the two, it was the second who did the father’s will which is what is truly important. It’s an episode in the gospel that somehow wants to convey the truth that it is in obeying and doing God’s will that we truly become his image and likeness. 

 No wonder then that Christ said that the greatest commandment is to love God with our whole heart, which, in concrete terms, means that we have to carry out God’s commandments. St. John in his first letter said as much: “This is the love of God, that we keep his commandments.” (5,3) 

 We have to find ways of how we can always feel the impulse and the urge to be guided by God’s will and commandments rather than simply guided by our own will. We have to realize more deeply that our will cannot and should not be working simply on its own, and that by working on its own puts it in a dangerous condition. Our will needs to be always referred to and be animated by God’s will. 

 For this purpose, we may have to develop certain practices of piety that would help us in this direction. Like, spending time in prayer, in meditation, in regularly reading the contemplating the gospel, in rectifying our intentions, referring them always to God. We have to develop virtues like humility, detachment, holy purity, patience and optimism, fortitude, etc. 

 Very important in this regard would be to familiarize ourselves with the teaching, deeds and the very life of Christ himself, fully convinced that he is the very pattern of our humanity. We have to make Christ alive in us to such an extent that we can truly say that we are “alter Christus,” another Christ, as we are meant to be. 

 In this regard, we have to be convinced that our life should also be a liturgical life, since it is in the liturgy where the whole mystery of Christ and his redemptive work is made present and effective in our life. It is in the liturgy, especially in the Holy Mass, where we can most fittingly do our part in corresponding to that whole mystery of Christ and his mission. It’s where we can be one with him, sharing in his redemptive mission. 

 We need to feel the need for doing a widespread catechesis on this truth of our faith. With gift of tongue and making use of today’s powerful technologies, let us reach out to others, leading them to realize the crucial role that doing and living God’s will has in our life. 

 Just like what St. Paul once said, we have to “preach the Word, be prepared in season and out of season…” (2 Tim 4)

Trapped in one’s own trap

IN the Bible, there are a number of passages that talk about how some people, usually the wicked and evil ones, fall into their own snare that were supposed to be made for the others. 

 For example, in the Book of Psalms, we have the following passages: “Let the wicked fall into their own nets…” (141,10) “I did nothing wrong, but they tried to trap me. For no reason at all, they dug a pit to catch me. So let them fall into their own traps. Let them stumble into their own nets.” (35,7) “They have dug a pitfall in my path. But look! They themselves have fallen into it!” (57,6) 

 This was also what happened when the chief priests and some elders of the people tried to trick Christ by asking him about the authority he had for doing what he was doing. (cfr. Mt 21,23-27) 

 As the gospel narrated, Christ, of course, outsmarted them and asked them a question that they themselves could not answer, since any answer they would give would put them on the spot. 

 We have to be most wary of any temptation to trick God by playing around with the truth. We just have to be very truthful even if we may have to suffer because of it, since by resorting to some trickery, we would just expose ourselves to greater shame sooner or later. 

 In this regard, St. Augustine once said, “They love truth when it enlightens them, but hate when it accuses them. In this attitude of reluctance to be deceived and intent to deceive others they love truth when it reveals itself but hate it when it reveals them. Truth will therefore take its revenge: when people refuse to be shown up by it, truth will show them up willy-nilly and yet elude them.” 

 We should therefore be most truthful, knowing how to grow in that virtue of truthfulness especially these days when things can get very complicated. In this we need to understand that truthfulness can only start with our proper relationship with God. Other than that, our truthfulness, even in what we may consider as its best form, would always be suspect and vulnerable to elements that undermine the truth. 

 In short, we can only be truthful and sincere when we are with God who revealed himself in fullness insofar as we are concerned in his Son who became man, Jesus Christ. 

 Thus, Christ clearly said that he is “the way, the truth, and the life. No one goes to the Father except through him.” In other words, we can only be truthful through him. We can only find the proper way for whatever is good for us through him. We can only have the real life, proper to us, in him. 

 Christ said it very clearly. “Let your ‘Yes’ mean ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No’ mean ‘No.’ Anything more is from the Evil One.” (Mt 5,37) 

 Truthfulness therefore starts with our relationship with God, and with how well we maintain that relationship. This is something we have to realize more deeply, since very often we get contented with mere human criteria for truthfulness, that are often subjective, incomplete, imperfect, and vulnerable to be maneuvered and manipulated. 

 When we are not with God, then we can very easily play around with the facts and data, and pass them around as truth, but serving some self-interest instead of the common good, for example.

The joy of Advent

THAT’S what the main theme of the 3rd Sunday of Advent reminds us of. There is joy in this season of Advent even as we prepare ourselves for the birth of Christ with practices of penance that are proper to this season. 

 The 3rd Sunday of Advent is also called the “Gaudete” Sunday. The expression comes from the entrance antiphon of the Mass that cites some words of St. Paul, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice! The Lord is near.” (Phil 4,4) 

 It’s important that we don’t lose sight of our need for joy even as we go through the exercise of penance which is what is called for in this season of Advent. And that’s because, as St. Paul said, the Lord is near. This piece of news should gladden our heart even as we intensify our penitential acts to prepare ourselves properly to receive him. 

 This Good News, which with faith we can consider as already done, should remind us of the bigger picture about ourselves. We come from God and not just from our parents. We are meant to be with God in our definitive state of life in eternity. Our life here on earth is simply a training and testing ground to see if what God wants us to be is also what we want to be. 

 Joy is the ideal condition for us to be in while we are here on earth. Yes, even when we encounter difficulties and all the negative things in life, we can and should try to live in joy, but understanding it as a joy in and with Christ. Especially in these pandemic times, we should avoid feeling sad, empty, helpless, or feeling overwhelmed. 

 This was what Christ promised to give us if we are united to him, like a branch to the vine. “If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love,” he said. “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.” (Jn 15,10-11) 

 With these words, we are clearly told where our true and complete joy will come from. It’s from Christ, from God, and not just from some earthly and temporal source. It’s a joy that we can always have in any season or weather, fair or foul. It’s a joy that transcends whatever earthly and temporal condition we may be in. Whether we are up or down, successful or defeated and lost, we can still have that joy. 

 We need to work out our true union with Christ to have this kind of joy. To be sure, Christ is already with us. We should just be with him. And it’s not difficult to be with Christ, because he is already with us always. Being the pattern of our humanity, the savior of our damaged humanity, he cannot be absent from us. It’s rather us who can dare to ignore and resist him. We have to be wary of that tendency and do something about it. 

 For this, we really have to activate our faith that, if lived well, can always give us hope, in spite of the tragedies that we can encounter in life. Faith lived well also gives us the ability to love everybody, whatever the conditions may be. A faith-based love makes everything beautiful and lovable, even if by worldly standards things are bad and ugly. This is what makes us live in joy despite whatever!

Beware of religious indifference

THOUGH man is at bottom a religious being, always looking for a deity to worship and to run to, that natural religiosity can also be stifled for a number of reasons. On a number of occasions, Christ himself lamented over this sad tendency of ours. 

 One time he said, “To what shall I compare this generation? It is like children who sit in marketplaces and call to one another, ‘We played the flute for you, but you did not dance, we sang a dirge but you did not mourn.’” (Mt 11,16-17) 

 The Catechism of the Catholic Church lists down some of the reasons that can stifle our natural religiosity, like “revolt against evil in the world, religious ignorance or indifference, the cares and riches of this world, the scandal of bad example on the part of believers, currents of thought hostile to religion, that attitude of sinful man which makes him hide from God out of fear and flee his call.” (CCC 29) 

 We cannot deny that there’s vast religious indifference and even hostility against religion today. That may be intriguing to say, since on the other hand, thanks be to God, we can also notice a surge of religious fervor in some sectors. 

 This contrast actually has been around since time immemorial, an indication that human history is always an interplay between good and evil, between God’s providence and man’s freedom. But what is interesting to note is the degree of seriousness into which both indifference and fervor have developed. 

 A complex structure of rationalizations now supports religious indifference and hostility to religion. It seems that the threads of naturalism, skepticism, agnosticism, atheism, relativism, etc., have become more sophisticated, snuffing whatever religious ember that may still remain in a person or in society. 

 Some intellectuals and occasional theologians join free thinkers in lending their dissenting voices and expertise to this trend, adding to the string of scandals the Church has been suffering these past few years. 

 Try to look at some of our so-called leading Catholic universities, and you will likely find nests of dissenters who invoke an unhinged type of academic freedom (aka, academic license) to retail their heresies and questionable if not patently erroneous ideas. They are quite well-funded and supported by powerful international ideological groups. 

 Even centers of religious formation and seminaries are infected with this kind of virus. Imagine seminarians and priests now taught about the beauty and practicality of contraception, etc. It’s really about time that a thorough clean-up be made in these places, but, of course, with due process. 

 Let’s take advantage of this season of Advent to develop a burning desire to be with Christ. Actually, more than just being with Christ, we are supposed to be like Christ, to be “another Christ” himself. That’s what God wants us to be. That’s how we become God’s image and likeness, children of his. 

 We have to develop an abiding and burning desire to fulfill the real purpose of our life which is precisely for us to be “another Christ.” We should be clear about this ultimate purpose of ours so we can have the proper sense of direction and focus in our life, and the corresponding urge to fulfill it. We have to follow the example of Christ. In fact, we have to assume the same mind and mission of Christ.

Advent time to develop deep yearning for Christ

“From the days of John the Baptist until now, the Kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent are taking it by force.” (Mt 11,12) 

 With these words, Christ is actually telling us that we have to be forceful and determined in following the will of God who wants us to be his image and likeness, children of his, and sharers of his divine life. 

 And the season of Advent is a good time to develop this burning desire to be with Christ. Actually, more than just being with Christ, we are supposed to be like Christ, to be “another Christ” himself. That’s what God wants us to be. That’s how we become God’s image and likeness, children of his. 

 We have to develop an abiding and burning desire to fulfill the real purpose of our life which is precisely for us to be “another Christ.” We should be clear about this ultimate purpose of ours so we can have the proper sense of direction and focus in our life, and the corresponding urge to fulfill it. 

 Our problem is that we often take our life’s real and ultimate purpose for granted, preferring to sway and dance according to the music played simply by worldly conditions. We prefer to be guided by our senses and emotions, or by our reasoning alone as expressed in our man-made different ideologies, philosophies, sciences and technologies, etc. 

 We ignore the guiding light of our Christian faith that gives us not only a global picture of things but also the means to attain our true goal of eternal life with God in heaven. We have to remember that our Christian faith shows us the ultimate dimensions and purpose of our life that definitely includes the spiritual and supernatural realities. 

 We often fail to realize that our earthly life is a voyage of faith in time that is heading towards the eternity of God. This predicament has to be resolved, and the earlier the better—of course, with due consideration to the readiness of each one of us to appreciate the value of our Christian faith, something that has to be worked on. 

 In this regard, the first thing to do is to look at the example of Christ who is “the way, the truth and the life” for us. In several occasions, Christ would say that what he was doing was in fulfillment of what the prophets of old, the advance proclaimers of God’s will for Christ and for all of us, said. (cfr. Mt 26,54.56; Mk 14,49; Lk 18,31; etc.) 

 For this, we need to exert some forcefulness. Not destructive violence, not pervert obsession, but a certain forcefulness that helps us to grow properly and love God and care for one another. That´s what we need. This is clear in our human and natural conditions, both in our personal and social aspects. And if we have to consider our ultimate supernatural goal, then this forcefulness becomes even more necessary. 

 We have to follow the example of Christ. In fact, we have to assume the same mind and mission of Christ. It’s clear that Christ already had in his mind that he has to follow and fulfill a purpose and a mission already spelled out for him beforehand. This should also be the mentality we ought to have. We have a purpose and mission already spelled out for us beforehand, and we should do our best, with God’s grace, to fulfill it.

The struggle to be immaculate

THE Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, celebrated annually on December 8, reminds us of that most wonderful truth of our faith that we all are actually meant to be immaculate, that is, sinless, completely holy which means we are truly and entirely identified with Christ who is holiness himself. 

 Yes, we may not be conceived immaculate like what the Blessed Virgin Mary enjoyed as a divine privilege given to her, but we should strive, with God’s grace, to be sinless, always fighting against sin and against anything that can lead us to sin. In a sense, we have to develop a zeal to be immaculate, like Our Lady, which definitely would involve constant struggle against sin and temptations. 

 That may be an impossible pursuit, since we all know that we are all sinners, but it should not prevent us from doing our best to struggle to be as sinless as possible. In this regard, we should never forget to develop and strengthen our personal skills in handling temptations. This concern never goes passé, and it touches a basic, indispensable aspect of our life in all levels. 

 These days, temptations can come to us in the subtlest and trickiest of ways. This can be due, at least in part, to the increased level of sophistication both in people’s thinking and in world developments, especially in the area of technology and ideology. 

 With these developments, temptations can easily come undetected, and sin can be committed in a most hidden way and can even be easily rationalized. How important therefore it is for us to always grow in humility and simplicity, aggressively finding practical ways to achieve them! If not, we would just be lost. 

 As can be easily noted these days, the healthy fear of God is disappearing. In its place, a most heinous sense of self-importance is dominating. The criteria to determine what is good and bad have become blurred. They have gone almost completely relativistic and subjective, declaring total independence from any absolute and objective rule or law that comes from God. 

 Truth is, we always need God in our battle against temptations. We should disabuse ourselves from the thought that with our good intentions and our best efforts alone, we can manage to tame the urges of temptations. 

 We cannot! That’s the naked truth about it. We only can if we are with God. And we have to be with him in a strong, determined way, not in a passive or lukewarm way. Do flies flock on a hot soup? No. But they do on a cold or lukewarm soup. 

 We need to do everything to be with God. Our mind and heart should be fully and constantly engaged with him. We always have reason to do so—at least, we can thank him for what we are having at the moment: health, food, air, work, etc. 

 And to be with God can mean that we have to be actively involved in the lives of others, since our relation with God always passes through our relation with others. The more we get involved in the lives of others, knowing them well, praying for them, helping them in any we can, etc., the more we get to be with God. And the more we are with God, the stronger we become to resist sin and temptations. This is the way toward the ideal of becoming immaculate like our Mother Mary.