We have to understand that our life here on earth is a
training and testing ground for us to see if what God wants us to be
is also what we would want ourselves to be. It is God who is actually
shaping us to be another Christ, the pattern of our humanity and the
savior of our damaged humanity. And we have to correspond as best that
we can to God’s creative and redemptive work on us.
We should debunk the idea that we are just on our own, and
that our life is what we alone make it out to be. That idea cannot
explain many fundamental things about us, like how we came to be, why
we have a yearning for a happiness without end when we know we cannot
achieve it ever in this life, why we have intelligence and will that
connect us to a spiritual world and would lead us to a supernatural
reality, etc.
The correspondence that we need to do toward God’s
continuing creative and redemptive work on us is what would give rise
to the need also to have some daily conquests. That’s because we need
to defend ourselves against everything that would undermine such
correspondence. And this everything involves our own weaknesses and
sins, the tempting and sinful allurements of the world, and the tricks
of the devil.
Let’s remember that our life here on earth can be
described also as a warfare. We have enemies to contend with. The Book
of Job says it explicitly: “The life of man upon earth is a warfare…”
(7,1)
And the enemies we have are no mean ones. As St. Paul
would put it, “We are not fighting against flesh and blood, but
against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against
mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the
heavenly places.” (Eph 6,12) I think that’s plain to see.
Besides, we need to make some progress in our pursuit of
the goal God has made for us—that we be like Christ. Paraphrasing a
Sound-of-Music song, there will always be mountains to climb, streams
to ford, rainbows to follow. We have to grow in the virtues and in the
consolidation of the means we need to reach our goal.
Thus, we need to see if we are growing in humility,
obedience, fortitude, justice, prudence, purity, etc. We need to see
if our life of prayer and sacrifice is getting stronger and is truly
leading us to be like Christ more and more. We need to see if we are
increasingly assuming Christ’s desires, intentions and passions. Do we
have a burning desire for holiness that always goes with a growing
apostolic zeal?
Our daily conquests should lead us to echo St. Paul’s
words: “It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.”
(Gal 2,20) There should be an awareness that such phenomenon is taking
place in our life!
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