To practice both restraint and hope is indeed a big
challenge for all of us, since, human as we are, we always tend to act
spontaneously or instinctively to things that take place in our life
here on earth, with hardly any consideration of the global picture
provided by our Christian faith in which things in general ought to be
seen.
We have to learn how to be prudent, knowing how to practice
both restraint and decisiveness in our judgments, reactions and
actuation. We should not simply be restrained and moderate if only to
play safe. Neither should we be just bold and decisive to make our
point clear.
Depending on the circumstances of a given situation, a truly
prudent man would know how to restrain himself and how to be decisive.
If facts are clear and the pieces of evidence are strong, then he
would not hesitate to make his views clear and to take the appropriate
action.
Otherwise, he would prefer to keep quiet and discreet, or at
the most would just keep some tentative views and opinions which are
usually kept to himself until things become clear in a way that would
warrant a clear-cut judgment and action.
This kind of prudence can only come about as a result of
one’s identification with Christ who would inspire him to always
judge, react and act with charity. Yes, if prudence has to be true
prudence, it always has to be animated by charity, the one that was
shown and commanded by Christ to us.
But we should not forget that no matter much we try to be
prudent and restrained in reactions to things, we can never completely
avoid suffering, and suffering unjustly at that.
This unjust suffering is becoming common as the world is
getting more and more complicated. We can suffer unjustly because of
some rash judgments people can make, or because of exaggerated
attachments to political opinions and social trends, or because of
racial and even mere regional discrimination.
We can suffer unjustly because of family problems that we
cannot avoid and we are forced to resolve, like lingering and
expensive sicknesses, drug addiction on the part of some family
members, marital crises of relatives, bankruptcy, etc.
We can suffer unjustly out of sheer malice of others,
perhaps driven by envy, greed, lust for power, etc. This is not to
mention the growing instances of suffering due to natural calamities
and disasters for which we cannot pin down anybody as responsible as
well as those errors for which we are truly guilty.
In all this, we have to learn to suffer with Christ and
foster the virtue of hope that in the end, everything will be made
right. And we can be sure that we are having hope when in spite of all
the evils we have to suffer in this life, we can still manage to be at
peace and even to find meaning and joy in our suffering. That’s when
we can say that we becoming more and more like Christ as we ought to
be!
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