Let’s have complete trust in God

“FOR the one whom God sent speaks the words of God.” (Jn 3,34) With these words of Christ, we are made to understand that Christ is the word of God who would lead us to eternal life. The immediate conclusion that we can derive from these words is that we should have full trust in God’s providence. 

 In a sense, while we try our best to make our own life and to shape it according to our freedom, we need to understand that our life can only be properly lived and can be led to its proper end when conformed to God’s will and ways. 

 We need to understand that the ultimate reason we have freedom is for us to freely follow God’s will, for that would constitute the true essence of love which is the essence of God, and which is also meant for us since we have been created in God’s image and likeness. While we have that popular saying, “Like father, like son,” we can also say, “Like God, like man.” 

 It is for this reason that we should really believe in Christ, since he is “the way, the truth, and the life, no one goes to the Father except through me.” (Jn 14,6) That is also why he also said, as if begging us as well as reassuring us, “You believe in God, believe also in me.” (Jn 14,1) 

 We cannot deny that all our life, we would always be hounded by our weaknesses, challenges, difficulties, trials, temptations and, of course, our sins, but as long as we go to Christ, things would just be made right. Only in this way can we aspire to be faithful and live in confidence, peace and joy despite whatever. 

 We should just strengthen our faith in God through Christ in the Spirit, especially because it is unavoidable that we would encounter in our life forms of hatred, persecution, misunderstanding, and so, we would have to wage continuing struggle. 

 Christ already warned us about this. “If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also,” he said. (Jn 15,20) In another instance he also said, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (Jn 16,33) 

 So we need to enliven our faith, always renewing it since we all know that our profession of faith and trust in God, no matter how fervently said, can only go so far. We need to continually renew our faith in order to trust God’s will and ways when we encounter seemingly unbearable predicaments. 

 Remember that episode of the apostles in a boat that was about to sink because of the big waves. (cfr. Mt 8,23-27) Christ reproached them for their lack of faith. And in that parable of the wheat and the weeds, (cfr. Mt 13,24-30) Christ was clearly telling them and us that we should just go on doing a lot of good even if we are disturbed by many evils, because in the end Christ would make the proper judgment. 

 He assures us that with him we will never work in vain and everything would just work out for the good. (cfr. Is 65,23; Rom 8,28) He assures us that as St. Teresa of Avila once said, he can write straight with crooked lines. 

 The whole idea is that we should just keep a strong faith and trust in God’s will and ways.

Never doubt God’s love for us

“JESUS said to Philip, ‘Where can we buy enough food for them to eat?’ He said this to test Philip, because he himself knew what he was going to do.” (Jn 6,5-6) 

 With these words, we should realize that we should never doubt God’s constant love for us, especially when we encounter difficulties and severe trials in our life. God allows these things to happen if only to test us, that is, to see if we also truly love him in return, a love that is expressed in complete trust in God’s will and ways. 

 Yes, we have to be clear that there in nothing in our life, no moment or situation where God does not test us. We have to explode the myth that consists in the thinking that there are times when we are freed from this test. Even in our moments of rest and recreation, we are being tested. 

 And that’s simply because the only purpose of these tests is to see if we keep ourselves always with God as we should. In this regard, let’s remember these relevant words of Christ. “He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters.” (Mt 12,30) There is no neutral ground in our relationship with God. We are either for him or against him. 

 And being created in the image and likeness of God, we are meant to be always with God, much like what Christ himself said about the vine and branches. (cfr. Jn 15,5) Otherwise, we die in the sense of living a life that is not proper to us, like the branches that are separated from the vine. 

 So, we cannot overemphasize our need to do everything to always be with God. We know very well how easily we can think and live as if we can simply be by ourselves. Especially when life seems to be going well for us, we easily tend to take God for granted. We usually go to him only when we find ourselves with difficulties. 

 Yes, we have to understand that God’s tests us not only in our difficulties, but also in our good and easy moments of our life. In fact, the latter tests can be more difficult to tackle. 

 It’s always good to frequently meditate on what God has done for us, if only to enjoy the confidence he has put in us. This is to help us repay his love with our love. Thus, Christ told us, “Without cost you have received. Without cost you are to give.” (Mt 10,8) 

 For sure, with these words of Christ, we are strongly reminded to be generous, to give ourselves completely to God and to others, sparing and keeping nothing for ourselves, because God has been generous with us. He gave nothing less than himself to us. And he wants to share what we have with everybody else. 

 Thus, in Christ’s commissioning of his disciples that should include all of us, his believers and followers, he encourages us not to worry so much about what to have or what to bring. “Do not take gold or silver or copper for your belts; no sack for the journey, or a second tunic, or sandals or walking stick. The laborer deserves his keep.” We need to develop a keen sense of generosity and self-giving that is also a result of detachment.

Loving fidelity to the Church and the Pope

THE gospel of the 3rd Sunday of Easter, Year C, (cfr. Jn 21,1-19) reminds us that like the youthful apostle John, we have to rightly recognize Christ who is the personification of love that is the key to fidelity as told by Christ to Peter. It’s a gospel that also somehow reminds us that we have a grave duty to love the Church and the Pope. 

 We have to realize that we can only recognize Christ if we have the desire to do so, carrying out all the relevant tasks to convert that desire into reality. For this, we need to study the life, words and deeds of Christ as portrayed in the gospels and taught by the Church. We need to develop a growing life of piety, animated by the proper spirit and supported by some practices, like prayer, sacrifices, ascetical struggles, etc. 

 We have to realize that in everything that we do, the first, last and constant intention we ought to have is to look for Christ in order to find and love him. Only in this way can we be in a position to recognize Christ. 

 We should not just be contented with pursuing a natural or human goal in all the things we have to do, like meeting a deadline, complying with some requirements, achieving a level of efficiency, profitability, etc., which while legitimate can be dangerous if not related to the main goal of looking, finding and loving Christ. 

 We should be able to find Christ not only in our good and happy moments, but most especially in our difficult situations and predicaments when we are made to suffer or to feel that we are the victims, the receiving and losing end in our differences and conflicts with others. 

 We have to remember that that only when we are with Christ can we have the true love that assures us of our fidelity to him and to any commitment we make before him. It’s a love that goes all the way, without counting the cost, and unafraid of all the sacrifices involved. 

 It’s the love that will always make us young, new and refreshed, in spite of the passing of years. It is self-renewing and creative, and never runs out of initiatives to look and try new ways of expressing that love in deeds. But it is also respectful of tradition and faithful to commitments made in the past and meant to last till death or forever. 

 It’s the love that is not afraid of problems, challenges, trials, failures, mistakes, difficulties, suffering, etc. It does not surrender to them even if death overtakes it. It regards them as opportunities and occasions to grow more in love, to grow more in trust in God’s loving providence where everything works for the good as long as we cooperate with him. It’s a love that will always fill us with peace and joy whatever the situation. 

 It’s this kind of love that would enable us to develop in a conscious way a great and realistic love for the Church and the Pope who, with the power given to him, connects us with Peter and ultimately with Christ. 

 Given the fact that the Church and the Pope have to maneuver in this tricky valley of tears, and thus, while holy, are always in need of purification, they need all the help we can give them. Let’s express that love in deeds and not just in good desires!

Have a firm confidence in God’s mercy

“GOD so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” (Jn 3,16) 

 We should make these words of Christ reverberate always in our mind and heart. No matter what happens in our life, we should be confident that God is always merciful. We know that our human condition is always in a precarious state, given our strong tendency to misuse our freedom. But regardless of how we misuse it, God will always understand us and offer us his mercy as long as we at least are open to it. 

 In the whole history of God’s supreme project of creating and redeeming us, he knows how abusive we are of his goodness. We of course suffer the consequences of these abuses. But at the end of the day God through Christ in the Spirit is willing to bear the consequences of our sins if only to bring us back to him. 

 As a psalm would put it, “He is full of compassion, forgave them their sin and spared them. So often he held back his anger when he might have stirred up his rage. He remembered they were only men, a breath that passes never to return.” (78,38-39) 

 Given that condition of our life, we should just try our best to behave as best that we can. And when we fail again, let’s never doubt God’s ready mercy. Let’s ask for it as well for more grace, so we can grow in the appropriate virtue to counter our weaknesses and temptations. 

 We cannot deny that there are just too many natural challenges and difficulties for us to handle with a certain ease and confidence. Especially these days when the pace of development is faster, and the developments themselves are more complicated and tricky, we need to have a strong faith to see things properly. 

 Our sense of confidence should spring from a faith that gives us the ultimate meaning and proper direction to all our human knowledge and endeavors. It is what gives the original perspective to all events, good or bad, in our life. Otherwise, we would end up confused and lost. 

 We also need to make our faith grow to cope with the multiplying infranatural consequences of our human condition that is weakened by sin. There’s no other way to manage and survive the consequences of sin, ours and those of others, personal as well as the collective and structural, than by relying first of all on our faith. Without faith, we will find no exit, no relief from this wounded status of ours. 

 That’s why St. Paul said: “Above all, take the shield of faith, wherewith you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.” (Eph 6,16) Faith holds pride of place in our armory to wage that lifelong battle with our wounded flesh, the temptations of the world, and the tricks of the devil. 

 Without faith, we would be easy prey to these enemies of our soul. Without it, we most likely would be filled with fear and anxiety, if not sadness and desperation. Faith unites us to the tremendous power of God over any kind of evil, self-inflicted or caused by others. 

 There’s no way we can achieve our ultimate goal without faith. With God, we have everything. As St. Teresa de Avila would put it: “Solo Dios basta!” (God alone is enough!)

Born again to the supernatural life

“YOU must be born from above.” (Jn 3,7) That’s what Christ told Nicodemus who obviously was astounded by those words. “How can this happen?” was his instant reply. And so Christ had to explain to him the whole business of the need for us to be born again. 

 This thing about being “born again” or being “born from above” is Christ’s way of telling us that we, as human persons, are not just a matter of genes or of some other natural and earthly elements that may define or identify us. 

 Our real identity is to be like Christ who is the Son of God, the second person of the Blessed Trinity, and as such, is the perfect image God has of his own self. And since God created us in his image and likeness, then we can say that we have been patterned after the Son who became man to save us, to recover us, to show us the way of how we can be that image and likeness of God. 

 And since Christ is both God and man, we have to understand then that our humanity would not be complete unless it is also hinged to the divinity of Christ. This “hinging” of ourselves to the divinity of Christ is what is involved in our being “born again.” In other words, there is something divine also in our humanity, if our humanity has to have its fullness, completion or perfection. 

 Let’s always remember that our life is not simply a natural, human life. It is also meant to be supernatural since it is supposed to be a life with God, involved in his work of creation and redemption of mankind, and in the over-all providence he exercises over all his creation. 

 No wonder then that we can find ourselves at wit’s end as to what and how to do what Christ would ask of us, since there will always be things that would be beyond our powers to carry out. 

 Because of the supernatural dimension of our life, we should see to it that we be guided always by our Christian faith, and not just by our senses and our spiritual powers of intelligence and will, though all these are also indispensable. 

 We should just go along with what God through Christ and through the different instrumentalities God communicates with us would ask of us, no matter how impossible for us to do, because what is impossible for us is always possible with him. 

 Like Mary who just said, “Be it done to me according to your word,” when the archangel Gabriel told her she would become the mother of the son of God, we should just believe and accept what is told and given to us, even if we don’t understand the things being asked of us. 

 Let’s remember that we are meant to assume the identity of Christ. And that is not a gratuitous, baseless assertion, much less, a fiction or a fantasy. It is founded on a fundamental truth of our faith that we have been created by God in his own image and likeness. 

 And this truth of faith has been vividly shown to us since it is acted out in the whole history and economy of salvation that culminated in Christ offering his life and his very own self as the Bread of Life so we can have the eternal life with him, and so that he and us can be one.

Preaching the gospel to the whole world

THE feast of St. Mark, the Evangelist, on April 25, reminds us that we have the duty to preach the Good News about Christ to the whole world. Christ said it very clearly: “Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned.” (Mk 16,15-16) 

 And that mandate was accompanied by some privileges and benefits: “In my name they will drive out demons, they will speak new languages. They will pick up serpents with their hands, and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not harm them. They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.” (Mk 16,17-18) 

 We should take this mandate from Christ seriously and do whatever we can to carry it out. We have to realize that preaching the living Word of God is a task entrusted to his apostles and shared by all of us in different ways. The clergy, of course, takes a leading role in this affair, but this task is incumbent on everyone. It’s a serious business that involves our whole being, and not just our talents and powers. 

 First, we need to examine our understanding and attitude toward God’s word, especially the Gospel. On this basic understanding would depend what we do with the Gospel and how we handle it. 

 Do we really know the true nature of the Gospel? Or do we take it as just one more book, perhaps with certain importance, but definitely not as the living word of God, in spite of its human dimensions? 

 The Gospel is actually the proclamation of Christ as the Emmanuel, that is, God with us. This is an on-going affair that did not stop with the death of Christ. Christ lives with us up to now, and continues to do things with us. 

 All these affirmations are captured in the last lines of the Gospel of St. Matthew where our Lord said: 

 “Go, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them…. And behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world.” (28,19-20) 

 Our Catechism tells us that “We must continue to accomplish in ourselves the stages of Jesus’ life and his mysteries and often to beg him to perfect and realize them in us and in his whole Church” (521) 

 Obviously, to carry out this mission, we need to know our Lord and his teachings. We have to go to him and read the Gospel. Reading and meditating on it should be a regular practice for us, a habit meant to keep us in touch with him. 

 Thus, every time we read the Gospel, we have to understand by our faith that we are engaging with our Lord in an actual and living way. We are listening to him, and somehow seeing him. We can use our imagination to make ourselves as one more character in any scene depicted by the Gospel. 

 For this, we need to look for the appropriate time and place. We have to be wary of our tendency to be dominated by a lifestyle of activism and pragmatism that would blunt our need for recollection and immersion in the life of Christ. 

 The drama of Christ’s life here on earth has to continue in our own life. Thus, we need to continually conform our mind and heart to the Gospel, an affair that demands everything from us.

Christ sends us to everyone else

“Peace be to you. As the Father hath sent me, I also send you. When he had said this, he breathed on them; and he said to them: Receive ye the Holy Spirit.” (Jn 20,21-22) 

 Though addressed to his apostles, these words can also be addressed to all of us who want to follow Christ. After all, we have to realize that if we really want to be Christ’s followers, we cannot help but also be his apostles, sent to the whole world, and enabled by the power of the Holy Spirit. 

 The intimate connection between the apostles and us with Christ can be gleaned from what Christ said one time: “He who hears you hears Me, he who rejects you rejects Me, and he who rejects me rejects him who sent Me.” (Lk 10,16) 

 And all this is made possible precisely because we have been given the Holy Spirit who makes Christ alive in us. And just as Christ was sent by the Father to carry out the salvation of mankind, so should we also realize that we too are sent for the same purpose. In short, we have the same mission as Christ’s. 

 We have to feel very much at home with this very wonderful reality and start to correspond to it as we ought. We have to go beyond our earthly dimensions and enter into the more fascinating world of the spiritual and the supernatural. 

 This does not mean that we escape from our earthly reality to be in the spiritual and supernatural reality. No. It means that while deeply immersed in our mundane conditions, we also have to learn to go beyond them to be with God. This is what the word ‘transcendence’ means. 

 To be sure, we are enabled to do that, because of our intelligence and will. These are powerful faculties that would enable us to know and to love, and eventually to enter in the lives of others and ultimately to be with God. 

 But more importantly, we are always given the grace so that our capacity to be with God and carry out his work in the world is actualized. It’s not enough that we are enabled to know and love God. That potency has to be put into act with the grace of God who gives it to us in abundance. 

 We have to do our part, of course. And the first thing to do is to be aware that there is such a reality as developing a life in the Spirit, and from there start cultivating the proper attitudes, skills and virtues. 

 This may look like a daunting, overwhelming task, but it can always be done. Sure, there will be difficult, awkward moments, but those usually happen in the beginning of the learning curve. As long as we persist, time will come when living in intimate relationship with the Spirit becomes second nature to us. 

 We need to spread this Good News more widely, because many of us are still completely ignorant of it. And of those who may already know about it, a lot of confusion, doubts and misunderstanding abound. 

 But more than spreading the Good News, we need a lot of teachers and models who can clearly show how this life in the Spirit can be achieved. Let’s hope that we can count on many people, especially those who are already active in the Church, to serve as teachers and models for this purpose.

How can we recognize Christ?

“IT is the Lord!” (Jn 21,7) That was the excited reaction of the disciple, who the gospel described as the one Jesus loved, when Christ’s disciples made an abundant catch of fish after being told by Christ, who at first the disciples did not recognize, to cast their nets over the right side of their boat. Previous to this moment, they caught nothing. And so, you can imagine how amazed they were at their catch of fish after being told by a stranger in the shore. 

 It is generally understood that the disciple who first recognized Christ was John himself, the writer of the gospel. In his youthful and pure heart, he was the first one to recognize the Lord. But perhaps the main question we have to ask ourselves upon considering this wonderful gospel story is: How can we recognize Christ in all moments of our life, just like how John did? 

 To be sure, Christ is always present in us and in the world. He can never be absent, even in our worst moments. Even when we ignore him or intentionally go against him, he will still be with us. Consider the case of St. Paul who in his campaign against the early Christians was called directly by Christ to be one of his apostles. (cfr. Act 9,1-19) 

 But ordinarily, we can only recognize Christ if we have the desire to do so, carrying out all the relevant tasks to convert that desire into reality. For this, we need to study the life, words and deeds of Christ as portrayed in the gospels and taught by the Church. We need to develop a growing life of piety, animated by the proper spirit and supported by some practices, like prayer, sacrifices, ascetical struggles, etc. 

 We have to realize that in everything that we do, the first, last and constant intention we ought to have is to look for Christ in order to find and love him. Only in this way can we be in a position to recognize Christ. 

 We should not just be contented with pursuing a natural or human goal in all the things we have to do, like meeting a deadline, complying with some requirements, achieving a level of efficiency, profitability, etc., which while legitimate can be dangerous if not related to the main goal of looking, finding and loving Christ. 

 We should be able to find Christ not only in our good and happy moments, but most especially in our difficult situations and predicaments when we are made to suffer or to feel that we are the victims, the receiving and losing end in our differences and conflicts with others. 

 When we manage to be humble, patient, charitable, magnanimous and merciful in these situations, we can be sure that we would be in a better position to recognize Christ in all the parties involved in our differences and conflicts. 

 Most importantly, we should try our best to find Christ in the ordinary little things that we deal with everyday. Let us always remember that Christ identifies himself with all things, and he has assumed everything human, no matter how that humanity turns, except sin. And even when we are in sin, he precisely gives special attention to us. Let’s never forget what he said to his disciples: “I am with you always, to the close of the age.” (Mt 28,20) 

 Let’s start by finding Christ in the little things of our day.

“Peace be with you”

AFTER the two disciples who were on their way to Emmaus recognized Christ at the breaking of bread, they hastily went back to Jerusalem to report what they experienced to the apostles and the others with them. 

 You can just imagine how these people felt when suddenly Christ appeared to them and greeted them, “Peace be with you!” (cfr. Lk 24,35-48) As the gospel narrates, they were startled and terrified at that greeting, and thought they were seeing a ghost. 

 That reaction of the apostles was, of course, very understandable. They were witnessing something that purely went beyond the human and natural ways. It is something that we should always expect in our life. There will always be things, being spiritual and supernatural, that will leave us somehow startled and terrified also. 

 But let’s always remember that Christ always offers peace. So, at the end of the day, when we would be able to take a hold of our all-too-human reactions to supernatural realities, we should be at peace, a peace that Christ himself gives us. 

 Of course, with that Christ-given peace comes joy also. The two always go together. They cannot be separated, although their expressions may not tally with the worldly standards of joy and peace. 

 The joy and peace that come from God are always a fruit of a continuing spiritual battle to keep God’s love burning in us. It’s a joy and peace that is compatible with the cross. It is not afraid of suffering which also has an important role to play in our life and in the redemption of mankind. 

 It’s a joy and peace that comes as a consequence of faith and a growing identification with Christ who bore all the sins of men and the evils of this world and conquered them with his resurrection. In short, it’s a joy and peace that express a guaranteed victory even if at the moment we are still fighting and suffering. It’s an all-weather kind of joy and peace. 

 We need to examine ourselves to see if we have such joy and peace. It is actually offered to us for free. We just have to find a way of having and keeping it. 

 And one important way of doing so is to learn to pray, since prayer is our basic way of connecting with God that hopefully would lead us to a growing identification with him as we are meant to be. Remember that we are God’s image and likeness. With God’s grace we are supposed to do our part, free beings as we are, in realizing this divine plan for us. 

 Learning to pray would obviously need some plan. We have to go by stages. First, would be to learn the vocal prayers, which are already very important as they are inspired prayers given to us if not by Christ himself like the Our Father then by many holy men and women down the ages. 

 As such, these prayers are very enlightening and would teach us what to say, how to say it, and the kind of attitude or disposition we ought to have. Going through them slowly, trying to figure out what they mean, would certainly help us connect with God. 

 Then we should just spend some moments everyday doing nothing other than meditating on God’s word as found in the gospel, and on the life and teachings of Christ as reflected in the lives and writings of the saints. This is how we can always have the peace and joy of God and with God!

God never abandons us

WE should have that kind of conviction. No matter what kind of difficulties we can find ourselves in, we should always remember that God never abandons us. He is always around to help us. 

 We are somehow reminded of this truth of our Christian faith when we read that gospel episode of the two disciples of Christ who were so depressed as they were on their way to Emmaus. (cfr. Lk 24,13-35) 

 We should not allow our feelings of sadness to be so dominant and pervasive that we shut off Christ’s many and often mysterious ways of helping us. If we do not pose a deliberate impediment to Christ’s ways, there is always hope. In our darkest moments, some light will always come piercing and dispelling the darkness away. 

 In so many ways, Christ will remind us, as he did to the two disciples, about the meaning of all human suffering, and of how our suffering can be a way to our joy, to our fulfillment as a man and as a child of God. He will explain to us why we have suffering in this life and how we can take advantage of it to derive something good from it. 

 And like the two disciples, let us feel reassured by these truths of our faith. “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” (Lk 24,32) they said in amazement. 

 And let’s make sure that we do not stay away from Christ and from our faith. It would be unfortunate if we would not allow Christ to finish his work with us. Like them we should say, “Stay with us.” 

 We would have the great fortune if we beg him always to stay with us. Like them, we would have the privilege of recognizing Christ as he is. This can happen if we go all the way to receiving Christ in the Eucharist, just like that moment when the two disciples recognized Christ when he broke bread with them. 

 When we are in difficulty and on the brink of discouragement, overwhelmed perhaps by the burdens in our life, let us try our best to remain calm and be prayerful, so that the beautiful story of the two disciples on their way to Emmaus can be played out also in our life. Let us avail of the sacraments, especially Confession and the Eucharist, so that what we cannot handle can be taken care of by Christ himself. 

 We should have a good control of our emotions and our other human faculties that certainly cannot cope with all the mysteries of our life so that these do not give problems to our faith and trust in God’s ways. 

 And, yes, we have to learn to suffer. In this life, there is no other way but to suffer. This is simply the consequence of all the sins of men. But if we unite our suffering with that of Christ, we can look forward also to our resurrection and victory over sin and death with Christ. 

 We should just be sport in this life, always managing to be in good spirit, cheerful and optimistic, even if the circumstances are dark and painful. We should never forget that there is such thing as divine providence and all we have to do is to develop a good and healthy sense of abandonment in that providence of God.

We should always look for Christ

IF we really know who we are and who we are supposed to be, it should be kind of instinctive to us to always look for Christ. After all, Christ is the pattern of our humanity, the savior of our damaged humanity. We are supposed to be like him. 

 We have to overcome our strong tendency to look for something or someone else, other than Christ. Let us always remember that we are supposed to be “alter Christus” (another Christ), if not “ipse Christus” (Christ himself). 

 In the gospel of Tuesday within the octave of Easter (Jn 20,11-18), we are told about Mary Magdala weeping outside the tomb of Christ because she could not anymore find Christ’s body. She was so driven to see the body of Christ after the Sabbath that she had to get up early in the morning to get to the tomb. 

 May that eagerness of hers be also ours, because in the end that is what truly is proper to us. When we do not have such eagerness, the only alternative is for us to look only after ourselves. It’s always a choice between Christ and us. Are we for Christ or for ourselves? 

 That is why we have to develop a strong and deep-seated habit of looking for Christ in everything that we do and that happens in our life. The ideal state is that at the end of the day we can say that we have been looking for Christ and have been with him, if not the whole day then at least a good part of the day. 

 Yes, we are truly meant to look for Christ always. Only then can we expect to find him. And only when we find him can we learn to love and serve him. How can we love him, if we don’t find him? And how can we find him, if we don’t look for him? 

 Actively looking for him prevents us from simply drifting in any which way in our life. Looking for him does not actually restrict or narrow our view of life. Rather, the opposite—it widens and deepens our perspectives. We would see the complete picture and know how to integrate the varying and seemingly conflicting values in life. 

 We need to be wary of the temptation, very subtly and cleverly suggested by the devil, that taking this business of God and religion seriously would hamper our freedom. 

 The question may be asked if God can truly be found by us. The question actually raises the reality of faith. For those who have faith, obviously God can be found since not only is he everywhere, but also it’s his nature to love us, to be with us, to intervene in our life, to govern and lead us to himself. 

 Now that we are in the liturgical season of Easter, this truth about God intervening in our life is highlighted. In all his apparitions to Mary Magdalene and his disciples, the common thing stressed is that he is now forever alive and actively intervening in our lives. We need to look for him. 

 Yes, we have to seek God with our utmost effort, echoing this sentiment of David when he got lost in the wilderness: “O God, you are my God. I earnestly seek you. My soul thirsts for you. My flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.” (Ps 63,1)

Deception always boomerangs

WE have to be duly warned about this fact of life. When we deceive others, we may succeed to a certain extent to attain the purpose of such deception. But never forget that deception will always come back will inflict a greater damage on the deceiver. 

 A quote from St. Augustine’s Confession expresses this well: “They love truth when she shines on them; and hate her when she rebukes them. And since they are not willing to be deceived, but do wish to deceive, they love truth when she reveals herself and hate her when she reveals them. 

 “On this account, she will so repay them that those who are unwilling to be exposed by her she will indeed expose against their will, and yet will not disclose herself to them.” 

 St. Paul already made reference to the grave consequences of deception. “Evil men and impostors,” he said, “will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.” (2 Tim 3,13) 

 The Book of Proverbs more or less say the same point: “His own iniquities will capture the wicked, and he will be held with the cords of his sin.” (5,22) 

 In the gospel reading for Monday within the octave of Easter, a sample of deception is made. (cfr. Jn 28,8-15) “They gave a large sum of money to the soldiers, telling them, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came by night and stole him while we were asleep.’” 

 Because of this deception, many of these people who did it and their descendants could not accept the full truth about Christ. Deception always has a boomerang effect. It’s about time we review the crucial relationship between God and our capacity to stick to the truth or to distort it. 

 Nowadays, with the plethora of data and information, we have to remind ourselves constantly that truthfulness is not a matter of simply conforming these data and pieces of information to our own designs. We need to process these raw data by leavening them with the love of God and submitting them to God’s will and designs. 

 To put it bluntly, we can only be in the truth when we are with God. Outside of him, let’s wish ourselves sheer luck, because the most likely thing to happen is to slip from the truth. It´s like chasing the wind. For all the excitement and advantages a Godless pursuit of truth gives, everything will just turn out to be vanity. 

 With this new phenomenon about the so-called fake news, which is actually a rehash of the old evil tactics of disinformation and misinformation, of giving partisan spins to issues, we should feel the urgent need to be united to God to be really truthful and fair in resolving our problems. 

 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. 

 We justify such behaviour as a privilege of our freedom. But would that be freedom when one is plunging himself to the bondage of untruth and deception? Would that be freedom when it is exercised to violate the will of God who is the giver, the pattern and end of freedom?

Living the Easter spirit

THE joyous celebration of Easter Sunday clearly tells us that Christ indeed as risen! That’s why we sing, Alleluia, alleluia. As a psalm would put it: “This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.” (118,24) 

 With his resurrection, he has conquered sin and death, and has given us a new life in him. We are now a new creation, with the power from Christ to conquer sin and death and everything else that is not in keeping with our dignity as children of God. 

 As St. Paul would put it, “If we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him.” (Rom 6,8) And he continued, “For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, He cannot die again. Death no longer has dominion over him.” (6,9) 

 And so, we have every reason that we can live forever in Christ over whom death no longer has dominion. In spite of whatever, we have every reason to be happy and confident, as long as we are faithful to Christ. 

 With the celebration of Easter, we are told by our Christian faith that we are made new. We are now a new creation. And to make ourselves new again after we have fallen into sin and thus putting ourselves in the system of getting old and dying, we need to be forgiven, to receive God’s mercy. 

 Christ’s death on the cross and his resurrection actually represent the ultimate of divine mercy and forgiveness. His death represents his bearing and assuming all the sins of men, from that of Adam and Eve to the last sin that still has to be committed, of the last man who still has to be born. His resurrection represents his victory over sin and death. His death and resurrection therefore comprise the ultimate of divine mercy. 

 There’s just a very interesting passage in the Book of Lamentation in the Old Testament that can give more forcefulness to this divine mercy that is responsible for making us a new creation. 

 It says: “Through the LORD’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassion fails not. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness.” (Lam 3,22-23) 

 Let’s remember that in this Easter season, we are called to become an Easter person. And the way is laid open for us to be so. It’s for us to take it up and go the distance. 

 To be an Easter person is first of all a gift from God. It’s his divine will for us, since we are his image and likeness, and adopted children of his. For sure, we achieve the fullness of our being Easter persons in heaven. But here on earth, we need to work it out. We have to move toward it. 

 The grace for this purpose is given to us abundantly. Everything that we need to attain this goal is provided by God’s providence. But we have to correspond. New wine requires new wineskins too. And as St. Augustine once said: “He who created us without us, cannot save us without us.” 

 To be an Easter person is for us to realize that as persons we need to unify and integrate all the parts and aspects of our life, with God through Christ in the Spirit as the principle, means and end of such unity and integration. What we should try to avoid is to be fragmented in these parts and aspects. In other words, it is for us to live a unity of life in Christ.

Learn to love the cross

IF there’s any message or lesson the celebration of Good Friday is imparting in us, it is that we should learn to love the cross the way Christ loved it. He knew from the beginning of his earthly life how his redemptive mission would end. But that did not deter him from carrying out the will of his Father and his own will that actually are just one, since the will of the Son is the same as the will of the Father. 

 In that way, loving the cross the way Christ loved it is the ultimate expression of love to which we are also called to live, since we are God’s image and likeness. That’s why Christ gave that new commandment that summarizes all the previous commandments given to us—and that is, that we love one another as Christ himself has loved us. 

 So little by little, let us take away the usual obstacles we have in pursuing that love for the cross. We all know that we have a natural aversion of the cross and everything that it connotes. We have to overcome that aversion by identifying ourselves more and more with Christ, activating our faith and availing ourselves of certain practices that would help us understand and love the true value of the cross as shown to us by Christ. 

 This will obviously involve constant prayer, having recourse to the sacraments, growing in the virtues, waging a life-long ascetical struggle, and doing certain mortifications and other practices of self-denial, etc. We have to live a certain detachment from the things of this world, to guard our senses, practicing temperance, restraint and moderation in the use of things. 

 We need to know the true value of the cross because the cross, through Christ’s passion, death and resurrection, is where everything in our life is resolved. Christ’s passion, death and resurrection is the culmination of Christ’s redemptive mission on earth. 

 Yes, Christ preached. He performed miracles. But in the end, he had to offer his life on the cross because no matter what he did, our sins are such that they simply cannot be undone and forgiven through the preaching of the truths of our faith and the tremendous effects of the miracles. Christ has to offer his life on the cross! 

 We might ask, if Christ is God, why did he have to go through all that suffering and death? Why not just say, “Everything is now all right, guys.” After all, for God, nothing is impossible with him. With the movement of his will, with a flick of his hand, everything would be as it should be. 

 I must say, it is a good question to ask. Indeed, nothing is impossible with God. He does not have to do anything spectacular to repair what was damaged. A word from him, and everything would be as he wants it to be. 

 Be that as it may, the fact is that Christ chose the way the Father wanted it. “Not my will, but yours be done,” Christ said. (Lk 22,42) And I imagine the reason behind this is because God respects our human nature as it is, as it has been created by him, capable of loving and hating, and also capable of being faithful and unfaithful and faithful again after some conversion, and some consequences that would follow.

“You will never wash my feet”

THAT was the spontaneous response of Peter when Christ started to wash the feet of his apostles during the Last Supper. He could not believe that the master would lower himself as to wash the feet of his followers. But Christ insisted, and later told the apostles: 

 “Do you realize what I have done for you? You call me ‘teacher’ and ‘master,’ and rightly so, for indeed I am. If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another’s feet. I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do.” (Jn 13,12-15) 

 We have to realize then that there’s no other way to imitate Christ and to effectively achieve sanctity and actively participate in his continuing work of redemption. We have to learn to lower ourselves to be able to serve. 

 All throughout the economy of salvation, this business of lowering oneself is consistently highlighted. First, God created us when he gains nothing from us. When we sinned, God was ready to forgive us and to undertake a very complicated plan to save us. 

 We have to be wary of our tendency to get self-absorbed, the very opposite of what we are supposed to be—to think always of the others and to serve them unstintingly. 

 That tendency is actually the stupidest thing we can get enmeshed in. But it’s kind of automatic in us to get self-absorbed. We have to be more aware of this disturbing reality and do something about it non-stop. 

 Obviously, we also need to think of ourselves. Our problem is that the distinction between what is proper and improper in this act is often lost to many of us. 

 An array of factors can account for this. There are wrong attitudes and dispositions. There are also hostile or at least uncooperative environments that precisely coddle self-absorption. 

 Many people are not thinking properly, let alone, praying. Rather, they allow themselves to be driven by their often-blind feelings and emotions. As a result, they find it harder to go beyond their merely personal interests. 

 To be able to serve others, we need to lower ourselves. St. Paul has this relevant point to say:

 “Do nothing out of contentiousness or out of vainglory, but in humility let each one regard the others as his superiors, each one looking not to his own interests but to those of others.” (Phil 2,3-4) 

 We have to learn to look at others as better than us. But how jarring this idea is to most people nowadays! Everyone wants to be better, if not the best of all. If he happens to acknowledge others to be better, it is often out of envy. Thus, the thinking-of-others crashes into thinking-of-oneself. 

 We have to do everything to acquire, develop and enrich this attitude of wanting to serve and not to be served, inspiring and inculcating it in others as much as we can, for it is what is truly proper of us all. 

 We can make use of our daily events to cultivate this attitude. For example, as soon as we wake up from sleep in the morning, perhaps the first thing we have to do is address ourselves to God and say “Serviam” (I serve). It’s the most logical thing to do, given who God is and who we are in relation to him.

Preparing for the worst and for death

“AMEN, I say to you, one of you will betray me.” (Mt 26,21) With these words of Christ, let us be warned about the worst things that can come to us in life. So, with Christ, let us prepare ourselves for the worst scenario in our life and for death itself. 

 By preparing for the worst scenario, we would be imitating Christ himself who, in redeeming us, prepared himself for the worst. In fact, he already knew about his death and how it was going to be. “The Son of Man is to be handed over to men and they will kill him,” he told his disciples, “and three days after his death the Son of Man will rise.” (Mk 9,31) 

 Preparing for the worst scenario may mean that we come out with various alternative plans so that we can move on. This is always recommendable. But we have to remember that the most important way to prepare for the worst is just to be with God. It is always possible that even our alternative plans may fail. Yet what cannot fail is when we stick with God no matter what. 

 This point was highlighted in that episode of the sisters, Martha and Mary, welcoming Christ in their house. (cfr. Lk 10,38-42) Martha was busy doing the chores of hospitality, while Mary simply sat at the foot of Christ, listening to him. 

 When Martha complained to Christ that her sister was not helping her, Christ reminded her that while what she was doing were good, there was only one thing that was necessary, and Mary, her sister, chose it, and it will not be taken away from her. 

 We have to be clear about this point. Yes, we will try our best, stretching ourselves to the limit, to make all our projects and endeavors succeed. Still things can turn out the opposite. Due to this possibility we make some alternative plans to move on. But still, these may fail. The last resort, and in fact, what should always be with us, should be the conviction that we be with God whatever be the outcome of our efforts. 

 St. Paul in his letter to the Romans assures us that as long as we are with God, everything will work out for the good. “We know that in all things,” he said, “God works for the good of those who love him…” (8,28) 

 And neither should we be afraid of death. And that’s because the truth about death, according to our Christian faith, is actually so beautiful that, in a manner of speaking, we should be dying for it to come. No wonder, saints like St. Francis called death Sister Death, and they heartily welcomed it even if it came through martyrdom. 

 For a Christian believer, death is actually the final liberation, the entrance to eternal and definitive life for us. While it came as a result of sin, its sting has been removed with the redemptive passion and death of Christ. “Where, O death, is your victory?,” exults St. Paul. “Where, O death, is your sting?” (1 Cor 15,55) 

 For a Christian believer, death comes at the most appropriate time and in the most appropriate manner. Obviously, this has to be seen from the point of view of faith, because death will always appear as untimely and unwelcome by our human standards alone.

The constant danger of treachery

“RECLINING at table with his disciples, Jesus was deeply troubled and testified, ‘Amen, amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me.’” (Jn 13,21) 

 So begins the gospel for Tuesday of Holy Week. With these words, we have to be wary of the constant danger of treachery. That possibility is always around. If it happened to Christ, it can happen to us anytime. In fact, we can be our own traitors. We can also be traitors to others. The others can also turn us in. That’s just how it is. 

 It’s not to be cynical about our human condition here on earth that is prone to this danger. Rather, we just have to be realistic, and do the necessary things we need to avoid treachery, whether self-inflicted or inflicted by others. 

 Let’s always remember that our human condition here on earth where we are always engaged in the constant battle between good and evil, between grace and our weaknesses and temptations around, can always make this possibility of betrayal and treachery to happen. We should keep this fact of life in mind always. 

 When we are not true to our word and to our commitments, renewing and strengthening our fidelity to them from time to time, or when we do not correct our mistakes and sins as soon as we can, or when we are not sincere and transparent, we would actually be giving an opening for such possibility to happen. If we are not careful, the slide to betrayal can come quietly and surely. 

 We have to be most guarded against this possibility and try to nip in the bud whatever slight traces of its symptoms come to our awareness. This is also true in our duty to take care of others who can also succumb to such possibility. Once we notice the symptoms in others, we should already start thinking, praying and devising some strategy to help them. 

 In this regard, we can never overemphasize the need to be constantly vigilant in our responsibility over our own spiritual lives and those of the others. 

When we notice the onset of complacency and spiritual lukewarmness whose signs can easily be detected, we should already be amply warned and start to do something about it. When we notice certain inconsistencies between the expressed intentions and words, on one hand, and deeds, on the other, we should already consider them as ample warnings. 

 Truth is all of us have the duty to take care of everyone else, especially those who are close to us. And one concrete way to carry out this duty is to consciously bring to our prayer each person with whom we have some special or close relations, or with whom some commitments are involved. 

 This is not, of course, a matter of spying, but rather an expression of genuine love and concern for the others. We should never be indifferent to anyone. Once we notice some symptoms of what we may refer to as the Judas Iscariot syndrome, we have to start to do something, praying first, asking God for some light and guidance, and coming up with some action plan. 

 Usually, what is just needed is to shower the person concerned with more affection and understanding, giving him always good example. In other words, to drown him with a lot of goodness with the view of leading him to a conversion!

God is our all in all

“HE said this not because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief and held the money bag.” (Jn 12,6) 

 These words were said of Judas Iscariot when he complained that the precious ointment that a woman used to anoint Christ’s feet could have been sold and the money given to the poor. That’s when Christ told him to “leave her alone. Let her keep this for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.” (Jn 12,7-8) 

 We have to be wary of our tendency to do some virtue signaling that is actually meant to hide some anomaly that we commit. Nowadays, this tendency is getting not only more common in private life, but more so in our public life. It looks like it has become a fixed feature in our world culture. 

 One source defines virtue signaling as “the action or practice of publicly expressing opinions or sentiments intended to demonstrate one’s good character or the moral correctness of one’s position on a particular issue.” This is meant, of course, to undercut others who differ or contradict their views. 

 Another source puts it as “a pejorative neologism for the conspicuous and disingenuous expression of moral values with the intent to enhance one’s own image.” Still another source describes it as taking “a conspicuous but essentially useless action ostensibly to support a good cause but actually to show off how much more moral one is than everybody else.” We should try our best to stay away from virtue signaling. 

 But even more important than avoiding the vice of virtue signaling is the duty to be most honest in our temporal affairs, especially those involving money and other sources of powers. We have to practice a certain kind of detachment to see to it that our heart is not corrupted by them but is made pure and whole for loving God and everybody else. 

 This virtue of detachment would definitely require us to have purity of intention and to be most transparent in our transactions and eager to practice total accountability before God and also before everybody else. Without this virtue of detachment, there is no way we can keep ourselves uncorrupted, and that’s when we can be pressured to fall into all forms of cheating, hypocrisy, deception, virtue signaling, etc. 

 Yes, we need to see to it that our intentions in all our earthly affairs are pure. And that means that we are only driven by love of God and neighbor, that what really and would only interest us is to give glory to God and to contribute to the common good. 

 We need to convince ourselves that only by doing so can we attain what is truly good for us. We should avoid falling into the trap of the devil who would always tempt us to work only for our own personal interest, suggesting that that is where our true happiness would lie. 

 And nowadays, that kind of mentality has sadly become common. There is now a great need to dismantle that kind of attitude which definitely would require some self-sacrifice. But again, we have to remember that that is what Christ has told us—that we need to deny ourselves, carry the cross in order to follow him who is our all in all. (cfr. Mt 16,24; 1 Cor 15,28)

Palm Sunday

WITH the celebration of the Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord, we mark that triumphal procession of Christ as King that would lead to his passion, death and resurrection. 

 We should not fail to note the intimate relationship between what is truly to be a king and the need to go through the passion, death and resurrection of the Lord. If we want to share the kingship of Christ since we are supposed to be patterned after him, we have to understand that we need to suffer and die with him in order to resurrect also with him in glory. (cfr. Rom 6,8) 

 The underlying message of Palm Sunday despite the gory details of the Lord’s passion is that of hope, joy and victory. We should never miss this message if we want the celebration of the Lord’s passion a meaningful one. 

 We have to realize that we need to suffer. Why? Because in the first place, suffering is a consequence of our sins, not to mention our weaknesses, mistakes, and the fact that we have to contend with a supernatural goal that simply goes beyond our natural human powers. 

 Suffering is unavoidable in this life. No matter how much we try to avoid or ignore it, it will simply come. In fact, the ultimate suffering that no one is exempted from is death. It will come one way or another, sooner or later. 

 But if we follow what our Christian faith tells us, suffering indeed holds great value in our life. From something to run away from, it has become a goal to pursue, because as long as our suffering is experienced with the spirit of Christ, it becomes a good news, not a bad news.

 Every suffering we have should be an invitation for us to go back to Christ, to be converted again, that is, to identify ourselves with him through the work of the Holy Spirit, so we can effect in our mortal flesh that very transformation that took place in Christ, who died and rose from the dead. 

 This is the challenge we have—how to go beyond mere human considerations of our suffering so as to savor its ultimate religious value. We need to develop the skill to escape from the self-focusing dynamics of suffering when considered only humanly, to be able to hitch ourselves with the saving dynamics of Christ’s suffering. 

 Are we just contented with complaining and groaning and moaning when we suffer? Or do we start as soon as we can to enter into the more glorious dimensions that our suffering offers? 

 When Christ said, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me,” (Mk 8,34) he for sure does not mean that he’s leading us to our self-annihilation. 

 Far from it. It will rather lead us to our self-fulfillment. It is asking us that instead of our own selves, we should have Christ as the center of our attention always, the very core and substance of our consciousness. We need, of course, to exercise our faith to live by this divine indication. 

 Let’s always remember these words of the Psalms, “In my distress I called upon the Lord, and he heard my voice.” (18,6) These words should be carved deep and hard into our mind and heart, so we can always remain at peace and with great hope despite our weaknesses and sinfulness, and all the many other things that can cause us anguish—difficulties, trials, failures, setbacks, etc.

Do we really believe in Christ?

IT’S a question that we have to ask ourselves, since there are many indications that even those who profess to believe in Christ do so more out of formality. They do not really know him, much less, love him, because if they do, they would be burning with desire to follow him and to bring him to others. 

 In the gospel, many of the leading Jews during Christ’s time were always skeptical of him. They even went to the extent of doing him harm, and eventually of putting him to death. (cfr. Jn 10,31-42) Some of the people, of course, believed in him, due to the miracles and the splendid preaching he did. Truly, Christ was and continues to be a sign of contradiction. 

 We have to understand that with Christ, it is not enough to know him. We also have to love him. With Christ, to know him truly is to love him also. In fact, we cannot say we really know him unless we love him too, that is, we become like him. 

 With him, these two spiritual operations of ours merge into a unity, although they have different directions. In knowing, the object known is in the knower. It has an inward movement. The knower possesses the known object. 

 In loving, the lover is in the beloved. It has an outward movement. It is the beloved that possesses the lover. The lover gets identified with the beloved. The lover becomes what he loves. 

 In knowing, the knower abstracts things from his object of interest and keeps them to himself. In loving, the lover gives himself to the beloved. In a sense, the lover loses himself and identifies himself with the beloved. 

 Of course, there are many things that we know but which we do not have to love, or even that we should not love. We can know a lot of evils, but we should never love them. If anything at all, our knowledge of them is just for the sake of prudence. 

 But whatever good we know, we should also love, otherwise we would fall into some anomaly of inconsistency. In whatever is good, we should not be contented with knowing it only. We should love it. Let’s remember what St. Paul said in his first letter to the Corinthians in this regard: 

 “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know. But if anyone loves God, he is known by God.” (8,1-2) 

 And we can add that if one is known by God, he somehow already knows everything that he ought to know since God, who possesses him because he loves God, knows everything. In other words, he shares in the knowledge of God. 

 Since Christ is for us the highest good we can have, we should both know and love him to the max. We should not just know him and not love him, nor should we just love him without knowing him—or at least, trying to know him the best way that we can, since being God, Christ has aspects that are a mystery to us, that is, beyond our capacity to know him fully. 

 We can know Christ by studying the gospels and the Church’s teachings about him. But in order to love him, we should put this knowledge of God into practice, converting it into our life itself, to such an extent that we become “another Christ.”

From death to eternal life

OUR Christian faith tells us very clearly how our death can lead us to eternal life. “Whoever keeps my word will never see death.” (Jn 8,51) That’s what Christ said. 

 Of course, these are words that have to be taken in faith. Otherwise, there is no way we can take them seriously, especially nowadays when there are just so many philosophies and ideologies that can sound more attractive and seductive, especially if they show and give some immediate advantages and conveniences. 

 Let’s hope that in our heart of hearts we can repeat St. Peter’s words: “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words of eternal life.” (Jn 6,68) 

 We have to be wary of our tendency to be seduced by our worldly cultures and systems. Let’s listen to the warning given by St. Paul: “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy…” (Col 2,8) 

 And he continues: “For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness.” (2,9) This means that the fullness of our humanity can only be achieved through our full identification with Christ who also made it possible for us to attain it. 

 How? Again St. Paul provides the answer: “In him (Christ) you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.” (2,11-12) 

 The secret, therefore, of having our death as a way to our resurrection is to die with Christ. Only with him can our resurrection, our victory over sin and death, take place after our death. St. Paul encapsulated this most wonderful truth of our faith when he said, “For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his.” (Rom 6,5) 

 No wonder then that Christ culminated his redemptive work with his passion and death on the cross. Only then would his own resurrection take place. Christ made this point clear when after being rightly identified by Peter as ‘the Christ of God,’ he proceeded to talk about his passion, death and resurrection. 

 “The Son of Man must suffer greatly,” he said, “and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised.” (Lk 9,22) 

 We have to deepen our belief that with Christ’s resurrection, sin and death have been definitively conquered, and a new life in God is given to us. We are now a new creation, with the power of Christ to conquer sin and death and everything else that stands in the way of our becoming true children of God. 

 And so we have every reason to think that we can live forever in Christ over whom death no longer has dominion. In spite of whatever, we have every reason to be happy and confident, as long as we are faithful to Christ. 

 We just need to realize more deeply that Christ is alive and wants to live his life with us, because we are patterned after him. Let us not miss this most golden opportunity.

When the truth would really set us free

WE need to be clear about this. The truth that would really set us free is when we identify ourselves with Christ who, while teaching what is good and evil, eventually bore all the sins of men for our salvation. More than just proclaiming the truth in terms of what is right and wrong, he offered mercy to all, including those who crucified him. That is the ultimate truth. 

 All this truth of our faith that relates truth to Christ is encapsulated in Christ’s words: “If you remain in my word, you will truly be my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” 

 To be sure, truth is not only matter of facts and data, much less, the possibility and the fear that something that is speculative would happen in the future. The truth that would really set us free is when like Christ, we are willing to suffer even as we proclaim always with charity what is right and wrong, what is good and evil. 

 In this life, to be in the truth and enjoy authentic freedom, we have to expect suffering. The idea of truth and freedom that excludes suffering here on earth is neither the truth and the freedom that Christ revealed to us. 

 We need to understand this truth of our faith well, because nowadays it is very easy to be confused about where to find freedom and how freedom should be. That’s because all sorts of ideas promoted by all kinds of ideologies and spread by powerful groups have been flooding the world. 

 Nowadays, freedom is mainly understood as the power to do whatever a person or a group would like to do. It is purely a subjective freedom, based only on one’s conception of it or on the consensus of a certain group. 

 There is also the erroneous idea that freedom is anything that gives one some pleasure, some convenience, some advantage, etc. Again it is an idea of freedom that is self-oriented, not other-oriented which is how it should be, since freedom is a matter of loving, and loving is self-giving, not self-serving. 

 Because of these confusing if not erroneous ideas, the sacrifices involved in loving the way Christ has loved us—Christ who is the standard of love and freedom—turn off many people who cannot accept the freedom offered to us by Christ. After all, Christ himself said that if we want to follow him, we have to deny ourselves and carry the cross. (cfr. Mt 16,24) 

 We need to promote the real freedom that is offered to us by Christ. We have to preach about it, in season and out of season, and explain it thoroughly, using arguments that are adapted to the different mentalities and cultures of the people. 

 Our problem in this regard is usually that of being ineffective in our preaching because we use complex or subtle arguments, examples, etc., that are above people’s head. This is not to mention the fact that many times people find inconsistency in what we preach and in what we do. We do not walk the talk. 

 If only we manage to convince people, using both human and supernatural means, that we can actually get in contact with Christ who is always alive and is in touch with us, then we can see this authentic freedom lived out all over the place.

Christology and soteriology

THESE are two branches of Christian theology that study the significance of Christ in our life. Christology deals with the study of the person of Christ, the Son of God who became man. Soteriology deals with the study of Christ as our Savior. Both studies are meant to give us deep and effective understanding of Christ in our life who actually is everything to us. 

 In the gospel of St. John, chapter 8, verses 21 to 30, we see how Christ lamented how the people still could not know who he really was in spite of the wonderful teachings he gave them and the miracles that he did. At one point, he said: “‘For if you do not believe that I AM, you will die in your sins.” So they said to him, ‘Who are you?’ Jesus said to them, “What I told you from the beginning…’” 

 We all have the need to know Christ well. This need involves not only a few of us. It involves all of us. And so, we just have to see how we can go through these theological sciences of Christology and soteriology, which can be done both formally and informally. 

 As the gospels narrate in many occasions, in spite of all the miracles and the wonderful teachings he gave them, many of the people continued to be doubtful and even suspicious of him. On several occasions, they even tried to harm and eliminate him. Of course, in the end they got their way. They managed to put Christ to death in the most ignominious way to die, i.e., to be crucified. 

 It is a phenomenon that continues to take place today, in spite of the most convincing of the miracles of Christ—his own resurrection that later led to his ascension into heaven that was witnessed by a good number of people. 

 That many of us continue to doubt and even to be suspicious of him can be seen in the fact that we continue to take him for granted, to put him aside from our daily affairs as if he is irrelevant or just a drag to our activities, and even to openly reject and to be hostile to him. 

 We need to correct this predicament immediately and strongly, otherwise we would be fully cut off from the very source and keeper of our humanity. There are many ways to resolve this problem. We obviously cannot cover all of them, but we can at least mention a few. 

 One way is to disabuse ourselves from banking our belief in Christ mainly on some tremendous miracles and extraordinary events. That would be like testing or doubting God always. We should believe in Christ, with or without miracles. 

 Christ himself complained about this. “Unless you people see signs and wonders you will not believe,” he said to a court official whose daughter was dying. (Jn 4,48) 

 We need to strengthen our belief in Christ by undertaking the relevant study of his person and mission, and by submitting ourselves to a certain plan that would make our personal and collective relation with Christ alive. 

 We certainly have to learn how to pray, how to offer sacrifices. We have to develop virtues that would resemble us little by little with him. We need to avail of the sacraments. We have to learn to wage a lifelong ascetical struggle since we will always be hounded by the enemies of God and of our own soul, starting with our own weaknesses, etc.