The spirit more than the body

WE are composed of body and soul. But of the two, let’s see to it that we give utmost attention to the soul which is spiritual. It is what gives life, the real life to us. As Christ said, “The Spirit gives life. The flesh counts for nothing.” (Jn 6,63) 

 But we also have to realize that our spiritual soul ought to be animated by the Spirit of God who gives it its real life, and thus, the life proper to us. Otherwise, we would just have some kind of animal soul, or at best, an intellectual soul that can do us a lot of things, but without the Spirit of God, it can only lead us to our perdition sooner or later. 

 That’s why Christ said, “The words I have spoken to you, they are full of the Spirit and life.” (Jn 6,63) From these words, we can understand that to have the Spirit of God, we need to take seriously the teachings and the very example of Christ. In fact, we should try our best to be so identified with Christ that we can become “another Christ,” “alter Christus.” We have to understand that that is the ultimate goal of our life. 

 This truth of our faith is somehow highlighted in all the miracles Christ performed. In that episode of the miraculous cure of the paralytic (cfr. Mt 9,1-8), Christ first forgave the paralytic’s sins before he made him stand up and walk. He was showing which one was more important among our needs. It is our spiritual health more than our bodily health. 

 We need to understand then that for us to have the real life meant for us, we first of all should ask forgiveness and reconciliation with God, which is no problem at all, since God is all merciful. He is all too eager to forgive us. And then, we should always ask for his grace, which is actually freely and abundantly given, so that all we think, say and do would be in synch with God’s will and ways. 

 This is a truth of our faith that we need to be more aware of and more attentive to its requirements. We have to act on this fundamental truth about ourselves if only to conform ourselves to God’s will for us. 

 But given the way the mainstream world culture is, and even just our very own national culture that can already be considered as Christian, this effort to conform to this truth is going to be gargantuan, since we are still wide off the mark. 

 We have to acquire the skills to feed our spirit by learning how to pray, how to exercise the theological virtues of faith, hope and charity, appreciate the need for sacrifice, have recourse to the sacraments, continually cultivate the virtues, and wage constant ascetical struggle, etc. 

 We have to learn to view things and to react to them mainly in terms of our faith, rather than just assessing them mainly from the point of view of our human sciences, laws, arts and technologies. No matter how legitimate and necessary the latter viewpoints are, they can never be enough. They don’t have the last word. They cannot bring us to our ultimate end. And they often cause division among ourselves. 

 We have to understand that faith, hope and charity are always necessary for us. They are not optional, to be used and applied only to certain things. They have to be applied all the time, in things both sacred and mundane.

God’s power amid man’s weaknesses

THE Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul, celebrated on June 29, somehow reminds us that God’s power can sit well amid the many weaknesses of men. It shows us the very character of that divine power, full of love, goodness and mercy, that despite man’s foibles, God will always have his way. 

 We know very well how these two saints were. Peter denied Christ three times. And Paul was a rabid persecutor of the early Christians before his conversion. And yet, God chose them to be pillars and leaders of the Church, somehow lending credence to what St. Paul once said: “God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.” (1 Cor 1,27) 

 And St. Paul continues: “God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.” (28-29) With these words, we are made to understand that any power or authority on earth should be seen as coming from God and not from us. 

 We can never fully understand God’s will and ways. All we have to do is simply say, ‘Amen’ or ‘Fiat’ (Be it done), like what Our Lady and all the saints did, imitating Christ himself who said: “I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.” (Jn 5,30) 

 We have to realize that what is impossible with us is always possible with God. As a saying goes, God can write straight with crooked lines. We should just reconcile ourselves with this incredible reality and learn to trust our human leaders, warts and all, as long as they are properly vested with authority, like through a general election. We refer here not only to our Church leaders but also to our civil leaders. 

 Let’s remember that as St. Paul said in his Letter to the Romans, we just have to obey our leaders and help them in any way we can. “Let everyone submit to the governing authorities, since there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are instituted by God.” (13,1) 

 Let’s hope that we know how to follow this clear indication from St. Paul that clearly channels God’s will in this aspect of our earthly life, and avoid unnecessary divisiveness that can only undermine the general stability of our society and even the personal spiritual life of many individuals. It’s clear that our unwillingness to follow this indication do all of us a great harm. 

 It’s true that we will always have differences and conflicts. That’s a given fact of life. We just have to learn how to handle them properly by referring them always to God, so that instead of becoming elements of division, they can generate a deeper understanding of ourselves and of the issues involved, and more importantly, a higher degree of charity that can lead to a more meaningful unity among ourselves. 

 In a sense, while we have to be serious with our human affairs, we should avoid being overly serious such that our unavoidable differences and conflicts would lead us to the ways of hatred and violence, if not war. Again, a certain spirit of sportsmanship is called for here. 

 In this regard, let’s not rely totally on our human ideologies and philosophies that often lead us to be divisive. Let’s be inspired more and always by God’s power and charity.

Whatever happens, trust God always

“WHY are you terrified, O you of little faith?” Then he got up, rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was great calm. (Mt 8,26) 

 These words of Christ, addressed to his apostles who were terrified when their boat was buffeted by big waves, should remind us that we should always go and trust God, especially in our difficult moments. He takes care of everything, even if his ways may not be in accord with what we want. His way of resolving our problems will always be what is best for us. 

 We have to realize firmly that nothing happens in our life without the knowledge and permission of God. And if he allows certain difficulties, calamities, predicaments to come to us, it is simply to give a trial and a chance to prepare ourselves for the end of our life. He always knows how to derive good from evil. 

 So, let us never be afraid of anything. We should just learn how to react spiritually and supernaturally, avoiding being trapped in our merely earthly estimation of things. Only then, can we see God’s ever-wise and merciful designs for us in every predicament we can find ourselves in. God’s providence never fails. 

 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. 

 A healthy spirit of abandonment in God’s hands is necessary even as we exhaust all possible human means to achieve our goals or simply to tackle all the challenges, trials and predicaments of our life. We should never forget this truth of our faith. 

 Let us quote some words of Christ that form the basis for this belief: 

 “Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? 

 “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 

 “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” (Mt 6,26-34) 

 We need to engrave these words in our heart so that whatever difficulty we encounter in our life, we would know how to react. Very often, we tend to face things simply on our own, relying only on our own powers that no matter how impressive can only do so much.

Always open to God’s will and ways

INDEED, we always have to be open to God’s will and ways that oftentimes can be quite challenging and unattractive, since they demand everything from us. They require a lot of sacrifice. We just have to realize as quickly as possible that this is the language of real love. God gives us his all. We should also learn to give our all to him. As a saying goes: Love is repaid with love. 

 This truth of our faith is somehow highlighted when Christ gave this apparently harsh response to somehow who expressed his desire to follow him. “Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head.” (Mt 8,20) 

 When we truly love and follow Christ, we would have complete trust in his will and ways, regardless of the cost it asks of us. We know that his providence never fails. And the unavoidable suffering we can encounter along the way are actually golden occasions for us to learn some precious lessons, to grow in some virtues, and in the end to make ourselves more and more like Christ which is actually the purpose of our life here on earth. 

 We should just be ready for wherever God’s providence would take us. We have to be open to it all the time. Even as we make our plans and pursue them truly as our own, we should not forget that nothing in our life is actually outside the providence of God who can adapt himself to us, even in our worst situations and predicaments, and still lead us to himself. 

 The only thing to remember is that God is always around and is actually intervening and directing our life to him. That is part of his omnipotence which he exercises both from all eternity and in time since our creation and all the way to the end of time. 

 We need to be open to his providence, because even if God is 100% responsible for our life, we too, in a manner of speaking, are also 100% responsible for ours. Since we have been created in God’s image and likeness, we cannot help but have our life immersed also in God’s life. We need to learn to live our life with him as consciously and as freely as possible with him. We are in some kind of divine adventure. 

 The secret of achieving this ideal is to develop the instinct of always looking for Christ. This is a basic duty of ours, a grave responsibility in fact. Without Christ, we would just be on our own, relying simply on our own lights and powers that, no matter how excellent, can never accomplish our real ultimate need—our own salvation, our own completion and perfection as a person, as a child of God. 

 We have to learn to look for Christ. He is the pattern of our humanity, the redeemer of our damaged humanity. In fact, the goal that we should try to pursue with God’s grace, of course, but also with our own effort, is for us to be ‘another Christ,’ a clearly supernatural phenomenon that will require us to be at least open to it and to merit it. 

 This looking for Christ should be our constant behavior. We have to look for him, so we can find him, and in finding him, we can start to love and serve him which is what we are expected to do to be ‘another Christ.’

Giving our all but without bitter zeal

WE need to understand that if we really want to follow Christ, as we should, we should do it by giving our all, willing to leave everything behind, filling ourselves with overwhelming drive to carry out his will and continue his mission here on earth, but without falling into bitter zeal. 

 This truth of our Christian faith is somehow highlighted in the gospel of the 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C. (cfr. Lk 9,51-62) As the gospel narrates, two men expressed desire to follow Christ. But when Christ gave them the requirement, they made some excuse. 

 “Lord, suffer me first to go, and to bury my father,” one said. And the other said, “let me first take my leave of them that are at my house.” That’s when Christ said to the first, “Let the dead bury their dead, and go and preach the kingdom of God.” And to the other, he said, “No man putting his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” 

 It’s quite clear that if we want to truly follow Christ, we should be willing to give our all, and to leave everything behind. Anyway, as Christ reassured us, what we seem to have lost because of following Christ, we would regain a hundred-fold later on, and eternal life at the end. 

 “Everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for the sake of My name will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life.” (Mt 19,29) We should consider these words of Christ as guaranteed to take place. They are no bluff. 

 But in all that zeal to follow Christ, we should see to it that we avoid falling into bitter zeal. What we ought to have is righteous zeal which means that we should always be respectful of legal, juridical and most importantly of the moral standards, especially that of charity and mercy. 

 Bitter zeal was shown by Christ’s disciples, James and John, who reacted badly when a certain city of the Samaritans did not welcome Christ. “Lord, will thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them?” they asked. (Lk 9,54) Christ immediately rebuked the brothers. “You know not of what spirit you are,” he said. 

 While it’s true that we have to be zealous in carrying out the will of God, we have to see to it that our zeal is driven by love. There should be zero bitterness even if a lot of pain and suffering are involved. Authentic love, which can only reflect God’s unconditional love for us, will make things sweet and meaningful. 

 As St. Paul describes it, true love “takes no pleasure in evil, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” (1 Cor 13,6-7) 

 We have to learn to be patient in handling the contradicting reactions to all the goodness that we may be doing. We just have to look for an alternative way in resolving issues and situations like this. 

 We have to be careful with the phenomenon that is called bitter zeal. It is the wrong zeal of intending to do good but discarding the requirements and details of charity. It is Machiavellian in spirit. 

 Bitter zeal makes a person hasty and reckless in his assessment of things. It makes him fail to consider all angles, to listen to both sides, so to speak. He is prone to imprudence.

Mercy the ultimate truth in charity

“WHAT man of you that hath an hundred sheep: and if he shall lose one of them, doth he not leave the ninety-nine in the desert, and go after that which was lost, until he find it?... I say to you, that even so there shall be joy in heaven upon one sinner that doth penance, more than upon ninety-nine just who need not penance.” (Lk 15,4.7) 

 With these words, Christ is telling us to be like him: ever patient, understanding and merciful with everyone, especially those that clearly are in error or have offended us. In other words, to look after the lost sheep. 

 These words of Christ also encourage us to take the initiative to look after them, and not to wait for them to come to us, asking for forgiveness. We have to offer it to them and hope that they do penance. 

 We need to understand that patience, understanding and mercy, and taking the initiative to do all this, are what would comprise as the ultimate expression of truth and charity and vice-versa, charity in truth. 

 We should never forget to channels God’s mercy for all of us. It’s the ultimate expression of his love for us. Imagine, we may not even ask for it yet, but he will offer it to us, as he expressed it before he died on the cross. 

 “Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they are doing,” he said. (Lk 23,34) St. Paul reiterates the same point when he said, “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Rom 5,8) 

 But we need to learn how to blend God’s mercy and the all-out effort we need to exert to achieve our ultimate goal and win our definitive status as God’s image and likeness, children of his and sharers of his divine nature. Let’s remember that while Christ was merciful to the woman caught in adultery, he told her to sin no more.

What we have to avoid is to rely simply on God’s mercy without exerting any effort, or the other way around—to think that we can achieve our goal with our effort alone without God’s mercy. 

 With God’s grace always, we have to learn how to be merciful and compassionate with everyone, willing to bear their burden. We have to learn to go beyond what is right and wrong, what is fair and unfair. We have to offer mercy and compassion, and patience and understanding along the way. 

 The mercy and compassion that we have to learn is that aspect of the redemptive life and work of Christ who fraternized with sinners, who taught us to love our enemies, who spoke of the parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin, the prodigal son, and who bore all the sins of men by offering his life on the cross. 

 They all tell us that it is not enough to have good intentions only towards others, nor to do some acts of charity which is more of philanthropy than anything else, a kind of “noblesse-oblige” mindset. 

 The mercy and compassion asked of us is that very attitude of the poor widow who out of what she had to live on gave her two mites in contrast to the rich man who gave quite a bit but out of his abundance.

Not only a matter of words and intention

“IT is not anyone who says to me, "Lord, Lord," who will enter the kingdom of Heaven, but the person who does the will of my Father in heaven.” (Mt 7,21) Christ says it very clearly. Our prayer should not just be a matter of sweet words and good intentions. It should be a matter of deeds that fulfill the will of God. 

 Let’s remember that when our words and intentions are converted into deeds, we would be strengthening our integrity and consistency as a person and as a child of God. As the gospel says it, we would be like a house built on solid rock. (cfr. Mt 7,24-25) 

 As such, we would be more able to bear our own weaknesses, to resist the temptations around, to carry out our duties in this life, and to continue to pursue our supernatural end to be with God in heaven. In other words, we would be fulfilling God’s will for us. 

 St. Paul said something similar. “Not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.” (Rom 2,13). And St. James: “Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.” (1,22) 

 Christ himself lived by this principle, even at the expense of his own life. “I do nothing of myself, but as the Father has taught me...” (Jn 8,28) And in the agony in the garden, he expressed that most eloquent submission to his Father’s will, “Not my will but yours be done.” (Lk 22,42) 

 All the saints lived by this principle. And the epitome is Our Lady. When someone in the crowd told him his mother was around, he said: “Behold my mother and my brethren. For whosoever shall do the will of my Father that is in heaven, he is my brother, and sister, and mother.” (Mt 12,29-30) 

 Far from disparaging his own mother with those words, Christ was actually praising her. Mary did not only beget her son biologically. She begot him through her deep and constant faith, through her faithful obedience to God’s will. Her ‘Fiat’ (Be it done) was not only uttered at the Annunciation. She lived it before and after that meeting with the Archangel Gabriel. In fact, she lived it all throughout her life. 

 We have to find ways and strategies to turn our good intentions and nice words into action. We cannot deny that we, in general, are notorious for being good only in the former but bad in the latter. 

 Let’s always remember that doing God’s will is what is most important to us. It’s not just following our will which is, of course, indispensable to us. Otherwise, we would be undermining our very own freedom and our humanity itself. Whatever we do is done because we want it. It should be a fruit of our freedom. 

 But what is most important is to conform our will to God’s will, which is even more indispensable to us. Otherwise, we sooner or later would destroy our freedom and our humanity itself, since God is the very author and the very lawgiver of our freedom and our humanity. 

 This is a basic truth that we need to spread around more widely and abidingly, since it is steadily and even systematically forgotten and, nowadays, even contradicted in many instances.

When the gift of prophecy is abused

WE cannot deny that we are now into some very tricky times, when the line between truth and falsehood is blurred if not erased, when men of the cloth can present themselves as prophets to push their own opinion, especially in matters of politics. 

 Christ already warned us about this. “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but underneath are ravenous wolves. By their fruits you will know them.” (Mt 7,15-16) 

 This can happen when, for example, clerics get into partisan politics. They clearly would not be following the teaching and example of Christ who, even if he knew the shenanigans and anomalies in the political world of his time, did not make any definitive stand on a specific political issue. 

 That’s because, I suppose, Christ knew he would be adding unnecessary division among the people if he would get into partisan politics. Politics is such a complicated area where things can never be black and white, totally right or totally wrong. It’s always grey, since the issues involved are matters of opinion and preferences that can give rise to a variety of different and even conflicting positions of the people. 

 The mixture of good and evil in politics, benefits and dangers are so intertwined that to separate one from the other would practically be impossible and most likely be more harmful than helpful. 

 Besides, we cannot stereotype politicians as either purely being of God or purely being of the devil. It’s amazing that given the contingent realities involved in our temporal affairs, like in politics, some clerics can dare to categorize a politician as so good that he can do no wrong, and another politician as so bad that he can do no right. 

 Perhaps that’s one of the reasons why Christ talked about the parable of the wheat and the weeds. (cfr. Mt 13,24-30) It would not be wise and prudent, according to the lesson of that parable, to uproot the weeds at the moment since the wheat may also be uprooted. We just have to wait for the harvest, the final reckoning, when the due separation can be made. 

 In the meantime, we just have to be patient, even as we also should try to purify and clarify things, but done always in a Christian spirit, that is, with charity and cordiality, with willingness to suffer the consequences of evil, without bitterness, anger and the impulse for revenge. Evil should always be countered by good, and never by another evil dressed up as something good. 

 In distinguishing between the true and false prophets, we have to figure out the spirit behind their claim of their prophetic duty. In this, we have received enough warnings from Sacred Scripture. “Beloved,” St. John, for example, in his first letter tells us, “do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are of God; for many false prophets have gone out into the world.” (4,1) 

 There are many kinds of spirits roaming around the world, and we have to learn how to discern them. There is the spirit of God, the spirit of Christ as opposed to the antichrist. There is also the evil spirit, and the spirit of the world that is dominated by the evil one. There is also the spirit of the flesh. 

 It would be good if we are transparent about this business of identifying the kind of spirit we have at the moment. Through constant examinations of conscience, through spiritual direction and other spiritual means, we would know the kind of spirit we have.

The sacred and the mundane

WE have to try to be constantly aware that everything good comes from God, and we therefore should treat them accordingly. Of course, with our human and temporal condition, we can make a distinction between the sacred and the mundane. 

 The sacred things refer to those that lead us directly to God. These things can be the sacraments, especially the Holy Mass, God’s word as contained in Sacred Scripture and the doctrine taught by the Church, and even the sacramentals like the holy water crucifixes, etc. All the liturgical acts in the Church are also considered as sacred. We have to learn how to deal with the sacred things properly. 

 With the sacred, all we have to do is utmost reverence, putting all our faith in them, knowing that through natural and human elements, we are touching the supernatural dimension of our life, we are touching the very life of God. 

 We have to develop as early as possible a sense of the sacred in our life. We can develop this sense of the sacred when we remember that in any liturgical act, for example, no matter how handicapped by our human limitations and mistakes, we are actually doing and participating in the act of Christ, the act of the Church with all the saints and angels and the Christian faithful. 

 The mundane things refer to the temporal affairs of ours, like our business and politics, the sciences, arts and technologies, and all the materials involved there. While they may not deal directly with God, we have to understand that they are meant to be the tools, instruments and occasions we have to bring us to God. Their relation to God should not be lost in our mind when we are dealing with them. 

 Yes, we need to develop a keen sense of the sacred, especially when we deal with the sacred things, and even when we are dealing with the mundane things. With the sacred things, Christ himself said it very clearly, “Do not give what is holy to dogs, or throw your pearls before swine, lest they trample them underfoot, and turn and tear you to pieces.” (Mt 7,6) 

 I believe that the same words can also be applied when referring to the mundane things. We should not just treat them as if they are not vehicles and expressions of our faith and love for God and for others. In fact, given our objective relation with God, we have to realize more deeply that our involvement in these things is part of God’s providence over all his creation. There is also something holy in them. 

 The mundane things, and more so the sacred things, are meant to bring us to God. They are an occasion to bring about our own sanctification, which is the ultimate purpose of our life here on earth, as well as to involve us in Christ’s continuing work of redemption that necessarily involves us. Yes, we are all meant to be apostles to each other, since all of us are involved in the business of human redemption. 

 For all this, we certainly have to rev up our faith, our piety and devotion, even while immersed in our earthly affairs. We have to learn how to achieve that ideal and to avoid the tendency to be carried away by merely earthly forces, forgetting our duties toward God and others.

We are meant to judge, but to judge fairly

IN spite of our first impression on Christ’s words that we should not judge, since he said, “Judge not that you may not be judged,” we have to make it clear that we are actually meant to judge, but to judge fairly. 

 We are meant to judge precisely because we have been given the capacity to know things, situations and people as well with our God-given powers of intelligence and will. The very act of knowing already involves some judgment. We cannot know anything unless we make some judgments. 

 But we need to realize that we should judge fairly. Somehow this point is implied when Christ said, “For with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged. And with what measure you mete, it shall be measured to you again.” 

 In fact, in the gospel of St. John, we hear Christ saying: “Judge not according to the appearance, but judge just judgment.” (7,24) It’s clear that we have to be most careful in our judgments. We cannot be reckless about them, judging persons and things on the basis of instincts or feelings alone, or on some opinions, personal preferences, social trends, and even sophisticated theories and ideologies. 

 Such way of judging cannot capture the essential issues involved in a particular case. It will unavoidably get entangled with the non-essential elements. It will be at the mercy of the wiles of the flesh, the world and the devil himself. 

 We have to judge with Christ himself, and now in the Holy Spirit. With respect to this point, St. Paul had this to say: “He that is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.” (1 Cor 2,15) It is not pride to aspire to that ideal of being so spiritual to be able to judge all things. 

 Only in this way can we become persons of sound judgment. It’s an ideal whose importance, relevance and urgency are increasing these days, given the complicating conditions we are getting into. 

 That’s actually an understatement. We know that to be a prudent man or a person of sound judgment is essential to us, considering our nature and dignity, plus the growing scope of the responsibilities we are acquiring nowadays. 

 Not only do we have to contend with the multiplying pressures and conditionings on our personal, family and professional life. Not only do we have to grapple with the confusing ramifications of our social, economic and political life, sorting them out as best that we could. 

 With escalating insistence, we need to learn how to integrate the material with the spiritual dimension of our life, the here and now with the eternal and supernatural destiny meant for us. 

 We have to know how to live by faith, hope and charity, the essence of our supernatural life with God, in the middle of our daily activities and concerns, and in the pursuit of our temporal affairs, be it in business, politics, education, culture, sports, etc. 

 This necessity demands of us to be nothing less than persons of sound judgment. We have to overcome our tendency to be guided mainly by instincts, emotions, moods, fashions, and some sophisticated philosophies and ideologies that, while offering many good elements, actually lead us away from our proper end. 

 Let’s never dare to emit judgments that are mere products of our own making. We have to make them always in the presence of God and motivated by nothing other than love for God and for everybody else. We have to continually check on the rectitude of our intention, and the correctness and timeliness of our words and deeds.

Christ’s real presence in the Eucharist

WE have to make sure that our faith in the real presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament is always kept alive and strong. Let’s take advantage of the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of the Lord (Corpus Christi) to check our faith in this most crucial truth. We know that we never do enough in this regard, since what we have before us is truly tremendous and overwhelming a mystery. 

 In the gospel of this year’s celebration of the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, we are presented again with that story of the multiplication of the 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. (cfr. Lk 9,11-17) We are made to understand that the mystery of the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist goes far beyond what we can see and understand. We have to go strictly by faith. 

 It’s when we can capture this truth of our faith that we become Eucharistic souls. To be Eucharistic souls means to be a real person who is both grounded and oriented properly. Yes, we need to be Eucharistic in mind and heart, because the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist is where we have our most precious treasure, our everything, our light, our purification, our salvation. 

 That’s where we have Christ not only in real presence, as in the Blessed Sacrament, nor as spiritual food, as in the Holy Communion, but primarily as our savior who continues to offer his life on the cross for us, as in the Holy Mass. 

 We need to be theological in our thinking to capture this reality and live in accordance to it not only from time to time, but rather all the time and everywhere, whatever our situation is. 

 We have to overcome the very common phenomenon of treating the Holy Eucharist as just a special part of our life that we may attend to in some special moments of the day or on Sundays and holy days of obligation only. 

 If we believe that God is everything to us, then we have to believe also that Christ, the son of God who became man, is also everything to us. That’s why he said he is “the way, the truth and the life, no one goes to the Father except through me.” 

 Now, if we believe in Christ as everything to us, then it follows that we have to believe in the Holy Eucharist also as everything to us, since it is the Holy Eucharist where the whole redemptive life of Christ is summarized and sacramentalized, that is to say, made present to us through time. 

 With the Holy Eucharist, we become contemporaries of Christ in his most supreme act of salvific love for us. But, alas, how many of us realize this, and among those of us who do, how many have the skill to turn this realization into a living reality? 

 We need to do a lot of catechizing and discussion if only to air out the many possibilities and practical considerations we can have to make the Holy Eucharist everything to us not only in theory and aspiration, but also in practice in our daily grind. 

 We therefore need to enkindle our Eucharistic amazement and to intensify our Eucharistic piety. In this matter, we can never overdo things. We should try our best that our Eucharistic piety continues to grow strong and deep.

What is our real treasure?

WE need to be clear about what our real treasure is. It’s God. It’s when we achieve the fullness of our humanity. And that can only happen when we ultimately become God’s image and likeness, which is how God wants us to be. 

 Thus, in the gospel of St. Matthew we hear Christ telling us, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and decay destroy, and thieves break in and steal. But store up treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor decay destroys, nor thieves break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.” (Mt 6,19-21) 

 We need to be most wary of our strong tendency to be trapped in earthly things and values. In this regard, we have to be constantly guarded, our heart in the right place, employing the pertinent means to keep us with the right focus and intentions. 

 We need to see to it that even as we immerse ourselves as deeply as possible in our earthly affairs, we do not lose our sense of heaven and eternity, our primary relation with God. In fact, the ideal is that as we go deeper in our temporal affairs, our sense of heaven and eternity should also become sharper. 

 This is always possible and doable as long as we are guided first of all by our faith rather than by our feelings and by our merely human estimation of things. Let’s always remember that it is our faith, our Christian faith, that gives the whole picture of our life—where we come from, where we are supposed to go, the purpose of our life here on earth, the true value of our mundane concerns, etc. 

 Let’s be theological in our thinking and reaction to the things of this world. For that, we of course would need some training. It should consist of always referring things to God, whatever they may be—good or bad, a success or a failure, a victory or a defeat, etc. We need to feel the urge to do so. 

 In short, we have to keep our spiritual and supernatural bearing which should involve a certain detachment from the things of the world. For this detachment to be lived, we should assume a certain spirit of gamesmanship or sportsmanship, since the effectiveness of our earthly affairs is not so much in whether we win or succeed in them as in whether we manage to refer them to God whatever the outcome. 

 We try to do our best to win in whatever endeavor we do, but just the same, whether we win or lose we remain happy and assured that we are all friends, brothers and sisters, and children of God. 

 The detachment involved here can be of the heroic type as illustrated in the gospel. “If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble,” Christ said, “cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.” (Mt 18,8-9) 

 In this regard, we cannot overemphasize the need to meditate on heaven often. It’s never a futile exercise. Heaven should so elicit in us the strongest desire and passion that we would be willing to sacrifice everything else, including our honor and life itself.

The model prayer

“IN praying, do not babble like the pagans, who think that they will be heard because of their many words.” (Mt 6,7) With these words, Christ is telling us to be wary of the dangers of the way we pray. And he immediately tells us how to pray. Thus, we now have what is known as the Lord’s Prayer, or the “Our Father.” 

 We need to realize that this is the model prayer that shows us what dispositions we ought to have when we pray, how we ought to address God our Father, what we have to ask, etc. Thus, we have to assume the spirit with which the prayer is given to us by Christ. 

 In the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, we are told that “the Lord’s Prayer reveals us to ourselves at the same time that it reveals the Father to us.” (2783) 

 In other words, we are told who we really are and who God is to us. Thus, no matter how our life here on earth goes, we should never forget that we are children of God who will do everything to bring us back to him. Psalm 129 reinforces this truth of our faith: “With the Lord, there is mercy and fullness of redemption.” 

 We just have to make sure also that, as expressed in this prayer, we also have to be merciful to everyone just as God is merciful to us. “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.” 

 We have to understand that forgiveness or mercy is the ultimate expression of love which is the very essence of God and which is also meant to be essence of our humanity since we are God’s image and likeness, children of his. 

 And as if to underscore the importance of this point, Christ reiterated: “For if you will forgive men their offences, your heavenly Father will forgive you also your offences. But if you will not forgive men, neither will your Father forgive you your offences.” (Mt 6,14-15) It’s clear therefore that we can only be forgiven if we also forgive others. 

 We have to be clear that this injunction is meant for everyone, and not only for a few whom we may consider to be religiously inclined. That’s why when asked how many times we should forgive, he said not only seven times, but seventy times seven, meaning always. 

 That’s also why he easily forgave the woman caught in adultery. And to those whom he cured of their illnesses, it was actually the forgiveness of their sins that he was more interested in. 

 To top it all, Christ allowed himself to die on the cross as a way to forgive all of our sins, and to convert our sins through his resurrection as a way to our own redemption. What he did for us he also expects, nay, commands that we also do for everybody else. 

 Thus that indication that if we want to follow him, we have to deny ourselves, carry the cross and follow him. It is presumed that all of us sin one way or another. That’s why St. John said: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” (1 Jn 1,8) I am sure that our personal experience can bear that out easily. 

 We really need to live the spirit behind this model prayer!

All for the glory of God

WE have to make sure that everything we do is done for God’s glory. We have to be most careful of our tendency to do some good things that are meant in the end to glorify ourselves, rather than to always give glory to God. 

 We are reminded of this danger when Christ said, “Take care not to perform righteous deeds in order that people may see them; otherwise, you will have no recompense from your heavenly Father.” (Mt 6,1) 

 And he continued by saying, “When you give alms, do not blow a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets to win the praise of others. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward.” (6,2) 

 As we can see, the intention of our human acts plays a crucial role. With it, we can determine whether we are truly good and moral, or are simply playing around, playing the game of hypocrisy, appearing righteous when we truly are not. 

 We know that with our intention, we can direct our acts to God, following what was once indicated by St. Paul, “Whether you eat or drink, or whatsoever else you do, do all to the glory of God.” (1 Cor 10,31) That’s how our acts become good, or moral. Otherwise, they are bad, or at least dangerous. 

 This is so, since God, being the Creator, is the standard for everything. And more than the standard, he is, in fact, the very substance of what is good, true and beautiful, what is fair and just, what is perfection itself. 

 Nothing is good, true and beautiful, nothing is fair and just, nothing is perfect if it is not done with God and for God. In short, we need to refer all our acts to God. We have to make this affirmation very clear in our mind and do everything to make that ideal a reality. 

 And so, a lot depends on our intention, because our intention is the very expression of who and where in the end we want to be. Do we choose God, or do we simply choose ourselves, or the world, in general? It’s actually a choice between good and evil. 

 We need to realize then that we have to take utmost care of our intention, making it as explicit as possible, and honing it to get engaged with its proper and ultimate object who is God. 

 We should try our best to shun being simply casual or cavalier about this responsibility. We can easily play around with it, since intentions are almost invariably hidden from public knowledge. We are urged to be most sincere in directing our intentions properly. 

 We can easily fall into hypocrisy and deception, doing what can appear good externally but is not internally, since we could refuse giving glory to God, which is the proper intention to have, and instead feed and stir our vanity, pride, greed, lust, etc. 

 We need to actively purify our intentions, since we have to contend with many spoilers in this regard these days. In fact, we just have to look around and see how openly opposed many people are of directing their intentions to God. 

 To them, intentions are strictly personal and confidential matters that others do not have any right to meddle. While there is a certain truth to this claim, we have to remind ourselves that our intentions too are subject to a universal moral law.

The duty to love everyone

INDEED, we have such duty! Christ himself told us so in no unclear terms. We have to love everyone, including our enemies! 

 “You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.” (Mt 5,43-45) 

 To be sure, being able to love our enemies even as we try our best to resolve with justice and charity our differences, conflicts and other issues is clearly a sign of being Christ-like. It could be the proof that one’s Christianity is real, genuine and consistent, and not fake and inconsistent. 

 We have to be ready to develop and assume this attitude, always asking first of all for the grace of God and trying to have the very mind and heart of Christ. We also need to discipline our reactions and to train our emotions to conform to this basic Christian standard. 

 Yes, this ideal can only be possible and doable with God’s grace and the constant effort to assume the very mind and heart of Christ. We should never take this requirement for granted. 

 In the first place, we have to remember that our true identity is when we become another Christ knowingly and willingly. This presumes a constant effort on our part, since this cannot be considered as an automatic thing to happen in our life. This is not falling into some kind of pious presumption. This is what we are supposed to be. And God, for his part, is all ready to give us all that we need to attain this goal. 

 To be sure, if we follow this commandment of loving everyone, including our enemies, we would be loving God and others the way Christ himself has loved his Father and all of us. 

It’s a love that is totally inclusive on the part of the lover, though it may be rejected by the beloved. It’s a love that would convert and transform us into another Christ, if not Christ himself (alter Christus, ipse Christus), for love, the real love that comes from God, has that power of making the lover united and identified with the beloved. 

 That is why God became man, and Jesus Christ emptied himself completely to assume our human nature in its best and worst conditions. This love shown to us by Christ is the standard of our love. Therefore, loving others the way Christ loves us is loving Christ in others, no matter how distorted that image of Christ is in others, and thus transforms us to Christ. 

 To be concrete about all this, we can practice and develop this love simply by being demanding on ourselves while being very understanding, forgiving, lenient on others, always trying to find excuses for them, eager to carry their burden. In fact, if we have this kind of love, we would be willing to suffer and even to die for the others. 

 Especially now in the contention-prone areas of politics and social media, where all kinds of ideas and comments come, including the most reckless, thoughtless, mannerless ones, we have wonderful opportunities to live and develop this true love.

Magnanimity amid all kinds of evil

“YOU have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil. When someone strikes you on your right cheek, turn the other one to him as well.” (Mt 5,38-39) 

Words of Christ that clearly tell us to be magnanimous amid unavoidable evils in this world. We just have to learn how to bear with everyone. Thus, we have to broaden our mind and heart to be able to accommodate everyone in our heart, including those who are different from us in some respects, and those who are precisely giving us trouble. 

 We have to learn to be magnanimous, knowing how to suffer since suffering is an unavoidable consequence of evil. In all this, we should never lose our peace and concern for everyone. In fact, those who have strayed, we have to seek out, just like what the shepherd did in the parable of the lost sheep (cfr. Mt 18,12-14) 

 Magnanimity is part of the charity as described by Christ. “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,” he said. (Mt 5,44) “If any one strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also…” 

 The political exercises we had a few weeks ago are just some kind of sports. We play to win, we do our best, yet in spite of all, we should not be surprised if we lose. And we just have to move on. Of course, if we win, then we should also be ready for the usual bad elements that go with the winning. 

 Now is the time for magnanimity, deleting the heady, intoxicating surge of victory or the depressing load of defeat. This is not the end of the world yet. And while we are still on the road, we just have to try our best to learn precious lessons along the way. 

 We need to enlarge our heart, to make it more universal to accommodate everyone and any situation and condition properly. We should evade being caught by the grip of our strong views, and even our positions that we think are so essential that they are not anymore subject to opinion. 

 This is our usual pitfall that we should try to be wary about always. We have the strong tendency to dominate others especially in a game or exercise for which we give an all-out interest and spend so much money and effort. 

 We have to see to it that our thoughts, desires and intentions, our words and deeds are always animated by charity. There should no negative elements in them, even if we notice the defects, mistakes and sins of the others, and even if they have wronged us. 

 We have to have a good grip on our emotions, able to dominate and properly orient our biases, preferences and other idiosyncrasies that constitute our differences and even conflicts with others. We have to learn to focus more on what we have in common rather than what divides us. We have to learn how to dialogue with everyone. 

 We can always do all these things because of our spiritual nature and also because of God’s grace, in the first place. By living by this Christian teaching when faced with evil and wrongdoings others may do on us, we become more and more like Christ. And that in the end is what truly matters in our life!

The pursuit for truth

WE have to realize that the pursuit for truth is a very tricky one. To be sure, truth is not just a matter of citing facts and data. Though these are important and even indispensable, they are useless unless they are animated by the true spirit of truth. 

 We need to be familiar with the Spirit of Truth. He is the one who will show us the whole truth and not just some aspects of it. If we really want to be in the truth and not confused and lost in the many appearances of truth, we need to get in touch with the Spirit of Truth. 

 Christ himself said: “When he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own. He will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.” (Jn 16,13) 

 We have to take note that this business of getting to the whole truth involves a process. It’s not a one-shot deal. It involves some kind of journey. No one can ever say he has the whole truth until he reaches where the Spirit of truth would finally lead him, and that is when God becomes “all in all.” (cfr. 1 Cor 15,28) 

 We have to remember that everything that exists has something of the truth, since by merely existing, that something is already true. But as to whether it has the whole truth, it would depend whether it has the Spirit of truth or not. 

 The most important thing is to see if something that we consider to be true is in conformity with the Spirit of truth. Otherwise, we will be deceived and trapped by the many appearances of truth that do not bring us to the real thing which, in the end, can only be God. 

 Thus, we can say that even the devil, who is a liar and is the father of lies (cfr. Jn 8,44), has some truth in him. That he exists is already an indication that he is true and real. And everything that he says to tempt us certainly contains a lot of truth, otherwise we would not be tempted. 

 We really need to know what truth is. That was the question Pilate asked Christ. (cfr Jn 18,38) But Christ already answered that question before it was asked. “Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice,” he said. 

 There we have a clear answer as to what truth is. It’s when we hear the voice of Christ, this time in the Holy Spirit. It’s a voice that is full of charity, understanding and compassion on others, patience and mercy. It’s also a voice that knows how to be strong and implement the requirements of justice. 

 Truth therefore is not just cold facts that we observe, nor some objective data that we derive from our studies and researches. Much less is it simply a matter of political opinion or some ideological bias or things of that sort. While giving us some aspects of truth, these do not have the last word. And as such, they are incomplete and can easily be manipulated. 

 That is why right now with everyone trying to say the truth without God, we are practically sinking in an ocean of fake news, hoaxes, disinformation, urban legends, propaganda, inane trivias, superstitions, biased opinions that seek to absolutize the relative and relativize the absolute, etc. As a consequence, we generate a very toxic atmosphere where conflicts, anger and hatred dominate.

A reminder on chastity

“YOU have heard that it was said, You shall not commit adultery. But I say to you, everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” (Mt 5,27-28) 

 Most likely, everytime we read this passage from the gospel, we squirm at the thought that this virtue of chastity must be an impossible thing to live. Who can avoid lust in the heart and in intentions? We may not act it out, but inside us, what can deter us from falling into impurity? 

 Obviously, the answer can only be found in Christ. If we are truly with him, if we have his spirit which is that of pure love, a love that goes all the way to offering one’s life for the beloved, what may be impossible for us is made possible with him. 

 We have to understand that chastity integrates the bodily dimension or the sexuality of our humanity to our proper spiritual and supernatural end as image and likeness of God, children of his, sharers of his divine life. It frees us from carnal bondage and sets our sexuality on the path of true love that channels God’s love for us. 

 Thus, we need to go through some proper training for this virtue, since it cannot be denied that the challenge is formidable. This concern should never be taken for granted. This is actually a much bigger concern than what we have in the areas of politics, social life, business or the now in-thing of climate change, ecology and other environmental issues. 

 And the simple reason is that this concern is fundamental in our life. This virtue figures prominently in our capacity to love on which all the other aspects of our life depend. It is first of all a fruit of real love that comes from God and the seed that gives life to real love also. 

 If that capacity to love is compromised, either openly or subtly, then we can be brilliant, productive and impressive in the other aspects but we would still miss the point, we would still miss the real goal. 

 Moreover, we would likely create a bigger mess the more powerful we are in the other aspects that are not driven or inspired by real love. We can enter into the world of illusions, if not delusion, that can be so grave that we may not even realize it. And that’s because if we do not have the real love, we can only have the alternative of self-love which is a sweet poison. 

 Thus, the close, almost cause-and-effect relationship between chastity and piety should be known, appreciated and pursued as early as possible. It can be as early as at the childhood stage, since as we are told in a Wadsworth poem, “the child is the father of the man”—how a man is in his adult stage depends on how he was brought up as a child. In a sense, it is the child that begets the man that the child becomes. 

 We cannot deny that nowadays there is a huge, almost formidable crisis in this area of chastity all over the world. Cases of sexual addiction, infidelities, promiscuity, pre-marital and extra-marital sex, self-abuse and all sorts of sexual perversions are exploding like anything. 

 We need to remind ourselves that chastity, just like any other virtue, needs to be grounded on a life of authentic piety, of spirituality, of an intimate and abiding relationship with God from whom all good things come.

True charity surpasses our human systems

“I TELL you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into the Kingdom of heaven.” (Jn 5,20) Words of Christ that warn us of the danger of self-righteousness as exemplified by the scribes and Pharisees of his time and that undermine the true charity that comes from God who is the very essence of love as fully manifested by Christ. 

 We have to understand that this charity surpasses whatever human standard we have about love. This charity is a love without measure, given without calculation, without expecting any return. It just gives and gives, even if along the way it encounters difficulties, rejection, suffering. It embraces them, not flee from them. By its nature, it is given gratuitously. 

 Love engenders generosity and its relatives: magnanimity, magnificence, compassion, patience, pity, etc. This is the language of love, the currencies it uses. It thinks big, even if the matter involved is small according to human standards. In fact, it’s love that makes small, ordinary things big and special. 

 That’s in theory. In practice, though, there can be elements that put limits and conditions to that love. This can be due to a number of reasons. One of them is because man grows by stages, and his capacity to love also develops in stages. It goes through a development timeline, much like one’s growth timeline from childhood to adulthood and maturity. 

 We have to understand that to be able to love, we need to be with God, for God is love. He is the source, pattern and end of love. All our loves here on earth, to be real, have to be inspired by that love that is in God. Otherwise, they are fake. 

 It stands to reason then that we need to go to him, to pray and meditate on his love—how he created us and endowed us with the best things in life, making us his image and likeness, and in fact children of his. 

 We need to realize ever deeply that his love goes to the extent of forgiving us for our sins and stupidities, and not only by decreeing things, but by assuming even our sinfulness and dying to it. 

 We need to feel that love in a very direct and immediate way, which can only be achieved first of all with his grace, but also with our effort. We need to feel that such love is the one that inspires, directs and energizes our loves here on earth. 

 So, we really need to spend time entering into this reality, first of all, by praying, by meditating, then by studying the doctrine of our faith, since God’s love is not mere sentiments. It involves truth whose substance is passed on to us through the doctrine revealed and lived by Christ, and now authoritatively taught by the Church. 

 We need to outgrow our tendency to fall for an unrealistic and sugary understanding of love, so common these days, especially among the young, or worse, associating love with the purely carnal and selfish. Unfortunately, there are many caught in this kind of predicament. 

 When we have this kind of love, we will spring into action, always with joy and peace. Sadness, feeling lazy and the like are dregs and signs of self-love. God’s love, on the other hand, makes us very alive even in the midst of so much trials and suffering.

Our laws and God’s laws

“DO not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfil.” (Mt 5,17) With these words of Christ, we are reminded that our human laws should channel and reflect the laws of God who, after all, is the creator of all things and the source of law and order in the whole of creation. 

 And these laws of God are embodied, revealed and commanded of us by Christ, the son of God who became man to redeem us and the very pattern of our humanity. As the gospel passage cited above puts it clearly, Christ is the fulfillment of the laws given to us. 

 We have to disabuse ourselves from the thought that our laws can be based only on our common sense, or on our own estimation of what is good and evil according to the values of practicality, convenience, etc., or on our traditions and culture, etc. 

 While these things have their legitimate role to play in our legal and judicial systems, we have to understand that they cannot be the primary and ultimate bases. It should be God, his laws and ways that should animate the way we make laws as well as the way we apply and live them. After all, being the Creator of all things, he is the one who establishes what is truly good and evil, what is right and wrong, what is fair and unfair. 

 In this regard, we have to learn to distinguish and properly blend both the letter and spirit of our human laws. That’s the ideal. In our earthly reality, of course, the letter of the law will always be found wanting in terms of capturing the whole spirit of the law. 

 This discrepancy between the letter and the spirit of the law has been referred to a number of times in the gospel. One example is when Christ told the Jews: "You are experts at setting aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition.” (Mk 7,9) 

 Another example was when Christ told the Pharisees and the lawyers of that time: "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?" (Lk 14,3) 

 That’s why any human law should always be a dynamic one, always in the process of refining, polishing and enriching itself. It should never be considered as static, or irreformable, unenrichable. 

 A lot of discernment is needed here. Prudence requires it. And the common good, which the law should always serve, can often present competing interests that need to be resolved as fairly as possible. 

 That’s simply because charity, truth, justice and mercy, which our laws should embody, have aspects that can be mysterious and that will always demand new requirements from us. 

 Let’s hope that the proper structures are made available to address this ongoing need with respect to continually polishing our laws. This is part of the political life of any nation.  Let’s hope that a continuing study and research be made in this regard. Our law schools and other legal centers could be tapped for this purpose. 

 Let’s hope that our lawmakers are truly dedicated and focused on their work rather than wasting our time and resources by simply doing political maneuverings at the behest of their self-interest. And worse, we are actually witnessing these days in many countries laws being made that are openly against God’s laws!

Let’s be responsible of each other

WHETHER we are aware of it or not, and despite our differences and conflicts, we all share the same humanity, the same status as creatures of God made in his image and likeness. We are one people, forming one body of which each one of us ought to be a living member, doing a specific role for the good of everyone. We have to care, love and help one another! 

 That is why we need to be living members, as St. Paul once said. “The body is a unit,” he said, “though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.: (1 Cor 12-13) 

 And the best way to be living and helpful members of the same body is to follow Christ’s indication for each one of us to be “salt and light” to everyone. (cfr. Mt 5,13-16). Christ wants us, like salt, to provide Christian flavor in a world that is fast evolving, as well as help in preserving the true Christian spirit in a world that is so exposed to a lot of changes, many of them with their luggage of dangers even as they also offer a lot of benefits. 

 We also are meant to give light to the others by giving good example and by actively doing apostolate, leading people to God along the right if prudent and tortuous and treacherous paths of this world. With rectitude of intention, we have to inspire others to follow us so that with us they can come to Christ. 

 Let’s make St. Paul’s words ours also: “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.” (1 Cor 11,1) These words are a corollary to what Christ said about us being light of the world: “Your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father.” (Mt 5,16) 

 Let’s try our best that we too can echo another of St. Paul’s words: “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” (Gal 2,20) This is the ideal to aim at, because Christ himself said, “I am the light of the world…the man who follows me will have the light of life.” (Jn 8,12) 

 We can only give the true light if we have the light of Christ, if we are with Christ and so identified with him that whoever sees and hears us sees and hears Christ. (cfr. Lk 10,16) 

 We have to understand that we have a duty to inspire others always. It’s a most important duty that is actually incumbent on everyone of us, and not just on some special people. We know that we are all interrelated, obviously not biologically that only has a limited scope, but definitely to a large extent, politically, economically, socially, etc. The fact that we all live in the same one world somehow makes us all interrelated. 

 But there’s actually a more radical basis of our interrelation. And that is that we are all creatures of God, children of his, meant to be the people and the family of God. It is a relationship that is spiritual more than material, forged by a supernatural principle and not just something natural. That’s why we have to care for each other, responsible for one another.

Why the beatitudes?

I BELIEVE we are all familiar with the beatitudes, those Christ-defined formulation of how we can be considered blessed. (cfr. Mt 5,1-12) They intriguingly convert what we usually consider as human disasters or clear disadvantages and inconveniences according to worldly standards into a source of joy, a means of our redemption, a path to heaven, narrow and difficult though they may be. 

 They expand our understanding of what should comprise as our true happiness by including those situations which we normally regard as unsavory and therefore to be avoided as much as possible and hated even. 

 They portray the way love, which is the essence of God and is what is also meant for us, can be lived in the confusing condition of our earthly life where good and evil are mixed up. 

 That is why the Catechism teaches us that the beatitudes are considered as depicting “the countenance of Jesus Christ and portray his charity. They express the vocation of the faithful associated with the glory his Passion and Resurrection, they shed light on the actions and the attitudes characteristic of the Christian life,” it says. 

 And it adds, “They are the paradoxical promises that sustain hope in the midst of tribulations, they proclaim the blessings and rewards already secured, however dimly, for Christ’s disciples; they have begun in the lives of the Virgin Mary and all the saints.” (1717) 

 The beatitudes are so articulated by Christ in order to serve as a profound and most effective antidote to our strong, almost invincibly strong tendency to self-love, to self-indulgence. 

 Yes, we need to declare an unrelenting war against our self-indulgence which has become a very formidable problem we all have. Yes, this has always been a problem to us, but these days it is much more so. 

 With the many new wonderful things that can instantly give us convenience, comfort, pleasure and satisfaction, many of us are trapped into the very sticky web of obsessions, addictions and the many other forms of self-indulgence that feed on our weaknesses, like lust, pride, conceit, gluttony, unhinged curiosities, envy, etc., etc. 

 We just have to give a cursory look around to see how bad this problem is. Many people are just looking at their cellphones most of the time. There are reports saying that many young people often forget their meals and lose sleep because of what they do in the Internet. It’s clear they are terribly hooked there and it seems it’s now next to the impossible to get them out of there. 

 As a result, many duties and responsibilities are left unattended. Disorder and chaos are fast gaining ground as priorities are skewed. Superficiality has now become a mainstream lifestyle, reinforcing the trend toward consumerism, materialism and what Pope Francis refers to as the “throw-away culture” where ethical and moral considerations are ignored or even flouted, i.e., regarded with contempt. 

 In short, the beatitudes detach us from our own selves so that we can truly identify ourselves with Christ who is the very pattern of our humanity and the savior of our sin-damaged humanity. They are actually a way to our liberation from our own self-inflicted bondage to merely earthly and bodily urges. They purify us from any stain caused by our worldly attachments. 

 They have to be understood from the point of view of our faith and never just from our own estimations of things, no matter how impressive these estimations may be due to our philosophies, ideologies, cultures, etc.

What does Pentecost mean?

EVEN if Christ already died and ascended into heaven, his presence and mission continues to be with us, this time through the Holy Spirit. “I will not leave you as orphans,” he said. “I will come to you.” (Jn 14,18) It is the Holy Spirit who will make Christ present in us and who will involve us in the continuing redemptive work of Christ. 

 We have to understand that the Holy Spirit perpetuates the presence and redemptive action of Christ all throughout time, with all the drama, vagaries, ups and downs that we men make in our history. 

 It has been prophesied that God will pour out his Spirit upon all men. The Holy Spirit is intended for all of us. We are all meant to be filled with the Holy Spirit. But this divine will obviously has to contend with the way we receive and do things, and that is, that we take to this reality in stages involving a whole range of human means of teaching, evangelizing, etc. 

 We need the Holy Spirit because only in him can we truly recognize Christ. Only in him will we be able to have Christ in our life, to remember all his words and even to develop them to attune them to current needs and situations. 

 Only in him can we see things properly. Especially these days when truth, justice and charity have become very slippery, and people are left confounded and vulnerable to fall into scepticism and cynicism, we need to be in the Holy Spirit to be able to sort things out and stay away from the mess. 

 We need the Holy Spirit to be able to read the signs of the times properly. The world is getting very complicated, and we definitely need the Holy Spirit to guide us. We cannot rely anymore on our politicians and other leaders. We, including politicians and especially them, actually always need the Holy Spirit. 

 The Holy Spirit acts on each one of us in different ways but always for the common good. St. Cyril has this to say about how the Holy Spirit comes to us: 

 “The Spirit comes gently and makes himself known by his fragrance. He is not felt as a burden, for he is light, very light. Rays of light and knowledge stream before him as he approaches. 

 “The Spirit comes with the tenderness of a true friend and protector to save, to heal, to teach, to counsel, to strengthen, to console. The Spirit comes to enlighten the mind first of the one who receives him, and then, through him, the minds of others as well.” 

 We have to understand that Christ’s redemptive mission is very much an ongoing affair, and he involves all of us actually in this business. Those words that he addressed to his apostles, giving them their mission, can be considered as addressed to us also. And we can carry out that mission because of the abiding work of the Holy Spirit in us. All we have to do is to correspond to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. 

 We need to be familiar with this Christian duty. We have to do apostolate, and we need to see to it that the zeal for it is always nourished, stoked and fanned to its most intense degree. 

 Yes, we are all meant to be “another Christ” through the Holy Spirit, with the lifelong concern for our sanctification and apostolate, taking advantage of all the occasions and situations in life to pursue those goals!