Focus on heaven, on God

“‘YOU fool, this night your life will be demanded of you; and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?’ Thus will it be for the one who stores up treasure for himself but is not rich in what matters to God.” (Lk 12,20-21) 

 These words of Christ can spring to mind a number of things that we have to give due attention to. One is that we need to realize that heaven or God himself is where we came from and where we are supposed to go to. Another is that while the things of this world are important to us, they serve only as means and pathways to go to God. They should not be considered as our end. 

 The immediate corollary we can derive from these points is that we should be careful in our involvement in the things of this world, since we have a strong, almost irresistible tendency to get swallowed up by earthly and temporal things. We have to develop the Christian virtue of poverty and detachment that would give us the proper attitude toward our earthly and temporal affairs. 

 In other words, when we have these virtues properly lived, it should be easy for us to leave earthly things behind, no matter how exciting, profitable, successful, etc. these things are, when the time comes for us to be recalled by our Creator and Father who wants us to be his image and likeness, children of his and sharers of his divine life. 

 Another consideration is that while we should be immersed in our earthly affairs, we should see to it that such immersion should actually enrich us spiritually, that is, lead us to God, or make our love for God and others grow, because the earthly things are precisely for that purpose. That is the law and disposition God has imbued in the earthly things that are made available to us for our use. 

 We have to see to it that love for God and others should always be the motive of everything that we do—from our thoughts and intentions, to our words, and to our work. It should also be the motive when we have to go through the different circumstances of our life, the good ones as well as the bad ones, our fortunes and our misfortunes. 

 We have to be wary of our tendency to get entrapped in our earthly and temporal affairs or when we fail to live love for God and for others in the different events and circumstances of our life. 

 We usually have the strong tendency to be motivated only by human and earthly values in everything that we do. We have to be more wary of this danger and do everything to avoid it or correct it. 

 As St. Paul once said: “Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” (1 Cor 10,31) Not contented with this, he again said: “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” (Col 3,2) 

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

 We have to be wary of the danger of discovering and using things simply in accordance to our own understanding of them and also to our own interest only.

Feeling right but actually wrong

THE story of Martha complaining to Christ about her sister, Mary, whom she accused of not helping her in some household chores (cfr. Lk 10,38-42) reminds us that there can be this tricky situation when we feel we are right but are actually wrong. And it would require someone in the name of Christ who would point that error to us.  

As the story went, Martha was busy preparing things for Christ who visited them one day. When she saw her sister, Mary, apparently just sitting right before Christ, while her hands were full of things, she got irritated and went to Christ to complain. And that’s when Christ corrected her, telling her that only one thing was necessary, and that was what Mary was doing and it would not be taken away from her. 

 What was Mary doing? She was praying! She appeared as if she was not doing anything, but what she was actually doing was contemplating directly on Christ, listening to him. And praying, especially in the form of contemplation, is what is most important for all of us. 

 Without prayer, we would be at the mercy of our human weaknesses and worldly forces that would put us away from God who is actually everything to us. It’s when we pray that we manage to relate who we are, what we have, what we do, etc. to our ultimate end which, to be sure, is not something only natural but is also supernatural. 

 Nothing therefore can rival the importance of prayer. In other words, prayer is irreplaceable, unsubstitutable, indispensable. It’s never optional, though it has to be done freely if we want our prayer to be real prayer. 

 Of course, we also have to understand that prayer can lend itself to many different ways. There’s vocal prayer, mental prayer, contemplative prayer, liturgical prayer, etc. It can adapt itself to different situations and conditions. 

 The absolutely important thing that makes prayer real prayer is when we manage to give all our mind and heart to God in whatever thing we do or in whatever situation we may find ourselves in. 

 That’s why St. Paul once said, “Pray without ceasing.” (1 Thes 5,17) That’s simply because our whole life has to be a prayer, since it is meant to be in constant and intimate relationship with God. 

 The error of Martha consisted in failing to consider her practical tasks in the kitchen as a form of prayer. In other words, her practical sense undermined her piety. Her complaint against her sister showed that she failed to turn her work into prayer. Her work was simply work, with hardly any reference to God. 

 We have to be wary of this most tricky situation. We might be doing a lot of work, and a lot of good. But if they are not offered to God and done with God, if they are pursued only for some practical and worldly purposes, it will not take long before we get overtaken by our human weaknesses and the many temptations around. 

 Pride, vanity, envy, lust, etc., can easily destroy what good we may be doing. Or they can sap our spiritual strength and energy to resist the temptations. They can also blind us from recognizing our errors, leading us to think that we are right when we are actually wrong. 

 We have to realize more deeply that we need to pray always!

Let’s look forward to Judgment Day

“THE Kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea, which collects fish of every kind. When it is full they haul it ashore and sit down to put what is good into buckets. What is bad they throw away. Thus it will be at the end of the age. The angels will go out and separate the wicked from the righteous.” (Mt 13,47-49) 

 With these words of Christ, we are made to understand that there is such thing as Judgment Day that comes after our death. And after Judgment Day, we either go to heaven or hell. 

 These are truths of our faith, the so-called Last Things, that should not scare us, but rather should urge us to go through the process of making the proper preparation. In fact, if we have to follow the example of Christ, we somehow should look forward to our death, followed by the Judgment Day, and intensely hope to be in heaven. 

 We know that Christ was clear from the start of his redemptive life on earth about his death. He was even predicting it a number of times. We too should somehow have the same mindset of Christ—sure that one day we will die, and that therefore we should prepare ourselves for it so as to be confident to face God on Judgment Day. 

 This is simply to be realistic about our whole life. We should know what our earthly life is all about, and how each event and circumstance of our life give us that confidence to face God on Judgment Day. 

 Thus, instead of shying away from the consideration of the Last Things, we should rather be always mindful of them, since they would imbue us with proper sense of purpose and direction at every moment of our life. We would, in fact, be reflecting Christ’s life in ours. And that, by the way, is the proper way to live our life. 

 In the same gospel cited above, there is also mention made about the need to know how to blend the new and the old things in our life. (cfr. Mt 13,52) It’s a clear reference to the fact that we live in time and that we go through stages of development. We should know how to be consistent and focused on what is truly essential in life as we go through varying conditions, circumstances and situations. 

 Truth is, our life here on earth is God’s time in his eternity to create and redeem us. In other words, we are still a work in progress. But it’s a divine work in which we have a big role to play, since we are supposed to knowingly and willingly correspond to his designs for us, to his will and ways. That’s because we have been created in God’s image and likeness, endowed with the power to know and to will and love. 

 Our proper correspondence to God’s ongoing creative and redemptive work on us depends to a large extent on our awareness of the Last Things, like our death and judgment, that would make us aware of the real purpose of our life and of what we ought to do to achieve that purpose. 

 May we develop the proper attitude toward the Last Things, even to the extent of looking forward to our death and judgment, so we would be keenly aware of what we need to do to achieve the ultimate purpose of our life!

The cost in pursuing heaven

CHRIST said it clearly. To pursue the kingdom of God, we should be willing to rid ourselves of things that can cause us some drag in that effort, or to sell off what we have at the moment to get the real thing. 

 Thus, he said: “The Kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field, which a person finds and hides again, and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.” Reiterating the same idea, he continued to say, “Again, the Kingdom of heaven is like a merchant searching for fine pearls. When he finds a pearl of great price, he goes and sells all that he has and buys it.” (Mt 13,44-46) 

 There will always be some sacrifice involved in pursuing our ultimate goal which is to be with God, our Creator, in whose image and likeness we have been created, and in whose life we are meant to share. In this regard, let’s try to be generous, not sparing in our effort. It’s all worth it! 

 We have to be wary of our tendency to get attached and trapped in the things of this world at the expense of our real treasure. We have to remember that it is actually the best deal we can have to “sell off” what we have in this world to be able to get the real thing. 

 Some words of Christ can be relevant in this regard. He said: “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) 

 All these Christ-dictated indications do not mean that we have to hate the things of this world. The things of this world are also God’s creation and therefore are good. God created them in such a way that they become pathways for us to go to God. They too deserve to be loved in a certain way. They are means to get to God, and not the end itself. Thus, we should be careful not to get entangled with them. 

 How important therefore that we realize that our first priority should be God and our relationship with him which should be sustained with the constant effort to know, love and serve him! We should be ready to throw away everything else that can stand in the way. 

 We have to make some adjustments in the way we order our objective needs. We have to distinguish them from our subjective likes and desires that can only be the product of some personal or social preferences. In this we have to employ the appropriate means, the relevant programs and operations. We should be demanding on ourselves insofar as this matter is concerned. 

 We have to do some drastic effort here because we cannot deny that nowadays, there are just too many things that can seduce us and take us away from God. 

 We need God first of all, and, in fact, all the time. He is our most important objective need, much more and infinitely more than we need air, food, rest, pleasures, etc. For without God, we are nothing. But with him, we can have everything. That is why, St. Teresa Avila boldly said: “He who has God lacks nothing. God alone is sufficient.”

Realistic, vigilant and hopeful

THE explanation Christ gave about the parable of the good seed and the weeds in the field (cfr. Mt 13,36-43) is a lesson for us to be realistic in our life that will always have the mixture of good and evil, but at the same time, always vigilant and hopeful, doing a lot of good without let-up. 

 It should be a given that in this life we have to contend with many evil elements, first, our own weakened selves, the many temptations in the world, and the devil himself. We just have to learn how to deal with this life-long condition and predicament. 

 To be realistic in this case can mean that we cannot avoid getting dirty along the way. We should not expect that we can come out of this life without some dirt, some cuts and bruises, some suffering and the cross itself. But as long as we continue to be vigilant and hopeful, using all the means made available so we can continue to struggle effectively, we know that victory is assured for us. Christ guarantees it. 

 We always have to remember that while we have to do all that we can, in the end it would be God who will take care of everything, who will perfect and complete things that we get involved in, who will make the final judgment as to which is good and which is bad. 

 But, yes, we have to upgrade our vigilance skills especially these days when we are living in an increasingly complex world. The powerful new things we are enjoying these days, while giving us a lot of conveniences and advantages, can also occasion greater danger since they can also lead us to graver forms of self-indulgence and other disorders not only in terms of physical, mental, psychological health, but more so in terms of our spiritual and moral health. 

 We should not take this need for granted. We have to continually update and upgrade our vigilance skills. Remember Christ telling his disciples: “Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy from carousing and drunkenness and the anxieties of daily life…Be vigilant at all times.” (Lk 21,34.36) 

 We also need to stretch some more our patience, or our capacity to suffer, to bear the burdens and pressures of the times, the unavoidable sins and their consequences. In that parable of the wheat and the weeds, the master told the servants not to uproot the weeds in the meantime since it would just also damage the wheat. He advised them to wait till harvest time when the separation can be finally made. 

 But we should continue to do a lot of good. Let’s see to it that the new powerful technologies we are having these days are used to widen our scope of apostolic work, entering into all sorts of networking in order to spread more widely and extensively the word of God and the spirit of Christ. 

 We have to feel the urgency of this need and duty, otherwise these powerful technologies would be left in the hands of the enemies of God and of our soul. Nowadays, we cannot deny that powerful groups and forces, with their own questionable ideologies, are busy using these powerful means to spread their false doctrines. 

 In all these, let’s see to it that we avoid falling into bitter zeal which would undermine the good deeds and intentions we have.

Privileged but not feeling entitled

THAT’S how we should behave. We may be quite privileged in life because of the many gifts and other endowments God and others may have given us, but we should never feel entitled to anything. Instead, our attitude toward these privileges should be one of willingness to serve more, doing a lot of good while passing unnoticed, and all for the glory of God and for the good of all. 

 That amusing story of the mother of the apostles, James and John, asking Christ that her sons be given a special place in heaven (cfr. Mt 20,20-28) teaches us this precious lesson. I suppose the mother can be excused for making such request. Mothers will always be mothers who wish to have the best for their children. But Christ purified that request. 

 “Can you drink the chalice that I am going to drink?” Christ asked them, referring to the fact that Christ in the end will offer his life on the cross for the salvation of mankind. Whether James and John understood what Christ meant or not, it is to their credit that they immediately responded, “We can.” 

 But Christ kindly told them that it “is not mine to give but is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father,” somehow deflecting them from this request and instead suggesting to focus more on what they should be doing as apostles. 

 This gospel episode actually warns us to be wary of our tendency to feel entitled because of the privileges we may be enjoying in life. We should rather sharpen our desire to serve and not be served, always following the example of Christ who said, “The Son of man has not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mt 20,28) 

 Let’s remember that to serve is the language and the action of love. It authenticates any affirmation of love that we make, converting it from intention to tangible reality. 

 This is the attitude meant for us, with God himself as the exemplar. Imagine, Christ served us by dying on the cross. Before that, he shocked his apostles when he insisted that he be allowed to wash their feet. That was to give example to them, and us, so that what he did we would also do. 

 The angels too, superior to us in nature, are made to serve us, following a divine law articulated by Christ himself when he said: “Let him who is greatest among you become as the youngest, and him who is the chief as the servant.” (Lk 22,26) 

 Christ is the very epitome of this proper attitude. Being God, he emptied himself to become man and to bear all the sins of men by dying on the cross, all for the purpose of saving mankind. (cfr. Phil 2,7) 

 He reiterated this point when he lamented about the domineering sense of entitlement of some of the leading Jews of his time while praising the poor widow who put all that she had into the temple treasury. (cfr. Mk 12,38-44) 

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

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

Insistent and persevering in prayer

IT’S interesting to note that in the gospel, there is a part where Christ teaches his disciples how to pray, giving them “Our Father,” and then follows it with the advice to be insistent and persevering in prayer in spite of what may appear as divine rebuff at the beginning. (cfr. Lk 11,1-13) 

 “Ask and you will receive. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened to you,” he says. And he offers the reason for such advice: “What father among you would hand his son a snake when he asks for a fish? Or hand him a scorpion when he asks for an egg.” He reassures us that “everyone who asks, receives. And the one who seeks, finds. And to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” (9-12) 

 This should be the attitude to have when we have to ask for a favor from God. No matter how hard or even impossible our requests would seem, we should not hesitate to go to God to present such petition. God will always listen and answers us in the way that is best for us, which may not be the one we like or expect. 

 We should never think that we are bothering God by asking for some favors. Our prayers will never go unnoticed with God who is all generous with us. In fact, he will give us much more than what we may be asking for.

 So, let’s just be insistent and persevering in our prayer. Besides, doing so will eventually give us new lights, insights and impulses that will leave us amazed at the goodness and kindness of God, his mercy and all-embracing love. It will rekindle or at least fan into a flame our dying fire of love for God and for others. 

 When we persevere in meditating on the words of God found in the gospel, for example, we would be astonished at how old familiar passages and ideas acquire new meaning and open to us practically a whole new world of insights that can inspire us to action and different initiatives. 

 And if God seems to ignore us, we have to realize that he is simply testing us for a number of reasons—to strengthen our faith, to purify our intentions, to grow in the other virtues, etc. But to be sure, God is never indifferent to our needs. He is always solicitous. He even knows more of our needs than we do, and makes provision for them. It’s rather us who do not notice what God is giving and doing for us most of the time. 

 Obviously, for our prayer to be insistent and persevering in spite of what may appears as God’s initial indifference to our requests, we need to spend some moments of special and serious conversation with him, like some period of mental prayer, meditating on God’s word, having recourse to the sacraments, etc. These are like the refueling process that helps us to continue going on with our spiritual life. 

 The important thing to remember is that we should never give up on our prayer. Rather, let us always sharpen our dispositions for prayer. We need to make our faith alive, making it more incarnated rather than simply lingering in the abstract sphere. We have to strengthen our spirit of sacrifice and mortification. We cannot persevere in prayer if we remain weak in body and, worse, in the will.

God’s mercy and our sinfulness

ON the memorial of St. Mary Magdalene on July 22, we are somehow reminded that God’s mercy is more powerful than our sins, no matter how grave our sins are. We are reminded of what St. Paul said in this regard: “Where sin abounded, grace did more abound.” (Rom 5,20) 

 It’s a consoling truth of our faith that is worth keeping in mind always, given the fact that we cannot avoid falling into sin one way or another. St. John in his first letter told us of this predicament in our life: “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” (1,8) 

 Our sinfulness, defects and errors should not separate us from God. If anything at all, they should bring us closer to him, assured that God’s mercy will never be lacking. 

 These two realities about our sinfulness and God’s mercy always should go together. We should always strengthen our conviction about the helpful relationship these two should have with each other in our life. 

 Whenever we feel the sting of our weaknesses and sinfulness, together with their antecedents and consequences, their causes and effects, let’s never forget to consider also God’s mercy that is always given to us, and, in fact, given to us abundantly. 

 What we have to avoid is to get stuck with one while ignoring the other. Our sinfulness should be viewed in the context of divine mercy. And vice-versa: God’s mercy should be regarded in the context of our unavoidable sinfulness. 

 And from there, let us develop the unshakable conviction that no matter what sins we commit, no matter how ugly they are, there is always hope. God’s mercy can take on anything. 

 Let’s always remember that Christ came not to condemn but to save. And what causes him great joy is when we return to him repentant. Besides, Christ shows us also how to handle the suffering and death that are the unavoidable consequences of our sins, converting them into a means of our purification and eventual salvation. 

 Let’s strengthen our conviction that Christ has a special attraction to sinners, that he is ever willing to forgive us as long as we show some signs of repentance that he himself, through his grace, will stir in us. 

 Let’s play the part of Peter who, after denying Christ three times, realized his mistake and wept bitterly in repentance. Christ looked kindly on him and forgave him and even made him the prince of the apostles. 

 Let’s avoid playing the part of Cain and Judas who, after committing their crimes, ran away instead of going back to God repentant. Of course, in saying this, I am not at all judging that they are in hell. That judgment belongs to God alone. 

 Let us also hope that God’s mercy would rub off on us too. We have to learn to be forgiving, because Christ clearly told us that it is when we forgive others that we ourselves can also be forgiven. 

 “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) 

 We have to be clear that his 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.

Involving the whole man

I AM referring to our relationship with God, as well as with everybody else. As much as possible, we should involve our entire humanity, and not just part of it, as in, we deal with God only spiritually and not bodily, only intellectually and not emotionally, etc. 

 We are reminded of this truth of our faith in that gospel episode where Christ “complained” about people who “look but do not see and hear but do not listen or understand.” (cfr. Mt 13,10-17) 

 As that gospel narrates, the reason why Christ used parables instead of using a more direct language is because the heart of the people has grown gross. “They will hardly hear with their ears, they have closed their eyes, lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their hearts and be converted,” Christ said. 

 In other words, the reason why the people failed to see and to understand what Christ is telling them is because they do not want to be converted. This is also the problem that many of us have. We need to be aware of this predicament and try to do something about it. 

 We really need to have a burning desire to be with God and with everybody else for us to be able to involve our whole humanity in all our relationships. Without that desire, which will also require the grace of God, we would not go all the way in dealing with God and with others. For all that we do that may appear as if we are doing a lot for God and for others, we would just end up indulging on ourselves or simply affirming ourselves. 

 We need to discipline ourselves so as to involve our whole being in all our relationships. We always have the tendency to be fragmented and distracted, especially nowadays when we have a lot of things, a lot of novelties that can attract our attention at the expense of giving due attention to God and to others. 

 For this, we need to pause and do some spiritual exercises so that our belief and love for God and for others would really trickle down to our senses. In this regard, we have to give due attention to the need to educate our emotions and passions also. 

 As the Catechism tells us, our emotions and passions are “natural components of the human psyche; they form the passageway and ensure the connection between the life of the senses and the life of mind.” (1764) 

 Our emotions and passions therefore serve as a link between our body and soul. They are where we materialize what is spiritual in us, and spiritualize what is material in us. As such, they create a rich texture in our lives. They create the consistency proper to us as a person and as a child of God. They also help to give focus on our judgments, modulate our will, and add sensitivity to our reasoning. 

 In other words, they play a decisive role in achieving a happy and fully human life. They contribute to achieving the full potentials of our humanity. But given the wounded condition of man, our emotions and passions need to be purified and thoroughly educated. 

 They should not be allowed to just develop at the instance of our hormones and instincts, for example, and the many other blind or short-sighted impulses and trends in our social, cultural, economic, or political environment. They need to be reined in, to be guided and given direction. 

 This is how we can aspire to involve our whole being in our relationship with God and with others.

Are we taking God’s word seriously?

WE are reminded of that question in the parable of the sower and the seed. (cfr. Mt 9,1-13) Yes, in that parable we are encouraged also to do a lot of sowing of God’s word, a responsibility that is incumbent on all of us. But we would not be a good and generous sower of God’s word if we don’t take God’s word seriously. We have to be a rich soil on which the seed of God’s word can flower a hundredfold. 

 Aside from the usual problems we have in this regard, like being lazy to study God’s word, treating God’s word in a routine and superficial manner, etc., we now have to contend with the danger of making our other man-made words coming from our philosophies, ideologies, sciences and technologies take precedence over God’s word or even replacing God’s word completely. 

 We have to protect ourselves from the thought that our man-made word is better, is more effective, or is more practical than God’s word. Nothing can be farther than the truth than that thought, but many of us actually succumb to it. 

 We need to understand that God’s word gives us the ultimate spiritual knowledge we need to return to God, from whom we came and to whom we go and spend our life in eternity. This character of God’s word is described in the following words in the Letter to the Hebrews: 

 “For the word of God is living and effectual, and more piercing than any two-edged sword, and reaching unto the division of the soul and the spirit, of the joints also and the marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” (4,12) 

 Its purely eternal, spiritual, sacred and transcendent nature is now subjected to the conditions of time, culture, history, etc., in view of how we are. But we should not forget that it is primarily purely eternal, spiritual, sacred and transcendent, which with our spiritual powers plus God’s grace we can manage to abstract from its temporal, material, mundane and prosaic condition. 

 Let’s remember that God became man. With his incarnation, the divine word assumes the nature of a human word. And just as God became man to bring man back to God, his divine word becomes human word to bring and reconcile us with God. 

 Since God’s word is God himself and God is everything to us, we have to understand that it contains everything for our needs, especially our ultimate need to be with God. All things true, good and beautiful are contained in the word of God. 

 Thus, insofar as our philosophies, ideologies, sciences, arts and technologies contain truths, goodness and beauty, no matter how technical they are, we have to conclude that they also come from God’s word and belong there also. 

 Anyone who does not acknowledge this truth about the human sources of our knowledge can be considered ungrateful and presumptuous. We need to overcome the dichotomy that detaches our sciences, arts and technologies from God’s word. 

 Our sciences, arts and technologies can only articulate the more mundane aspects of the Word of God. They should lead us to God. They should make us achieve a more intimate relationship with God, with everybody else and everything else in the whole universe. 

 We should make God’s word the primary and constant source of our knowledge! Everything else has to be animated by it.

Want to be part of God’s family?

CHRIST clearly told us how to be part of God’s family. “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my heavenly Father is my brother, and sister, and mother.” (Mt 12,49-50) 

 That was the response of Christ to someone who, impressed by the way Christ was, praised his mother extravagantly. He was actually extolling his own mother, not disrespecting or disparaging her. Mary, among the whole of humanity, perfectly identified her will with God’s will. 

 We have to understand that it is living by God’s will that, in the end 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. 

 Mary’s “Fiat” (Be it done), her response to the Archangel Gabriel’s announcement that she was chosen to be the mother of the Son of God, is the perfect model of how our will ought to be conformed to God’s will. We have to be reminded that by the very nature of our will, the very seat of our freedom, our will is supposed to be in synch with the will of its Creator. It just cannot be by itself, turning and moving purely on its own. 

 It is meant to be engaged with the will of God, its creator and lawgiver. It is the very power we have been given by God that enables us to unite ourselves with God, as we should since we are his image and likeness, in the most intimate way. All the other aspects of our life—physical, biological, chemical, etc.—are also governed by God-given laws but, by themselves, they cannot bring us into an intimate union with God. 

 We cannot expropriate our will to be simply be our own. We are meant only to be stewards of it, not its owner nor its designer, creator and lawgiver. It has to submit itself to the will of God, otherwise it would be working without its proper foundation and purpose. 

 Mary’s “Fiat” should be an all-time motto for us, a guiding principle in our whole life. The submission of our will to God’s will is never a diminution of our freedom. On the contrary, it is the enhancement of our freedom. It is where we can have our true freedom and true joy. 

 We need to be more aware of this fundamental need of ours to conform our will to the will of God. Very often, we behave like spoiled brats who do not yet realize the importance of this need. We have to correct this tendency. 

 We have to train ourselves in the art of deepening our sense of obedience to God’s will, basing it on our faith, hope and love of God and others, and making it intelligent, truly voluntary, prompt and cheerful. 

 That’s when we can become truly children of God, his image and likeness!

With repentance, our faith becomes more alive

WE need to see the close relationship between our repentance and its effect on our faith. This relationship was highlighted in the Gospel of St. Matthew (12,38-42) where some of the leading Jews at that time asked Christ for a sign. 

 Christ could not help but reproach them for their lack faith. He said, “An evil and unfaithful generation seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it except the sign of Jonah the prophet. 

 “Just as Jonah was in the belly of the whale three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights. At the judgment, the men of Nineveh will arise with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and there is something greater than Jonah here. 

 “At the judgment the queen of the south will arise with this generation and condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and there is something greater than Solomon here.” 

 When we repent and have conversion, when we have a change of heart, giving it to God rather than keeping it to ourselves, then everything in our life will lead us to God. We would not need any more signs. Everything will speak of God. 

 We have to understand that repentance and conversion is a continuing affair for all of us in this life. We can never say that we are good enough as to need repentance and conversion no more. 

 We are all sinners, St. John said. And even the just man, as the Bible said, falls seven times in a day. Besides, it is this sense of continuing conversion that would really ensure us that whatever we do, whatever would happen to us, including our failures and defeats, would redound to what is truly good for the parties concerned and for everybody else in general. It will enable us to see the things of God and of men more clearly and objectively. 

 For this purpose, we have to feel the need to cultivate the virtue of penance. This is just to be realistic about our human condition. It's not to paint a dark world for ourselves. If we believe in God, we know that our life ought to be bright and cheerful, and that everything, including our mistakes, works out for the good. 

 But we cannot deny that we have weaknesses. There are temptations around. And in spite of our best efforts, we know that sooner or later we find ourselves falling into sin. 

 We need to know how to deal with these conditions. We need to find a way to derive some good from them, since if we have hope, some good can always be achieved from them. Precisely, a working spirit of penance would enliven our faith, and together with our faith, our hope and charity would also become more vibrant. 

 But the virtue of penance goes farther than that. It grows when we put up the necessary defenses against the enemies of our soul and wage a lifelong ascetical struggle. Yes, our life will be and should be a life of warfare, a war of peace and love that will also give us certain consolations in spite of the tension. 

 And for this penance to be a true virtue, it has to include an indomitable hope that can survive even in the worst of scenarios. In fact, this hope gets stronger the uglier also the warfare gets.

Everything should be prayer

WE have to realize that prayer is the only thing necessary in our life. (cfr. Lk 10,38-42) We need it more than we need air to breathe, food to eat, water to drink. And that’s simply because it is our basic and indispensable way to keep in touch with God which is what is most important in our life. 

 Let’s remember that our life is supposed to be a life with and in God always, since we have been created in his image and likeness, children of his, and sharers of his divine life, not only in heaven in our definitive state, but also while here on earth. 

 It does not mean that just because we always have to pray, we do nothing other than pray and that we should not get involved in our temporal and earthly affairs. Let’s never forget that God has placed us in the world to test us, if what he wants us to be is also what we want to be for ourselves, that is, to be children of his. 

 We should therefore be actively involved in our temporal and earthly affairs, but doing so by converting everything in these affairs into some form of prayer, into some form of engaging ourselves with God. 

 To be sure, this is possible and doable, because praying does not even need a bodily organ for it to be done. It is a spiritual operation that can transcend the use of our bodily faculties. It’s a matter of attitude, of belief, which we can always have even if it is not expressly articulated. 

 As such, it can be done in any situation—while we are working, playing, resting, etc. But it would be good that we spend some time doing nothing other than praying, directly engaging God in a loving conversation, because that would help us to be prayerful in all our other activities and situations in life. 

 Thus, we have to be ready to do some vocal prayers and mental prayer. These are exercises that can build and fuel our life of prayer. With them, we engage God in a more direct way, and in a more loving way, giving him due worship and adoration. 

 Besides, those moments of vocal prayer and mental prayer would be good moments to thank God for everything we have received, and also to ask for pardon for the mistakes and sins we have committed, as well as to ask for favors that we need. 

 But in our present human condition, we need to fight to be able to pray. We need to struggle. We have to exert great and abiding effort to convert everything we do into prayer. That’s because as our catechism puts it, we should pray as we live because we can only live properly as we pray. (cfr. Compendium 572) 

 The forces of good and evil are always in conflict not so much in some places outside or war arenas somewhere, as in our very own heart. The combat is more internal than external, more spiritual and moral than material and physical. 

 Besides, the battle of contention starts in some little matters, not in big issues, that are not promptly attended to and are made to fester for a while until they become a crisis or a conflagration. 

 We need to be always on guard, and the best way to do that is to pray, to be in constant conversation with God, our Father, whose wisdom and omnipotence he is willing to share with us, his children, created in his image and likeness.

A move toward theocracy?

WE need to understand that since Christ is the fulfillment of the law (cfr. Mt 5,17), Christianizing our laws does not mean that we are moving toward theocracy, or making the clergy the governing authority of the state. It is simply a call to our Christian lawmakers and law-enforcers to be consistent to their Christian identity. 

 We need to Christianize our laws since it is a necessity. Obviously, it has to be done with due process, without imposing things and respecting the different views and opinions of people who have different backgrounds, beliefs, etc. Resolving these differences should be done in the most democratic or fair way. 

 We have to realize that it is Christ who ultimately gives the real meaning and purpose of our laws. 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. 

 And the will, laws and ways of God are revealed to us in full by Christ. That is why at one point Christ said to the Pharisees and scribes regarding the proper interpretation of the Sabbath law that “the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So, the Son of Man (Christ) is Lord even of the Sabbath.” (Mk 2,27-28) 

 So, it is Christ who can guide us as to the content and intent of our laws. He is the one who can interpret our laws properly. He is the one that would give our laws their proper spirit, which in the end is the spirit of charity that summarizes and perfects all virtues and values. 

 Without Christ, our laws would unavoidably become rigid and harsh in certain instances. They would tend to absolutize certain things that actually should only have relative value. They would hardly recognize their limits, and so would find it hard to accept exceptions. 

 Without Christ, our laws would only lead us to the path of self-righteousness that will always be accompanied by the ways of hypocrisy. They can tend to rationalize things that actually are against God’s laws and our own objective good. 

 We need to openly acknowledge the necessity of putting Christ into our laws—into their making, application and interpretation. At the moment, there seems to be a certain hesitation, awkwardness and even resistance on the part of many law-making bodies in the world, even among the so-called Christian countries. 

 Often underlying this hesitation, awkwardness and even resistance to the role of Christ in our legal system is the badly-understood principle of the separation of Church-and-state that puts a preventive bracket on God, on Christ, in the making, application and interpretation of our laws. 

 This attitude is what may be described as legal positivism that places the ultimate source of our laws on some government entity or political institution, or even on some philosophy and ideology alone.

Our true rest only with Christ

THAT’S what Christ clearly said. “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest,” he said. (Mt 11,28) For those who try to follow Christ faithfully and are burdened as can be expected, they should find consolation in these words of his. He also reassured them that they should be unafraid to take Christ’s yoke for as he said, “my yoke is easy, and my burden light.” (Mt 11,30) 

 We really need to know what our proper rest really is. Nowadays, people have different and even conflicting ideas about what it is. For some it is purely something physical. For others, it is more on the emotional and psychological side. 

 There are those who think that resting is doing what they like to do at the moment, enjoying a peaceful moment, sipping a favorite drink. Still others believe it is having the sensation of letting go of something that weighs heavily on their mind and heart. There still are others who think that is about achieving a goal they had set out for themselves. 

 All of these, of course, have their valid points. But I believe there is still a higher metric that would best define what our proper rest is and that would somehow integrate all these other ideas about rest. And that is whether we manage to be with God at the end of the day—or of our life. 

 We have to realize that true rest can be found only in Christ. The rest that he gives us is not only physical. It is the rest that includes all the aspects of our life—emotional, psychological, mental, moral and spiritual. We need to broaden our understanding of rest to go beyond the physical dimension. 

 Christ offers us the due rest for our soul that can be harassed by the problems of this world and the requirements of our lifelong pursuit for holiness and apostolate. (cfr. Mt 11,29) This is the real rest that is indeed meant for us. Short of this, our rest would be at best only apparent, and cannot cope with the over-all demands and pressures of our life. 

 For this he advises us to learn from him, particularly in his meekness and humility. I imagine that these virtues were highlighted because they are the ones that would open the gates of our soul to receive God’s grace, to be guided by faith rather than simply by our senses and emotions and even by our intellectual powers. 

 We have to see to it that our search for rest should not get stuck in the level of our physical, emotional and intellectual conditions. This is a crucial point because the entry point in our process of knowing is through our senses, instincts and emotions, before things get processed by our intellect. 

 And things do not just end there in our intellect. We have to see to it that our intellect, which does not create the truth but can only recognize and express it, be enlightened and inspired by the ultimate source of truth, which is our faith. 

 Faith is a God-given view of the all the truths that we need to know. It is God revealing and sharing his knowledge of things with us. It is God sharing his powers with us. We just should not be guided by our own lights and faculties, but rather by the light God gives us through the gift of faith. With this faith in God as revealed to us in full by Christ, we can find our true rest!

It always pays to be simple and humble

YES, indeed! It always pays to be simple and humble. And the reason is because such qualities can only attract God to us. Take note of what Christ once said: “I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike.” (Mt 11,25) 

 And St. James in his letter reiterates the same point: “God opposes the proud and shows favor to the humble.” (4,6) One of the beatitudes highlights the importance of meekness: “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” (Mt 5,5) 

 We should do everything to keep ourselves in the loop of these virtues of simplicity, humility, meekness and the like. More than that, we should always find ways of how we can continually grow in them, given the fact that we tend to get contented at achieving a certain level of these virtues. We should not forget that since the world never stops evolving with all its good and bad forces, we also need to continue developing these virtues to cope with the varying challenges being posed on us. 

 Let’s remember that Christ said it clearly. “Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart.” Christ, our “way, truth and life,” points to us the crucial qualities we ought to develop in this life that is so full of challenges, with the view of tackling them properly. 

 It’s meekness and humility. They effectively resemble us with Christ. And with Christ in his meekness and humility, we would be ready to face all the challenges, trials, difficulties, etc., in life. That is the secret. 

 Christ reassures us. “My yoke is easy and my burden light.” We should not worry too much about life’s vagaries. Precisely when we feel pressured and weighed down, he tells us, “Come to me…and I will give you rest.” 

 Let us pay attention more to these words than to our human standards and estimation of things that will always consider these qualities as softness or meaningless passivity and defeatism, devoid of fighting spirit. 

 In fact, these words require a lot of strength and forcefulness, for they have to be reconciled also with these words of Christ: “The Kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent are taking it by force.” (Mt 11,13) 

 In this regard, we have to learn how to master our emotions and passions. They are notorious in exploding in their own reckless ways when not disciplined by our reason and most especially by our faith, hope and charity. 

 We need to train ourselves to feel at home with this divine indication that is meant for our redemption. We have to lose the fear of suffering. We have to assume the mind of the sacrificial lamb whose life-offering actually gives all of us eternal life. 

 All of this would require first of all the grace of God which God himself gives to us abundantly. But we have to learn to correspond to that grace as best that we could. We can start by reining in our emotions and passions, disciplining and purifying them so that they conform to the will and ways of God rather than to ours. 

 We have to learn to welcome whatever suffering, trial or challenges would come our way, reacting to them in a supernatural way, viewing them from the angle of faith, and tackling them with the spiritual and supernatural means that are made available to us.

Continuing need for repentance and conversion

WE have to realize that we always need repentance and conversion. We have to be wary of the danger of feeling we are all ok just because we think we are already doing a lot of good things and have in fact in some cases entered into some forms of commitment to stay clean in our moral life. 

 This continuing need for repentance and conversion was somehow expressed by Christ when he said, “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would long ago have repented in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you. 

 “And as for you, Capernaum: Will you be exalted to heaven? You will go down to the nether world. For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. (Mt 11,22-23) 

 As that gospel narrates, Christ reproached the towns where most of his mighty deeds had been done, since they had not repented. This has also led him to say in another part of the gospel that “tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him.” (Mt 21,31-32) 

 For us to develop a keen sense of our constant need for repentance and conversion, we really would need to develop a deep sense of our need for God. Truth is we have a strong tendency to simply be on our own, especially when realize that there is something good going in us. Such tendency is a sweet poison that deadens our need for repentance and conversion. 

 We have to understand that conversion is a continuing affair for all of us in this life. We are all sinners, St. John said. And even the just man, as the Bible said, falls seven times in a day. 

 Besides, it is this sense of continuing conversion that would really ensure us that whatever we do, whatever would happen to us, including our failures and defeats, would redound to what is truly good for the parties concerned and for everybody else in general. 

 That’s because conversion brings us and everything that we have done in life to a reconciliation with God, from whom we came and to whom we go. 

 In one of the post-resurrection appearances of Christ to his apostles, that time when it was said that Christ “opened their minds to understand the Scriptures,” our Lord told them clearly: 

 “Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, would be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.” (Lk 24,46-47) 

 Yes, repentance for the forgiveness of sins has to be preached far and wide and constantly. These words show how much Christ is bent in saving us, in bringing us to our true dignity of a functioning child of God. This is his will for us. We just have to learn to correspond to that will, which is actually for our own true good!

Make war to gain peace

THAT is not a smart-alecky statement. It has to be taken seriously, since in a sense it comes from Christ himself. Note what he said in the Gospel of St. Matthew: 

 “Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth. I have come to bring not peace but the sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and one’s enemies will be those of his household.” (10,34-36) 

 But lest we think such statement is just a capricious, if not evil desire of Christ, he made some clarification. “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” (10,37-39) 

 It’s clear that Christ wants us to make war against anything that would prevent us from being with him. And it is only with him when we can have our true and lasting joy and peace. 

 We just have to make sure though that when we wage war as suggested by Christ, we do it not out of hatred against anybody or anything, since God loves everyone and everything that he created. We have to do it with the same love God has for everyone and everything. It’s actually a war of peace and love. 

 We have to understand that in this life we have to make war to have peace. And peace can only come about, at least in this life, as a consequence of some war. Our life here on earth will always be a war of peace. We should not be surprised by this phenomenon anymore. It should be a given. 

 The war we will be waging here on earth will be a constructive war, not destructive. It is a war to win our way toward heaven. It is a war to make ourselves “another Christ,” a new man, stepping out of the old man that we all are due to sin. Any obstacle along the way, including those who are very close to us but who compete with God for our love, should be fought and rejected. 

 We have to remember that we always have to contend with powerful enemies in our spiritual life. The first one would be our own selves, our own flesh that has been weakened by sin. There is such thing as concupiscence, a certain attraction to evil that leads us to have a lust of the eye, lust of the flesh and the pride of life. 

 Yes, our Christian life here on earth will always involve some war, some struggle and effort, some combat. But all of this would be done in peace and for peace. The combination may sound incredible, but that is what Christ is showing and telling us. 

 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace,” he told his disciples. “In this world you will have trouble, but take heart! I have overcome the world.” (Jn 16,33) If by faith and effort, we do our best to stick with Christ, we know that victory is always assured for us. Peace is gained by making some war.

Loving God by loving neighbor

MAKE no mistake about this. If we truly love God, we also should love our neighbor who can be anybody and everybody. This truth of our faith was highlighted when in the gospel a scholar asked Christ what he had to do to gain eternal life. (cfr. Lk 10,25-37) 

 When Christ responded by telling him to love God with all his strength and to love his neighbor, the scholar continued to ask who he should consider as his neighbor. That’s when Christ told him the story about a man who fell victim to robbers. 

 Let’s remember that our love for God cannot be separated from our love for others. Christ spelled out this point clearly when he clarified what the greatest commandment was. He immediately added that while the greatest commandment is to love God with all our strength, the second greatest commandment is to love our neighbor. (cfr. Mt 22,36-40) 

 Loving God and loving our neighbor are inseparable. If we love God, then we have to love our neighbor. And this love for neighbor was further clarified by Christ when he gave us the new commandment which is to love our neighbor as he himself has loved us. (cfr. Jn 13,34) 

 We know that the love of God for us as shown and lived in full by Christ is universal and inclusive. It excludes no one. It is even offered to those who do not love God. This is the kind of love that we have to live and give to everyone, just as God in Christ gave it on the cross and continues to give to everyone until forever. 

 This universal love for our neighbor should be shown from our heart of hearts through our attitude towards everyone, through our intentions, words and deeds towards others, through our willingness to bear the burdens of the others, etc. 

 We have to understand then that what would constitute as our true development and as our fullness of life should be the fruit of our love for God and love for the others, whoever they may be, for that is what a neighbour is—he is anyone and everyone. 

 We have to be wary with just doing what we like to do, even if what we do is objectively not bad since it is not a wilful disobedience of God’s commandments. This is because, if it not referred to the love of God and love for neighbour, it may just be an exercise of self-affirmation. 

 It’s important that we broaden our understanding of who our neighbor is. If our basic understanding of neighbor is that of a person who is quite close to us, then we have to understand that such closeness is not just something physical, material, social, etc. 

 That closeness should be all-inclusive, which means it can only be something spiritual and moral, something that is only generated by love, and a love that goes all the way to showing mercy that also goes beyond simply giving sympathy and compassion. 

 Obviously, this love-generated closeness can only take place if we are truly and vitally identified with Christ who is love personified, the quintessence of love, he who goes all the way to offer his life for all men, saints and sinners. We know that with his death, he bore all the sinfulness of men. 

 This kind of love that makes everyone a neighbor of ours is readily available and attainable, because Christ has made it so. Everything that we need to have that love has been given to us. It’s up to us to make use of it.

Being realistic in the world

“BE shrewd as serpents and simple as doves.” (Mt 10,16) What a combination of qualities Christ is telling us! Hard and even impossible as it may seem, we just have to try our best to achieve such condition, obviously with God’s grace, because as Christ himself warned us, in this world we would be like sheep in the midst of wolves. We just have to be clever without compromising our human and Christian integrity. 

 Is it possible? Is it achievable? We can always ask these questions, but in the end, we just have to reconcile ourselves with what Christ is telling us, since he himself will do it for us and with us. All we have to do is try our best to be like him who precisely epitomizes this most intriguing blend of shrewdness and simplicity. 

 He could read men’s mind and heart. He knew where they were coming from and where they were going to. He many times caught the supposedly leading men of his time in their fallacies and defective arguments. He knew how to defend himself. But in the end, when the “hour” came for him to offer his life for us, he went to it, obeying the Father’s will and out of pure love for us. 

 We should try our best to be like him. We should be simple without being naïve. We should be shrewd and clever without any trace of malice nor of any desire for pure self-interest. 

 Definitely this is a combination that will be very challenging for us to develop. But we can always try, like taking one step at a time in pursuing this goal. For this, we may have to spend some time studying on how to develop it, coming out with some plans and resolutions along the way. 

 Truth is, we cannot deny that we are in an increasingly complicated world. There are now many smart people around, quick to rationalize their actions. This is especially true among our political leaders, who in their quest for power, will do everything—mostly unfair means and reasonings—to gain or keep that power. 

 But it would be a disaster to us if we respond to this complicated mess with our own version of convoluted self-justifications. This happens when we start thinking, judging, reasoning and concluding without God or, worse, when we think God's clear commandments are already obsolete, irrelevant, a drag to our interests, etc. 

 Sad to say, there are now many people who think that God's clear laws are out of touch with reality, and so they craft their own ideologies that are mainly based on what is practical, convenient, popular, or what can gain them power, etc. 

 In history, we have seen many cases like this. There was barbarianism, massive persecution of Christians or people not in agreement with the current administration. There was Nazism, Fascism, Communism and some questionable forms of socialism and capitalism, and now, an unhinged Liberalism. 

 What could be worse were those instances when religion was used to precisely go against God's clear commandments. Some people have gone to the extent of using their religion to justify divorce, abortion, ethnic cleansing, terrorism, etc. 

 We have to learn how to counter this deadly trend without compromising charity and the truth. And the only way to do that is precisely to follow Christ’s indication that we be both clever like serpents and simple as doves.

Freely given, freely give

“AS you go, make this proclamation: ‘The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, drive out demons. Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give.” (Mt 10,7-8) 

 Words of Christ addressed to his apostles and addressed to us also. They are a call to give ourselves completely to carry out the continuing mission of Christ which is the salvation of everyone. 

 This mission will definitely require everything from us. But neither should we forget that everything has also been given to us. To be sure, Christ does not ask of us something that he himself would not enable us to do. 

 It’s a truth of our faith that we should vividly remember always, especially when we feel we are already at our limits in our self-giving to fulfill God’s will. God cannot be outdone in generosity. If we are generous with him and with others, the more generous will God be with us! 

 We need to develop a keen sense of generosity and self-giving that is also a result of detachment. Let’s never forget that whatever we have comes from God who wants us to work for him and with him, and for the common good. Thus, we hear St. Paul saying, “What do you have that you did not receive?” (1 Cor 4,7) 

 Let’s remember that generosity can only be achieved if there is love. Love and generosity cannot be separated. It’s in the very essence of love to give oneself without measure, 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. 

 Yes, 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. 

 And the object of our love and of our generosity should first of all be God, and then because of God, everybody else. That’s because love for God cannot be separated from love for neighbor. It would be no love for God if it does not translate itself into love for everybody else. 

 It would be highly advisable that for us to learn how to love and how to be generous, we should meditate often on the life and example of Christ who gave himself all the way to offering his very own life on the cross in complete obedience to the will of the Father and in his all-out love for us. 

 Let’s hope that everytime we meditate on Christ’s life, we get inspired to follow his example, even if it is just a little thing everyday. At least, we can say that there is some growth in our love and generosity for God and for the others. 

 To be sure, what we seem to lose by giving ourselves to God and to others will actually gain us a hundredfold, as Christ himself assured us. He said: “Everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.” (Mt19,29) 

 What a great deal that would be!

The apostolic spirit

IF we truly are consistent with our Christian identity, there should be no doubt that an essential part of it is that we are meant to be apostles and disciples of Christ who is asking us to go to the whole world, preach the gospel, and baptize people in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. (cfr. Mt 18,19-20) 

 Vatican II itself spelled it out very clearly. “The Christian vocation is by its very nature a vocation to the apostolate.” (Apostolicam actuositatem, 2) So, anyone who wants to be truly consistent to his Christian identity and calling should realize ever deeply that he is called to help others get closer to God. This is what apostolate is all about. 

 This duty actually springs first of all from our nature, since we are not only individual persons but are also a social being. Our sociability is not an optional feature. It is part of our essence, violating which would be equivalent to violating our very own nature. 

 We can never live alone. We need to be with others. And more, we need to care for one another. We have to be responsible for one another. And while this caring and loving starts with the most immediate material human needs like food, clothing, etc., it has to go all the way to the spiritual and more important needs of ours. 

 That’s why we need to practice affection, compassion, understanding, patience and mercy on everyone. We have to understand though that all these can only take place if they spring and tend towards God, “the source of all good things” for us. 

 Forget it if we believe we are capable of doing these duties merely on our own will power. We can give some semblance of their fulfilment, but if not anchored on God, the mask will just fall off sooner or later. 

 We have to be more aware of this duty. We need to talk about it more freely and more often. In the first place, because it has its complex and dynamic side that should be dominated and mastered. Besides, it has to contend with a world culture that is quite averse and even hostile to it. 

 The realization of this crucial aspect of our Christian life is what actually gives meaning and perspective to our whole life and everything contained in it. It puts our life in the right orbit. 

 Our life can’t simply be a life in pursuit of personal sanctity without doing apostolate. These two go together inseparably, mutually affecting each other to put us on the right track in our life. 

 This joint God-and-man effort is also in keeping with our dignity as persons and as children of God. As persons, we need to see to it that we get to be responsible also for our whole life, for attaining its true fullness of purpose. 

 And that’s nothing less than to participate in the life of God, since more than persons, we are children of his, meant to live with Him. 

 Thus, to do apostolate engages our intelligence and will in their proper way. It’s how we can best use our freedom and our loving. It’s how we can be truly responsible for our life. 

 In short, if these distinctive human faculties and activities are not used for apostolate but rather for some other human purpose, we would be misusing them. No matter how noble these human purposes are, if the apostolic dimension is missing, we would be misusing these God-given powers.

“The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few”

FAMOUS words of Christ that present to us the stark reality of our condition here on earth. (cfr. Mt 9,37) There are just so many things to do and accomplish in our life and yet there are only a few hands to do them. 

 Speaking alone of our temporal affairs, not to mention our ultimate spiritual and supernatural goal, the challenge we face is indeed overwhelming. But let’s have a faith-based hope and do whatever we can to meet the challenge as adequately as possible. 

 For this, we need to develop a keen sense of vocation. It should be clear to all that everyone has a vocation. Everyone is called by God to carry out a mission that ultimately is a matter of our salvation. That, of course, involves our sanctification and our part in the continuing redemption of mankind by doing apostolate. 

 To be sure, no one comes to existence by mere accident nor by pure chance and divine caprice. God does not create us at random. Even a person who is considered unwanted by his parents or is conceived through rape is already a person planned and loved by God from all eternity. This is a fundamental truth about ourselves that we should never take for granted. 

 Thus, we should try to develop this sense of vocation as early as possible. And this can mean as early as when one is still a child, already beginning to be aware of what and who he or she is. This normally should start in the family, with the parents playing a major role in this affair since they are our first teachers here on earth. 

 The parents should be quick in sowing the seeds of this sense of vocation by making the child aware that he or she just did not come from them but from God. And that he or she also belongs to God. This basic truth should always be reinforced all throughout the process of bringing up and educating the child. The parents should therefore plant the rudiments of piety in their children, mainly through their example and with them doing the appropriate catechesis. Their children should see them praying and having a special and pious regard to God. When the children see the love between them and feel their parents’ love for them, then the children will find it easy to relate themselves with God in faith and love. 

 This is a big challenge for the parents nowadays since, with so many fascinating developments around, the children can easily fall into self-absorption and self-indulgence. The parents should be ready to handle this danger very well. They should come out with appropriate plans and means to help their children become God-centered instead of self-centered. 

 Only in this atmosphere of piety should the topic of vocation be brought up directly with the children, explaining the why and wherefore of it. The children should be made aware that God has a particular vocation for them and that they have the duty to discover it. Of course, this has to be done in a gradual way, without putting pressure on the children. 

 We need to understand the real character of our vocation. It is about God inviting us to be with him, to correspond to the reality that God is already with us and wants us to actively participate in his plan for each one of us, which can assume an infinite variety of forms and ways.