The best condition for us

IN the gospel, there is a part where Christ went to the house of Peter and cured Peter’s wife, after which many others who were sick came to be healed by Christ. Even evil spirits that possessed a few came out of those they possessed. (cfr. Lk 4,38-44) 

 We have to understand that the best thing for us to do, especially when we are faced with all sorts of problems and difficulties, is to go to Christ. Being with Christ, asking for his help is actually the best condition for us to be in, even as we also would exhaust all possible human means we have to resolve our predicaments. 

 To be with Christ is always doable. All we have to do is to rev up our faith which tells us that Christ is always around, eager to help us and even willing to offer his life for us. It’s always a question of faith. 

 As Christ himself said, “If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” (Mt 17,20) 

 The faith of our Lady made possible the incarnation of the Son of God that led to our redemption. The faith of the apostles and all the other saints, despite their weaknesses, made them able to do what may be considered as impossible to do. 

 We should just learn how to deal with the difficult and the impossible things in our life with faith more than our human efforts alone. Let’s remember that as long as we are here on earth, we have to contend with all sorts of difficulties, trials and temptations. 

 And as if these are not enough, we also have to contend with the truth of our faith that tells us that we are meant to pursue a supernatural goal that definitely cannot be achieved simply with our own human powers, no matter how excellent they are. 

 The secret is always to go and to be with God who can make the impossible possible. In all our affairs and situations in life, we should always go to God to ask for his help and guidance, and to trust his ways and his providence, even if the outcome of our prayers and petitions appears unanswered, if not, contradicted. 

 We should always remember that God never abandons us and is, in fact, all ready and prompt to come to our aid, albeit in ways that we may not realize, at first, just like what happened in that story of the two disciples on their way to Emmaus. (cfr. Lk 24,13-35) 

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

 Everyday, we should find a way of how to be with God, fanning our desire to go to him always and sharpening our awareness of his constant presence and interventions in our life, etc. 

 We should strengthen our conviction that amid the varying situations in our life, the best condition for us to be in is to be with God.

Devil no match for God

WE have to keep in mind this reassuring truth of our faith. Especially these days, when cases of demonic possession seem to be on the rise, we should always remember that before God the devil simply cannot do anything. 

 This truth of our faith can be shown in that gospel episode where a demoniac approached Christ while he was preaching in a synagogue. (cfr. Lk 4,31-37) “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?” the demoniac asked. “Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are–the Holy One of God!” 

 We should therefore not be too alarmed about this possibility of demonic possessions. But neither should we just sit pretty before this possibility. We have to be most wary of it, especially when we happen to enjoy a lot of privileges, power, fame, etc., that, unless referred to God and to our duty to love everyone, can only spoil us and make us vulnerable to the devil’s tricks. 

 We should never take the devils for granted. They are always around, ever scheming and plotting against us in many, many ways, and often in a manner that is so subtle that we may not even notice him. As St. Peter would put in his first letter: “Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.” (5,8) 

 We should never consider the devils as a myth, or as some kind of literary device only to highlight a point in the drama of our life. They are as real as you and me. Our problem is that we think lightly or, worse, falsely of them. And so, we become completely unprepared to deal with their antics. 

 But in spite of this unfortunate fact of life, we should remember that the devils cannot do anything against us unless allowed by God. And if allowed, it is because God in his mysterious providence can always draw a greater good from any evil the devils may cause in us. 

 Just the same, we should always be guarded against them, especially when we happen to enjoy a lot of privileges in life or to fall into the other extreme of depression and despair. 

 That’s because these privileges, like some power we may wield, and our worries, if not referred to God and to our duty to love everyone, irrespective of how they are, can only spoil us and make us vulnerable to the antics of the devils. 

 These privileges and worries have to be handled most delicately, with great humility. In other words, they always have to be related to God from whom all power and authority on earth comes. (cfr. Rom 13,1) They should be handled always with God in mind and in heart. Otherwise, there is no way for them to go other than to be abused or to destroy us. Let’s remember that the only thing we are capable of doing without God is to sin. 

 Let’s never forget what Christ clearly said: “Apart from me you can do nothing.” (Jn 15,5) We have to understand these words well. Definitely we can do a lot of things without God. We can even make war against him. 

 But what Christ meant is that without him, without God, we would be incapable of doing anything that is worthy of our dignity as children of God. And that, in the end, is what matters.

Let’s learn to love the cross

WITH the memorial of the passion of St. John the Baptist, celebrated liturgically on August 29, we are reminded that we should not be afraid of the cross, of any form of suffering, which the by way, whether we like it or not, will be unavoidable in our life. 

 With this memorial, we are reminded that the cross actually ought to be welcomed, even to be looked for and to be loved, since if we are guided by our Christian faith, we know that the cross and any suffering that comes our way offers us the occasion to show that our love for God, for others and for ourselves, is genuine, not fake. 

 We have to learn to lose the fear of the cross and suffering and death itself. If we believe in Christ and follow what he has taught and shown us, we will realize that there is nothing to be afraid of suffering and death, and all the other negative things that can mark our life. 

 He bore them himself and converted them into our way for our own salvation. Yes, even death which is the ultimate evil that can befall on us, an evil that is humanly insoluble. With Christ’s death, the curse of death has been removed. “Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” (1 Cor 15,54-55) 

 So, we just have to be sport and cool about the whole reality of suffering and death. What we need to do is to follow Christ in his attitude toward them. For Christ, embracing suffering and ultimately death, is the expression of his greatest love for us. We have to enter into the dynamic of this divine logic and wisdom so we can lose that fear of suffering and death, and enter into the very essence of real love as shown by Christ. 

 Thus, we have to understand this very well. Unless we love the cross, we can never say that we are loving enough. Of course, we have to qualify that assertion. It’s when we love the cross the way God wills it—the way Christ loves it—that we can really say that we are loving as we should, or loving with the fullness of love. 

 We have to be clear about this truth of our faith. If we truly have love, the love that comes from God and not just our own idea of love, we should be willing to suffer and die for our beloved who in the end is none other than God, and because of God, is also everybody else. 

 Thus, we all need to be reminded that all our suffering has a positive and favorable aspect. It’s not all entirely bad and negative, though in itself it will always be bad. But if viewed and lived through our Christian faith, there is something in it that can give us a greater good. We may refer to this advantageous aspect of suffering as the happy Good News or Gospel of Suffering. 

 In this life, we have to expect and be prepared for the unavoidable pain and suffering. And this means that whether we are guilty or not of our pains and suffering, all we have to do is to go immediately to Christ who shows us how to handle our pains and suffering and who is ready to forgive us if ever we are guilty of suffering. 

 We should be quick to unite our suffering with that of Christ on the cross, and thus convert our suffering as the very proof of real love!

The sweet poison of the good life

LET’S be wary of the danger that the privileges, gifts and good fortune we enjoy in life can bring about. Christ warned us of this possibility when he said, “When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not recline at table in the place of honor. A more distinguished guest than you may have been invited by him…Rather, when you are invited, go and take the lowest place…” (Lk 14,8-10) 

 And he concluded this warning by saying that “everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Lk 14,11) Instead, he asked us to give special or preferential attention and care for the poor, the weak and the sick. 

 It’s a lesson that we should learn and live well. It is what makes us like Christ and able to do and cooperate with his sanctifying and redemptive mission that we have to continue till the end of time. 

 Let’s be reminded that the privileges, favors and blessings we enjoy in life 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. 

 We have to be most wary when we happen to enjoy some privileged positions or status in life because we tend to think that we deserve more entitlements. And not only would we expect them. We may even demand them for us. 

 This, sad to say, seems to be a common phenomenon these days. It can affect everyone, of course, but it especially affects the young ones who appear to be more privileged than those in the previous generations because of the many new things they are learning and enjoying now. And they feel entitled. 

 We should banish this temptation as soon as it makes its appearance felt in us. On the contrary, we should follow the example of Christ who, in spite of who he is, just wanted to serve. 

 We should develop the intense desire to have a special concern for those who have less in life, like the simple and the weak, the sick and disabled, the children and the poor. 

 This truth of our faith is somehow highlighted in that gospel episode where Christ preached about the need to be like little children to enter the kingdom of heaven, the care not to despise the little children, and his intent always to look for the lost sheep, regardless of the cost and effort involved. (cfr. Mt 18,1-5.10.12-14) 

 If we are truly Christian, we should have true and abiding compassion toward everyone, especially the poor and the needy. But we have to understand that compassion should have a universal coverage. It should not be limited to the sentimental aspects of things, nor to relieving the economic and material needs of people alone. 

 It should cover the whole range of human needs in their proper order of importance, foremost of which is our need for God. We have to learn to distinguish between the pressing and precious needs of man, and to cope with the tension that sometimes arises in our effort to put these two kinds of human needs together. 

 In this concern, we have to understand that the poor may not be the one who are economically poor. They can be the richest, the most educated, the most famous and powerful, but who happen to be farthest from God. They can turn out, in that context, to be the poorest of the poor, the lost sheep that have strayed farthest from God.

A spirituality adapted to the changing times

WE, of course, are told that nothing is new under the sun. (cfr. Ecc 1,9) But neither can we deny that times are changing, the world is evolving, developments continue to take place, and at these times, they come quite rapidly. And so, we also have to make certain adaptations in the way we keep and nourish our spiritual life. Otherwise, we would simply get lost or, at least, confused. 

 Obviously, the basics have to be retained. We need to pray always, have recourse to the sacraments, grow in the virtues, wage constant ascetical struggle, etc. But we have to find new ways of how to go about them. 

 These should be ways that effectively address the new features of our times when we have easy access to the new and powerful technologies, when we are asked to expand our scope of concerns, when we have to grow more in our sense of solidarity and subsidiarity, etc. 

 Yes, we have to learn to be more flexible and versatile, more open to the new things without compromising the traditional basic things, more adept in keeping the proper focus as we cruise through rapidly varying circumstances and situations. 

 Of great importance in this regard is the need for upgrading our vigilance skills, since we will always have to contend with very smart and wily enemies of our soul and of God himself. We are reminded of this need in that parable of the 10 virgins. (cfr. Mt 25,1-13) 

 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) 

 Truth is the many developments today, while giving us a lot of advantages and conveniences, can also easily lead us to bad things. They can foster complacency, self-indulgence, vanity, pride, greed, envy, discord, etc. They can turn us into materialistic monsters, totally insensitive to the spiritual and supernatural realities of our life and to God himself. 

 We should never underestimate the tricks and snares of the devil, the false allurements of the world, and the dynamic of our weakened and wounded flesh. These enemies of our soul will constantly make new guises to mislead and tempt us. To upgrade our vigilance skills is not a matter of paranoia. It is to be realistic. It is to be effectively prudent. 

 We should not be naïve to think that with our current skills at spiritual and moral vigilance, we are already okay. We have to sharpen our sense of purpose in life, seeing to it that its general goal is being consistently lived and reinforced in the many subsidiary purposes we have during the year, month, week, day, and even hour. 

 With how things are now, we cannot simply rely on a generic sense of purpose. We have to learn how to be vigilant in all circumstances and situations in life, especially when we are tired, troubled, or when thrilled and excited. 

 Thus, it would be helpful that from time to time, we pause and examine how we are doing in our spiritual life. Do we still have the proper spiritual and supernatural bearing? Are there things to be corrected or modified? Are we aware of the state of our spiritual and moral resources? 

 We have to find the answers to these questions always!

Vigilant and fruitful

BECAUSE we can easily be confused and entangled in the drama of our life, we should see to it that we are always vigilant and fruitful, so that we avoid losing our proper focus and the sense of purpose of our whole life. 

 The focus should always be God and how to relate everything to him, glorifying him. This should always be in our mind, whatever the circumstance and situation we may find ourselves in at a given moment. 

 For this, we have to make use of some effective plan of life, with the proper attitude and spirit. and relevant and functioning practices of piety. Given the complexity of our life today, what with all the rapid and sophisticated developments emerging, we should be ready to face the challenge. 

 We need to be vigilant always, in good times and in bad times, and most especially in ordinary times which we still would not know whether it is good or bad. We should never let our guard down. From time to time, let’s pause to see if we are still keeping our proper bearings and outlook. 

 This is simply because we have enemies to contend with all the time. First of all, it is our own selves, our own weakened flesh that will always lure us to do things against God’s will and against what is truly good for us. 

 Then we have the world with all its sinful attractions and temptations. And, of course, the devil himself. Never discount him. He’s always around, prowling like a lion looking for someone to devour. (cfr 1 Pt 5,8) 

 In what may seem to be good times, when things are more or less ok, let us thank God and do our best to make use of all the blessings and good opportunities made available for us. 

 But let’s not forget that the good things can also occasion dangers for us if we are not careful. We should know where those dangers lie in the good things that we may enjoy at the moment. In that way, we avoid falling into complacency that will practically spoil us, and take away the goodness of the blessings we are enjoying. 

 Everyday, we should be keenly aware that we need to be fruitful and productive also. That’s simply because even from the beginning of our creation in Adam and Eve, this has always been God’s will for us. 

 “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it,” (Gen 1,28) God told our first parents, clearly outlining his mandate to them. It’s a mandate that continues to be repeated up to now. Christ himself said as much. 

 We have to realize that God has already given us everything that we need, not only to survive but also to improve our lot that ultimately translates into realizing the fullness of our dignity as image and likeness of God, as children of his. 

 In this regard, we truly should be most enterprising, coming up with daily plans and strategies such that at the end of the day, when we make our examination of conscience, we can show God that we have gained something, and that the daily balance sheet of our spiritual life is in the black, not in the red. 

 We have to realize that the capitalization of this enterprise cannot be any better. God has given us everything—life, talents, intelligence, freedom, all kinds of capacities, his graces, etc.

Blending simplicity and shrewdness

THESE two qualities may look incompatible with each other, but that’s what Christ wants us to have. On the feast of St. Bartholomew, aka Nathanael, on August 24, we are somehow reminded of this apparently conflicting blend. Christ chose Bartholomew as one of the apostles for being a person with no guile. (cfr. Jn 1,45-51) 

 And more directly, he said that his disciples should be simple as doves yet shrewd also as serpents. (cfr. Mt 10,16) It’s a combination that is indeed confounding, but we just have to find a way to make these qualities blend. 

 I suppose the secret is again to look at the example of Christ. More than that, we have to learn how to be like Christ, to be another Christ, an ideal that we can manage to achieve because Christ has given us all the means. We just have to do our part. 

 And that means that we should try to develop the discipline of always looking at Christ and following him. I know this is not an easy task, but we can always try. If we persevere in trying, always asking for grace, there surely will come the time when such combination can become a reality in our life. 

 We obviously have to make daily plans and strategies, adapting and modifying them as circumstances demand, and as insights and lessons are learned along the way. It’s always a work in progress, and we just have to learn how to be patient and sport. There will be good times and bad times, victories and defeats, but we just have to move on, despite whatever. 

 Fact is, 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 were barbarianism, massive persecution of Christians or people not in agreement with the current administration. There were 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. 

 Yes, we have to deal with the complicated and complex situations as they come. That's what Christ warned us about: “I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves.” But we have to remain simple just the same yet able to deal with these complicated situations. 

 Simplicity is not naivete. It just means we have to know how to stick by God's laws no matter how difficult a situation may be. It's a matter of conviction that knows how to reinvent itself without compromising its essence as the need arises. It knows how to be flexible, adaptable and versatile. This is precisely the shrewdness of simplicity!

Consistency amid life’s varied dimensions

“WOE to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You pay tithes of mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier things of the law: judgment and mercy and fidelity. But these you should have done, without neglecting the others. Blind guides, who strain out the gnat and swallow the camel!” 

 Words of Christ that definitely remind us that we have to learn how to be consistent amid life’s different dimensions: the little things and the big ones, the internal and external, the immediate and the ultimate, the temporal and the eternal, the material and the spiritual, the old and the new, etc. 

 Let’s see to it that we avoid getting trapped in one aspect at the expense of the other. Of course, given our human condition with our limitations and weaknesses, we may have to do a lot of balancing act, of give-and-takes, etc. But we should always be mindful of the need to pursue consistency and unity in our life. Otherwise, we would end up becoming hypocritical, rigid, unfair and self-righteous. 

 To attain that consistency and unity in our life, there is no other formula than to follow the example of Christ. He should always be the reference point in all our actions and in all the different situations in our life. He should always be the guide and the standard. After all, he is the very pattern of our humanity and he savior of our damaged humanity. 

 He teaches us how to blend the different aspects of our life, and how to have a universal outlook, so that everything in our life, no matter how different and even in conflict, can be properly resolved, even if it involves tremendous sacrifices. 

 With respect to the little and the big things in life, we should realize that while it’s true that we have to take care of the little things in our life, we should not forget that we are not meant to get detained there. We should always relate the little ordinary things in our life to the big and ultimate purpose of our life. 

 The same with the human and the spiritual and the supernatural dimensions of our life. Anomalies in this area can happen when in our confessions, for example, we accuse ourselves only of our failures to do our prayers, to offer sacrifices, to attend some daily Masses, etc., without mentioning how we have fared in our graver duty to do apostolate, to Christianize our work and society in general, to reach out to the poor and the needy, to be forgiving of others who may have wronged us, etc. 

 This is not to say that our prayers, sacrifices, recourse to the sacraments, etc., are not important. They are, and they should not be regarded as optional, as a matter of fact. They are indispensable too. 

 But if our failures in this department do not have the corresponding effects on the more important aspects of Christian life, there is reason to think that we are just mistaking the means for the end, the material for the spiritual, the temporal for the eternal, the natural for the supernatural, the material compliance of certain duties for their real effects. 

 We need to wake up from this anomaly, because like the Pharisees and the scribes of old, we could justly be accused by Christ to be hypocrites. And actually, many people today can also see that. We would simply be caring of the externals without the internal, the form and appearance without the substance.

The battle for purity of intention

WE cannot overemphasize the importance of this concern. We have to do our best to see to it that we always have purity of intention in everything that we do, so that we only love and serve God, and because of that, we can properly love and serve everybody else. 

 This concern was somehow referred to in that gospel episode where Christ lamented over the hypocrisy and inconsistency of the leading Jews at that time. (cfr. Mt 23,13-22) “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You lock the Kingdom of heaven before men. You do not enter yourselves, nor do you allow entrance to those trying to enter,” he said. 

 When our intentions are not pure, when they are contaminated with some ulterior motives, there is no way but for us to fall into some form of inconsistencies and improper priorities. 

 We should be very careful with our intentions. Since they are hidden, we can easily play around with them. We can appear good outside but bad inside. Our deeds may be considered as acts of generosity and compassion, but the intentions may be those of envy, conceit and the like. 

 In determining the morality of our human acts, the intention plays a very crucial role. Together with the matter or object, and the circumstances surrounding our acts, our intention can referee whether they are good or bad. 

 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. 

 We have to be most careful in handling our intentions. They play a strategic role in our life, for how and where we direct them would determine whether we want to be with God and simply with our own selves. 

 Our intentions express 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. 

 Even if we are not aware, or refuse to be aware, of this choice, which is usually the case, the choice between God and us, between good and evil is always made with every human act we do. 

 For us to have purity of intention, we should be humble enough to ask for it from God first. We should not dare to think that we can have purity of intention by simply relying on our own efforts. We need God’s grace first of all. Our usual problem is that we think we can have purity of intention by our own efforts alone.

Let’s strive to enter by the narrow gate

GIVEN our wounded and sinful condition here on earth, Christ suggests that we choose to enter by the narrow gate. (cfr. Lk 13,22-30) That’s simply because we are very prone to get spoiled by the good things in the world and to develop undue attachments that detach us from God who is our everything in life. 

 Entering by narrow gate also corrects our tendency to be presumptuous of God’s mercy without giving due consideration to divine justice and retribution. That’s why, Christ also told us that to follow him, we ought to deny ourselves and carry the cross. (cfr. Mt 16,24) 

 It does this even while it also helps us from avoiding falling into the opposite predicament, which is despair. In other words, it helps us develop a true, correct and delicate conscience, not a lax nor a scrupulous one. 

 We should make some kind of working plan for us to follow this indication of Christ. This concern should be attended to with deliberate effort. We should not take it for granted, since we know we are notorious for easily falling into an easy way of life, into a happy-go-lucky kind of lifestyle. 

 In short, this indication is not meant for us to be a killjoy. It certainly does not prevent us from enjoying the things of this world, as long as we know how to convert the things of this world into a pathway to God, a form of prayer, a way to engage with God in an abiding way. 

 Thus, we have to be wary of our tendency to be completely taken over by worldly values, like practicality, profitability and the like, which while legitimate can be inimical to us if not inspired by love for God and for others, that is, when they are pursued simply for personal interest. We have to be most wary of the new developments in technology, etc., which can easily intoxicate us and take us away from God. 

 We have to explain why this doctrine is necessary for us. It admittedly is not a very popular doctrine, but it should be made so. And we can take this time when we wallowing in some national crisis to make this doctrine more known, appreciated and lived. 

 Entering by the narrow gate is not meant simply to make our life hard, though certain hardships and self-denials are involved. Much less is it meant to go against our nature and basic needs. 

 We need certain practices to keep ourselves in the presence of God and motivated only for love of God and for others. Thus, we need to find time for intimate prayer with God, to have recourse to the sacraments, especially the Holy Eucharist where the living Christ is offered to us and where the merits of his redemptive work are applied to us. 

 More than that, we should be humble enough to acknowledge our need to be spiritually guided by someone competent enough to do so. In this regard, we should not be afraid nor ashamed to show to our spiritual directors, the real state of our soul which, while having some good aspects, also have its unavoidable baggage of negative things. 

 That openness and sincerity in spiritual direction and confession can already constitute as an act of entering by the narrow gate, since we would usually prefer not to complicate our life by earnestly confiding our spiritual and moral problems to someone who can guide and help us.

The fullness of love

LET’S remember always that we are meant for loving. Love should be the very essence of our humanity as it is the very essence of God himself who created us to be his image and likeness, children of his, sharers of his life and nature. 

 Thus, when Christ was asked what the greatest commandment of God was, he readily said: “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Mt 22,37-39) 

 There are, of course, many manifestations, levels and aspects of love, including the fake ones. But we have to understand that the only true love and the fullness itself of love can only be achieved when we so identify ourselves with Christ that we can follow the new and ultimate commandment that he gave us: “Love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (Jn 15,12-13) 

 We have to understand that if we truly are in love, we would like to know how much love we are giving or living and whether the love we have is true love or is just an appearance of it. We know very well that we are fond of saying we love God and others, and yet at closer scrutiny, it’s really not love that we are giving. 

 We already are told that true love is a love without measure. It means that we just have to give ourselves more and more, without ever saying enough. True love goes all the way to the extent of giving one’s very own life for the beloved. 

 That is the subjective side of love which is already very commendable. We should try to do all to take care of that requirement of love. But we have to realize that even if we give ourselves completely to our beloved, we may still end up not truly loving. We need to realize that love has its objective nature. And that nature is what Christ told us about it. 

 He told us that the main object of our love should be God himself to whom we have to give ourselves with all our heart and mind. And because of him, we ought to love everybody else, since it is in the very nature of God to love all his creation, to man especially. 

 Even the devils are not exempted from this love. The problem is that the devils do not love God in return. God never ceases to love anyone even if that love is not reciprocated. 

 The objective nature of love is for us to love God by following his commandments, that is, doing his will. Christ himself said as much: “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” (Jn 14,15) 

 This is the ultimate of love. And this is the love we have to aim at. This we can only do if we truly identify ourselves with Christ. There’s no way we can have that kind of love unless we are vitally identified with Christ. It’s a love that is full of compassion and mercy, and is fully given even if not reciprocated. 

 Let’s ask for God’s grace and do whatever it takes, so we can have this kind of love and attain the fullness of love and the fullness of our humanity!

Always ready to face God in judgment

“THE feast is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy to come.” (Mt 22,8) With these words in the parable about a king who invited guests to a feast, we are reminded that we have to be ready to face God in judgment, because he can call us anytime. 

 We know that death can come to us anytime. Without developing a gloomy outlook in life but simply to be realistic, we should somehow consider each day as our last day of our life here on earth. 

 That way, we would be more motivated to prepare ourselves to meet God and to be very discerning about what truly counts in life, knowing that we can easily get confused and lost, tossed to and from and carried away by the changing conditions of our daily life. 

 Just the same, knowing that we can never be sufficiently prepared for death, we should not be afraid to face God in judgment, since God is always willing to offer us mercy, just as Christ offered mercy to those who crucified him. We should just at least show some signs of repentance at the moment of death. 

 In other words, we have to be eternity-ready all the time, because we are meant for eternal life in heaven, and not just temporal life here on earth. Our life here on earth is just a testing ground to see if what God wants us to be, that is, to be his image and likeness, children of his, sharers of his life and nature, is also what we want ourselves to be. 

 We therefore have to be constantly aware that in every event and condition in our life here on earth, that ultimate purpose of our life is always considered and acted upon. We should try to avoid simply getting lost in our temporal affairs. 

 In this regard, it would be helpful to realize that since God is the creator of the universe, knowing him would lead us to know ourselves and everything else properly. And loving him would enable us to love ourselves and everything else properly as well. God, as fully revealed to us by Christ in the Holy Spirit, should always be the be-all and end-all of our life. 

 Everyday, we should try to settle accounts with God. In fact, saints and the Church herself have recommended that we make a daily examination of conscience just before going to bed. 

 This is to see if the day went as it should, that is, if love for God and neighbor is really the motive of all our actions, and so that we at least can be reconciled with God no matter how the day went. We should at least say sorry to God, even if we still have to do things to make up for our mistakes and sins. 

 This is an important task, because more than just resting physically, mentally or emotionally, we need to be at peace with God at the end of the day. God is everything to us. Regardless of our status at the moment, whether good or bad, moral or immoral, God not only will tell us what to do but also will give us what we need at that time. 

 God is always available, and what he gives us is also what we actually and ultimately need. What he gives us is at least the actual grace that we need to be able to act good. If corresponded to properly, the actual grace can bring back the state of grace to us.

Lessons from the parable of the vineyard workers

WE can learn a number of precious lessons from the parable of the vineyard workers. (cfr. Mt 20,1-16) One is that we should always be thankful to God for everything that he has given us. We should just make good use of them. We should avoid reproaching God for what may appear to us as some form of unfairness when we notice that others may have better things than what we have. 

 Another lesson is to avoid comparing ourselves with others if by doing so we would just end up getting jealous or envious. If we have to compare ourselves with others, it should lead us to be edified and inspired by them when they appear to be better off than us, or to edify and inspire others when we have some advantage over them. 

 Still another lesson is to avoid feeling entitled to some privileges and extra reward when we appear that we have been doing the greater part of any work or development. We should just be contented with what God would give us, or what others may legitimately give us. We should avoid chasing after privileges and rewards which is a clear sign of pride and vanity. 

 Yes, we have to be thankful to God for everything that we have at any given moment. This should never be neglected even as we try to resolve as fairly as possible whatever cases of injustice, unfairness, inequality and discrimination we may have in this life due to human weakness, limitations and sins. Being thankful assures us of keeping our union with God even as we go about fixing our human problems. 

 We also have to be wary of the danger of envy and jealousy. It’s that uneasy feeling that others are better than us in some respects. We can even be envious of others who we know are doing evil and yet appear to be having a better time than what we are having. Or it can come as a result of some personal frustrations, defeats and losses while others appear to only have successes and victories. 

 Many biblical passages refer to it. “For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice.” (James 3,16) “You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel.” (James 4,2) 

 Still more: “For you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way?” (1 Cor 3,3) “Jealousy makes a man furious, and he will not spare when he takes revenge.” (Proverbs 6,34) Envy truly corrupts us. It inflicts great damage on our humanity. 

 Envy is usually accompanied by sadness and sometimes by hatred, anger, bad thoughts and impulses of revenge, fault-finding and bitter zeal. It comes as a result of comparing oneself with others without God in the middle. The standards used are highly subjective and restrictive. 

 We should also be wary of feeling entitled due to what we may have done or accomplished. 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.

Dying to oneself

“AMEN, I say to you, it will be hard for one who is rich to enter the Kingdom of heaven. Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for one who is rich to enter the Kingdom of God.” (Mt 19,23-24) 

 Words of Christ that definitely will challenge us to die to ourselves, at least a little everyday, if only to comply with what he wants us to attain in our life. That’s simply because we always have the strong tendency to be by ourselves rather than to be with God as we ought. We seem helpless in our tendency to self-assertion, self-affirmation, and self-indulgence. 

 Let’s remember that even in the case of our first parents who were created in the state of original justice, when they enjoyed immortality, impassibility and integrity, they still managed to follow their own will rather than God’s. 

 You could just imagine how it is with us who are born already with original sin! And even if that original sin has been taken away by baptism, we still retain a certain attraction to evil, the so-called concupiscence. 

 Articulating this life-long predicament of ours, St. Paul once said: “I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.” (Rom 7,19) Besides, St. Paul also said that we are ranged against very powerful bad spiritual powers. (Eph 6,12) 

 That is why, to save us from this condition, Christ had to offer his life on the cross, and taught us that we should deny ourselves and carry the cross. That is the formula to follow if we want to effectively deal with our wounded and sinful condition here on earth. 

 Anent this truth of our faith, the seraphic doctor, St. Bonaventure, had this to say: “Let us die, then, and enter into the darkness, silencing our anxieties, our passions and all the fantasies of our imagination. Let us pass over with the crucified Christ from this world to the Father.” 

 We should make it a point that everyday, there should be that process of dying to ourselves, even if it is just a little. Self-denial, the cross, even if in small matters, will go a long way in helping us deal with our innate concupiscence. 

 Let us always go to Christ and follow his way of dealing with our sinfulness. We have to reassure ourselves that he is actually always there for us, eager to help us. This truth of our faith should be kept carved deep and hard into our mind and heart, so we can always remain at peace and with great hope despite our weaknesses and sinfulness, and all the many other things that can cause us anguish—difficulties, trials, failures, setbacks, etc. 

 We should not delay in going immediately to God, asking for help whenever we find ourselves in situations of distress. God is our Father who will always listen to us, who will always show compassion to us, who will never fail us. 

 We may fail him many times, but he will always be understanding to us. We should be careful not to be too overwhelmed by our weaknesses and sinfulness as to fall into despair and run away from God. 

 It’s precisely when we are down when God shows his greatest love for us. We should never doubt this truth which can be validated by the mere fact that God sent his Son to us, and the Son became man and assumed all our sins by dying on the cross.

The dignity of our human body

ONCE again, we celebrate this very wonderful Solemnity of the Assumption of our Lady to heaven (August 15), reminding us that like her, we too are meant to be both body and soul in our definitive state of life, hopefully in heaven, at the end of time. 

 Let’s remember that man is always a unity of body and soul. He is not just pure body nor pure spiritual soul. And as our Catechism teaches us, the body, properly animated by the spiritual soul, shares in the dignity of the “image of God.” (cfr. CCC 364) 

 This is how the Catechism explains it: “The human body shares in the dignity of “the image of God”: it is a human body precisely because it is animated by a spiritual soul, and it is the whole human person that is intended to become in the body of Christ, a temple of the Spirit. Man, though made of body and soul, is a unity.” 

 The Catechism further teaches that, “Through his very bodily condition he (man) sums up in himself the elements of the material world…He is obliged to regard his body as good and to hold it in honor since God has created it and will raise it up on the last day.” (CCC 362 ff.) 

 Our attitude toward the body and the material world, I am afraid, has suffered a dangerous mutation, a radical reversal of God’s designs for them. We seem to be falling into two extremes. 

 One is to consider the body as completely evil, as when the distinction between the body and the soul becomes exaggerated that they by nature become hostile to each other. This mindset is prevalent among those who may be regarded as ‘too spiritual’ in their life. 

 The other extreme, the more common one, is to consider the body as completely good, with no more need for spiritual animation and direction. This is the case of a variety of people—the hedonists, the naturalists, etc. 

 We need to understand that our body is organically linked to our spiritual and the supernatural character of our life. While distinct, it cannot be separated from our integral human nature and condition, from our beginning and end, and from the plan and purpose God our Father and Creator has for us. 

 Given that dignity of our human body, we have to make sure that our piety and our devotion to God and everything related to him has to involve both the body and soul. It has to involve our whole person. It just cannot be purely spiritual or purely material. It just cannot be only a matter of knowing the doctrine, quite cerebral in approach, without some external manifestations, or of practicing all sorts of devotional exercises, without knowing the doctrine of faith. 

 If piety has to be authentic and consistent in all circumstances, then it has to be lived both in our spiritual soul whose main faculties are our intellect and will, and in our material body whose link to our soul, the principle of life, are the emotions and passions, the memory and the imagination, our temperament and psychological state, etc. 

 When piety is limited to one or the other essential element of our being, to either our spiritual soul or the material body, then it cannot be consistent. It cannot hold out against that anomaly for long. It sooner or later will fall into the tricks of hypocrisy and self-deception.

The love-generated zeal and focus

WHERE there is love, there is always zeal, the state of always being driven and bent on pursuing a clear goal. And this was shown by Christ himself, the pattern of our humanity and the savior of our damaged humanity. At one point, he clearly expressed it: “I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing!” (Lk 12,49) 

 We have to understand that if we really are consistent with our Christian identity, we too should have this kind of zeal in carrying out the ultimate purpose of our life in everything that we do. If we are truly Christians and despite the varying conditions of our life and the confusing drama that we may find ourselves in, we would have both zeal and focus, knowing what to do without getting lost along the way. 

 We have to see to it that we are always burning with the zeal of love. We always have to contend with the danger to fall easily into complacency, lukewarmness, mediocrity. We should always be on the lookout for these perils. 

 We need to fill our mind and heart with love, and all that love brings—goodness, patience, understanding and compassion, mercy, gratuitous acts of service, generosity and magnanimity. 

 Yes, there’s effort involved here. Great, tremendous effort, in fact. But all this stands first of all on the ‘terra firma’ that is God’s grace, which is always given to us in abundance if we care to ask and receive it. Nothing human, no matter how well done, would prosper unless it is infused also with God’s grace. 

 We have to be wary of conforming ourselves, whether openly or subtly, intentionally or mindlessly, to worldly ways, to mere social trends, or to some inertia generated merely physically, hormonally, economically, politically, culturally, historically, etc. 

 We need to be most aware and sensitive to these dangers which are so common as to be part of what we call normal in life. Let’s train ourselves to smell out their symptoms and their approaches as soon as they arise. And then be quick to resist them. 

 Aside from zeal, true Christian love has a clear focus, which can be very tricky given the tremendous amount of distractions we are subjected to nowadays. The challenge is how to make God the be-all and end-all of our life. 

 In this regard, we need to present Christ’s words in a way that would be attractive to the people of today with their peculiar sensitivity and culture. Let’s remember that Christ himself did everything to adapt himself to us to carry out his redemptive mission. 

 How can we present, for example, the following words of Christ to the people of today without scaring them: “Seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you?” (Mt 6,33) 

 Or when he said: “The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it?” (Mt 13,45) 

 Or when St. Paul said: “Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God?” (1 Cor 10,31) 

 It’s not an easy task. One really has to be truly inspired by the Holy Spirit to be able to make these words hit a chord in people’s hearts. At the moment, what can come to mind are some words of Pope Francis when he said to the effect that priests should be “shepherds living with the smell of the sheep.”

On human sexuality

IN the gospel, Christ was once asked about marriage and divorce. And it was there that he had to clarify certain misunderstandings the people of that time had about these matters. And he also brought in the issue about celibacy. (cfr. Mt 19,3-12) 

 Human sexuality is a very delicate topic that has to be handled very, very well. It is so delicate that even a little misunderstanding of it can cause tremendous damage in the spiritual life of a person. It is where the disconnect between man’s body and soul, and ultimately between God and man, can be the sharpest. It can lead us blind, deaf and insensitive to the spiritual and supernatural dimension of our life. 

 That is why, back in 1995, the Vatican issued a document that to me holds special and urgent relevance today. It’s entitled, The Truth and Meaning of Human Sexuality, and precisely talks about a topic that should be made mainstream. 

 It needs to be brought out more in the open. Given the many issues in this area that have managed to generate a lot of confusion and complications, the document offers a basic and comprehensive primer especially to parents who are the first teachers and formators of their children. 

 What we have in society only reflects and is a result of what we have in the families. If the families do not do well or even fail in the education of their children in human sexuality, we cannot expect a society that will have a healthy attitude toward this very important aspect of human life. 

 The naked truth is that problems in this area have multiplied not only in number but also in kind. Wherever we go, even if we would just take a cursory look around, we can immediately see that there are things that are not quite right or, shall we say, that at least raise eyebrows, provoke questions and concern, etc. 

 Pornography is now so easily accessible that even little innocent children can already get exposed to them. Teen-age pregnancy is on the rise, together with casual sex and hook-ups, STD, abortion, contraception, and illegitimate children. This is not to mention the rise of problems related to the confusion in sexual identity. 

 There is a need to stress the original beauty and truth of human sexuality, its great positive and constructive power and contribution to our lives. And so, we have to highlight its origin in our human nature as designed by our Creator himself. We therefore cannot help but view human sexuality always within the framework of our Christian faith. 

 From there, we have to stress why our human sexuality is to be lived always in the context of truth and love, that is, in chastity, and not just in the context of our feelings and passions, and other worldly trends and some ideologies detached or even hostile to the faith. 

 Since we cannot avoid having some conflicting discussions in this topic, we have to have a clear idea of the distinction between good tolerance and bad tolerance, between healthy open-mindedness and the unhealthy one. 

 More importantly, we have to find ways to make this concern of teaching the truth and meaning of human sexuality an ongoing affair. Some structures have to be put up to continually help parents effectively discharge their duty of being teachers to their children, especially in the area of human sexuality.

We have to be merciful

TO be merciful is a necessity for us. That’s because to be merciful likens us to God himself who created us in his image and likeness. Mercy is the ultimate expression of charity which is the very essence of God himself and is meant also for us. 

 This truth of our faith can be verified in that gospel parable about a king who decided to settle accounts with his servants. (cfr. Mt 18,21-19,1) As the parable went, the king forgave a servant who owed him a lot of money because the servant begged for understanding. But the same servant did not do the same with his fellow servant who owed him a small amount. 

 The parable ended with these words: “Then in anger his master handed him over to the torturers until he should pay back the whole debt. So will my heavenly Father do to you, unless each of you forgives his brother from his heart.” (Mt 18,34-35) 

 This truth of our faith is also reinforced in that prayer that Christ himself taught his disciples, the Our Father. A part of it is most relevant in guiding us in our relationship with one another. It’s when Christ said, “Forgive us our sins (trespasses) as we forgive those who sin (trespass) against us.” 

 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 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. 

 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. 

 If Christ can offer forgiveness those who crucified him—and there can be no worse evil than killing Christ who is God—why do we find it hard to offer forgiveness to others? 

 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. 

 No matter how saintly we try ourselves to be, sin always manages to come in because of our wounded humanity and the many temptations within and around us. As St. John said, we have to contend with three main enemies: our own wounded flesh, the devil and the world corrupted by sin. 

 The awareness of this truth is not meant to depress us but rather to keep us humble and always feeling in need of God. We should be wary when we would just depend solely on our own resources to tackle this predicament. We need God.

The need for self-denial

CHRIST said it very clearly. If we want to follow him, we should deny ourselves, carry the cross and follow him. (cfr. Mt 16,24) And only then can we be fruitful, both in our spiritual life and our apostolate. 

 This truth of our faith was somehow highlighted when Christ also said: “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit.” (Mt 12,24) 

 This is again one of the paradoxes in Christian life. These paradoxes are unavoidable since we have to deal with the many conflicts and oppositions we have within ourselves and among ourselves, not to mention the tension among the different dimensions and aspects of our earthly life—the material and the spiritual, the natural and the supernatural, the temporal and the eternal, etc. 

 We have to learn how to be cool with this condition in our life, and avoid falling into unnecessary stress and worries. This is part of the territory. We can handle it perfectly well. We just have to have the right attitudes and skills. 

 But we cannot deny that we have to make sacrifices if we want to reap some fruits of sanctity and apostolate in our life. Self-denial is necessary since we often put ourselves in conflict with God’s will and ways. We prefer to do our own will. 

 Let’s do everything to develop this habit, if not, an instinct of abiding self-denial so that our mind and heart can only be open to the will and ways of God that often are shown to us through the needs of the others. 

 This habit of self-denial would enable us to do God’s work while being easily flexible and adaptive to the varying challenges and circumstances of the times. We have to be wary of our tendency to be trapped into some closed system of routine, if not to be imprisoned in our comfort-zone. 

 Self-denial will obviously involve certain detachment from things. That is why we should intensify our union with Christ as we immerse ourselves in the things of this world. We can do that if we know how to pray always, converting everything into a form of prayer, a form of engaging ourselves with God. 

 For this, we certainly need to train ourselves and to acquire a certain discipline, so that our union with Christ would be kept alive. We have to realize that our life is supposed to be always a life with Christ and for Christ. 

 Only then can we learn how to bear all things to achieve the fruitfulness of Christ who gained our salvation through his passion, death and resurrection. The paradox of dying in order to be fruitful would become a reality in our life. 

 In this regard, we have to meditate well on the passion, death and resurrection of Christ. It’s there where we are given a clear idea of how to suffer and die to ourselves so that, like Christ, we too can resurrect with him. 

 We have to learn how to assume the same motives that Christ had in going through his passion and death. It’s when we have the very mind and spirit of Christ as he faced his final act of love for us in obedience to the Father’s will that we can manage to face our suffering and death without fear—and have the fruitfulness of life.

Concern for those who have less in life

LET’S remember always that God has a special concern for those who have less in life, like the simple and the weak, the sick and disabled, the children and the poor. And it gives him much pain if we would scandalize them, either through our culpable neglect of them or, worse, by leading them to sin. 

 This truth of our faith is somehow highlighted in that gospel episode where Christ preached about the need to be like little children to enter the kingdom of heaven, the care not to despise the little children, and his intent always to look for the lost sheep, regardless of the cost and effort involved. (cfr. Mt 18,1-5.10.12-14) 

 Let’s take note of what Christ once said about the kingdom of heaven. He went as far as to say that it is for little children precisely because of their simplicity: “Suffer the little children, and forbid them not to come to me. For the kingdom of heaven is for such.” (Mt 19,14) 

 We need to devise an interior mechanism, more spiritual than material, to keep ourselves like children even as we grow in worldly knowledge and skills, and prone to thinking that we can already live by ourselves, independently of God. 

 This mechanism can include anything that fosters our presence of God all throughout the day, the practice of rectifying our intention and relating everything that we do to God. We should feel the need for God always, earnest in our effort to look for him in everything that we do. 

 We have to break the barrier of awkwardness and incompetence in this regard. We actually have the means. What’s missing is our will to use this mechanism. 

 And lest we think simplicity is naivete, and gullibility, let’s remind ourselves of what our Lord said: “Be wise as serpents and simple as doves.” (Mt 10,16) Simplicity would not be true simplicity if it does not come with cleverness and shrewdness. We just have to find ways of how we can blend these two apparently contrasting qualities together. 

 And if we are truly Christian, we should have true and abiding compassion toward everyone, especially the poor and the needy. But we have to understand that compassion should have a universal coverage. It should not be limited to the sentimental aspects of things, nor to relieving the economic and material needs of people alone. 

 It should cover the whole range of human needs in their proper order of importance, foremost of which is our need for God. We have to learn to distinguish between the pressing and precious needs of man, and to cope with the tension that sometimes arises in our effort to put these two kinds of human needs together. 

 In this concern, we have to understand that the poor may not be the one who are economically poor. They can be the richest, the most educated, the most famous and powerful, but who happen to be farthest from God. They can turn out, in that context, to be the poorest of the poor, the lost sheep that have strayed farthest from God. 

 They pose as the most difficult challenge in our duty to show compassion, to reflect in our life God’s love for all. Are we in the first place aware of this reality? Are we up to the challenge? Do we know how to tackle this problem?

The natural and the supernatural

WE have to learn to live in the natural world while pursuing our supernatural goal. This aspect of Christian life is somehow highlighted in that gospel episode where Christ talked about his impending passion, death and resurrection, and proceeded to ask Peter if Christ also should pay taxes. (cfr. Mt 17,22-27) 

 In that gospel, Christ implied that as the son of God, he ought to be exempted from paying taxes, but so as not to offend the earthly authorities, he decided that he too should pay the tax. Here Christ is showing us how to live naturalness which we have to learn. 

 Naturalness has something to do with how to handle our human condition considering what we ought to be and what we are at the moment. Fact is, we have a supernatural goal, nothing less than to be united with God, which we have to pursue in the context of our human and natural world. 

 Naturalness is about how to mix the spiritual and material dimensions of our life, our personal and social aspects, and other elements in our life that, given the way we are, appear to compete with each other. How to integrate and harmonize them is the task of naturalness. 

 Naturalness is a very active affair, lived day to day, moment to moment, as we grapple with the continuous flow of our concerns. It’s the front man who does the dirty job of the bigger virtues of discretion, prudence and ultimately charity, the foot soldier who does the hand-to-hand combat, the peddler who does the door-to-door selling. 

 It has to know when to push and when to pull, what to say and show and what to be quiet about and hide. Obviously, it has to follow a game plan, with a clear goal in mind and a detailed knowledge of all the elements it has to contend with. 

 It has to know when to be active and when to be passive, when to be aggressive and when to be patient and tolerant. Of course, in our spiritual life, these elements while initially contrasting, can be blended and lived simultaneously, obviously an effect of grace and our cleverness. 

 It also has to know how to project oneself to the future, given the data of the present and of the past. It has to learn how to relate history and current events with eternity. It should know how to connect the mundane with the sacred. 

 Naturalness is strengthened when we deepen in our convictions about our ultimate goal as well as in our continuing observations and growing wealth of experience of passing things. 

 The secret to blending all these apparently contrasting elements in our life is to pray always. When we keep our conversation with God going, we certainly would know what is proper for us to do at any given moment. 

 Prayer should be kept alive always and we should just try our best to find the appropriate ways to achieve it amid the changing circumstances of our day and despite setbacks, mistakes, failures and the sins that we may commit along the way. 

 We have to be wary of our strong tendency to converse only with our own selves or, at least from time to time, with others. We need to talk to God. Without him, there is no way but simply for us to be confused, tempted and eventually fall.

Always watchful and focused

“BE like servants who await their master’s return from a wedding, ready to open immediately when he comes and knocks.” (Lk 12,36) 

 With these words, Christ is practically telling us that we should always be watchful in life and focused in pursuing what is truly essential in life. Remember Christ also 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) 

 Truth is the many developments today, while giving us a lot of advantages and conveniences, can also easily lead us to bad things. They can foster complacency, self-indulgence, vanity, pride, greed, envy, discord, etc. They can turn us into materialistic monsters, totally insensitive to the spiritual and supernatural realities of our life and to God himself. 

 We should never underestimate the tricks and snares of the devil, the false allurements of the world, and the dynamic of our weakened and wounded flesh. These enemies of our soul will constantly make new guises to mislead and tempt us. To upgrade our vigilance skills is not a matter of paranoia. It is to be realistic. It is to be effectively prudent. 

 We should not be naïve to think that with our current skills at spiritual and moral vigilance, we are already okay. We have to sharpen our sense of purpose in life, seeing to it that its general goal is being consistently lived and reinforced in the many subsidiary purposes we have during the year, month, week, day, and even hour. 

 With how things are now, we cannot simply rely on a generic sense of purpose. We have to learn how to be vigilant in all circumstances and situations in life, especially when we are tired, troubled, or when thrilled and excited. 

 We need to be properly focused and driven in pursuing what is truly essential in life. And that is none other than God himself. He is the supreme good for all of us. There could be no other good better than him to whom we should be attracted more or who should arouse in us a greater attraction. 

 God is everything to us. More than that, he loves us so much that he created us to be like him. It’s with him that we can have our eternal joy in heaven, and while here on earth we can always count on his help, guidance and powerful, wise and merciful providence. 

 Obviously, we need to process this basic truth properly and thoroughly, since it is a truth of faith that certainly involves a lot of mysteries that we have to learn to live with. Once we get convinced of this truth, then it follows that God should be the constant and strongest cause of our desire and attraction. His presence and interventions in our life should be intimately felt by us. Pursuing or being with him should give us our greatest joy. 

 We have to be wary of our tendency to get entangled and trapped in some worldly and temporal goals as our main focus in life. These goals, for sure, also have their objective value. But we need to understand that these worldly goals cannot stand on their own. They have to be grounded on God, on his will, on his abiding providence over us. Otherwise, they can only pose as a danger to us.

The paradoxes of Christian life

“WHOEVER wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?” (Mt 16,24-26) 

 With these words of Christ, we should be warned that Christian life will always involve some paradoxes. He told us about this unavoidable condition in our life here on earth. 

 We are told, for example, to lose in order to win, to die in order to live, to give in order to receive, to be empty so we can be filled. We are told to be detached from persons and things of this world to be attached only to who would truly matter to us, and that is God. Christ even made use of the word, “hate,” so we can follow him, so we can be his disciples. Still more, he told us to be as simple as doves yet as astute as serpents. 

 To be sure, if we would only use our own faculties or our own understanding of things, there is no way but really to be at a loss as to what to make out of all these contrasting qualities. 

 But precisely, we have to know the true character of a paradox to realize that these contrasting qualities are meant to highlight a higher truth. That’s what a paradox does. It takes cognizance of the many different and competing values of our many different and competing parts and aspects of our life to attain a certain unity of life and to gain our one ultimate goal. 

 Thus, we should not be surprised that we have to deal with these paradoxes. We should just learn how to do it properly. And again, the secret is already given to us. It is to be with Christ, to be like him, to be “another Christ,” if not “Christ himself.” 

 To be with Christ is when we would not only know but also live the art of losing in order to win. This art is truly helpful given our wounded and sinful condition which is prone to undue attachments to earthly thing and other anomalies. 

 Divine logic many times baffles us because God’s ways are different from our ways. St. Paul articulates this predicament when he said, “O, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and untraceable his ways. Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?” (Rom 11,33-34) 

 To be able to live by this divine logic, we of course would need first of all the grace of God. We have to ask for it with humility. And then we need to do our part, exerting the due effort to acquire the appropriate attitude and corresponding virtues. 

 We should have the attitude of willingly giving up everything else just to be with God. “Vale la pena,” it is all worthwhile, should somehow be like a slogan for us. In the gospel, the same spirit is expressed when Christ said, “The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking pearls, who when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.” (Mt 13,45-46) We should be willing to let go of everything if only to get to God who is everything to us!