Begin the New Year with Mary

IT’S a piece of advice that is worth taking seriously. That New Year’s Day is celebrated liturgically with the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, can mean that it is indeed wise to begin the New Year to live it all throughout with Mary who is not only the Mother of God but also our Mother. 

 Mary is the best guide we have to be with Jesus, her son and our “way, truth and life.” As one saint would put it, she is the “shortest, surest and safest” way we can avail of to be with Jesus. 

 Being the mother of Christ, she is the one closest to God, the first link between God and us, since with her ‘Fiat” (Be it done to me) she became the instrument of making God become man in Christ through the Holy Spirit. Thus, she is the best guide for us on how to humanize God and incarnate Christ in our life. 

In a sense, we can say that for us to get to God in Christ through the Holy Spirit, we have to go to Mary. She is the bridge we can use to go to Christ. Thus, we have this famous expression, “Ad Iesum per Mariam.” (To Jesus through Mary) 

 Because she is the mother of Christ who is the pattern of our humanity and the savior of our damaged humanity, we can also consider her as the mother of the entire humanity. 

 No wonder then that she has been given all the privileges any human person can have from God. She was conceived without original sin, she was sinless all throughout her life, she maintained her virginity, she was assumed into heaven body and soul upon her death. 

 She kept all these privileges intact without being spoiled by them, somehow correcting the example of our first parents who also were created in a state of original justice but which they lost through their sin. 

 We really should develop a deep and abiding devotion to Mary. Like St. John who, after being told by the dying Christ to behold his mother (Mary), took her to his home and cared for her, (cfr. Jn 19,27) we too should do the same. 

 We have to be truly Marian to be truly Christian. That’s part of God’s will for us. We cannot go to Christ, we cannot understand him properly and cooperate with him in our redemption, if we do not go to Mary. 

 With her, we can conquer our heart to be able to give it to Christ completely. That in the end is what truly matters in our life. Let us rev up our Marian devotion, putting our mind and heart into it. Let’s remember that it is in our heart where our real treasure is kept, and that treasure should be none other than Christ. 

 The heart is actually the very seat of our thoughts, desires and conscience. It’s that part that contains our whole being, and therefore the most precious part we have. Our whole identity, both in its stable and dynamic states, is found in the heart. 

 It’s the source of what our mouth would say. “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” (Mt 12,4). It is what gives the motives for our thoughts, desires, words and deeds. 

 It’s also where we hear the voice of God as well as that of the devil, where we discern the spirit of God and that of the evil one. It’s where we make our decisions, promises and commitments. 

 Yes, Mary can help us give our heart to Christ the way she gave hers to him. HAPPY NEW YEAR, everyone!

The importance of a healthy family life

WITH the Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, we are reminded of our duty to make our family life as healthy as possible. And by healthy, we mean that we animate our family life with the love that reigned in the Holy Family. 

 Lest we think that animating our family life with love is something purely theoretical if not impracticable, we have to realize that there are specific and concrete things we can do to make our family life vibrant and healthy. 

 Obviously, a healthy family life means that time is spent with the family. There have to be customs and practices where the family can be together. It would be good if, for example, all the members can take some meals together, like dinner, after which a little family get-together can take place. 

 This is important because that’s the way all the members can truly know each other and monitor developments as they come. Life offers endless situations, conditions, challenges, trials, etc. Everyone in the family, but especially the parents, should help one another go through these varying circumstances properly. 

 With time together, they can see each other’s strengths and weaknesses, peculiarities and idiosyncrasies, and would be in better position to help in some way for the proper growth of each one. 

 One of the things we can do is first of all to teach everyone as early as possible to be always thoughtful, mindful and caring of one another in the family. This will require some training that ideally should start when the children are still small. Of course, the parents take the primary role in this regard. 

 Let’s remember that the child is the father of the man. How the child is, how he is trained, will show the kind of man he will be when he grows up. Thus, virtues should be imparted and learned as early as possible. 

 Children, for example, should be taught how to serve the others, how to deal with the unavoidable differences and conflicts among themselves. They have to learn how to educate their emotions and effectively blend the different faculties and powers they have, so they can attain some degree of inner harmony and move toward human maturity. 

 Most important, of course, is to train them to develop a working life of piety. As early as possible, children should learn how to pray and how to maintain an intimate relationship with God that is also translated into their proper relationship with others. Obviously, some practices of piety have to be inculcated in them in a way that is most attractive and that befits their conditions. 

 There has to be a way of regularly assessing how each one is growing. It should be a way that is clear about what criteria, standards and norms to use. With the many confusing things that are at play in the world today, it might be prudent to seek professional and expert advice in this regard. 

 What is clear also is that to make family life healthy, we have to use both human and supernatural means. Everyone has to be taught to use both reason and faith, feelings and intelligence, study and work on the one hand, and prayer, sacrifice, recourse to the sacraments, ascetical struggle on the other. 

 The natural and the supernatural, the material and the spiritual, the temporal and the eternal have to blended properly!

Lessons from the Lord’s presentation

ON the fifth day of the Christmas Octave, that falls on December 29, we are made to consider the law of the time then which was about the duty to present to the Lord the first-born male for his consecration. (cfr. Lk 2,22-35) 

 Obviously, the child Jesus could be exempted from this law, and we can suppose that both Mary and Joseph would know this. Still, they proceeded to follow the law, giving us the precious lesson that like them, we should try to behave like any ordinary person, following the just laws and customs of the time and place, and choosing to forgo certain privileges that we may have. That’s humility in action. 

 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. 

 We should 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) 

 Another lesson we can learn from the feast of the presentation of the Lord is that like Christ we should be ready to be a “a sign of contradiction.” We may ask, why should Christ and all Christians who try to be faithful be a ‘sign of contradiction’? There can be many answers. But we can already gather a lot of ideas simply by taking note of what Christ himself taught and did. 

 In the first place, in the gospel of St. John, we are already given a description of the intriguing figure of Christ: “He was in the world that had come into being through him, and the world did not recognize him. He came to his own and his own people did not accept him.” (Jn 1,10-11) 

 From there we can already get the idea that Christ is someone who will go through contradictions of sorts. And his teachings would bear that out also. Consider some words of his: 

 “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.” (Mt 20,16) 

 “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.” (Mt 16,25) 

 We just have to realize that this whole business of being a “sign of contradiction” is part of the unavoidable tension that exists between the natural and the supernatural aspects of our life, the material and spiritual, the temporal and eternal, etc.

Daily martyrdom

I BELIEVE it is a Christian fact of life that if we have to be consistently Christian, then we have to be prepared to suffer martyrdom, one way or another. It may not be a dramatic and bloody martyrdom like the case of the Holy Innocents whose feast we celebrate on December 28, but certainly a certain kind of martyrdom will always be involved. 

 That’s because the Christian way of life cannot avoid being contradicted even by our own sinful flesh, not to mention, the many allurements of the world that can serve as some kind of honeytrap to us and, of course, the devil, that most subtle and deceptive enemy of God. 

 Christ already warned us amply about this condition in our life. “In this world you will have trouble,” he said. “But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (Jn 16,33) And more directly, he said, “If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever desires to save his will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” (Mt 16,24-26) 

 We need to see to it that we live this indication of Christ daily. It should be a normal thing for us to do if we want to be truly Christian. We need to die at least a little everyday so that the life of Christ can truly take root and grow in our life. We should never forget that to be Christian is to assume the very identity and life of Christ, and not just going through certain practices for us to appear like Christ. 

 We should not be afraid to suffer and die. 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 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. 

 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 realize more deeply that loving the cross the way Christ loved it is the ultimate of love. It is the love that is completely deprived of selfishness. It is total self-giving, full of self-abnegation. 

 May the cross be an indispensable part of our day! It is our instrument for our daily martyrdom.

Eager to look for Christ always

THE Feast of St. John, the Apostle, celebrated two days after Christmas, presents us with his inspiring example of eagerness to look for Christ. As the gospel reading of the day tells us, the youngest apostle ran ahead of Peter and arrived at the empty tomb first once they were told that Christ’s body could not be found anymore in its place. (cfr. Jn 20,1-8) 

 We, of course, can easily say that it was his youthfulness that enabled him to do so. That is quite right, though we may have to qualify that. It’s more his spiritual youthfulness than his physical one that made him do it. It’s this kind of youthfulness that we should always cultivate and keep in ourselves despite our growing age. It’s not only possible. It is also highly doable! 

 And the secret, as always, is really to develop, to take care, and to make vibrant one’s spiritual life, one that is supported by an appropriate plan of life that nourishes one’s faith and piety. 

 It is to give one a global picture of things, making him realize where we came from and where we are supposed to go, and training him to relate the things of this world to our eternal destination with God in heaven. It is to make him realize that God can always be found anywhere, and that God should be the one that elicits our most intense attraction. 

 This is a tall order indeed! But again it’s all worthwhile. For this, we first of all should ask for God’s grace which is actually given to us in abundance. And from there, let’s go through some systematic plan of life that will nourish and strengthen our constant and intimate relationship with God, a relationship that should involve our entire self—body and soul, feelings, emotions and passions down to our very instincts, as well as our mind and heart. 

 It should be a plan that should obviously include prayer in all its forms—vocal, liturgical, ejaculatory, mental, contemplative, etc. Our life of prayer should be such that even when we are immersed in the things of the world due to our work and our temporal duties, we would still be aware of God’s presence, and it is doing God’s will that should always motivate us. 

 The plan definitely should include practices that will foster our spirit of sacrifice, penance and purification, given the obvious fact that no matter how much we try to be good, we would always be hounded by our weaknesses and the temptations around, and the possibility of falling into sin is high. This spirit of sacrifice would help us discipline ourselves in order to rally all our faculties for the service of God and of everybody else. 

 The plan should include a daily effort of ascetical struggle where, aside from fighting evil, we should aim at growing in our love for God and others, by developing the virtues as well as always strengthening them. It should help us to develop a growing concern for the others, doing personal apostolate wherever we are and whatever the occasion and circumstance may be. 

 It should include the frequent recourse to the sacraments, especially the Holy Eucharist and confession. These spiritual and supernatural means are always effective, enabling us to be with Christ even if we do not feel his presence nor his interventions in our life. And it should also include some program of ongoing formation, knowing that our spiritual life would always need that.

To be Christian is to be fearless

THAT’S right! If we are truly and consistently Christian, fear would have no place in our heart other than that wonderful gift of the Holy Spirit himself that is the fear of the Lord, which is a healthy kind of fear. The fear of the Lord is the fear of offending God that would lead anyone to prefer to die for Christ rather than to sin. 

 We are reminded of this truth of our faith in that moving story of the first disciple to be martyred, St. Stephen, whose feast is celebrated the day after Christmas. He was martyred purely out of envy—some men could not stand the wisdom and the spirit with which he spoke in their debates. (cfr. Acts 6,8-10.54-59) 

 With Christ, we really would have no reason to fear, nor to wallow in worries, anxieties and sadness. Christ himself has reassured us in this regard: “In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” (Jn 16,33) Let’s also remember that these unfortunate states are fertile ground for the enemies of our soul, especially the devil, to take advantage of us. 

 About the only reason to fear, worry and be sad is when we lose our faith, when we lose touch with God. We have to pray and pray so that our doubts and fears would not undermine our faith. 

 What also helps is to develop a sporting attitude in life, because, to be realistic about it, we will always have frustrations, disappointments, mistakes, failures, sins and defeats in our life. But we just have to learn how to move on, just like a good sportsman. 

 We should always be cheerful in life, and strive to show it even externally with smiles and happy, warm and encouraging dispositions. Even in our grief and mourning, we should manage to learn how to be serene, knowing that suffering and death have already been redeemed by Christ and are now endowed with redemptive power. 

 Let’s not waste time and energy by falling into the grips of fears, worries and sadness. When we notice that we are having some languid moments, it can be a sign that our faith is not working, and that we are succumbing to the laws of the flesh and the world, if not, to the tricks of the devil. 

 Especially in our dark and difficult moments, which these days are not anymore uncommon, when we feel so miserable that we can think that we have been deserted by God, we need to react immediately and reassure ourselves strongly that God never fails us. 

 It might be a good idea to rally the power of our faith that tells us that God takes care of everything. There is really nothing to worry even if we are made to suffer, since that suffering, if united to that of Christ, becomes something purifying and redemptive not only to oneself but also to everybody else. 

 It might be a good idea to come up with the different arguments of our faith to buoy up our drooping spirit that is weighed down by our many challenges in this life. God is a God of mercy and compassion. He will take up all our suffering more than us bearing them ourselves alone. 

 We really have no reason to fear. If ever it comes as a spontaneous reaction to some situations, it should not be allowed to stay with us for long.

Finally, Christmas!

INDEED, a day of great joy! The Son of God, the perfect image that God has of himself and the image after whom we are patterned, is finally born to be with us and to give us “the way, the truth and the life” that is proper to us. 

 We should have no doubt about who we really are. That God has to become man to save us from our state of exile and alienation due to our sin, can only mean that we are meant to be God’s image and likeness, sharers of his divine life and nature. We need to start to level up, leaving behind the gaps about our true identity and dignity. 

 This can happen if we allow Christ to be born in us. That’s what he likes to do in the first place. He is just waiting for us to correspond properly to his desire. Yes, Christ wants to be born in us. That, in a nutshell, is the meaning of Christmas. All the festivities and merrymaking associated with this day should point us to this happy truth. We have to correspond to it and act on it as best that we can. 

 Let’s hope that the beautiful decorations we have everywhere, especially the Christmas crèche, Christmas tree, lanterns, the Santa Clauses, etc., lead us to this realization, instead of being distractions or, worse, a sweet poison to our soul. 

 Let’s hope that when we look at the Child Jesus in the belen, we get moved to thank him for wanting to be born in us, and to promise him that we will do our part to welcome and receive him in the best way we can. 

 Christ wants to be born in us because he is our savior who comes to re-make us after we have fallen into sin. Let’s remember that we are children of God, made in his image and likeness. 

 Christ wants to be born in us so he can start and continue with his work of redemption which takes place in the whole span of our earthly life. He wants to grow and live with us, experience what we experience so he can guide us. 

 But do we welcome him? Are we willing to have Christ in us, to work in us and with us? Do we actively cooperate in his redemptive work in us? Are we willing to be another Christ, “alter Christus,” as we ought to be, so we can recover and enrich the dignity God intended for us? 

 We have to convince ourselves that it is very doable for us to allow Christ to be born in us. This is no fantasy. On the part of God, he is already giving us everything that we need for this wonderful divine will of his to be carried out. 

 On our part, it is also very doable, because all we have to do is to be open to this divine will and act on it as best that we can. Christ can be born in us by allowing him to enter first into our mind and heart which are the proper places for him to be with us. 

 Let us get our mind and heart to be engaged with him, knowing him more, increasingly developing the ability to know his will and ways, being docile to his promptings that we can discern in our consciences. And from there, let’s make Christ reign and rule over all our other faculties—emotions, passions, appetites, urges, instincts, etc.

Living with mysteries

THAT otherwise amusing story of how the baby of Elizabeth and Zechariah was to be called John instead of Zechariah as their neighbors suggested (cfr. Lk 1,57-66) somehow tells us that in our life we have to contend with certain mysteries that often defy common sense, logic, tradition and our other human and natural ways. 

 We should just be humble enough to realize that our natural certainties can never cope with the mysteries of life. No matter how objective and scientific these certainties are derived, no matter how deep and exhaustive our philosophies, theologies and ideologies are made, our certainties just cannot take all the mysteries in our life. 

 Even in the world of nature where in theory we have the capacity to know things conclusively, we often find ourselves in situations of tentativeness and even of outright error. That is why we are always in the process of discoveries and we would not know when we can end it, that is to say, when we can say that we have known everything to be known in the world of nature. 

 This does not mean that our certainties can never know the truth, even the absolute, and not just relative truths. Yes, we can, but the best that we can do is to project ourselves to infinite possibilities, because even the absolute truths are not things that are frozen. They are always dynamic. 

 Our certainties can only tackle some aspects and levels of the reality that is proper to us. We need to realize more deeply that we have to contend not only with natural and even spiritual realities but also with supernatural realities that simply are above our nature to know, unless some revelation is made which should be corresponded to with our act of belief. 

 We just have to learn to abandon ourselves to the mysterious ways of God who in his wise providence takes care of everything. We are not expected to know and understand everything. What is expected of us is to have faith in God so we can always be with him no matter how things turn. 

 With all the things that we have to contend with in this life, we certainly need to have a healthy sense of trust in God’s loving and wise providence, abandoning ourselves in his will and ways that often are mysterious to us and can appear to be contrary to what we would like to have. 

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

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

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

Level down to level up

THE Magnificat, that most wonderful prayer of praise said by Our Lady during her visit to her cousin, Elizabeth, gives us the idea that in order for us to level up to the dignity of God’s image and likeness, children of his, sharers of his life and nature, we need to level down. (cfr. Lk 1,46-56) 

 “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,” says Mary, “my spirit rejoices in God my savior, for he has looked upon his lowly servant.” Truly, it is Our Lady who fully lived these words of Christ, “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” (Mt 23,12) How important, therefore, it is that we remain humble and grow more in humility even as we gain more prominence in life. 

 When we happen to receive praises and honors from others because of our good works, let’s keep our feet firmly stuck to the ground, not allowing ourselves to be intoxicated. We should not allow these praises and honors to go to our head and cast some evil spell over us. 

 Instead, we have to thank God profusely. All praises and honors belong to him. What we should realize also is that those praises and honors given to us are actually a sign that we have to give ourselves more to God and to others. Our sense of duty and responsibility should become sharper. 

 Those praises and honors that we receive are actually some kind of a test to see if we would still remain with God or we would now choose ourselves as our own god. We have to know how to pass that test, and so we need to really grow and deepen our humility. 

 We should never feel sad because we have chosen to deny ourselves to grow in humility amid the praises and honors. That self-denial is actually a big opening for the grace of God to come to us. That realization should make us very happy with a joy that would keep us simple, not proud and complicated. 

 We have to learn not to get spoiled by whatever praises and honors would come our way. Instead, let these honors trigger the urge to deepen our humility, to enrich our gratitude to God and to others, and to sharpen our sense of duty and responsibility. 

 This is the way to move toward that “fullness of Christ” that St. Paul talked about in his Letter to the Ephesians. (cfr. Eph 4,13) This is what actually meant for all of us. So, we can never overemphasize the crucial role that the virtue of humility plays in this regard. 

 Christ himself lived by this standard. St. Paul expressed this truth very beautifully when he said: “In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus, who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!” (Phil 2,5-8) 

 Let’s remember that we cannot learn anything unless we are humble. Our prayer cannot prosper, cannot touch base with God, with the Spirit, when it is not done in humility. We cannot exercise political power properly, nor enjoy the true benefits of whatever fame and wealth we may have, if these are not lived in humility.

The servanthood of Mary

IT’S worthwhile taking note of that detail in the gospel where Our Lady, upon learning that her cousin, Elizabeth, was also conceiving a son in her womb, immediately went to visit her to offer some help. (cfr. Lk 1,39-45) 

 The meeting of the two gave rise to the most wonderful expressions of praise and thanksgiving due to the tremendous blessings they received from God. “Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb,” Elizabeth exclaimed. And Mary responded with that classic Magnificat. 

 And yet, in spite of the great privileges they enjoyed, they never felt proud, vain or arrogant. On the contrary, their sense of humility and servanthood increased. This is a lesson that we all have to learn, since we cannot deny that despite our difficulties and problems in life, we too have been richly gifted with so many blessings and privileges in life. 

 Like Mary, we should grow in our sense of servanthood. We have to strengthen our conviction that to be a servant is a great honor. It is never a cause of shame or dishonor. It is a very special privilege, in fact. And the simple reason is that to be a servant is to be like Christ who expressly came to serve and not to be served! (cfr Mt 20,28) There can be no better dignity than that. 

 This is a truth of faith that we have to feel most at home with. We, all of us, are called to be servants, because if Christ is the “way, the truth, and the life” for us, then we have to assume his attitude of serving. That is what is proper to us. We therefore need to make some drastic adjustments in our understanding and attitude toward servanthood. 

 Of course, the object of our service is primarily God, just as Christ served and consummately obeyed the will of his Father till death. “Not my will but yours be done,” he said. (Lk 22,42) And he went through all the process of suffering and dying on the cross in obedience to his Father’s will and for our own salvation. 

 And then, secondarily and as an organic consequence of the primary object, all the others, including those who give trouble to us. We have to have a universal scope in our eagerness to serve. We should not discriminate against anyone. We have to serve all as they need to be served, that is, the way Christ served everyone. 

 Let’s remember that the privileges, favors and blessings we receive are meant to strengthen our desire to serve and not to be served. 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 was, just wanted to serve. 

 Let’s be like Mary who in spite of that tremendous privilege of being the Mother of God, quickly went to help her cousin Elizabeth.

Christ wants to be born in us

AS we approach that most wonderful event of the birth of Christ on Christmas Day, we are reminded of how his mother, Our Lady, believed the message of the Archangel Gabriel that she was going to be the mother of the Son of God. (cfr. Lk 1,26-38) 

 She tried to clarify how it was going to happen since, according to her, she had no relation with any man. That was when the archangel explained to her how it was going to be. “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God,” the angel said. 

 To be sure, Our Lady must have not understood how it was going to be since what was told her was beyond the ways of nature. But because of her deep faith, she just said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” 

 We should try to echo the same response of Mary, since we cannot doubt, if we have a working faith, that the Son of the Most High would also like to be born in us, since we are actually patterned after him. 

 Remember what Christ once said: “Whoever is not with me is against me. Whoever does not gather with me scatters.” (Lk 11,23) It’s very clear that we are supposed to be so united with Christ, so identified with him, that he and us can be considered simply as one. We are meant to assume the very identity of Christ. 

 We need to process this truth of our faith about ourselves very slowly, because it will obviously astound us to think that we are supposed to be one with Christ. Who, me, one with Christ? We most likely would be tempted to say, tell it to the Marines! 

 But that’s just the naked truth about us, whether we like or not. We cannot be any other if we just bother also to know why it is so. An expression that is relevant to this matter is ‘alter Christus,’ another Christ. And it’s worthwhile to know what it is all about. 

 We are supposed to be ‘alter Christus,’ the goal and ideal that is meant for us, though we need also to do our part, free beings as are, to achieve that status. God, our Creator and Father, wants us to be that way, though he does not impose it on us without our consent that should also be shown with deeds and not just with intentions or words. 

 We are supposed to be ‘alter Christus’ simply because, if we have been created in the image and likeness of God, and Christ is the Son of God who is the perfect image and likeness that God has of himself, then we can only conclude that we have to be like Christ. 

 We need to do everything to pursue that goal of assuming the very identity of Christ. For this, a strong faith is needed. And it should give rise to the appropriate action on our part, so that little by little we think, speak and do as Christ would think, speak and do. We should react to the different situations of our life the way Christ would. 

 So, at Christ’s birth on Christmas, let’s see if we can allow Christ to be born in us too! He wants it. We should also want it!

Turning our weakness into strength

THE secret is to assume the identity of Christ and his attitude toward all forms of human weakness and limitations. He himself assumed our human weaknesses even to the extent of making himself like sin without committing sin, if only to save us from our fatal predicament. (cfr. 2 Cor 5,21) 

 If we would just open ourselves to the possibility of taking that leap of faith to become like Christ who gives us all the means to be so, what may appear to us as an impossibility due to our weakness and limitations can become possible. 

 We are reminded of this wonderful truth of our faith in that gospel episode where the Archangel Gabriel visited Zechariah to tell him that his aging and barren wife, Elizabeth, was going to have a baby that would turn out to be Christ’s precursor, John the Baptist. (Lk 1,5-25) Zechariah was doubtful at first that what the angel said could happen, but in the end he acceded. 

 We should make St. Paul’s words, “For when I am weak, then I am strong,” (2 Cor 12,10) also as our own, and feel reassured and consoled every time we are hounded and burdened by all sorts of difficulties and troubles, including when we are tempted and fall into sin. 

 We have to know what exactly St. Paul meant by those words. What we can readily see is that he made all these predicaments a reason for him to go to Christ, to identify himself more closely with Christ who went all the way to making himself like sin without committing sin just to save us. (cfr. 2 Cor 5,21) 

 We have to learn how to react to all these negative and evil elements in our life from the point of view of our Christian faith, and never just from our own estimation of things that would often lead us to be scandalized, to feel bad and discouraged, and to run away from the one who can resolve everything for us, including those problems we cannot anymore resolve. 

 Our faith in God can still work and function even if we are down spiritually and morally, because it is, first of all, a gift from God who will always give it to us irrespective of how we have been behaving. We should just try our best to receive it and to correspond to it as best that we can. 

 We will always have difficulties in life. They are unavoidable. They come with the limitations of our human nature and aggravated by its condition of woundedness. Usually they come as small disappointments and frustrations, little failures and setbacks we meet everyday. All of them, more or less, manageable. 

 But they can also be big ones that can plunge us into deep, long-running crises of fear, anger, anxiety, hatred and despair. Cases of unsolvable predicaments, at least, humanly speaking. 

 We have to be ready for them and know not only how to deal with them but also how to derive something good from them. In these instances of the hard predicaments, for example, when we seem to be at a loss as to what to do, we should just see at what God does, after we have done all things possible to solve our problems. 

 We need to trust in God’s providence and mercy. We have to learn to live a spirit of abandonment in the hands of God. Yes, if we have faith in God, in his wisdom and mercy, in his unfailing love for us, we know that everything will always work out for the good. (cfr. Rom 8,28)

Learning from St. Joseph

AS we approach Christmas, it is heartwarming to note that in our country, we have this blessed expression of popular piety called the Aguinaldo Masses. It truly shows the kind of faith and piety we have as a people. Though expressed with some human fanfare, it cannot be denied that such faith and piety is now deeply and thankfully rooted in our culture. 

 Obviously, there will always be elements in it that need to be purified, clarified, if not corrected. Any expression of popular piety will always have to contend with such predicament. But it cannot be denied that the faith and piety of the people in general is strong and healthy. 

 On this 4th and last Sunday of Advent, just before Christmas, we are presented with the story of Joseph in his role as the legal husband of Mary and the foster father of Jesus. It is amazing that from practically out of the blue, he was chosen to play that very important role. 

 Somehow it tells us that the great plans of God for us can sit well and can be effectively carried out by ordinary persons and in the level of the ordinary and simple things in life. 

 God can use anything to convey his message and execute his designs for us. In the case of Joseph, it was through a dream that he was told about how Mary conceived Christ in her womb. It was sheer faith on his part to believe what he heard in a dream, and he immediately changed his plans to accommodate God’s plan for him and for the whole humanity. 

 While it is true that we can consider St. Joseph to be truly lucky to be chosen in God’s very mysterious providence as Mary’s husband and Jesus’ foster father, we cannot and should not say that if God wants us to be a simple farmer, for example, we would be less lucky. 

 The true luck and fortune is not in the kind of position or status that God would like us to have in this life. Rather it is in the love with which we correspond to God’s will and love for us. Comparing our position with the status of St. Joseph would be nothing less than pure envy, pride and vanity which are an anomaly for us. 

 What we should rather see and imitate in the life of St. Joseph is his total availability to God’s will, his quick and courageous obedience in spite of the many sacrifices involved. This is what truly matters in our life. 

 To repeat, it’s not in the position we hold or the status we enjoy. In fact, in the case of St. Joseph, in spite of his very privileged position and status, he remained obscure in the eyes of the men of his time. 

 Another lesson we can learn is that as long as we obey God’s will like what St. Joseph did, everything will be taken care of by God. St. Joseph managed to flee in haste to Egypt, bringing the child Jesus and his mother, to escape the rampage of Herod. 

 Yes, God takes care of everything. If we would just manage to be close to God the way St. Joseph was, then we would closely follow God’s ways which are always the ways of safety or ultimately those that would lead us to our eternal salvation, even if unavoidable sufferings may be involved. There is really nothing to worry about.

Both God and man

THERE is that gospel episode where some Jewish leaders started to persecute Christ because Christ, by making an invalid walk, appeared to them as making himself equal to God. (cfr. Jn 5) They just could not accept that. 

 That was when Christ told them that what he did to that invalid, and later to many others with certain ailments, should prove to them that he was sent by God the Father. “The deeds my Father has given me to perform, these same deeds of mine testify that the Father has sent me,” he said. (Jn 5,36) 

 We need to understand that Christ is both God and man. In fact, as some theologians have been repeating, he is “perfect God, perfect man.” Obviously, for us to believe this truth of faith, we need faith, since this a supernatural mystery that our sciences and technologies would not fathom. 

 We need to make that leap of faith, which actually does not suppress our reason and the findings of our human faculties. What it does is to enable us to transcend, with our spiritual powers and the grace of God, our human powers. 

 In other words, we should not be trapped in the world of nature alone. We have to enter into the world of the spiritual and the supernatural. We are actually poised for it, but we have to make the decision to take that leap. 

 Without making that leap, our understanding of who Christ really is has no other way but to be wrong. In fact, some have considered Christ only to be man, not God, though a superior kind of man. Others have regarded Christ only as God, not man, though he appears to be like man. 

 That Christ is both God and man has been definitively defined by the Church through some councils like those of Ephesus and Chalcedon. It was clarified that Christ was first of all a divine person, the second person of the Blessed Trinity, with two natures, the divine and the human. That would make him both God and man, “perfectus Deus, perfectus homo.” This union of the two natures in Christ is called in theological terms as “hypostatic union.” 

 This truth of our faith about Christ is crucial in also knowing who we really are. Christ, being the pattern of our humanity, somehow reaffirms the belief that we too are meant to be like God, sharers of God’s life and nature. 

 For us to be like Christ, and in fact, to assume the very identity of Christ, we have to learn how to die to ourselves so that Christ can live in us. Thus, Christ said, “Whoever loses his life for my sake, he is the one who will save it.” (Lk 9,24) And, “Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a seed; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life will lose it, but whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” (Jn 12,24-25) 

 We should give full force to our pursuit to assume the identity of Christ to such an extent that we can say with St. Paul, “It is no longer I that live, but Christ lives in me.” (Gal 2,20) Given our proclivity to simply be by ourselves, Christ has given us the formula of how we can be like him: “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.” (Mt 16,24)

St. John the Baptist and us

IT is said that after the messengers of St. John the Baptist left, Christ immediately described who and how St. John was. (cfr. Lk 7,24-30) “What did you go out to the desert to see – a reed swayed by the wind?” he asked. “Then what did you go out to see? Someone dressed in fine garments? Those who dress luxuriously and live sumptuously are found in royal palaces. 

 “Then what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is the one about whom Scripture says: Behold, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, he will prepare your way before you.” 

 In describing St. John the Baptist, Christ somehow is also describing us. Like St. John the Baptist, we should also get involved in preparing for the second coming of Christ at the end of time. We should help others to make the proper preparation by attuning people’s hearts and minds to the will and spirit of God. 

 We may suffer the same fate as that of St. John the Baptist, but it will be all worth it. We need to do something about how things are today, since like him whose call for repentance as preparation for the coming of the Redeemer was a lonely cry in the desert, the voice of God today as well as that of the Church or of any spiritual and moral Christian teaching is becoming a voice of one crying in the wilderness. 

 Present circumstances in the world point to a growing deafness and insensibility to the truths of faith and morals. The prologue of St. John’s gospel already captures this phenomenon: “He came unto his own, and his own received him not.” (1,11) 

 We need to do something about this predicament by preparing for our death and the end times. This is just to be realistic. It’s not meant to scare us nor to be a killjoy or a wet blanket in our life. Not only do we all die. There is also the end of time itself. Our earthly existence is just a sojourn, a training and testing ground before we enter into our definitive life for all eternity, hopefully in heaven with our Father and Creator God. 

 We need to develop a good and healthy sense of our life’s end, which is our death that can come to us anytime, as well as the end of time itself. If we follow our Christian faith, we know that there is nothing to be afraid of or anxious about in these truths of our faith. 

 We would know what truly is the purpose of our life here and of our earthly existence in general. We also would know that we have all the means to pursue that purpose properly. We are somehow reminded of this truth of our faith in that gospel episode where Christ talked about the end of the world. (cfr. Mk 13,24-32) 

 But, yes, we have to develop a good and healthy sense of how to end our life well, properly prepared to meet Christ in our particular judgment as well as in our general judgment during Christ’s second coming. 

 Having a good sense of the end gives us a global picture of our life that spans from time to eternity, and sheds light on the present. It guides us. It gives us a sense of confidence and security. It reassures us that we are on the right track, that we are doing well. It tells us what to correct or change, etc.

Beware of false prophets and false Christs

WE are reminded of this warning in that gospel episode where St. John the Baptist told his disciples to ask Christ if he truly was the “who is to come, or should we look for another?” (cfr. Lk 7,19) 

 And the response of Christ was classic. “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the good news proclaimed to them. And blessed is the one who takes no offense at me.” (Lk 7,22-23) 

 Since we are patterned after Christ, we should expect that we would somehow share the prophetic, priestly and kingly powers of Christ. This obviously would be a work in progress in life, requiring a lifelong process that would involve a lot of things. 

 While each one of us can claim to be “another Christ,” if not “Christ himself,” we should not forget that we cannot yet be definitively, fully and immutably “another Christ” for as long as we are still living in this vale of tears, where we are still being tested. 

 We may manifest our identification with Christ to a greater or lesser degree. But we should avoid claiming to be fully Christ already, since we are still in some drama where we can expect some measure of success as well as failure in our effort to be “another Christ.” 

 We should be wary then when somebody would already claim that he is Christ himself. Obviously, we should still love and care for him. He is still a brother of ours. And if we have a chance to talk to him, we should try to explain things to him calmly and charitably. 

 In this, Christ himself warned us: “There shall arise false Christs and false prophets and shall show great signs and wonders, insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.” (Mt 24,24) In another instance, he said: “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but underneath are ravenous wolves.” (Mt 7,15) 

 We have to be wary of these characters because the world is now awash with false prophets and false Christs. It even looks like we have an infestation. Whether we look at the fields of politics, business, the sciences, sports and entertainment, and yes, even in religion, we can readily find dishonest and corrupt leaders, false prophets and lying teachers. 

 In this life, we can only be disciples of Christ struggling, with God’s grace, to be like him. We may strive as best that we can to identify ourselves with him to such an extent that we can say “I am like Christ,” but we can never replace Christ himself. The fullness of our identification of Christ which we are expected and empowered to be, can only take place with and in Christ, but never replacing Christ. 

 As disciples and ambassadors of Christ, we can only do things always in reference to Christ and in the name of Christ, and never just on our own. And like Christ, we do things with humility, patience, charity and mercy, compatible with being precise in our teaching. We would know how to blend the exclusivity of truth with the inclusivity of charity. 

 We would know how to be both active and contemplative, bold and yet knowing how to pass unnoticed, teaching the truth always in charity.

Conversion a continuing affair

WHAT can we learn from the parable Christ told the chief priests and the elders of the people, about a father with two sons whom he asked to work in the vineyard? (cfr. 21,28-32) The first son at first said no, but later on changed his mind and went to the vineyard to work. The second said yes, but did not go. 

 Obviously, the immediate lesson we can derive from that parable is that what is important is to do the will of God, even if at first we refuse to do so or hesitate. In this regard, it was the first son who met the standard. And the second son did not, despite the dispatch with which he responded affirmatively. 

 But the greater lesson we can learn from this gospel story is that whether we identify ourselves with the first son or the second one, everyone of us always needs some conversion. We cannot deny that with regard to doing God’s will, we can at first refuse but then later on agree, or we can say, yes, but actually would not do what is told us. In both cases, some conversion is involved or needed. 

 We should always feel the need for conversion. The mark of true saints is precisely this hunger and thirst for repentance and conversion. Whatever good they did humbled them instead of leaving them proud. They knew who and what was behind all the accomplishments they made, and were more keenly aware of their inadequacies, their mistakes, faults, infidelities, etc. 

 It’s not that they led a miserable life of having a dark outlook in life and a negative attitude toward their own selves. They were a happy lot, whose joy sprang from their living and faithful union with God, their father, but aware of their total dependence on God. 

 It’s their driving love for God and souls that keep them feeling always the need for penance and conversion. It’s not just fear of sin and evil that provokes this hunger. It’s love of God and souls. It’s this love that made them see many things that they need to do. 

 Due to this love, they also sharply knew that on their own, all they could do is evil, not good. St. Augustine said something to this effect. We are actually nothing without God. We simply would have no resistance against evil. 

 Our problem is that we often think that we can do good by our own selves, without the grace of God. We think that with our talents and good will alone, we can be and do good independently of God. 

 We easily forget the fact that all our talents and our capacity to have good will all come from God. Our problem is that we usurp the goodness and power of God, and make them simply as our own. This anomaly, done at the very fundamental level of our life, would have tremendous repercussions in all the other aspects of our life. 

 This is something we should try to avoid. I know it’s easy for us to fall to that predicament, and that’s precisely why we need to have continuing repentance and conversion. We should not go to bed at night without expressing some penance and reconciling ourselves with our Lord. We have to end the day always reunited with God!

Our Lady of Guadalupe

DECEMBER 12 is the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Thank God, many parishes and communities in our country make her their patroness. And so, Our Lady, under that appellation, is quite popular among us. 

 To me, she evokes a most memorable memory, since it was about her that I made my first foray into writing in newspapers many years ago. I wrote about what some scientists discovered in the original image of the Our Lady imprinted on a lowly cloak of a Mexican farmer, now saint, Juan Diego. 

 These technical experts could not figure out what paint was used on the image which led them to conclude that the image was certainly not made by man. It must have been miraculously painted! 

 To top it all, they discovered that in the pupil of the half-closed eyes of the image of Our Lady, they saw figures reflected in it. Now who would draw images on a very small part of an image, as small as the pupil of an eye? 

 In the gospel reading of the Mass for the feast, we are presented with the story of the visitation of Mary to her cousin Elizabeth. (cfr. Lk 1,39-47) It is worth noting that though she already knew that she was conceiving the very Son of God in her womb, she did not deem it below her dignity to rush immediately to help her cousin who was also on the family way with St. John the Baptist. 

 The meeting sparked an explosion of praises between the two. “Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb,” said Elizabeth to Mary. “And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy.” 

 To this greeting, Mary responded with that famous prayer of the Magnificat. “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour…,” expressing what she felt, thought and understood about her relationship with God. 

 What we can gather from this gospel episode are great lessons in humility, and willingness to serve rather than to be served. To serve, to be a servant is actually a great honor. And humility allows the greatness of God to enter into our lives. 

 Indeed, to be a servant is a great honor. It is never a cause of shame or dishonor. It is a very special privilege, in fact. And the simple reason is that to be a servant is to be like Christ who expressly came to serve and not to be served! (cfr Mt 20,28) There can be no better dignity than that. 

 That is why many saints and great men and women through the centuries took pride in being regarded as servants. And the Pope as Supreme Pontiff also describes himself as Servant of Servants. 

 And if we happen to enjoy certain privileges and special gifts, we should immediately banish the thought and the temptation of feeling entitled. The more privileges and gifts we receive, the greater should be our desire to serve, even at the cost of great sacrifices. 

 Christ showed this very dramatically when at the Last Supper, he shocked his apostles when he bent down to wash their feet. In spite of Peter’s initial protestation, Christ insisted in doing so to give them, and us, a lesson that what he did to them, we should also do to one another. 

 This is also what Our Lady of Guadalupe is showing us!

Let’s follow the advice of St. John the Baptist

EVEN while in prison, St. John the Baptist told his disciples to go to Christ to see if Christ indeed was the expected messiah. (cfr. Mt 11,2-11) Obviously, St. John knew about who Christ really was. He just wanted to let his disciples to know Christ and to follow him. 

 Christ, for his part, told John’s disciples about what he had done so far, if only to give some evidence about who he really was. “Go and tell John what you hear and see,” he said. “The blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them. And blessed is the one who takes no offense at me.” 

 After which, Christ gave a most wonderful praise for John. “Amen, I say to you, among those born of women there has been none greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he,” thereby also affirming the superiority of those already in heaven over those who are still on earth, even if the latter are already very holy. 

 The lesson to learn here is for us to always look for Christ and to make him the center of our life. We should be clear about what we are after in this life. Is it just to spend time and see what is going to happen? Are we just totally dependent on chance or on luck? Or are we only interested in some fame, wealth, power, pleasure? 

 We cannot deny the obvious fact that many people nowadays are not quite clear as to their purpose in life. And those who seem to have some idea about it, have it wrong, since their idea of purpose is simply time-and-earth-bound. There’s hardly anything transcendent about it. 

 Some may leave a worthwhile legacy beyond their death, but again it is something that can only fade in time. It cannot stand the test of forever! We should always be curious about Christ and follow him. 

We should always look for him, for he is “the way, the truth and the life” for us. We cannot go to the Father (God), we cannot attain the eternal life proper to us, without him. 

 That is also why Christ himself said that we seek first the kingdom of God, and not to worry so much about our temporal and worldly needs, because all these will also be provided by him as long as we look for Christ first. 

 This looking for Christ should be our basic attitude that should guide us daily and give shape to that day. Our life should be characterized by an attitude of looking forward, of watching and expecting, clarifying and pursuing our intentions, and being ever hopeful. 

 We need to develop the instinct of always looking for Christ, making him alive in our life and patterning our life after his. This business of always looking for Christ is a basic duty of ours, a grave responsibility, in fact. Without him, we would just be on our own, relying simply on our own lights and powers that, no matter how excellent, can never accomplish our real ultimate need of our own salvation, our own perfection as a person and as a child of God.

Developing a deep sense of religion

THE liturgical season of Advent can be a good occasion for us to develop and strengthen our sense of religion, our life of piety, our intimacy with God. We have to remember that as human beings, we often are trapped in our human and natural world and quite indifferent to the spiritual dimension of our life, let alone the supernatural goal our life is meant to pursue. Let’s do something about this predicament. 

 Let us hope that as we prepare for Christmas during this Advent season with our customary excitement for the holidays, we do not neglect the religious significance of Advent, and enkindle an intense desire to have a living encounter with Christ who is God who became man to be with us and to show us the way of how we ought to be, since he is the pattern of our humanity and the savior of our damaged humanity. 

 We cannot deny that there’s vast religious indifference and even hostility against religion today. A complex structure of rationalizations now supports religious indifference and hostility to religion. It seems that the threads of naturalism, skepticism, agnosticism, atheism, relativism, etc., have become more sophisticated, snuffing whatever religious ember that may still remain in a person or in society. 

 Nowadays, reason and empirical findings are considered the ultimate measure of things, and are made to dispute the claims of faith, steadily removing its attractiveness to the people. With this approach, piety is slowly eroded until it becomes practically dead. 

 With this trend, it is held that if things could not be fully understood and explained, if they could not be directly verified, if they are not socially, economically or politically practical, then they should be rejected. They are deemed senseless. 

 It’s as simple, or rather, as simplistic, as that. Such attitude sorely misses the point that truths of faith, being spiritual and supernatural, require more than human reason to be believed. It’s a tyranny to force everyone to work only within the framework of reason and understanding alone, beyond which things simply cannot be true. 

 It sorely misses the point that we precisely need the gift of faith, because we are men of belief, more than of reason. Faith always respects reason, and always works through it, but is beyond it. It cannot be fully grasped by reason, much less by our senses. It has a longer spread, a wider scope, a deeper reach, a firmer grip on reality. 

 It is our faith that will tell us that we need not only to be with Christ, but also to be like Christ. And the season of Advent is a good time to develop a burning desire for this purpose. 

 We need to be reminded that we have to develop an abiding and burning desire for Christ to fulfill the real purpose of our life which is precisely for us to be “another Christ.” We should be clear about this ultimate purpose of ours so we can have the proper sense of direction and focus in our life, and the corresponding urge to fulfill it. 

 Our problem is that we often take our life’s real and ultimate purpose for granted, preferring to sway and dance according to the music played simply by worldly conditions. We prefer to be guided by our senses and emotions, or by our reasoning alone as expressed in our man-made different ideologies, philosophies, sciences and technologies, etc.

What Mary’s Immaculate Conception reminds us of

THE Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary reminds us of a most basic and heartwarming truth about ourselves. It reminds us that like Mary, we are actually meant to be sinless. That was the original design of God for man, as experienced by our first parents, Adam and Eve, until it was damaged by their fall as well as ours. 

 This solemnity also reminds us of the ultimate design God has for us in our definitive state of life in heaven after going through the redemptive work of Christ and meriting its effects. Thus, in the eucharistic preface of this solemnity, we are made to say: 

 “You (God) allowed no stain of Adam's sin to touch the Virgin Mary. Full of grace, she was to be a worthy mother of Your Son, Your sign of favour to the Church at its beginning, and the promise of its perfection as the bride of Christ, radiant in beauty.” 

 Of course, in our earthly life, we do not enjoy such status yet. We all sin, no matter what we do! And yet, in spite of that fact of life, we just have to do our part, always with God’s grace, to rid ourselves of sin until we attain that state of sinlessness, of purity of heart, as is proper of our dignity as children of God, image and likeness of his, sharers of his divine life and nature. 

 This Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of Mary should make us feel urged to persevere in our struggle to attain that state of sinlessness, which is another way of saying that we are meant to pursue our total identification with Christ, the pattern of our humanity and the savior of our damaged humanity. 

 It is not supposed to make us feel privileged and entitled. Quite the contrary.  It is supposed to demand everything from us, so that we can merit the effects of Christ’s redemptive work. 

 This is what sanctification is all about, the lifelong process of seeking holiness which can only be carried out if we channel the very love of God, as shown, taught and shared to us by Christ, in our life. 

 That love has its own brand of sweetness. It offers us a sense of peace, of the kind that the world cannot give and that only God can give (cfr. Jn 14,27) But it definitely would demand from us a lot of effort and sacrifice. Given our human condition here on earth, it is a love that would require us to wage a lifelong struggle against our weaknesses, temptations and sin. 

 We should be relentless in this struggle. We should try our best to be with God always, rectifying ourselves as quickly and as often as necessary whenever we stray from him, which is actually quite often in this life. 

 We need to do everything to be with God. Our mind and heart should be fully and constantly engaged with him. We always have reason to do so—at least, we can thank him for what we are having at the moment: health, food, air, work, etc. 

 What can help us in this is the effort to get involved in the lives of the others, helping them in any way we can, because that would be a clear way of being and of serving God. 

 This is the way toward the ideal of becoming immaculate like our Mother Mary, as God wants us to be.

On the matter of rest

“Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.” (Mt 11,28-30) 

 Words of Christ that clearly tell us where we can find true rest, as well as the kind of things we need do and bear if we want these things to be light and easy. These are words that are most relevant these days, since we are often confused and lost as to where we can find true rest and the kind of things that should properly engage us. 

 With how things are now in the world of rest, recreation and entertainment, there is a great need to develop in ourselves a sharp discerning sense of what is truly helpful and healthy. 

 Our need for rest just cannot and should not be met merely by earthly solutions. Our rest should involve our whole being that is not only material and natural, but also, and most especially, spiritual and supernatural. 

 Unless our rest covers these latter dimensions, we can never find true rest. We may have some degree of physical relief which, if not related to the spiritual and the supernatural, can only poise us to greater dangers sooner or later. 

 To be sure, our true and proper rest can only be found in Christ. He gives us the rest that is not only physical. It is a 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 later inspired by our faith. We should avoid letting our rest get trapped only in the world of the senses, instincts and emotions. 

 Our Christian faith has to enlighten us as to what kind of rest is proper to us. This 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 by the light God gives us through the gift of faith. 

 To be sure, our faith is not just an intellectual affair, limited to the world of ideas. It involves our whole person and requires that our correspondence to it should precisely involve our whole person. Our search for true rest should be guided by our Christian faith.

Dealing with sinners in this world

IF we have to be like Christ, as we should, we should learn how to deal with sinners who actually are all of us. Instead of being turned off by them, or by that state of affairs, like Christ we should have the interest to look, help and care for them, as Christ himself told his disciples about the story of the lost sheep. (cfr. Mt 18,12-14) 

 “What is your opinion?” he asked. “If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray, will he not leave the ninety-nine in the hills and go in search of the stray? And if he finds it, amen, I say to you, he rejoices more over it than over the ninety-nine that did not stray.” (v. 12-13) 

 Our initial reaction when we notice a mistake or a sin of somebody may be that of being critical. But we should not remain long there. We should rectify as quickly as possible, and proceed to do whatever we can to help. At the very least, what we can do is to pray and offer some sacrifices for that sinner. 

 In a sense, we should try our best not to be scandalized by whatever mistake or sin committed by others or even by our own selves. Our mistakes and sins should rather move us to go to Christ and to act the way Christ acted toward sinners. 

 We should try our best to be protected from being scandalized by whatever mistake or sin we see around. With all the scandalous things popping everywhere nowadays, we should train ourselves to be strong and focused enough to do what we are supposed to do instead of being stalled by them. That is why we should aim at being scandal-proof. 

 We cannot deny that there are many scandals around that can rob us of our desire to do constructive things, often nipping it in the bud. Today’s scandals just do not come from the usual sources from which we may already have developed a good resistance. 

 Nowadays, the scandals can come from very unexpected causes, that is, from people whom we least expect to cause them. These people are supposed to be above suspicion. 

 Yet, we always have to remember that anything is possible under the sun. A saintly-looking person may be a demon in disguise. But the reverse can also be true. A devilish-looking person is, in fact, a saint. We should try not to be too surprised by this. In fact, it can be a healthy attitude to somehow expect this kind of phenomenon. 

 We have to learn how to fraternize with sinners in order to help them get out of that state of sin. This was what Christ did. 

 Fraternizing with sinners is what we all have to cultivate in ourselves also. We have to replicate Christ’s attitude towards sinners, who actually are all of us—of course, in varying degrees. We have to give special attention to the lost sheep and to the lost coin. We have to open all possible avenues to be in touch with all sinners. 

 This capacity to fraternize with sinners is first of all a gift from God which we have to take care of and develop. It’s meant to mature us and to involve us in the continuing work of redemption of Christ. It’s not meant, of course, to dilute the teachings of Christ and the very essence of goodness and true holiness.

Beware of the critical spirit

THAT gospel story of the paralytic brought by his friends with great effort to Christ for healing, (cfr. Lk 5,17-26) can tell us a number of things. One is that we need a strong faith when we need to ask God for some special favor. 

 Another would be that miracles are meant more to forgive sins than just curing some physical ailment. That’s because the spiritual health is more important than our bodily health. After all, it is our spiritual soul when animated by the Holy Spirit that gives life. (cfr. Jn 6,63) The body’s life and health ultimately depends on our soul, the principle of life. 

 Still another lesson we can get from that gospel story would be that we have to be wary of our tendency to have a critical spirit. That’s because in that gospel story, Christ first forgave the sins of the paralytic for which some of the Pharisees around accused him of blasphemy, convinced that Christ was already overstepping his authority and power. That was when Christ proceeded to cure the paralytic to show he had the power to forgive sins since he indeed was the expected Messiah from God. 

 Let’s be wary of our tendency to be fault-finders, negative thinkers, incorrigible critics, etc. This tendency usually springs from a brand of righteousness that is not properly rooted on the real source of righteousness who can only be God, as shown to us by Christ and inspired in us by the Holy Spirit. It is more self-righteousness. 

 We have to be most wary of this spiritual anomaly that can come to us anytime. It usually takes advantage of our natural inclination to seek the truth, the good and the beautiful in life—in short, what is right—and corrupts that inclination because it is not properly rooted on the ultimate source of righteousness who is God himself. It’s so blinding that it can even assume the appearance of holiness. 

 Most prone to this illness are those with some special endowments in life, be it intelligence, talents, wealth, fame, power, health, beauty, etc. When all these gifts are not clearly grounded and oriented toward God, the source of all righteousness, the problem starts. 

 This is the irony of ironies because one can earnestly pursue the path of holiness and does practically everything to be good and holy, and yet ends up the opposite of what is intended. That’s when one practically has the trappings of goodness and holiness and yet misses the real root of righteousness who is God. 

 To deal with this tendency properly, we have to see to it that in whatever we do, we should always have purity of intention. And that can only happen when everything we do, from our thoughts, desires to our words and deeds, is done for the glory of God and for none other. 

 Also, we have to learn how to react properly when we see the defects, mistakes and sins of the others. That we see them does not entitle us to be critical and uncharitable. Rather, we should try our best to help them in any way we can. And the most basic thing we can do is to pray for them, even offering sacrifices for them, so that they can be transformed or converted by God’s grace. 

 We should never be critical-minded for long. While we cannot avoid being critical as our spontaneous reaction, we should try our best to overcome it as soon as possible.