Be ready to complicate your life

THAT gospel episode where Christ had to cross to the other side by boat and then immediately was met with a large crowd eager to listen to him, (cfr. Mk 5,21-43) somehow tells us that if we have to truly follow Christ as we should, we have to be ready to complicate our life. 

 Not only was Christ met with a large crowd. A synagogue official, Jairus, came begging him to come to his house to cure his dying daughter. And that was not enough. While he was on his way, a woman afflicted with hemorrhage for 12 years stealthily approached him to touch his cloak, convinced that by so doing, she would be cured. And in fact, she was cured! 

 That gospel episode tells us so many things. Since we always tend to get into trouble, and it can be something impossible for us to resolve, we should never forget that we can and should always go to Christ for help. With him, nothing is impossible, although his ways may not be in full accord with what we have in mind. But to be sure, he always listens to us and gives us what is best for us. 

 We just have to strengthen our faith so that we can overcome whatever obstacle we may have in approaching Christ to ask for help. This was the case of Jairus whose daughter eventually died but was resurrected by Christ, and the woman with that terrible ailment of hemorrhage. 

 We just have to train our mind and will to have that strong faith. For this, we should make many acts of faith during the day, so that more than just our reason and other human powers, we should be guided first by our faith in God. 

 We have to be wary when our human powers and faculties tend to take over as the main director and shaper of our life. 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 our prayers and petitions appear unanswered, if not, contradicted. Whatever happens, as long as we go to God, everything will work out for the good. 

 Another lesson we can learn from this gospel episode is that if we have to be like Christ, we need to deepen our sense of compassion with everyone, unafraid to tackle whatever trouble such compassion may cause or occasion. 

 Christ’s heart flowed always with compassion, quick to notice the needs of others and to respond to them. And all this in all simplicity, telling the beneficiaries who were so bursting with gratitude that they wanted to broadcast what they received to the whole world, to keep quiet instead. 

 It’s an example that we should all try to imitate. One deep desire we should have is that of making as some kind of default mode that attitude of thinking always of the others, wishing them well all the time and doing whatever we can to help. 

 It’s obviously not easy to do, but we can always try. With God’s grace and with our persistent effort, we can little by little and day by day hack it, such that it becomes second nature to us to think and feel for the others. That’s what compassion is all about. 

 Compassion starts in the heart, in our thoughts and desires. In this level, there is no limit in what we can do. Obviously, when we try to translate these prayers, thoughts and desires into action and material things, we can be greatly limited. But insofar as prayers and sacrifices are involved, the possibilities are unlimited.

Never lose hope

EVEN if we feel we already are a hopeless case because we have been abusing the goodness and mercy of God countless times, we should never lose hope. God is always ready to forgive and forgive, ready to help us in any way we need. We should banish the fear that there can come a time when God would finally say, “That’s enough!” It’s rather us who tend to say, enough, because of our lack of faith and hope. 

 The mercy and compassion of God is endless. He may be mad at us for a while, and give us some punishment, but we can be sure that if are to abide by our Christian faith, we know that his anger will only be for a moment, while his mercy is forever. 

 And any temporal punishment he gives us will always be for our own good, our own purification and strengthening. It may help us to do some restitution, but it’s never a pure act of revenge. 

 We are reminded of this aspect of our Christian faith in that gospel episode where Christ freed a man who was possessed by a legion of evil spirits. (cfr. Mk 5,1-20) Despite his seemingly hopeless case, Christ helped and cured him. 

 This reminder about this virtue of hope is crucial these days since we cannot deny that many people today, especially the young ones, appear to be helplessly trapped in some addiction. Yes, the many intoxicating conveniences and advantages that our modern sciences and powerful technologies are offering are spoiling many of us, since we fail to use and enjoy them with God as the motive and goal. Instead, it is self-indulgence that is being always reinforced. 

 There is always hope because God is always a father who cares for all his children, both the good ones and the not so good ones. In fact, he gives some preferential attention to those in some difficulty, whether materially or spiritually and morally. 

 We need to avoid being swallowed up by the horror of our predicaments, difficulties and sins. We should not stop at lamenting and complaining. We have to remember what St. Paul once said: “Where sin abounded, grace did abound more exceedingly.” (Rom 5,20) And more, from the Book of Ezekiel: “Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Lord GOD. Wouldn’t I prefer that he turn from his ways and live?” (18,23) 

 We have to reassure ourselves, based on what Christ has promised and has actually done for us, that there can be no crisis that is too big for the grace of God to handle. 

 We have to remember that nothing happens in this life without at least the knowledge and tolerance of God. And if God allows some really bad things to happen, it is because a greater good can always be derived from them. 

 We just have to put ourselves in God’s side to tackle whatever crisis plagues us. That is the real challenge we have to face. And just like what Christ did and continues to do to redeem us, we have to follow the formula he once spelled out: deny ourselves, carry the cross and then follow him. (cfr. Mt 16,24) 

 If we are willing to do that, then we can even gain a lot more than what we appear to lose and to suffer. In other words, we can say that the bigger, the more serious the problem, the bigger, plentier and stronger also would the grace God will give us. So, let us just be game and do our part of the bargain. 

 There’s always hope for us!

The Beatitudes as path to holiness

IT’S amazing that Christ would consider as blessed those conditions when we appear to be the receiving end of all the injustices and unfairness we can encounter in our life. That’s what the Beatitudes express. (cfr. Mt 5,1-12) 

 That’s because the Beatitudes describe the way Christ lived his life on earth and carried out his mission of saving us. We have to remember that Christ is the model and standard of how we ought to be. He is the pattern of our humanity. What he lived through, we should be ready to do the same. 

 The Beatitudes express the whole extent of how love and mercy should be, which is the very essence of God as well as ours. It’s a love that is willing to drown evil with an abundance of good. It’s a love that is willing to bear all things, conquer all things. (cfr. 1 Cor 13,7) 

 The beatitudes are actually Christ’s way of telling us how to be realistic about our life here on earth, marked with all kinds of negative things which can actually be converted into our pathways to heaven, to our eternal joy and the fullness of life. The secret is to follow the example of Christ. We can only understand and live the beatitudes if we have the very spirit of Christ. 

 We have to realize that the beatitudes actually expand our understanding of what would comprise as our true happiness and of what genuine love is by including those situations which we normally regard as unsavory and therefore to be avoided as much as possible and hated.  

We need to study well the content and spirit behind the beatitudes by looking closely at the example of Christ. There we will have the reassurance that all the suffering and sacrifices that we have to go through, and the effort that we have to make in this life would be all worth it. 

 And to be sure, we can live those beatitudes, because Christ himself would give us all the necessary graces. We just have to train ourselves in the appropriate attitudes, skills and virtues. If we can manage to have the very mind of Christ, which is doable since Christ has already given us all the means, we can hack it. Yes, we can live the Beatitudes! 

 We have to learn to be patient, which is an integral part of the virtue of fortitude that in the end can only be animated by genuine charity. We have to be ready when we are bombarded with worldly goods that can take us away from God, cool down our piety, and lead us to sin. 

 Or when we cannot help but mourn not only because of the death of someone but also because of some failure we commit or a misery we cannot shake off. Or when we get misunderstood and provoked in our daily exchanges of ideas and opinions with others. Or when we have to rein in our curiosity and raging hormones to keep our heart pure and in its proper orientation toward God. 

 Let’s always remember the Beatitudes, and continually ask for the grace to believe and live them to the hilt. Christ’s promises cannot be frustrated. We have to strengthen our faith in his word. And start to live calmly, oozing with confidence and focused on what really matters in life! 

 The beatitudes should always be in our mind, heart and lips!

Learn to look for Christ always

WE have to train ourselves to look for Christ always, beginning in the little ordinary things of our daily routine. By so doing, we can find him and start to enter into the dynamic of his love for us, which is what is proper to us. 

 It is important that we always have this desire to look for him because otherwise we will only end up looking for ourselves or something else, and we can only go so far that way. In fact, the most likely thing to happen is for us to find ourselves in some trouble or disaster. Temptations will hound us, and falling into sin would just be a matter of time. 

 We are reminded of this duty in the parable where Christ compared the Kingdom of God with the man who plants seeds on the land and these seeds would simply grow by themselves, as well as the parable of the mustard seed. (cfr. Mk 4,26-34) 

 What these parables tell us is that Christ is everywhere and is actually in charge of everything. We are expected to find him and go along with his will and ways, since we are meant to be like him, to be children of God in Christ. He is actually the one who will shape us to be God’s image and likeness as God wants us to be. He is “the way, the truth and the life” for us. He offers us everything we need to be who we ought to be. 

 We have to be wary of our strong tendency to be carried away and swallowed up by our earthly and temporal affairs because we fail to see in them the occasion, reason and means to find Christ and to live and do things with him. 

 Our temporal affairs actually have that character since they are under God’s constant governance and providence. Christ is always there showing us the proper way of how to deal with them, especially when we encounter difficulties, trials, challenges, and especially when we are tempted and when we fall into sin. 

 Obviously, we need faith to find Christ in our earthly affairs. Thus, we have to have that discipline of making many acts of faith during the day, as well as training our human faculties—our intelligence and will, our senses, emotions and passions, our memory and imagination, our appetites, instincts and urges—to have that desire to look and find Christ in everything, starting with the little things. 

 At the moment, we have to make a strong and constant struggle against our curiosities that are driven only by self-indulgence, by what we consider as pleasurable, profitable, or what feeds and pampers our egos. 

 Thus, we need to learn to be contemplative even in the middle of the world, able to see God in all the good, the bad, and the ugly that the world contains. 

We need to learn how to be recollected so that even as we engage our senses and faculties with the many immediate things in life, we don’t lose sight of the ultimate end. 

 We need to exercise our faith. We cannot depend solely on what we see, hear or feel. Neither would it be enough that we move only when we understand things. We have to follow closely what our faith tells us, even if there are mysteries involved. 

 God’s providence is such that not only is he present in everything. He is also actively intervening in our life, especially in the little things, drawing us and everything else to himself. We need to see and feel these interventions!

Training ourselves to give our all

ESPECIALLY in our relation with God and with others, we need to give our all. Especially in our duties toward them, we should do our best to carry them out wholeheartedly. 

 The consideration of prudence and discretion may appear to us as if we have to be calculating and to give less than what we would like to give, but in the end what it does is to lead us to give our all. 

 We are reminded of this truth about our life in that gospel episode where Christ told his disciples, “Is a lamp brought in to be placed under a bushel basket or under a bed, and not to be placed on a lampstand? For there is nothing hidden except to be made visible; nothing is secret except to come to light.” (Mk 4,21-22) 

 These words of Christ clearly tell us that we should always be at the service of God and others, doing the most important task of always giving glory to God and of leading everybody else to him. 

 And he capped this indication of his with a call to generosity when he said, “The measure with which you measure will be measured out to you, and still more will be given to you. To the one who has more, more will be given; from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.” (Mk 4,24-25) 

 In our self-giving to God and to others, we should try our best to be energized, driven and zealous. That is actually the ideal condition for us. Even if we are endowed only with the most phlegmatic and melancholic temperaments, something must be burning inside our heart that cannot help but burst into a flame, a flame of love, of self-giving, of serving without expecting any return. If it is not yet there, then let’s enkindle it. 

 The secret again is always that vital identification with Christ who, in pursuit of his redemptive mission, expressed such zeal when he said: “I have come to set the world on fire, and I wish it were already burning!” (Lk 12,49) And no amount of difficulty and suffering, and even death, could stop him from pursuing his mission. Such should also be out attitude. 

 If we are truly in love, with the love of God who is the source, pattern and end of love, we cannot help but, like Christ, be always energized, driven and zealous, no matter what the cost. Of course, this condition, this requirement is quite tough to meet, but if we would just try, and try again as often as necessary, certainly the ideal effect would just come about. 

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

 We have been reminded of this need to cultivate generosity in the gospel. “Take care to guard against all greed, for though one may be rich, one’s life does not consist of possessions,” Christ said. (Lk 12,15) Let’s remember that God cannot be outdone in generosity.

Let's follow the example of St. Paul

JANUARY 25 is the Feast of that dramatic conversion of St. Paul. It’s a feast that reminds us that Christ can choose anybody to work with him as an apostle, because in fact, everybody is meant to be one, if he truly is consistent with his human and Christian dignity. 

 A man, given the way he is, and especially when he takes his Christianity seriously, is and should always be an apostle. He should always be concerned with everybody else, and should help in giving the most important thing in our life—our own salvation, our own perfection as a person and as a child of God. 

 On this feast, the gospel reading is about Christ commissioning his apostles to “go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature.” (Mk 16,15) Somehow, it gives us the idea that the Gospel of Christ that brings Christ to the people is meant to unite all of us in him. 

 And that’s because we are meant to form one family with God through Christ in the Holy Spirit. In fact, we are meant to become living members of the Mystical Body of Christ, which is the Church. 

 That is why, this feast also marks the culmination of the Christian Unity Octave, that effort to bring all of us who profess belief in Christ together, in spite of our unavoidable differences. 

 Some of these differences are legitimate and tolerable and can generate a lot of good for all of us. In this sense, the more differences we have, the better for us. Others may have to be resolved in some process of dialogue. And the Church current thrust on synodality can be helpful in this regard. 

 What this feast also reminds us of is for us to imitate as much as possible the example of St. Paul who readily converted even while in the middle of a campaign against the early Christians. Like St. Paul, we should be ready to make some drastic changes in life if only to follow what Christ is indicating to us in some specific ways. 

 Remember those parables about the hidden treasure (cfr. Mt 13, 44) and the pearl of great price (cfr. Mt 13,45-46). Both parables can mean that we should be ready to leave behind certain things if only to pursue the specific vocation God is giving us. 

 I have known a lot of good and holy people who have left behind their profession, business and their former way of life to become priests or some consecrated persons, or just ordinary lay people who assume a lifetime commitment to seek sanctity and do apostolate in the middle of the world. 

 We ought to know that everyone has a vocation from God. But as to what specific vocation we are given, we should try our best to discern through prayers so we can hear what God is telling or showing us. We should try our best that our sense of vocation remains always sharp, able to give constant impulses to our daily activities. 

 We have to be wary of just pursuing and developing our life simply according to our human goals with hardly any consideration of what God really wants us to be and to do, thereby trapping us in our own world, and preventing us to enter into the spiritual and supernatural world of God meant for us, since God wants it that way.

Taking care of our interiority

ONE of the essential characteristics of a person is his life of interiority. That is where the world of a person is hidden from the gaze of ‘strangers.’ It’s his world of intimacy, his sanctuary, which he only knows and dwells. It is where he can know himself and enter the depths of his own soul. 

 We just have to realize that that life of interiority has to be properly rooted and directed. It should not just be left on its own, relying only on one’s feelings at the moment. Neither should it just depend on our natural and sensible world. It has to be rooted and anchored on God and directed toward him, able to enter into the spiritual and supernatural world of God to which we are destined. 

 We are reminded of this truth about ourselves in that gospel episode where some people told Christ, “Your mother and your brothers and your sisters are outside asking for you.” To which he replied, “Who are my mother and my brothers? And looking around, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.” (Mk 3,32-35) 

 We have to understand then that if we truly want to take good care of our life of interiority, we have to see to it that it is focused on God. It should always be with God. We have to be wary of our strong tendency to simply be on our own, pursuing our own likes and unavoidably falling into self-indulgence, the very antithesis of love, which involves self-giving. 

 That is why Christ asked us to deny ourselves and carry the cross to counter this strong tendency of ours toward self-indulgence. We should not take this duty for granted. We have to understand that this duty is necessary, and not just optional. It has to be carried out all the time. 

 Our will and our thoughts should not just be floating around on their own, thinking that it is how they enjoy their freedom. We need to acknowledge that our will is a creation of God and is meant to be united to God’s will since we have been created in his image and likeness. We need to acknowledge the truth that our real freedom is when our will is united to the will of God. 

 This, definitely, is not an easy task to do, given the fact that it is precisely in our will where we choose whether we would like to be with God, to be part of his family, or to be simply on our own. And given how we handle this issue, starting with our first parents all the way to the present, we always have the strong tendency to think that our will is simply our own. 

 We have to learn to live always by God’s will. This is a basic truth that we need to spread around more widely and abidingly, since it is steadily and even systematically forgotten and, nowadays, even contradicted in many instances. We need to inculcate this truth to children as early as when they can understand and appreciate it. Then let’s give them the example of how it is lived. 

 We have to realize that God’s will is the source of everything in the universe. The whole of creation in all its existence, unity, truth, goodness and beauty starts from God’s will and is maintained by it. The entire range and scope of reality—be it material or spiritual, natural or supernatural, temporal or eternal—is “contained” there, not only theoretically but also ‘in vivo.’ 

Love unites, hatred divides

THAT’S true! Love and all its different manifestations always work for unity among ourselves, irrespective of our unavoidable differences and conflicts. In fact, these latter conditions can occasion a greater and purer brand of love. 

 At the same time, hatred and all its cohorts do nothing other than divide us. They inflict wounds in us—mental, emotional, moral, etc.—with hardly any care to bind those wounds. In fact, they tend to make those wounds fester even more. 

 We are reminded of this fact of life when in the gospel, some scribes, filled with envy, suspicion and anger against Christ, made that clearly self-contradicting accusation that “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “By the prince of demons he drives out demons.” (Mk 3,22) 

 Of course, Christ was quick to note the fallacy and clarified the issue by saying, “How can Satan drive out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand; that is the end of him.” (Mk 3,23-26) 

 Clearly, when one does not believe in God, the very essence of love, and is driven instead by hatred, his reasoning can go off the rails. Even the simplest of logic is thrown out. We need to do everything to always strengthen our belief in God, the very cause, origin and pattern of unity amid the vast and increasing diversity and variety of elements we can have in this world. 

 Nowadays, we are seeing the intriguing phenomenon of asserting what is right and moral as wrong and immoral, and vice-versa. What is clearly an expression of true freedom is now called slavery, and vice-versa. What should clearly be considered as taboo is now regarded as a human right. The forms of self-contradictions go on and on. 

 To correct this situation or, at least, to deal properly with it, we need to take care and strengthen our belief and our charity. We cannot take this duty for granted, especially now when the world is sinking in confusion and error as it distances itself farther from God. 

 And since we cannot avoid having differences and conflicts among ourselves, our attitude should be that instead of being afraid, irritated and stressed out by them, let’s be welcoming to them and take advantage of them. A lot of good can actually be derived from them, even if we are not exempted from being pained and mortified by them. 

 Our differences and conflicts, which by the way are unavoidable in our life, can actually occasion genuine love and many other virtues to develop and grow. They can purify us, smoothing out the rough edges of our personality, and fine-tuning our views, opinions and preferences. 

 They can give rise to the development of patience and compassion, and the pursuit for the truth and justice is guaranteed to be more authentic even if it is also arduous. 

 They can actually expand our world of knowledge and understanding, and trigger the dynamics of a more meaningful unity among ourselves, not in spite of but rather because of our differences and conflicts. The unity we are speaking of here is not uniformity, but one that is richly nuanced and capable of accommodating everyone. 

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 Love develops in us a universal heart. Hatred makes us an isolated heart.

God’s mysterious providence

IT’S interesting to note that, as the gospel of St. Matthew narrates, Christ somehow had to make some drastic changes in his plans when he learned that John the Baptist was imprisoned. (cfr. Mt 4,17-23) He left Nazareth and withdrew to Galilee to live in Capernaum.

 And yet such change of residence, clearly an act of prudence on his part, fulfilled a prophecy about him—that the “land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the way to the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, the people who sit in darkness have seen a great light, on those dwelling in a land overshadowed by death, light has arisen.” (Mt 4,15-16) 

 It’s quite clear from this observation that we can also follow God’s mysterious providence if we just allow Christ to reign in our life. When we are with him and when we do everything with him and for him, we cannot be mistaken in following God’s ways for us, even if along the way, we can meet all sorts of difficulties, commit some mistakes and all the other negative things that can happen in our life. 

 Christ, who said he is “the way, the truth and the life” for us, will always show us the way of how to go along God’s providence amid the many twists and turns of our life here on earth. 

 As St. Paul assured us, “All things work together for good to them that love God.” (Rom 8,28) With Christ, even our mistakes and sins, and the suffering they bring, as long as referred to Christ, will pass from being a curse to become a cure. 

 We should just to make sure that Christ is always in our mind and heart. It should be him who should tell us or at least indicate to us what to think, say and do. We need to be watchful when we dare to do things simply on our own, relying only on our intelligence, and much less on our emotions and human appetites and urges. Our human faculties need to be supervised and directed always by Christ through our faith in him. 

 Just the same, like him and with him, we should just focus on what we are supposed to do. In the case of Christ, in spite of that change of residence, he continued to preach, especially on the need for repentance. 

 We have to remember that it is repentance that in the end we most need to do because we cannot avoid falling into sin. With repentance, even if shown only slightly, we can be sure to receive the mercy of God who is always ready to give it to us. 

 But aside from preaching about repentance, like Christ, we should help one another in our duty to pursue our personal sanctification and to help in the apostolate. If we would focus on this duty, we can be sure that we will always be within the orbit of God’s providence. 

 Personal sanctification and apostolate should be understood as our main business here on earth. Everything else—our profession, business, politics, etc.—are meant only as an occasion or means to carry out these indispensable duties of ours. 

 Let’s be more aware of our duty to go along God’s providence. Although God, with his providence, will always do everything to direct us and everything else to him, we, being his image and likeness, should cooperate with him in the best way we can.

We have the same mission as Christ

IT’S intriguing to note that Christ would just appoint as his apostles practically anyone. It would look like his choice was done purely at random. He would even choose someone who would betray him. And many times, he would scold his apostles for their lack of faith and understanding. And the severest rebuke was even given to Peter, the head of the apostles, whom he told, “Get behind me, Satan!” (Mt 16,23) 

 We are reminded of this fact when in the gospel of St. Mark, Christ simply chose 12 out of the many disciples who followed him. (3,13-19) What we can derive from this observation is precisely that we, being meant to be conformed to Christ, the pattern of our humanity and the savior of our damaged humanity, are also meant to be apostles, to be involved in his mission. Christ treats us the same way he treats himself. 

 We have to be more aware of this truth about ourselves and try our best to act on it. To be an authentic Christian is not simply to be interested in one’s own sanctification. He also has to be involved in the sanctification of everyone. A Christian is at once interested in sanctifying himself and in sanctifying others as well. 

 To be sure, if we have the proper Christian frame of mind, we know that every event, circumstance, situation and condition in our life is an occasion to do apostolate. Even when one is isolated for one reason or another, he still can do apostolate, because this duty is not limited to dealing with others in a direct, physical way. It can be done with prayers, sacrifices and intentions. Indeed, there is no moment in our life when we cannot do apostolate! 

 We also have to realize that our pursuit for sanctity cannot be genuine if it does not involve doing apostolate. In fact, the tasks of sanctification and apostolate mutually help each other. One cannot be without the other. 

 When we are active in the apostolate, we get the chance to deal with our weaknesses and shortcomings better. Temptations can hardly affect us when we are occupied with this business of doing apostolate. 

 Obviously, if we are sincere in our pursuit for holiness, we would also feel more strongly the urge to do apostolate. If our prayer is authentic, if our sacrifices are generous and purely intended, if our recourse to the sacraments and the waging of ascetical struggle are stable, there can be no other effect than for us to get involved in the lives of others for their own sanctification. 

 What should ideally happen is to have the same drive and zeal that Christ had in carrying out his mission. He once said: “I have come to set the world on fire, and I wish it were already burning!” (Lk 12,49) This will obviously require of us a lot of effort and discipline. But let’s never forget that we have to ask for God’s grace for this ideal to take place. 

 We can be sure that by earnestly pursuing this duty of ours as Christians, we would receive the joy and peace that the world cannot give, a joy and peace that, while involving a lot of effort and sacrifice, will always be palpable. 

 This is what we can see in Christ and in all the saints!

Keeping that apostolic fire burning

AS persons, we are meant by definition to care for one another. We are meant to relate ourselves with everybody else one way or another. No man is an island, it is said. That is why we are given the proper faculties—our intelligence, will, emotions, passions, appetites, etc.—so that we could do what we are designed to carry out. 

 And as persons created in God’s image and likeness, we are meant to help one another to achieve that ultimate dignity of ours—to be truly God’s image and likeness, sharers of his divine life and nature. We can say that our life here on earth is meant to work out the process of our own deification in and with God through Christ in the Spirit. This is what apostolate is all about. 

 We are reminded of this duty of ours in that gospel episode where Christ, followed by a big crowd from different places, started to preach and to perform some miraculous cures, including driving out unclean spirits from a number of persons. (cfr. Mk 3,7-12) 

 We need to be more aware and, more important, more adept in fulfilling this duty of ours. We cannot deny that instead of being always concerned with the others, we have the tendency for a variety of reasons to be self-absorbed, self-centered and self-indulgent. We have to do something about his predicament. 

 The secret of having that apostolic fire burning in our heart is of course that of exerting the constant effort to identify ourselves with Christ, the pattern of our humanity. We can only be truly apostolic in a stable way to the extent that we identify ourselves with Christ. Thus, the apostolate can only be the effect and the overflow of our own sanctification, that is, of our own effort to be like Christ. 

 We have to understand that Christ is asking us to do our part, always together with him, just as he asked his apostles to do so. And that’s because, first of all, even if Christ being God does not need us to do this, he wants it that way since he is treating us the way he treats himself. We are his image and likeness. 

 It’s actually for our own good. Our involvement in the apostolate actually matures and perfects us as persons and as children of God. It detaches us from our own self-centeredness and self-absorption, and draws us to the dynamics of love and self-giving. 

 We have to remember that loving God who we do not see is accomplished by loving others who we see. And apostolate is that exquisite part of loving others since it involves not only caring for some material good for others, but rather for their ultimate spiritual good. 

 Secondly, God has designed and wired us to help one another not only in our material and temporal needs, but especially in our spiritual needs that are aimed to our supernatural destination, nothing less than our participation in the very life of God. We need to realize more sharply that we are actually responsible for one another. 

 Of course, this participation in the divine life can only happen with the grace of God and never just by our own efforts alone. That’s why the second person of the Blessed Trinity became man, Jesus Christ, who offers himself as our way, our truth and our life.

The making of the self-righteous

WHAT is to be self-righteous? It’s when we base our idea of what is right and wrong, good and bad on our own estimation of things with hardly any reference to God. Or there might be some references to God, as usually the case, but in the end, it is our own ideas that would prevail. In other words, when we make ourselves our own law. 

 We are reminded of this danger in that gospel episode where Christ asked some Pharisees if it was lawful to cure a man with a withered hand on a sabbath. (cfr. Mk 3,1-6) What should have been an easy, common-sensical answer to make turned the Pharisees mad, even thinking of how to eliminate Christ. Their position typifies the rigidity of a self-righteous mind. 

 The common phenomenon of self-righteousness can be considered as the irony of ironies. That’s because one can earnestly pursue the path of holiness, of what is good and right, and yet ends up the opposite of what he wants. He can practically have the trappings of goodness and holiness and yet misses the real root of righteousness who is God. It can be so self-deceiving that one becomes fully convinced he is righteous. 

The main problem with self-righteousness is when one’s search for holiness does not go all the way. His relation with God, his understanding of God’s will and ways only goes to a certain extent. Usually it stops at that point where he feels he already knows everything. In other words, he makes himself the ultimate judge of things, discarding the many other things of God’s will and ways that may still be hidden in mysteries. 

 This was well personified by the Pharisees, scribes and other elders during the time of Christ. They preferred to stick to their own ideas of goodness and holiness, their own laws and traditions, and went all the way not only to be suspicious of Christ, always finding fault in him, but also to finally crucify him. 

 This danger of self-righteousness usually affects people who are considered intelligent, gifted, talented. They often regard themselves, either in an open way or in a hidden way, superior to others. 

 If one is truly righteous with a righteousness that is a participation of the righteousness of God, then he should include in his idea of goodness and holiness the essential virtues of humility, compassion and mercy. He always defers to the ultimate judgment of God. Whatever judgment he makes is always open to God’s judgment. 

 He should have the love that God manifested in Christ, the God made man to offer us the way, truth and the real life meant for us. And that love includes love of one’s enemies. It’s a love that can go all the way to offer one’s life not only for his friends but also for his enemies. This is the real test of a truly righteous person. 

 Yes, it’s true that Christ said that that there can be no greater love than when a man lays down his life for his friends. (cfr. Jn 15,13) But St. Paul said that “God proves his love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Rom 5,8) 

 In other words, even if we consider ourselves enemies of God because of our sins, God continues to love us. For God, we are all his friends, his beloved, no matter what the circumstances are. We have to reflect this kind of righteousness of God! 

 If there are those who do not love us in return, that’s their problem, not ours.

Beware of Pharisaical legalism

WHAT is Pharisaical legalism? At bottom, it’s the understanding of law that is based only on our human ways, ignoring the ultimate basis of law who is God as revealed fully in Christ. As such, it tends to be rigid, to be quick to judge and to claim it has the last word in any issue or question. 

 We are reminded of this danger in that episode where Christ was confronted by some Pharisees because his disciples were picking heads of grain while passing through a field on a sabbath. (cfr. Mk 2,23-28) Christ had to correct them about how the sabbath law should be taken. 

 We certainly should always be guided by laws. We should just see to it that our human laws are properly based and oriented. And given our limitations, not to mention our errors and sins, our human laws should also give due allowance for this unavoidable fact of life. 

 Truth in our laws should reflect the law and order as designed by God the Creator for the whole world and for man, specifically. They should respect and in fact reinforce what God has given as the law of nature and the moral law that governs our human acts. 

 But, alas, we wonder whether these things about natural law and moral law are given due consideration these days. What we can notice is a steady drift toward what is called as legal positivism. 

 Legal positivism is when our legal and juridical systems are simply based on perceptual experiences and people’s consensus while systematically shutting out any input from faith and divine revelation that tells us that God is in fact the very foundation, inspiration and perfection of our human laws. 

 In other words, without any reference to God’s law, our human law cannot help but be out on a limb. For all the brilliance, wisdom and success a Godless human law can have and accomplish, it can only go so far. It cannot go the distance required by our human dignity. Sooner or later, it will fail and fall into forms of injustice, many of them so subtle that injustice can be committed under cover of our human law. 

 A clear example of this latter case is the law on abortion. It is a lot worse than the so-called extrajudicial killing. Abortion is clear murder of the most defenceless members of our human society—the infant while inside the mother’s womb. 

 Of course, rationalizations can come aplenty. It’s not yet a baby, they say. It’s just a bundle of tissues. It does not have life on its own. But no one can contest the fact that that so-called clump of tissues has the DNA of the parents, and that it cannot but be a living baby if it is allowed to develop to its full course and no problems and complications come along the way. 

 The Bible has many passages that the unborn is already a child, a person, chosen by God, etc. The Book of Jeremiah, for example, says: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you. I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.” (1,5) 

 And to be more blunt about it, precisely Christ before he was born was already the Son of God who became man to redeem us! Could Mary and Joseph have thought of aborting the unborn Christ because they thought he was just a bunch of tissues while still in the womb?

The need for continuing adaptation

WHEN Christ said, “No one sews a piece of unshrunken cloth on an old cloak. If he does, its fullness pulls away, the new from the old, and the tear gets worse,” (Mk 2,21) we are somehow reminded that in our life there is always need for continuing adaptation due to the changing situations, circumstances and conditions we are bound to encounter. 

 He reiterated this point when he said, “Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the skins are ruined. Rather, new wine is poured into fresh wineskins.” (Mk 2,22) 

 We cannot overemphasize this need to adapt. And we just have to learn how to deal with it, considering that it will demand of us a lot of sacrifices. Perhaps that’s one reason Christ told us that if we want to follow him, we need to deny ourselves and carry the cross. (cfr. Mt 16,24) 

 This aspect of an authentic Christian life should be taught as early as possible to everyone. While it’s true that each one is somehow defined by his own peculiar personality, temperament and character, we need to realize that as persons we are meant to relate with each other and, thus, need to learn to properly adapt with everyone and with everything. 

 But given the temper of the times that somehow foster self-indulgence, there’s a strong trend for people to become self-absorbed and isolated in spite of the apparent stream of communication due to our new technologies. 

 Yes, there can be an appearance of vibrant social intercommunication among ourselves, but it cannot be denied that strong and divisive biases and prejudices are also being developed. 

 Obviously, while we need to have some kind of inventory of how each one of us is, going through our strengths and weaknesses, we have to realize that the art of continuing adaptation can ultimately be achieved if we identify ourselves more and more with Christ, the master of adaptation. 

 Imagine how he adapted himself to us! As God, he became man just to identify himself with us. In his preaching, he used human and natural devices to impart spiritual and supernatural lessons. To reach out to sinners, he made himself like sin without committing sin. Ultimately, he forgives us of all our sins by offering his life on the cross. 

 Definitely, we cannot simply rely on our human means to adapt, even if we have to make full use of them. Not even some comprehensive philosophies or ideologies, heavily propped by the sophisticated modern sciences and technologies, can hack it. 

 Their ways and means can only go so far. They cannot last long. They cannot bear doing the same things over and over again everyday, because they cannot see further than what is on hand at the moment, or even what is simply of worldly value. They are highly perishable items, with very short prescription period and brief effectiveness. 

 It’s the grace of God that does it. It’s when we are driven with love for God and for others that we can manage to escape the grip of routine and drudgery that can easily come to us if we happen to be doing the same things everyday. And for most of us, we happen to be doing the same things everyday. It’s God’s grace and love that can transcend the limitations of any earthly interest. 

 This is the ultimate adaptation—that’s when we poise ourselves to take a leap to the supernatural order of God who wants us to share his life and nature, divinizing ourselves as we ought since we are God’s image and likeness!

What the Sto. Niño tells us

ON this Feast of the Sto. Niño, we are reminded that irrespective of whatever status we have in this life, it is always necessary that we be like children. Why? 

 Christ told his disciples clearly: “Unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the Kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven. And whoever receives one child such as this in my name receives me.” (Mt 18,3-5) 

 Christ reiterated this necessity of being childlike a number of times during his preaching. “Let the children come to me. Do not prevent them, for the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these.” (Mk 10,15) St. James, in his letter, made the same affirmation. “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.” (4,6) 

 We can ask what it is in children that Christ would want us to be like them? I suppose what can come to mind are the qualities of simplicity, transparency, complete trust to elders, etc. 

 It’s quite clear that we all need to be childlike even as we grow in age and stature, and even as we accumulate already quite a significant amount of knowledge with our exposure to the world and to life in general. 

 Yes, children and heaven are almost synonymous to each other. No wonder we feel like we are in heaven every time we see children around. Every time a baby is born, we are very happy because we somehow know that he just did not come out of his mother’s womb, but rather from the very hands of God who created him before the parents procreated him. 

 In spite of the many limitations of children, what makes them always desirable is their pure, innocent heart, incapable of malice, ambition, pride and haughtiness. They are a source of many other good things. 

 Their heart is always trusting in the Lord, just like a little kid is always confident with his father. Faith and hope easily grow and acquire strength when nurtured in a child's heart. It's this attitude that leads them to go on and move on no matter what, for life to them could only be an adventure of discoveries. 

 This feast of the Sto. Niño also reminds us that we really need to take care of the children, teaching them the basic virtues that hopefully will branch out to more virtues until they can have a strong sense of religion. Let’s remember that as a poet once said, the child is the father of the man. How the child is trained and raised will determine how he will be when he grows up. 

 How important it is therefore to teach the children the basic virtues and values. The teaching has to be done patiently and in a most gradual but persistent way. For this purpose, parents may have to undertake some study to know how to go about this most delicate duty. But, for sure, all that effort and sacrifice involved would be all worth it. 

 Children definitely need to be constantly accompanied. Especially these days when the environment can be very confusing, it’s important that children are closely supervised so that their inherent innocence can be kept even as they get to know more and more things. 

 Let’s hope that we manage to train children to be always God-fearing and loving of everyone even as they unavoidably face all kinds of trials and challenges as they go along in life.

The power of faith

REMEMBER that episode when a paralytic was presented to Christ for curing under great effort? (cfr. Mk 2,1-12) Christ was so amazed at their faith that he not only cured the man of his illness but also forgave his sins, which was the more important thing the paralytic received that day. 

 This is what faith can do for us. It enables us to receive God’s power and mercy. It is actually first of all God’s gift to us, but if corresponded to generously by us, it can produce great wonders in our life. 

 Faith unites us with God in whose image and likeness we have been made. It gives us the whole truth about ourselves, about who we really are. It provides us with all the means we need to face all the challenges of our life. 

 It is indispensable in our life as we go through the drama of our earthly pilgrimage. With it, we can manage to have hope even in our worst hopeless predicament, as well as charity especially in those moments when we don’t see or feel love around and instead hatred prevails. 

 What faith also does is to enlighten our mind, enabling us to see and understand things beyond simply the material, temporal and the natural. It lets us enter into the spiritual and supernatural world to which we are poised. 

 It is very helpful in our personal growth and development. If we allow it to guide us in our life, it can masterfully harmonize the different powers and faculties of our humanity. Our intelligence, our will, our emotions and passions, our appetites would be properly orchestrated. 

 We cannot deny that all our faculties are often at odds with each other. St. Paul once described this predicament well when he said: “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do. But what I hate, I do.” (Rom 7,15) 

 As to how to resolve this predicament, St. Paul offered the answer when he said, “Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Rom 7,24-25) It is when we have a living and working faith in Christ. 

 It’s really important that we submit all our faculties to the dictates of our faith. This may require tremendous discipline, but it would be all worth it. That’s because faith tells us what the real and ultimate purpose of our life should be, and thus would give us the proper guide and criteria as to how to deal and use our intelligence, will, emotions and passions, memory, imagination, etc. 

 There will be struggle involved here. That is why Christ told us that we need to deny ourselves and carry the cross if we want to follow him who is the pattern of our humanity. It is in him that we can find and achieve the fullness and perfection of our humanity. 

 It would be good if we can assume the mind of St. Paul when he said: “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training.” (1 Cor 9,25) 

 It’s the power of faith that would make us win in our game of life!

No flaunting, no showing off

IT’S quite intriguing that Christ would often tell the beneficiaries of his miracles to tell no one about them except to those who need to know. And in these cases, they were often told to go home or to the report to the priests. Obviously, many of these beneficiaries, deeply amazed at what they received from Christ, could not help but to proclaim to the whole world the great news about them. 

 We are reminded of this fact in that gospel where Christ was approached by a leper who was cured of his leprosy. (cfr. Mk 1,40-45) “See that you tell no one anything,” he told the cured leper, “but go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses prescribed; that will be proof for them.” 

 Although Christ performed miracles to show proof of his divinity and of his mission as mankind’s redeemer, something that should be worth publicizing everywhere, he must have wanted that everybody got to know about who he really was mainly through faith. The miracles were just peripheral items that would show his compassion more than anything else. 

 I believe that this way of acting of Christ was his way to telling us that he wanted to be known both as God and man, and as our Redeemer, not out of idle curiosity or for merely practical purposes, but rather really out of faith. We need to know him as he is even if we do not receive any special favors from him. 

 This detail in Christ’s behavior somehow tells us also that we should try to pass unnoticed while doing a lot of good. We should avoid flaunting and showing off the good deeds we do. We should avoid attracting glory to ourselves, since all the glory belongs to God. “Deo omnis gloria.” 

 Our problem often is that our belief in Christ is often corrupted by merely human motives. It’s not faith, but some mixture of idle curiosity and other practical purposes that make us follow him. 

 And when these idle curiosity and practical purposes would already have their fill, or worse, are not met as expected, then that belief in Christ falls apart. The apostles themselves were not exempt from this phenomenon. Many times, Christ would lament over their lack of faith. 

 Same with the crowd. Those who welcomed him at his entry to Jerusalem were also those who shouted, “Crucify him” a little later. 

 Christ wants us to approach him with faith. He wants us to consider the spiritual and supernatural character of his life that should also be reflected in ours. He does not want us to get stuck with his merely material, natural and human aspects. 

 Not that these material, natural and human aspects are bad or are a hindrance in our proper attitude toward Christ. They are important and indispensable, but they should conduct us to, not prevent us from knowing his real nature and role he plays for us. These aspects should in fact help us to enter into the very life of Christ who is both God and man. 

 But given our wounded human condition, prone to see only the partial and the immediate and to miss the whole picture, Christ must have been playing it discreetly when performing those marvellous miracles of his. He was careful that his work would nourish the faith of the people, and not just to meet their immediate needs.

Be prepared for more responsibilities

IT’S quite clear that when we do some good, we should expect that our life can get more complicated. We are reminded of this fact of life in that gospel episode where Christ went to Peter’s house and cured his mother-in-law. Because of that, many more sick people went to see Christ for cure. (cfr. Mk 1,29-39) In fact, it is said that the whole town went to him. 

 Try to imagine how it was with Christ! Of course, Christ is Christ. He never runs out of strength, compassion, patience, etc. Still, we could not deny that his life got complicated. 

 The same fact of life was also highlighted in that parable of the three servants who were given some amount of money and told to do business with it. The first two who made money of the initial amount were given the responsibility of taking care of cities. (cfr. Mt 25,13-40) Obviously, when we do something bad, we would also complicate our life. But that’s another story. 

 Well, that’s just the way the cookie crumbles. And so, we should just be prepared for it. Anyway, God is always around and is all ready to provide the help needed. We should not worry too much and just try whatever we can to handle the unavoidable complications. 

  Just the same, in that gospel episode, in spite of the many cures Christ made, he did not forget to pray, even making the effort to go to some isolated place to do his prayer calmly. And neither did he forget to carry out the more important responsibility to go to the other towns to preach and continue doing good. 

 This is a lesson for us to know how to handle the competing goals we have to pursue in life. We need to have a good sense of priority, and learn how to properly orchestrate the many responsibilities we have without getting lost or confused. 

 The secret here, I think, is to always refer everything to Christ. First of all, because we need to ask for grace that would enable us to do things they way he does them. And we, of course, need to follow his example. 

 Such effort would surely involve a certain detachment, since we tend to get attached to our own way of doing things rather than Christ’s way. Quite often, we get sentimental in these affairs, our emotions getting the better of us, and so we tend to fall into some disorder, since our reason and much more, our faith, that are supposed give us the better light, would be set aside. 

 Given this condition in our life, we should see to it that we live order in the best way we can. We need to be clear about the goals to pursue, and the different tasks we need to carry out. We have to be most careful with the use of our time. There are only 24 hours in a day, and we need to attend to more than a hundred things daily, including the rest that is due to us. We cannot afford to be wasteful of our time. 

 To be sure, we need to constantly examine and rectify our intentions, because with all the distractions that we are exposed to these days, we can easily stray from the right path dictated by our prudence. Thus, a lot of pit stops during the day are needed to see if we are still on track.

Teaching always in Christ

WE should be clear about this. The best teacher we can have, the ultimate one, the one that teaches us everything and in the proper way is Christ. When we have to carry out the task of teaching, we should see to it that we always teach with Christ, in Christ and for Christ. 

 We are reminded of this truth of our faith in that gospel episode where Christ entered a synagogue on a Sabbath and taught. The people were amazed at his teaching because, as they claimed, “he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes.” (cfr. Mk 1,21-28) 

 Later on, their amazement even grew some more when with his words, he drove out an unclean spirit from a possessed man. “What is this?” they exclaimed. “A new teaching with authority. He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him.” 

 We should be wary of our tendency to teach simply on our own authority, or on the basis of some ideology or philosophy, etc. This tendency arises when we think that what we are teaching are simply mundane matters like our sciences, technologies and ideologies. We tend to think that Christ, that God, has nothing to do with it. 

 This is when we have to remind ourselves that everything that we use as subject of our teaching comes from God and is meant to lead us to God. There is nothing that is a subject for teaching that does not come from God. 

 Christ, and the Church now, may not be directly involved in the technicalities, but there is no doubt that it is God who created everything, including the technicalities, imbuing it with their proper laws. What we do is simply to discover these laws with their technicalities, sometimes coming out with certain inventions and innovations. 

 But we should not forget that in using these laws and technicalities to achieve a certain good for man, we ought to thank God for them and to glorify him through them. Failing in that regard constitutes failure in teaching. 

 Thus, a good teacher is one who manages to relate the things he teaches, no matter how technical and mundane, to God and to others. He should inspire the students to love God and others more through the things he teaches. The things he teaches should bring students closer to God. 

 Failure in this crucial point would expose the things taught and learned to the dynamics of merely worldly values that are very vulnerable to being used and exploited by evil spirits or to being used as means for self-indulgence, the antithesis of love. 

 This is actually what is taking place these days. We have quite progressed in terms of knowledge. Our sciences and technologies are practically bursting with new developments and possibilities. We are having an overload. But without charity inspiring them, they can easily be misused and abused. Let’s remember what St. Paul said once: “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.” (1 Cor 8,1) 

 A good and ideal teacher, let’s reiterate it, always manages to relate the things taught to God and to inspire his students to love God and others through these things. The lessons he teaches are not merely technical things, or intellectual or theoretical affairs. He manages to link them to the abiding providential action of God. 

 In other words, while he is most rigorous in the technical and intellectual aspects of the lessons taught, his teaching is such that piety is not impaired or forgotten, but is rather, in fact, fostered!

Christ’s baptism: end and beginning

THE Feast of the Baptism of the Jesus Christ marks the end of the Christmas Season and opens the beginning of the Ordinary Time in our liturgical calendar. There are a few things we need to consider to savor the significance of this feast. 

 One is that Christ’s baptism instituted the sacrament of baptism that would incorporate us into Christ’s mystical body. Such truth of our faith would enable us to share in Christ’s life, in his continuing redemptive work. It gives us the rights and duties, the privileges and responsibilities of a Christian. It should make us realize that our life is not just purely ours anymore, but is rather a shared life, a life with Christ. 

 It’s important that we always realize this truth about ourselves and about our life if only to make us keenly aware of the role we have to play in that shared life. We often take this truth of our faith for granted and thus also often fail to fulfill our real duties and responsibilities. 

 Especially now that the Feast of Christ’s baptism also opens the ordinary time of the liturgical calendar, we need to realize that our duties and responsibilities as a Christian need to be lived as consistently as possible in the ordinary flow of daily life, consisting mainly of small and routine tasks and concerns. 

 We should not be Christians only during big and special occasions. Rather our Christianity is more authentically verified if we live it properly in our daily life. We need to realize more sharply that the ordinary work we do everyday is where we usually encounter God, since our daily work is to do the will of God. It is where we correspond to God’s continuing creation of us, until we conform to his radical will for us to make us his image and likeness and children of his. 

 This means that our work is not simply ours, but is rather a work with God. In fact, it is first of all the work of God, before it is also our work. It’s important that we be keenly aware of this truth so that we can consciously and freely work in sync as much as possible with God’s will and ways. 

 We need to spend time to make this truth sink into our consciousness and become an abiding guide in our daily life. If our work does not make us feel at least the presence of God, let alone, get to know his will and ways, then we are not working the way we should work. 

 In a sense, our work becomes prayer, even if it involves dirt and the so-called “blood, sweat and tears.” Our work is where we engage ourselves with God and enter into the dynamics of love that characterizes our relationship with God and with others. 

 Indeed, our work can somehow be considered as sacred, because in spite of its mundane character, it is still a work with God and a work of God. This is a truth that we have to appreciate some more and to accordingly act on. 

 We should disabuse ourselves from the thought that to be sacred and holy would involve us only in activities inside churches or that things should be done in silence and in great solemnity. Sacredness can be had also in the middle of the world, in the hustle and bustle of mundane concerns and businesses. The only crucial thing to remember is that irrespective of where we are, we should always be with God and do things with him and for him!

The Lord’s Epiphany: its implications

THE Solemnity of the Lord’s Epiphany reminds us that Christ is meant for all of us, and not just a few, and like the 3 magi, we should make an effort to look for him, that is, to look for God, in everything in our life—in the persons we meet, in the different situations, conditions and circumstances of our life. 

 To be sure, God is everywhere. This is how one of the psalms describes this reality: “Whither shall I go from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.” (139,7-10) 

 More than that, God’s presence is not merely passive but active. He is always intervening in the existence of all the creatures, ever applying his wisdom through the ceaseless providence that he exercises over all his creation whose nature he always respects, upholds and defends. 

 And we should not worry too much about the effort involved here because just like what happened to the magi, we would also be helped and led by a star that is none other than our Christian faith, and the many instrumentalities that the Church provides. 

 We may not see its light from time to time for one reason or another, but there is no doubt that it is always there. We just have to learn to live with that condition, unafraid in pursuing God’s will no matter what the cost. We just have to learn how to use the means provided to us. 

 We obviously have to be wary of the unavoidable villains along the way. The Herod of that time can be our own weaknesses, the intoxicating allurements of the world and the wiles of the devil. But as long as we realize that we need to wage a lifelong process of ascetical struggle, then things would just be all right. 

 Like the magi too, let us offer the best gifts we can give back to God who actually has given us everything that is good for us. We have to learn to repay love with love. We have been freely given, and so we have to learn how to freely give ourselves to God and to the others. 

 And the best gift we can give him, far beyond what the magi offered, are our own very selves, our whole heart. God himself wants it that way, as one passage in the Book of Proverbs puts it: “My child, give me your heart, and let your eyes delight in my ways.” (23,26) Of course, Christ himself articulated it more directly when he said, “Love the Lord our God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” (Mt 22,37) 

 Lastly, with the celebration of the Solemnity of the Epiphany of Christ, we are actually left with an invitation that can very well be a big challenge for us who profess to believe in Christ. This is none other than the duty to show or reveal Christ, as he is, to others. 

 This is no mean responsibility to be carried out by us who are his disciples. The ideal to aim at is to have those words of Christ to his disciples said of us as well: “He who hears you hears me, and he who rejects you rejects me. He who rejects me rejects him who sent me.” (Lk 10,16)

The direct testimony from heaven

“A VOICE came from the heavens, ‘You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.’” (Mk 1,11) 

 As the gospel of St. Mark narrates, these words were heard by St. John the Baptist after he baptized Christ in the River Jordan. He saw the heavens opened and the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove descending on Christ, and these words were spoken. 

 Obviously, the purpose of this testimony is to underline the true identity of Christ—that he is not just any ordinary prophet. He is the very Son of God who became man to offer “the way, the truth and the life,” the life proper to mankind. 

 This is a truth of faith that has to be taken by faith more than anything else. Without faith, there likely would be at least some doubt if not outright unbelief about the veracity of this claim. 

 And so, faith is indeed needed here. As St. Thomas Aquinas said once, “To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible.” 

 And yet there are other things that can lend credibility to what was said during Christ’s baptism. That he performed miracles, that he preached very sublime doctrine, that he had all the virtues that can be found in any man, that he offered his life on the cross and then resurrected, and that he ultimately appeared to certain people after his resurrection and was seen ascending into heaven—all these should leave no doubt as to Christ’s divinity and his role as our true savior. 

 We need to strengthen our belief in Christ and to do everything to follow him. In fact, we need to become like him as we are meant to be. We are meant to be “alter Christus,” another Christ, as some theologians have explained. 

 This is always possible and doable because in spite of our insufficient efforts to become like Christ, God’s grace is always there for us. All that is needed is for us to do our best or at least to be open and receptive to God’s grace and mercy. As St. Paul once said, “He who has begun a good work in you will continue to perfect and complete it until the day of Christ Jesus the time of His return.” (Phil 1,6) 

 But it should be a constant concern of ours to know, love and serve Christ which should have a necessary consequence to know, love and serve the others. Knowing and loving Christ is proven when we serve him by doing his will, by complying with his commandment, the last of which was “to love your neighbor as I (Christ) have loved you.” (Jn 13,34) 

 We should try our best that the main interest in our life is to be like Christ. Everything else—our work, our family life, our business and politics, our successes and failures, etc.—should serve only as a means and an occasion to be like Christ. 

 It’s important that we know Christ thoroughly and love him to such an extent that he and us become one as we are meant to be. This is no pipe dream, since Christ has given us everything to achieve this goal. He has, in fact, given us his very own self in the Holy Eucharist. We just have to receive that sacrament with a heart full of faith and love. That way, what is impossible becomes possible and a reality for us.

The calling of Nathanael

I ALWAYS get amused everytime I read about the calling of Nathanael, one of the apostles who later became known as Bartholomew. (cfr. Jn 1,43-51) His friend, Philip, already an apostle, excitedly told him, “We have found the one about whom Moses wrote in the law, and also the prophets, Jesus, son of Joseph, from Nazareth.” 

 And what was his response? With words dripping with a provincial and prejudiced frame of mind, he said, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” That was when Philip invited him to “come and see.” And from this rather casual encounter, a great thing took place. Nathanael became an apostle himself! 

 The story of Nathanael’s calling somehow tells us that there are things in our life that we should not take too seriously nor judge too definitively. Because even if a person, like Nathanael, would at first show some kind of doubt about Christ, about God and about religion in general, we know that things can change for the better. 

 There is always hope, since there will always be some reason for everything, good or bad, humanly speaking, to happen. The providence of God knows how to deal with every case properly. And if the person concerned corresponds properly also, then what may be considered bad at the beginning would turn out to be good. 

 Nathanael embodies the ordinary person who, in spite of his warts and all, still has that basic, irreducible trait of exposing his heart, no matter how defective, to the truth. He does not run away nor hide from it. 

 He is truly a man with no guile, no pretensions, no need for covering. Except for the normal need for discretion and modesty, he is completely transparent. What you see is what you get. 

 More, he is willing and eager to know the truth, and to make the necessary changes and adjustments that such truth would require of him. He is humble enough to accept things as they are, never bending them to make the pieces fit his own ideas. Rather, the contrary. 

 That’s why we would immediately feel good every time we meet such persons. They always exude such welcome and wholesome aura about themselves in spite of their imperfections. They contribute in making society more at peace and in harmony. 

 Children are such persons, though their being guileless is due to their innocence and lack of exposure to the world. When you see such quality in a person who is already exposed to the world, then you really would feel good. 

 I consider this point most relevant these days, since this quality is getting very rare, even approaching the point of extinction. The other day, CNN reported that among the most hated expressions nowadays is the word “Absolutely.” 

 That’s because that term is now used “ad infinitum,” “ad nauseam,” even by people who are caught lying “in flagrante delicto,” that is, in the act. Everyone now seems to use that word, such that it has been strained to the limits, drained and made to bleed to death, emptied of its true meaning. 

 Especially in the media, in the exchanges of opinions, the truth has been warped and deformed into different shapes, stretched or shrunk depending on circumstances by people who have become unreliable experts in opinion-making. 

 Let’s remember and imitate St. Bartholomew in his simplicity of heart and sincerity. His story shows that before we look for the truth, it is God first, Truth himself, who looks for us. We should just follow God first before anything else.