Mercy at the heart of God’s love

CHRIST was giving his disciples instructions on how they should behave and pray. At one point, he said: “In praying, do not babble like the pagans, who think that they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them.” And he proceeded to give them the Lord’s prayer, the epitome of how our prayer should be. (cfr. Mt 6,7-15) 

 In it, special mention is made about forgiveness. “Forgive us our sins and we forgive those who sin against us.” Somehow we are made to realize that we have to be forgiving of everyone, because God himself is merciful to all of us. As a psalm would put it, “His anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime.” (30,5) 

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

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

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

 That’s because true love, which is the very essence of God and which is also meant for us, being his image and likeness, has mercy at its core. Mercy is a love that is willing to bear all the sins of men. It is offered gratuitously. It takes the initiative. It does not wait to be asked. 

 The awareness of this truth should help us to develop the attitude to forgive one another as quickly as possible, since that is the only way we can be forgiven. When we find it hard to forgive others, it is a clear sign that we are full of ourselves, are self-righteous, proud and vain. 

 We have to continually check on our attitude towards others because today’s dominant culture is filled precisely by the viruses of self-righteousness, that feeling that we are superior to others, etc. We have to do constant battle against that culture. 

 That’s why we need to douse immediately any flame of pride and egoism that can come to us anytime. We have to learn to understand others, to accept them as they are, warts and all, while praying and doing whatever we can to help them. It’s not for us to judge their motives which will always be a mystery to us. 

 In fact, as St. Paul once said, we have to consider others as always better than us. Only peace and harmony can result with such attitude. The abuses that can arise will soon be overcome if we are consistent with this attitude. 

 We should not fall into the trap of putting justice and mercy in conflict. Both have to go together. Their distinction does not mean they are opposed to each other. Any appearance of conflict is only apparent. 

 But obviously the way to blend them together is to follow the example of Christ, and not just to rely on our own lights, no matter how brilliant these lights may appear. We can always forgive, and forgive from the heart, even if the requirements of justice still have to be met.

The works of mercy

“AMEN, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.” (Mt 25,40) These are words of Christ that are worthy of engraving in our mind and heart. They spell out our duty to take care of the works of mercy, both spiritual and corporal, for these are a sure path to enter heaven. 

 And who are these “least brothers of mine,” the least brothers of Christ? These are the hungry and the thirsty, the naked, the imprisoned, the stranger, etc. In other words, these are those who are suffering some difficulties and misfortune in life—the sick, the poor, the beggars, the ignorant. We have to be ready to offer them some help, convinced that by doing so, we are helping Christ himself. 

 This duty will obviously require effort and sacrifice. We have to train ourselves to see Christ in them, and to regard them as our brothers and sisters. We can expect to be inconvenienced or even disadvantaged, and we should be ready for that condition. 

 We can say that the more effort and sacrifice involved, the closer would we be in identifying ourselves with the spirit of Christ who even went to the extent of telling us to love our enemies. 

 This is what true love is all about, one that is fully given gratuitously, without expecting any return nor counting the cost. This is how we would be approaching our human perfection as image and likeness of God, children of his, sharers of his divine life and nature. 

 We have to be wary of our tendency to make rash judgments against those who are suffering certain difficulties and misfortune in life. We tend to think that they deserve their condition because they are lazy, or that they are suffering from some “karma,” or whatever. 

 We have to remember that only God knows the whole story of everyone’s life and condition, and ours is simply to help the way Christ told us to do so. We have to be wary of the tempting thought that by helping them, we would be enabling their dependence on us. 

 Rather, let us just reach out to them and help them all the way. We obviously are limited in helping them materially, but definitely there is no limit in the help we can give them spiritually, through our prayers, mortifications and sacrifices. We can offer whatever work we are doing at the moment for them. It’s really just a matter of expanding our heart to accommodate what Christ told us about helping the least of our brethren. 

 We also have to be wary of our tendency to simply pursue our own interests while treating the works of mercy as a peripheral duty to be attended to only when the occasion arises. Especially these days when we are egged to be self-indulgent, we need to make extra effort to be able to follow what Christ told us. 

 We have to learn how to give ourselves to others gratuitously the way God gives himself to us gratuitously. To start developing this basic attitude, we need to consider what God has gifted us in the first place. He has given us the ‘gift of life,’ and together with it, the gifts of faith, hope and charity. He has given us the seven-fold gifts of the Holy Spirit, and many other, endless things. 

 As if often said, “we are gifted to give!”

When we are tempted

TEMPTATIONS will always be around. And we just have to be prepared to deal with them properly. The secret is to learn how to be like Christ precisely at the moment when he himself was tempted three times by the devil. (cfr. Mt 4,1-11) 

 It’s important that in dealing with this fact of life, we should never lose hope. Instead, we should somehow in a sense welcome it. That’s because temptations are an occasion for us to identify ourselves more tightly with Christ and to make progress in our spiritual life. No virtue is developed and made stronger if no temptations would test us. 

 Let’s remember that Christ vanquished the tempter for us. (cfr. CCC 540) By contemplating Christ, who allowed himself to be tempted and who triumphed, we can fill ourselves with hope in our constant struggle against temptations and sin. We can manage to have peace of mind and avoid unnecessary stress. With Christ, we know we have the power to resist temptation. 

 St. Augustine had this wonderful piece of advice: “Recognize yourself tempted in Christ and recognize yourself also a conqueror in Christ.” Now that is the real challenge for us—how we can identify ourselves like Christ when temptations come around. We indeed need a lot of discipline to enable us to achieve that ideal. 

 We should be constantly aware of the three concupiscences that are the sources of our temptations—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. We should never forget that every day we have to contend with the enemies of God and of our soul—our wounded flesh, the allurements of the world, and the devil himself. 

 To deal with them properly, we have to imitate Christ in his “prayer, fasting and vigilance.” Through these means, we can expect to be like Christ who never gave an inch to distance himself from the will of the Father. 

 In fact, he corrected the tempter in his twisted use of some truths, since as is well known, temptations will always make use of some truths and twist them, appealing to our concupiscences to take us away from God. That’s why it is important to really know the truth as revealed to us by God through Christ in the Holy Spirit and taught to us authoritatively by the Church and given witness to by the saints. 

 What can help us in this regard is to practice what Christ himself advised us: to deny ourselves and to carry his cross. That’s how we can manage to stick to the will of God rather than the will and ways of the tempter. In other words, we have to give our whole heart to God which is what true love is, protecting ourselves from our tendency to fall into self-indulgence. Yes, detachment and temperance are necessary here. 

 We have to be wary of our tendency to let our ego to take the place of God. We have to be tightly guarded against this danger by always doing things with God and for God, with purity of intention and great eagerness which is the sign of true love. We need to be hot for God, not cold nor lukewarm. 

 Obviously, we should always feel the need to ask for strength from God from whom all good things come. With that attitude, we can manage to be confident in facing whatever temptations can come our way in this vale of tears we have in this world!

Christ gives us the true intent of our laws

TO determine the true spirit and intent of our laws, we should go to Christ. That’s because he is the original and final lawgiver. We should be wary when we would just make and interpret laws, whether the natural, moral or purely human laws, according to our own understanding of things alone. 

 We are reminded of this point when in the gospel some disciples of John the Baptist asked Christ why John’s disciples fast and those of Christ did not. That’s when Christ said, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.” (cfr. Mt 9,14-15) 

 We have to understand that any human law should always be a dynamic one, always in the process of refining, polishing and enriching itself. It should never be considered as static, or irreformable, unenrichable. 

 A lot of discernment is needed here. Prudence requires it. And the common good, which the law should always serve, can often present competing interests that need to be resolved as fairly as possible. That’s because human conditions and circumstances can vary a lot. 

 We have to remember that charity, truth, justice and mercy, which our laws should embody, have aspects that can be mysterious and that will always demand new requirements from us. 

 Yes, we obviously have to be governed by the rule of law. Without the law, we can only expect disorder and chaos, and all the forms of injustice. But we need to distinguish between the letter of the law and the spirit of the law, and know how to understand and apply the law properly. 

 Ideally, both the letter and the spirit of a certain law should be in perfect harmony. But that is hardly the case in real life. The problem, of course, is that the articulation of the law is conditioned and limited by our human powers that cannot fully capture the richness of human life, considering its spiritual and supernatural character that will always involve the intangibles and mysteries and the like. 

 That is the reason why we can go beyond but not against a particular law, when such law cannot fully express the concrete conditions of a particular case. 

 But, first of all, we have to understand that all our laws should be based on what is known as the natural law that in the end is a participation in the divine eternal law of God, our Creator and the first and ultimate lawgiver. And that part of natural law that is specific to man is called the natural moral law that would recognize, as its first principle, God as our Creator and source and end of all laws. 

 A legal system not clearly based on this fundamental principle about laws would already be a system that is defective ‘ab initio.’ A legal system that is based only on some human consensus or on some ideology would put the spirit of the law in full subservience to the letter of that law. 

 But even if our legal system recognizes God as the source and end of all laws, it is still highly characterized by our human condition. Thus, the articulation of the law in its letter has to be constantly animated by the spirit of that law that in the end is the spirit of God.

The best deal we have

“IF any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.” (Lk 9,23) Christ’s words may frighten us at first, but he is actually giving us the best deal we can ever have in this life. 

 We have to realize that there is no way we can follow Christ, who is our “way, truth and life” for us, other than complying with this requirement of denying ourselves and of taking up the cross daily. 

 And that’s because we are helplessly notorious in just following our way, independently of God, as if we can achieve our true joy and fulfillment by relying simply on our own will and ways. 

 That we have this notoriety can easily be proven by the fact that even our first parents, fresh from the hands of God and created in the state of original justice, managed to sin because at a certain point they chose to follow their own will, at the instigation of the tempting devil, instead of remaining faithful to God’s will. 

 But with what Christ is telling us about self-denial and the cross, we are given a way of how to resolve that predicament of ours. We should bring these words of Christ to heart, studying them well, asking for light so we may know how to convert these words into action on a daily basis. 

 We cannot deny that we have some kind of natural aversion to self-denial and the cross. Thus, we need to receive Christ’s words with faith. There’s no other way we can make sense out of them. Only with faith can we see the redemptive value of suffering. 

Only with faith can we learn how to suffer properly. We have to realize that in this life of ours in this world, we can never avoid suffering in one form or another. 

 Suffering is part of our human condition that is wounded by sin and all sorts of weaknesses and our natural human limitations, and the fact that we are meant to live a supernatural life which we can never attain unless we are truly with God, and the fact is, we seldom are truly with God. We can only be completely suffering-free when we are with God in heaven. 

 But we are given a way of how to handle our suffering properly, to the extent of converting our suffering as a way to our own salvation and eternal happiness. And that is always to follow the example of Christ as he went through all the suffering in his redemptive life here on earth. 

 We have to be willing to suffer the way Christ suffered for all of us. That way, we attain the true essence of our humanity which is love, channeling the love of God for us in us. 

No wonder then that Christ himself said: “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (Jn 15,13) 

 No wonder either that as St. Peter said in his first Letter, “He (Christ) did not retaliate when he was insulted, nor threaten revenge when he suffered. He left his case in the hands of God, who always judges fairly.” (2,23) We have to learn to restrain our urge to make revenge whenever we are offended in some way by others. 

 When we suffer, let’s see to it that we quickly have to unite our suffering with the suffering of Christ. Only then can our suffering acquire its purifying, strengthening and redemptive value!

Getting real on Ash Wednesday

IT’S Ash Wednesday once again. And with it, we begin the liturgical season of Lent, a serious time of preparation for the culmination of Christ’s redemptive mission through his passion, death and glorious resurrection. 

 Thanks be to God, Ash Wednesday in our country always evokes a very special sentiment among ourselves as we try our best to have our foreheads marked with the sign of the cross in ash. We give this day a very special devotion, deeply moving us spiritually. And we are most willing to go through the rigor of fasting, abstinence and the other forms of penance. 

 Ash Wednesday specifically reminds us that we came from dust and to dust we shall return. It puts us back to the real world, helping us rid ourselves of the layers of earthly pomp and glory that we may have accumulated through the years. 

 But it also points to us the real and tremendous dignity that has been given to us by our Creator. And that’s because into our dust is breathed the very life of God, making us his image and likeness, sharers of his life and nature. 

 It’s important that we realize that while we may consider ourselves simply as vessels of clay, such vessels actually hold and bear a most precious treasure, nothing less than the very dignity of God himself. 

 We have to learn how to properly deal with this reality of our fragility and the treasure that is meant for us. And the way to do it is to always acknowledge our nothingness without God, and our total and constant dependence on God. We have to be wary when we dare to think that we can be on our own. 

 Perhaps, that is the reason why the gospel reading of the day is about purity of intention. (cfr. Mt 6,1-6.16-18) Christ tells us that when we perform righteous deeds or give alms or pray, we should avoid doing them for show and expecting some earthly reward. Rather we should do them with God and for God only. 

 Thus, we really should guard our heart and mind so that they can only be rooted and directed toward God. We need to see to it that in our heart of hearts, in the very intimacy of our being, it is God and not just us who should reign supreme. 

 We have to do everything to grow in our intimacy with God everyday. This should be a constant concern of ours. This is the most ideal condition that we can and should be in, and we just have to figure out how it can be achieved. 

 Let’s remember that our life is always a life with God. It is supposed to be the time for us to correspond to God’s continuing work of creating and redeeming us until we become to be what he likes us to be—his image and likeness, his children in Christ. 

 That is why we always need a period of serious, more direct and personal conversations with him in our mental prayers or meditations and other spiritual exercises so that that ideal intimate relation with him can be established, nourished and maintained amid the drama of life. 

 With that very intimate relationship with him, we would know how to react and behave in every situation of our life, as well as how to shape and direct our life properly.

Our tendency to be impertinent

YES, we have such tendency, and so we have to be wary of it. We are reminded of this fact of life when after Christ told his apostles about his impending suffering, death and resurrection, the apostles were caught simply discussing about who the greatest among them was. (cfr. Mk 9,30-37) 

 That’s when he told them, “If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.” And taking a child, he told them, “Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me.” This is how we can counter our tendency to be impertinent. 

 If we truly want to be an authentic Christian, and not just Christian by name, we have to realize that we somehow cannot avoid the same fate that Christ had, that is, we are also meant to suffer and die not only for our sins but also for the sins of the others, and that in our heart of hearts, like Christ, our desire is to serve and not to be served, and that we should be as simple as a child whose heart is always open to the things of God. 

 We all need to be reminded that all our suffering has a positive and favorable aspect. It’s not all entirely bad and negative, though in itself it will always be bad. But if viewed and lived through our Christian faith, that is, with Christ, there is something in it that can give us a greater good. 

 Our pains and suffering are always the result of sin, ours and those of the others. They are the necessary consequence of our separation, whether temporary or permanent, from God from whom all good things come. (cfr. Ps 16,2; James 1,17) We may not be the direct cause of our own suffering, but in this world, we cannot escape the effects of sin, and so we must be ready for them just the same. 

 We just have to remind ourselves that we are not meant to suffer. Our original as well as our ideal definitive state in heaven excludes suffering. Our first parents, Adam and Eve, were in the state of original justice, where everything was in order and in harmony. No pain and suffering touched them, until they fell into sin. 

 Also, we have to realize that like Christ, we should have the attitude of wanting to serve and not to be served, to do a lot of good while passing unnoticed, looking always for the last place in any situation. 

 This is what love is all about, love in its most distilled form. It goes beyond merely wishing others well, or giving something and sharing things. This is love in action, in total self-giving even if nothing can be gained by doing so. 

 Besides, it is a love done in total obedience and availability to his loved ones. For love is true when done both at the instance of the loved ones and of one’s own personal gratuitous initiative. 

 We have to do everything to acquire, develop and enrich this attitude in ourselves and among ourselves, inspiring and inculcating it in others as much as we can, for it is what truly proper of us all. 

 With God’s grace, we have to exert effort to overcome the understandable awkwardness and tension involved in blending the natural and the supernatural aspects of this affair, as well as the expected resistance we can give, due to the effects of our sins. 

 This attitude will restrain our tendency to be impertinent!

Prayer sustains our faith

“HIS disciples asked him in private, ‘Why could we not drive the spirit out?’ He said to them, ‘This kind can only come out through prayer.’” (Mk 9,28-29) 

 This is the concluding part of that gospel episode where Christ was approached by the father of a boy possessed by a mute spirit. (cfr. Mk 9,14-29) According to the father, “wherever the mute spirit seized the boy, it threw him down; he foamed at the mouth, ground his teeth, and became rigid.” It must have been a terrible sight! 

 But the father complained that when he asked Christ’s disciples to drive it out, they were unable to do so. That’s when Christ retorted, “O faithless generation, how long will I be with you? How long will I endure you?” 

 Somehow Christ was highlighting the need for faith for the disciples to be able to drive the spirit out. “Everything is possible to one who has faith,” he said. And then he asked the father of the boy if he too had faith that the spirit can be driven out. 

 That’s when the father said the famous words: “I do believe, help my unbelief!” He somehow captured the usual condition we have in relation to our faith. We like to profess that we have faith, but we also know that our faith is oftentimes wavering. 

 When Christ finally drove out the spirit from the boy, the disciples asked why they could not do it. That’s when Christ made it clear that “this kind can only come out through prayer.” 

 Somehow from this episode we can make the following conclusion: for us to share in the very power of God, especially when we are faced with extraordinary challenges and problems, we need to have a strong faith. And for that faith to be a working faith, it has to be sustained always through prayer. 

 In other words, to live our life with God and share in everything that he has as we are meant to be, we need pray to keep our faith going. Prayer should be a constant activity for us. It should be like the very beating of our heart. 

 We have to realize more deeply that it is a basic need of ours to pray. If we understand our life to be a life always with God, as our Christian faith tells us, then we need to pray always. 

 Prayer is actually more important and necessary than the air we breathe, the food we eat or the water we drink. We should do everything to learn to pray always. On this, St. Paul clearly said, “Pray without ceasing.” (1 Thes 5,17) 

 In fact, in that Pauline passage, what went before and after it are very interesting. St. Paul says that we have to rejoice always and be thankful in all circumstances because that is the will of God for us. (cfr 1 Thes 5,16.18) 

 We have to find ways of how to conform ourselves to this clear indication of St. Paul. We have to learn how to pray always, converting everything in our life, including those that we consider as negative or bad elements, into an occasion, a means, a reason for praying. 

 We need to go beyond that common understanding of prayer that pegs it only to the recitation of some vocal prayers or to spending time in some special places to do meditation or contemplation. While these forms of prayer are important and, in fact, are indispensable, they do not have the exclusive ownership, so to speak, of the ways of praying.

The mark of Christian perfection

“IF one strikes thee on thy right cheek, turn to him also the other: and if a man will contend with thee in judgment, and take away thy coat, let go thy cloak also unto him. And whosoever will force thee one mile, go with him other two.” (Mt 5,39-41) 

 Scary words, no doubt. They surely run counter to what we may consider as common sense. But that is what Christ told his disciples and is also telling us now and always. To top it all, he also said: “Love your enemies: do good to them that hate you: and pray for them that persecute and calumniate you.” (Mt 5,44) Oh no! We mostly likely would react. 

 But Christ was also quick to reassure his disciples, and us, that if we manage—with God’s grace, of course—to follow by this divine advice, we would truly be the children of God “who makes his sun to rise upon the good and bad, and rains upon the just and the unjust.” (Mt 5,45) 

 And he concluded this particular episode by telling his disciples: “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect,” (Mt 5,48) somehow telling us that abiding by this teaching is the mark of Christian perfection. 

 This is obviously a very intriguing part of our Christian faith. Not only should we love our enemies, as Christ taught us, but we also need to drown evil with an abundance of good. This was specifically articulated by St. Paul in his Letter to the Romans where he said: 

 “Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ says the Lord. On the contrary: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” (Rom 12,17-20) 

 We have to try our best to erase whatever disbelief, doubt or skepticism we can have as we consider this teaching, since most likely, our first and spontaneous reaction to it would precisely be those conditions. We can ask, even if done only interiorly, “Is Christ really serious about this? Can this thing that Christ and St. Paul are telling us, possible, doable?” 

 When these reactions come to us, it is time to remind ourselves that we just have to follow our faith that definitely contains a lot of mysteries and things supernatural that we are not expected to understand fully. Like Our Lady and all the saints, we should just believe and do what we are told because it is Christ who said so, and because it is the Church that teaches us so. 

 That’s what faith is all about. By believing first, then we can start to understand things that are hard to explain in human terms. We should not waste time trying to understand everything at once or at the beginning. Let’s be game enough to go through some kind of adventure that, no matter how the outcome would be, we know that God is in control of everything. 

 In the meantime, guided by our faith, let’s begin to develop the appropriate attitudes, practices, habits and virtues. We have to learn the intricacies of charity, like being patient, magnanimous, compassionate and understanding, merciful, always friendly with everyone even if not everyone is friendly with us. We should be willing to suffer for the others and to bear their burdens.

The need for self-denial and the cross

“WHOEVER wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” (Mk 8,34) 

 For sure, everytime we read these words, our Pavlovian reaction would be to be filled with dread. Who likes to deny himself, who likes to take up the cross, we would ask, if not openly, then tacitly. But Christ could not be more clear as to what would comprise as the formula to enable us to follow him, the pattern of our humanity and the savior of our damaged humanity. 

 He even put more forcefulness to these words when he said: “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the Gospel will save it. What profit is there for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? What could one give in exchange for his life?” (Mk 8,35-37) 

 As is always the case in our relation with God and with religion in general, we need to have faith to be able to see the wisdom of this divine indication. Without faith, which by the way God gives us in abundance, there is no way we can follow this piece of divine advice which Christ tells us quite strongly. 

 To be sure, the self-denial asked by Christ is not of the kind that leads us to our self-annihilation. Far from it. It will rather lead us to our self-fulfillment. It is asking that instead of our own selves, we should have Christ as the center of our attention always, the very core and substance of our consciousness. He is actually everything to us! 

 In a sense, we have to learn to empty ourselves so we can be filled with the spirit of Christ, and turn our life into a life with Christ always. We have to be wary of our strong tendency to think that our life is just our own. We would be annulling a most basic truth about ourselves when we think that way. Our life is meant to be a life with Christ, with God. 

 Yes, our earthly life can be described as a matter of emptying and filling. That is, emptying of our own selves, our own egos, so we can be filled with God, with love, which is what is proper to us. 

 In whatever we do, let’s see to it that this business of emptying and filling is the underlying law and principle that is being followed. Failing in that can only mean failing in our ultimate purpose in life, no matter how successful we may appear to be in our work or social, business and political life, and in the other aspects of life. 

 We need to adapt and develop the relevant attitude and skills so we can turn this ideal into a working lifestyle. With Christ, we would know how to use our powers and faculties properly. We would have a clear idea of the real and ultimate purpose of our life here on earth. With him, we somehow would know how to cope with all the possible situations we can have here, including our problems, mistakes and failures. 

 The self-denial asked by Christ does not remove our involvement and engagement in our earthly and temporal affairs. It simply puts them in the right context and the right direction. We cannot deny that especially these days, we are exposed to many and complicated distracting elements which we have to learn to handle. 

 The self-denial asked by Christ frees us from unnecessary baggage. It improves our vision and understanding of things, and predisposes our heart to the real love which can only be a sharing in God’s love and, therefore, our true fulfillment.

The redeeming value of our suffering and death

WE need to appreciate better the unavoidable condition of our life here on earth that will always involve some suffering in one form or another, and eventually our death. If we would only adapt the mind and attitude of Christ toward human suffering and death, we know that such condition can transform itself from being a curse to being a cure. 

 We are reminded of this wonderful truth of our Christian faith in that episode where Christ already predicted his impending passion and death on the cross, something that even Peter, the head of the apostles who just confessed to Christ to be indeed “the Christ,” began to rebuke Christ. (cfr. Mk 8,27-33) 

 Rather than rot in our pains and lamentations due to this fact of life, what we should do is to quickly unite our pains and sorrows and all the negative things in our life with the suffering and death of Christ that would surely lead us to his and our resurrection. 

 Of course, doing so would inevitably involve asking for forgiveness for whatever guilt we may have in those things that cause us pain, sorrow and death. And if we think that we are not guilty of any wrongdoing and yet are made to suffer, then what we have is a golden opportunity to be truly identified with Christ who was and is sinless and just bore all our sins and its consequences if only to redeem us. 

 Thus, if we truly follow Christ, then like him, we should not only expect suffering and death but also welcome them. That’s because in the first place we cannot avoid suffering and death in this life, no matter how much we try. But more importantly, if we have the same attitude Christ had toward his suffering and death, we know that our own would have a positive and redemptive value. 

 This is what Christian suffering and death is all about. It is a consequence of all our sins but is now converted into a means of our salvation, that is, if we suffer and die with Christ. 

 We need to understand well this basic truth of our faith so that we can avoid suffering unduly or suffering more than we ought. In other words, this truth of our faith enables us to suffer and die properly. 

 We all need to be reminded that all our suffering has a positive and favorable aspect. It’s not all entirely bad and negative, though in itself it will always be bad. But if viewed and lived through our Christian faith, that is, with Christ, there is something in it that can give us a greater good. 

 Thus, we should never suffer alone. We have to remind everyone that when we suffer, we should see to it that we avoid suffering by our own lonesome. That would make our suffering, whatever may be its cause, whether it is self-inflicted or caused by others, a useless and purely negative event. 

 We have to remember that there is no human suffering that Christ is not willing to make also as his own. And he does it because he loves us, he wants to save us, he wants to bring us back to him. 

 Christ loves us even if, according to our human standards, we do not deserve to be loved. Let’s never forget that because of this love, he, being God, emptied himself to become man, and still went further by assuming all our sins by going through his passion and death on the cross and by his resurrection!

Gradual ways of God

IT’S interesting to note that while most miracles performed by Christ had instant effects, there was at least one miracle that took time and stages before the final effect took place. 

 This was when a blind man was brought to him, begging for a cure. (cfr. Mk 8,22-26) As the gospel narrates, Christ brought him first outside the village. And then he started to put spittle on the eyes, which enabled the blind man to see people like trees. And when Christ applied spittle a second time on the eyes, that was when the blind could see people and things clearly. 

 Obviously, the blind man who could now see was beside himself with delight. He must have been eager to broadcast the wonderful cure he just received. But Christ told him to keep quiet and to just go home, telling him not to go even to the village. 

 Somehow this gospel episode that God’s ways can take time and requires some stages. There are good reasons for that. It also reminds us that, like Christ, we have to learn how to be discreet and to pass unnoticed while doing something good to others. This is to reassure the purity of our intentions. 

 God’s ways can take time and can involve certain stages because the Christian ideals are eminently spiritual and supernatural in nature, although adapted, of course, to our human condition. As such, they usually are above our head, and cannot be attained simply using our natural powers. We need God’s grace which would take time and effort for us to correspond properly to it. 

 And that’s because in corresponding to God’s grace, we have to learn, for example, how to materialize the spiritual, how to put in the proper context the supernatural ways of God and messages of the gospel, etc. God’s gradual but supernatural ways are also in consideration of our human condition that requires us to correspond to God’s interventions in our life in our human and natural ways. 

 It is also a way of seeing to it that our intentions are pure when we receive his blessings, favors and miracles. That gospel episode of the blind man cured by Christ is teaching us that if we want to be truly Christian, we have to do a lot of good, with God’s help and our all-out effort, doing it without attracting unnecessary attention. It can only show how our intentions are pure, that is to say, that what we do is simply to give glory to God from whom all good things come, and not to ourselves. 

 Why did Christ cure the blind man gradually? I believe the answer lies in the fact that Christ wants to be known both as God and man, and as our Redeemer, not out of idle curiosity or for merely practical purposes, but really out of faith. We have to be wary of our all-too-human way of reacting to God’s favors for us. It usually tempts us to have an ego-trip. 

 And that is because 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!

The true leaven

“WATCH out, guard against the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.” (Mk 8,15) At first, the disciples of Christ thought Christ was referring to the fact that they only brought one loaf of bread. 

 So, Christ had to clarify it to them until they understood he was referring to the teachings and doctrine of the Pharisees and of Herod that, while containing some truth, did not capture the whole truth and, in fact, distorted the reality of things as designed by God, the Creator and the ever-provident Father of all. 

 We need to see to it that while we always have some use of some human teachings—like the many ideologies, philosophies, theologies, economic theories, etc.—we should rely first of all and always on our Christian faith that is now spelled out more concretely in the teachings of the Church. 

 It’s the word of God as revealed and embodied by Christ himself, and now taught by the Church with the authority given by Christ himself. To be sure, this teaching of Christ is the true leaven which is not simply a set of theories and indications, but also and mainly a spirit that was embodied by Christ himself and that he himself shares with us abundantly, if we only care to receive it. 

 This true leaven is nothing less than living our life entirely with Christ who is the pattern of our humanity, the savior of our humanity that is damaged by sin. It knows how to deal properly with any situation we can find ourselves in, whether good or bad according to our human criteria. 

 This true leaven is the very spirit of Christ. We have to realize that wherever we are, whatever we are doing, whatever may be our status, we have the duty to infuse this Christian spirit to everything that we handle. We have to be a leaven for the world. 

 Christ himself said so in no uncertain terms: “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three pecks of flour until it was all leavened.” (Mt 13,33) Yes, the kingdom of heaven already starts here and should be on its way to its definitive state through our leavening presence and action. 

 We just have to make sure that we make ourselves genuine Christian leaven. That’s because Christ himself warned us of some false leaven. “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod," he said. (Mk 8,15) This false leaven can refer to things like hypocrisy, self-righteousness, or any worldly spirit that is not from God. 

 This duty to be a true leaven for the world is actually very doable, because what is needed first of all is the intention to do so. We may not be doing something with big public significance or some external manifestation, but with the little ordinary things that we do everyday and done with faith and love for God and for others, we can already effectively leaven the world. 

 Let us sharpen our sense of communion among ourselves. Whatever we do, big or small, good or bad, will always have some effect on everybody else and on everything. It’s because of this communion among ourselves that can give a leavening effect on anything that we think, desire, say and do. 

 We should try our best that the leaven we give to the world is the right and true one, and not the false and deceptive ones that, sad to say, seem to be proliferating in the world today.

The truth about Christ

THE Pharisees argued with Christ asking him for a sign from heaven to test him. So, Christ got exasperated and said: “Why does this generation seek a sign? Amen, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation.” Then he left. (cfr. Mk 8,11-13) 

 This gospel episode reminds us that we should never dare to test God. We have to believe God first if we want to know the truth about anything and everything, especially about God, about Christ, and about us. 

 Human as he also was and is, Christ could also feel exasperated when he was questioned about something the proof and evidence of which are all over. He performed miracles, his teaching was very sublime, he showed compassion with everyone, mercy with sinners. 

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

 It’s always a question of faith if we want to know the truth about God, ourselves and everything else. Without faith, we would just be inventing things. Even if we what we think and invent can appear convincing, without faith we will always miss the truth of anything we consider. 

 Let’s remember that faith is God, who is truth himself, the creator of everything, the first and last lawgiver, sharing what he knows with us. It’s a tremendous gift that would set us on the right path on the many confusing ways of the world. 

 We cannot deny that we often get entangled with our worldly ways. This is the real problem of inflation that many people today complain about, but limiting it to its economic terms only. That’s when people complain about high prices and cost of production, because of some increase of money of supply that is not properly spread out and shared by the people, or without the corresponding productivity that money supply is supposed to generate. 

 Inflation in common terms can be described as that phenomenon where there is a lot of hot air in some persons or in some situation without the corresponding substance that such air should come as an effect. 

 In terms of our spiritual life and our relation of God, there can also be some kind of inflation—the real and ultimate inflation, in fact—when precisely things are done without faith and, thus, we can appear to be making and producing a lot of things and yet miss the real goal of our life. Christ articulated this phenomenon when he said: “What does it a profit a man if he gains the whole world, but loses his own soul?” (Mk 8,36) 

 We should take care of our faith because that is the first means we have to establish our relation with God and to truly get in touch with the true reality of things, not just the reality of our own making. 

 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 the simply material, temporal and the natural. It lets us enter into the spiritual and supernatural world to which we are poised.

Charity and our human laws

WHEN Christ told the crowd that their righteousness should surpass that of the scribes and Pharisees if they want to enter the kingdom of heaven, (cfr. Mt 5,17-37) he is actually telling us that we should be wary of our tendency to make and observe our laws that are based only on some human criteria. 

 “You have heard that it was said to your ancestors, ‘You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment,’” he said. “But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment, and whoever says to brother “Raqa,’ will be answerable to the Sanhedrin, and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ will be liable to fiery Gehenna…” 

 While we will always have to use some human criteria in making and observing our laws, we should also see to it that it is charity, the charity that comes from God, that should always be the animating spirit when we make laws and especially when we apply and observe them. 

 And that’s because it is this charity that treats us in the most proper and wholistic way. It knows how to deal with any situation, condition and circumstance in our life, whether considered good or bad, humanly speaking. Charity knows how to blend justice with mercy, truth with compassion and patience. 

 That is why, Christ gave us as the new commandment that perfects all the other commandments. And that is that we should love one another as he himself has loved us. (cfr. Jn 13,34) And he loved us all the way by offering his life on the cross, as a way of bearing all our sins so that our salvation can be attained. He even offered forgiveness to those who crucified him. 

 That is the kind of charity that we should also live and give to one another. It does not do away with justice. Rather it purifies and perfects our justice, ridding it of its mainly retributive and punitive character, and always promoting its distributive, procedural and restorative character. 

 It is with this kind of charity that often may ask us to go beyond but not against our human laws. That’s because our human laws cannot fully capture all the conditions of human life. Neither can they fully fathom the ultimate identity and dignity of man. That’s why in the end we have to defer everything to God. It’s he who makes the last and final judgment. 

 This definitely is not easy to do. But we can always try. The important thing is that we are aware of the need for charity as we make and observe our human laws. Our laws should be continually updated and refined, so that they channel more and more the charity that comes from God. Especially during these times when rapid developments are occurring, there is a great need for our human laws to reflect more the charity of God. 

 Thus, in making and observing our laws, we cannot and should not ignore the necessity to refer ourselves and our laws to God. We should not just depend on some ideologies and philosophies, on traditional juridical systems, etc. While they will always have something valid to contribute, they will always need the living spirit of God’s charity to animate them. 

 It is this charity, as St. Paul said, that delights not in evil but rather rejoices with the truth. “It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” (1 Cor 13,6)

Doing things well

“HE has done all things well. He makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.” (Mk 7,37) 

 We may not be able to make the deaf hear and the mute speak, but we should try our best that we can also gain the same reputation as that of Christ. We should be known for doing whatever we have to do, well. 

 Obviously, the motive should never be one of pride or vanity, but rather the strong desire to be like Christ as we should. It should be a reputation that obviously would make us happy, but definitely it should make us more humble and eager to serve others, considering that everything that we achieve is actually a gift from God. 

 We have to understand that our work, whatever it is, whether it is high or low, is our usual way to give praise and glory to God. It is actually our way of cooperating in the abiding providence of God. We should not underestimate the value of our work. It can and should be our path to heaven. It should be done well. 

 That is why we should see to it first of all that our work is what God wants us to do. Our attitude toward our work should not be conditioned mainly, much less, solely, by the fact we like a particular kind of work or that we have the aptitude toward it, or the relevant qualities and skills for it. While these factors matter, they should not be the main criterion. Such attitude can only confine us to our own interest. 

 What should guide us is what God and the others want and need from us, and how they want to be served. This attitude should determine the kind of work we do and the way we do it, and would bring us to tackle the objective requirements of the common good. 

 Having determined that, we should love our work, doing it as best that we can. And this can mean that we carry it out very conscientiously, “squeezing” each hour for all it is worth. We should work in such a way that we would always be short of time for finishing what we would like to do. 

 It can also mean that we look very carefully after the details in finishing well our daily work. We should lovingly exert the necessary effort for it and embrace the sacrifices involved—that is, the setbacks, the difficulties, the tiredness and fatigue, etc. 

 These are normal occurrences in our daily work that we should not anymore be surprised about. We just have to be prepared for them, since they are occasions to grow in our love for God and others. In short, in our holiness. 

 We should work in such a way that we can say that we bring them to the end. Our work should make us feel good as we go to bed. There should be peace and joy, the sensation that despite the drama of life, things are resolved somehow. We should feel the sensation that we have arrived home somehow, a sense of reaching our final goal. 

 This can only happen if ending the day well is associated with reconciling ourselves with God regardless of how things in our life are at the end of the day. With God, everything is taken care of. 

 That’s when we can truly say that we have done all things well!

God can test our faith

WE should not be surprised by this phenomenon. Rather, we should welcome such eventuality, for it can only produce a greater good in us. We are reminded of this fact of life in that gospel episode where a Syrophoenician woman begged Christ to drive the demon away from her daughter. (cfr. Mk 7,24-30) 

 At first, Christ refused the importuning of the poor woman, giving her a response that was a bit insulting. “Let the children be fed first,” he said. “For it is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.” 

 But the woman persisted, even making a reasoning that left Christ very impressed. “Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s scraps,” she replied. With those words, we can say that Christ could not help but do what the woman asked. And the daughter was healed. 

 We have to be ready when we receive such tests of our faith from God. Like that woman, we should just persist, for God cannot stay long in being indifferent to our needs. He always listens and comes to our aid. 

 For this, we need to develop a certain toughness in our faith and piety. We should avoid being oversensitive to what we may perceive as God’s indifference to our needs. We have to follow the toughness not only of that woman but also and most especially of Christ himself, who gave himself entirely by dying on the cross if only to save us. 

 We need to train ourselves in this kind of toughness that would enable us to take on anything in our life. What we have to avoid is the phenomenon now described in the British slang of the word “snowflake.” As described by some people, a snowflake “is a term used to describe an overly sensitive person who thinks the world revolves around them.” 

 Such person “gasps in horror when he hears an opinion he does not like, and believes he has a right to be protected from anything unpalatable.” He is “self-obsessed and fragile, easily offended, or unable to deal with opposing opinions.” 

 When we truly follow Christ, we take the initiative to approach and be friendly with everybody, regardless of who or how they are. We would not be easily scandalized by whatever defects, failures, offenses or sins others may have. In fact, these conditions would draw our attention and affection for them more. 

 In other words, we do not wait for other people to show some signs that they deserve to be loved or cared for by us. Our constant attitude is to love everyone automatically, showing keen interest in everyone and eagerness to help in any way. 

 This does not mean that we do away with the difference between good and evil, truth and falsehood, what is moral and immoral. We should not condone evil, but we have to learn how to deal with evil in all its forms in a charitable way. 

 Evil is defanged by goodness, not by another evil, as in going into hatred, anger, revenge, indifference, etc. Whatever malice there is can always be overcome by the goodness of God’s mercy as shown by Christ who asked for forgiveness even for those who crucified him. 

 God’s mercy will always have the last word. As St. Paul said, “Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.” (Rom 5,20) Obviously to overcome evil with goodness will always involve suffering, for which we have to ready. That is why we need to be tough. 

 We have to teach our heart not to be easily overtaken by anger and other bad emotions and passions. Let us teach it how to be tough with the toughness of Christ’s love and mercy.

Setting our heart right

HOW important to really set our heart right! And that’s because the heart in the end is where the true condition of our life can be found. Are we good or not so good? Are we properly focused or are we already going astray? These questions can be answered if we know the real condition of our heart. 

 We can base these assertions on what Christ said about our heart. For example, he said, “But what comes out of the man, that is what defiles him. From within the man, from his HEART, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. All these evils come from within and they defile.” (Mk 7,20-23) 

 Reiterating the same idea, he also said: “A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.” (Lk 6,45) 

 We should never forget that the heart is not self-generated. It is a creature, a creature of God who wants it to be like his, his image and likeness. It is meant to be vitally united with God who is its very life, its very power and all. Without God, the heart at least malfunctions, if not dies. 

 We have to see to it that our heart is anchored on God through Christ in the Holy Spirit. He is the very source of our being, of our life. We are meant to be with him, though we can choose to stray from him due to the misuse of our freedom. That is why God always begs us, “My child, give me your heart, and let your eyes delight in my ways.” (Prov 23,26) 

 Everyday, we have to see to it that indeed our heart is anchored on God. We should never let it float in any which way. We have to see to it that our heart increasingly gets united to God until it is fully identified with him. 

 We need to conquer our heart to channel the very heart of Christ who is the pattern of our humanity. How important therefore that we learn to engage the heart with the right treasure, the ultimately genuine one, the one that lasts forever, and not the many pseudo-treasures that the world offers. 

 This, of course, requires some effort, and even gargantuan effort, because the human heart is actually very difficult to read, let alone manage. It can be tricky and very slippery to handle. St. Augustine’s words can come in handy here: 

 “Man is a great deep, Lord.” he said. “You number his very hairs and they are not lost in your sight. But the hairs of his head are easier to number than his affections and the movements of his heart.” 

 How true! One of the big challenges of our life is to know how to read our heart, that is to say, to know who and how we really are at every step of our life. Oftentimes, our self-knowledge is far off the mark. We are usually affected by all kinds of conditionings, such that our self-knowledge is more subjective than objective. 

 Obviously to get a handle on our heart, we need to go to God. Our human estimations can never be enough. They can even be dangerous, since they are often very limited and, worse, biased. We have to be wary of the powerful pull these worldly and human estimations can exert on us.

Beware of pharisaism

“YOU nullify the word of God in favor of your tradition that you have handed on. And you do many such things.” (Mk 7,13) 

 This is a serious accusation Christ made against the Pharisees who always found fault in Christ and in his disciples for not following scrupulously certain human protocols that were considered of absolute value. These words are found in the gospel reading of Tuesday of the 5th Week in Ordinary Time that for this year falls on February 7. 

 That is why Christ warned his disciples to be wary of what he termed as the “leaven of the Pharisees and the Saducees.” (cfr. Mt 16,12) It refers to teachings that pervert the truth with subtle lies, a phenomenon that is also common these days. 

 These are teachings that arise from a certain kind of spiritual pride and self-righteousness, and are often expressed in rigid rules and protocols, in a too literal an interpretation of certain laws that contradict the spirit behind those laws, and that often give rise to hypocrisy. 

 At one point, Christ accused these religious leaders then of being blind guides who “strain out a gnat and yet swallow a camel.” (Mt 23,24) They got punctiliously focused on little details while ignoring the over-all picture of things. 

 Thus, Christ likened them to white-washed tombs that look beautiful on the outside but are full of bones and unclean things inside. He accused them for being hypocrites that meticulously clean the cup and dish and yet are full of greed and self-indulgence. (cfr. Mt 23, 25-27) 

 It was because of this reality about the Pharisees that Christ told his disciples: “Practice and obey whatever they tell you, but do not follow their example. For they do not practice what they teach.” (Mt 23,3) 

 Pharisaism, as the dictionary puts it, refers to the doctrines and practices of many of the Pharisees during the time of Christ. They were almost invincibly convinced they were always right, basing that conviction simply on their traditions and their own interpretations of God’s laws. 

 When Christ finally came, they could not believe he was the Messiah since Christ did not jibe with their expectations as based on their own estimation of things. In fact, they were suspicious of him, always finding fault in him and finally managed to crucify him. 

 To be sure, not all Pharisees were like that. We can cite the example of Nicodemus who went to see Christ by night to ask for some clarifications and who helped bury Christ’s body. There must have been others like Nicodemus. 

 And so, we have to refrain from making blanket accusations against all Pharisees. By pharisaism, we simply refer to certain portions of the Pharisees who had the wrong attitude toward Christ and the things of God. 

 Their error was in their too literal interpretation of the religious and moral laws without due regard to the spirit of the laws. Such interpretation led them unavoidably to fall into hypocrisy, since the reality even of their own lives cannot cope with the very restrictive view of what they considered as right and wrong, good and evil. 

 It’s unfortunate that the Pharisees of old have their modern version these days. They are usually commentators on religious and Church issues, whose main business seems to be in questioning Church doctrine, unearthing Church scandals and exposing them to the whole world, and not much else. 

 Of course, it’s good that these issues are aired out not only to inform the people about them but also and more importantly, to help find the proper answer and solutions for them. But that does not seem to be the case.

Doing good attracts more customers

THIS is, of course, a common phenomenon. When we do good, we will attract more customers and favor-seekers. When we give some favors to some people, there is always a tendency that more people will come begging for the same favors. We need to be prepared to complicate our life. 

 This was classically illustrated in that gospel episode where Christ went to Gennesaret, and once the people recognized him, they immediately brought their sick, begging Christ to heal them. (cfr. Mk 6,53-56) The people must already have heard of the many miracles Christ performed, and so they pursued him wherever he went. 

 It’s always good to do good as much as we can. We just have to make sure that we also do it with a certain prudence, otherwise we might be spoiling people and end ourselves bankrupt, reduced to a miserable state that would need help from others. 

 Doing good with prudence is compatible with giving ourselves to others wholeheartedly. True prudence does not undermine charity. It would make sure that charity will go all the way. It helps sustain charity to the end. 

 We can only persevere in doing good with prudence when everything that we do in charity is done always with Christ in mind and in our heart. We should follow his example. Yes, he was compassionate with everyone, but he also saw to it that he had time to separate himself from the crowd in order to pray and to have some intimate time with the apostles and disciples, teaching them things and clarifying certain issues. He also refused to stay too long in a place in order to go to other places. 

 Let’s make sure that our prudence is not a mask for getting attached to the things of this world. Christ wants us to be detached completely from the things of this world, but such detachment is not so much a matter of how much we have or do not have in possession as of a spiritual detachment from the things of this world. 

 We can be a millionaire or a billionaire and still be detached from the things of this world. We should not be afraid to be rich in material things as long as we are detached from them, showing such detachment by being completely generous to the needs of the others and in giving glory to God in the end. 

 This will require a certain discipline, of course, given the obvious fact that we have the tendency to get attached to the things of this world. In this regard, we should clearly etch in our mind and heart the words of Christ who said that if we want to follow him, we should deny ourselves and carry the cross. (cfr. Mt 16,24) These are clear signs of detachment. 

 Everyday, let us examine our conscience to see if our charity which should go all the way is also done with prudence. It’s a tricky combination to make. Thus, we truly need to study things well and to pray hard, asking for grace and light from God so we can be properly guided. 

 There will always be difficult decisions to make, but as long as we make those decisions in God’s presence, everything will always work out for the good, even if in the short run, some mistakes or miscalculations may be committed. 

 We should also be ready for this possibility, and assume the Christian spirit of sportsmanship, where we can continue to move on, ever hopeful and cheerful, despite certain mistakes and defeats along the way.

Be a good influencer

WHEN Christ told his disciples to be the salt and light of the earth (cfr. Mt 5,13-16), we too should feel addressed by such divine command and make ourselves good influencers in a world that is increasingly wracked by confusion and error despite the apparent lights it seems to enjoy due to the powerful developments in the sciences and technologies today. 

 We can readily conclude from that gospel that what Christ wants is for us to provide Christian flavor in a world that is fast evolving, as well as help in preserving the true Christian spirit in a world that is so exposed to a lot of changes, many of them with their luggage of dangers even as they also offer a lot of benefits. 

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

 This means that we have to see to it that we inspire others properly. And by that, we mean that the spirit we ‘breathe into’ the others by our mere presence or by our words and deeds, should be the spirit of God. 

 In other words, to inspire is to infuse the spirit proper to us, the spirit that gives us life and that animates our thoughts, desires, words and actions. And that spirit is ultimately nothing other than the spirit of God who is our Creator and Father, in whose image and likeness we have been created. We need to correspond to that spirit of God. 

 It’s, of course, good and indispensable that we enjoy our human right of free speech and expression, but we should also give due consideration to the serious duty of exercising that right with a deep sense of responsibility. We should avoid the practice of simply making off-the-cuff comments and shooting from the hip, pure gossiping, backbiting and idle talk, etc. 

 Especially in the world of public opinion, we should try our best that our views are properly studied and expressed. We should express our opinions, despite contrary positions from others, in a way that would at least leave people enlightened and edified. This can always be done if we truly live by our Christian standards where truth, charity, mercy, fairness, patience and courtesy are always upheld. 

 We may disagree with others in their views and opinions, but we should avoid being disagreeable. Even in matters of faith and belief, when we feel that a party is clearly in error, we should not feel as if we are entitled to be rude to him. In fact, he should be treated with utmost delicacy. 

 What is helpful in this regard is to see to it that we do everything always in the presence of God. We should be wary when we would only be guided and driven by our own emotions and passions, if not by our own biases and prejudices. It would be good to know where everybody is coming from in order to facilitate understanding and a meaningful exchange of views. 

 Let’s always remember that in matters of opinion, we cannot make ours the only right or fair one. We have to respect the opinions of others, even if we do not quite agree with them. In fact, the greater the variety of opinions expressed, the better for all of us, since more things would be put into consideration.

From curse to cure

THAT very inhuman martyrdom of St. John the Baptist, beheaded just as a reward to a dancing girl, (cfr. Mk 6,14-29) clearly tells us that martyrdom caused by a most crazy reason is a possibility in our life. We should be ready to suffer and die, knowing how to derive something good from evil and how to turn a curse into a cure. 

 And the secret again is to suffer and die with Christ. 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. 

 We have to be ready for these situations, and these verses from St. Peter’s first letter spell out for us how to be so. They are in the second chapter, and they go as follows (19-25): 

 “For one is approved if, mindful of God, he endures pain while suffering unjustly. For what credit is it, if when you do wrong and are beaten for it you take it patiently? But if when you do right and suffer for it you take it patiently, you have God’s approval. 

 “For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. He committed no sin. No guile was found on his lips. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return. When he suffered, he did not threaten, but he trusted him who judges justly. 

 “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls.” 

 I believe it’s truly worthwhile to reflect on these words slowly and repeatedly, so we can have clear ideas why it’s also worthwhile when instances of unjust suffering and death come to us. We can find meaning, and even joy and peace, when these occasions occur. 

 A person who is truly a man of God would have no enemies, because everyone would be an object of his love. He prefers to suffer when mistreated, and that suffering becomes the very expression of his love. It’s a love that goes above the standards and criteria of human justice. 

It’s a love that is pegged on a higher plane, the supernatural plane of God’s boundless love. It’s a love that as St. Paul would put it: “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” (1 Cor 13,7)

The Feast of the Presentation of the Lord

FEBRUARY 2 is the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord. It commemorates that time when Mary and Joseph simply followed the law of the time to present the first-born to God for his consecration. (cfr. Lk 2,22-32) 

 There was actually no need for them to fulfill that law, since Christ does not need consecration, but they simply followed the law and custom of the time, a lesson for us not to feel privileged despite the privileges that we may have. 

 In the gospel reading of the feast, we are also told about Simeon, a righteous and devout man who was promised by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death until he sees Christ. That’s when we have these famous words of his, “Now, Master, you may let your servant go in peace, according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you prepared in the sight of all the peoples…” (Lk 2,29-31) 

 Somehow, this feast reminds us that like Simeon we should always be looking for Christ, and we should not rest until we find him. If we go by our Christian faith, we know that we are assured of finding Christ, as long as we look for him. 

 We have to realize that this business of looking for Christ always is a grave duty of ours. Somehow, everything in our life depends on this duty, because Christ is actually everything for us. We are meant to be fully identified with him. That’s how we can attain the fullness of our humanity. 

 As Christ himself said, he is “the way, the truth and the life” for us. (cfr. Jn 14,6) We would not be consistent with our humanity if we are not with Christ. With Christ, we would have all the answers to all our questions, the solutions to all our problems, including those that cannot be solved humanly anymore. 

 When we constantly look for Christ, we would be men and women of sound judgment. We would know how to handle our weaknesses, temptations, failures, and sins and all the negative things in our life, as well as our victories and successes which can spoil us if not lived with him. 

 With him, we can manage to find joy and peace in any situation. We can find meaning and redemptive value to any situation in our life, and everything will work out for the good. (cfr. Rom 8,28) There will be a certain lightness of heart despite the burdens we may be bearing. In the end, we can fulfill the most important duty of our life, which is to give glory to God. 

 We should do our best in training ourselves to make it a constant habit to look for Christ always. We have to be wary of the many elements nowadays that would undermine such duty. We are bombarded with many distractions which are very powerful and attractive. We have to learn how to deal with this condition in our life, taking care of our intentions. 

 In this regard, it is helpful to make a number of pit stops during the day so we can establish, recover and maintain our proper spiritual and supernatural bearing. Let’s remember that we are notorious for being negligent of our duties, and for falling into the million ways of self-indulgence. 

 A person who looks for Christ always actually exudes a certain aura of holiness around him.