The value of the little things in life

THE parables Christ told his disciples that compared the Kingdom of heaven with a mustard seed and a pinch of yeast (cfr. Mt 13,31-35) obviously are meant to tell us that, yes, heaven and everything related to it can and should be found in the little and ordinary things in life which we tend to regard as insignificant. We can already have a taste of heaven while here on earth as long as we take care of the little things. 

 Those parables are like some breaking news meant to jolt us from our tendency to disparage these little things. As Christ said, he used parables to “announce what has lain hidden from the foundation of the world.” In other words, that the little and ordinary things in our life have great value, and have been willed by God since the beginning. 

 We should then try to make the necessary changes in attitude and understanding regarding the little things. We have to realize that it is in them where true knowledge and love of God is developed and maintained. 

 When we fail to see, know and love God in the little things, it is very likely that we also will fail to see, know and love God in the big things of our life. Let’s keep in mind what Christ said in this regard: “One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much.” (Lk 16,10) 

 In short, the point we should realize more deeply is that sanctity, our ticket to heaven, certainly requires heroism, even to the point of martyrdom. But we can be sure that by being consistently loving in doing the little things of life, especially when they are hidden and unappreciated humanly, we would already be very heroic indeed, even approaching the level of martyrdom. 

 What we have to do is to learn to find Christ in the little things which comprise most of our day, if not of our whole life. Another way of saying it is to learn to refer everything to Christ, no matter how little or insignificant it is. 

 We should always be with Christ at every moment of our day, offering things to him, asking him questions like, “Lord, how should I deal with this particular situation, be it an exciting work, a boring and tiring moment, etc.?” 

 We should never dare to do things simply on our own. Especially when we find ourselves in difficulties, in a quandary, in moments of temptation, etc., we have to go to Christ as quickly as possible and cling to him as tightly as possible. 

 And we should never forget to thank him all the time, for such gesture connects us with him in an abiding way. When we are with Christ especially in the little things of our day, how can we doubt about having heaven in us while still here on earth? 

 We therefore have to learn to find Christ in everything, doing so not in some generic, theoretical way, but in a specific, practical way, one that is abiding and active. This, of course, is a great challenge to all of us, but if we believe in this truth and we try to conform ourselves to it and to persevere in it, for sure we can achieve a certain degree of success.

Nothing should compete with God

RATHER, everything should support, enhance, reinforce our relation with God. This is what we are reminded of in that gospel which talks about the parables of the hidden treasure and the pearl of great price. (cfr. Mt 13,44-46) 

 These parables find an echo in some words of St. Paul who said: “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as refuse, in order that I may gain Christ…” (Phil 3,8) 

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

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

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

 We need to learn how to find God in everything we do or we see, handle or get involved in. In this, we have to be pro-active. We should not wait for some inspiration to come or some so-called favorable or conducive circumstances to take place. We have to actively look for him or create the occasion. We can always do this, because God himself empowers us to do so. 

 But in finding God in everything, there is a skill that we have to learn to master. And that is we should learn how to leave everything behind so as to be with God. We have to understand very well this particular aspect or requirement of an authentic Christian life. 

 That’s because, most likely, our first impression of it can be misleading. To be sure, to be ready to leave everything behind does not mean that we should have no concern at all about the things of this world. We do have such concern and interest. In fact, we should. 

 But yes, to leave everything behind has been more than amply taught and commanded by Christ himself. For example, to the rich young man who wanted to be perfect, Christ told him in no unclear terms, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” (Mt 19,21) These words obviously would give us the impression that we should possess nothing. 

 In another instance, Christ specifies what is required to be worthy of him. “He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” (Mt 10,37) 

 This does not mean that we should have no concern or interest in the things of this world. We just have to understand that the things of this world are precisely the means, the occasion, the instruments we have to use to show our faith, hope and love for God and for others!

The good ground for God’s word

WHEN Christ explained the parable of the sower and the seed (cfr. Mt 13,18-23), the obvious conclusion that we can make is that we should be the good ground to receive the seed of God’s word so that that seed can grow well and be fruitful. 

 For us to be the good ground for God’s word, we should try to do something about those cases mentioned in the parable where the seed just got wasted. The first case was that of the seed sown merely on the path. It meant that the word of God was not understood well due to lack of study. 

 We obviously are expected to study the word of God well so that we can have some working understanding of it. God’s word obviously contains mysteries and supernatural truths that are beyond our usual human powers to understand. So, in studying God’s word, we should first of all and always be guided by faith more than anything else. 

 Faith is that act of accepting something as true not so much because we fully understand it as because it is told to us by someone whom we trust and believe to be telling us only the truth. It is with this faith that we can start the progressive process of understanding things that are spiritual and supernatural. Faith actually involves us in something like an adventure of new discoveries. 

 In the parable’s second case of how we can fail in properly receiving God’s word, we are told about the seed that was sown on rocky ground. Christ explained that this was the case of the word of God that did not take root because it remained only on the surface. Thus, when some tribulations come, that word would easily lose its effect on us. 

 This second case simply tells us that we should truly internalize God’s word, making it as much as possible as flesh of our flesh, the very soul of our thoughts and desires. That way, whatever happens to us, we would know what to do since God’s word provides us with all the means to tackle whatever situation we may have in life. 

 In the parable’s third case which was about the seed that fell on thorns, we are warned against being unduly affected by the things of this world, both their charms and the anxieties that they may cause. 

 It’s important that for God’s word to have a good effect on us, we should practice a certain healthy detachment from the things of this world even as we immerse ourselves in them, given the fact we have been placed in the world to be tested if through these things of the world, we choose to be with God or simply to be on our own. 

 It’s a very tricky test that we should be prepared to handle properly. To achieve that ideal preparation, we really need to enliven our spiritual life through many practices of piety, a vibrant spirit of sacrifice and detachment, recourse to the sacraments, waging continuing spiritual warfare and development of virtues, availing of a lifelong plan of formation, etc. 

 Only in this way can we aspire to be the good ground for God’s word to be effective in us, producing a lot of fruits of sanctity and apostolate, and effectively leading us to our ultimate goal of being the true image and likeness of God, sharers of no less than his divine life and nature!

Faith should guide our senses and emotions

THIS is what we can learn from Christ who once said: “This is why I speak to them in parables, because they look but do not see and hear but do not listen or understand.” (Mt 13,13) 

 He continued: “Isaiah’s prophecy is fulfilled in them, which says: You shall indeed hear but not understand, you shall indeed look but never see. Gross is the heart of this people, they will hardly hear with their ears, they have closed their eyes, lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their hearts and be converted and I heal them.” (Mt 13,14-15) 

 This “complaint” of Christ echoes the same observation expressed in the Book of Jeremiah where our Lord said, “Declare this in the house of Jacob and proclaim it in Judah: Hear this, O foolish and senseless people, who have eyes but do not see, who have ears but do not hear.” (5,21) 

 The problem, of course, is that the senses are not united or inspired by faith. They are just left on their own, ruled mainly by instincts and other biological factors. Or at best they may be guided only by an intelligence that is not yet enlightened by faith. 

 And things can become so bad that these senses can get quite hostile to anything related to faith that definitely involves spiritual and supernatural realities. We need to realize that the first, last and constant object that our senses should perceive is God since he is the origin of everything, the maintainer of the existence of all things. He is everywhere.   

As St. Augustine once said: “To find where God is may be difficult, but to find where he is not, that is even more difficult.” And to be sure, God’s presence in everything is not something cold and indifferent. It is full of love and solicitude. He is always and actively intervening in our lives. 

 We need to train our senses to be guided by our Christian faith, hope and charity, so we can capture this very consoling reality. They should not just be left on their own, guided and ruled only by factors other than our faith, hope and charity. That state of affairs would lead us nowhere other than trouble. 

 Thus, if we are serious with guiding our senses and emotions with faith, we have to realize that our faith should not just be an intellectual affair, lived and pursued only in the spiritual world of good intentions and right doctrine. It has to involve the basic elements of our humanity, which are our senses, our feelings, our emotions and passions. 

 With respect to our emotions and passions, our Catechism tells us that they are “movements of the sensitive appetite that incline us to act or not to act in regard to something felt or imagined to be good or evil.” (1763) 

 As such, we can say that our senses, emotions and passions play an important and crucial role in our life. And that’s why we have to take pains in forming them well. We just cannot be complacent with this responsibility. We need time, effort and an appropriate plan that would make faith an effective guide to these basic faculties of our humanity. 

 We have to pray, offer sacrifices, avail of the sacraments, have devotion to Our Lady and the saints. Then we truly have to study a lot and go through the process of developing virtues.

God’s word in the digital world

THAT parable about the sower and the seed (cfr. Mt 13,1-9) that somehow encourages us, among other things, to sow God’s word as abundantly as possible should give us the reason to be actively involved in spreading God’s word in the digital world which is now the new Areopagus. 

 We, of course, have to take the necessary precautions, since we all know that things can be very toxic in that field. If we are not careful, we can easily get trapped in its worldly logic and lead us to fall into sheer but destructive self-indulgence. But it should not be for this reason that we should stay away from it. 

 Truth is the digital world is in great need to be humanized and Christianized. As can easily be seen, it is drifting in every which way. And God’s word is an indispensable element in giving it proper direction and sense of purpose. To carry out this duty, we obviously need to be adequately prepared. 

 We need to pray hard and to study the doctrine of our faith so thoroughly that we would know how to proclaim God’s word in ways that can be adapted to different kinds of people—the young and old, the intellectuals and manual workers, etc. As St. Paul once said, we have to learn how to be all things to all men. (cfr. 1 Cor 9,22) 

 This is, of course, a challenging task but it is all worth it. We just have to be spiritually strong so we can tackle the new and tricky demands of this task. For one, we have to know how to be so creative in presenting things as to engage the people in the digital world in an effective way. 

 Thus, we need to be information-and-media literate so we can understand, inquire, create, communicate and think critically. As the Wikipedia describes it, “it is important to effectively access, organize, analyze, evaluate and create messages in a variety of forms.” Let’s try to be techie as much as possible. 

 Wikipedia continues: “Information and media literacy enables people to interpret and make informed judgments as users of information and media, as well as to become skillful creators and producers of information and media messages in their own right.” 

 To be experts in proclaiming God’s word in the digital world, we have to realize that not only should we study it. We should live it as consistently as possible. We should not be hearers on God’s word only. We should be doers of it. (cfr. Rom 2,13) 

 But we have to understand well what the word of God really is. To be sure, God’s word is not just any word. Neither is God’s word just a brilliant idea, a practical doctrine, and effective ideology. It’s not just a strategy, a culture or a lifestyle. 

 God’s word, of course, can involve all these. But unless we understand that God’s word is Christ himself, the second person of the Blessed Trinity, the perfect image and word that the one God has of his own self, we will miss the real essence and character of God’s word. It’s this word that would bring us to the fullness of our humanity. 

 Thus, considering what God’s word is and how we are with respect to God’s word, we can never say enough in proclaiming it. We may appear to be saying the same things, but we can always do that in different ways.

If privileged, never feel entitled

WE are reminded of this aspect of Christian life in that gospel episode where the mother of the apostles, James and John, requested Christ to have her sons sit beside him, one on his right and the other on his left, at the Kingdom. (cfr. Mt 20,20-28) 

 Of course, mothers will always be mothers. They will try to give the best for their children. And so, Christ responded to her delicately that those seats were already reserved for those whom God the Father had chosen. 

 In the meantime, Christ reminded the mother and the two apostles if they were willing to suffer with him, making them understand that heaven can only be reached through the cross. And to the apostles’ credit, they readily responded, “We can!” 

 We have to realize then that any privilege, honor or praise given to us is a call for us to be more generous in our self-giving to such an extent that we would not run away from making the supreme sacrifice of giving our life for God and the others, just like what Christ did. 

 Our attitude should be to sharpen even more our desire to serve and not to be served. Christ made it clear to the mother and the brother-apostles when he said, “The Son of man has not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mt 20,28) 

 Reiterating the same idea, he told them, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. Not so is it among you. On the contrary, whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant. And whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave.” 

 We should never feel entitled. Christ himself was the first one to live by this principle. Being God, he emptied himself to become man and to bear all the sins of men by dying on the cross, all for the purpose of saving mankind. (cfr. Phil 2,7) 

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

 While it’s true that we obviously are entitled to our rights, we should not feel entitled to privileges and favors that are above our rights and needs. If they come and we cannot avoid them, then let’s be thankful. But we should immediately realize that when privileges and favors come our way, we are being called to serve more. 

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

 We need to acquire the mentality of a servant which is actually the mentality of Christ himself. Let us readjust our human standards to conform to what is actually proper to us as taught and lived by Christ. We usually look down on the status of servants. This has to change! We should be convinced that by becoming a servant we would be making ourselves like Christ. Let’s say NO to entitlements.

Never let go of our faith

TO be guided by our Christian faith should always be an abiding thing for us. We should never just rely on our own intelligence and the many ways and forms of human estimation. These can only do so much, but without faith, they cannot reach the ultimate goal meant for us. 

 We are somehow reminded of this reality in that gospel episode where some leading Jews approached Christ asking for a sign of who he really was. (cfr. Mt 12,38-42) That was when Christ told them about the many signs in the past that should answer their question. He told them about Jonah, the men of Nineveh, the Queen of the South and Solomon. 

 Faith, of course, is a difficult thing to deal with. And that’s mainly because it is something supernatural that contains truths that simply are mysterious to us. What makes us accept it is explained in the Catechism as follows: 

 “156 What moves us to believe is not the fact that revealed truths appear as true and intelligible in the light of our natural reason: we believe "because of the authority of God himself who reveals them, who can neither deceive nor be deceived". 

 And it continues: “So ‘that the submission of our faith might nevertheless be in accordance with reason, God willed that external proofs of his Revelation should be joined to the internal helps of the Holy Spirit.’ 

 “Thus, the miracles of Christ and the saints, prophecies, the Church's growth and holiness, and her fruitfulness and stability ‘are the most certain signs of divine Revelation, adapted to the intelligence of all’; they are ‘motives of credibility’ (motiva credibilitatis), which show that the assent of faith is ‘by no means a blind impulse of the mind’.” 

 We should really be concerned about developing an operative faith. Our faith should not remain only in the theoretical, intellectual level. It has to be a functioning one, giving shape and direction to our thoughts and intentions, our words and deeds. In fact, it should shape our whole life. 

 The ideal is that we feel it immediately and continually. Indeed, it should be like an instinct such that whatever we think, say or do, or whenever we have to react to something, it is our faith that should guide us before anything else. 

 We have to understand that it is our faith that gives us the global picture of things, since it is God’s gift to us, a gratuitous sharing of what God knows about himself and about the whole of creation. It is meant for our own good, for us to live out our true dignity as children of God. 

 It is a kind of knowledge that will lead us to our eternal life. It will make us relate everything in our earthly life, both the good and the bad, to this ultimate goal in life which is to be in heaven with God, a state that is supernatural. But it is a divine gift that we need to take care of. It is like a seed that has to grow until it becomes a big tree and bears fruit. 

 For this, we really need to have a living contact with Christ who is the fullness of God’s revelation to us. He is the substance, the content and the spirit of our faith. So, the first thing that we have to do is to look for him always in whatever thing we are thinking, saying or doing.

Dealing with the good and evil in the world

WE are reminded of this peculiar character of our earthly condition in that parable Christ told his disciples about a man who sowed good seed in his farm but an enemy also sowed weeds in it. (cfr. Mt 13,24-43) Yes, in this life, we have to contend with the confusing mixture of good and evil, and we just have to know how to deal with that condition properly. 

 In that parable, when the weeds started to appear, the farm workers suggested to the owner to remove them. But the owner told them to let the weeds be in the meantime, because removing them at that time might also harm the good plants. Anyway, there will be harvest time when the weeds can be separated from the good plants. 

 This is the proper way to deal with the unavoidable evil in this world. We obviously have to try our best to prevent them from coming. As they say, prevention is better than cure. But if they do come, we should try our best to isolate them or even to remove them if they do not cause greater harm to us. Otherwise, we should just wait for the appropriate time to separate the evil from the good. 

 This confusing mixture of good and evil is very much present especially in the field of politics. That is why we should be most careful in expressing our views and position with respect to the different political issues at hand. We have to avoid becoming too partisan or too attached to our position that we cannot see the good that the other side may also have. 

 In this regard, it should be clear that the clergy should stay away from making public partisan statements. If ever some statements have to be made, they should highlight the positive aspects of the issue while advising or even warning against the possible dangers that can arise. The statements should be in such a tone as to avoid being regarded as partisan. The clergy should be for both the pros and the cons wherever the real human and Christian values can be found. 

 The parable cited above actually can tell us many things. For one, it seems to tell us that we should be patient and tolerant of everybody, especially of those who are clearly in error and are causing us some trouble. In spite of how they are, they are still our brothers and sisters, all children of God who may have strayed from the right path and are in need of help actually. 

 In other words, we have to learn how to bear with everyone. We have to broaden our mind and heart to be able to accommodate everyone in our heart, including those who are so different from us in some respects, and those who are precisely giving us trouble, being clearly in error and are making offense. We have to learn to suffer, since suffering is an unavoidable consequence of evil. 

 In all this, we should never lose our peace and concern for everyone. In fact, those who have strayed, we have to seek out, just like what the good shepherd did in the parable of the lost sheep (cfr. Mt 18,12-14) 

 That is part of the charity as described by Christ. “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,” he said. (Mt 5,44) “If any one strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also…”

The proper attitude towards laws

IT’S obvious that we need laws. We should respect and follow them as faithfully as possible as long as they are just laws. But we have to understand that laws, which in the end come from God, are formulated and articulated by us and therefore are subject to varying human conditions, such as the prevailing culture at the time the laws were made, etc. It’s for this reason why some exceptions can be made in obeying these laws. 

 We are reminded of this fact of life in that gospel episode where some leading Jews complained to Christ about his disciples doing something unlawful during the Sabbath. That unlawful thing was nothing other than that these disciples picked grains in the field to eat because they were hungry. (cfr. Mt 12,1-8) 

 That was when Christ clarified to them what the real intent of the Sabbath law was. He explained that exceptions can be made. “Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry,” he said, “when he and his companions were hungry, how he went into the house of God and ate the bread of offering, which neither he nor his companions but only the priests could lawfully eat?” 

 Still more: “Or have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath the priests serving in the temple violate the Sabbath and are innocent?” 

 Then he explained why such exceptions can be made. “I say to you, something greater than the temple is here. If you knew what this meant, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned these innocent men. For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.” 

 It is quite clear that laws are made to serve our ultimate end, and that can only be that we be led to God, our original source and ultimate end. Our laws should be such that they should not negate nor even undermine the achievement of this fundamental purpose of the laws. Even our traffic laws, so insignificant if impacted with our ultimate end, should respect this fundamental purpose. 

 But what do we have? We sometimes absolutize our laws as if they are the ultimate purpose in our life. They can be so rigidly and indiscriminatingly applied to all cases when there can be exceptions or even exemptions that can be made. We fall into some kind of legalism. 

 And nowadays, there are even laws that undermine the ultimate purpose of our life, that is, our proper relation with God. Christ himself complained about this. “You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.” (Mk 7,8) We are now making ourselves as the ultimate lawgiver, as if we are the creator of the universe. 

 We have to be careful with our tendency to fall into what is called as legalism, which is a way of making our human laws so absolute as to regulate even matters of conscience that they become the end in themselves. 

Legalism is when we make our human laws so absolute that they cannot stand any more improvement, enrichment, or even revision and revocation. Legalism is when we get too obsessed with following the letter of the law at the expense of recognizing the true spirit of the law. It is usually characterized by rigidity and heartless treatment of people, especially those disadvantaged by a given law. 

 This is not to say that our laws are useless. No. Laws are always necessary and very useful. But they should be treated as means only, not as ends. As such, they cannot be treated as if these laws are the only laws that have to be followed. In a given situation or case, other laws may be followed.

What is true rest?

WE have to know what true rest is and how we can have it. There are now many ideas about what and how it should be, all of them giving us some truth about rest, but there can only be one real definition of rest and one proper way of having it. We should know the real truth about rest. 

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

 These words from the very pattern of our humanity tell us that we can find true rest only in Christ, and that rest can come to us if we do and bear the yoke and burden of Christ which, according to him, are easy and light. 

 In other words, if we would just do our own things, we cannot really have the true rest offered to us by Christ. We may have some sensation of rest, according to some worldly standards, but it would not be the real one. It can even be a sweet poison as it can lead us to some dangers in an attractive way. 

 If we do and bear the yoke and burden of Christ, rest is assured, even if along the way we can encounter pain and suffering. That Christ suffered and died and then resurrected should give us the assurance that our real rest is assured as long as we do everything together with him and for him. 

 This Christ-given rest can only come to us if we, first of all, have a living faith in the things of God. Without that faith, there is no way we can manage to do the things of God and get its assured rest and reward. 

 We have to understand then that we can have our real rest only in and with God. It’s a rest that goes beyond the merely physical, mental, emotional aspects of rest. It goes beyond simply having some social peace in the world. It is a rest that is mainly spiritual and supernatural, an effect of grace rather than just worldly and natural elements. 

It is a rest that can be had in all situations, conditions and circumstances in life. It’s an all-weather kind of rest. 

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

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

 We have to see to it that our search for rest should not get stuck in the level of our physical, emotional and intellectual conditions alone.

The quest for spiritual childhood

THIS is, of course, a challenge for all of us. We have to learn how to remain childlike in spirit even as we age and mature, and gain a lot of experience in life. We have to remember that only when we have this spiritual childhood that we can expect God to reveal himself to us. That’s what Christ clearly said: 

 “I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike.” (Mt 11,25) 

 We have to be wary of our tendency to think and act as if we need God less the more we gain worldly knowledge and wisdom. What should ideally happen is that the more knowledgeable and wise we get, the more humble and simple like a child we should be. 

 To be childlike, of course, has its share of weaknesses, but what is obvious is that to be like a child is to be innocent, to be bereft of malice, of bad intentions and bad thoughts. These ideals should be pursued by us. These qualities make us have the simplicity of a child. 

 And simplicity helps us accept and live the faith. It’s what makes us children who accept things first, who allow ourselves to be guided and taught, before asking questions, not out of unbelief but rather for greater understanding. 

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

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

 This mechanism can include anything that fosters our presence of God all throughout the day, the practice of rectifying our intention and relating everything that we do to God. We have to break the barrier of awkwardness and incompetence in this regard. We actually have the means. What’s missing is our will to use this mechanism. 

 And lest we think simplicity is naivete and gullibility, let’s remind ourselves of what our Lord said: “Be wise as serpents and simple as doves.” (Mt 10,16) Simplicity would not be true simplicity if it does not come with cleverness and shrewdness. 

 Our Lord himself, the epitome of simplicity, is also the epitome of shrewdness. Remember how he read men’s minds, and formed his statements according to what he knew! 

 That may be a difficult act to follow, but we can always try. We have life itself, with all its cultures, civilizations and our ever-expanding personal experiences, to teach us how to be both clever and simple as our Lord wants us to be. 

 But we should always be aware of our need to develop this virtue of simplicity. We cannot take this duty for granted, because the logic of our flesh and the logic of the world tend to complicate us. 

 The false glitter of the celebrity world, the escape mechanisms of sex and drugs, the anomalies of abortion, contraception, same-sex unions, etc., indicate the extent to which our complications have worsened. We are actually ripe for a disaster unless we change.

Our constant need for repentance

WE need to realize more deeply that we are in constant need for repentance and conversion. We should never take this need for granted. It is not meant to make our life look gloomy all the time. Rather, it is meant to make us to be truly realistic about our delicate condition here on earth and, hence, to be truly hopeful and happy of our assured redemption by Christ. 

 We are reminded of this need when in the gospel, Christ reproached the towns where most of his mighty deeds had been done since they had not repented. “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida!” he said. “For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would long ago have repented in sackcloth and ashes.” (cfr. Mt 11,20-24) 

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

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

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

 It’s this love for God and souls that would make them feel that they have to go further than what so far they have accomplished. This love has no limits. It does not have the word ‘enough’ in its vocabulary. It always urges them to do more to be more and better. 

 That is why it is often given as a spiritual advice that one forgets himself completely and just thinks of God and the others. Not only that, but also that one’s true growth and development toward human maturity and Christian perfection is measured to the extent that one thinks of God and the others and does things for them. 

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

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

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

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

Loving God first and always

IN that part of the gospel where Christ talks about making war in order to have peace and about considering those who love father and mother more than him as not worthy of him (cfr. Mt 10,34-11,1), we are actually reminded that we really have to love God first and always if we want to love everybody and everything else properly. 

 God is a God of love. That is his very nature which he wants to share with us since we are his image and likeness, sharers of his life and nature. But given our wounded human nature, there is now some need for making war, for doing some struggle, if we want to love properly or to share the very nature of the love of God. 

 That is why when Christ was asked what the greatest commandment of God was, he unhesitatingly said that it is to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” (Mt 22,37) It is this giving our all to God that comprises what true love is. And so doing, we actually receive from God a lot more than what we give him. 

 Of course, we need to have a strong faith to believe in this truth about what true love is. We have to be wary of our tendency to rely more on our own human estimation of things that only give us a narrow, superficial if not erroneous view of things. 

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

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

 It does this even while it also helps us from avoiding falling into the opposite predicament, which is despair. In other words, it helps us develop a true, correct and delicate conscience, not a lax nor a scrupulous one. We should make some kind of working plan for us to follow this indication of Christ. This concern should be attended to with deliberate effort. 

We should not take it for granted, since we know we are notorious for easily falling into an easy way of life, into a happy-go-lucky kind of lifestyle. 

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

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

Lessons from the sower and the seed

THE parable of the sower and the seed (cfr. Mt 13,1-9) prods us to undertake the urgent and most necessary task of spreading the word of God widely and abidingly. It also urges us to be that good soil that brings good and plentiful fruit of God’s word. 

 Nowadays, we cannot deny that a large sector of the world is setting aside God’s word and are preferring their own ideas, theories and ideologies. The God-given nature of things is being redefined today by many people who pride themselves to know better than what God has set. 

 What St. Paul once said is being validated: “The time will come,” he said, “when men will not tolerate sound doctrine, but with itching ears they will gather around themselves teachers to suit their own desires. So, they will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.…” (2 Tim 4,3-4) 

 We have to understand that preaching the word of God is a task entrusted to his apostles and shared by all of us in different ways. The clergy take a leading role, of course, in this affair. It’s a serious business that involves our whole being, and not just our talents and powers. 

 First, we need to examine our understanding and attitude toward God’s word, especially the Gospel. On this basic understanding would depend what we do with the Gospel and how we handle it. 

 Do we really know the true nature of the Gospel? Or do we take it as just one more book, perhaps with certain importance, but definitely not as the living word of God, in spite of its human dimensions? 

 The Gospel is actually the proclamation of Christ as the Emmanuel, that is, God with us. This is an on-going affair that did not stop with the death of Christ. Christ lives with us up to now, and continues to do things with us. 

 All these affirmations are captured in the last lines of the Gospel of St. Matthew where our Lord said: 

 “Go, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them…. And behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world.” (28,19-20) 

 Our Catechism tells us that “We must continue to accomplish in ourselves the stages of Jesus’ life and his mysteries and often to beg him to perfect and realize them in us and in his whole Church” (521) 

 Obviously, to carry out this mission, we need to know our Lord and his teachings. We have to go to him and read the Gospel. Reading and meditating on it should be a regular practice for us, a habit meant to keep us in touch with him. 

 Thus, every time we read the Gospel, we have to understand by our faith that we are engaging with our Lord in an actual and living way. We are listening to him, and somehow seeing him. We can use our imagination to make ourselves as one more character in any scene depicted by the Gospel. 

 For this, we need to look for the appropriate time and place. We have to be wary of our tendency to be dominated by a lifestyle of activism and pragmatism that would blunt our need for recollection and immersion in the life of Christ. 

 We need to understand that in the end, preaching the word of God involves making Christ present in us and in others. Preaching God’s word also means that we have to know those to whom we address God’s word, so we would know how to present it to them as God’s word and not just ours, and avoid getting trapped in the non-essentials.

Training to be both simple and shrewd

“BEHOLD, I am sending you like sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and simple as doves.” (Mt 10,16) Clear indication from Christ that practically obliges us to seriously take this training of how to be both simple and shrewd in a world that getting more and more complicated and challenging. 

 Even just considering the more simple material and temporal aspects of the developments of our times, we already have a formidable challenge to face. There are just so many things to attend to that we somehow are forced to do some multi-tasking and to do that mind-boggling task of orchestrating the different tasks that often compete with each other. 

 Things can be truly straining and demanding on how to put order to all of them! We need to learn how to be discriminating without being discriminatory in setting the priorities of the different options we can have at hand. We need to know which ones are to be given priority over others. We need to know which ones to choose and which to set aside. 

 And when we consider the more complex spiritual and moral aspects of the developments nowadays, the challenge becomes even more exacting. Here what is needed is nothing less than to be truly and vitally identified with Christ, animated by the Holy Spirit. 

 Yes, it is indispensable that a good working knowledge of the spiritual and moral doctrine of our faith. But a lot more is needed. We need to be truly a spiritual man as opposed to a carnal man, able to discern the different kinds of spirits behind every event, circumstance and situation. 

 This is a big challenge for us all. We have to learn to think, speak and act in a spiritual way, and not just mainly conditioned by our sensual, material and worldly aspects. 

 When we see a person, thing or event, we should not get stuck in knowing their physical appearance or external characteristics alone. We should go beyond them, discerning the spirit that animates them. 

In this we have to train ourselves endlessly. We need to check if the spirit behind them is of God or not. In this, we have received enough warnings from Sacred Scripture. “Beloved,” St. John, for example, in his first letter tells us, “do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are of God; for many false prophets have gone out into the world.” (Jn 4,1) 

 There are many kinds of spirits roaming around the world, and we have to learn how to discern them. There is the spirit of God, the spirit of Christ as opposed to the antichrist. There is also the evil spirit, and the spirit of the world that is dominated by the evil one. 

 St. Paul distinguished between the fruits of the Spirit of God and the works of the flesh dominated by the evil spirit. The former include love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. (cfr Gal 5,22-23) 

 The latter include fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit, envy, drunkenness, carousing. (cfr Gal 5,19-21) We have to learn to walk in the Spirit rather than to walk in the flesh. 

We have to train ourselves to think, speak and act in terms of our faith, and in intimate relationship with God and the saints. This is always possible and very doable. 

 This is the only way we can manage to be both simple and shrewd as we try to sort out the increasingly complicated spiritual and moral challenges of our times.

Financial aspect of the priestly ministry

“WITHOUT cost you have received; without cost you are to give.” (Mt 10,8) These words of Christ should be the guiding principle when considering the financial aspect of the priestly ministry. It cannot be denied that this financial aspect of a priest’s ministry can pose a very tricky challenge to the men of the cloth. 

 We know that money and anything that gives us honor and privilege have the tendency, if we are not careful, to corrupt us. It is important that in dealing with them, we have to take care of the purity of our intention which can only be achieved if everything that we do is meant for the glory and love of God and love and concern for everybody else. Otherwise, there’s no other way but for us to fall into some spiritual and moral anomalies. 

 Given our unquestionable weaknesses and proneness to sin, we have to realize that we really need to have accountability and transparency in dealing with financial matters. 

 While it’s true that Christ’s ministers are also men who have material necessities, we have to be clear that our ministry should never be used mainly, or worse, purely for some financial or economic gain. 

 As Christ clearly said, given the completely gratuitous character of our vocation and mission, we need to dedicate ourselves to our ministry also gratuitously, without counting the cost. 

 This concern can be a very tricky thing to deal with. Priests are no spiritual beings with no need for financial support. We need money also. In a sense, we need to earn, but seeing to it that such financial concern should be pursued with utmost purity of intention. 

 In this regard, what can be most helpful is to develop a strong conviction that we should not create artificial needs beyond what we truly need to survive, leading a decent life, and to carry out our duties properly. 

 If done properly, this concern for the financial aspect of the priestly ministry can blend well a lifestyle that can be both personally austere and yet magnificently generous with respect to our dedication to the ministry. 

 We can truly live the Christian poverty that practices detachment from earthly goods and yet is unafraid and even creative and judiciously enterprising to acquire whatever goods and money are needed to further sincere spiritual and moral help to others. 

 This is, of course, easier said than done. Thus, there is always that need for regular checking or some kind of auditing to see if indeed the true spirit of Christian poverty is lived while handling money in our priestly ministry. 

 Some signs that can tell us whether we would already be deviating from the proper spirit of Christian poverty are when we have some items that can be considered already as luxurious or above the common standard of what is proper for priests to fulfill their ministry. These items can be the kind of cars that we use, the places that we go for our needed rest and recreation, etc. 

 But with respect to items directly related to liturgy and to apostolate, we can be as lavish as we can to show how much we truly care for God and for others. In this area, we should not be sparing or stinting. We have to give as much as we can. And it is for this reason that we can ask also for more donations and support from those who can.

Our basic identity as apostles

WHEN Christ chose his 12 apostles, (cfr. Mt 10,1-7) we have to realize that if we want to be true believers and followers of Christ, we too should feel called to be apostles of his. We too should feel the need to continue helping him in his work of human redemption all throughout time. 

 While this divine call for us to be his apostles will take time and effort to be effective in us, we on our part should try our best to realize that we are all given that call and that we have to correspond to it as early as possible. 

 That’s because if we are truly Christians, we should be involved in Christ’s mission here on earth. Christ’s mission and concerns should also be ours. We have to realize that Christ treats us the way he treats himself precisely because we are patterned after him. 

 That’s also why we have been endowed with intelligence and will which, together always with God’s grace, would enable us to know and love others the way Christ loves us. And in this regard, we know that Christ’s love goes all the way to offering his life for us. That’s how we should love one another. That’s how we as apostles of his should be willing to love everybody, including our enemies. 

 We have to realize that we just don’t do apostolate as if it is just one more task to be done on some parts of the day. We are first of all apostles, and our apostolic concern should be constant and abiding, even while we are asleep or doing all kinds of tasks during the day. We have to learn how to convert everything in our life as an occasion and material for doing apostolate. 

 To be an apostle is an integral and even essential part of our identity and dignity. Even on the basis of our being human persons, we cannot help but be apostles because we are supposed to be constantly concerned and responsible for everyone. We are all related by the mere fact that we are human beings with intelligence and will, enabled and mandated to know and love each other. 

 That fundamental reason is even reinforced when we consider that we are creatures of God, made in his image and likeness. The Trinitarian life of God, which is a life of total communion among the three persons and which we are supposed to reflect in our own lives, urges us to always sharpen our concern and love for one another. 

 Still more, if we are to consider that we believe in Christ and are followers of his, then we will realize that we ought to have the same desire Christ had, which is the salvation of all mankind. This should be the primary motive we ought to have in our relation with others. We should be most interested in their salvation and spiritual well-being. All other human and temporal motives only play a secondary and instrumental role. 

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

 We need to keep that apostolic zeal burning, fueling it with prayers, sacrifices, apostolic plans and initiatives that should bank on some traditional means as well as the new things like the new technologies that can do a lot to foster our apostolic activities.

Just focus on doing a lot of good

IN the gospel, there is a part where Christ drove out the demons from a possessed man but was accused by some leading Jews of driving out demons by the prince of demons, an obviously self-contradicting reasoning. (cfr. Mt 9,32-38) 

 On this occasion, Christ did not waste time defending himself. He proceeded instead to go around all the towns and villages, teaching in the synagogues, proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom, and curing every disease and illness. 

 This should also be our reaction when we encounter some contradictions in our efforts to do some good. We should just proceed to do a lot more of good. Let those who misunderstand us bear their own misunderstanding. Of course, if we have some time, we may do some gentle and charitable clarification or correction. But we should not lose sight of what is most important for us to do. 

 In the same gospel, it is said that when Christ saw the big crowd to be given attention to, he was moved with pity because he saw them like being troubled and abandoned, like a sheep without a shepherd. 

 That’s when he made this appeal to his disciples to “ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest,” because as he said, “the harvest is abundant but the laborers are few.” 

 Indeed, this is always the situation in our earthly life. It’s a big and continuing challenge. There are endless people to reach out to bring Christ to them, and those who have to do that very important task will always be few and limited. 

 We just have to realize that everyone of us, if we are to be consistently faithful to our Christian identity, is called to carry out this task. Thus, we have to realize more deeply that all of us actually have a vocation, since all are called to share in Christ’s mission to save all men. 

 We should all be concerned about this matter. We need to develop a sense of vocation, for the simple reason that everyone has a vocation. We come from God and we belong to him. He always calls us to himself and offers us a way to go to him. 

 The way to go to him, peculiar to each one of us given our different situations in life and God’s specific plan for us, is the vocation God gives us. We therefore should try to discover that vocation as early as possible and correspond to it as fully as possible also. 

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

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

 The parents should be quick in sowing the seeds of this sense of vocation by making the child aware that he or she just did not come from them but from God. And that he or she also belongs to God. This basic truth should always be reinforced all throughout the process of bringing up and educating the child.

When in great difficulty

WHEN we find ourselves in some extraordinary difficulty, we should not hesitate to go to Christ. Let’s beg him for help, but making sure that what should move us to do so is not so much to be rid of the difficulty as to be believe in him as our savior, as our God in whose image and likeness we have been created. In the end, we go to him to be like him, and not just for some self-interest or for some practical purposes. 

 We are reminded of this truth of our faith in that gospel episode where an official approached Christ begging him to raise the official’s just-recently dead daughter to life again. And when Christ was on his way to the official’s house, a woman suffering from hemorrhage for 12 years, exerted great effort to get near him if only to touch his cloak, convinced that by so doing she would be cured. (cfr. Mt 9,18-26) 

 In both cases, Christ praised their deep faith in him. We have to remember that it is faith that lets us enter into the spiritual and supernatural world. It brings us to share in God’s wisdom and power. Remember those stirring words of Christ: “If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain, Remove from there, and it shall remove, and nothing shall be impossible to you.” ((Mt 17,20) 

 Without faith, in spite of our keenest intelligence, we will miss much of the more important aspects of our life as we would only be restricted to the here and now, the material, practical and the temporal. We would miss the real purpose of our life, which is for us to be like God. 

 We need to exert effort to have the proper intention whenever we ask some extraordinary favors from God. That’s because very often we are moved to run to God only for some practical motives. We forget that in all our dealings with God, the main and constant reason is to adore him and to express our desire to be like him as he wants us to be. 

 We should be careful not to let our great difficulties set aside the main reason for asking favors from God. This is actually a big challenge for us, since with our tendency to consider only the here and now, we forget to pursue the real and ultimate purpose of our life. 

 This, of course, will require a certain discipline on our part. That’s why we need to avail of certain practices of piety that would constantly remind us of the main reason for any petitions we make from God. 

 This is a big challenge that would require us to be sober and to learn how to be contemplative even while we are in the midst of the ups and downs of our earthly life. We have to broaden our understanding of the character and purpose of our life here on earth, and know the purpose, the causes and the reason for our human predicaments. 

 We just have to remember what St. Paul once said: “To them that love God, all things work together unto good, to such as, according to his purpose, are called to be saints.” (Rom 8,28) These words of St. Paul should be at the very core of our attitude when we are faced with our difficulties in life.

We should always be child-like

“I BLESS you, Father, Lord of heaven and of earth, for hiding these things from the learned and the clever and revealing them to little children. Yes, Father, for that is what it pleased you to do.” (Mt 11,25-26) 

 If we believe in these words of Christ, it should dawn in our mind that we should try our best to be always child-like, even as we age and get exposed to so many things in this world. Imagine! It is to little and simple children that God reveals himself. He hides from those who think they are learned and clever. 

 Christ repeated this idea a number of times. “Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven,” he also said. (Mt 18,3) “Let the children come to me. Do not prevent them, for the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these.” (Mk 10,15) 

 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 always, 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. It's this kind of heart that makes them transparent, sincere and simple, not afraid to be known as they truly are. They may still lack the subtlety of prudence and discretion, and be prone to spontaneity, but they hardly mind these deficiencies. 

 They are only interested in doing what they think is good and enjoyable. Suggestions and corrections do not humiliate them. Rather, they welcome these suggestions and corrections. 

 Children are humble, teachable, flexible and docile. You can tell them anything, and they always tend to believe and obey. Attainments, achievements and successes do not spoil them. Neither do difficulties, temptations and failures crush them and plunge them to sadness or bitterness. 

 We just have to make sure that to be childlike does not become being childish. A passage from the first letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians can serve as a very relevant reminder to all of us: “Do not become children in sense. But in malice be children, and in sense be perfect.” (14,20) 

 And more directly, St. Paul said: “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child. But when I became a man, I put away childish things.” (1 Cor 13,11) 

 Yes, indeed! We have to be childlike in spirit, but not childish in our human ways. As Christ himself said, we have to be innocent like doves, but clever as serpents. With God’s grace, we have to learn to put these seemingly contrasting qualities together.

The irony in our life

DESPITE the obvious fact that we cannot help but fall into sin, there is also in us that strong tendency to think that we are right and that the others are wrong. We are quick to judge others even without enough basis, or based only on how things appear to us. 

 This is the irony in our life which was highlighted in that gospel episode where Christ called Matthew to be one of his apostles and went with him to his house together with other tax-collectors who were regarded sinners by some leading Jews of the time. (cfr. Mt 9,9-13) 

 “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” they asked. And so, Christ had to clarify to them that “those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do. Go and learn the meaning of the words, I desire mercy, not sacrifice. I did not come to call the righteous but sinners.” 

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

 Christ told us very clearly that we should refrain from judging others. “Do not judge, or you will be judged,” he said. “For with the same judgment you pronounce, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you…” (Mt 7,1-2) 

 We need to understand these words well. It’s not that we should not judge at all, since with our spiritual nature that endows us with intelligence and will, part of our way of knowing is precisely to judge. It’s when we make judgments that we start to know things. Our process of knowing covers the stages of simple apprehension, then judgment, then reasoning. 

 The words of Christ are meant to restrain us from making rash judgments, especially on other people whose status in any given moment we can hardly know completely. They are meant for us to judge well so that we too can be judged fairly, that is, with compassion and mercy, by others and ultimately by God. 

 With others, we have to practice a lot of restraint and moderation because the condition of any man will always involve certain mysteries that we can hardly fathom. St. Augustine has this to say about us: “Don’t you believe that there is in man a deep so profound as to be hidden even to him in whom it is?” 

 In fact, more than practicing restraint and moderation, given how man is, or how we are, we should judge with charity, with compassion and understanding, ever willing to give others the benefit of the doubt in their goodness and innocence, and even trying to find excuses for them. That’s because in the end, in spite of our differences and mistakes, we are all brothers and sisters, all children of God, bound to love one another. 

 Even in those instances where one is already known to have committed a big crime, and worse, is not sorry for it, we still cannot make a final judgment on him. That final judgment belongs to God alone who knows everything.

Spiritual health more important than bodily health

IF you notice, in all the miraculous healings Christ did, he would first forgive the sins of those concerned before he would cure them of their ailments. He would praise their faith that pushed them to go to him in spite of the difficulties involved. This was shown, for example, in that episode where Christ cured a paralytic who was brought to him by his friends. (cfr. Mt 9,1-8) 

 That’s because it is our spiritual health that has greater importance than our bodily health. After all, as he said, “The Spirit is the one who gives life; the flesh profits nothing.” (Jn 6,63) Of course, our bodily health is also important, but it depends on our spiritual health more than anything else. The real health of our body does not depend only on the kind of food we eat or the genes we inherit. 

 We have to realize that for our spiritual soul, the principle of our life, to be truly healthy, it needs to be animated by the proper spirit which is none other than the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God in whose image and likeness we have been made. We need to be clear and deeply convinced about this fundamental truth about ourselves. We are meant to share in the very life and nature of God. We are meant to be God-like, to be deified! 

 This obviously will require of us a lot of faith which we have to act out as best that we can. Despite the tremendous and incredible challenges presented to us in this regard, we just have to remember that we actually are given all the means so that what God wants us to be can be achieved by us. 

 We are already given the truths of our faith as taught authoritatively by the Church. We also have the sacraments that channel to us the grace, which is God’s life-blood, so to speak. We can count on the powerful intercessions of the saints, especially that of Our Lady and St. Joseph. 

 On our part, we are just expected to try our best. We may not be able to perfect everything, but we are assured, as St. Paul once said, “that he who began a good work in you will perfect it.” (Phil 1,6) 

 Just the same, we should try our best to grow in our ability to discern the abiding promptings of the Holy Spirit. In this regard, we cannot overemphasize the need to make use of certain helpful acts of piety, like regular mental prayer, presence of God all throughout the day, availing of means of formation, etc. 

 We need to be more wary of our duty to take care of our spiritual powers. Sad to say, many people do not even know what these spiritual powers of ours are. 

 Our spiritual powers are mainly our intelligence and will, our thinking, judging, reasoning and loving. These need to be managed and supervised well, seeing to it that they are rooted properly and are oriented toward their proper objects and not simply allowed to drift and flow wherever they are blown by our bodily and worldly conditionings. 

 St. Paul talks about the distinction between the carnal man and the spiritual man, and we should make the right choice and develop it to its maturity. St. Augustine warns us not to allow our soul, our spiritual powers, to become carnal by consenting to the affections of the flesh. 

 Caring for our spiritual powers means exerting realistic effort to always find reasons, motivations and ways to relate all our thinking and loving to God and all souls.

Beware of the devil

THERE is a part in the gospel that talks about two demoniacs whom Christ met as he was going to a certain place. (cfr. Mt 8,28-34) They were known to be so savage that no one could pass by the place where they were. 

 The demons behind these possessed men readily recognized Christ for who he really was and asked what he would do with them. And since Christ would definitely free the possessed man of them, they begged that they be driven to a herd of swine nearby. 

 That was when the demons entered the swine, and the swine ran off into the sea and drowned, leading the swineherd to report this disquieting event to the townspeople who, disturbed by what happened, asked Christ to leave the place. 

 That was the wrong thing to do, of course. But given their state of mind at that moment, they failed to realize that what they actually had was a golden opportunity to be with someone who could solve their problems. 

 We have to be wary of this tendency to run away from Christ or, worse, to ask him to leave when we find ourselves in similar situations. We may be stunned and frightened for a while, but we should not forget that Christ holds the answer to all the problems and difficulties we may have. 

 But we have to be more wary of the very subtle tricks of the devil. Being spiritual beings, they are be smarter than us. We should always be aware that they are around, ever eager to deceive us, offering us sweet poisons of all kinds. 

 That we now have many cases of people in serious predicaments in the areas of mental health, addiction, etc., somehow point to the handiwork of the devil. They know very well how to take advantage of our weaknesses to inflict their malice on us. 

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

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

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

 We should have a strong and intimate relation with God in order to deal with the devil properly. Our spiritual life, our piety should be continually nourished through prayer, sacrifices, resource to the sacraments and to some program of ongoing formation. 

 We should never forget that only with God can we properly deal with our own weaknesses, and the many temptations and sins around. Only with him can we manage to resist the devil himself. Without him, we are an easy prey, a sitting duck. Our earnest desire should be how we can be with God always, our union with him as strong and vibrant as ever.