Finally, Easter!

HAPPY EASTER TO ALL! Yes, we have every reason to be most happy as we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Let’s hope that when we greet each other, ‘Happy Easter,’ we would really mean it and know what is behind that greeting. Let’s exhume that happy greeting from the tomb of our usual formalisms and clichés. Let’s get real! 

 Finally, we have reached that point where Christ culminated his redemptive mission with his resurrection that simply means that he has conquered sin and death and has reopened the gates of heaven for us. He bore all our sins and conquered them with his resurrection. He offered his very own self as the ransom. We can now be true children of God if we also do our part. 

 All our sins and all the negative things in our life can be considered a “happy fault” as the Easter praise, the “Exultet,” puts it, because they have caused God to show the ultimate expression of love, a love that we ourselves should also cultivate in ourselves. 

 But we should not forget that our supreme joy over Christ’s resurrection should not be separated but rather should be considered as the organic consequence of his passion and death which we should also go through. 

 This joy of Easter should always be with us irrespective of how the drama of our life turns. This joy, a deep sense of confidence and security, the conviction that everything will always work out for the good even if we commit mistakes, should always be with us, because Christ takes care of everything. Ours is simply to try our best in doing good, even if our best efforts will never be enough according to God’s standards. They can always be made better. 

 We should just be sport with our human condition here on earth. The idea is simply to do our best. If we fail in something, let’s be quick to rise, asking forgiveness and then move on. Let’s not waste time ruing and brooding over our mistakes which actually can give us precious lessons also. These mistakes and failures should not keep us from God. Rather, they should spur us to go to God. 

 In practical terms, it may be a good idea that we always remind ourselves that “I am Christ.” No matter what situations we find ourselves, we just have to say to ourselves, “I am Christ.” We may have to make some qualifications to that declaration, as we start considering the implications of such declaration, but it should be professed first of all. 

 We should try our best that such constant reminder becomes a streaming consciousness of our own selves. Again, that is not presumption, simply because our true identity is that Christ has taken the initiative to identify himself with us. We just have to learn to correspond to that reality and to start feeling at home with such truth about ourselves. 

 Such consciousness will surely give us joy and confidence no matter what happens to us here on earth. It would be an indestructible joy, the joy and confidence of a son who completely trusts his father. 

 Let us spread this Easter joy, evangelizing as many people as we can so we can take them out of the ignorance and unbelief of a very important truth about ourselves. More than evangelizing, let us be models and active endorsers of this Easter joy!

Learn to find joy and glory in suffering

THE secret, of course, of how to find joy and glory in suffering is to suffer and die with Christ, that is, having the same attitude and understanding Christ had about human suffering and death. 

 Only then would we realize that our suffering and death, in whatever form and way they may come, can become the best investment we can make in our life since they would yield us the highest and unbeatable dividend—nothing less than our own salvation, our own reconciliation with God, our Father, our own eternal joy and bliss in heaven! 

 We should keep this thought and truth of our faith in our mind as we go through the darkest liturgical celebration that is held on Good Friday of the Lord’s Passion. Make no mistake about this—there can be joy and glory in suffering only if we identify ourselves with Christ. 

 With Christ, suffering becomes an act of selfless love that can take on anything. Only in him can we find joy and meaning in suffering and death. With him, suffering and death lose their purely negative and painful character, and assume the happy salvific character. 

 We need to process this truth of our faith thoroughly, always asking for God’s grace and training all our powers and faculties to adapt to this reality. That’s why Christ told us clearly that if we want to follow him, we simply have to deny ourselves, carry the cross and follow him. There’s no other formula, given our wounded human condition. 

 This self-denial and carrying of Christ’s cross will enable us to see that suffering is obviously the consequence of all our sins—ours and those of others. Embracing suffering the way Christ embraced his cross unites our suffering with that of Christ. 

 Our motive for it should be like that of Christ. It should be the desire to conquer that suffering and ultimately our death through his death and resurrection. It’s obeying God’s will just like Christ obeyed his Father’s will. “Not my will but yours be done.” 

 Our reaction to any form of suffering in this life should therefore be theological and ascetical. It should be guided and inspired by faith. It should not just be a physical or a natural affair. It should reflect the spiritual and supernatural realities to which we are all subject. 

 Everyday let us find ways of deepening our understanding and appreciation of this truth of our faith, and also of acquiring the capacity to live it as fully as possible, until we can truly say that we are finding joy and glory in our suffering and death. 

 Let us often meditate on the passion, death and resurrection of Christ since it is from there that we can get the proper inspiration on this matter. Doing so will help us to overcome whatever fear we may have toward suffering and death. 

 We all need to be reminded that all our suffering and death have a positive and favorable aspect. They are not all entirely bad and negative, though in themselves they will always be bad. But if viewed and lived through our Christian faith, that is, with Christ, there is something in them that can give us a greater good. 

 Thus, we should never suffer and die 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.

How to receive Christ’s inheritance

“UNLESS I wash you, you will have no inheritance with me.” (Jn 13,8) These are words Christ told Peter at the Last Supper when the latter refused at first for his feet to be washed by Christ. And so, Peter immediately changed his mind, and even overdid it. “Master, then not only my feet, but my hands and head as well.” But Christ just told him that washing his feet, like those of the other apostles, was enough. 

 Later, Christ explained why he washed the apostles’ feet. “If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet,” he said, “you ought to wash one another’s feet. I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do.” 

 In other words, to receive Christ’s inheritance, to be like Christ as we should be, we have to have that attitude of desiring to wash the feet of the others, or to serve them, regardless of how undeserving they may appear to us. 

 It’s like saying that if we do not go to the extent of lowering ourselves by washing the feet of others, we are not really like Christ, we are not truly Christian. We would still be preferring ourselves over Christ. 

 We should have this attitude as shown to us by Christ who once said: “The Son of man also came not to be served but to serve, and give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mk 10,45) 

 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. 

 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 is 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. 

 We can make use of our daily events to cultivate this attitude. For example, as soon as we wake up from sleep in the morning, perhaps the first thing we have to do is address ourselves to God and say “Serviam” (I will serve). It’s the most logical thing to do, given who God is and who we are in relation to him. 

 And “Serviam” is a beautiful aspiration that can immediately put us in the proper frame of mind for the day. It nullifies Satan’s “Non serviam” and our tendency to do our own will instead of God’s, which is what sin, in essence, is all about. 

 What is also helpful in developing this attitude of wanting to serve and not to be served is to follow what St. Paul also said: “Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too. You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.” (Phil 2,3-5) 

 And as we go through our day, let’s see to it that everything we do is done as a service to God and to others. Let’s not do them merely out of self-interest or self-satisfaction. That kind of attitude is highly poisonous to us, ruinous to our duty to love. Sooner or later, we will find ourselves completely engulfed by self-centeredness.

Be ready for the worst scenario in our life

THE readings of the Mass of Holy Wednesday (cfr. Is 50,4-9 / Mt 26,14025) somehow remind us that while Christ assured us that everything has been taken care of by him, we should not be so naïve as to think all will be nice and easy in our life. 

 There will be a lot of suffering, trials, challenges, and all kinds of negativities which are an effect not of God’s will and designs but rather of man’s weakness, limitations and even malice. We should learn how to handle these situations by following the example of Christ, if not by identifying and uniting ourselves as intimately as possible with Christ. 

 Yes, Christ said it in no unclear terms: “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (Jn 16,33) We should so strengthen our faith as to translate it into concrete pertinent attitudes and practices that would make us duly prepared when the worst scenario in life takes place. 

 If we are truly with God, we would know how to take maximum advantage even of our difficulties, problems and all the other negative things that can take place in our life here on earth. These negative things are unavoidable, in fact. We should know how to handle them properly. But it would be a pity if we fail to see the great potentials they have in generating more and greater good. 

 We should always remember that God takes care of everything. And even from evil, he would know how to derive some good. With him, everything, including our failures and sins, would always work for the good. His wisdom, his omnipotence, his mercy, etc. would take care of all that. 

 The crucial thing to do is to be with God, which definitely will require some discipline from us. And so, even if especially at the beginning, we would find it hard, if not almost impossible to be with God, we just have to do what we can to achieve that ideal condition for us. In time, and with faith and our unrelenting effort, to be with God is not only achievable, but something that can become a stable state of life for us. Again, let’s remember that we are actually meant for that state of life. 

 We can be sure that on the part of God, everything is made available, so that whatever difficulty and problem we have in this life, we would know how to leverage them to our real and lasting advantage, and not just some false and passing advantage. 

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

 We need to trust in God’s providence and mercy. We have to learn to live a spirit of abandonment in the hands of God. Yes, if we have faith in God, in his wisdom and mercy, in his unfailing love for us, we know that everything will always work out for the good. If we are with God, we can always dominate whatever suffering can come our way in the same manner that Christ absorbed all his passion and death on the cross.

We are all capable of betrayal

WHILE this is something that we should try our best to avoid, we cannot deny that in spite of our best efforts, we are still capable of betrayal, treachery and infidelity. In fact, every sin that we commit, no matter how small, is already a form of betrayal to God who has given us everything for us to be like him as he wants us to be. Everyone can be and do a Judas Iscariot anytime if we are not careful. 

 And so, we should not over-react when this thing happens. What we should do is to immediately return to God, asking for forgiveness and also for grace so that we can become more and more like Christ who was ever faithful to the Father in spite of the tremendous cost involved. Christ assured us that forgiveness will always be available. 

 The example of St. Peter is worthwhile imitating. After he realized what he did when the cock crowed the third time, as Christ predicted, he immediately wept and asked for forgiveness. May we have the same reaction whenever we fall into sin. 

 Judas Iscariot took time before he realized the evil he had done. He repented and wanted to make up, but he did it in a wrong way. Anyway, it is not for us to make the final judgment on him. That belongs to God alone, and we know that he is all merciful without compromising, of course, the due requirement of justice. 

 Let’s always remember that God has shared his life and everything that he has with us. And that’s because we are his image and likeness. Things just depend on how receptive we are to what God is sharing with us. 

 We should just sharpen our awareness of this truth about ourselves in our relation to God. To be sure, we would be filled with joy, peace and hope. Like Christ we would know how to handle temptations. 

 Yes, there will be effort and sacrifices involved, but all these would be done always in an atmosphere of confidence. We would get the sensation that we are gaining mastery over the erratic urges of our body, the many temptations from the world and the devil himself. 

 The secret is to channel the very mind of Christ with respect to his relation with the Father. He once said: “I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father who has sent me.” (Jn 6,38) This should be the motto of our life. 

 Let’s never forget that more than us, it is actually God who directs and shapes our life. And for this, he has given us everything that we need for us to follow his will. We should just be wary of our strong tendency to be ruled simply by our own will. 

 It’s when we do the will of God in an abiding way that we can even have the very power of God. To the extent that we follow God’s will, we share in his life, nature and powers. That is why saints and some very holy people enjoy some special powers, like curing the sick, the gift of prophecy, etc. 

 Let’s remember that our true freedom is when we unite our will with God’s will, and our true dignity and power is when we follow God’s will. Only then can we manage to properly tackle any temptation, difficulty, challenges and trials in our life!

Beware of our bad reactions to things

WE are now in Holy Week. And the gospel of the Mass for Monday of Holy Week (cfr. Jn 12, 1-11) speaks of how Judas, the traitor, reacted badly when Mary, the sister of Martha and the resurrected Lazarus, anointed the feet of Christ with an ointment of great price. 

 “Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor?” he said. And the gospel noted that he said this not because he cared for the poor, but rather because he was a thief, and having the purse used to steal the contributions. 

 This somehow validates the theory that one thinks and judges the way he is. If he is a good person, he will always think well of others even if the others may have committed some mistake. Like Christ, he will correct, suggest, help the others in a charitable way. If he is not a good person, he tends to think badly of others. 

 Sometime ago, Pope Francis received a lot of flak even from those who are usually regarded as close to the Church, when in an interview he was asked how he “imagines hell.” The Pope gave a short response: “What I am going to say is not a dogma of faith, but my own personal view: I like to think of hell as empty; I hope it is.” 

 Some people are suspicious, if not accusing Pope Francis of changing Church doctrine, especially about the difference between morality and immorality. They think that he is going overboard and even is crossing the line already in his pursuit to promote Christian mercy. His views on the divorced and remarried people and those in same-sex union drew a lot of criticism. 

 But the truth of the matter is that the Pope simply expressed a wish, a desire. It may not be true, but no one can stop a person from thinking well of the others and of things in general. After all, we are meant to think well rather than to think badly of others and of things in general. 

 In that gospel episode about Mary and Judas, Christ told the latter to let Mary to do what she did, because she did well in doing so, since after all, the poor we will always have but we do not have Christ all the time. It’s like saying that we will always have sinners, but we just have to give priority to seek and receive the mercy of God who will always give it to us. 

 We should try our best that we give priority to keep our relationship with God going strong, and anything that would enhance that relationship should be encouraged. Thus, we can never overemphasize the need for us to spend time and effort to pray, to offer sacrifices, to know more about Christ and to try our best to conform our life according to the teaching and example of Christ. 

 We have to train ourselves to think and react well to things in general, no matter how bad they may be. This can only happen if we are truly with Christ. We have to be wary of getting trapped to a certain type of righteousness and orthodoxy that does not actually reflect and channel the very charity of God as shown to us by Christ.

Palm Sunday and the Holy Week

WITH the celebration of Palm Sunday which opens the Holy Week, we will be having a liturgy that is understandably quite long and heavy. We will go through some dark moments that will eventually end in a very glorious way. 

 And that’s because the Holy Week is the climax of the liturgical year since it represents the sharp transition from our state of sin, expressed in all our suffering we live through the Holy Week, to our state of glory and victory with the resurrection of Christ. 

 The darkest and the brightest moments of our life are acted out in the Holy Week. The ugliest of our malice and the fairest of the love of God which is offered to us to live out is dramatized and sacramentally presented to us in Holy Week. 

 Let’s be quick to savor this true character and value of Holy Week therefore, from the triumphal entry of Jesus to Jerusalem on Passion Sunday that starts the Holy Week, to Holy Thursday when Christ instituted the Holy Orders and Holy Eucharist, to Good Friday and then Easter Sunday. 

 To be sure, if we manage to put our mind and heart into the spirit of the Holy Week, we would have our faith strengthened, our devotion and piety fired up, our understanding of the meaning and purpose of our life with all its ups and downs, made most clear. We would end up most motivated to work on our sanctification, and its inseparable accompaniment of doing apostolate and sanctifying all the things of this world. 

 Yes, we have to be eager to go through the Holy Week, not because it is fun time with the family and friends in the beach and other resorts, but because it is the holiest of weeks. 

 It is THE week, the mother of all weeks, the most important week in the liturgical year, when we end the long penitential preparation of Lent and celebrate nothing less than the climax of Christ’s redemptive work with his passion, death and resurrection. 

 When we say “celebrate,” we are referring to a liturgical celebration where the events celebrated are not simply remembered, but are actually made present. This is the essence of the liturgy. 

 In the liturgy we become contemporaries of Christ and direct witnesses of the events. That’s how the reality portrayed by our faith is. It is a reality that, of course, goes far beyond what our senses can capture and what our intelligence can grasp. That is why we have to work out our faith. Otherwise, we would be hanging in the air. 

 It’s important that we don’t lose our spiritual bearing as we go through the Holy Week. We have to make some special effort to achieve this ideal, since the environment today is so paganized that many people prefer to be in the beaches rather than in churches during Holy Week. 

 If we go by our faith, it’s the week when we practice the most rigorous of our spirit of penance and sacrifice to match with the very passion and death of Christ on the Cross. That’s simply because we are meant to unite our whole life with the offering-sacrifice of Christ’s life to his Father. That way, we would also enjoy the consequence of Christ’s redemptive work—the victory of his resurrection which he shares with us.

We really need to know Christ

THIS point may sound obvious and trite, but it’s actually something for us to take seriously. We cannot deny that though we consider ourselves Christians for the longest time already, the fact that there are still many inconsistencies in our life, that we still commit not only honest mistakes but also blatant sins, etc., can only show that we really do not know Christ as we should. 

 There are all kinds of Christians around—the lax ones and the scrupulous ones, and even Christians who resemble more the Pharisees and scribes of Christ’s time, since we can appear to get stuck with a legalistic Christianity that would lead us to be rigid in our consideration of things and judgmental of people who do not fit our own idea of Christianity. 

 Because of that frame of mind, we can tend to distance ourselves from those who are not like us, eventually forming ourselves like an elitist tribe. We can become closed minded. We would never take the initiative to reach out to those who are different from us not only in terms of social or academic status, but also and more importantly, in terms of the spiritual and moral differences. 

 We need to do something drastic about this, because this is not how Christ was and is, and how he wants us to be. We really need to know who Christ is. We have to be clear about this point. We are meant to assume the identity of Christ. 

 That is not a gratuitous, baseless assertion, much less, a fiction or a fantasy. It is founded on a fundamental truth of our faith that we have been created by God in his own image and likeness. We are meant to be conformed to Christ who as the Son of God is the perfect image God has of his own self. 

 Since we have been made in the image and likeness of God, we have to understand that we have been patterned after Christ, the Son of God who became man to recover us from our state of alienation from God due to our sin. So, knowing Christ would lead us to know ourselves properly. 

 We just have to learn to set aside whatever difficulty or awkwardness we may have in dealing with this basic truth of faith about ourselves. We have to try our best to know Christ and to adapt his very own mind and will, his own ways, behavior and reactions to whatever situation we may find ourselves in. 

 What is also clear is that Christ is actually already living with us. He is in us as the pattern and perfecter of our humanity, and the savior of our damaged humanity. We just have to learn to live with Christ. He is never far or indifferent to us. Even in our miserable and wounded condition, he continues to be with us, even showing us with greater solicitude. It’s rather us who tend to ignore and contradict him. 

 The ideal condition to have is first to know and love God so that we may know and love ourselves and others properly. This was what St. Augustine precisely said. “Noverim te, noverim me,” Latin for “May I know God, may I know myself.” It is when we know and love Christ first that we can know who we really are and ought to be. God is our Creator and Father in whose image and likeness we have been made. How he is, who is pure love in essence, is also how we ought to be! 

 Only in this way can we show the real Christ to others as we should.

“The Lord remembers his covenant forever”

THAT’S the responsorial psalm for the Mass of Thursday of the 5th Week of Lent. (cfr. Ps 105,8) It’s all worthwhile to bring these words in our prayer, in the intimacy of our mind and heart, so that however our life turns in this world, we would always be assured that God has promised to care for us. We should not waste time allowing ourselves to be dominated by worries, sadness, discouragement and the like. 

 In this regard, it might be worthwhile also to remit another beautiful psalm that can revive our sagging spirit when we feel overwhelmed by the trials and challenges of our life. It’s from Psalm 37, and it goes this way: 

 “Do not fret because of the wicked / do not envy those who do evil / for they wither quickly like grass / and fade like the green of the fields. / If you trust in the Lord and do good / then you will live in the land and be secure. / If you find your delight in the Lord / he will grant your heart’s desire. 

 “Commit your life to the Lord / trust in him and he will act / so that your justice breaks forth like the light / your cause like the noonday sun. / Be still before the Lord and wait in patience / do not fret at the man who prospers / a man who makes evil plots / to bring down the needy and the poor. 

 “Calm your anger and forget your rage / do not fret, it only leads to evil. / For those who do evil shall perish / the patient shall inherit the land. / A little longer, and the wicked shall have gone. / Look at his place, he is not there. / But the humble shall own the land / and enjoy the fullness of peace.” 

 The psalm might be a bit long but it has helped many people recover their senses after some arduous experiences. It is always advisable that we spend time savoring the psalms because they train us to develop an intimate relationship and conversation with God. The psalms are inspired prayers. The words of the Holy Spirit, our ultimate teacher, come to us through them. 

 The psalms can be considered as the word of God which has the power to keep us always connected with God and leading us to eternal life as expressed in what Christ himself once said: “If any man keep my word, he shall not see death for ever.” (Jn 8,51) 

 It would be good if we can meditate slowly on these words to let them sink in our mind and heart, and in our life in general. The Good News is that we are already given the key to eternal life while still here on earth. 

 Yes, it’s a matter of faith, because the reality that governs us is not simply of the rational and spiritual nature, much less, of our bodily and natural condition. The reality that governs us is, first of all, of the supernatural character, since whether we like it or not, God has wanted and created us in his image and likeness, sharers of his divine nature. (cfr. 2 Pt 1,4) 

 That is why in spite of our human limitations, we always harbor deep in our heart that desire for a life without end, a joy with no shade of sadness, etc. In other words, we desire a life that is not simply natural, space-and-time-bound.

Always give God priority

WE can never overemphasize this need. When our relation with God is not strong, deep and abiding, there would be no other way than for us to get into some trouble sooner or later. We have to be wary of the clear and present danger of letting something else to replace God as the Number One priority in our life. 

 We have to do everything to fuel our need to put God always on top. The ideal that we should always try to pursue is that in our every thought, intention, word and deed, God should be the primary and ultimate object. This definitely will not be an exercise of fanaticism or rigidity as some people may suspect. Rather this how we would attain all the good that is meant for us. 

 We are reminded of this truth of our faith in the readings of the Mass for Wednesday of the 5th Week of Lent. (cfr. Dan 3,14-20.91-92.95 / Dan 3,5.53.54.55.56 / Jn 8,31-42) The first reading talks about how a king mocked the God of 3 young men who refused to worship his god, and threw them into a burning furnace only to observe that these young men were not burned. That was when the king realized their God was the true God. 

 The responsorial psalm presents a series of praises we ought to give God. We should make time to develop the habit of praising God because only then would we put ourselves in the proper frame of mind with respect to our abiding relationship with God. Let’s be wary of taking these exercises for granted. 

 The gospel simply reiterates the fact that only in God through Christ can we have the whole truth that brings us the real freedom and all the other good things meant for us. So, we should make no mistake about this. Only in Christ can we find true freedom. Everything else can only give us, at best, apparent freedom that in the end can only put us into some bondage, if not destroy us. 

 The reason for this is that Christ, as the son of God and the pattern of our humanity, is the fullness of everything that is objectively true, good and beautiful for us. He is also the one that provides us with the power to do what is good for us, since freedom is mainly about freedom to do what is good. 

 And since freedom is not only about freedom to do what is good but also freedom from whatever evil can hound and tie us down, Christ also perfectly fits that requirement because as our redeemer, Christ liberates us from all evil that can come to us, namely, our natural limitations, our weaknesses, temptations, sins and death itself. 

 We need to understand this truth of our faith well, because nowadays it is very easy to be confused about where to find freedom and how freedom should be. That’s because all sorts of ideas promoted by all kinds of ideologies and spread by powerful groups have been flooding the world. 

 We need to promote the real freedom that is offered to us by Christ. We have to preach about it, in season and out of season, and explain it thoroughly, using arguments that are adapted to the different mentalities and cultures of the people. 

 We need to make everyone understand that true freedom broadens our mind, expands our heart so as to accommodate everyone the way he is, without forgetting how he ought to be, as well as everything else in life. True freedom is what love is all about.

The strong faith of St. Joseph

ON the Solemnity of St. Joseph, celebrated on March 19, the readings of the Mass highlight the importance and indispensability of faith, which is first of all a gift of God who starts to share his life, nature and power with us. With faith, we can start to have hope amid the confusing elements of our life, and to have charity amid the many challenges we are sure to encounter in life. 

 As long as we are receptive to this faith and act in accordance to it, we can be sure that we would be doing the right things, and what would seem hard or even impossible to do, can take place. 

 The first reading, for example, from the 2nd Book of Samuel (7,4-5.12-14.16), talks about how God told Nathan about how the kingdom of David will stand firm forever, thus showing how God shares his plans for man and with man. The second reading, from the Letter to the Romans (4,13.16-18.22) brings up the great faith of Abraham who hoped against hope in believing what God promised him. 

 The gospel (Mt 1,16.18-21.24) talks of the great faith St. Joseph had in the word of God. He immediately changed his plan of not proceeding with the marriage with Mary when he learned Mary was on the family way before they lived together. Even if it was only in a dream that he was told about the whole story of Mary’s condition, he just believed and took Mary to be his wife. 

 We should try to replicate this great faith of St. Joseph. Like him, we can be sure of receiving and enjoying God’s great love for us and many other benefits and privileges as long as we obey and follow God’s will, as long as we make ourselves available to that will even if some drastic efforts and sacrifices may have to be made. 

 We have to realize, though, that faith is a very dynamic thing. We can never say that we have enough faith. We should never be complacent in this regard. Faith needs to grow and grow as well as to inspire us more deeply, thoroughly and consistently. 

 We need to make it grow to cope with our natural needs. In this level alone, we always need faith to make things very clear for us, even if in theory we can handle the natural challenges and difficulties we can encounter in life. 

 We cannot deny that there are just too many of these natural challenges and difficulties for us to handle with a certain ease and confidence. Especially these days when the pace of development is faster, and the developments themselves are more complicated and tricky, we need the light of faith to see things properly. 

 Besides, it is faith that gives the ultimate meaning and proper direction to all our human knowledge and endeavors. It is what gives the original perspective to all events, good or bad, in our life. Otherwise, we would end up confused and lost. 

 We also need to make our faith grow to cope with the multiplying infranatural consequences of our human condition that is weakened by sin. There’s no other way to manage and survive the consequences of sin, ours and those of others, personal as well as the collective and structural, than by relying first of all on our faith. 

 We also need to make our faith grow to cope with the tremendous goal of attaining our supernatural goal in life, that of becoming the true image and likeness of God in which we have been created.

Truth, justice, mercy always prevail in the end

WE have to build up our conviction in this truth of our faith. God always is in control of things, no matter how twisted things in our life can be. The truth that can only come from God, his justice and mercy will always prevail in the end. We may have to suffer for a while, but we should have no doubt as to how things will end. 

 This is what we can gather from the readings of the Mass for Monday of the 5th Week of Lent. The first reading (Daniel 13,1-9.15-17.19-30.33-62) presents to us the story of Susanna who was falsely accused by some malicious and lustful elders of cheating her spouse for having an illicit affair. 

 She almost got executed for that false accusation until the young Daniel managed to expose the ruse used by these elders. She was finally exonerated, and the accusers punished instead. The truth about the whole affair came out and justice was served on her. 

 The gospel (cfr. Jn 8,1-11) talks about a woman caught in adultery and presented to Christ by some scribes and Pharisees for due punishment which was that of stoning her. But Christ at first kept quiet, and when later he told the accusers that he who had not sinned may stone her, these accusers left one by one. Christ then just dismissed the woman with the admonition to sin no more. Here we can see Christ’s mercy dominating the whole incident. 

 These truths of our Christian—that is, that truth, justice and mercy always prevail in the end—are reiterated in the responsorial psalm, “Even though I walk in the dark valley I fear no evil; for you are at my side” (Ps 23,4) and in the verse before the gospel, “I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked man, says the Lord, but rather in his conversion, that he may live.” (Ez 33,11) 

 We should not waste time plunging ourselves in worries, sadness and depression whenever we are falsely accused or when we may commit a grave sin. No matter how complicated our problems may be, God will see to it that truth, justice and mercy will always prevail. We just have to strengthen our faith and to remain hopeful all the time, even oozing with confidence and peace. 

 We have to avoid brooding and focusing on the negative aspects and elements in our life. We should rather focus on the positive ones, because even if the negative things appear to be greater than the positive ones, if we believe in God and trust in his ways, we know that everything will always work out for the good. (cfr. Rom 8,28) 

 With all the pressures, challenges, trials, etc., that we have to face every day, all of them corrosive of our composure, we need to deliberately foster optimism if only to survive the day, if not to do well, what with all the possibilities that are actually staring at us also every day. 

 It’s really a matter of attitude, a matter of choice. We can choose to succumb to these negative elements, or to be hopeful, patient and optimistic, looking beyond the here and now and detaching ourselves from the unreliable play of our emotions, knowing that there is always meaning in everything that happens in life. 

 We need to build up our conviction of optimism and create its corresponding atmosphere and culture around, since we cannot deny that many people and a growing part of the world today are sinking into depression and despair.

We should follow where Christ leads us

THIS is the law we should follow in our life here on earth. It is Christ who shapes and leads the way for us, and we should just follow. Why? Precisely because Christ is the pattern of our humanity, the savior of our damaged humanity. Our life here on earth is a test to see whether we would like to be with Christ, as we should, or to be by ourselves which, though very attractive to us, is actually a tragedy for us. 

 We are reminded of this truth of our faith in the readings of the Mass for the 5th Sunday of Lent, Year B. (cfr. Jer 31,31-34 / Ps 51,3-4.12-13.14-15 / Heb 5,7-9 / Jn 12,20-33). They talk about God making a new covenant with the people, creating a new heart for them, and of how that covenant is perfected by Christ as long as we, the people, would follow him by dying to ourselves so Christ can live in us. 

 “If any man ministers to me, let him follow me; and where I am, there also shall my minister be,” Christ said. But for this to happen, he also said: “Unless the grain of wheat falling into the ground dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it brings forth much fruit. He that loves his life shall lose it, and that he hates his life in this world, keeps it unto life eternal.” 

 And for us to believe, obey and follow what Christ indicated, we are also given some clue, and that is when the Letter to the Hebrews, the 2nd reading of Mass for the 5th Sunday of Lent, said: “Whereas indeed he (Christ) was the Son of God, he learned obedience by the things which he suffered. And being consummated, he became to all that obey him, the cause of eternal salvation.” 

 It’s important that we meditate thoroughly on these words of divine wisdom, so we can have a clear idea of what our life here on earth is all about and what we can and should do to pursue the real and ultimate purpose of our life. We cannot be cavalier in our attitude toward this serious duty of ours. 

 Given, of course, our usual wounded human condition, we really would need to develop a certain plan that would effectively put us on track with respect to this duty of ours to pursue the real goal of our life. It cannot be denied that we have to contend with our many limitations like our tendency to be lazy, complacent, unbelieving, etc. 

 Everyone should be made to understand that this duty is incumbent on everyone. So, we should just help everyone in inculcating this very basic duty of ours, starting in the family and radiating to the ever widening and growing levels and dimensions of society and human life itself. 

 Yes, it’s going to involve a “bloody” struggle. But we are assured of victory as long as we go along with Christ who makes himself all available to us. We should never think that we will be going through this struggle by our lonesome, relying only on our own human powers. It’s true that what we would be tackling is overwhelming. But if we only open ourselves to God, nothing would be impossible for us. 

 We have to strengthen our belief that God never abandons us. It is rather us who can abandon him. That’s the problem that we have to try our best to resolve. If our faith is strong, we would know how to go through the process of suffering and dying to ourselves so we can rise with Christ.

The cross is necessary in our life

WE have to realize that we need the cross. Whether we like it or not, the cross will be unavoidable in our life due to our wounded human condition. We should, therefore, develop the proper attitude toward it, and that can only be the attitude Christ had toward the cross. 

 The gospel tells us that Christ knew he was going to offer his life on the cross as the ransom for all our sins. When it was not yet his time to do it, he managed to escape the attempts of those who wanted to arrest him. (cfr. Jn 7,1-2.10.25-30) But when that time came, he even went to offer himself for his eventual arrest and execution. 

 We have to understand that the cross, in any form it comes to us, is the way to our redemption. Christ had to win our redemption through the cross. And if we believe that we are meant to follow Christ, then we too, like Christ, has to win our own redemption through the cross with Christ. 

 It’s important that we lose the fear of the cross. For this, we need to ask first for God’s grace, and then train ourselves to develop a certain love for the cross. While the cross would inevitably cause us some suffering, we have to look at it with faith and convince ourselves that it actually is what would give us true joy. 

 So, we just have to be sport and cool about the whole reality of the cross in our life. What we need to do is to follow Christ in his attitude toward them. For Christ, embracing the cross, 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 the cross. 

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

 We have to be wary of our tendency to limit our loving to ways and forms that give us some benefits alone, be it material, moral or spiritual. While they are also a form of love, they are not yet the fullness of love. Given our human wounded condition, the fullness of our love would always need the cross. 

 So, everyday let’s see to it that we have the cross. It can come to us in different ways—sickness, trials, difficulties, losses, death, etc.—and if we seem to have no cross for the day, then let’s look for it, the way Christ looked forward to embracing his cross. 

 This can take the form of taking the initiative to do a lot of good to others, or to make better use of our time, fighting against our tendency to laziness and complacency, or to do some small mortifications like denying ourselves some food, drink, the use of gadgets, etc. 

 We have to see to it that the cross figures prominently in our daily life, since the cross would clearly enable us to follow Christ instead of just following our own will and ways, which is a strong tendency for us. Our own victory over sin and death can only come through the cross, the cross of Christ.

Our proneness to infidelity

WE have to be wary of this danger and do everything we can to avoid falling into it. We cannot deny that we are all prone to be unfaithful to whatever commitment we have with God and with others. 

 Our first parents, for example, started this trend. And the succeeding generations were hardly any different. In the readings of Thursday of the 4th Week of Lent, we are somehow reminded of this danger when God showed great disappointment at the Israelites who, despite plucking them out of slavery from the Egyptians, started to worship another god, a molten calf, of all things. (cfr. Ex 32,7-14) 

 God threatened to inflict destruction on the people until he was appeased by the smart reasoning of Moses. In the gospel of the day (cfr. Jn 5,31-47), Christ lamented over the unbelief of the Jewish people despite the great teachings and the miracles that he performed. 

 He appealed to them to believe the words of Moses, because as he said, “If you believed Moses, you would perhaps believe me also; for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?” 

 We really cannot overemphasize the need to always renew and strengthen our fidelity and sense of commitment to God and to others, given our weakened human condition that is marked by fickleness, forgetfulness, the tendency to take things, especially the serious matters, for granted, etc. 

 In this regard, it’s important that we be always moved and driven by a love that is anchored and focused on God first and then on others. For this to take place, we should make an effort to always acknowledge all the good things God has given us—from our life itself to the many talents, gifts, fortune, privileges, favors, etc. we enjoy in life. Only in this way can we feel urged to be thankful, faithful and to enter into the natural dynamic of love where love is always repaid by love. 

 We have to be wary of our tendency to be swallowed up by the many powerful and attractive distractions we have nowadays, leading us along the ways of self-absorption, self-centeredness and self-indulgence. 

 As a matter of fact, we should declare an unrelenting war against our self-indulgence which has become a very formidable problem we all have. Yes, this has always been a problem to us, but these days it is much more so. We really would need to be properly trained to tackle this challenge. 

 With the many new wonderful things that can instantly give us convenience, comfort, pleasure and satisfaction, many of us are trapped into the very sticky web of obsessions, addictions and the many other forms of self-indulgence that feed on our weaknesses, like lust, pride, conceit, gluttony, unhinged curiosities, envy, etc., etc. 

 We should never forget that what we enjoy in life should be always related to God. Otherwise, we would set ourselves in a position of danger. We should always feel thankful to God. Even in our moments of difficulties and human miseries, we still have reason to be thankful because God continues to be with us and to help us cope with them. 

 Indeed, our problems, difficulties and miseries should prod even more to go to God. Yes, we can express our pains to him, even complain to him, but we should never sacrifice our faith and trust in him, knowing that God takes care of everything, especially those things that we ourselves cannot take care anymore due to our limitations.

God never leaves us

THAT passage from the Book of Isaiah that has become very popular among many people deserves to be indelibly printed in our mind and heart, especially when we are going through some rough times in our life. “Can a woman forget her infant, so as not to have pity on the son of her womb? and if she should forget, yet will not I forget thee.” (Is 49,15) 

 Yes, God never abandons us! Even if it strongly seems otherwise, we should just let our faith prevail and stick to the truth that God never abandons us. And more than not abandoning, he helps us. We should be wary of our tendency to be overcome by the negative thought that God would be abandoning us. That would be a tragedy for us. 

 When we find ourselves in great difficulties and we seem to be helpless, we should just drill into ourselves this truth of our faith: God never abandons us. God loves us. He takes care of everything, including those things that we cannot anymore handle. 

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

 That is why it is important that we always nourish and strengthen our faith-driven hope. Given our condition of pilgrim here on earth, we should make sure that we be guided by hope so we can manage to be always on the move toward our ultimate, spiritual and supernatural goal. 

 We should not get distracted or entangled by our earthly affairs, whether good or bad, for as the Letter to Hebrews would put it: “For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come.” (13,14) Thus, we have to strengthen our hope always. 

 Hope is first of all not just a virtue that we produce, cultivate or keep ourselves. It is first of all a gift of God, given to us in abundance. It is the gift of Christ himself who, by the Holy Spirit, is made present in us through his words, his sacraments, his Church. All we have to do is to correspond to this wonderful reality as vigorously as possible. 

 We have to strengthen our faith in God’s constant love for us. As dramatized in the parables of the lost coin and the lost sheep, God will always take the initiative to look for us if we happen to be lost. And if we would be like the prodigal son, we should not hesitate to return to God who is all eager to receive us no matter how unworthy we feel ourselves to be. 

 We should have a good control of our emotions and our other human faculties that certainly cannot cope with all the mysteries of our life so that these do not give problems to our faith and trust in God’s ways. 

 And, yes, we have to learn to suffer. In this life, there is no other way but to suffer. This is simply the consequence of all the sins of men. But if we unite our suffering with that of Christ, we can look forward also to our resurrection and victory over sin and death with Christ. 

 Yes, God never leaves us!

The danger of being trapped by our human laws

WE, of course, need laws. Otherwise, our world would be in chaos. But we have to learn the different kinds of laws and know the importance, coverage and effectiveness of these laws. 

 Offhand, we can distinguish between divine law and human law, the natural law, which more or less governs the material order of our life and the world in general, and the moral law that looks into the spiritual and supernatural dimensions of our human acts. There are, of course, many other subsets of these general laws. 

 At the outset, what we have to be clear about is that our human laws should try their best to reflect the spirit of the divine law which is the source of all laws. This is where some tricky things will have to be dealt with as best that we can. 

 That’s because the divine law would always contain some mysteries that would be challenging for us to decipher in a precise way. Thus, we have to be wary of considering our human laws as containing the final say or judgment about everything. They can only go so far, and they are always in need of regular updating, enrichment and the like. 

 To know, for example, the relationship between truth and charity, justice and mercy would require not only the power of our rationality but also the power of God’s grace, the power of faith. It requires nothing less than pursuing in a vital way the goal of identifying ourselves with God in Christ who, in the end, is the pattern of our humanity since we are God’s image and likeness, sharers of his divine life and nature. 

 So, we have to be wary of the danger of being trapped by our human laws. That’s when we consider these laws as the ultimate guide of our life. When these human laws miss or even just loosen their necessary connection with God, the ultimate lawgiver, there is no way but for them to fall into some kind of legalism. 

 This danger was shown quite often during the time of Christ on earth. He was often accused of violating the Sabbath law because he did some miraculous cures on that Sabbath day when the law then specified that the Sabbath day should strictly be a day of rest where no work, not even caring for the sick, would be allowed. 

 That was what happened when Christ cured a paralytic who was waiting for his turn to get into miraculous water of the pool of Bethesda. (cfr. Jn 5,1-16) We may find that episode funny now, but it happened many times before and similar cases continue to happen up to now. 

 We need to see to it that our legal system is always vitally connected to the divine law, to an intimate relation with God in Christ who, being the very personification of love, fulfills all law, just as St. Paul said: “Love does not wrong to a neighbor; therefore love (Christ) is the fulfilment of the law.” (Rom 13,10) 

 We have to be wary when we make, interpret and apply our laws without this necessary spirit of Christ. When we would just depend on our human estimation of things, we cannot help but fall into some anomalies, inconsistencies and the like. We really need to acknowledge our need for God in Christ in anything that has to do with our human laws.

With God we have every reason to be happy

SINCE God takes care of everything, even in our worst conditions, we have no reason to worry for long and every reason to be happy instead. While we cannot avoid pains and sorrows, we also know, if we truly have God in our heart and we enter into an intimate relation with him, that everything will always work out for the good. (cfr. Rom 8,28) 

 We should just strengthen our faith in God who always takes care of us, especially in those situations when we would find ourselves already at wit’s end. For this to happen, we should see to it that we know how to be aware of God’s presence and constant interventions in our life. 

 In the gospel of the Mass for Monday of the 4th Week of Lent (cfr. Jn 4,43-54) we are presented with the example of the great faith of a certain ruler in Capernaum whose son was gravely sick. Even if Christ did not have to go to see the son, he simply believed what Christ told him—that if he had faith, his son would be cured. 

 This incident is proof of how God is most eager to help us. More than that, God is eager to share what he has with us, since we are supposed to share his life and nature. To be blunt about it, we can say that God shares even his very powers with us. 

 This, of course, would depend on how strong our faith is, on how receptive we are to what God wants to share with us. And knowing how God is all good, we have reason to conclude that God puts no limits on what he wants to share with us. 

 The real problem in this regard is us. Our faith and receptivity are not that strong and abiding. Before this reality about God’s loving concern for us, we behave like little children who just want to play around, unmindful of the many great things God is willing to share with us. 

 We, of course, as we grow more in knowledge and maturity, try to cooperate with God’s will and ways. But our cooperation is often erratic. That is why we have to come up with a certain plan where we grow in our awareness of God’s presence and interventions in our life. More than that, we should grow in our capacity to cooperate with God’s will and ways. This can only happen if our strong faith in God is translated into hope and charity. 

 We should see to it that as much as possible we always feel the joy of being in union with God. It should be a joy that would make us active and energetic to do a lot of good things. It should be a joy that would enable us to face any situation in our life. 

 When we feel sluggish, lazy or sad, it’s a clear sign that we are not with God as we should, that we are not corresponding to his will and ways. Let’s remember that more than us, it is God who actually directs and shapes our life. Ours is simply to follow him as knowingly, freely and lovingly as possible. 

 Again, we have to remind ourselves that Christian life is a happy life even if it also would involve a lot of suffering, challenges and difficulties, for which we just have to learn how to be patient the way Christ bore all the sufferings due to the sins of all men.

Reason to rejoice in Lent

THE 4th Sunday of Lent is usually dubbed as “Laetare Sunday” for the simple reason that its Entrance Antiphon starts with this passage from the Book of Isaiah (66,10), “Rejoice, Jerusalem! Be glad for her, you who love her; rejoice with her, you who mourned for her, and you will find contentment at her consoling breast.” 

 Indeed, we have every reason to rejoice even in this season of Lent, marked as it is by calls to penance, fasting and abstinence, because in the end we are assured of victory over sin and death itself due to the redemptive work of Christ. 

 We should not lose sight of this truth of faith and neither should we lose our Christian confidence even as we cannot avoid going through the rigors of all the penitential acts encouraged of us these days. 

 In fact, only in this way would we be most generous in joining Christ in his suffering, convinced that it is through this suffering that we can also partake of his victory over sin and death which should give us a great joy, since it can only mean total liberation from what is not proper for us. It is through this suffering that we recover our true dignity as children of God, sharers of his divine life and nature. 

 We have to learn to capture the intimate link between suffering and joy by meditating deeply on the passion, death and resurrection of our Lord. If we would finally understand the reason why Christ had to suffer and die, then we would know why our suffering and eventual death, if we go through them with Christ, would give us great joy. 

 Not only would we lose our fear for any suffering in our life, but also would we look forward to any suffering that can come our way. That’s because we would be convinced that precisely our suffering and death with and in Christ would constitute as our supreme act of love, a love that is a vital participation of the love of Christ for us. It’s this kind of love, the only true love, that would give us true and everlasting joy. 

 Somehow this piece of divine wisdom which, if considered only by our human estimation of things, would appear to us to be unacceptable, is played out in the gospel of the day. (cfr. Jn 3,14-21) There, we are assured that “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” 

 We have to understand then that only with Christ can we find joy in suffering. We need to process this truth of our faith thoroughly, always asking for God’s grace and training all our powers and faculties to adapt to this reality. That’s why Christ told us clearly that if we want to follow him, we simply have to deny ourselves, carry the cross and follow him. There’s no other formula, given our wounded human condition. 

 Our reaction to any form of suffering in this life should therefore be theological and ascetical. It should be guided and inspired by faith. It should not just be physical or a natural affair. It should reflect the spiritual and supernatural realities to which we are all subject. 

 Everyday let us find ways of deepening our understanding and appreciation of this truth of our faith, and also of acquiring the capacity to live it as fully as possible, until we can truly say that we are finding joy in our suffering.

God begs us to return to him

IMAGINE that! The giver of all good things, who is already all perfect and from whom nothing would be lost if we would not only mind him but also offend him, makes this appeal for us to return to him. 

 This goodness of God was expressed in the first reading of the Mass for Friday of the 3rd Week of Lent (cfr. Hosea 14,2-10) when we hear from him these words addressed to the chosen people of Israel: “Return, O Israel, to the Lord thy God: for thou hast fallen down by thy iniquity.” 

 God’s love and magnanimity really knows no limits. This is truly what pure love is which we are supposed to channel also in our lives, since we supposed to be God’s image and likeness, sharers of his divine life and nature. 

 Let’s remember how St. Paul described love: “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. (1 Cor 13,4-7) 

 And Christ commanded us to love in this way. When asked what the greatest commandment was, the clear answer was: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength. This is the first commandment. And the second is like to it: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” (Mk 12,30-31) 

 Christ himself personified this love by following the will of his Father by becoming man and saving us through his passion, death and resurrection. He now commands us to love one another as he himself has loved us and continues to love us. (cfr. Jn 13,34) 

 We have to realize then that for us to return to God, we have to love the way God loves us, and the way Christ embodied that love. This is what God is begging of us, and we should just try our best to learn to love the way it should be. 

 It obviously is a tremendous challenge for us, given the way we are. But we are actually given all the means so that we can truly live that kind of love. All we have to do is first of all to humble ourselves so that the seed of faith can start to grow and can lead us to have hope in spite of the difficulties we encounter in life, and eventually to capture the essence of charity. 

 This humbling of ourselves may mean that we start forgetting more and more of ourselves and think more and more of God and the others. A true lover gives himself more and more to his beloved, irrespective of how the beloved reacts to his love. 

 Hopefully, this humbling of ourselves would fill us more and more with the spirit of Christ who is the only one who can empower us to love as we should. Let’s see to it that everytime we say sorry for whatever mistake, failure or sin we commit, we can get the sensation that we are putting ourselves on the path of charity. There should at least be a lessening of anguish, fear, sorrow. Joy and peace should prevail!

Let’s learn to listen to God’s voice

THIS is definitely a necessity for us. We have to learn to listen to the voice of God who actually intervenes in our life all the time, prompting us about what to think, desire, speak and do. And that’s simply because our life is supposed to be a life with God. We, as God’s image and likeness, are meant to share God’s life and nature, without erasing the distinction between God as Creator and us as creatures. 

 We need to realize that failing to listen to God’s voice in an abiding way undermines our humanity, and there’s no other way for us to go than to fall into some anomaly. About this truth we are reminded in the readings of the Mass for Thursday of the 3rd Week of Lent. (cfr. Jer 7,28-28 / Ps 95,1-2.6-7.8-9 / Lk 11,14-23) 

 In the first reading, we are told of how God begged the people to listen to him. “This thing I commanded them, saying: Hearken to my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people: and walk ye in all the way that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you.” 

 But they refused, and so the inevitable happened. “They hearkened not, nor inclined their ear: but walked in their own will, and in the perversity of their wicked heart: and went backward and not forward…” 

 The responsorial psalm presents to us God’s appeal to all of us, to which we should try our best to correspond the best way we can. “If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.” 

 The gospel spells to us in no uncertain terms what would happen to us if we are not with the Lord. “He that is not with me, is against me; and he that gathers not with me, scatters.” That’s simply the way the cookie crumbles. 

 We really need to learn how to listen to God’s voice, discerning his will and ways in an abiding way. In this we should not be sparing in our effort to pursue it. Definitely, it will require of us a lot of discipline, given the way we are, dominated as we are most of the time merely by what we can get through our senses, emotions and our very limited capacity to know and understand things. 

 We have to feel more and more at home with the truth that we are meant to be real contemplatives even as we immerse ourselves in our earthly and temporal affairs. It should encourage to pursue this effort when we realize more deeply that we are meant to share not only the knowledge of God but also, and more importantly, the very power of God as shown to us by Christ who was willing to bear everything just to save us. 

 We have to learn to be both active and contemplative in our life. Active in the sense that we immerse ourselves as deeply as possible in the dynamic of earthly and temporal affairs, while also contemplative in the sense that in all these affairs, we see God, we are driven by love for God and everybody else, we get to know, love and serve him and everybody else. 

 It’s an ideal that definitely is not easy to achieve. But we have our whole life to develop it, and we actually are also given all the means to attain it. It just depends on us as to whether we want to have that ideal or not. We are actually wired and equipped for that ideal, since that’s how God created us.

Beware of the danger of worldly entrapment

THIS worldly entrapment is actually a clear and present danger. But the intriguing part is that hardly anyone is aware of it. Many of us allow ourselves to be caught in the widening web of the modern technologies which, while offering us a lot of conveniences, also hook us into the dynamic of self-indulgence, with love for God and the others practically thrown out of the window. 

 We are reminded somehow of this danger in the readings of the Mass for Wednesday of the 3rd Week of Lent (Dt 4,1.5-9; Mt 5,17-19) where we are strongly told to give priority to following the commandments of God which actually give us the proper condition for us to be in this life. 

 In the first reading, a prophet told the people of Israel, “Give heed to the statutes and ordinances which I teach you, and do them, that you may live, and go in and take possession of the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, gives you.” 

 And in the gospel of the day, we hear Christ telling the crowd who followed him, “Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfil them.” These words clearly tell us where we can find the fulfillment of the law proper to us—it’s in following Christ. 

 We should train ourselves to have as our abiding and strongest passion, as our most precious treasure, the need and urge to be intimate with Christ. We actually cannot afford to be without Christ. The only thing to expect in that condition is to get into some form of disaster! 

 This will, of course, require of us a lot of effort, a tremendous dose of faith, hope and charity, to contend with our usual feeling of doubt and awkwardness with respect to this need of ours. But, to be sure, it would all be worthwhile! We just have to humble ourselves and remind ourselves to always pray, to always do things with Christ and for Christ. We should not take this most basic need of ours for granted. 

 We cannot deny that especially nowadays, the lure and the hook of worldly entrapment that has as its bait the many wonderful technologies we are having these days, can be so overpowering that we can feel helpless before this phenomenon. We really need a lot of discipline to put ourselves always in God’s presence and to consciously follow his will and commandments. 

 In this we have to help one another. We cannot afford to be casual anymore to this need. All around us are many cases of people in certain types of addiction, obsessions and other forms of bondage. 

 Even those who appear to be good and saintly-looking can be in the grip of some of these forms of bondage, usually hidden and well covered by all sorts of justifications and rationalizations. 

 It has to be made clear to everyone that what is proper to us is to have God first and everything else would just follow in their proper order of importance. Let’s never forget that we are meant to be always with God. Our life, given the way we have been created, cannot but be a sharing in God’s life and nature. To stay away from him would be a fundamental anomaly that would have bad consequences for everything else in our life. 

 We should therefore give priority to our spiritual needs of prayer, recourse to the sacraments, development of virtues, the habit of having presence of God always, doing everything with God and for God, etc.

God’s mercy is stronger than our sinfulness

THE readings of the Mass for Tuesday of the 3rd Week of Lent, (Daniel 3,25.34-43; Mt 18,21-35) which this year falls on March 5, remind us that we are all sinners, but God’s mercy is always available if we only do our part of repentance and conversion. Also, the gospel, in particular, highlights the point that in our relation among ourselves, we should be as merciful with each other as God is with us. 

 With respect to our unavoidable sinfulness, we should avoid over-reacting. What we should immediately do is to go to God, asking for forgiveness, promising some amendment and reparation for our sins, and when able, to go to confession. 

 We should avoid staying too long keeping some guilt-feelings and sadness in our heart. These conditions are not good for us. They are harmful, and worse, they can be like wedges that make more openings for temptations to come to us. We should get rid of these feelings as soon as possible. 

 The ideal condition is always for us be at peace with God and with everybody else. We have to ooze with our faith-based confidence. The moment we feel some disturbance in our heart, we should act quickly to seek relief through God’s mercy. Remember St. Paul saying, “Where sin abounded, grace did more abound.” (Rom 5,20) He is slow to anger and quick to forgive. 

 God is always a father to us. He will always understand us and do everything to help us. Before him, we are like little children who cannot avoid making a mess around. Let’s remember that we have to contend not only with our own weaknesses, but also with powerful evil spiritual enemies. 

 Let’s just strengthen our sense of divine filiation, that is, that we are all children of an infinitely good and merciful father who will do everything to bring us back to him. His justice is never without mercy. 

 Whenever we feel the sting of our weaknesses and sinfulness, together with their antecedents and consequences, their causes and effects, let’s never forget to consider also God’s mercy that is always given to us, and, in fact, given to us abundantly. 

 Acknowledging our faults and sinfulness does us a lot of good. It deepens our humility, very crucial in our life for without it, practically no other virtue develops in us. It keeps us simple and prevents us from falling into complications, since we would then have no need to come up with a web of excuses, rationalizations and other unnecessary self-defense mechanisms. 

 Acknowledging our faults and sinfulness leads us to have a working spirit of penance that purifies us and makes up for them. It puts us in the proper condition for further spiritual growth. It gives us greater intimacy with God and closer relationship with others. We would become more objective and fair in our views and outlook, since acknowledging our own faults, defects and sinfulness would make us more understanding towards others. 

 We have to learn to be quick to say sorry to God and to run to him once we feel the sting of our weaknesses and defects, and especially when we fall. We should end our day with an examination of conscience that concludes with that word so endearing to God: Sorry. 

 Given this fact of life about ourselves, we should also be merciful with one another, willing to bear the burden of the others, just as Christ did for all of us on the cross. This is actually how we become more and more Christ-like which is the ideal goal of our life.

Faith should always guide our reason

THAT Bible story about that Syrian general, Naaman, who was a leper, (2 Kings 5,1-15) and the gospel reading about Christ reproaching the people in the synagogue for not believing the prophets (cfr. Lk 4,24-30) remind us that while we have to make full use of our reason, it should always be guided by faith, it should always bow to faith when at a certain point we are made to choose between our faith and our reason. These are the readings of the Mass of Monday of the 3rd Week of Lent. 

 As the Naaman story went, he was at first hesitant to believe what the prophet Eliseus told him, that is, for him to wash 7 times in the River Jordan. He expected that Eliseus would go to him and, invoking God, would heal him. 

 “Are not the Abana, and the Pharphar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel, that I may wash in them, and be made clean?,” Naaman complained. But his servants managed to convince him to follow what the prophet told him. And when he did, he was made clean. 

 The gospel story simply reiterates the same point. Christ told the people in the synagogue of their usual tendency when they would prefer to listen to their own reasoning and estimation of things than to what the prophets would tell them. “No prophet is accepted in his own country,” he lamented, and proceeded to tell them that only those who believed the prophet got their favors granted. 

 We have to realize very deeply that our reason always needs the light of faith. Being the human faculty we use to know and later to love, our reason just cannot be beholden to the data provided by our senses and our own understanding of things.

 That would confine our reasoning to the world of the sensible and the intelligible, that is, to the world of matter and of ideas. Thus conditioned, our reason cannot go beyond those levels and would miss the world of the spiritual and the supernatural. It would get trapped in some subjective mode as opposed to what is entirely objective. 

 It’s important that we do some disciplining to our reasoning because it tends to get contented only with the sensible and the intelligible in the many forms that they come and attract us. It can willingly let itself be held hostage by these dimensions of reality. 

 We know that our reason does not create the truth. It does not create the reality. It can only apprehend, reflect, process and transmit the truth and reality. It will always depend on a reality that is outside and independent of itself. 

 And reality just cannot be sensible and intelligible. A lot more goes into it than what our senses can perceive and our intelligence can discern and understand. Our reason itself, if used properly, can acknowledge that at the limits of its capability, it can discern a world that is beyond the physical and the ideal. 

 This is where we need to humble ourselves, a predicament that many of us find hard to resolve. We tend to hold on to our own ideas and the facts and data that we can manage to gather, guided mainly by our senses and intellect. In short, we make our own selves, and to be more specific, our own senses and intellect, to be our own sole guide, our own god.