When we just go through the motions

WE have to be wary of this tendency of ours. We should not just follow rules and practices blindly and would just go through the motions for the sake of mere compliance. As much as possible, we should know the reason and motive behind our actions and mean them as sincerely as possible. 

 We are reminded of this danger in that gospel episode where Christ lamented over certain practices of the Jews of his time that showed they were just doing them more for the sake of appearance rather than out of a sincere heart. (cfr. Mk 7) 

 “This people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me,” he said and continued to say, “in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines human precepts.” (Mk 7,6-7) 

 To be guarded against this tendency, we need to pause from time to time, and check whether our actuations truly come from the heart, and our intentions are pure. In fact, as much as possible we should make our intention actual, and not just habitual or virtual. 

 This is to protect us from falling into routine that deadens our intentions and leads us to do things just mechanically. As much as possible we should not allow our routinary tasks to muffle our enthusiasm and love for God and others. 

 The challenge is how to keep ourselves burning with love in spite of our routinary tasks. In fact, if we are clever enough like the serpent that Christ talked about, (cfr. Mt 10,16) we can even make use of these routinary tasks as a way to nourish our love for God and others. 

 For this, we have to see to it that we are always activating our faith, hope and charity by making frequent acts of faith, hope and charity in spite of the lack of gusto for them. Much like everything else in our life, there are things that we should just do even if do not feel like doing them simply because they are necessary to us. These frequent acts of faith, hope and charity can do a lot of wonder and can fan into a flame our waning enthusiasm and love for God and others. 

 These theological virtues, these God-given gifts are the ones that enable us to live our life in a way that is full of love, the love that comes from God himself. It’s a love that always renews itself, not allowing itself to get accustomed, much less, bored by what we do every day. 

 As the Catechism would put it, these theological virtues “bestow on one the capacity to live in a relationship with the Trinity. They are the foundation and the energizing force of the Christian’s moral activity and they give life to the human virtues.” (CCC 384) 

 Also, when we do things with the zeal of love for God and for others, we would effectively protect ourselves from the attacks of our own weaknesses and the many temptations around. 

 We need to see to it that every move we make is always done with actual love, a love that should be a channeling of the very love of God as shown to us by Christ. It is a love that knows how to handle any situation in our life, whether good or bad in human terms. It is a supernatural love, not just human love. 

 It is this love, more than anything else, that truly matters in our relation with God and with others.

The lesson from the parable of the 10 virgins

IT’S clear that from this parable (cfr. Mt 25,1-13) we are reminded to be always vigilant in our life, having a clear vision of what the real and ultimate purpose of our life is and of how we can make every event and circumstance of our life pursue that purpose. 

 This idea may scare us at first, as it surely will involve effort and a certain sense of sobriety that we usually regard as a wet blanket to the spontaneous ways of our humanity. But the truth of the matter is that, whether we like it or not, our life here on earth is a test God is giving us to see if what he wants us to be is also what we ourselves would want to be. 

 In a sense, our life here on earth is like a business enterprise. In fact, it is the most serious and most important business that we can involve ourselves in. And we just have to learn how we can make that business successful. 

 This will require some training, of course. We have to develop the proper understanding and attitude toward the purpose of our life, and acquire the relevant skills. We have to know what means and resources we can use. We have to be familiar with the terrain of our drama of our life so we would know how to handle the different conditions and situations we can encounter in our life. 

 We also have to have a good knowledge of our own selves, making an assessment of our strengths and weaknesses, our assets and liabilities, so to speak. A good practice in this regard is to make daily examinations of conscience, so we would have a running account, so to speak, of how our life is going with respect to its pursuit of its real goal. 

 To do regular examination is a must for all of us to see if our life, our behavior, our conscience are still on the right track. Otherwise, we open ourselves to all kinds of deviations. 

 Let’s hope that this need for regular examination be felt by all of us, especially in the personal level, since the vitality and effectiveness of our life, from its personal level to its most global and even cosmic dimensions, greatly depends on that exercise. 

 It’s there in the examination of conscience where we review our performance of the day in the moral sense. After all, the moral quality of our life, the result of our moral human acts, holds ultimate value over the other aspects of our life. 

 Everyday, we should have the sensation that through all the events and circumstances of the day, we are making progress in our pursuit for the ultimate purpose of our life. When some problems arise or when we feel we are not making progress, we should make the necessary resolutions to address these problems. 

 We have to be reminded that everything is already given to us so that whatever happens in our life, we have been provided with all the means—the doctrine of our faith, the sacraments, and others. 

 It is also good that we avail of spiritual direction so we can be given the appropriate and timely pieces of advice, suggestions and reminders related to our spiritual life, to our relation with God and others, and to our other responsibilities. 

 It’s important that in this drama of our life, we should maintain a strong faith and hope. We should try to have that ideal condition of being at peace with ourselves and with everybody else, and always eager to do good for God’s glory.

The dividend of our suffering

IN the Memorial of the Passion of St. John the Baptist, celebrated on August 29, we are reminded of the ideal that we should not to be afraid of suffering and even of martyrdom, out of our love and fidelity to God, because in the end a greater good can come out of it. 

 As we can see in the martyrdom of St. John the Baptist, brought about by the most unfair of reasons, the event galvanized the faith of the apostles and the early Christians, and sowed the seed of the spread of the Christian message. 

 For us, suffering and death should always be a given. They should not anymore be a surprise. In fact, we have to keep them in mind always, preparing ourselves always for them, since if we have to be consistent with our Christian life, we know that to follow Christ, we have to deny ourselves and carry the cross. (cfr. Mt 16,24) 

 Christ told us to be willing to lose not only things and other precious items and persons, but also our life itself, because if done with and for God, we will gain a lot more than what we may appear to lose. Christ said it clearly: “Whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.” (Mt 10,39) 

 More, he said that “everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.” (Mt 19,29) 

 We should keep these divine assurances strongly in mind so that we would know what to do when suffering and death would eventually come. We have to learn to see them as an invitation to be more and more like Christ as we should. 

 Given our wounded condition in this life, there are times when what Christ said once can come true. We should be willing to lose an arm, a hand and an eye, if they cause us to sin. (cfr. Mt 5,29-32) Christ himself walked the talk when he himself offered not only a part of his body, but his very own life itself on the cross just to save us. 

 Yes, there can be joy 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. With him, suffering loses its purely negative and painful character, and assumes 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. The self-denial and the carrying of the cross, as Christ taught us, 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. It is how our suffering can acquire a redemptive value. 

 Our motive for suffering should be like that of Christ. It’s 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. Only through it can our suffering give us the greatest dividend—our own purification, sanctification, salvation.

Only with God can we be truly sincere

WITH Christ lambasting the scribes and Pharisees of his time for their hypocrisy (cfr. Mt 23,27-32), we are somehow reminded that the secret to be truly sincere and to keep our integrity and consistency is simply to be with God who is Truth himself and our source and enabler of our own sincerity. 

 There is no other way to be sincere and truthful which is not simply a matter of spouting facts and data. To be in the truth requires a lot more than just giving out facts and data. It involves all the other things like justice, fairness, charity, mercy, etc. 

 Much less is truth only about a certain view or choice that may be supported by a majority of the people. Truth can only be found in God when the Spirit of Truth shows us what truth is. 

 To know the truth and to be in the truth are a matter of being discerning of what the Holy Spirit tells and shows us. In short, we cannot know and be in the truth unless we follow what the Spirit tells us. Bluntly said, we cannot be in the truth unless we are vitally connected with God who is actually always with us. The problem is that we oftentimes ignore him. 

 We have to realize that facts and data need a proper spirit for them to serve the cause of truth. We need to realize that truth in the context or setting of our human condition needs a proper spirit. Without considering the proper spirit, they can only be used—or misused—by all sorts of possible human motives that in the end may not be right for us, or may just be self-serving to some of us but harmful to others. 

 The truth that comes from the Spirit of truth obviously can make use of facts and data and the results of some majority vote, but it will always be a dynamic one that in the end would lead us to our ultimate goal in life—our own salvation, our attainment of the fullness of our human dignity as children of God, sharers of his divine life and nature. It’s also one that works for the unity of all of us, not division. 

 This understanding of truthfulness is very much needed especially in our political life. As we can readily see, there is so much partisanship that it would be practically impossible to tell whether a partisan is completely truthful. 

 Since we cannot avoid politics due to our human condition that requires us to be continually organizing ourselves for the common good, we cannot help but come up with different and even conflicting views and positions.

 We have to be ready to face this challenge of resolving these issues as best that we can, that is, in a way that is worthy of our dignity as persons, children of God, and as a people capable of governing ourselves properly. Only then can we be truthful in spite of our differences and conflicts. 

 Thus, it’s imperative that we know what is to be a person, a child of God and a self-governing people. This obviously will require that we are grounded on some clear creed. And the Christian faith, more than any other man-made ideology, can provide that. 

 It’s our Christian faith that constitutes the ultimate basis of what is good and bad for us as individual persons and as political beings as well. It provides us with the standards to know the distinction between things with absolute value in our life and those with only relative value. It provides us with the ultimate truth.

Straining a gnat while swallowing a camel

THIS was how Christ described the self-righteous scribes and Pharisees of his time. (cfr. Mt 23,23-26) This was a lamentation of Christ that can still be applicable nowadays. 

 And that’s simply because we cannot deny that there is a great majority of people today all over the world who are getting trapped in the details while ignoring the whole picture, or stuck in their earthly and temporal concerns while being unmindful of their eternal goal. 

 Many are lost in the technicalities of the things they are handling and do not realize that these technicalities are meant to bring them to the ultimate goal of their life. In the end, many are falling into the dynamics of self-indulgence without referring the things they handle to God. 

 We need to be aware of this constant danger that is made stronger and more vicious because of today’s more powerful technologies, sciences and ideologies that can so easily and irresistibly swallow us in their purely human and natural dynamics as to desensitize us from our true and ultimate goal that requires us to transcend the natural level to enter into the supernatural life of God as we are meant to share. 

 Yes, 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 sticky web of the modern technologies which, while offering us a lot of conveniences, also hook us, with their clickbaits, into the dynamic of self-indulgence, with love for God and the others practically thrown out of the window. 

 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 need to 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. 

 Let’s make God the beginning and end of everything that we do. He should always be in our mind and heart, in our thoughts, intentions and desires, in our feelings and passions. He should always be in our deeds. And because of him and through him, the others should also always be in our mind and heart. 

 Without God and without the others, let’s be convinced that we are actually lost, even if we feel that we are conquering the world and are having a nice time. Let’s do everything that God and the others become the fixed reference points of our life. They are meant to lead us to our true maturity, our fulfillment and perfection, our joy. 

 We have to learn how to adapt to the new things without getting lost and confused about what is truly essential that will always be the same.

Hypocrisy, discretion and our inconsistencies

WE are precisely reminded of these points in that gospel episode where Christ issued a series of “Woe to you’s” to some people of the time precisely for their hypocrisy and their very narrow, shallow and outright erroneous understanding of what is right and wrong in their practices. (cfr. Mt 23,13-22) 

 Hypocrisy, of course, is sinful and should be rejected, since it is an intentional break between what one believes and teaches, and what he practices. It is meant to deceive others and is often motivated by pride, envy, lust, laziness, etc. 

 Discretion is an act of prudence which allows us to hide certain things for these things ought not to be known. There is such thing as secrecy of office, for example, where confidential information should not be indiscriminately spread, or where some pieces of information are withheld since a person asking for them may have no right to know those pieces of information. 

 There is also the case of our inconsistencies that are due to our weaknesses, limitations, and sin. That’s when we fail to practice what we believe or preach. These inconsistencies are not necessarily sinful. They are a fact of life, part of our wounded condition here on earth, but we should learn how to handle them properly. 

 In all these, what is most important to remember is that we should try our best to develop a keen sense of transparency and accountability. These traits assure us that we are on the right path. That is to say, we have nothing bad to hide, and more, we are seeing to it that we are responsible for what God has given us, making these God-given gifts fruitful and productive. 

 A good sense of transparency will help us develop and sustain our integrity in life. It means that everything that we do is good, that is, morally good. This sense of transparency can only take root when it is based on our faith in God who sets all the laws in our life, and therefore, all that is good for us. 

 Besides, God actually sees everything. Before him, nothing can be hidden. We therefore have to adapt a lifestyle that would make us do everything in his presence. In fact, we are not simply meant to do things in his presence. It is more to do everything for God’s glory. Thus, when we do things without God in mind, let us be warned that we are already doing things wrongly. 

 We have to learn to be brutally sincere in everything that we do, and especially when we go to confession and to spiritual direction. We have to learn to lay all our cards on the table so that the human instruments used by God to help us in our spiritual life, can truly help us. 

 We should not be afraid or ashamed to do so, because in these occasions, it is indeed God who is acting through the human instrumentalities. We have to approach confession and spiritual direction with a strong supernatural outlook, because it is only then that we can go beyond our human respect. 

 To put it bluntly, we can only be in the truth and at the same time discreet and able to properly deal with our occasional inconsistencies when we are with God. Outside of him, let’s wish ourselves sheer luck, because the most likely thing to happen is to slip from the truth. It´s like chasing the wind. For all the excitement and advantages a Godless pursuit of truth gives, everything would just turn out to be vanity.

We should always be guided by faith

THAT is how we should be. Our life does not contend only with the things of nature. It has to contend with spiritual and supernatural realities that often are shrouded in so deep and thick mysteries that no matter how much we try, we can never understand them fully. We should just rely on the faith God, the Creator and Author of everything, shares with us. 

 We are reminded of this condition of our life in that gospel episode where Christ, after telling his disciples that they have to eat the flesh of Christ and drink his blood to be with Christ, left them completely astonished. “This saying is hard; who can accept it?” was their reaction. (Jn 6,60) 

 Faith is our way of tackling with the infinite, the spiritual and supernatural mysteries in our life. And since this is a life-long condition of ours, we have to understand that our life is a life of faith. We are not ruled only by reason and will, much less by feelings and instincts alone. 

 We are designed for faith. In spite of the mysteries in our life, sooner or later, we end up just believing in something. Even if one were to say that he does not believe in anything, that position alone is already an act of faith. 

 While there can be an endless variety of beliefs, the distinctive mark of the Christian faith is that it comes from outside and above us. It’s supernatural. It’s not completely subjective nor merely human. It’s based on a revelation that has Christ at its center and as its fullness. It is God sharing his knowledge with us. 

 Our reasoning and intelligence should always be guided by faith. Otherwise, it has no other way but to fall into making its own world, its own narrative, that can contain a lot of facts and reasonable arguments and points, but will definitely miss the most important and original truth—everything related to God. 

 We should just imitate the faith, for example, of Our Lady who at the Annunciation asked at first how she could conceive the Son of God. When she was told that the Holy Spirit will overshadow her and she will then conceive the son of God in her womb, definitely she could understand how that was to be, and yet she just said in great faith, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done to me according to your word.” (Lk 1,38) And she conceived the very son of God. 

 Another example is that of St. Peter who, when told by Christ to go into the deep water and lay out the net for a catch, at first responded, “Master, we have worked hard all night and have not caught anything,” but later, because of his faith, said: “But because you say so, I will let down the nets.” And a big haul of fish was caught. (cfr. Lk 5,5) 

 When we are guided by faith, we can start to share the very life, nature and power of God. We can manage to have hope of things taught to us by Christ even if at the moment they look impossible to take place. More importantly, we can manage to have more or less the same love Christ has shown us and has commanded us to have. It’s a love that goes beyond human standards since it includes loving even our enemies. 

 We should try our best to live by faith always that would enrich and enable our human reasoning to enter into the world of God, and not just trapped in the things of the natural world.

Love is a necessity

WE can come to that conclusion when we consider what Christ’s answer was when he was asked what the greatest commandment of God was. “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment,” he said. Then he added, “The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Mt 22,37-39) 

 Let’s remember always that we are meant for loving. Love should be the very essence of our humanity as it is the very essence of God himself who created us to be his image and likeness, children of his, sharers of his life and nature. 

 We have to understand that if we truly are in love, we would like to know how much love we are giving or living and whether the love we have is true love or is just an appearance of it. We know very well that we are fond of saying we love God and others, and yet at closer scrutiny, it’s really not love that we are giving. 

 We already are told that true love is a love without measure. It means that we just have to give ourselves more and more, without ever saying enough. True love goes all the way to the extent of giving one’s very own life for the beloved. 

 That is the subjective side of love which is already very commendable. We should try to do all to take care of that requirement of love. But we have to realize that even if we give ourselves completely to our beloved, we may still end up not truly loving. We need to realize that love has its objective nature. And that nature is what Christ told us about it. 

 He told us that the main object of our love should be God himself to whom we have to give ourselves with all our heart and mind. And because of him, we ought to love everybody else, since it is in the very nature of God to love all his creation, to man especially. 

 Even the devils are not exempted from this love of God. The problem is that the devils do not love God in return. God never ceases to love anyone even if that love is not reciprocated. 

 The objective nature of love is for us to love God by following his commandments, that is, doing his will. Christ himself said as much: “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” (Jn 14,15) 

 This is the ultimate of love. And this is the love we have to aim at. This we can only do if we truly identify ourselves with Christ. There’s no way we can have that kind of love unless we are vitally identified with Christ. It’s a love that is full of compassion and mercy, and is fully given even if it is not reciprocated. 

 We have to make sure that we are always burning with the zeal of love. We have the danger to fall easily into complacency, lukewarmness, mediocrity. We should always be on the lookout for these perils. 

 We need to fill our mind and heart with love, and all that love brings—goodness, patience, understanding and compassion, mercy, gratuitous acts of service, generosity and magnanimity. 

 Yes, love is a necessity for us to be truly human and a child of God. But it’s a necessity that has to be developed and pursued freely, even if some forcefulness would be involved.

Good governance and visioning

THAT gospel parable about a king who gave a wedding feast for his son (cfr. Mt 22,1-14) reminds us that we should be ready when God calls us to himself. In that parable, the king was frustrated because all those whom he invited refused to come. And so, he ordered his servants to call whoever they would meet in the highways and byways. Still, he expected that those who would come would at least be properly dressed. 

 This means that we should truly be prepared for the eventual call and invitation that God would give us so we can be with him as he wants us to be. In this regard, we have to know how to “govern” our life such that at any time we would be ready for this eventuality. 

 Yes, some art of good governance over our life should be learned. We just cannot be at the mercy of chance and fortune. We need to know and be constantly aware of the real and constant purpose of our life, and arrange our life in such a way that that purpose is always pursued. 

 Just like in any serious business enterprise, there has to be goals set, short-term and long-term plans made, regular reviews, auditing and pertinent modifications made. We should have the sensation that there is progress in the pursuit of the real purpose of our life. Of course, when we notice that the “balance sheet” at any given moment of our life shows a red rather than a black, we should immediately do something to correct it. 

 Knowing that the real progress in our life is ultimately measured in our love for God and for others, we should somehow try to echo some lyrics of an old Spiral Staircase song which goes this way: “I love you more today than yesterday, but not as much as tomorrow!” 

 We should have a clear vision of our ultimate and definitive eternal destination and able to relate everything in our life to that goal. For this purpose, we should develop the practice of making daily examinations of conscience. 

 In our spiritual life, it is important that we settle accounts with God regularly. In fact, saints and the Church herself have recommended that we make a daily examination of conscience just before going to bed. 

 This practice can only mean that we understand that our life is not just a natural, material, individual or social affair. Or that it is simply our own life. It would show that we know that our life is a life with God and with others, pursued and developed in the spiritual and moral spheres more than anything else. 

 We need to do some accounting of it not only for our own interest, but also and more importantly for the sake of God and of the others. It would show that we understand that our human acts—those that we do knowingly and freely and thus we are responsible for them—either lead us to our proper end or not. Thus, we understand that our human acts have a moral dimension and therefore need to be assessed by us. 

 It would also make us aware of our most basic duty as children of God to pursue our own personal sanctification and to cooperate in the continuing work of God’s redemption of mankind through personal apostolate. 

 This way, we can somehow feel secure that at any given moment we would be eternity-ready, prepared to see God for judgment when he would finally call us to himself!

Be wary of envy

THIS is a common problem. To be blunt, it happens because one’s intentions are not pure. Rather they bear a lot of ulterior motives that only focus on one’s self-interest. 

 We have to be wary of envy. And to protect ourselves from it, we need to see to it that our intentions are always pure, that is, everything should be done out of pure love for God and neighbor irrespective of the circumstances. 

 Even if things give us some inconveniences or some unfairness, we should simply keep our love, as shown to us by Christ, intact and alive. And to attain that state of mind, what we have to do is simply to forget oneself and to think only of God and the good of the others. 

 It pays also to have a sporting attitude toward life and to have a good and healthy sense of humor. These can only happen if our belief in what St. Paul once said is strong and deep. “All things work together for good to them that love God,” he said. (Rom 8,28) 

 We therefore have to develop a strong spiritual sportsmanship in the tenor expressed in some words of St. Paul: “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it.” (1 Cor 9,24) 

 Aside from a strong sense of self-discipline and submitting ourselves in a continuing training program, an indispensable ingredient of this healthy sporting spirit is the sense of acceptance and abandonment that we need to deliberately cultivate. This does not come automatically, as if it’s part of our genes. We have to develop them. 

 We have to learn to accept things the way they are or the way they can be. Yes, it’s true that we can shape things and events in our life. We can even shape persons to a certain extent. 

 Also, the need to integrate humor into our life has to be understood on the basis of God’s unwavering love for us. We have no reason to plunge into deep worry and anxiety, no matter how big our difficulties are, since God will take care of everything, for as long as we at least don’t formally go against him. 

 Yes, we can still commit mistakes and all kinds of sins even with our best intentions and efforts. But as long as we go back to him, everything will be just fine. Those sins and mistakes, in God’s providence, can also occasion bigger graces from God. 

 We have to be cheerful all the way, deliberately training ourselves in this field, since with our human weakness and some adverse world conditions, we can easily be overcome by worry and anxiety. 

 Cheerfulness, even in its form of naughty humor, has very salutary effects and advantages. It makes us see things better. It makes us more flexible and more able to handle varying situations. 

 With these traits, we can somehow manage to avoid falling into envy when we feel that others are getting ahead of us while we seem to be lagging behind. We can manage to avoid comparing ourselves to others unduly. We can manage to think well of everyone even if we see some unfairness in our dealings. 

 We have to learn how to slay envy everytime it makes us its port of call. We have to let it know immediately that it is unwelcome. And the way to do it is to go to Christ immediately, praying, sacrificing, and reminding ourselves of Christ’s example and teaching.

All called to holiness and apostolate

WE have to be most aware of this basic truth about ourselves. We are all called by God, our Creator and Father, to be holy and to do apostolate for the simple reason that we have been created by God in his image and likeness. And even if we fall into sin, we are also given the means through Christ, our Redeemer, of how to handle that condition so that in the end we can manage to be what God wants us to be. 

 We have to overcome the thinking that this duty to seek holiness and to do apostolate is only for priests, religious and other so-called special people. It is for everyone. And so, we just have to sharpen our awareness of this truth about ourselves and to spread this truth as widely as possible, since we all know that many still are ignorant of it, let alone, making their life consistent to that truth. 

 Ever wondered why Christ chose his apostles practically randomly? He, for example, would just pass by Matthew in his tax collector’s table and say, “Come, follow me,” without as much checking on Matthew’s background. 

 Same with brothers Peter and Andrew, and James and John. Christ would just call them, and without asking any question they simply left their nets, for they were fishermen, and followed Christ. 

 In the end, he would also call Judas Iscariot who would later betray him. Christ, being God, would have known that Judas would turn him in. But that did not deter him. He called Judas to be one of the original 12 apostles just the same. 

 The only reason I can find for this behavior of Christ is that he has the right to call anyone and everyone to follow him. And that’s simply because, as God, he has that right since all of us come from him and belong to him. As redeemer, he calls everyone to follow him. 

 And just as there is the universal call to holiness, there is also the universal call to the apostolate. This is what is to be an authentic Christian. No one can be a true Christian if he fails to pursue this dual goal of holiness and apostolate. In a way, we can say that a Christian is both a saint and an apostle. 

 This universal call to the apostolate stems from the basic human need of ours to be concerned always with everybody else. As persons, we are not meant to be by ourselves. We are meant to be always in relation with the others. And that relation should be one that is good and helpful to the others. 

 And from the human need to be good and helpful to everyone, we are asked to elevate that concern to the supernatural level where we can be with God. That means that our relation with others should not just remain in the human and natural level, but should be developed in view of our common supernatural goal to be with God, to be holy and to truly love one another as Christ himself as loved us. (cfr. Jn 13,34) 

 We need to train ourselves to be apostolic all the time. We have to realize that if we simply are aware of this universal call to the apostolate, everything in our life can and should be an occasion to do apostolate. Even when we are isolated, we can still do apostolate by simply praying and offering sacrifices for the others, etc.

Beware of our earthly attachments

THAT parable of the rich young man (cfr. Mt 19,16-22) clearly warns us that we have to be wary of our strong tendency to get attached and entrapped in our worldly things to the extent that we would be willing to unfollow Christ in order to follow our mundane attachments. 

 It’s actually a crazy thing to choose the things of the world over Christ, and yet we seem helpless to choose otherwise. This only means that we should really intensify our relation with Christ, unafraid to go through the requirements of detachment and the cross that Christ himself also commanded us to live if we truly want to follow him. (cfr. Mt 16,24) 

 We really need to learn how to be properly detached from earthly things especially nowadays when we are easily drawn by the glut of attractive material and temporal things. The Christian virtue of poverty and detachment has as its primary purpose that of emptying our mind and heart of anything that can compete or, worse, replace the love for God and for others which is proper to all of us. 

 It’s not about running away from worldly things, much less, of hating the goods of the earth and our temporal affairs, but of knowing how to handle them, so as not to compromise the fundamental law of love that should rule us. 

 To repeat, it is not just a matter of emptying ourselves but rather of filling ourselves with what is proper to us. In short, we practice detachment to acquire and enhance the attachment right for us as God’s image and likeness and as God’s children. 

 Christ told us very clearly that we should “seek first the kingdom of God and his justice.” And he assured us that all the things we need in our life here on earth shall be added. (Mt 6,33) This should always be the trajectory of our attitude towards life, our work and the use of material things. Any other direction would be fatal to our spiritual and moral life. 

 So, the detachment our Lord is asking of us actually does not mean that we hate our life, our parents and others, and the things of this world. Rather it is a detachment that asks of us to have rectitude of intention, that everything that we do be for the glory of God! 

 St. Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians said as much: “Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatsoever else you do, do all to the glory of God.” (10,31) 

 We should not be afraid to go through the required sacrifices and self-denial, since these can only lead us to the joy and peace meant for us. We need to do better than have a shallow and narrow view of our earthly life, a knee-jerk reaction to things. 

 In this regard, we really need to learn how to deal with the many distractions we have to contend with these days. These distractions take us away from our real destination who is God. While these distractions can also have their legitimate value, we have to realize that unless they are related to God, that value can become false and dangerous. 

 We have to be guarded against our tendency to be easily taken by them. For this, we need to discipline our feelings and passions. We have to give directions to our thoughts. But most importantly, we have to ground our heart on the rich, fertile soil of faith, hope and charity!

The Living Bread that gives us eternal life

CHRIST said that of himself. “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.” (Jn 6,51) 

 We need to savor these words of Christ if only to strengthen our belief that in the Holy Eucharist, in the Blessed Sacrament, in the Holy Communion, what we have is the real and living Christ and not just a symbol of him. 

 We need to level up our awareness of this reality which, of course, can be accessed only if we have faith that is nourished by real piety and devotion. We need to realize more deeply that what Christ offers in the Holy Eucharist is he himself who wants to be with us to the extent of wanting to enter into our own body, so he and us can be made one, as we should be. 

 Yes, when we receive him in Holy Communion, we actually would have the eternal life already with us, although still in a tentative, not yet in a definitive, state. This is a truth of our faith that should always be kept alive and vivid in our mind and heart so that we learn to live the life that is proper to us, that is, as God our Father and Creator wants it for us. 

 We need to be aware of the real dignity that we have, a dignity that God is giving us, a dignity that brings us to the level of God, no matter how unworthy we feel we are. We should just “force” ourselves to believe this truth since there is no way we can understand it if we simply rely on our natural reasoning. 

 We should just follow the example of Mary who, upon being told that she was going to be the mother of the son of God, asked how it can be. But when it was told to her that the Holy Spirit would overshadow her and she would conceive the son in her womb, she simply said, “Be it done according to your word,” even if she definitely did not quite know how that would happen. She just “forced” herself to believe out of faith. 

 It’s this kind of faith that we ought to have with respect to the real presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament or to Christ as the Bread of Life who wants to be taken by us, so we can have eternal life. 

 It is once again the time to enliven our faith, suspend for a while our human perception of things and allow Christ to tell us things, since he truly tells us nothing other than the ultimate truths that can go over and above what we, with our human and natural powers, can perceive, much less comprehend. 

 We have to realize that in spite of our best efforts to know and understand things, we know that we cannot apprehend everything, much less understand things fully and with finality. And yet we somehow can discern that the reality that governs us goes beyond what we can perceive and understand. 

 That is simply because of the spiritual character of our nature that would somehow enable us to have at least an inkling, an intimation of the spiritual, let alone, supernatural realities. These are realities that go beyond the sensible world. More than that, these are realities that are poised to make us enter into the supernatural realities since we know we have to contend with mysteries.

Marriage and divorce

“SOME Pharisees approached Jesus, and tested him, saying, ‘Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause whatever?’” (Mt 19,3) 

 This is the opening passage of the gospel of the Mass on Friday of the 19th Week in Ordinary Time. It brings out the question of marriage and divorce that now is being hotly discussed in many parts of the country. 

 Some proponents of divorce claim that we seem to be backward since we are practically the only country that does not have a divorce law yet. It’s an argument that does not really need any serious attention. Truth is, we should be very proud that we do not have a divorce law, since divorce is from beginning to end an anomaly. 

 Divorce clearly goes against the very nature of marriage that is validly entered into by a couple. It breaks something that is supposed to be lifelong, regardless of the things that can take place in it. 

 As the couple vowed on their wedding day, they committed themselves to be wedded to each other “for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do us part.” 

 Of course, the nature of marriage is defined not by us but by God, the Creator. And as Christ himself said it clearly, when a marriage takes place, “a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. So, they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, a man must not separate.” (Mt 19,5-6) 

 Perhaps to explain it in more common language, we can say that in marriage it is presumed that it is love that motivates the couple to enter into it. And by definition, love is total self-giving which, in this case, since it involves the use of the body which cannot be shared with anybody else once it is given to one spouse, can only be entered into by one man and one woman and for a lifetime. 

 The difficulties and challenges the couple meet in their marriage are always to be expected. They always come, one way or another, in one form or another, whatever one’s state of life is. But if the couple is animated by their Christian faith, they know that these difficulties and challenges are the occasions and reasons for their love to grow even stronger and more meaningful. 

 The nature of marriage can be defined by just looking at it, discerning what it is supposed to be, what its purpose is, etc. It’s based on the nature itself of man who for his proper development needs an institution to perpetuate himself and his descendants in a way fit for his dignity. 

 And this can only be marriage as it is known up to now—a life-long commitment between a man and a woman, based on the fullness of love that includes the use of the body. 

 We are capable of entering into this commitment, and this commitment also in turn helps in developing us toward full human maturity. We are capable of this commitment because in spite of our changing conditions there is something in us—precisely our spirit, our soul, our heart and will—that enables us to remain constant and consistent even as we face varying circumstances. 

 That is why, more than our bodily senses and powers, we really have to take care of our spiritual faculties, because they are the main engine for our development and our fidelity in our commitments.

Orienting our body to the spiritual and the supernatural

THAT’S the task and the duty that we are reminded of on the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, celebrated on August 15. Our body, just like our spiritual soul, is expected to also share in the very life and nature of God. 

 If Christ, the pattern of our humanity and savior of our damaged humanity, resurrected and ascended into heaven both as God and man, both with his human body and soul, we too are expected to attain our ultimate and eternal status with our body perfectly united to our spiritual soul that is elevated to the supernatural life and nature of God. 

 Precisely, Our Lady who typifies the perfection of humanity, validated this truth of our Christian faith with her Assumption into heaven. We should never fail to realize that we can also go to Our Lady, who is also a mother to us, to teach us how our body can deserve to share the divine life and nature. 

 Given that dignity of our human body, we have to make sure that our piety and our devotion to God and everything related to him has to involve both the body and soul. It has to involve our whole person. It just cannot be purely spiritual or purely material. It just cannot be only a matter of knowing the doctrine, quite cerebral in approach, without some external manifestations, or of practicing all sorts of devotional exercises, without knowing the doctrine of faith. 

 If piety has to be authentic and consistent in all circumstances, then it has to be lived both in our spiritual soul whose main faculties are our intellect and will, and in our material body whose link to our soul, the principle of life, are the emotions and passions, the memory and the imagination, our temperament and psychological state, etc. 

 When piety is limited to one or the other essential element of our being, to either our spiritual soul or the material body, then it cannot be consistent. It cannot hold out against that anomaly for long. It sooner or later will fall into the tricks of hypocrisy and self-deception. 

 We need to see to it that our body is properly animated by the spirit of Christ, which is a spirit of love, a spirit of self-giving, willing to make sacrifices even up to death for love of God and of everybody else. This spirit of Christ should be felt in the body. And let’s convince ourselves that it is in this way that our body acquires its best condition. 

 It’s in this way that our body too will always look for Christ and for others out of pure love. We have to be wary of letting our body be animated by other spirits—like the spirit of the flesh, the spirit of world, or even the evil spirit. 

 In fact, to be realistic, we always need to subject our body to some discipline, sometimes of the severe kind, because our body is always weak no matter how strong it looks physically. It will always tend to indulge itself to madness, often falling into some forms of addiction and bondage. It’s our built-in potential traitor. 

 We should subject the body to the dynamics of our spiritual soul that in turn is subject also to the dynamics of faith, hope and charity, or in short, the dynamics of the life of God from whom our soul springs as God’s image and likeness.

Spiritual childhood relevant in our complicated times

“THE disciples approached Jesus and said, ‘Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven?’ He called a child over, placed it in their midst, and said, ‘Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the Kingdom of heaven.’” (Mt 18,1-3) 

 Definitely, these words of Christ are a call for us to live what is known in spiritual literature as spiritual childhood. We may already be an old person with a lot of knowledge and experience, but we should not forget that we ought to be always humble and simple like a little child if we want to maintain our true dignity as children of God, capable of entering heaven. 

 Especially nowadays when things are quite complicated and confusing, this spirit of spiritual childhood will protect us from being swallowed up in our now chaotic world. It would help us keep clearly and strongly what the essential things in our life are, what the real purpose of our life is. It will help us to stick with God always rather than be entangled in our earthly things. 

 It’s also when we are simple and humble as a child that we would attract God’s loving care for us. In this regard, let’s always remember what Christ said once: “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.” (Mt 11,25) 

 We cannot deny that nowadays there are many things that can grab and steal our attention and can hook us into the dynamics of self-indulgence. There are just so many distractions that can ultimately lead us to our destruction. We truly need to be most discerning in the way we handle things, because they either give us good openings and opportunities or lead us to take sweet poisons. 

 And the secret is always to be closely united with Christ with whom we can put ourselves properly guarded. With him we would know what really comes from God and what comes from something else. 

 Let’s always remember that evil cannot stand on its own. It will always need the cover of something good to inject us with its toxin. We need to be clever, as Christ himself told us, without losing our innocence. (cfr. Mt 10,16) We should not be naïve. That is why we have to be most discerning of the spirit behind each thing that we handle and each event that can take place in our life. There is a good spirit and a bad one. 

 When we are with Christ, we would always be prudent in the use of things in general. There is always an element of detachment and of keeping distance even as we immerse ourselves in the things of the world. This detachment is for us to see if we are doing things according to God’s will and not being swallowed by the dynamics of worldly forces that can be very engaging and irresistible. 

 Let’s be wary always of the danger of self-indulgence that is clearly becoming widespread. There is a slippery slope toward it. For example, we can start going to the Internet for the legitimate purpose of getting information that we need. But along the way, we get distracted by something else that can appear to us as interesting. 

 We take a bite, and then another bite, until we fail to realize that we are already getting entangled and hooked. It is like being hijacked. We lose our sense of direction, and before we know it, we would already have forgotten why we went to the Internet in the first place.

Our naturalness and our supernatural bearing

WHEN Christ asked Peter if he too should pay taxes, (cfr. Mt 17,22-27) we are given some kind of indication that we should know how to live naturalness in the world while always keeping our spiritual and supernatural bearing. 

 Especially nowadays when things are getting more complicated and confusing, we really would need how to properly blend naturalness with the spiritual and supernatural goal we are supposed to pursue. 

 Naturalness has something to do with how to handle our human condition considering what we ought to be and what we are at the moment. Fact is, we have a supernatural goal, nothing less than to be united with God, which we have to pursue in the context of our human and natural world. 

 Naturalness is about how to mix the spiritual and material dimensions of our life, our personal and social aspects, and other elements in our life that, given the way we are, appear to compete with each other. How to integrate and harmonize them is the task of naturalness. 

 Naturalness is a very active affair, lived day to day, moment to moment, as we grapple with the continuous flow of our concerns. It’s the front man who does the dirty job of the bigger virtues of discretion, prudence and ultimately charity, the foot soldier who does the hand-to-hand combat, the peddler who does the door-to-door selling. 

 It has to know when to push and when to pull, what to say and show and what to be quiet about and hide. Obviously, it has to follow a game plan, with a clear goal in mind and a detailed knowledge of all the elements it has to contend with. 

 It has to know when to be active and when to be passive, when to be aggressive and when to be patient and tolerant. Of course, in our spiritual life, these elements while initially contrasting, can be blended and lived simultaneously, obviously an effect of grace and our cleverness. 

 It also has to know how to project oneself to the future, given the data of the present and of the past. It has to learn how to relate history and current events with eternity. It should know how to connect the mundane with the sacred, properly managing our earthly resources to pursue our spiritual and supernatural goal. 

 Naturalness is strengthened when we deepen our convictions about our ultimate goal as well as in our continuing observations and growing wealth of experience of passing things. In a sense, we should have our mind and heart in heaven while keeping our feet firmly grounded on earth. 

 In short, it knows how to blend what is necessary in our life with what is contingent, what has absolute value with what is relative, what is of faith with what is cultural. It knows what to draw and learn from experience, what to keep and what to discard along the way. 

 What would greatly help here is to keep an ongoing conversation with Christ who is the very model of how to blend the natural and the supernatural. There should be a streaming awareness that we are with God even when we are doing the most mundane activities. 

 This is the goal that we should try to reach, overcoming what separates our life from the life of God. While it’s true that there is distinction between the two, there ought to be unity between them.

Sharpening our Eucharistic piety

WE should try to avoid the reaction of some Jews who could not believe what Christ said when he told them: “I am the living bread which came down from heaven.” (Jn 6,41) Instead, we should sharpen our Eucharistic piety, convinced that whenever we are before the Blessed Sacrament, we actually are having a living encounter with Christ in real time. 

 If we take seriously this truth of faith, we can just imagine how overwhelmed we would be with both joy and concern since we cannot deny that it would be quite a challenge for us to properly deal with this reality. But we can always try. 

 What we have to do is to stir up our duty to adore Christ, which is a basic attitude we ought to have toward Christ really present in the Blessed Sacrament. Adoration is the primal attitude we ought to have, if we want to remain faithful and true to our identity not only as God’s creatures but also as God’s children. This is what our Catechism affirms— 

 “Adoration is the first attitude of man acknowledging that he is a creature before his Creator. It exalts the greatness of the Lord who made us and the almighty power of the Savior who sets us free from evil.” (CCC 2628) 

 In short, an abiding attitude of adoration, regardless of what we may doing at a given moment, makes us always united to God and converts all our activities into God’s work and not just our own. 

 Adoration is our way of entering into a life with God, which is what our life is all about. It’s a shared life, not just our own life. Thus, failing in that duty, we have no other possibility but to miss the boat, regardless of our brilliant performances in our earthly life. 

 Adoration is never an idle activity, completely useless and irrelevant especially to our very active life now. As the Catechism says, “Human life finds its unity in the adoration of the one God. The commandment to worship the Lord alone integrates man and saves him from an endless disintegration.” (2114) 

 Aside from adoration, we should be filled with the desire of praising Christ and thanksgiving whenever we are before the Blessed Sacrament. To praise Christ and to be grateful is a necessity for us. It does us a lot of good. It keeps alive the reality that we depend on God and others for everything. It strengthens our intimacy with him, and our awareness that whatever happens in our life, God is always in control. 

 It makes us keenly aware of the all-powerful and merciful providence of God. With that providence, we would know that even the dark, negative things in life have meaning and purpose. They, at least, give excitement and beauty in life, because life, without these elements and when it only has all things bright and rosy, would be boring. 

 It keeps us humble and simple, traits and virtues that are always necessary to us, otherwise we start inventing things and distorting reality. It keeps our feet on the ground even as we let our mind and heart soar to high heavens. 

 It makes our heart tender and at the same time strong, a perfect foil to our tendency to be hardened or to get lost as we tackle life’s many challenges. In other words, it helps us to maintain our humanity well, resistant to the temptation to become mechanical and robotic as we face life’s trials and hardships. 

 These are some of the basic attitudes we ought to have when we are before the Blessed Sacrament. This is how we grow in our Eucharistic piety.

Self-emptying to be properly filled up

THIS is what Christ is proposing to us. It is quite intriguing, but to be sure it is what truly is proper to us. We need to somehow lose ourselves to win what is truly necessary for us. We cannot deny that we are notorious for sticking to our own will and ways when it is in God’s will and ways where we would have our real joy and fulfilment. 

 “Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it,” Christ said. (Mt 16,25) We really have to learn as early as possible how to empty ourselves so we can be filled, by uniting our will with God’s will, with the very spirit and power of God. 

 Everyday, we have to make the exercise of conforming our will to God’s will by making a bold plan of how to go about following God’s will of personal sanctification and apostolate. In pursuit of these dual purpose of our life, we should try to give our all. We cannot afford to be complacent and lukewarm. We should feel driven and pro-active. 

 When we notice that we are more dominated and guided by our moods, our emotional and bodily condition which often are erratic and inconsistent, or when we notice we feel lazy and empty, we should immediately react. The ideal condition for us is to burn with zeal to follow God’s will. Absent that zeal, we would be giving a foothold to our weaknesses and temptations. 

 We have to develop an abiding and burning desire to fulfill the real purpose of our life. We should be clear about this ultimate purpose of ours so we can have the proper sense of direction and focus in our life, and the corresponding urge to fulfill it. 

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

 We ignore the guiding light of our Christian faith that gives us not only a global picture of things but also the means to attain our true goal of eternal life with God in heaven. We have to remember that our Christian faith shows us the ultimate dimensions and purpose of our life that definitely includes the spiritual and supernatural dimensions of our human dignity. 

 We often fail to realize that our earthly life is a voyage of faith in time that is heading towards the eternity of God. This predicament has to be resolved, and the earlier the better—of course, with due consideration to the readiness of each one of us to appreciate the value of our Christian faith, something that has to be worked on. 

 In this regard, the first thing to do is to look at the example of Christ who is “the way, the truth and the life” for us. In several occasions, Christ would say that what he was doing was in fulfillment of what the prophets of old, the advance proclaimers of God’s will for Christ and for all of us, said. (cfr. Mt 26,54.56; Mk 14,49; Lk 18,31; etc.) 

 It’s clear that Christ already had in his mind that he has to follow and fulfill a purpose and a mission already spelled out for him beforehand. This should also be the mentality we ought to have. We have a purpose and mission already spelled out for us beforehand, and we should do our best, with God’s grace, to fulfill it.

Let’s be ready to carry Christ’s cross

IF Christ is the pattern of our humanity, then we have to be ready to carry his cross which is his ultimate expression of love for us. To carry his cross is the ultimate way we can identify ourselves with Christ as we should. 

 We should not be afraid of the cross in whatever form it may come to us. If we carry the cross with Christ, we know that all our suffering has a positive and favorable aspect. It’s not all entirely bad and negative, though in itself it will always be bad. But if viewed and lived through our Christian faith, there is something in it that can give us a greater good. We may refer to this advantageous aspect of suffering as the happy Good News or Gospel of Suffering. 

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

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

 And as the Book of Revelation would put it, in our definitive state of life in heaven “He (God) will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” (21,4) 

 In this life, we have to expect and be prepared for the unavoidable pain and suffering. And this means that whether we are guilty or not of our pains and suffering, all we have to do is to go immediately to Christ who shows us how to handle our pains and suffering and who is ready to forgive us if ever we are guilty of suffering. 

 If we really want to truly love, we should be willing to suffer for the others out of love for God and for all souls. We need to realize that the willingness to suffer is the ultimate proof that our love is genuine. Love should not just be matter of goodwill, of benevolence, of doing some good to others. It has to go all the way to an eagerness to suffer for the others. 

 This is what Christ has done for us and has commanded us to do. Being both God and man, Christ should be seen by us as the epitome of true love which is the very essence of God that is also meant for us since we are supposed to be God’s image and likeness. 

 We have to be willing to suffer the way Christ suffered for all of us. That is what true love is. No wonder that Christ himself said: “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (Jn 15,13) 

 It is this willingness to suffer that would show how, like Christ, we can go all the way to giving ourselves completely to everyone, irrespective of how they are. That is also why Christ commanded us, as an integral component of true love, that we even love our enemies.

Never doubt God’s compassion for us

THE story of the Canaanite woman who begged Christ to cure her daughter who was tormented by a demonic possession (cfr. Mt 15,21-28) should clearly remind us that no matter how God may appear at first to be deaf and insensitive to our appeals, we should never doubt his compassion for us. He always hears us and has the best things for us. 

 We should just persevere in begging him, because what may appear as God ignoring us or even rejecting us is actually his way of making us grow in our faith in him. We should just be humble enough and try to clutch as tightly as possible to whatever strand of faith we may still have in God. To be sure, God always listens and acts on our importunings, even if we seem to annoy him. 

 We should just overcome whatever fear or shame we may have to approach God our Father. To him, we will always be a child who can give him great joy whenever we act like the lost sheep and the lost coin that are finally found or the prodigal son who has decided to return to the father. 

 With just a little flicker of faith and repentance, the heart of God would readily melt into compassion and mercy. In the case of the Canaanite woman, for example, Christ immediately gave in to her request when she did not relent with her request despite the apparent initial rebuke. 

 We have to see to it that we keep that faith alive and burning. And to make that faith vibrant, we need to keep ourselves always in love. It’s love that keeps our faith going. It should be a love that goes beyond good intentions, sweet words and nice feelings. It has to be expressed in deeds. 

 Sometimes God tests our faith if only to purify and strengthen it. We should just persist in going to him even if he seems to reject us. With God we should not be afraid or ashamed. He always cares for us. 

 This should be the attitude to have. It’s an attitude that can only indicate our unconditional faith and love for God who is always in control of things, and at the same time can also leave us in peace and joy even at the worst of the possibilities. 

 We have to follow the example of the many characters in the gospel who, feeling helpless in the many predicaments they were in, earnestly rushed to Christ for some succor. They went to him unafraid and unashamed and they got what they wanted. 

 It may happen that we may not get what we want. And in this, we should not be too surprised or too worried. What is sure is that God always listens and gives us what is best for us. If our request is granted, it’s because it is good for us. 

If our request is not granted, it could be because what we asked is actually not good for us. Examples of this kind of cases are aplenty, and many would later on realize how lucky they were that what they asked for was not granted. 

 We should not forget that God will always listen to us and will act on our requests promptly and in the best way for us, considering both our immediate and the ultimate needs, and no matter how imperfect the object, motives and manner of our petitions may be.

The gift of grace

THE Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord, celebrated on August 6, reminds us that we are meant to share in the life and nature of God. Yes, we too will be transfigured from our natural selves to the luminous supernatural life with God. 

 And this is made possible because in spite of our natural limitations, let alone, our infranatural defects, God is ever willing to offer us his gift of grace which would enable us to share in God’s life and nature. 

 Yes, we are meant for a supernatural life. Our human nature, with our spiritual soul that enables us to know and to love, and therefore to enter into the lives not only of others but also and most importantly, of God, urges us to develop a supernatural life. 

 It’s a life with God always. It just cannot be exclusively our own life, taken personally or collectively. It’s a life that depends mainly on God who gives us the grace that purifies and elevates it to his, but it also depends on us, on our freedom to correspond to this loving will of God for us. 

 Let’s remember that our human nature has been designed by God in such a way as to give us a choice whether we want to be with God or to be simply with ourselves. We are not meant only to stay on the natural level. 

 With God’s grace, God makes himself present in our lives. That is why St. Paul once said that we are “temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you and which you have received from God.” (1 Cor 6,19) With this grace, God in his Trinitarian life dwells in our soul, divinizing us as he wants us to be, but always with our agreement and cooperation. 

 Yes, we are capable of living the life of God. As St. Augustine once said, we are “capax Dei.” And that’s because we have been designed and wired for it. Even if we don’t consider yet the truths of faith about ourselves, somehow we can already know we are meant to know God. That’s because there’s something spiritual in us. We are not purely material beings, stuck to the material world only. 

 Our spirituality can be discerned by the fact that we are capable of thinking and loving, operations that are not material but are spiritual. Here we use concepts and reasons that are spiritual, not material. 

 Since we are capable of spiritual operations, there must be something spiritual in us, following the principle that “operare sequitur esse,” the operation follows or is determined by one’s being or essence. This is how we can rightly conclude we have a spiritual soul. 

 To divinize us, God gives us sanctifying grace which we normally receive through the sacraments, especially in the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist where we become concorporeal and consanguineous with Christ. 

 We have to develop a taste and even an appetite for the supernatural life with God and of things supernatural in general. In this we have to help one another, because in the end, this is our common and ultimate end in life—how to live our life with God, how we can be immersed in God even as we are immersed also in the things of the world. 

 We have to understand also that our supernatural life does not in any way nullify our humanity, and everything related to it—our senses, emotions, our family and professional, social, political life, etc. If anything at all, it promotes these aspects of our life, purifies them and elevates them to the supernatural order of God.

Developing a big, compassionate heart

SINCE we are patterned after Christ, we should also have the same heart as that of Christ which is full of compassion. This was shown, for example, in that episode where a big crowd followed him in a desert place and was moved with compassion and healed their sick when he saw them. (cfr. Mt 14,13-21) 

 We actually have a thirst for loving, though we must also realize that that thirst can only be completely quenched by the infinite love of God as shown to us by Christ. That is why in the Book of Proverbs we read these words from God: “Give me, my child, your heart, and let your eyes guard my ways.” (Prov 23,26). 

 When we struggle to give our heart to the Lord, we would actually be expanding our capacity to love others, because our loving would go beyond its purely human and natural ways and would enter into the spiritual and supernatural ways of God. 

 It’s a love that is given gratuitously, without measure, and continues to be given despite being rejected. For this supernatural kind of love to enter into our heart, we should little by little change our heart of stone into a new heart, a heart of flesh, and the flesh of Christ. This is when our heart would be enabled to love in a supernatural way. 

 To be sure, when our heart is immersed in the heart of Christ, we would find it easy to carry out our duties and tasks, whatever they may be, with order, understanding and magnanimity. That’s when we can rightfully echo St. Paul’s words when he talked about having the same feelings that Christ had. (cfr. Phil 2,5) We would be very generous in our self-giving. 

 It’s when we learn to love the way Christ loves us that we can manage to be merciful, willing to take upon ourselves the miseries of others, and to give ourselves decisively until death itself, if only to achieve the reconciliation of everyone with God. 

 When our heart manages to love the way Christ loves, we would be able to purify sins, regenerate hope and true human love. It’s when we can have the fullness of love that would attract “grace upon grace” for us. (cfr. Jn 1,16) 

 If we truly love God and everybody else, with a love that is nothing less than a participation of the love God has for us and as commanded by Christ to us, then we will never say enough in our self-giving. 

 Even if such attitude would already seem to be going beyond common sense, our reason and other human and worldly standards that we usually use to measure our love, we would still go on giving ourselves, never saying enough. We would just give and give, even if we seem to consume ourselves till death. 

 This is, of course, an overwhelming prospect, but that is what true love is. It is some kind of madness that knows no limits. It is given without measure, without cost, without any calculation. 

 We have to be wary of our tendency to say enough because we might think that we have already done or given enough of ourselves. People around us may even tell us so. 

 But that is a very dangerous attitude to have, since it has no other way but to lead us to self-satisfaction, to complacency and spiritual lukewarmness. It would give an opening to more serious predicaments of pride and conceit, vanity, lust, sloth, etc. Hypocrisy will surely enter into our system. And instead of always being mindful and thoughtful of others, we would just be thinking of our own selves, our own interests.