Advent gives us a new beginning

IT’S the Season of Advent again and with it we make another beginning of the liturgical year. If we truly understand the significance of the liturgy in our life, we know that we really should prepare ourselves seriously for this new beginning, having it clear in our mind what the ultimate purpose of our life is in this world. 

 As the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church puts it, liturgy is the “celebration of the mystery of Christ” through which the sanctification of humankind takes place. It’s a public worship offered by the whole Church as one organic body, with Christ as head and us as its members. (218) It’s a joint effort between Christ and us. 

 As the “sacred action par excellence”, it is therefore the “summit toward which the activity of the Church is directed and it is likewise the font from which all her power flows.” (219) The liturgy is not just a remembrance of things past. It is putting into the living present all that Christ said, did and gained for our own salvation. 

 With this Season of Advent, we need to develop a strong and correct sense of beginning. At the moment, many of us seem oblivious to this need. We appear to live only for the present. The past and the future are merely given a lick and a promise, that is, a shallow and fleeting consideration. 

 It could be because our contemporary conditions often lead us to act only for the moment. The problems and pressures of modern life badger us to mind only what is at hand at present. They tend to erode our sense of time. They seem to keep us narrow-minded, short-sighted and Pavlovian in our reactions. They trap us only in the here and now. 

 It’s one of the urgent challenges nowadays to develop this abiding sense of beginning. It’s what gives us a greater perspective and depth in life, a guide to help us assess things properly as we go on and encounter all sorts of situations. 

 We need to understand that Advent is a period of a love-filled waiting not only for the most joyous Christmas, the birth of Christ, but also and most especially of the second coming of Christ. 

 We need to look forward to that coming when Christ gathers us as his people at the end of time, incorporating us into his mystical body and bringing us to where we truly belong—in heaven where we, individually and collectively, will enter into a definitive communion with God, a communion of love in mind and heart. 

 Christ’s second coming is when we finally complete our earthly sojourn which is meant to be a time of testing, a time of making a choice either to be with God or simply to be by ourselves. 

 That is when we finally would become “alter Christus,” another Christ, who is the pattern and redeemer of our humanity. That is when we finally become the true image and likeness of God as God himself wanted us to be. That is when we organically form together with the others the definitive family and people of God with Christ as the head. 

 Even if the season of Advent is, in general, marked by a spirit of sacrifice as preparation for the coming of Christ, it also should be characterized by joy. We need to make a shout-out of this truth of our faith that true joy can only come from God, from loving him, following his will and commandments, and entering into such ever-growing intimate relationship with him that we could clearly and promptly see his abiding interventions in our life.

“My words will not pass away”

CHRIST explicitly said these words. “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.” (Lk 21,33) We should take Christ’s words most seriously because in them we have the surest guide we can have as we face the different situations, conditions, challenges, etc. of our life. 

 Yes, Christ’s word is the very word of God, the word that gives us true and complete light for our earthly journey towards heaven. Its primary purpose is to bring us back to God. And so more than just giving us some helpful earthly knowledge, it gives us the ultimate spiritual knowledge we need to return to God. This character of God’s word is described in the following words in the Letter to the Hebrews: 

 “For the word of God is living and effectual, and more piercing than any two-edged sword, and reaching unto the division of the soul and the spirit, of the joints also and the marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” (4,12) 

 Of course, its purely eternal, spiritual, sacred and transcendent nature is now subjected to the conditions of time, culture, history, etc., in view of how we are. But we should not forget that it is primarily purely eternal, spiritual, sacred and transcendent, which with our spiritual powers plus God’s grace we can manage to abstract from its temporal, material, mundane and prosaic condition. 

 Let’s remember that God became man. With his incarnation, the divine word assumes the nature of a human word. And just as God became man to bring man back to God, his divine word becomes human word to bring and reconcile the latter with the former where it comes from and where it belongs to. 

 We have to develop a fondness for the words of God. This we can do as long as we exert due effort and continually ask, with humility, for the grace of God. Without these requirements, we can easily be swept away by the many alluring ideologies in the world that at best can only give us some temporal, never eternal, advantages. 

 It’s when we listen and live by God’s words that we attain our human and Christian maturity. And as St. Paul would say, we would then be like infants no longer, “tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of the people in their deceitful scheming.” (Eph 4,14) 

 It’s important that we spend time developing a liking and an intimacy with the words of God. We have to read and meditate on them daily, and use them as the spirit behind all events, activities and concerns that we have during the day. 

 We have to understand that God’s words are not meant to give us the technical solutions to our problems. They are meant to be the soul and the spirit of all our concerns and activities. Inspired by God’s words, our temporal and earthly concerns can acquire an eternal value. 

 Let us promote a culture of gospel-reading and meditation everyday. A few minutes with the gospel daily can go a long way in putting our life on the right path. We should not miss the great treasure we have in the gospel. We can use the new technologies to promote this culture. The world today is in great need for God’s word!

Godlessness and its effects

TODAY’S ideologies and isms clearly show the effects of godlessness. Things like Wokeism, Secularism, Gender Ideology and many other isms are openly declaring godless doctrine and practices. They are trapped in their own reasoning alone, unable to see the global picture that the faith in God provides. They are now into pure subjectivism and immanentism, unable to transcend beyond their own thinking. 

 As consequences, we are now witnessing increasing cases of violence, squabbling, misunderstanding. Clearly unnatural and inhuman practices are on the rise, like abortion, pornography, systemic corruption and deception. Mental illnesses and psychological irregularities, even among the young ones, are also on the rise. Human nature has been defaced and the real purpose of human life is all but forgotten. 

 This is not to mention the rising cases of demonic possession and infestation. No wonder that requests for exorcism and deliverance are also on the rise. Obviously, if the spirit of God is rejected, another spirit will surely come to animate people’s souls. Without God to give us the true light and strength, we obviously would be completely helpless. 

 We need to remind ourselves that we are meant to be with God. We should not just be by ourselves. We would be completely helpless that way, even if we can delude ourselves into thinking that with our human powers alone, we can properly cruise the ocean of our life. 

 Man is a creature of God, just like any other creature. But in our case, we have been created in God’s image and likeness. That is why we are given the faculties of intelligence and will so that we can know and decide to choose to be with God. 

 That is the primary purpose of our intelligence and will. Besides, since God is a purely supernatural being, God gives us the grace so that we can enter into his supernatural life also. Making God as our be-all and end-all is never a degradation of our human nature. On the contrary, it is the perfection of our nature. 

 We need to spread this most basic truth of faith about ourselves, explaining it in ways that people in all levels and conditions can easily understand, appreciate and start to live out. It should be made clear to everyone that the goal for us to pursue is to assume the very identity of God in Christ through the Holy Spirit. This is not a fantasy, but truly the most real thing about us. 

 And so, we need to understand that we actually have to grow to be like Christ who offers us “the way, the truth and the life” for us to be with God. This is, of course, a truth of faith that is presented to us to act on, and not forced or imposed on us. It is something that should be taken up by us freely. Let’s hope that we can overcome whatever prejudice, disbelief and awkwardness that can undermine our desire and effort to be “alter Christus.” 

 We should not be afraid to undertake this lifelong process, thinking perhaps that it will detach us from the worldly realities. Nothing can be farther than the truth. With Christ, we would know how to love the world, how to get immersed in it, but always in the proper way. 

 Let’s keep in mind what St. John in his gospel said in this regard: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” (Jn 3,16)

Unafraid to face the world’s end

THAT’S what Christ practically told the crowd as he described how the end of the world would be. (cfr. Lk 21,12-19) “They will seize and persecute you, they will hand you over to the synagogues and to prisons, and they will have you led before kings and governors because of my name,” he said. 

 But he told them not to worry nor to prepare their defense beforehand. “I myself shall give you a wisdom in speaking that all your adversaries will be powerless to resist or refute,” he assured them. He encouraged them just to hold on because, as he said, “by your perseverance you will secure your lives.” 

 In this regard, we need to learn how to avoid falling into fears and worries. And this, of course, is a matter of a strong faith. With faith, we know that whatever be our condition and situation in life, God is always around and will never abandon us. He is there to help us, since he actually takes care of everything. 

 It’s this faith that springs and strengthens our hope and charity, which is the essence, purpose and fullness of our life. With faith, we can manage to be at peace all the time, to experience joy and awe even in the midst of our unavoidable earthly suffering, and to go on and move on despite whatever. 

 To battle our fears, worries and sadness, we need to strengthen our faith and live it to the hilt. And let us allow our faith to educate all our human powers and faculties—our intelligence and will, our emotions and passions, our memory and imagination, etc. Let us take time and learn the relevant skills to achieve this ideal. 

 Let us remember that we are a composite of body and soul. And since our soul is spiritual, it has its life and origin in the Spirit of God himself. We need to develop our life following the ways that would reinforce the unity of the composite parts of our life in their proper order. We have to realize that our life is mainly spiritual and supernatural, not simply material and natural. 

 Christ himself has told us that while troubles would unavoidably come our way in this life, we should not worry too much because he has overcome whatever troubles we may have. (cfr. Jn 16,33) 

 And so, let us assume the same thinking and reactions that St. Paul beautifully articulated when we are faced with all sorts of difficulties in life. At one time, he said, “If He (God) who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also, along with him, freely give us all things.” (Rom 8,32) 

 Earlier, St. Paul said that “in all things, God works for the good of those who love him.” (Rom 8,28) And the Catechism reinforces this kind of reasoning of how good can be derived even from evil by teaching us that: 

 “…God in his almighty providence can bring a good from the consequences of an evil, even a moral evil, caused by his creatures: ‘It was not you,’ said Joseph to his brothers, ‘who sent me here, but God…You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive.’ 

 “From the greatest moral evil ever committed—the rejection and murder of God’s only Son, caused by the sins of all men—God, by his grace that ‘abounded all the more,’ brought the greatest of good: the glorification of Christ and our redemption.” (CCC 312) 

 We should be unafraid to face the world’s end!

About the end of the world

IT’S understandable that since we are now at the end of another liturgical year, the gospel readings focus on this truth of our faith—that both time and the world will end. Thus, in one gospel episode, Christ was asked about the signs that such end would be approaching. (cfr. Lk 21,5-11) 

 Thus, Christ responded: “See that you not be deceived, for many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he,’ and ‘The time has come.’ Do not follow them!” Looks like we are seeing these things nowadays. There are some people who are posing as the very son of God, etc. Let’s be warned. 

 Then Christ continued: “When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified’ for such things must happen first, but it will not immediately be the end.” There we have a clear indication of what to expect and the appropriate attitude we should have toward it. 

 Finally, he said: “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be powerful earthquakes, famines, and plagues from place to place; and awesome sights and mighty signs will come from the sky.” 

 We should be prepared for this eventuality by making sure that we are guided always by our faith and the almighty and merciful providence of God, instead of allowing ourselves to be played upon by our fears and worries. We should be eternity-ready. That is to say, prepared to see God during our judgment and eager to be with God, fully identified with him for all eternity. 

 In this regard, we should rather be aggressive in our pursuit of our ultimate goal, the proper attitude to have in this life. Of course, we should first of all have a clear vision of our goal in life, knowing how to translate that goal into stages, and then let’s stir up all our faculties to achieve that goal. 

 We can take St. Paul’s words as some kind of inspiring slogan: “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.” (1 Cor 9,24) Yes, our life is like a race. The Letter to the Hebrews said as much: “Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us...” (12,1) 

 The good thing about this attitude is that it engages our faculties properly and helps us avoid getting lost, being held hostage by the allures of this world, wasting time, etc. We would always be on the move, and would know how to put order in our daily activities, knowing the right priorities, etc. 

 And what is the ultimate goal that we should pursue? None other than that we become another Christ, if not Christ himself, ‘alter Christus, ipse Christus.’ This is simply because we have been created by God to be his image and likeness. 

 That image and likeness of God is Christ who as the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity is the pattern of our humanity, and as the Son of God who became man, is the redeemer of our damaged humanity. 

 Our creation is God’s project before it is our own. It is a work in progress that requires our cooperation precisely because as image and likeness of God, we have been endowed with intelligence and will that would enable us to correspond to God’s creative and redemptive action on us.

Christian poverty more than just detachment from things

THAT gospel episode where Christ praised a poor widow for giving all that she had to live on to the treasury of the temple (cfr. Lk 21,1-4) graphically reminds us that Christian poverty, which is what is required for true Christian love to reign in our hearts, is not so much a matter of how much, in terms of money and quantity, we are willing to be detached from as detaching ourselves from our very own selves, giving everything to God. 

 It’s actually the best deal that we can have, since as Christ said, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to have his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.” (Mt 16,24-25) 

 This is divine wisdom which we have to learn to live by. Moreover, it is something which we have to learn how to convince others, especially the young ones who are exposed today to so much materialism and egotistic ways, to believe in it. 

 This will, indeed, take a lot of time and effort, especially in the area of how to make this divine wisdom attractive and doable. In this regard, we have to learn to present Christ the way Christ presented himself to the people of his time. 

 He adapted himself to how the people were. He, of course, as St. Paul said, emptied himself by becoming man and went to the extent of offering his life on the cross, just to identify himself completely with us. (cfr. Phil 2,6-8) 

 In this preaching, he used literary devices, like the parables, so as to elicit interest and eventual understanding and appreciation of the redemptive messages and lessons he wanted to impart to the people. 

 This is something that we, in our own time with our distinctive cultures and mindsets, should also learn to do. We can only show and give Christ to others, we can only make Christ’s redemptive messages and lessons appreciated by us, if we learn how to connect the real Christ, both in spirit and in the flesh, and not a disembodied Christ, to the people of today. 

 The effort required here involves emptying ourselves so as to embody the real Christ in ourselves in the context of today’s world with all the good and the bad that it now has. That is why we always need to detach ourselves not only from things but also, and more importantly, from our own selves, so we can be filled with Christ’s spirit and enabled to show Christ in the flesh. 

 But given our human condition which allows us to learn things in stages, we have to understand that everyday we have to conquer our tendency to fall into some earthly attachments so that we can say we are giving ourselves more and more to God until we give ourselves completely to him. 

 This will require a constant reminder and self-reassurance that it is all worthwhile to give and to lose everything for God because we will in fact gain a lot more than what we give. Let’s always remember Christ telling us “to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added unto you.” (Mt 6,33)

 We have to learn to let go of our possessions, our preferences, our opinions, etc., until we can say that we are letting go of our whole selves so as to give everything to God, and with God we are assured that we can have everything that is truly important to us!

“My kingdom is not of this world”

WORDS of Christ in response to Pilate’s question, “Art thou the king of the Jews?” (Jn 18,33) That was when Christ clarified who he really was, and yet the poor Pilate and many of the Jews of that time could not get it. 

 These words are part of the gospel reading for the last Sunday of the liturgical year which is dedicated to Christ as King, the real King. (cfr. Jn 18,33-37) They remind us that our kingdom is not in this world. It is where Christ as our true King is—that is, in heaven from where we really originated and to where we are supposed to be destined in our definitive state of life. 

 These words remind us that our earthly life is a test whether what God wants us to be—that is, to be his image and likeness, sharers of his divine life and nature—is also what we ourselves would want to be. This test actually takes place every moment of our earthly life. We are made to choose whether we would like to be with God through Christ who is the “way, the truth and the life”, or to be by ourselves only. 

 We should always be aware of this test and should try our best to make the proper choice, avoiding getting lost and swallowed up by the drama of our life here on earth. And so, we should sharpen our awareness of the real purpose of our life here on earth as we go through the varying situations, conditions and circumstances of our life. 

 We should be excited and eager to reach our real destination. And reaching it should not be a problem since we have been given all the means to achieve it. What can help is that at the end of each day, we remind ourselves of the real end and purpose of our life, and then examine ourselves how we are doing to approach that end. 

 We should develop a keen send of the real end and purpose of our life. This is unavoidable and indispensable. Even in our ordinary affairs, we take it for granted that we ought to have some idea of the end or purpose in mind before we move. 

 There should be at least the sensation that we are getting nearer it, knowing that one day more or one year more in our life is actually one day less or one year less in our life too. We should just be ready since we would not know when the zero-balance of this consequential equation would take place. 

 To get the sensation that we are getting closer to our final destination means that we are realizing that we are becoming more and more like Christ, who is the pattern of our humanity and the savior of our damaged humanity. He should be the king, the everything for us. 

 Thus, we have to learn how to submit everything to him, especially our inmost self—the heart, the will and mind together with the emotions, feelings, etc. That is how we make Christ our king. 

 We are supposed to be ‘alter Christus,’ the goal and ideal that is meant for us, though we need also to do our part, free beings as are, to achieve that status. God, our Creator and Father, wants us to be that way, though he does not impose it on us without our consent that should also be shown with deeds and not just with intentions or words.

Open to all

“ALL the people were hanging on his words.” (Lk 19,48) Because of that, those leading Jews who wanted to put Christ to death could not carry out their plan. Let’s hope that we too can get so close to Christ that would frustrate anything that would put Christ out of our lives. 

 And we may ask, what made the people hang on Christ’s words? Definitely it was because Christ was open to everyone. He was not discriminatory of anyone although he, of course, strictly but charitably maintained the distinction between right and wrong, good and evil. Christ is the embodiment of how to perfectly blend the inclusivity of charity and the exclusivity of truth. 

 This is something that we too should learn if we want to be truly Christian. The secret, of course, is to identify ourselves more and more with Christ. It’s a matter of acquiring his mind and heart, his very spirit, since we are actually meant to be like him who is the very pattern of our humanity and the savior of our damaged humanity. 

 The secret, therefore, is to be Christ-like. That’s the only way we can have an inclusive outlook in life in spite of our unavoidable differences and conflicts in the areas of lifestyles, cultures, ideologies, opinions, preferences and even in beliefs, spiritualities and morals. 

 In fact, not only should we be open to everyone. We should rather also take the initiative to reach out to everyone, irrespective of how they are, even if they are very different from us, or if they are clearly wrong in their ways, in their mentalities, etc. 

 Remember what Christ said toward those who criticized him because he ate with sinners? (cfr. Mt 9,9-13) “Those who are well do not need a physician but the sick do,” he said. “Go and learn the meaning of the words ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ I did not come to call the righteous but sinners.” 

 It is for this reason that we should try to broaden our mind and heart to accommodate as much as possible all kinds of people in our mind and heart the way Christ accommodated everyone. He even went to the extent of asking for forgiveness for those who put him to death on the cross. That’s how inclusive Christ was and is to all of us. 

 We cannot deny that we have our own share of biases and prejudices, brought about by a number of factors—our temperament, our culture, our upbringing, our environment, etc. We can at least do something about them if we also make an effort to go out of our own shell and try to know how the others are. This, obviously, will always be a work in progress, but we should start it as early as possible and keep to it all the way. 

 Thus, reading novels, as Pope Francis once suggested, could be helpful. “Literature also proves essential for believers who sincerely seek to enter into dialogue with the culture of their time, or simply with the lives and experiences of other people,” he said. (Letter on the Role of Literature in Formation, 8) 

 Of course, we should expect that the sailing can be rough and tough, and we can commit mistakes along the way. But as long as we can manage to go back to Christ, using all the means made available for that purpose, we know that we can manage to really have a universal heart, the very heart of Christ!

The Holy Spirit’s constant promptings

WE should be most aware of this truth of our faith. The Holy Spirit is constantly prompting us what to think, say and do. And that’s because God, being at the very core of our existence, cannot abandon us and is constantly intervening in our lives, guiding us to where we should be. 

 A passage from the Book of Isaiah can validate that truth: “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you!” (49,15) 

 We should just have to learn how to perceive and respond properly to these promptings. That’s why we need to develop a certain spirit of recollection so that we can let our spiritual faculties, with the help of God’s grace, to detect God’s presence and interventions in our life. In the end, this spirit of recollection would develop in us a life of intimacy with God. 

 We have to realize that intimacy is the ideal condition of our life which will always be a matter of developing and keeping relationships. But we have to be intimate with God first before we can be intimate with everybody and everything else in the proper way. 

 That’s because as “image and likeness” of God, as we have been created, God as shown to us in Christ through the Holy Spirit is the very pattern of our humanity. How God is should also be how we ought to be. We have to do everything to have intimacy with God all the time because that is the best and proper condition for us to be in this life. And we can achieve it because the Holy Spirit precisely prompts us always. 

 We can somehow know that we are following the promptings of the Holy Spirit when we enjoy what St. Paul called as the fruits of the Spirit of God: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. (cfr. Gal 5,22-23) 

 In contrast, we can say that we are not following the Holy Spirit’s promptings when we fall into what St. Paul also called as the works of the flesh: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit, envy, drunkenness, carousing. (cfr. Gal 5,19-21) 

 We would somehow know the kind of spirit we have—either the Spirit of God or worldly spirit—by the kind of thoughts, desires and loves we have. If we look more closely at how our consciousness works, what its usual contents are, what we are most aware of, we would have an idea of the kind of spirit we have. All we have to do is to see if our thoughts, desires and loves are those of the fruits of the spirit or the fruits of the flesh. 

 This is also true when we examine the kind of dreams we have in our sleep where we are supposed to be unconscious. Our state of unconsciousness is when we disengage ourselves for a while from our bodily mechanisms. It is in that state where the spirit that animates our life is revealed. In a sense, it’s when we are unconscious that the kind of spirit we have can be known.

 We know, of course, that with our wounded, sinful human condition at present, our spirit is not yet totally that of the spirit of God. In fact, it may somehow be dominated by the spirit of the flesh, of the world, if not, God forbid, of the devil itself. 

 That is why we need to struggle. The ascetical struggle is a constant feature in our earthly life which will always be an arena between the forces of good and evil. We have to get used to this fact of life and train ourselves adequately for it.

True love generates endless generosity

THIS is what we can draw from that parable about a nobleman who had to make a journey to obtain his kingship and called his 10 servants, giving them 10 gold coins, telling them to engage in trade till he would return. (Lk 19,11-28) As the gospel also said, the parable was meant to teach his disciples to make good use of time, avoiding the thought that the Kingdom of God would soon or even immediately appear. 

 We are familiar with how this parable would unfold. And the clear lesson it was meant to impart on us is that we too should make good use of our time and our God-given talents while we are still in this this world. We actually do not know when the end of time would come, and so we should not waste time speculating on it. 

 We should just “engage in trade” as the parable would put it. In that regard, let us do our best to make the most out of what God has given us. 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. 

 And even if such total self-giving is not reciprocated, it would still go on loving. It is purely gratuitous. Even more, even if it is not only unreciprocated but is also violently resisted and rejected, it would still go on loving. 

 It’s indeed laudable that in whatever we do, we try to give it our best shot. We should just remember that our best will never be enough insofar as pleasing God and everybody else is concerned. Our best can always be made better. 

 This should not surprise us, much less, cause us to worry. But we should acknowledge it so that we avoid getting self-satisfied with what we have done and then fall into self-complacency. That’s when we stop growing and improving as a human person and as a child of God. 

 We have to remember that we are meant for the infinite, for the spiritual and the supernatural. That’s a goal that we can never fully reach in our life here on earth. But we are meant to keep on trying. 

 What can keep us going in this regard is certainly not our own effort alone, much less our desire and ambition for fame, power or wealth. It’s not pride or some form of obsessions. These have a short prescription period. A ceiling is always set above them. In time, we will realize that everything we have done was just “vanity of vanities.” 

 It is God’s grace that would do the trick. It’s when we correspond sincerely to God’s love for us that we get a self-perpetuating energy to do our best in any given moment. It’s when we can manage to do the impossible.

Emotivism

WE have to be aware of this way of looking and reacting to things in general that is actually ruling the lives of many people, especially the young ones, who do not know yet how to properly handle their emotions, feelings and passions. 

 As commonly defined and described, emotivism is an ethical theory that says that “it is impossible to determine right from wrong. Instead, any moral statement is simply a reflection of the speaker’s emotions.” 

 Affectivity which covers the whole range of emotions, feelings, passions and humor of a person constitutes a first approach, sometimes powerful, to the reality in which he lives. Because it is a first source of information, the affective dimension should not be left aside or considered as something accessory. Rather, our affectivity needs to be properly educated. 

 In this regard, it would be helpful if we assess which desires we want to foster, which ones we are interested in having to govern our life. Of course, for this, we need to consider what God through our faith and piety would show us about how our affectivity should be handled—that is, to discover the ways of aligning our desires according to God’s law and will for us. 

 Everyone should be made to realize as early as possible that while emotions and feelings are part of our human nature, we should not allow them to be the main guide of our life. Our emotions and the whole range of our affectivity are more a part of the animal dimension of our being. As such they are blind to the spiritual and supernatural dimension of our life, and thus, they need to be educated accordingly. 

 Obviously, the guiding principle should be our faith, hope and charity which truly define us as a person and a child of God. In other words, our faith, hope and charity tell us who we really are, what the purpose of our life here on earth is, how our freedom should be sourced and oriented, etc. They provide us the moral principles that should guide the way we use our emotions and passions. 

 The common problem we have in this regard is that many people are not clear about where we can have the ultimate source of knowledge and wisdom about ourselves. Some rely on some ideologies, fashions and trends. Others just seem to drift to wherever the world currents would take them. 

 Of course, given our wounded human condition, to educate our emotions and passions properly we need to ask for grace and rely more on the supernatural means without belittling in any way all the human means we can avail of. 

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

 This is how our emotions and passions help us in achieving an interior freedom in all our actuations. In this way, our emotions and passions get purified and are elevated to the spiritual and supernatural level. 

 This is also how our emotions and passions would know what is truly important and necessary in life, what brings us to our eternal joy. This is how they avoid getting stranded in our merely bodily and worldly conditions. 

 It is when our emotions are properly educated, that is, when they are properly integrated to the requirements of our faith, hope and charity, to the will of God, that we can say that we enjoy true interior freedom.

“Phubbing”

IT’S a new word I just learned recently. It refers to “the practice of ignoring one’s companion or companions in order to pay attention to one’s phone or other mobile device.” I suppose the word is an acronym for “phone” and “snubbing.” 

 We have to be wary of this danger which is fast becoming an epidemic and a world crisis. We can see it practically everywhere, in homes, offices, schools, etc. It definitely is a symptom of our increasing reliance on mobile phones and the internet. It must be some sign of addiction or obsession that now needs to be drastically addressed, since it is occasioning mental health and social issues, among others. 

 In this regard, it would be good that some guidelines be made and followed especially in the context of the family where this anomaly can first take place. Of course, parents play a crucial role in establishing some effective rules on how their children, especially the little ones, should use the mobile phones and the internet. 

 But the parents first have to give good example before whatever rules they make can be obeyed. That’s how they can earn moral authority, because the children can only follow how the parents are also using their mobile devices. Children can easily obey if their parents themselves practice what they preach or tell the children. 

 Still, parents should take the initiative in a very friendly way to ask each child how one is using the internet. This is a matter of confidence that should be handled with utmost delicacy. That’s why parents should see to it that their relation to their children is intimate and that everything should be transparent. 

 Parents and children should enter into some agreement about certain norms and practices that should be observed with regard to the use of the Internet and the mobile devices. 

 Definitely, some filters for the gadgets with internet access would be needed, since these would protect and prevent everyone from accidental exposure to pornographic things, for example. 

 Also, I think it would be advisable to limit internet connection to common areas, like the living room, kitchen or wide corridors. There should be no internet access in bedrooms where one can easily fall into anonymous and addictive use of it. 

 There should also be some kind of “digital curfew,” considering that late hours are when we are tired and quite vulnerable to our weaknesses and temptations. I think it is also a good idea to have some kind of parking area where cellphones and other gadgets can be placed during family gatherings and at night to facilitate the nocturnal rest for everyone. 

 Parents should teach their children how to budget their time, knowing that if one is left on his own, he can easily be swallowed up by the many attractions that his gadget can offer. Indeed, some discipline is needed here. 

 Parents should also think of organizing fun family events so that the children can be weaned from the dopamine effect of their gadgets. They can organize sports events and outings. They should see to it that the children are not allowed to be isolated for a long time. 

 Lastly, it would also do a lot of good if some kind of alliance be made with the parents of the children’s friends so that there would be a more coordinated effort in helping the children to learn how to use the gadgets properly. 

 Everyone should be reminded that the gadgets are not supposed to replace a direct, face-to-face interaction with others.

Keeping a purposive life

THAT’S what we should maintain in life. We need to develop a keen sense of the purpose of our life and keep it in play in every circumstance and situation of our life. Difficult? For sure. But we can always train ourselves for it. 

 We are reminded of this fact of life as we approach the end of the liturgical year which somehow signifies the end of life and the end of things in general. Thus, the gospel reading of the 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time tells us of some signs of the end times and of the second coming of Christ who will judge us. (cfr. Mk 13,24-32) 

 Keeping a purposive life helps us to be realistic and to have a global picture of things, extricating us from our tendency to be easily trapped in some narrow and shallow understanding of our earthly life. 

 Especially these days when we are enjoying a flowering of technological developments that can easily put us into some silo or filter bubble, we need to have a higher sense of purpose. 

 Thing is we need to have a higher sense of purpose to truly make use of these technological marvels. I’m afraid that without this clear sense of purpose, more elevated than the usual practical level, we would end up wallowing more deeply in our own world, increasingly insensitive to the ultimate dimension of our life, which is spiritual, moral and supernatural. 

 In fact, this wallowing phenomenon is what we are seeing these days in the electronic world. What begins as humanly valid practical uses sooner or later deteriorates into inhuman, sinful modes if not animated properly by spiritual and moral values. 

 There are now a lot of inanities circulated around electronically. Subtle and even open forms of human moral anomalies like vanity, envy, sensuality, greed, egoism, etc., are having a field day in this arena. 

 These dangers can start with people, especially the young ones, to waste a lot of time and to express and cultivate their youthful weaknesses with nuclear dynamics. 

 I remember reading an article about the Google CEO warning that young people should be allowed to change their names after some time because they would already have compromised their future with the irresponsible things they have posted on the net. Their cyber past would just be too hot to handle. And with the AI, things can get really bad. 

 Some great effort is definitely needed here, since first of all, we have to break that deep-seated prejudice against religion when we engage in our earthly, mundane affairs. If we ever talk about religion, we seem to confine it only inside churches and places like those, but not in our secular concerns. 

 Our sense of naturalness seems to be twisted at the root, since it seems to be incompatible with anything spiritual and supernatural. We need to correct this irregularity, without going to the extreme of behaving in some strange, unnatural way. 

 A higher and abiding sense of purpose can help us do this. It will enable us to have a sense of unity and continuity among the different elements and the different events in our life, be they good or bad, favorable or unfavorable to us, etc. 

 When we have love of God as our abiding sense of purpose in our life, we would find it easy to go from one thing to another, no matter disparate they are from each other. We would find meaning in everything, including what we consider to be human disasters in our life.

Strengthening our sense of purpose in life

IN the gospel of St. Luke (17,26-37), we hear Christ lamenting over how people in the long history of humanity were entangled in their earthly affairs while practically ignoring the real purpose of life. 

 “As it was in the days of Noah,” he said, “so it will be in the days of the Son of Man; they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage up to the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.” 

 He continued: “Similarly, as it was in the days of Lot: they were eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, building; on the day when Lot left Sodom, fire and brimstone rained from the sky to destroy them all.” 

 It will definitely help us to have passion and direction in our daily life. We need to develop an abiding sense of purpose so we can avoid getting entangled in distractions or, worse, lost in the maze of concerns or stranded in idleness, laziness, loneliness, worries and the like. 

 Yes, we have the grave duty to know and live by the real and ultimate purpose of our life. Such knowledge would help us in giving the proper shape, direction and consistency to our life that is now being pushed and pulled in any which way by the many confusing elements in our life today. 

 We have to fulfil this important duty to know and live by this existential purpose of ours, since this will assure us that we are going in the right direction, even if we do it in different ways, paths, forms and manners. 

 Especially these days when many people are confused and lost as to what really should be the ultimate goal of their life, we have to make this duty more known and appreciated. We cannot deny that many people do not have yet a clear purpose in life, or that their worldview is limited, distorted, if not wrong. 

 And what is this existential purpose of ours? It’s none other, of course, than to give glory to God. It can be expressed also in many other ways. It’s about, as our Catechism would put it, knowing, loving and serving God. In fact, this is the very first point of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

 “God, infinitely perfect and blessed in himself,” it says, “in a plan of sheer goodness freely created man to make him share in his own blessed life. For this reason, at every time and in every place, God draws close to man. He calls man to seek him, to known him, to love him with all his strength…” (1) 

 It can also be expressed, according to the words of St. Paul, in always giving glory to God. “Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God,” he said. (1 Cor 10,31) We need to continually ask ourselves if indeed that is what happens in everything that we do. 

 All this business of our existential purpose is lived and summarized by Christ himself, the son of God who became man to save us. He commanded us to love one another as he himself loved us, which he did to fully carry out the will of his Father. 

 And so, it should behoove us to know more and more about Christ to such an extent that not only would we know his life, his teachings and example, but that we also would live his life, his teachings and example.

Tackling the gender issue

THIS is, of course, a very delicate topic, and so, we should be very careful with what we are going to say here. This is meant to tackle this issue in a very human and Christian way. Fact is, gender confusion has been around for a long time, and there’s a very tiny percentage of cases which in fact have some definite biochemical neurological basis. 

 Because of this confusion, there has been what we may call as “gender dysphoria”—a kind of distress that results from a discrepancy between one’s sex “assigned at birth” and one’s “gender identity”. 

 This dysphoria has so erupted such that we now hear about gender-transition procedures even on minors. These procedures can include puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and “sex reassignment surgeries” that change one’s body to align it with one’s gender identity that is at odds with one’s biological sex. 

 In 2019, the Vatican issues “Male and Female He Created Them—Towards a Path of Dialogue on the Question of Gender Theory in Education.” It is meant to provide educators guidance on dealing with the gender issues being broadly debated in today’s culture. 

 This document uses the term “gender” to refer to “the way in which the differences between the sexes are lived in each culture.” Gender in this sense is something objective and public, and yet culturally conditioned. Thus, the term “gender” is now an affirmation of the diverse ways that the real differences between the sexes are socially recognized, expressed and lived in various cultures. 

 With the emergence of what is now known as “Gender Ideology,” we have to take note of what may be considered as its errors that are mainly two. First, it treats gender as entirely separable from sex. And second, gender is understood as dependent upon the subjective mindset of each person, who can choose a gender not corresponding to his or her biological sex. 

 Of course, the document does not deny that some persons can and do experience a dissonance between their affective sense of personal identity and the sex of their bodies. Neither does it claim that this experience of dissonance is voluntarily chosen. 

 What it argues is that because of the relation of the body and soul in our shared human nature, and because of the relation of gender to sex, our subjective experience is not by itself determinative of either our sex or gender. 

 As to how to tackle this issue, the human and Christian way, I suppose, is to make as our own the attitude of Christ who offers his boundless love to each person without exception. Thus, we have to reaffirm that every person, regardless of sexual orientation, ought to be respected in his or her dignity and treated with consideration. 

 Every sign of unjust discrimination has to be avoided. And families should be given respectful pastoral guidance so that those who manifest a homosexual orientation can receive the assistance they need to understand and fully carry out God’s will in their lives. 

 Beyond the understandable difficulties which individuals may experience, the young ones especially need to be helped to accept their own body as it was created. There should be pastoral accompaniment full of mercy and patience for those concerned. 

 Thus, pastors who propose to the faithful the full ideal of the Gospel and the Church’s teaching, must also help them to treat the weak with compassion, avoiding aggravation or unduly harsh or hasty judgments.

We need to be grateful always

THIS is the lesson we can learn from that gospel episode where Christ cured 10 lepers but only one of the them came back to Christ to thank him. (cfr. Lk 17,11-19) We should never forget to thank God, first of all, and whoever else is involved in some happy event in our life. 

 And even in our sad moments, we still have reason to thank God, since we know that he takes care of everything, especially on those occasions when we find ourselves helpless. 

 We have to realize that to be thankful to God for all his blessings to us, including especially his mercy, and to everyone, is really for our own benefit rather than for any good we can give to them. 

 God does not need anything from us. What he wants is that we learn to be with him always since we are his children, created in his image and likeness. He wants to share his life with us. God loses nothing if we choose not to be with him. But without him, we are the ones who would lose everything. 

 A heart that is not thankful is an isolated heart. It’s a lonely heart that thinks it can live and do things simply by itself, in violation of our nature and what we actually feel deep in our hearts. It has no other way but to be unhappy. 

 A thankful heart will never be alone and sad. It recognizes the many blessings and good things that it continues to receive. And it knows where they come from, and also for what purpose they are given. It will always be happy. 

 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. 

 Thus, we need to hone up our sense of gratitude. We need to be thankful because the most radical truth about us is that whatever we have is first of all something given to us by someone, something received, before we do anything about it. If only to be decent, the least thing we can do is to be grateful. 

 St. Paul briefly and clearly expressed this truth this way: “What have you that you did not receive?” (1 Cor 4,7) And he continued: “And if you have received, why do you glory as if you have not received it?” pointing to us the danger if we fail to acknowledge this fundamental truth. 

 To be thankful is a necessity in our life. It is what puts us on the proper foundation, on the right track toward our true goal. It sustains and reinforces our relationship with everyone, from God down to the last creature on earth. 

 It always generates good atmosphere around, facilitates friendship and harmony. It builds up a sense of unity and belongingness among ourselves, tearing away whatever walls we may unwittingly erect due to our unavoidable differences and conflicts of views and opinions. 

 To take this necessity for granted or, worse, to be neglectful of it would plunge us into the road of self-centeredness, making us vulnerable to pride, vanity, envy, conceit and the like. 

 We start to build our own fantasy world or our own bubble of a reality, even to the extent of invincible confidence of our own righteousness. We start to distance ourselves from others, until we alienate them from us completely. 

 Let’s never, never forget to be thankful always!

Beware of secularism

THE problem of secularism is that it promotes a social order this is neither connected to religion nor critical of it. It denies the influence of religion in our social order. It simply wants to be guided by a certain consensus derived from what is considered practical in the present life itself. 

 But religion is not simply a private affair. God is the author and ruler not only of individuals, but also of societies. While the relation of Church and State depends on a number of circumstances which cannot be determined by a general rule, truth is religion is a social as well as an individual and personal duty. It cannot and should not be ignored. 

 The so-called separation of Church and State should not be understood in an absolute way. While it’s correct that the State should not have a state religion nor promote or condemn any particular religion or religious viewpoint, developing a relation between State and the different religions should be promoted. The State should also respect the views of non-believers. 

 But the Church cannot renounce her mission to teach the truths she has received from her Divine Founder. While fully recognizing the value of the present life, the Church cannot look upon it as an end in itself, but only as a movement toward a future life for which preparation must be made by compliance with the laws of nature and the laws of God. 

 For Catholics and Christians in general, their belief that the present life is a preparation if not a testing ground for an eternal life that is a supernatural sharing of the very life of God, should be respected. And because of that, their moral teachings should be respected too. The government cannot impose something that is considered immoral by their religion. 

 Secularism gives an opening to certain ideologies like Wokeism, neo-Marxism, etc. that actually are harmful to social justice and order. That is why we should be careful of secularism. Rather, we should intensify our religious and spiritual life, our relation with God, so that the proper social justice and order can be obtained. 

 Of course, the Church cannot impose its teachings on anyone, but it should be given a free space to be itself, to evangelize, to celebrate the sacraments, and to do the works of education, charity, mercy and justice without undue interference from the government. 

 Besides, the Church asks—and if necessary, demands—that the State respect the “sanctuary of conscience,” so that the Church’s people are not required by law to do things the Church teaches as immoral. 

 It’s unfortunate, for example, that in the US there was this “Contraceptive Mandate” issued in 2012 that turned the Catholic Church’s charitable and medical facilities into State agencies that facilitate practices that the Church believes are gravely evil. 

 Indeed, this delicate issue of Church and State relation should be thoroughly studied by our Church and State leaders, and appropriate agreements should be made. The separation Church and State should not be understood as a mandate to ignore each other. There has to be constant communication and consultation between the two, because both work for the same people or constituents, though in different aspects of life. 

 Though there is autonomy in both of them, it should be acknowledged that “there is no realm of worldly affairs which can be withdrawn from the Creator and His dominion.”

The duty to give good example

ONCE again, we are reminded of our duty to always give good example to others in that gospel reading of Monday of the 32nd Week in Ordinary Time. This is a duty that has a very delicate part since as Christ warned us, “It is impossible that scandals should not come: but woe to him through whom they come. It were better for him, that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and be cast into the sea, than that he should scandalize one of these little ones.” (Lk 17,1-2) 

 We have to learn how to be a good example of what is truly proper to us as children of God, since these times are what may be considered as bizarro times, where what is good and right is now considered bad and wrong, and vice-versa. And given the character of the Christian message which can be regarded as a sign of contradiction, we really need God’s grace and due study and effort to make it attractive to people, especially to the young. 

 We have to realize that it is a duty of ours, as Christians, to always give good example to others. Not that we have to flaunt whatever good thing we have or do, for Christ clearly said also that we should not show off our good deed before men, to be seen by them, lest we lose our reward in heaven. (cfr. Mt 6,1) 

 We have to be aware that we always have to give good example to others for the sole purpose of leading others to God. It is to edify others, to encourage them to be holy and to pursue the path of sanctity in an abiding way. 

 This duty, therefore, should be carried out deliberately. It should somehow be planned and aimed at. It should not just be something incidental or something optional. Of course, this duty should not be done out of pride or vanity, but out of obedience to the will of God who wants to save all men. (cfr. 1 Tim 2,4) 

 Let us hope that we can echo sincerely in our heart what St. Paul once said: “Be imitators of me as I am of Christ.” (1 Cor 11,1) This should be the motive and the attitude we have in desiring to give good example to others. It is to imitate Christ, to have his mind, to identify ourselves with his will and ways. 

 For this, we truly need to have the very love that God has for all of us. It’s a love that is not scandalized by anything. It, of course, continues to maintain that what is wrong is wrong, what is sinful and evil is sinful and evil. It does not compromise the truth of things. 

 But that fact should not take away one’s love for the person who happens to be wrong not only in some matters of opinion but also in some very serious matters, like matters of faith, hope and charity. It’s a love that clearly shows one is with God and is following the new commandment Christ gave us—that we love one another as he himself has loved us. (cfr. Jn 13,34) 

It’s a love that was clearly described by St. Paul in his First Letter to the Corinthians: “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” (13,7)

Training to give our all

DEFINITELY, this is a big challenge for all of us who try to follow by what Christ teaches us. In that gospel episode where he faulted the scribes for being showy of what they were doing and praised a poor widow who put in two small coins into the treasury of the synagogue, Christ is clearly telling us that we should do our good acts in a humble way and that we should try our best to give our all to God and others. (cfr. Mk 12,38-44) 

 “Amen, I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the other contributors to the treasury,” he told his disciples. “For they have all contributed from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has contributed all she had, her whole livelihood.” 

 This episode somehow reminds us of another of Christ’s sayings: “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” (Mt 19,24) 

 It’s definitely a tall order, but that is just how it is when we want to be truly Christian. All we can do is to say, “Amen” and then just try our best to pursue that ideal. What is clear about this matter is that it is actually a call to enter into the will and ways of God which are supernatural. We are being asked to go beyond, but not against, our natural self. This is a call for us to approximate our identification with Christ. 

 If that pursuit for identification with Christ is strong in us, for sure we will also feel assured that everything would just be ok since Christ himself said: “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 need to beg God’s grace to be able to meet this Christian standard. We just cannot rely on our human powers to abide by it. It actually is an invitation for us to take a leap to the supernatural world of God where God wants us to be, since we are his image and likeness, meant to share in his very life and nature. 

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

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

 We are told not to lay up treasures for oneself but rather to be rich toward God, that is, to be generous with God and with everybody else. Avarice, hoarding, simply pursuing our self-interest and personal welfare are actually inhuman, let alone, unchristian. 

 It’s also good for us to remember that there is such a thing as “universal destination of earthly goods.” That’s an official part of our Christian doctrine. “In the beginning God entrusted the earth and its resources to the common stewardship of mankind to take care of them, master them by labor, and enjoy their fruits. The goods of creation are destined for the whole human race.” (CCC 2402) 

 Even if there is also such a thing as right to private ownership, that right is always subordinated and is supposed to work for this more fundamental truth about the universal destination of goods.

Be both simple and shrewd

THIS is the challenge we have to face in this life. Christ told us in no uncertain terms that we should “be shrewd as a serpent, yet innocent as a dove.” (Mt 10,16) And that’s because in this life we cannot avoid having to deal with evil in many of its forms. We just have to learn how to go along with them without compromising what truly is essential in our life. 

 The parable of the dishonest steward (cfr. Lk 16,1-8) dramatizes well how these seemingly contrasting qualities can be combined. A steward was about to be dismissed by his master for squandering the master’s property. So, what he did to be able to survive was to ingratiate himself with his master’s debtors such that when he would finally be dismissed, he would still find work among the debtors. The parable ended with the master commending the steward for acting prudently. 

 Pope Francis once said that priests as shepherds should smell like the sheep. Otherwise, they cannot be considered as good shepherds. We have to know how to be worldly wise, street smart, versatile and adaptive to any person and situation, without compromising our Christian identity. 

 We need to have a good and realistic attitude toward the world. We have to love it the way Christ loved it. After all, of it he said: “For God so loved the world, as to give his only begotten Son; that whosoever believes in him, may not perish, but may have life everlasting.” (Jn 3,16) 

 But we also have to be careful with it because of its bad elements which are the effects of our sins. Christ's warning was in these words: “What shall it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, and suffers the loss of his soul?” (Mk 8,36) 

 We have to learn how to be shrewd, always discerning things properly and not afraid to get wet and dirty, if need be, as long as the integrity of one's Christian life is not compromised. 

 In fact, in one instance, Christ went to the extent of telling us to pluck an eye or cut an arm if they become occasions of sin. But, obviously, we have to do this with due prudence. 

 To be sure, simplicity is not naivete. It is not an excuse to escape from the world and to isolate oneself. It just means we have to know how to stick by God's laws no matter how difficult a situation may be. It's a matter of conviction that knows how to reinvent itself without compromising its essence as the need arises. It knows how to be flexible, adaptable and versatile. This is precisely the shrewdness of simplicity. 

 We get complicated when we detach ourselves from God and would just depend on our own brilliant ideas. In this case, we become very vulnerable to fall into deceit and duplicity, to having unfair ulterior motives, as we get more concerned with our own interests rather than with the common good. We get complicated when we are afraid to suffer for truth, justice, mercy, in short, for love of God and others. 

 Being complicated springs from self-righteousness as well as reinforces it. It can be so bad as to go to the extent of making oneself his own god, creating one's own reality, his own law that defines what is good and bad, right and wrong. 

 Being complicated only shows one does not have faith or, at least, has a weak or distorted faith. That's why he considers the word of God as ineffective to tackle the challenges of life.

Concern for the lost

THE lesson we can draw from the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin (cfr. Lk 15,1-10) is very clear. We need to give special attention and exert special effort to recover those who have lost their way toward God. This is the real test of discipleship. 

 We obviously need some special training for this. But let’s not forget that the first thing to do is to beg for that grace and power of God so we can carry out this duty that is clearly beyond our human powers and condition. 

 In our prayer, we should ask God to instill in us this strong urge to be concerned for those who have strayed from the proper way, those who for one reason or another are ostracized and alienated from God and from the rest of humanity. 

 With God’s grace, let’s embark on a plan to develop the appropriate attitude, virtues, skills and practices. Yes, we have to learn how to be “all things to all men to save at least some,” as St. Paul once said. (cfr. 1 Cor 9,22) 

 Definitely this would require of us a very open spirit that would enable us to adapt ourselves to everyone in the way they are, warts and all. Thus, we need to develop the qualities of adaptability, flexibility and versatility. With our increasingly complex times, we need to learn how to flow with the tide without losing our identity and real purpose in life. For this, we definitely need to look and follow closely the example of Christ. 

 Christ, being God, made himself man and went all the way to assume the sinfulness of men without committing any sin if only to identify himself with us in our wounded condition and to give us a way of how to deal with that condition. 

 In his preaching, he used parables to make his lessons more accessible to the people. He was always compassionate, quick to forgive, slow to anger. He was always thinking both of his Father and of the people. Remember him saying, “The one who sent me is true and what I heard from him I tell the world.” (Jn 8,26) 

 He gave preferential treatment to the children, the weak, the handicapped, the sick, the sinners. He was only allergic to the proud and self-righteous whose sense of right and wrong did not come from God, but rather from their own selves in their great variety of human consensus and other subtle forms of self-assertion. But on the cross, he asked forgiveness for everyone. 

 Obviously, to have this genuine concern for the lost, we need to be tough spiritually, not squeamish, much less, self-righteous. We should not be afraid to get the “smell,” as Pope Francis once said, of the lost sheep. If we are truly involved in the life of those who are lost and far from Church, we cannot avoid acquiring that “smell.” 

 Of course, without compromising our need also to be tender and gentle, we have to learn how to be strong and tough with the strength and forcefulness of true charity that would enable us how to bend, to understand and to forgive. 

 It’s a matter of discernment and prudence. They actually can and should go together—our toughness and gentleness. But their manifestations vary according to the situation, and we just have to learn how to show and live both anytime, or highlight one over the other given the circumstance or the need of the moment.

The cost of discipleship

DISCIPLESHIP, as described by Christ, may command a very steep price since it involves a heavy cost, but it actually gives us the best deal. Yes, it demands total detachment from earthly things, even to the extent of “hating one’s father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even one’s own life.” But then again, Christ reassures us that we will have a lot more of them if we would just stick with him. 

 More than that, discipleship also requires us to carry the cross in any form it comes and just to follow Christ. To top it all, it requires us to be very good at planning and strategizing so we can come up with an effective action plan and produce the fruits expected of being a disciple of Christ. All this was described by Christ in the gospel of St. Luke 14,15-23. 

 We should just try our best, always asking for God’s grace in the first place, to meet all these requirements, convinced that they are all worthwhile. A person who professes to be a Christian but fails to be a disciple of Christ is not really an authentic Christian. 

 Of course, this will require time and a lot of effort. But as long as there is some earnest struggle, albeit not perfect, one can truly be called a Christian. Just look at the apostles themselves, starting with Peter, the head of group, and see how with their weaknesses, mistakes and failures, they still managed to be disciples of Christ. The important thing is just to try our best to follow Christ, even if our best is not perfect. 

 Let’s be consoled by what St. Paul said in his Letter to the Philippians in this regard: “Be confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (1,6) Ours is simply to try our best, since as a saying would put it, “God will do the rest.” 

 To be detached is not just a matter of emptying ourselves of earthly things. That self-emptying should lead us to be filled with the very spirit of Christ, a spirit which would make us do nothing other than the will 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. That is why the cross is a necessity in our life. 

 We should also try to cultivate the skill of anticipating and planning as early as possible. It’s actually a necessity, a vital consequence of our nature that needs to work things out instead of just waiting for things to work out by themselves. It’s what is proper to us. 

 With these requirements met, we can expect to be an authentic disciple of Christ in spite of our weaknesses and mistakes along the way.

Passionate to join the heavenly banquet

THIS is the ideal condition for us. Our greatest and strongest passion should be to live our definitive eternal state of life with God in heaven, where we actually come from and where we should be at the end. It’s the definitive home for all of us. 

 We should avoid getting entangled and entrapped in our earthly and temporal affairs as dramatized in that parable narrated by Christ about a man who gave a great dinner but whose invited guests failed to come for all sorts of earthly reasons. (cfr. Lk 14,15-24) 

 Yes, even as we immerse ourselves in our earthly affairs, we should never lose sight of the ultimate purpose and goal of our life. Rather, we should make use of our earthly affairs as the very means, instruments and occasions to lead us to our definitive state of life in heaven. 

 We have to be wary of the danger of being trapped in the world of the senses, of the material and purely natural things. In fact, these days, there are many people who I consider are trapped in the world of the senses, ruled mainly by their instincts and emotions, and easily vulnerable to the mere impulses of the flesh and the usually improperly grounded worldly values and ways. 

 I don’t refer much to those who are already emotionally or mentally disturbed and even sick. I refer more to the so-called normal people, who can manage to behave well in a civil way when in the open, but cannot regulate their wild instincts and emotions when they are hidden and solitary. 

 Their imagination can run amuck. The direction of their thoughts and feelings can really go berserk. And since these are mainly hidden, then they usually go unchecked and are allowed to fester. 

 We should be more aware of the need for us to develop and sharpen our passion and hunger for heaven. Let’s follow what Christ clearly said: “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Mt 6,19-21) 

 And St. Paul echoes the same sentiment. “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” (Col 3,2) We should do everything to avoid getting entangled with our earthly and temporal affairs. 

 It’s not that these worldly concerns of ours are not important. They are very important! But only as means, not as ends. They are nothing, and they can be very harmful to us, if they are not related to our true and ultimate end. 

 We have to find ways to relate everything to God, to the supernatural character of our final destination in heaven. Whether we like it or not, this is how the cookie crumbles for us, given our nature that is not only material but also eminently spiritual. 

 We don’t have to die first before we can already have a feel of heaven, if not practically touch it. By doing our ordinary daily work, whether big or small, in public or hidden at home, and doing it with real love for God and for others, we can already achieve this ideal that is proper to us. 

 For this to take place, we of course have to work with working faith and piety, since without them, we will not be aware that working with love for God and others can already connect us with our final home in heaven. It’s love that is fueled by faith and piety that does the trick, so to speak.