Mark of the true disciple of Christ

CHRIST himself defined it very clearly. “By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (Jn 13,35) And that love should cover everyone, the good ones and the bad ones, the innocent and the guilty, the victim and the oppressor or killer, the friend and the enemy, etc. 

 It’s indeed a tall order or an impossible task to carry out, since definitely it requires the grace of God, our true identification with Christ, and not just our human efforts though these should also be used to the full. 

 It’s definitely no joke to be a disciple of Christ. It demands of us everything. This is how Christ himself described what to be his disciple requires: 

 “If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.” (Lk 14,26-27) 

 And he added that to effectively carry out our discipleship of him, we should plan things well. We should not just have good intentions. We have to be properly equipped with everything that Christ himself would provide us. And this is nothing less than for us to be truly identified with Christ. 

 With Christ, everything will be put in order. We would know how to understand his words that at first may sound harsh and even inhuman to us—what with him telling us to ‘hate’ our father and mother, children, brothers and sisters. 

 We will understand that what he meant is that we give our whole heart to him, and by doing so we would actually know how to love everybody and everything else in the proper way. Our usual problem is that our human loving tends to be disorderly, fueled mainly by earthly and temporal principles and missing the real source of love. 

 To be a true disciple of Christ requires a certain kind of detachment so we can have the proper attachment to God and everyone and everything else in their proper order. 

 This is how he expressed it: “Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” (Mt 6,33) We also know that among the 10 commandments, the first among those related to our duties towards others, the 4th commandment, is that of honoring our father and mother. 

 We need to have a certain detachment from persons and things to be able to give our heart entirely to God, and with him, we actually have everything we need. As St. Teresa of Avila put it graphically, with God we have enough—“solo Dios basta.” 

 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 train ourselves to have God first, last and always in our loving. This may require some discipline to control our human urges to let ourselves be guided and moved always by God’s love. This definitely will be a lifelong affair but we should consider as all worth it.

Let’s take it nice and easy

THAT’S the opening line of an old Frank Sinatra love song. Now you know what generation I belong to. I was struck by it recently when I also read in the gospel some words Christ told his disciples: “Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me.” (Jn 14,1) 

 I believe this Sinatra line can be a good motto of our life as long as it is anchored properly on Christ. We know that life has much more to offer than what we can manage to handle. But having that attitude of trust on God’s providence would truly help us avoid the pitfalls of worries, anxieties and the like. In spite of whatever, we can manage to have a light and happy life. 

 There’s really no reason to be too worried and anxious when we encounter some difficulty in our life. In fact, we have every reason to be confident and at peace, focused on what we are supposed to do. And that’s because we are always in God’s hands. 

 Whatever situation we may be in, we can be sure that God will always provide for what is truly needed by us, and it may not be what we want. We just have to trust him completely for he knows better than we do, and what we want may not be what we need. It may not even be what is good for us. 

 The story of Abraham’s complete trust in God is a great lesson for us. (Gen 22,1-19) When God tested him by asking him to offer his only son, Isaac, as a sacrifice, he readily agreed. We already know how the story ended—a happy ending it was—and what great lesson he learned from that test. 

 Abraham named the place where he was supposed to sacrifice his son, “Yahweh-yireh” (the Lord provides), for he was provided in the last minute with a ram instead of his son for the sacrifice. 

 God always knows what to do in any situation we may find ourselves in. He may allow some evil to come to us, an evil that can do us no harm unless we let it, but God knows how to draw good from evil. 

 Ours is simply to trust God completely, and out of that trust, we should always feel confident and courageous to do what we are supposed to do. We should not waste our time lamenting and feeling like a victim, or wallowing in doubts, passivity and self-pity. 

 We have to remove ourselves from that state mentioned by St. Paul in his Letter to the Ephesians: “children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the cunning of men, by their craftiness in deceitful wiles.” (4,14) We have to move. There are a lot of things to do. 

 Yes, there will always be challenges, problems, difficulties that humanly speaking may be impossible for us to tackle. But as long as we have trust in God, we can sincerely echo St. Paul’s words: “I can do all things in him who strengthens me.” (Phil 4,13) These words have been verified to be true in the lives of all the saints, especially the martyrs. 

 We should assume the mind of Christ who, when he fell a number of times on his way to Calvary, never let go of the cross. We have to learn to take refuge in our dignity as children of God who are assured of God’s help. We have to strengthen our sense of being children of God who always takes care of us.

It’s love that lets us to truly pray

DO you have difficulty praying? Try to check if you are in love—that is, in love with God and with everybody else. Without that love, it’s not possible to truly pray. At best, we can give some appearances of prayer, but it would not be a real encounter with God who is ever willing to share what he has with us. 

 It’s a pity that many of us, including those who are supposed to be our prayer leaders, actually fail to pray even if they go through the different motions of praying. If prayer is just a matter of complying with a certain obligation but done without love, we can only find it boring and meaningless. It would just be a matter of time, before we abandon the practice. 

 It’s important that we attune ourselves to the dynamic of love initiated by God himself so we would also find ourselves falling in love, the true love that is all at the same time human, natural, spiritual and supernatural. Let’s remember that it is God who loves us first, and we can only learn to love properly if we acknowledge and feel that love God has for us. 

 For this, we have to make an effort to capture the tremendous love God has for us. Our main problem is that we often ignore that love as we tend to pursue only our own human desires and intentions, guided only by some natural elements that, given our wounded condition, will always bear also the infranatural elements that would be working against us. 

 To capture that love God has for us, we need not only to exert some effort but also to make a lot of sacrifices, again given the wounded condition of our humanity. That is why, Christ said it very clearly that if we want to follow him as we should, we need to deny ourselves and carry the cross. (cfr. Mt 16,24) 

 We need to at least make an accounting of how much God loves us before we can learn to love him in return and, thus, make our prayer an occasion to have a truly loving exchange with God. 

 We have to realize the love behind the fact that God created us to be like him, endowing us among all his creatures with the tremendous gifts of intelligence and will, plus the greatest gift which is his grace. 

 To top it all, since we cannot avoid messing up these wonderful gifts of God, he offers us his mercy as given to us by Christ, the son of God who became man and offered his life as a ransom for all our sins. If we would just realize how much God loves us, we for sure would also be filled up with love. Love is always repaid with love. 

 When love inspires our prayer, we would always find the periods of prayer exciting. We would be filled with desires to praise and thank God for the many blessings we have received. We would be willing to imitate the love God has for us as shown to us by Christ who told us to love one another as he himself has loved us. (cfr. Jn 13,34) 

 We would have many initiatives of how to reach out to the others. We would be willing to bear the burdens of the others. Many virtues develop, like humility, fortitude, temperance, holy purity, etc. 

 We really have to make sure that our prayer is inspired by love always!

The toughness of Christian love

THAT toughness comes from the supernatural grace of God. It is not just a human love, based only on natural forces, principles and motives which, given our wounded condition, are always hounded by our infranatural tendencies toward envy, anger, hatred, jealousy and the like. 

 Christian love does not suppress what is human and natural in us. It simply elevates and purifies it. And as such it can manage to have a universal scope that can include even loving our enemies. 

 It is this love that, as St. Paul said, would enable us to be all things to all men (cfr. 1 Cor 9,22), allowing us to adapt ourselves to all kinds of people, situations and conditions. 

 Indeed, St. Paul made this beautiful hymn of Christian love when he said: “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” (1 Cor 13,4-7) 

 Christ, of course, is the very embodiment of this kind of love, and all the saints and the holy men and women through the ages have tried to live by this standard. We too are asked to have this kind of love, since Christ clearly told us to love one another as he himself has loved us. (cfr. Jn 13,34) 

 We need to be strong and tough, first of all, because our life will always involve, if not, require nothing less than continuing effort and struggle. Christ himself said it clearly: “From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and men of violence take it by force.” (Mt 11,12) 

 This is because there are goals and challenges to reach. And they are not merely natural, social or human goals. They are spiritual and supernatural that obviously need both grace and nothing less than our all-out effort. 

 Besides, given our wounded human condition, there obviously are problems and difficulties to face, temptations and consequences of our sins, mistakes and failures. There will always be issues that we need to resolve. 

 This is not to mention that each one of us has his own personal weaknesses to tackle. Everyone is prone to laziness and complacency, to narrow-mindedness and shortsightedness, if not blindness to spiritual and supernatural realities, all of which can lead to complications in our life. 

 We have to deal with the concupiscence of the eyes and the flesh, the pride of life, our tendency to be vain and self-centered, and to be dominated by the urges of lust and sensuality, greed and avarice, gluttony, and the many other disordinate passions we have. 

 We have to know the peculiarities of our emotional and psychological make-up, so we can be prepared to deal with the ups and downs of our life, twists and turns of life’s drama that can lead us to wild mood swings and to more serious conditions like falling into bipolar and similar mental and emotional illnesses. 

 This is not to mention that we have to learn how to cope with the consequences of the other extreme of committing mistakes and sins, suffering defeat, being a failure that can plunge us to depression, self-pity and despair. Or the sweet poison of success that can spoil us. 

 Let’s never forget that we also have to deal with spiritual and supernatural enemies of our soul. We are actually ranged against powerful spiritual enemies. We really need the toughness of Christian love to live our life properly.

Why do we have to love even our enemies

WHY? Because, first of all, Christ said so. In no unclear terms, he said: “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.” (Mt 5,43-45) 

 And he walked his talk by being always compassionate with the sinners of his time. And ultimately, while still on the cross, just a few breaths away from death, he offered forgiveness to those who crucified him, who in the end, are actually all of us. (cfr. Lk 23,34) That’s because every sin we commit contributes to Christ’s crucifixion. 

 But we may still ask, why should we love our enemies? Isn’t it against our nature? I believe the final answer to that is because in spite of how we are to each other and to God himself, we still are all children of God, brothers and sisters among ourselves, meant to care and love one another. 

 Irrespective of how we behave and develop our life, that basic truth cannot be erased. It’s a truth of our faith that was hinted in the following passage from the Book of Isaiah that says, “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) 

 Of course, this does not mean that what is wrong is right. The sharp distinction between the two is never denied by the love that we are asked to have. Rather, because of that love, we still should try to uphold that distinction as best that we can. 

 Yes, we should try our best to clarify the issues, but knowing how imperfect we are even in our best conditions, we should just go beyond that distinction, and offer forgiveness the way Christ did so on the cross. Christ did everything to clarify what is right, but in the end, he sort of “failed” and had no other recourse than to offer his life as the ultimate testament of his love for us. 

 This is, of course, a tall order, an impossible thing for us to follow. But we should just try and try, never giving up. We obviously have to exert all the effort we can give, but first of all, we should ask for the grace of God, since only in that way can the impossible be made possible for us. 

 Let’s try to develop a lifestyle where in spite of our unavoidable differences and conflicts we can manage to have no enemies, since we would love everyone. More than that, it should be a lifestyle where the more unlovable a person in the natural level is given more love. That’s when we can truly say that we are entering the supernatural level of God which is actually meant for us. 

 This, of course, would require a lot of faith and hope for the charity meant for us to blossom. It should be a faith that should lead us to develop a certain toughness that can bear all things, as St. Paul once said. (cfr. 1 Cor 13,7) 

 Everyday, let’s hope that we can manage to love everyone, especially those who clearly are in error. These people can be considered as “one of the least of my brethren” as Christ once said, (cfr. Mt 25,40) to whom we should give a completely gratuitous love. For such is true love. It is completely gratuitous, expecting no reward nor compensation.

Our need for accompaniment and continuing conversion

WE have to be more aware of this crying need. More than that, we have to come up with plans and strategies that would effectively address this need whose neglect has spawned a lot of scandals even among supposedly “good” people like the clergy and other religious leaders. 

 We cannot deny that even if we can consider ourselves as already quite mature, so gifted with impressive personal qualities that would make us believe that we can easily tackle the different challenges and trials we meet in life, we actually continue to have weaknesses that can act up in some hidden way. 

 We should never forget that despite our spiritual and moral strength, we will always have the so-called “feet of clay” (cfr. Daniel 2,33) which means that our earthly and human powers are actually unstable. Just a little disturbance of a temptation, falling into sin would just be a matter of time. 

 Besides, we have been warned that even a just man can fall seven times in a day. (cfr. Prov 24,16) St. Paul also said that “our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” (Eph 6,12) 

 And given the new challenges posed by the new developments around, like the Internet where good and evil play absorbing albeit confusing games, we cannot deny that our weaknesses, while dormant so far, can start to stir up and dominate us. 

 What can make things worse is when we would just keep our struggles and falls in secret. That’s when we would put ourselves in some hidden bondage. These cases of secret or hidden bondage can arise in the area of our human weaknesses. Thus, people can have this enslavement to pornography and sex, to drinks and drugs, or worse, to some evil spirits who can appear to them, as St. Paul warned us, as an angel of light. (cfr. 2 Cor 11,14) 

 In cases like this, the most important thing to do is to pray hard, offer a lot of sacrifices, and then open up with someone who can help those affected spiritually and morally. And if needed, some professional help from psychologists or psychiatrists who have good human and Christian formation may be availed of. 

 This is when we really wound need accompaniment and conversion. Accompaniment should be exercised in the higher and more important aspects of our life—mental, psychological, moral and spiritual, etc. In these aspects, we can never say that our need for it would already be fully satisfied. In fact, the older we get, the more experienced and accomplished we are in our life, the more would be our need for accompaniment. 

 And that’s simply because the challenges and trials we face as we get older and more accomplished become more subtle and complicated. And we always need the help of others to face them. Woe to us if we are left only to ourselves to face all of the challenges and trials in life. 

 We have to realize that that we need to be accompanied always by others as well as to accompany others. We should be both sheep and shepherd. There’s both an active and passive side of this need of ours for accompaniment. If we do not feel that need yet, then it is about time that we develop an abiding sense of that need.

Daily renewals

GIVEN the way we are in this world, marked as it is with frequent inconsistencies and infidelities, we need to see to it that this business of making daily renewals of our commitments to God and to everybody else should be taken up seriously. 

 For this, we have to be clear about what the real purpose of our life is, how we can relate everything in our day to this ultimate purpose of ours. But first of all, we should know what making these daily renewals is all about. 

 In the gospel, we can hear Christ saying: “My sheep hear my voice; and I know them, and they follow me. And I give them life everlasting; and they shall not perish forever, and no man shall pluck them out of my hand.” (Jn 10,27-28) 

 That, in a nutshell, is the ideal condition for us to be in. It’s when we can abidingly hear Christ’s voice and follow him. We should be wary of our strong tendency to hear and be guided only by ourselves and by some worldly standards. We really need to humble ourselves so that we can let Christ’s voice to be heard and followed by us. 

 Right at the beginning of the day, we should already direct and set our mind and heart on Christ, promising to offer everything to him, to do things with and for him, and to know him more and more by going through certain practices of prayer, spiritual reading and theological study, and other acts of piety. 

 Besides those, we should make it an organic part of our lifestyle to always begin and begin again in our struggle to hear Christ’s voice. That’s because we cannot deny that we often fail to be consistent and faithful to our original intention to always listen to him and to follow his ways. 

 We just have to begin and begin again, never getting tired, since Christ never tires of us. This seems to be the law of our earthly life. We should not remain down all the time. We can and should always get up. 

 That we always sin is already quite known. St. John in his first letter said so. “If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him (God) a liar, and His word is not in us.” (1,10) So, let’s just acknowledge our sinfulness and ask for forgiveness. Let’s avoid playing the hypocrite. 

 Besides, St. Paul vividly describes the constant inner struggle we all have between good and evil. From his Letter to the Romans, we read: “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate...I delight in the law of God, in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin which dwells in my members.” (7,15ff.) 

 And again, we are told that we are actually ranged against powerful enemies. Not only do we have to contend with our wounded flesh, and the sinful allurements of the world. We also have to do battle with powerful spiritual enemies. 

 As St. Paul put it in his Letter to the Ephesians, “We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” (6,12) 

 Let’s remember this fact of life, and not waste too much time lamenting and feeling bad because of our weakness and sinfulness. All we have to do is to be quick to say sorry, saying it from the heart no matter how repeatedly we have to do it. And from there, let’s continue the process of conversion and transformation, going to confession often, cultivating the virtues, sanctifying our work and ordinary duties, etc.

Spiritual filters and purifiers

WITH all the things that we are now exposed to, we cannot be naïve to think that as long as these things are not instantly wrong, we can feel free to receive them anytime. That kind of mindset may be applicable in times past when things were quite simple and relatively clean. 

 But not anymore now. Many of the things that we used to take for granted to be good may now contain a lot of hidden dirt. And so, we need some kind of filters and purifiers, especially in our spiritual and moral life. 

 Before, for example, we used to take tap water directly from the faucet or the well, and it was just ok. Not anymore now. Water now needs to go through some process of filtration and purification for it to be safe water to drink. 

 If that is the case with ordinary water, it is much more so in the things that affect our spiritual and moral life. Movies, video clips, social media, etc. can give us a lot of information and knowledge, but they also bring with them a lot of dirt, mostly hidden, in terms of fake news, distractions, click baits, and all kinds of temptations. 

 We now have to learn how to deal with this reality that may have given us a lot of good, but also has led us to all sorts of anomaly, like addiction to pornography and self-indulgence, the rise of hidden bondage and all sorts of mental and psychological illnesses, the spreading of fake news, etc. 

 Basically, what is needed is for us to be truly anchored on God. We cannot overemphasize the importance of this truth. If we would just rely on our own powers, there is no way we can properly handle the things around that contain a complicated mixture of good and evil. 

 With God, we can always act with prudence, we would have a clear vision of the real and ultimate purpose of our life here on earth, we would be properly guarded against temptations and the occasions of sin. Somehow, we would have a good sense of priority among the many things that we have to handle, giving precedence always to our spiritual needs over our bodily needs, etc. 

 We should try our best that we be with God always. That is actually what is proper to us. Our life is meant to be a life with God always. Whatever we do should be done with God and for God. 

 With God, we would know how to filter the bad elements that go or are mixed with the good and legitimate things we handle everyday, including the very subtle ones that can easily escape notice from us. 

 We should see to it also that our true hunger is to be with God. This is how we purify ourselves. We should not be contented with feeling clean due to the filtering of the spiritual and moral dirt we do while handling the things of today’s world. We should be intensely attracted to God such that God should be our greatest and strongest hunger. 

 Let’s take care of our daily examinations of conscience where we can identify where we have gone wrong, where we need some improvement, and where we can make the appropriate resolutions, plans and strategies to tackle the very complicated challenges we are facing today.

When disadvantaged or on the losing end

WE cannot deny that in our life there will be unavoidable occasions when despite our pure intentions and best efforts, we would just find ourselves in situations of disadvantage and misfortune. We should not be surprised by this fact of life. But what we should do is to convert these moments into something that will do us a lot of good. 

 The secret, of course, is to refer everything to God. That is when we turn to reality what St. Paul once said: “We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” (Rom 8,28) 

 We should just adapt the attitude of Job who, when heavily tested by God himself to see if his faith in God was truly strong, simply said: “Shall we accept good from God, and shall we not accept evil?” (Job 2,10) 

 Let’s always remember that it is God who defines and knows what is good and what is evil. It is also he who knows what to do with them. Thus, if we are with him both in good times and in bad, we somehow also would know what to do with them. 

 When we are with God, the good times definitely will make us ever thankful to him and prod us to make use of what good thing we have to grow in our love for him and for everybody else. We would be protected from the danger of falling into pride and vanity. 

 And also, when we are with him during our bad times, we still would manage to be thankful to him, knowing that whatever negative occurrences appear in our life, we actually would have the golden opportunity to grow in our love for him, in the many virtues that little by little make us resemble God as we should, since we are meant to be his image and likeness. 

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

 Let’s always remember that God, in his ineffable ways, can also talk to us through these crosses. In fact, he can convey precious messages and lessons through them. It would be good that we have a theological attitude toward them, and be wary of our tendency to react to them in a purely human way, based only on our senses and feelings and on worldly standards. 

 We have to be quick to discern what God is telling us through them. Let’s be quick to see in these problems golden opportunities to receive more graces and other blessings from God. These graces and blessings can deepen our love for God and neighbor, enrich our understanding of things, occasion the birth and development of virtues. They can truly do us a lot of good. 

 Thus, people who know how to suffer, bearing their suffering with Christ, are effective in conveying to us sublime and divine messages. They are the most credible people who can surprise us with their deep insights and understanding of our life and the world in general.

What leads us to our eternal life

CHRIST said it very clearly. “For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life, and I shall raise him on the last day.” (Jn 6,40) 

 Yes, what leads us to our eternal life is to do the will of God which is to believe in his Son, Christ. It is Christ who is the fullness of the revelation about God and about ourselves who are God’s image and likeness, sharers in his life and nature. 

 And the ultimate revelation Christ gave us is that we should love one another as he himself has loved us. (cfr. Jn 13,34-35) This will of God summarizes and perfects all the other commandments given previously. 

 We need to train ourselves to do and to live always and as perfectly as possible the very will of God. The ideal to pursue is to make our will nothing other than to do God’s will. Christ himself, the pattern of our humanity, exemplified this perfectly when he said, “I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge; and my judgment is just, because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father who has sent me.” (Jn5,30) 

 Mary also, who next to Christ embodies the perfection of humanity, also lived by this divine indication. This was especially highlighted in the event of the Annunciation when she was told about the incredible message that she was going to be the mother of the Son of God. Though we could imagine that she could not fully understand the message, she just said, “Fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum” (Be it done to me according to thy word.) 

 It would be very good if we can always remember the close connection between eternal life and doing the will of God, and make it the operative principle of our life. We should be asking frequently during the day, “Am I really doing the will of God, or am I just doing my own will?” 

 God’s will can be known in many ways. He already has given us the 10 commandments, which explicitly articulate his will for us, though not yet in a perfect way. What perfects the 10 Commandments or the Old Law is the New Law or the New Commandment as spoken by Christ himself, “Love one another as I have loved you.” 

 Of course, this New Law contains a lot of mysteries even if we have many ideas of how this New Law can be carried out. It has mysteries because it involves nothing less than our total identification with Christ who, being God, will always remain mysterious to us even if he has given himself completely to us. 

 We just have to learn to go along this divine adventure that involves us in God’s mysterious ways even if on our part we try our best to know his will all the way to the littlest detail. Such is our human and temporal condition until we identify ourselves completely with Christ which can happen only in heaven when we see him “face to face.” 

 In the meantime, let’s realize that God’s will is known by studying the doctrine of our faith. What can also help is to be familiar with the living testimonies of saints who had managed to know, love and obey God’s will.

Sharpening our hunger for God

GIVEN the current climate of our environment that is now heavily marked by new and highly absorbing things, we cannot underestimate the importance of truly sharpening our hunger for God. Nowadays, if we are not careful, we would easily get trapped by the many distractions that can lead us to pure self-indulgence. 

 We should try our best to echo what the disciples asked Christ when Christ told them about a certain bread that would give life to the world: “Lord, give us always this bread.” (Jn 6,34) We should always have this hunger for this bread which is no other than Christ himself who makes himself really present in the Holy Eucharist. 

 That way, we can have the proper focus in our life even amid the many distractions around. Yes, we may need some distractions as a way of rest and relaxation. But we should no lose our proper focus. We have to be most wary of our tendency to be so carried away by them that we compromise that focus. 

 At the moment, we can see a disturbing developments involving many people, especially the young. A big segment of the people is getting addicted to games and the many other novelties played out in the Internet and in the new technologies. 

 They are now more self-centered and self-absorbed, prone to idleness, laziness and comfort-and-pleasure seeking. Their relationship to God and to others is all but blotted out of their consciousness. 

 We truly need to educate our bodily and spiritual faculties so they can acquire a theological meaning and purpose and not just purely biological and temporal functions. If we truly are serious in our Christian duty to make ourselves “another Christ” who is the pattern of our humanity, then that Christian transformation of our own selves should be the goal of all our faculties—the bodily as well as our spiritual faculties. 

 Thus, when we experience hunger for food or thirst for some drink, or curiosity for some knowledge, it should not just be food and drink and knowledge that we should be interested in. We should not remain in the level of the material and temporal aspects of our life. Our hunger and thirst should also lead us to God first of all. 

 In fact, more than food and drink and earthly knowledge, it should be God, his will and ways that we should be more interested in. We have to train ourselves to realize that our biological hunger and thirst and curiosity for knowledge can fully be satisfied only when we fulfill the will of God. 

 In this regard, we should see to it that in everything that we do, we should have the right intention. Indeed, we have to be most careful in handling our intentions, since they play a strategic role in our life. How and where we direct them would determine whether we want to be with God or simply to be with our own selves. 

 Our intentions express who and where in the end we want to be. Do we choose God, or do we simply choose ourselves, or the world in general? We’re actually always a choice between good and evil. 

 Even if we are not aware, or refuse to be aware, of this choice, which is usually the case, the choice between God and us, between good and evil is always made with every human act we do. 

 We need to realize then that we have to take utmost care of our intention, making it as explicit as possible, and honing it to get engaged with its proper and ultimate object who is God.

When we’d just be chasing after the wind

THIS happens when with all the excitement we put into our earthly activities, we fail to reach the ultimate end proper to us, and that is, to be with God, to do everything to show our love for him, and to give him glory. In other words, when we fail to follow what Christ once said: “Do not work for food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life.” (Jn 6,27) 

 We cannot deny that we are notorious for making ourselves, instead of God, as the goal of our whole life. We are prone to fall into self-indulgence against which we should declare an unrelenting war. Yes, this has always been a problem to us, and these days it is much more so. 

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

 We just have to give a cursory look around to see how bad this problem is. Many people are just looking at their cellphones most of the time. There are reports saying that many young people often forget their meals and lose sleep because of what they do in the Internet. It’s clear they are terribly hooked there and it seems it’s now next to the impossible to get them out of there. 

 As a result, many duties and responsibilities are left unattended. Disorder and chaos are fast gaining ground as priorities are skewed. Superficiality has now become a mainstream lifestyle, reinforcing the trend toward consumerism, materialism and what Pope Francis refers to as the “throw-away culture” where ethical and moral considerations are ignored or even flouted, i.e., regarded with contempt. 

 We have to be wary of this danger of self-indulgence that is becoming widespread. There is a slippery slope to it. We should therefore be constantly guarded against 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. We would be trapped in a state of obsession and addiction that can be so strong that it can defy rationality and common sense. 

 To counter this strong bad tendency of ours, we should see to it that our strongest attraction should be God and no other. If we make God the source and cause of all our attractions, of all our pleasures, of what ultimately gives us perfect satisfaction and ultimate fulfillment, all the other things can attract us and give us joy in the proper way, always respecting our true dignity as persons and as children of God. 

 Otherwise, there is no other way but for us to have merely a fake kind of joy, pleasure and satisfaction that can only lead us to bigger dangers. We really have to train ourselves to make God and to make following his will and ways the constant source and cause of our attraction and joy.

Christ always looks after us

WE should just firm up our conviction about how Christ is always caring for us. His ways may be mysterious and can escape our notice, but we should not forget that there is no moment in our life when Christ would be absent or indifferent to our needs. 

 We are reminded of this truth of our faith in that gospel episode about the third appearance of Christ to his disciples after his resurrection. (cfr. Jn 21,1-19) At first, they did not realize it was Christ who was asking them something from the shore when they were fishing at sea. It took some time before they would finally recognize him. 

 In our life, we should be wary of our tendency to feel that we are just on our own, grappling with our own things and that Christ has hardly anything to do with us. We have to correct that understanding. Christ always cares for us and he is precisely in everything that we get involved in, giving us the proper direction, guidance and support. 

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

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

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

 Obviously, we have to do our part. In fact, we have to exhaust all human means to resolve whatever difficulties and problems we have. But knowing that our best would never be enough, we should never forget that there is God, our Father, our Creator, who began something good in us and who will also be the one to finish, complete and perfect everything in us. (cfr. Phil 1,6) 

 We have to strengthen our conviction on this wonderful truth of our faith. We should not allow ourselves to be dominated by sadness, much less, despair over some weakness, mistakes, failures, blunders and sins that can mark our earthly sojourn. 

 While it’s true that our initial reaction to these negative things can unavoidably be one of sadness, let us not stay long there. We have to immediately recover our true dignity as children of God. Being a father, God would always understand and forgive us. 

 God will never give up on us. He will do everything to help and save us. As St. Paul would put it in his Letter to the Romans: “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” (8,32)

Training for eternal life

KNOWING that we are meant for eternal life with God in heaven, we should understand that our life here on earth is meant to train us for that ultimate goal of ours. It is also a testing ground to see if what God wants us to be for all eternity is also what we ourselves would want to be. 

 Of course, what God wants us to be is to be like him since we have been created in his image and likeness, meant to be share in very life and nature. And that means that, in the end, just as God is love itself, as shown in its fulness by Christ, we should try our best to incarnate and live that love which is all inclusive even as it continues to keep the exclusivity of truth. It’s also a love that oozes with mercy. 

 We obviously can only do so much, given our natural limitations, not to mention the wounded condition of our life that is always hounded by sin. But we just have to do what we can, taking things to the limit, never saying enough. Anyway, Christ has assured us of final victory as long as we stick with him all the way to the end, regardless of how the drama of our life plays out. 

 Let’s always remember these reassuring words of St. Paul: “He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Phil 1,6) We should just try our best to be more and more like Christ, even if our best can never be enough. 

 To be more and more like Christ, to be more and more like God can only mean to be more and more in love with God, to be more and more united with him. And in practical terms, it means to be more and more in love and united with everybody else, irrespective of how they are. That’s because to love God here on earth is also to love everybody else. 

 Said in another way, if we really want love to reign between God and us, all we have to do is to love our neighbor. In this we have these words of Christ himself: “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. Stop judging and you will not be judged. Stop condemning and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven…For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you.” (Lk 6,36-38) 

 Thus, when Christ was asked what the greatest commandment was, he readily said it was to love God with everything that we have got, and without being asked what the second greatest commandment was, he volunteered to say it—that it was to love your neighbor as yourself. (cfr. Mt 22,36-40) 

 As we can see, loving God and loving others always go together. We cannot have one without the other. The immediate corollary we can derive from this consideration is that we do not have to wait for some special occasions, some special reasons or persons to show our love for God. 

 Every moment, every person, every situation, no matter how ordinary and plain they may be, is a moment to show our love for God. The moment we start to be nice to others, we are already starting to be nice with God, and thus loving him. 

 This is how we can effectively train ourselves for eternal life!

God’s providence in our work

MAY 1, Feast of St. Joseph the Worker. In the secular world, it’s celebrated as Labor Day, highlighting the importance of our work in the development of our society and, first of all, of our personal life. Yes, our work plays a very important and strategic role in the different aspect and levels of our life. 

 What we need to realize more deeply is that God’s constant interventions in our life, that is, his providence and governance over all his creation, is played out most especially in our work, where our human and world development takes place. 

 We need to convince ourselves that our life and everything in it, including our work especially, is not an isolated and unrelated element in the very fluid ocean of the universe. We are always a vital part of a whole plan of God’s love and wisdom, a verse in the divine epic of the continuing work of God over all of his creation. 

 We have to overcome our tendency to have a very restrictive, narrow and shallow view of our life, ruled solely by mere human estimation of things, worldly standards and criteria, instead of our faith that gives us the complete vision of things and the adequate means to reach our ultimate end. 

 This realization should behoove us to develop a most sensitive ability to discern God’s interventions as we go through our work. We should be guided by God’s abiding interventions rather than simply by our own ideas, no matter how brilliant they may appear to be. 

 Yes, we have to learn to work and, in fact, to live our whole life under God’s providence. As our Catechism puts it, providence are “the dispositions by which God guides his creation toward their perfection…By his providence God protects and governs all things which he has made…(n. 302) 

 Furthermore, the Catechism says that “the solicitude of divine providence is concrete and immediate; God cares for all, from the least things to the great events of the world and its history.” (n. 303) 

 We should try our best to correspond to God’s constant presence and interventions. That is why, we need to cultivate our spiritual life, our relation with God which is otherwise called as our religion, that has to be constantly nourished through a life of piety that should be kept as vibrant as possible. 

 Otherwise, there is no other way but for us to fall into self-indulgence that has no other possible end than tragedy. We would be easy prey to our weaknesses, the many temptations around and sin itself. 

 That is why the Catechism tells us that “Jesus asks for childlike abandonment to the providence of our heavenly Father who takes care of his children’s smallest needs.” (n. 305). We should not dare to live solely on our own, something that we need effort to uphold, since our tendency is to think that we can simply be on our own. 

 We just have to learn and develop a healthy sense of abandonment in the mysterious will and ways of God. What can help in this regard is to cultivate also a sporting attitude to life. We win some, we lose some, but in the end, God takes care of everything as long as we always go to him! 

 The upshot of all these considerations should be that we develop a working contemplative lifestyle especially as we immerse ourselves in our work. That way, we can easily discern God’s providential interventions as we tackle the technical aspects and the other temporal factors of our work.

The cross as the summit of our life

WE have this happy assurance from our Christian faith—"God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” (Jn 3,16) We should just know what this divine assurance implies. 

 Yes, we are assured of eternal life with God if we follow Christ who clearly told us that if we want to be with him, we should deny ourselves and carry the cross. (cfr. Mt 16,24) In short, the cross should be the summit of our life, just as the cross was the culmination of Christ’s mission of the redemption of mankind. 

 Not only that, we have to understand that we should have the cross not only at the end of our life, but rather in our daily life. It should be the summit of all our earthly activities. That would assure us that we would be with Christ and would be working also for the salvation of mankind, ours and that of everybody else. 

 We need to process this truth of our faith about the cross so we can live it truly. It should not just be a desire or an intention. More than that, the cross, in whatever form it comes, should cause joy in us rather than just a distorted face of pain. 

 We, therefore, have to learn to lose any fear of the cross. That instinct of ours to be afraid and to flee from the cross has to be reversed, and made into an instinct of love for the cross. 

 This may take time and effort, this may require a lot of thinking and discipline, this may involve some drastic and even painful adjustments in our understanding of things, but it is all worthwhile to do so. 

 When we lose the fear of the cross and develop the love for it instead, we would have the proper light to guide us in our life here on earth. Not only that, we can have the invincible peace and joy that is proper to us as persons and as children of God. 

 Thus, it is important that we have a proper understanding about the phenomenon of evil and suffering in this world. And that proper understanding comes from our Christian faith.  

In the Catechism, we are told that God permits evil to happen because he respects the freedom of men and, mysteriously, knows how to derive good from it. (cfr. CCC 311) The Catechism further tells us regarding this point that: 

 “In time we can discover 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 goods: the glorification of Christ and our redemption…” (CCC 312) 

 Again, it’s good to be theological in our understanding of the cross because the mere human attitude toward the cross can never fathom the crucial and indispensable significance the cross of Christ possesses. 

 Christ’s cross, which Christ himself told us to carry (cfr. Mt 16,24), converts that tree of death that led to the downfall of our pristine humanity in Adam and Eve into a tree of eternal life that brings us back again to God, our Father and Creator.

We need to be born again daily

ALTHOUGH we already are born again in Christ especially through the sacrament of baptism—and with that reality continually nourished by the other sacraments and other instrumentalities that Christ through the Church has made available to us—we should see to it that we know how to live up to that reality in our daily life. 

 We know that we tend to be inconsistent in our ways. We say one thing and yet do another. We profess, even very fervently, our Christian faith, and yet our actions often belie what we profess. 

 We have need to truly work out how our being born again in Christ is really lived. For this, I imagine that we should make as our own these words of St. Paul: “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Gal 2,20) 

 It would indeed be helpful if everyday we set some concrete goals of how we can become more and more like Christ. This would help us to have a good sense of purpose in our daily life, and to be protected from the danger of the distractions we can meet along the way. This would also help us to be more resistant to the urges of our weaknesses and the many temptations around. 

 For example, we can have some ideas of these goals if we can ask ourselves: Are my thoughts and intentions those of Christ? Do I have a sense of mission and is that mission a sharing in the mission of Christ? Am I growing in the virtues like kindness, humility, fortitude, love for the cross and suffering in general, etc.? We should try to make these goals as concrete and as specific as possible. 

 And once these goals are clearly set, let us get down to make some practicable plans and strategies to achieve them. For this, we need to give due consideration to the different current conditions and circumstances of our life—personal, family, professional, social, etc. 

 It would be good if we can identify both the favorable and unfavorable elements involved in the pursuit of our goals, so we would know how to prepare ourselves accordingly for this daily endeavor. As much as possible, we should try to achieve that ideal condition when the pursuit of the goals is done in a smooth, active and lively way. 

 Obviously, we have to make some allowance for some unexpected things that can appear along the way. We should learn also to be flexible and adaptable to these surprises that may involve a radical revision of our plans. 

 And then, when these plans and strategies are made, let’s put all our efforts to put them into practice. Let’s remember that we should first of all ask for God’s grace and that our intentions are always pure and all for the glory of God. There should be zeal and ardor in carrying out these plans. 

 But we should also see to it that for all the zeal and ardor that we should try to attain, we should remember to be humble, meek, tender and even sweet. Far be it from us that we become bitter and rigid in our zeal, highly sensitive and irascible whenever we meet some negative things along the way.

“More, more, more”

MANY years ago, when I was still studying for my priesthood in Rome, I attended a retreat where I heard a recording of a homily given by Opus Dei Founder, St. Josemaria Escriva. What stunned me in that recorded homily was his repeated shouts of “mas, mas, mas” (more, more, more). He wanted to tell us that we should always give more, do more and be more or better, never saying enough in one’s pursuit for holiness. 

 And that is because 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. 

 Obviously, if we are to rely only on our own powers, there is no way we can have this kind of self-giving. This can only take place if we are truly identified with Christ, if we have his grace and are corresponding to it with all that we have got. 

 It’s indeed laudable that in whatever we do, we try to give it our best shot. But 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 does 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. 

 It’s a correspondence that definitely requires a lot of humility because we all have the inclination to be proud of our accomplishments that would kill any desire to do and be better. It’s also a correspondence that is always respectful of our human condition, given our strengths and weaknesses, our assets and limitations.

Mercy, God’s ultimate love for us

CHRIST was not contented only with offering forgiveness to those who crucified him while still hanging on the cross and just moments before his death. “Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do,” he said. (Lk 23,34) He wanted that mercy to offered all throughout time by giving his apostles the power to forgive. 

 “Receive ye the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained.” (Jn 20,22-23) This is how great God’s love is for us. Let’s hope that we too can channel that same love, at least to some degree, among ourselves. 

 We need to know what is involved in imparting this divine mercy. Yes, for this purpose we have to study well the doctrine of our faith and morals, now authoritatively taught by the Church magisterium. We need to be generous with our time and effort so that that divine mercy can be readily given to everyone. 

 This way we can hope to be father, a friend, a judge and a doctor to the others insofar as their spiritual and moral lives are concerned. 

 More than that, we really should pray so that we can see more directly and reflect in our attitudes, our thoughts, words and deeds the very passion, death and resurrection of Christ which in the end is the very substance of divine mercy. 

 The ideal situation is that we be filled with holy desires to ask for forgiveness, to atone and make reparation for our sins and the sins of others. It’s a mindset that we have to deliberately cultivate, always getting inspiration from the example of Christ himself. 

 I wonder if our idea of what Christian life ought to be includes this very important factor. Until we have these desires to dispense divine mercy to others can we sincerely say that we are truly Christian, another Christ if not Christ himself, as we ought to be. 

 In our daily examination of conscience, let us try to see if we have been doing something concrete in this regard. Are we willing to bear the sins of others, in an effort to reflect Christ’s attitude toward all of us who are all sinners? 

 It is indeed a tall order to be able to disburse this divine mercy to everyone. Even more, it is an impossible task, for how can a human instrument, no matter how gifted he is intellectually, morally and spiritually, ever think that he can give God’s mercy, so full of mysteries that simply go beyond even the most brilliant and smart methods we can ever develop? 

 I shudder at the thought that a human instrument has been given the responsibility to dispense the very mercy of God to penitent sinners. Thus, prayers have been formulated to calm down the apprehensions of priests before hearing confessions, and to make them aware of what they need to be, to have, and to do. 

 To dispense mercy is simply to distribute it from a sure source that can never be depleted, since God is rich in mercy. He is never sparing in giving it. In fact, this divine mercy is given to us in abundance. 

 And as long as the human instruments and those who would like to avail of it have at least the minimum proper intentions and dispositions, and the constitutive acts of the sacrament of divine mercy are done, that is, there is contrition, confession and penance, then that divine mercy is disbursed. 

 The effectiveness of the sacrament of divine mercy depends more on the will and power of God as carried out by Christ than on the qualities of the ministers and the penitents.

From nothing to abundance

THE secret is simply to follow what Christ tells us. He is always around and is eager to help us especially in our needs and helplessness. This we can gather from that gospel episode about the third appearance of the resurrected Christ to his disciples. (cfr. Jn 21,1-14) 

 As the gospel narrated, Peter and some companions went out fishing but caught nothing. Then from the shore, they heard someone telling them if they had caught some fish. When they responded, no, this person told them to cast their nets over the right side of the boat. And behold, they caught a huge number of fish. That’s when one of them recognized that it was Christ who told them where to cast their nets. 

 It’s clear that Christ always takes care of his disciples. If we, as disciples of Christ also, would find ourselves in some difficult or helpless situation, let’s make an effort, through our prayers, what Christ would be telling us, because for sure, he will give us a way out of our predicaments. 

 It may involve sacrifices. But to be sure, if our faith in Christ is strong and abiding, we would know that help, perhaps in some mysterious ways, would always be granted us. It would be a help that would go beyond our wildest expectations, since it can tackle even the worst of our predicaments which is death. 

 We have to learn to listen to the voice of Christ through the Holy Spirit. He is actually intervening in our life all the time, prompting us about what to think, desire, speak and do. Failing to listen to Christ’s voice in an abiding way undermines our being disciples of his.   

Christ himself said it very clearly. “The Advocate, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you.” (Jn 14,26) 

 We have to understand that the Holy Spirit perpetuates the presence and redemptive action of Christ all throughout time, with all the drama, vagaries, ups and downs that we men make in our earthly sojourn. 

 It has been prophesied that God will pour out his Spirit upon all men. The Holy Spirit is intended for all of us. We are all meant to be filled with the Holy Spirit. But this divine will obviously has to contend with the way we receive and do things, and that is, that we take to this reality in stages involving a whole range of human means of teaching, evangelizing, etc. 

 We need the Holy Spirit because only in him can we truly recognize Christ. Only in him will we be able to have Christ in our life, to remember all his words and even to develop them to adapt them to our current needs and situations. 

 Only in him can we see things properly. Especially these days when truth, justice and charity have become very slippery, and people are left confounded and vulnerable to fall into scepticism and cynicism, we need to be in the Holy Spirit to be able to sort things out properly and avoid the mess. 

 I am amused to note that in today’s political debates, a growing awareness is felt by more and more people that myths and lies, with shreds of truths and facts cleverly inserted, are exchanged. They talk about a surge of fake news. It’s not anymore about what the truth is. It’s more about who is followed more. 

 This is what happens when we are not in the Holy Spirit and we rely only on our human resources that sooner or later will be twisted and exploited to suit personal or partisan interests, and not anymore the common good.

Be welcoming to the cross

THAT’S how our attitude should be toward the cross, in whatever form it may come to us. It may be in matters of health, finances, family and business concerns, etc., we should just welcome the cross knowing that if we carry it together with Christ, it will surely work for the salvation of mankind, since that was the reason Christ embraced his cross. 

 We have to make some radical adjustments in our understanding and attitude toward whatever suffering and pain we can have in this world. Our Christian faith should shape our understanding of it. 

 With such understanding, we know that the cross can actually give us peace and joy in this world, the real peace and joy that capture the global picture of God’s tremendous love and mercy toward us given our wounded and sinful condition in this world. 

 Our attitude toward the cross should not just be one of simply tolerating and bearing it since it cannot be avoided. We should love it, embrace it, even look for it. We should not just wait for it to come to us. We have to convince ourselves that it is in the cross where we can truly find Christ, and Christ as he consummates his redemptive work on us. 

 That is why we should really why the cross is essential and indispensable in our life. And by knowing the purpose of the cross, we mean that we need to refer everything in our life to the passion, death and resurrection of Christ where the cross plays a crucial role. 

 Yes, that’s right. We need to refer everything to the cross because that is how everything in our life, whether good or bad, big or small, spiritual or material, would find its true and ultimate meaning and purpose. 

 We need to know the purpose of the cross because in the first place Christ himself said that to follow him, we need not only to deny ourselves but also to carry the cross daily. (cfr Lk 9,23) 

 Christ, who as the Son of God and the perfect image that God has of himself, is the pattern of our humanity since God created us in his image and likeness. As the Son of God who became man, he is the redeemer and restorer of our damaged humanity. That’s why he described himself as the way, the truth and the life for us. (cfr Jn 14,6) 

 We need to know the purpose of the cross because the cross, through Christ’s passion, death and resurrection, is where everything in our life is resolved. Christ’s passion, death and resurrection is the culmination of Christ’s redemptive mission on earth. 

 We also have to understand that it is through Christ’s cross that we can attain the fullness of love. There’s, of course, love when the conditions around it are sweet, favorable, convenient to us, etc. But it would be a much greater love if the conditions around it are the opposite—bitter instead of sweet, one that gives us more challenges and difficulties, etc. Yes, the greater the suffering, the greater the love also. 

 Indeed, suffering makes our love have its fullness. This is how we should look at the cross so that we can develop a welcoming attitude toward it. Everyday, we should see to it that the cross figures prominently and abidingly in our life. It need not be in big sacrifices only. It can be more consistently developed in the little sacrifices we make, like some mortifications in food, drinks, use of social media, etc.

Restraint, moderation, fasting, abstinence

GIVEN the temper of the times, we really need to incorporate these attitudes, virtues and practices into our system. In other words, we need to live temperance now that we are wallowing in a very intoxicating addicting world of the social media and the digital gadgets. We are now all too familiar with the signs of addiction afflicting people, both the young and the old. 

 Temperance puts our human attractions and appetites in their proper places, not by suppressing them, but rather by using and directing them to their proper ends. It checks them from their tendency to dominate us and to lead the way for us, when in fact they need to be dominated and led first by our higher faculties. 

 We know that our bodily powers are in great need of direction by our intelligence and will, let alone, God’s grace. On their own, they can just go anywhere and drift according to moods, fashion, popularity, but hardly by the criteria of what is good and bad, what is true and false. 

 We need to be more aware and guarded against the dangers of the new technologies. All these new technologies instantly produce in us a tremendous amount of dopamine that is so difficult to manage, let alone, resist. And these gadgets keep on coming, each time with an improved version, with hardly any manual as to how to use them ethically and prudently. 

 We cannot deny that we are constantly bombarded with many material things, all offering all kinds of advantages and conveniences that, if we are not careful, can remove us from our proper path to God, to heaven, to the world of the spiritual and the supernatural. 

 It’s as simple as that. We now have to deliberately exercise restraint and moderation in the use of material things, otherwise we will be swallowed up by the dynamics of worldly forces that would plunge us to the big, wide and smooth road to self-indulgence, and ultimately to our perdition. 

 More than practicing restraint and moderation, we need to have a clear, firm and functioning idea of what the purpose of all these material amenities we are enjoying in the world today, is. Our proper focus should not be lost. 

 Let’s remember that all these material developments and progress we have today are meant to give glory to God and to contribute to the common good. They are meant to develop in us the real essence and the fullness of our humanity, which is love—love for God and love for neighbour, and not self-love. 

 That is why it becomes increasingly imperative that we be properly grounded on our faith and our life of piety, consisting of the usual things—time for prayer and meditation, offering of sacrifices, recourse to the sacraments, availing of a continuing plan of formation, development of virtues, forming our consciences, waging an abiding ascetical struggle, etc. 

 We have to have specific ways of living temperance in our thoughts, desires, imagination, memory, and in our speech and deeds. Temperance also in food, drinks and sex and recreation. Yes, in all aspects of our life, including our spiritual life that can also have its excesses and abuses. 

 To be sure, this is not punishment. Rather it is to uphold and enhance our dignity. We need to educate ourselves more effectively about this need for temperance. The youth these days should be given special attention, because they are often unprepared to properly handle the new developments and allurements of the world today.

Stay sweet amid bitter conflicts

THAT’S the ideal thing to do whenever we find ourselves in some difficult conflicts, especially in the area of politics. Let’s not make things worse by following the urges of the flesh, the ways of the world, and much less, the game of the devil. If water is what extinguishes fire, it is also sweetness that can overcome bitterness. 

 By not only staying calm but also choosing to be sweet with the parties involved, always showing affection and respect for the others, we facilitate the resolution of any conflict we have with them, we can even learn something from the differences we can have with them. 

 There will always be some wonderful changes that will take place in all the parties involved. There will be some polishing and refining of all the views and position at play. Most of all, we can remain brothers and sisters, friends and lovers of each other, keeping intact the charity that should always rule our life. 

 We have to remind ourselves that when we find ourselves in some conflicts with others, we should see to it that we avoid going through it by our lonesome. That would make these occasions of bitter conflicts a useless and purely negative event. 

 Truth is our conflicts with others can have tremendous meaning and positive effect on us if we go through them always with Christ. If we go by our Christian faith, we are sure that Christ is ever willing to suffer the bitterness for us and with us, and to convert that bitterness into the very means of our salvation, in fact. 

 There is no human bitterness that Christ is not willing to make also as his own. And he does it because he loves us, he wants to save us, he wants to bring us back to him. Let’s remember that his love is first of all gratuitous. He loves us first before we can learn to love him in return. 

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

 We should therefore lose the fear of bitterness when we find ourselves in conflict with others, and learn how to convert it into a means and occasion to gain a greater good for all of us. If we believe in Christ and follow what he has taught and shown us, we will realize that there is nothing to be afraid of bitter conflicts, and all the other negative things that can mark our life. 

 So, we just have to be sport and cool when we find ourselves in some bitter conflicts with others. In fact, the ideal attitude would be to welcome these occasions of bitter conflicts, since in the first place, it cannot be avoided no matter how much we try. We have to cultivate a more positive outlook toward it and relish its inherent benefits for us. 

 For this, we need to discover and appreciate the link between the suffering caused by these bitter conflicts and loving. The two need not go against each other. In fact, they have to go together if we want our suffering to be meaningful and fruitful. And we have a way to do that. Go through them with Christ in his passion, death, and his resurrection!