A good winner and a good loser

SINCE life is like a game, where we play hard to achieve something, we should not be surprised that there will be times when we win and succeed, and times when we lose. We should not be surprised and be unduly affected by this fact of life. 

 If we are guided by our Christian faith, we know that irrespective of how the earthly outcome of our efforts turns out to be, as long as we do everything with God and for God, the final victory is assured. 

 We should just try to be a good winner, gracious and humble, when we win, or a respectful and congratulatory loser, when we lose. We should just go on with the game of life, training ourselves to be a better player, but always for the glory of God. That should be the abiding motive of all we do in this regard. 

 With this motive, we will always play with the very charity of God, the very standard we ought to pursue in all our endeavors. We avoid playing with only human or animal and earthly standards to guide us. 

 With this motive, there will even be times when we allow ourselves to lose to make others win. We would be willing to make personal sacrifices if only to attain a greater good for the family, community and the world in general. 

 To achieve this kind of attitude, what we have to do is to unite our whole life, and everything in it, to the very passion, death and resurrection of Christ that is made a sacrament in the Holy Mass. It’s in the Holy Mass where whatever drama we can have in our life, including the worst scenario, is resolved into the victory and success of Christ’s redemptive work. 

 That is why we have to realize that the Holy Mass should be the center and foundation of our life. In it, we live our life and play its game with Christ who came to redeem us, giving us the proper “way, truth and life” meant for us, in the context of our wounded and sinful condition in this life. 

 We have to remember that for us to be truly human, to be a real person who is both grounded and oriented properly, and to be a good sport in life, we need to be Eucharistic in mind and heart, because the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist is where we have our most precious treasure, our everything, our light, our purification, our salvation. 

 That’s where we have Christ not only in real presence, as in the Blessed Sacrament, nor as spiritual food, as in the Holy Communion, but primarily as our savior who continues to offer his life on the cross for us, as in the Holy Mass. 

 We need to be theological in our thinking to capture this reality and live in accordance to it not only from time to time, but rather all the time and everywhere, whatever our situation is. 

 We have to overcome the very common phenomenon of treating the Holy Eucharist as just a special part of our life that we may attend to in some special moments of the day or on Sundays and holy days of obligation only. 

 Our whole life should, in fact, be a Holy Mass, uniting everything in it in the ultimate sacrifice Christ made for our salvation. With it, regardless of how our earthly life goes and ends, the victory of Christ’s resurrection is assured for us.

“Everyone will be salted with fire”

THESE are words of Christ. (cfr. Mk 9,49) What he wants to tell us is that to keep our true Christian identity and dignity as we go through the drama of life here on earth, we should be willing to lose a hand, a foot or an eye, if these would cause us to sin. 

 In other words, we should be willing to suffer a loss of our integrality, our completeness, as long as we do not compromise what is essential in us. In short, we should be willing to sacrifice certain things if only to achieve what is most important to us. 

 But we have to understand this point well. We should not just be willing to go through some sacrifices, suffering and pain because they are unavoidable in life. We have to understand that we need to make sacrifices simply because, whether they are unavoidable or not, or whether we offer them for someone or something or not, they are an essential and integral part of our Christian life. 

 Christ himself commanded us so. “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” (Mt 16,24) These clear words of Christ do not limit our need for sacrifices to the facts that suffering and pain are inescapable in life, or that we are willing to suffer for something or someone we love. 

 Our need for sacrifice is first of all based on the fact that Christ commands it. We should not wait for suffering and pain to come before we make sacrifices. Neither should we wait to be moved to suffer for something or for someone we love before we make sacrifices. 

 We make sacrifices simply because Christ said so, and he said so because it is necessary for us. More than expiating for our sins, the sacrifices are a clear expression of a total self-giving which is the essence of love. 

 Sacrifices, as iconized by the Cross of Christ, are what distinguish a Christian. The cross is the sign of the Christian because it is the center of the saving life and action of Christ. It shows how much Christ obeys his Father out of love, and how much he loves us. 

 We have to learn to sanctify our sacrifices by uniting them with the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. That is how we make our sufferings and pain divine and with redemptive value. 

 It is by uniting our sacrifices with that of Christ that we can find the meaning and value of suffering and pain in this life. As a Church document puts it: “Through Christ and in Christ, the riddles of sorrow and death grow meaningful. Apart from His Gospel, they overwhelm us.” (Gaudium et spes, 22) 

 We should not doubt that the cross has a tremendous saving power. We have to learn to love it and therefore to look for it and to carry it, as Christ himself commanded us. We should not just tolerate it. 

 This, of course, will require a certain discipline. As the Catechism would put it: “The way of perfection passes by way of the Cross. There is no holiness without renunciation and spiritual battle. Spiritual progress entails the asceticism and mortification that gradually lead to living in the peace and joy of the Beatitudes.” (CCC 2015)

Prayer is basic in our life of piety

IT’S, of course, a given. Prayer is basic in our life of piety because that is our personal effort to get in touch with God. All other acts of piety would be of no value if they are not done as prayer or, at least, accompanied by prayer. 

 We need to learn how to really pray. It should not just be some exercise done out of compliance of a certain expectation. It should truly be a personal encounter with God who, in the first place, is always with us, ever solicitous of our needs and conditions, and eager to lead us along the right path toward our eternal destination. 

 With faith, hope and charity which, in the first place, God gives us, we can discern God’s presence in our mind and heart, and start to hear his voice that would surely tell us what to think, say and do. Let’s remember that, more than us, it’s God who is actually directing our life here on earth. What a pity it would be if we would just rely on our own estimation of things to guide us in our earthly sojourn! 

 For this, we need to learn how to be recollected all the time even while we immerse ourselves in our earthly and temporal affairs. This spirit of recollection would not in any way undermine our human activities, as many people somehow think. On the contrary, it purifies our human ways of doing things, and puts them on the right track. 

 This spirit of recollection may control our tendency to be simply spontaneous in our actuations, a tendency that is spurred and guided by our animal instincts and our temporal rationality that is not proper to our real human and Christian identity and dignity. But this spirit of recollection is what would truly help us in our activities. 

 This, of course, would require some effort on our part. We should just develop the discipline of spending time familiarizing ourselves with this truth of our faith, getting to know God more and more by meditating on his word that is available in many sources. And from there, let’s start to savor the words and deeds of Christ which show his great and infinite love for us, and develop an intimate relationship with him. 

 Let’s hope that out of our prayer, our direct encounter with God, we get filled with holy desires to do a lot of good, unafraid of whatever sacrifices may be involved. We should be men of desires to see God. 

 St. Augustine said that since we don’t see God now and yet we long for it, we need to keep on desiring it to prepare ourselves for it. That desire not only has to be maintained. It also has to increase as time passes. The time of our life, the time of waiting to see our ultimate end, God, is a time to cultivate our holy desire to the max. 

 His argument for this is beautiful. “Suppose you are going to fill some container and you know you will be given a large amount. Then you set about stretching your container.” It is to make room for the tremendous amount we will receive—God himself. 

 The idea of stretching or enlarging the container to receive a tremendous amount that we expect can be translated into not only keeping but also increasing our desire of God whom we expect to come to us in overwhelming abundance. In short, we have to make that desire fervent! We need to constantly feed it to keep it burning.

“Let charity with ardor blaze”

I SAW that phrase in one of the daily prayers for priests, the Liturgy of the Hours, or the Breviary. It struck me immediately since it reminded me of how charity should be. It should be ardent, never cold, and blazing, never like a dying ember. 

 Indeed, charity which is none other than a vital participation and the very expression of the love that is the very essence of God as shown in full by Christ, cannot be other than that. Despite our weaknesses, we should just try to develop such kind of charity since that would identify us with God as we should, his image and likeness as we are. 

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

 And in the Song of Solomon, we have this description of charity: “For love is as strong as death, and ardor is as relentless as the netherworld.” (8,6) 

 We have to realize more deeply that we are made for charity and we should try our best to develop that charity in ourselves, if we want to be consistent to our basic identity and dignity as God’s image and likeness, sharers of his divine life and nature. 

 We, of course, have to continually ask for God’s grace to enable us to develop and grow in charity. But what can help us also is to develop that attitude of being pro-active in loving everyone, irrespective of how they are to us. Whether they are friendly to us or not, helpful to us or not, etc., we should take the initiative to love them, not only in terms of intentions and sweet words, but most importantly in terms of deeds, of service that should be done gratuitously. 

 We have to be wary of our tendency to judge others based only on what we know so far of them. Again, let’s remember what St. Paul said in this regard: “Love never fails,” he said. “But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears.” (1 Cor 13,8-11) 

 Our judgment on others, based only our limited knowledge of them, can at best be only tentative. What should always abide in our relationship with others should be charity. That is why Christ even went to the extent of commanding us to “love our enemies.” 

 It’s when we have this pro-active attitude of charity that we can manage to be always in good spirit, full of desire to do a lot of good, to understand everyone, to find excuses for whatever faults and failures we see in others and in ourselves. It’s when our charity would indeed be with blazing ardor. 

 Obviously, for this to happen, we should be willing to make sacrifices and to suffer, because we cannot deny that we all have our weaknesses and mistakes. But then, if we have the proper understanding of these conditions, we know that they give us the chance to grow more in charity.

The Beatitudes define what a true Christian is

CHRIST himself made such description and definition of a true Christian. They strike us as something strange from a purely human point of view. But given our wounded condition and our ideal status as children of God whose essence is pure love, the Beatitudes give us the proper frame of mind as to how to handle our life here on earth which will always be marked with all sorts of contradictions and negative things. 

 The Beatitudes convert what we usually consider as human disasters or clear disadvantages and inconveniences according to worldly standards into a source of joy, a means of our redemption, a path to heaven, narrow and difficult though it may be. 

 

 They expand our understanding of what would comprise as our true happiness by including those situations which we normally regard as unsavory and therefore to be avoided as much as possible, and even hated. 

 But, my friends, at these times, these situations are hardly unavoidable. In fact, they are inescapable, what with all the growing differences and conflicts we are having among ourselves nowadays. If we have to be realistic about our life here, we better take the beatitudes seriously. 

 Blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are they who mourn, blessed are the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness or justice, those who are merciful, the clean of heart, the peacemakers, the persecuted, those who are insulted…There can hardly be any worse predicament than all these! 

 Yet Christ reassures us that it would just be fine, and in fact he promises us a great reward, if not now then certainly in the life hereafter. And he is not bluffing because he himself underwent all those disasters and yet he conquered everything with his resurrection. In short, he has proven the veracity of this teaching with his own experience. 

 The beatitudes are so articulated by Christ in order to serve as a profound and most effective antidote to our strong, almost invincibly strong tendency to self-love, to self-indulgence. They are meant to extricate us from our own prison, our own world which is the antithesis of what true love is. 

They are meant to expand our heart to save it from being trapped by our own worldly and bodily desires. They are meant to teach us how to give ourselves to God and to everybody else, irrespective of how they are, which is what true love is. 

Love is always a matter of total self-giving, be it in good times or bad times, in favorable conditions or not. Love has a universal scope. It is supposed to be given without measure, without counting the cost nor expecting any reward. It can be very discriminating without ever being discriminatory. 

 In short, the beatitudes detach us from our own selves so that we can truly identify ourselves with Christ who is the very pattern of our humanity and the savior of our sin-damaged humanity. They are actually a way to our liberation from our own self-inflicted bondage to merely earthly and bodily urges. They purify us from any stain caused by our worldly attachments. 

 The great task we have at hand with respect to the Beatitudes is how to incarnate them in our life. We all know that we have a natural aversion to any kind of suffering, and that we hardly go beyond the natural or the infranatural aspects of our sufferings. We fail to see their purifying and redemptive potentials. 

 That is why we really need to discipline our mind and heart, our understanding and feelings, so as to align them to the saving ways of Christ. And one way of doing this is to develop in a proactive way a spirit of sacrifice, a spirit of self-denial and mortification. And this done and lived on a daily basis.

“Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you”

WHY oh why did Christ command his disciples so? (cfr. Lk 6,27) The quick answer is that despite our unavoidable differences and conflicts, even the very serious ones, in the end we are all brothers and sisters, we are all children of God, and we just have to love one another irrespective of how we are with each other. 

 We need to prepare ourselves to follow this commandment expressly articulated by Christ. We have to have a strong faith to trust his words, so that we would not consider them as a mere bluff, an empty puffy rhetoric, but rather as what is true, proper and ideal for us. 

 We have to have a strong faith to trust his words, so that we would readily understand that they are meant for all of us, and not just for some, and that they are necessary and obligatory, and not merely optional, though they have to be taken up freely, and not coercively. 

 We just have to understand also that we can only manage to follow this commandment if we truly are with God through Christ in the Spirit. He, after all, is the source, the power and the pattern of how this kind of love can take place. 

 So, the challenge to face and the task to do is how to immerse ourselves in God, practically identifying ourselves with him, since we are meant to be his image and likeness. Our true and ultimate dignity and identity is that of being children of God. 

 In other words, the fullness and perfection of our humanity is when we finally become like God which can only take place in heaven. But while here on earth, we just have to do our best to pursue that ideal. 

 To be sure, on God’s part, all the means are already made available. We are already given the doctrine of our faith so we would know what right and wrong are in our earthly pilgrimage. We are given the sacraments, especially the Holy Eucharist, so we can truly be identified with Christ who is the pattern of our humanity. We have the Church and the accompaniment of angels, saints and holy people, etc. 

 If, indeed, we are God’s image and likeness, if we are his children through Christ in the Holy Spirit, and therefore meant to adopt his mind, his will and his ways, and ultimately to enter into the very life of God, then we have no other alternative but to make this explicit injunction second nature to us. 

 Obviously, we cannot follow this principle on our own, relying solely on our own powers. We need God himself to enable us to do so. And he has given us that power through his grace which he gives us in abundance through his living word, through his sacraments, through his Church, and in many other mysterious ways unknown to us. 

 In fact, God gives himself to us through Christ who makes himself the “bread of life” which he asks us to eat, otherwise we would not have “life in abundance.” It’s really just for us to believe, to make that leap of faith, going beyond but never neglecting what our senses and reason can capture, so we can enter into a far richer reality given to us by faith. 

 This is the challenge we have to face—how to free ourselves from the controlling grip of our senses and reasoning, of our own human consensus and estimations of things, and to let ourselves be guided by the mysterious ways of our faith, full of wisdom and charity albeit always accompanied by sacrifices. 

 Only then can we manage to love our enemies!

Our mission at home and in the world

WE have to realize that we all have a mission in this life. It’s a common mission to seek personal sanctity that always goes together with doing apostolate. It starts with oneself, then in the family and eventually should cover as far as possible in the world. 

 We can somehow draw this conclusion when we meditate on the hidden life of Christ with Mary and Joseph in Nazareth. To be sure, that hidden life is as divine and with redemptive character as the public life of Christ. It gives us the idea that right where we are, usually at home and in the places of our work, are where we can find God and where we can start to carry out our duty of personal sanctification and apostolate. 

 We have to realize more deeply that given the way we have been created, our homes not only have a natural purpose but also a supernatural one, with these two dimensions vitally linked and mutually affecting each other. 

 It’s for this reason that we should try our best to make our homes always throbbing with the spirit of love, understanding, concern for one another, etc. We should try our best to make it bright and cheerful which should be the effect of a working life of faith, hope and charity in God. In fact, we should make our home a prefiguration of the definitive and eternal home meant for us with God in heaven. 

 And from the home, we should all try to leaven the world with the same Christian spirit. This is very doable, because what is needed first of all is the intention to do so. We may not be doing something with big public significance or some external manifestations, but with the little ordinary things that we do everyday and done with faith and love for God and for others, we can already effectively leaven the world. 

 In short, we can be an active Christian leaven if we unite ourselves with Christ always, if we unite whatever we are doing, no matter how technical, mundane, and of low worldly value, with the continuing redemptive work of Christ. We can always do this uniting business, since all we have to do is to will it. 

 We should not take for granted the great leavening power of the little things that we do everyday. We may not see the direct connection between these little things and the sanctification of everyone in the world, but for sure the amount of faith and love with which we do these things have great sanctifying effects on everyone! 

 It will be Christ, more than us, who would do the job. Ours is simply to cooperate with him, since Christ works through human and natural means, without detracting from the supernatural means that he can always avail of. 

 On our part, what is needed is heroic fidelity to Christ which is usually lived in the performance of our usual work and duties. In fact, we have to understand heroism mainly in this regard, for very few and far between would be the occasions where we can live heroism in the extraordinary events and circumstances of our life. 

 If we understand this point very well, then we would also realize that our own sanctification, which will always require some heroism, can be achieved through the faithful and loving performance of our ordinary duties of everyday. 

 This is what would truly comprise as leavening the world. By doing with heroic faith and love for God and others the ordinary little things of the day, we can attain our ultimate, supernatural and eternal goal in life!

Sporting spirit in the spiritual life

IF there’s one aspect in our life that most needs a sporting spirit, I would say it should be in our spiritual life, in our relation with God and with others. It’s there, in the game of life, where we should play our best, knowing that regardless of how the earthly outcome of our game goes, we are already assured of victory, since with God, whether we win or lose in a particular game, we always win in the end. God does it for us and with us! 

 Of course, this assurance of victory should never undermine our duty to do and play our best. Neither should it undercut our duty to go through the proper, even rigorous, training we ought to undergo to prepare ourselves to face all the challenges, trials and different conditions of our life. 

 If we have a good sporting spirit, we would play with cheerfulness and confidence. And there would be times when out of charity and fraternity, we give way to somebody else to win a particular game. That’s how a good sportsman is. 

 Yes, we have to be sport and adventurous in facing the different conditions of our life. And it would greatly help if we too can have an abiding sense of humor. Otherwise, we would just easily fall into states of sadness, pessimism and despair when conditions are not favorable to us in a given situation. 

 This we can do if first of all we have a strong and deep faith in God, our Creator and Father. If we have that faith, we know that God holds everything in order through his providence. He takes care of everything, irrespective of how things go. Ours is simply to relate everything to him and to go back to him everytime we get astray and especially at the end of the day. 

 When we have this sporting and adventurous spirit, we, of course, would like to play to win and to get as much enjoyment as possible. We would give our best shot. But we also know that this is not going to happen all the time. There will be times when we lose in a game or when we get lost in our adventure. But regardless of how things go, we can always go back to God as we should, and everything would just be all right. 

 Thus, whether we win or lose in a game, succeed or fail in our adventures and projects, we can still manage to have fun and, more importantly, to learn precious lessons, as in, we get to know more about ourselves and others, about our strengths and weaknesses, about the virtues we need to develop and grow, etc. 

 There’s now a great need to promote this good sporting spirit as widely as possible. For sure, the world would be a much better place to live in, all bright and beautiful regardless of how things turn, if we manage to assume a good sporting spirit. 

 Obviously, to be able to do this, we need to have a certain sense of detachment from things in general even as we try to immerse ourselves in them. We have to learn the appropriate art and skill for this. We have to learn to flow with the times and to roll with the punches. 

 While we cannot avoid being affected in some way by the ups and downs of life, we should see to it that at the end of the day, we are at peace with God and with everyone else, asking for forgiveness from God for whatever mistakes we commit, as well as asking and giving it to others as the case may be.

God shares what he has with us

WE should relish this truth of our faith. God wants to share what he has with us. He takes the initiative. That he created us without us, endowing us with all sorts of things, foremost of which are our spiritual faculties and the grace which is already a participation in his divine life, are proofs of this tremendous truth of our faith. 

 It really would just depend on how receptive we are to this divine sharing to attain what is ultimately good for us. We have to learn how to be more and more receptive to this divine initiative, sharpening our faith to enable us to do our part despite the many mysterious ways this divine initiative works. 

 That he sent his son, Jesus Christ, to redeem us from our state of sinfulness is another proof of this divine initiative. That Christ calls us to be holy, to be perfect, (cfr. 1 Pt 1,16; Mt 5,14) as our heavenly father is holy and perfect, which is what a vocation really is, is actually a call for us to be receptive to this divine initiative. 

 There really should be no doubt that God wants to share what he has with us. That God became man in Christ and that a woman can become the mother of the very son of God, that is, God himself, further prove that God and us are meant to share the very same life and nature, with God taking the initiative. 

 Thus, in all our needs, especially in the area of the spiritual and the moral, and even of the material, we should not hesitate to ask God for a favor. His delight is precisely to share what he has with us. 

 All this would obviously require of us to practice and live our faith to the full, knowing that the ways of God can be very mysterious to us. The way he shares what he has with us can go beyond our understanding, our common sense, our human estimation of things. 

 Thus, we need to find practical ways to learn how to be immediately and properly receptive and responsive to God’s initiative, to his sharing of his life and nature with us. Like, right in the morning as we wake up, the first thing that we should try to do is to address ourselves to God, offering ourselves and everything that we will be doing for the day to him. 

 It’s important that right from the beginning of the day, we get strongly focused on God. He should be the center of our life, of our thoughts, desires, words and deeds. And all throughout the day, we should try our best to keep this awareness alive. 

 Thus, we should avail ourselves of some effective plan of life to drive this kind of awareness going. Some practices of piety like periods of mental prayer and contemplation, spiritual reading, receiving the sacraments especially the Holy Mass and Communion, and other devotional means, would be helpful. 

 The ideal is that the whole day should be spent with God who, in the first place, is always around. He is in us and around us. He is wherever we are, and his presence is actually active, full of solicitude for us. We need to perceive this reality and act according to it.

Beware of the leaven of the world

CHRIST one time warned his disciples about the leaven of the Pharisees and of Herod which they did not understand at first. (cfr. Mk 8,14-21) It took them time to understand that the leaven Christ was talking about was not the leaven of the bread but rather the doctrine or the teachings, the laws and the ways of the Pharisees and Herod. 

 The same warning remains valid and in effect up to this time, since there is no doubt that we are today flooded with all kinds of doctrine and ideologies that are becoming more and more in conflict with Christian doctrine and ways. 

 We have to be wary of today’s many false doctrines that can sound good and can come up with fair promises and assurances, but they actually lack the power to make things happen. They can contain many theoretical truths and can also be supported by a lot of data, facts and other so-called scientific findings, but they lack the most crucial element—the proper spirit. 

 Yes, false doctrines can give some measure of good results and satisfaction. But that’s where the real danger is, where the subtle treachery is committed. Without the proper spirit of God, it is nothing less than a sweet poison. 

 False doctrines are usually found, and in abundance at that, in the fields of politics, the social sciences, philosophies and ideologies, and in all the other human enterprises that are not animated by the Christian spirit. 

 They come as a result of developing some human systems that rely solely on human power and estimation. In a sense, these systems choose to go rogue in developing themselves. They prefer to be entirely on their own. God is taken out of the picture. 

 In some reports, for example, a number of political parties all over the world have dropped the expression, “under God,” in their pledges of allegiance or commitment. This omission is clearly a sign of the growing secularization taking place in many parts of the world. It’s when to be politically correct, one has to take God out of the picture. 

 Thus, there is an urgent need to undertake the work of evangelization, that is, to communicate the saving word of God to everyone. In a world that is becoming more and more toxic with all sorts of hot issues, confusing ideologies, belligerent opinions, etc., practically drowning us, there is the urgent need to let God’s healing word to reach and touch people’s hearts. 

 This task of evangelization belongs to everyone, whether one is a priest or a religious person or a simple lay person. Everyone should realize that it is Christ who is asking us to evangelize. He is actually appealing to us, begging us to help him carry out the continuing work of human redemption that definitely involves the evangelization of people 

 This is simply the effect and consequence of being a Christian who is supposed to be like Christ and to share his mission of evangelizing and redeeming everyone. We also have to apply to ourselves those words Christ told his apostles: “As the Father has sent me, so also I am sending you.” (Jn 20,21) 

 Evangelization is an integral and indispensable part of the whole mission of Christ—the redemption of mankind. While it may immediately concern itself in the transmission of the doctrine of our faith, it cannot go alone without being vitally and organically connected to the other aspects of human redemption.

Our need for God is constant and indispensable

IT’S the most basic need we have, since God is and should be everything to us. Our need for him is much more than our need for air, food, etc. Without him, we can only go nowhere, and worse, the animal part of our humanity takes over, and we know what that means. 

 It’s amazing that many popular love songs today regard the human objects of the lovers as everything to them. “You’re my everything” goes one title of such songs. Lines like “You give me strength when I am weak,” “You are the light that guides me in the dark,” “You are my inspiration in my moments of dryness,” etc. abound in such songs. 

 We, of course, can take those expressions with a grain of salt. They can even be legitimately used by us but referring them to the One who really matters in our life, and that is God. 

 The challenge for us is how to develop that sense of our constant need for God. We cannot deny that even if we are not afflicted with serious illnesses and problems, we always have with us our own load of weaknesses, we always have to contend with all sorts of temptations and sins around. 

 We may not be doing anything really wrong, but we cannot deny that very often we get caught in the grip of laziness, disorder, complacency and lukewarmness that sooner or later develop into something bigger and more deceptive as when we develop a hidden addiction to drinks, drugs, pornography, etc. 

 The challenge is how to make us feel that our greatest need is, in fact, God whom we ought to love first and last. He is the greatest good that we can aim at, infinitely better than any earthly good we can find in ourselves and in the world. 

 That is why Christ, when asked what the greatest commandment was, simply said that it is to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.” (Mt 12,29) 

 God should be first, last and always in our life. Everything else should just be an occasion, a means, an instrument and reason to fulfill that need of ours. Let’s consider these words from the Book of Deuteronomy: 

 “Love the Lord thy God, and walk in his ways, and keep his commandments and ceremonies and judgments, and you may live, and he may multiply you, and bless you in the land, which you shall go in to possess.” (30,16) 

 And it continues to tell us what would happen if we fail in fulfilling this duty: “But if your heart be turned away, so that you will not hear, and being deceived with error you adore strange god, and serve them: I foretell this day you shall perish…” (30,17) 

 Let’s never forget that we are meant to be always with God. Our life, given the way we have been created, cannot but be a sharing in God’s life and nature. To stay away from him would be a fundamental anomaly that would have bad consequences for everything else in our life. 

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

 When we feel the sting of our weaknesses, and much more so, when we are assailed by persistent temptations, we should beg God for help. He is always around and is most eager to help. Things would just depend on how strong our faith in him is.

How to be trusting and to be trustworthy

GOD himself tells us how that is going to be. “Cursed be the man who trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm, and whose heart departs from the Lord,” he said in the Book of Jeremiah. (17,5) And he continues: “Blessed be the man that trusts in the Lord, and the Lord shall be his confidence.” (17,7)

 No amount of human power, no matter how formidable, if not animated by the power of God, can stand the test of time with all the different conditions, challenges and trials we are going to meet in life. It would just be a matter of time before failure, in all its forms, can take place. Only God can assure us of victory, because he can even draw life from death, the worst failure we can have. 

 With all the things that we have to contend with in this life, we certainly need to have a healthy sense of trust in God’s loving and wise providence, abandoning ourselves in his will and ways that often are mysterious to us and can appear to be contrary to what we would like to have. 

 Especially in our dark and difficult moments, which these days are not anymore uncommon, when we feel so miserable that we can think that we have been deserted by God, we need to react immediately and reassure ourselves strongly that God never fails us. 

 It might be a good idea to rally the power of our faith that tells us that God takes care of everything. There is really nothing to worry even if we are made to suffer, since that suffering, if united to that of Christ, becomes something purifying and redemptive not only to oneself but also to everybody else. 

 It might be a good idea to come up with the different arguments of our faith to buoy up our drooping spirit that is weighed down by our many challenges in this life. God is a God of mercy and compassion. He, more than us, will take up all our suffering by bearing them himself—of course, together with us. 

 Precisely God sent the Son to us to save us. And this Son, Jesus Christ, perfected his redemptive work on us by assuming all our sins through his passion and death on the cross. He conquered sin and death and gave us the possibility of eternal life of bliss with God in heaven through his resurrection. 

 The merits of this redemptive work of Christ are made effective all throughout time through the mechanism of the sacramental economy that is provided by the Church. 

 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) 

 We should just make our faith strong and operative because that is how we can start and maintain our life to be a life with God as it should be. With faith, we start to share God’s knowledge of things and his power, and that is how our life should be since we are God’s image and likeness, meant to share in the very life of God. 

 When everything in our life is lived with Christ and for Christ, that’s when we can manage to be trusting of men who can never be perfectly trustworthy. Our trustworthiness can go only so far as our identification with Christ goes.

“He has done all things well”

THAT what the crowd said after they witnessed a miraculous healing of a dumb man by Christ. (cfr. Mk 7,31-37) On Valentine’s Day which is popularly known as a day of celebrating love, we should strengthen our conviction that the real standard of love is when, like Christ, we do everything well and win the same praise from others. 

 Love is not just sweet words, good intentions and nice feelings. It’s deeds done well. It’s doing things the way Christ would do things. We should love the way God through Christ loves us. This is the only way we can say we are truly loving. We should be ready to go through the whole scope of love as shown to us by Christ. Of course, it is a love that can only be achieved when we truly identify ourselves with Christ. 

 That means we should always be focused on doing God’s will in everything that we think, desire, say and do, and also in everything that takes place in our life. This is how Christ showed his love for the Father and for us. 

 In this regard, we should try to forget ourselves and think always of doing the will of God, following the example of Christ, and of thinking always of the others—thinking of what we can do for them. Love should not just be in intentions, but should be translated into action. 

 We should be clear about this truth of our faith. If we truly have love, the love that comes from God and not just our own idea of love, we would go the extent of willing to suffer and die for our beloved who in the end is none other than God, and because of God, is also everybody else. 

 And what can be a good sign that we have a true love, and not just some kind of infatuation and the like? I guess the answer can be derived from what Christ himself told us clearly. 

 And that’s nothing other than when we can manage, with God’s grace, to love not only our neighbor, but also our enemy. Of course, it is a loving with the love of God as shown to us by Christ himself who bore all our sins by offering his life on the cross. 

 Let’s remember what Christ said very clearly: “To you who hear I say, love your enemies, do good to those who hate, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. To the person who strikes you on one cheek, offer the other one as well, and from the person who takes your cloak, do not withhold even your tunic.’ (Lk 6,27-29) 

 He continued: “Give to everyone who asks of you, and from the one who takes what is yours do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you. For if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them.” 

 To be sure, if we follow this commandment, we would be loving God and others the way Christ himself has loved his Father and all of us. It’s a love that is totally inclusive on the part of the lover, irrespective of whether such love is accepted or rejected by the beloved. 

 This, in the end, is what can truly earn us the same praise Christ received from the crowd: “He has done all things well!”

“Blessed are those who fear the Lord”

THAT’S from Psalm 128,1. The verse is often used as a responsorial psalm in many of the Masses during the year. And it definitely talks about a healthy kind of fear that is nothing other than a gift of the Holy Spirit. It’s a fear that protects and prevents us from offending God through sin, through disobedience to his loving and saving will for us. 

 We have to know when to be afraid and when not. We have to distinguish between a good fear and a bad fear, a healthy one and a sick one. We need to know how to handle and deal with our fears that are unavoidable in our life. 

 Fear is an emotion that we need to educate also. It just cannot be on its own, guided only by our spontaneous judgments and reactions, and appearing when it’s not supposed to, and not appearing when it’s supposed to. It has to be grounded and oriented properly, expressing the sublimity of our dignity as persons and children of God. 

 We need to fear because that is what is proper of a child of God as we all are. There’s always a healthy kind of fear involved in any relationship that is based on love and respect. It is the fear of not offending the other party. And this is much more so if the other party is superior to us. If the other party is God himself, then this filial fear is absolutely needed. 

 Besides, such fear can trigger a series of good effects. A passage from the Book of Proverbs affirms this. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” (9,10) Pope St. Gregory the Great, in explaining the dynamism of this filial fear, says: 

 “Through the fear of the Lord, we rise to piety, from piety then to knowledge, from knowledge we derive strength, from strength counsel, with counsel we move toward understanding, and with intelligence toward wisdom and thus, by the sevenfold grace of the Spirit, there opens to us at the end of the ascent the entrance to the life of Heaven.” 

 With this fear of the Lord, we acknowledge we are creatures who are always dependent on God. This is what is called the ‘poverty of spirit’ that figures in one of the beatitudes, “Blessed are the poor in the spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” 

 It’s this fear that we should foster, especially these days when we see a lot of people who are not afraid anymore to offend God. Though to be fair, we can also say that many do not fear God anymore because in the first place they don’t know him. No one fears what he doesn’t know. 

 We have to acknowledge some facts that we can gather nowadays. Like, there definitely is a lack of religious formation among many people, especially the young ones. This is aggravated by the fact that the reception of the sacraments is getting less and less. 

There is also a shortage of vocations and the rate of fidelity and perseverance to one’s vocation is low. There is also a loss of the sense of sin even among Christians. And those who appear to be Christians often lack consistency with their faith when scrutinized. There definitely is a great need for catechesis and pastoral accompaniment. 

 Let’s hope that we can properly tackle these issues that should lead us to have a holy fear of God.

“Thorn in the flesh”

THE phrase appears in St. Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians, describing St. Paul’s affliction that was meant to keep him from becoming arrogant. We can just speculate what that “thorn” specifically was. What is clear is that the flesh, if not properly animated by the Spirit of Christ, is always a traitor. It simply goes with its own erratic ways. 

] We need to be always wary of this danger, and try our best to dominate our flesh with the proper spirit of Christ which is a spirit of love, of generous self-giving. And this is where the heart plays an important role, seeing to it that it beats with God’s love. Otherwise, what Christ said one time comes true: “From within the man, from his heart, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly.” (Mk 7, 21-22) 

 In this regard, we have to see to it that any disciplining we do to our flesh should be done with love and end with love. This is crucial because if the disciplining is simply done in a voluntaristic way, without the affection of God’s love, the flesh will find a way to make its revenge, claiming its supposedly lost rights in moments when we are most vulnerable, like when we are already resting. 

 That´s why, in the long history of ascetical literature written and lived by saints through the centuries, there has been that consistent insistence to curb the tendencies of the flesh to give way to the more important aspirations of the spirit. 

 These two constituent elements of our human nature have become fierce competitors, not so much on the part of the spirit as it is on the part of the body. The trouble is that our body wants to dominate the spirit, reversing the order proper to our nature. 

 This tension was vividly expressed by Christ himself when he warned his sleepy disciples—Peter, James and John—to watch and pray, because ¨the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.¨ 

 To remedy this predicament, Christ taught that we enter by the narrow gate—putting ourselves in some inconveniences and discomfort, etc.—because ¨wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to perdition.¨ 

 In fact, in the end, he indicated that to follow him, we have to deny ourselves and carry the cross. And so, the cross or the sense of penance, sacrifice and mortification has been made an integral part of Christian life and even of human life in general. We would go crazy without it. 

 Of course, the flesh or the body also has to be given due care. It cannot and should not be taken for granted. This is because the body, for all its shortcomings and failings, form a unity with the spirit. 

 There has to be a more pro-active effort to establish and keep a link between the body and the soul, between the flesh and the spirit. These two constitutive elements of our being should work harmoniously for each other’s advantage and benefit. 

 “Your bodies are the shrines of the Holy Spirit…glorify God by making your bodies the shrines of his presence,” St. Paul tells us (1 Cor 6,19-20). We have to take care of it, because as St. Paul says, sin finds an ally in our body, that is, the flesh or the lower part of man—our senses, instincts, passions, etc. 

 Taking care of it means to submit it to Christ’s spirit which does not nullify but rather purifies and elevates the natural condition of our body.

Pursuing the good without God

THIS is how self-righteousness is developed. When we would just depend on our own ideas about what is true, good and beautiful, independently of God, there is no way but for us to fall into this trap of self-righteousness which is always marked with rigidity, proneness to rash judgments, critical thoughts, bitter zeal, etc. It would be a pursuit of the good without charity and mercy. 

 We are reminded of this danger in that gospel episode where Christ’s disciples were accused by the self-righteous Pharisees of eating with unwashed hands. (cfr. Mk 7,1-13) That was when Christ told them: 

 “Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, as it is written: This people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines human precepts. You disregard God’s commandment but cling to human tradition.” 

 Self-righteousness is a common disease, since all of us have our share of pride and arrogance. We may not acknowledge it—a more insidious situation to be in, since pride has a tremendous blinding power—but we can fall into it from time to time, especially when we make rash judgments, easily jump to conclusions, stereotype or brand people, making a habit of finding fault in others, etc. 

 What is worse is when it is not only quiet and secretive, but rather open and loud, and can get even physical, or when it defines the very character of a person. It is shown in the way he carries himself, how he looks at others, how he speaks and reacts to things. He oozes with over-self-confidence, with a tone of voice that cannot be other than bossy and strident. 

 That’s when we can speak of the self-righteous bully. He gives the impression that he knows everything, that he is superior to others, etc. He is usually one who is gifted in some way—physically, intellectually or, worse, spiritually. 

 The source of their problem are the gifts given to them, which they do not know how to handle properly. Instead of being humbled by them and always aware that the gifts are meant for God’s glory and the good of others, they make these endowments a source of their pride. They are highly opinionated. They like to dominate any discussion. They want always to have the last word. 

 We have to be most careful of this spiritual virus. The moment we see the slightest signs of its onset in us, we have to react immediately and strongly, deepening our humility and strengthening our desire to always glorify God and to be at the service of others. 

 We should reflect the attitude of Christ who said that “the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mt 20,28) We have to learn how to pass unnoticed even as we are determined in carrying out our tasks and duties in life. 

 The awareness of our gifts or special charisms should also intensify the awareness of the great responsibility we have to fulfill because of them. Because of this, we should always feel the need to go to God, convinced that it can only be with him that we can do things properly. We should never think we can simply rely on our own powers.

“Pilgrims of Hope”

THAT’S the theme of the Jubilee Year 2025 as declared by Pope Francis last year. The Jubilee Year began last December 24 and will end on January 6, 2026. The idea behind is to encourage everyone to make pilgrimages that hopefully would foster forgiveness, conversion as well as a joyful celebration. 

 Indeed, our life here on earth can be likened to a pilgrimage toward our ultimate destination, which is heaven. It should be not be understood simply as a trip from one place to another, from one state of life to another. It’s a journey that should be eminently marked with a religious purpose and character. That is how we have to understand our life here on earth. 

 And to be a good pilgrim of hope, the secret is, of course, to always be with Christ and to go back to him as soon as possible every time we happen to stray from him. Let us act out what took place in one gospel episode where the people, upon knowing that Christ was around, immediately went to see him and brought others who need some special help from Christ. (cfr. Mk 6,53-56) 

 We know that in spite of all the in spites of, we have all the reasons to be always hopeful and optimistic. And that's simply because God our Father, our unfailing lover, is always in control of everything, regardless of how we mess up his designs for us. 

 We have reason to be hopeful and optimistic as long as in all our affairs and situations in life, we manage to go to God to ask for his help and guidance, and to trust his ways and his providence, even if the outcome of our prayers and petitions appears unanswered, if not, contradicted. 

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

 Especially in our present condition that involves an increase of pressure, confusing knowledge overdrives, increasingly sophisticated challenges and difficulties, we have to realize more deeply that we need to seriously cultivate this virtue of hope. There’s no other way. It’s either that or we get into a free-fall toward disorder, chaos and desperation. 

 Our problem is that, as usual, we have a very limited idea of hope. And from that handicapped position, it’s obvious that all sorts of dangers, confusion and errors can ensue. 

 Among the anomalies besetting our understanding of hope is that it is a purely man-made virtue, with only earthly and natural dimensions and relying solely on human and material resources. 

 We seem to get stranded in the external properties of the virtue, without entering into its real essence, significance and practicability. We need to recover the true nature and purpose of hope, and spread its knowledge and skill far and wide. That’s what we urgently need these days. 

 First, we need to understand that hope is a gift from God, one of what are called theological virtues. As such, it goes always in this life with the other pair of faith and charity. 

 The immediate corollary of this reality is that the first thing we have to do about it is to ask for it, often kneeling and begging God our Father not only to grant it to us, which he actually does unstintingly, but also to increase it all the time.

Let’s be bold and aggressive in our Christian life

THAT gospel episode about Christ commanding Peter to “go to the deep and lower down your nets for a catch” (Lk 5,4) reminds us, among other things, that we should be bold and aggressive in our Christian life, stretching ourselves to the limits to do apostolate and actively cooperate in the continuing work of human redemption. 

 Peter at first told Christ that he tried to fish the whole night before and caught nothing. But because of his strong faith in Christ, he just obeyed what Christ told him, and lo and behold, he caught a big amount of fish. Fully astonished, he could not help but tell Christ to depart from him for, as he said, “I am sinful man.” That was when Christ told him to be a fisher of men. 

 We need to understand that our Christian life will always be involved in the continuing work of human redemption. It is in essence also an apostolic life, something that we have to be most aware of and for which we should be duly trained. The ideal to pursue is to be zealous in doing apostolate, always coming up with effective apostolic plans and strategies. 

 Christ’s intense desire for human redemption, expressed in his words, “I came to set fire to the world, and I wish it were already burning!” (Lk 12,49) should also be the desire of a true disciple of Christ. 

 This is something we have to be more conscious about, since right now I believe that many of us are buried under a heavy albeit deceivingly sweet yoke of spiritual lethargy. We take things easy in our spiritual and apostolic life. What would arouse us are mainly material and worldly things. 

 We need to react to this stranglehold of our spiritual and apostolic life, helping one another to be more spiritually alive, considering each one’s conditions and possibilities, giving good example and timely pieces of advice and suggestions, and leading the way in actively cooperating in this exhilarating divine adventure God is inviting us to join in this life. 

 Everyday, we should be seized by that urge to “carpe diem,” to kind of strike while the iron is hot. If we have faith, each day brings with it its own adventure orchestrated by God in his abiding providence, and we are invited to it since we are supposed to be co-agents with God in our life here. 

 To be sure, our life here on earth is never just an interplay of our plans and the other natural forces. God is very much in it, a fact that we have to be more aware of it and more importantly, better skilled in handling. We cannot go on unmindful of this fundamental truth. 

 We should not be afraid to enter and take most active part in this drama with God and others, because even if it involves everything and all sorts of trials and difficulties, it is always worth it. This is what our life is really all about. We avoid making a fiction of our life, deluded by its false images. 

 To top it all, if we have faith and trust in God, we know, in spite of passing contradictions, that what we get involved in is always something for the good of all of us in all aspects of our life, from the most personal to the most global.

Martyrdom can be due to some silly reasons

THAT’S what we can gather from the story of the martyrdom of St. John the Baptist. (cfr. Mk 6,14-29) What an absurd turn of events it was! That martyrdom by beheading was simply triggered by King Herod not wanting to lose his face before some people. He made a crazy promise to a dancing girl that eventually led him to make a crazy judgment—the head of St. John the Baptist in exchange for the delight of a dance! 

 Indeed, we can expect this kind of phenomenon if we are not guided by faith. When our reasoning and our human ways of resolving issues end up grasping at straws, not anymore able to cope with what we consider as humanly possible, then we can be forced to make an idiotic judgment. 

 Thus, to be realistic about our Christian life that would always find opposition in the ways of the world, we should just prepare ourselves for possible martyrdom anytime and even for the flimsiest of reasons as what happened to St. John the Baptist. 

 In this regard, we have to learn to lose the fear of suffering and death. 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 suffering and death, and all the other negative things that can mark our life. 

 He bore them himself and converted them into our way for our own salvation. Yes, even death which is the ultimate evil that can befall us, an evil that is humanly insoluble. With Christ’s death, the curse of death has been removed. “Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” (1 Cor 15,54-55) 

 So, we just have to be sport and cool about the whole reality of suffering and death in this life. What we need to do is to follow Christ in his attitude toward them. For Christ, embracing suffering and ultimately death, is the expression of his greatest love for us. We have to enter into the dynamic of this divine logic and wisdom so we can lose that fear of suffering and death. 

 What can help us in this regard is to practice the spirit of active mortification, that is to say, that we would always be looking for occasions to mortify ourselves, rather than just wait for mortifications, which are actually unavoidable, to come to us. Let’s convince ourselves with the reasoning of our faith that mortifications or dying a little to ourselves everyday possess a tremendous sanctifying and redemptive value. 

 If we faithfully follow and live our Christian faith, we know that suffering and death are like our brothers and sisters whom we should welcome into our life, as many saints have testified. 

 Our Christian faith tells us that suffering and death have ceased to be a punishment, but rather a means of our salvation. They are not anymore merely negative elements in our life, but are in fact now what would bring us to our eternal life with God. When seen with faith, suffering and death are actually happy events, not sad ones. We should be welcoming to them. 

 And even if we suffer and are martyred for the craziest of reasons, we should avoid responding to these possibilities with anger and hatred. We obviously can defend ourselves with some arguments, but we should see to it that we avoid falling into lack of faith, hope and charity. On the contrary, we have to convince ourselves that those possibilities are golden occasions to show the authenticity of our faith, hope and charity.

The task of saving souls

THIS is, of course, no joke, no easy task at all. But we just have to do it because Christ commands us to do so. What he told his apostles, sending them in pairs and giving them special powers, can and should also be addressed to us. 

 In spite of our unworthiness, we should just take to heart this command of Christ: to preach repentance and to lead people back to God. This is what apostolate is all about, though we should do it with both supernatural and human means. 

 This task of saving souls is first of all a continuing divine work of human redemption which we are asked to cooperate. It cannot stop. And yes, we are expected to cooperate in it, since if we are incorporated into Christ through baptism and in the Spirit, we can’t avoid getting involved in God’s plans and actions. 

 The realization of this crucial aspect of our Christian life gives proper meaning and perspective to our whole life and everything contained in it. It puts our life in the right orbit. 

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

 This joint God-and-man effort is also in keeping with our dignity as persons and as children of God. As persons, we need to see to it that we get to be responsible also for our whole life, for attaining its true fullness of purpose. 

 And that’s nothing less than to participate in the life of God, since more than persons, we are children of his, meant to live with Him. 

 Thus, to do apostolate engages our intelligence and will in their proper way. It’s how we can best use our freedom and our loving. It’s how we can be truly responsible for our life. 

 In short, if these distinctive human faculties and activities are not used for apostolate but rather for some other human purpose only, we would be misusing them. No matter how noble these human purposes are, if the apostolic dimension is missing, we would be misusing these God-given powers. 

 To do apostolate also corresponds to a most basic reality about ourselves. We are never alone, meant to live our life in isolation from the others. Like it or not, conscious of it or not, we live with others. We are somehow responsible for one another. 

 Therefore, we need to sharpen our awareness of our apostolic duty, since left to our own devices, we would rather give our complete attention solely to ourselves. This tendency is a consequence of our sinfulness. But originally, before man’s fall, we tend to love and care for one another. 

 To develop this apostolic concern therefore entails sacrifice. We should not be surprised if in pursuing it we are challenged, faced with difficulties and asked to do self-denials and other forms of sacrifice. 

 We just have to hold firm on our Christian conviction, together with the continuing petition for God’s grace and the generous discharge of our human effort, that to do apostolate is the will of God. He is bent in accomplishing it. It’s his first concern to contend with the difficulties. Ours is simply to cooperate. 

 We have to continually ask ourselves if our thoughts and desires bear an eminently apostolic character. If not, let’s immediately do the necessary adjustments and corrections.

Charity’s fine points and more challenging aspects

THAT gospel episode about Christ’s townspeople finding it hard to believe that one of their own could speak the way Christ did (cfr. Mk 6,1-6) reminds us of the danger of overfamiliarity and self-satisfaction that would prevent us from recognizing the real Christ and the will and ways he has for us in every situation we may find ourselves in. 

 It prods us to always be refining and deepening our faith, never saying enough in our pursuit for holiness, also known as our duty to follow Christ. In this regard, we need to always look into the fine points of charity and its more challenging aspects. 

 We should never say that we are already good enough, kind enough, generous enough, etc. If we truly follow Christ, we can always do more and be more, until we become more and more like him as we should be. 

 While it’s indeed laudable that in whatever we do, we try to give it our best shot, we should also 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. 

 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 only in this condition that we can go beyond the limits of our natural self and above the usual drama in life. We of course have our limitations, physical, mental, emotional, etc. And yet, as long as we are truly with Christ, we can still manage to give ourselves unstintingly. The spiritual and supernatural in us through Christ would enable us to give ourselves despite our natural limitations and worldly conditions. 

 That is why Christ commanded us to love even our enemies, to offer the other cheek when we are slapped in one cheek. That’s because true love does not count the cost. Let’s remember that Christ in loving us assumed all our sins and conquered them by dying on the cross and rising from the dead. He even asked the Father to forgive those who crucified him. 

 This is the paradigm of love which we have to pursue in our daily life with all its concerns, varying circumstances, trials, etc. It’s a love that unavoidably involves suffering, self-denial, the carrying of the cross. It’s a love that should culminate in the way Christ culminated his love for us in obedience to the will of the Father—through his passion and death that would lead to his resurrection, the final victory.

How to endure and persevere

THE secret, of course, is to go to Christ. That’s the main message of the readings of Tuesday of the 4th Week in Ordinary Time. In the first reading, from the Letter to the Hebrews, we are told: 

 “Looking on Jesus, the author and finisher of faith, who having joy set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and now sitteth on the right hand of the throne of God. For think diligently upon him that endured such opposition from sinners against himself; that you be not wearied, fainting in your minds.” (12,2-3) 

 The same truth of our Christian faith is reiterated in the gospel reading of the day where two characters, Jairus, one of the synagogue leaders, and a woman under an issue of blood, went to Christ asking for help. (cfr. Mk 5,21-43) 

 We should see to it that our reaction to anything that bothers us is to immediately go to Christ without wasting time, allowing shame and fear to stop us from going to him. Christ always listens and gives in to our request, but in forms and ways that may not coincide with what we have in mind. 

 We cannot deny that in our life, we will always be hounded by all sorts of challenges and trials, temptations and other forms of evil that come from our usual enemies—our wounded flesh, the sinful allurements of the world, and the devil himself. 

 Especially when we think our suffering is self-inflicted because of our spiritual and moral weakness, we should not hesitate to go to Christ. What we have to remind ourselves always is that Christ has borne all our weaknesses and sins, and the suffering they bring, and converted them into a way of our salvation. 

 We should not stay long agonizing because of our weaknesses and sins. What helps, of course, is to unite our suffering due to our weaknesses and sins with the saving passion, death and resurrection of Christ. We should avoid suffering on our own. We should never keep our suffering from Christ. 

 That is why it is a good practice to regularly meditate on the passion, death and resurrection of Christ so we would know how to properly deal with our unavoidable weaknesses and sins. By so doing, we somehow would receive some strength to face and overcome them. In any event, by meditating on this culminating redemptive work of Christ, we would feel assured that victory would always be at hand. 

 We have to learn to be quick to go back to Christ who will always welcome us no matter how ugly our mistakes are. We should also learn to be quick to say sorry to God and to all the others who may be involved in our misdeeds, defects and predicaments. 

 We, obviously, need also to learn how to be tough with the toughness of Christ who knows how to blend it always with gentleness and patience. In short, we have to have the mind and attitude of Christ when developing and practicing both toughness and patience. Only then would these virtues acquire their true value and would play along the providence of God 

 Thus, for this blend to take place, we need to be vitally united with Christ. And for this purpose, we should continually ask for God’s grace. In fact, the first thing we should do when we need to be both tough and patient is to ask for God’s grace.

Demonic attacks on the rise

THIS should be no surprise to us. With the way things are now—new technologies offering more temptations than real advantages, and people spiritually and morally impoverished—what can we expect? That’s why requests for exorcism and deliverance have dramatically increased these days, not to mention the increasing cases of mental illness, psychological disorders, suicide, etc. 

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

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

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

 We need to have a good grip on this rapidly emerging menace. And the first thing to do is to entertain the possibility that indeed these people who are disturbed by evil spirits are both mentally sick and demonically bothered. 

 Yes, while it’s true that the predicament can be an either-or proposition, we should not dismiss the possibility that it can also be a both-and one. Not just disjunctive, but also conjunctive. Let’s remember that the devil is always around. It’s not paranoia to be always alerted of the devil’s existence and his constant efforts to destroy us, usually in very sweet ways. 

 It would be good if we level up in our knowledge of psychology. This field of science is getting to be more and more relevant these days. It cannot anymore be the exclusive interest of some people. Everyone should know at least the basics of psychology and from there start accumulating relevant helpful information. 

 But we should never forget that the psychological and mental mechanism of a person is steeped in his spiritual dimension that can lead him either to the supernatural or infranatural world. It cannot be studied from the point of view of empirical science alone. It has to input the truths of faith to enable it to cope with the full range of its possibilities. 

 This is a point that should be taken more seriously these days. The complicated challenges of our times that have brought about many good things and also many bad things cannot but make this kind of demand. We have to take our faith more seriously, assimilating it in our system and making it the guide and shaper of our lives. 

 With our faith, we have the answer to all the questions, the solution to all our problems, even if the answers and solutions it offers may not be the ones we want. But they are the answers and solutions that God himself gives, and not just us. 

 Faith is the great healer, the constant pacifier, because it brings Christ into our lives, Christ who heals and who constantly tells us, “Do not be afraid...” We should bring our faith to bear on our sciences and on our other sources of knowledge.