Angry, yes; hate, no

IF we truly love Christ by following his word and his example (cfr. Jn 14,23), then we would know how to distinguish between anger and hatred. The former is a passing emotion that is unavoidable given our human condition, while the latter is already a human act that is arrived at knowingly and intentionally. 

 In terms of morals, anger is still in the neutral state, while hatred is already a sin. As we can see in the life of Christ, especially when he had to deal with the self-righteous leading Jews of his time, he got angry a number of times, even going to the extent of scolding them. He even scolded Peter for restraining him to fulfill his mission. (cfr. Mt 16,23) 

 We should just see to it that we do not allow anger to become a sin. St. Paul warned us about this when he said: “Be angry, and do not sin.” (Eph 4,26) This means that while anger is a natural human emotion when faced with a perceived danger or dislike, it should be controlled and not allowed to lead to sinful actions or grudges or hatred. 

 It’s ok for us to get angry, especially because we cannot avoid having to deal with all sorts of difficult and other negative situations. But we should not allow it to become an occasion for resentment and hatred to take root in our heart. 

 We should just try our best to resolve whatever differences and conflicts we can have with others as best that we can and get back to the state of good relations with others even if disagreements continue to take place. 

 Especially in the area of politics and in others where stiff competition and rivalry dominate, we should see to it that we have good control over our emotions so that they do not deteriorate into somethings sinful already. 

 So, we should just be most careful with our anger. It should only be a passing thing that is resorted to as an emergency reaction. We should get over it as soon as possible, and move on to what we ought to do. It should never blind us from our real duties and responsibilities. And most importantly, it should never take away our duty to be always charitable with everyone, including the one who may have caused our anger. 

 Anger is one of our God-given emotions locked into our nature as persons. It has its legitimate use. But precisely because of our precarious human condition here on earth, we have to be wary of it. In fact, anger is also considered one of the capital sins, along with pride, envy, greed, lust, gluttony, sloth, that can beget many other sins. 

 If ever we have to be angry, let’s try our best to be angry in the spirit of Christ who showed anger over the self-righteous Pharisees and scribes, and over those who turned the temple into a market place. Christ’s anger is what is called righteous anger, one that is done always in charity and in the truth, and not just due to opinions and biases. It’s an anger that is meant to correct, purify, heal. 

 For those who have some serious problem in this department, who are irascible with short fuses, great effort should be made to tame their proclivity to anger. Perhaps, some medical and professional help should be resorted to. But definitely, our anger can only be best managed when we try our best to be with Christ as we should. 

 As one psalm described it, God’s anger “lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime. Weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.” (30,5)

Continuing challenges, continuing conversions

WITH all the rapid developments taking place these days, we know that our life has become more complicated. New challenges are coming up, requiring us to upgrade our knowledge of things in general and skills. It’s indeed no joke to cope with all these. 

 In computer science, there is such term as “algorithm” which means “a process or set of rules to be followed in calculations or other problem-solving operations, especially by a computer.” Definitely we now need some kind of algorithm also to help us orchestrate the many and complicated elements that we have contend with these days. 

 We, for example, have to be prepared with an effective plan and strategy on how to handle these challenges. We have to have a good sense of priorities. We need to know the distinction between the essential and the incidental. We certainly need to have self-discipline and a good sense of focus, able to identify the real goals we need to pursue. 

 We cannot deny that if we are not careful or aware of this need, we surely would get confused and lost, trapped in some bubble. We really need to upgrade our virtues of prudence and temperance, among many other virtues, if we are to survive this severe challenge we are facing these days. 

 Before all these and as long as we hold on to our Christian faith, we know that these challenges are offering us a golden opportunity to grow not only in some practical skills but also and most importantly, in our spiritual life, in our love for God and for everybody else. 

 We are given the opportunity to purify our attitude toward our temporal affairs and to learn how to relate these affairs to our ultimate spiritual and supernatural goal. In short, we are asked to make continuing conversions to see to it that we are getting closer to God and to others rather than being carried away in the spiral of self-indulgence. 

 For this, we definitely need to be taught so we can learn how to have the proper focus in our life. But to learn, we need to study and develop the proper attitudes, practices, virtues, etc. We have to undergo a certain discipline and follow a well-thought-out plan. 

 Definitely, an important element in that plan would be the habit of “settling accounts” with God by making daily examinations of conscience. In our spiritual lives, it is important that we settle accounts with God regularly. In fact, saints and the Church herself have recommended that we make daily examinations of conscience just before going to bed. 

 This is to see if the day went as it should, that is, if love for God and neighbor is really the motive behind all our actions, and so that we at least can be reconciled with God no matter how the day went. We should at least say sorry to God, even if we still have to do things to make up for our mistakes and sins. 

 Considering the way we are, afflicted as we are with all sorts of vulnerabilities but may still profess great belief and love for God and others, we need to go through frequent conversions even every day. 

 This need for frequent conversions is great because of the fickleness of our resolutions, and the objective reality that in spite of our best intentions and efforts, we still come out with ideas, words, deeds that are spiced with all sorts of imperfections.

Justice first before mercy

IT’S true! While divine mercy will have the last word, the requirements of justice, including human justice, no matter how imperfect it is, will have to be tackled first. Christ himself submitted to this condition, even if in his case, the most unfair injustice was handed on to him. He did not escape the justice-first-before-mercy principle. 

 With the imperfections of our human condition in this world, we cannot deny that there will be a lot of injustice committed around. These cases should be resolved as properly as possible, but seeing to it that we should not get stuck with retributive justice alone, but should also be concerned about restorative and reformative justice. 

 But at the end of the day, we know that justice has to give way to mercy. If we follow Christ, this is what we should do. In his most unfair trial, Christ remained silent when he could have defended himself abundantly. But he remained quiet and allowed the erratic wheel of human justice to roll on. 

 He did it only for one sole purpose—to redeem us. He had to pay for the debt we could not pay. He had to assume all the sins of men, die to them so that with his resurrection, we also would have a way to recover our dignity as children of God if we also die with Christ. 

 Christ remained silent because it was his time to go, to complete his mission. He just allowed himself to be treated with the severest injustice there could ever be in this world—condemning God through our own human system of justice. That is how much Christ loves us! 

 This is a point worth our serious consideration if only for us to try to approximate that attitude. Yes, we need justice, and full justice at that. But we have to understand that our justice can only do so much. It cannot capture the whole dignity of man no matter how bad a man may be. At the end of the day, it has to yield to a higher virtue which is mercy. 

 Our human justice can only do so much because even if pursued with all the due processes involved, we still cannot know everything about the person concerned. At best, we can only judge on the basis of what we know. Yet even in this, we always have a strong tendency to overstep. We can go to the extent of executing a person. 

 Besides, our human justice is usually instigated by anger and the desire to make even or to have revenge with someone who may have done us wrong. It is not totally inspired by charity. Some self-interest dilutes it. 

 Yet, if we look at Christ’s example, we know that Christ offered forgiveness to everyone, including those who crucified him. “Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they are doing.” He even offered excuses for them, and continues to do so for all of us, because each one of us is precious to him. Justice cannot have the last word for us. It’s mercy that has the last word. 

 We need to see to it that we learn how to be merciful the way Christ is merciful with everyone of us. And everyday, we actually are given many opportunities to live mercy that goes beyond justice. But justice should not be totally ignored.

“Abide in me, and I in you”

THAT’S what Christ told his disciples, (cfr. Jn 15,4) and now to all of us. This was when he talked about the vine and branches. “I am the vine, you are the branches,” he said. “He that abides in me, and I in him, the same bears much fruit, for without me you can do nothing.” 

 We need to engrave these words in our minds and hearts as deeply as possible, and act on them as consistently as possible. That’s the ideal condition for us to be in. And we should do everything to make this ideal pursued by everyone, especially the young ones. 

 Nowadays, with all the riveting and distracting developments around, we cannot afford to be casual about this duty which is truly a necessity. While everything temporal and earthly plays an important role in our relation with God, they can be dangerous if they do not have God as their beginning and end, and are simply understood and treated as temporal and earthly. 

 We really need to train our mind and heart to be always anchored and focused on God. This will take a lifetime to achieve, and we may not be able to perfect it, but the point is simply for us to just try and try. 

 Especially these days when we are heavily bombarded with fantasies and fictions in novels and movies, we can easily be gaslighted to believe in them if our faith in God is not nourished regularly in our mind and heart. 

 We would fail to realize that these fantasies and fictions are just make-believe things that only serve as a temporary way of rest and recreation and should not be taken seriously. With a weak hold on our faith and on our spiritual life, we would fail to realize that we are just being tickled to play the game of self-indulgence that would slowly snuff out our relation with God and with others. 

 Among the many things that we can do to address this problem is to make many pauses during the day if only to recover our proper outlook in life. We have to learn the art of how to stay on course in our life so that we do not get distracted, confused, entangled and lost. For this, we have to be clear about what the real and ultimate purpose of our life is, as well as know how to relate everything in our life—both the good things and the bad—to this purpose. 

 This, of course, would require us to undertake regular review and updating of our plans and strategies through practices like daily examinations of conscience, monthly days of recollection, annual retreats, etc. And even during the day, we should make a number of pit stops to see if we are still on course or are already getting deviated from the proper way. 

 We should always keep sharp our awareness that our life is actually something like a journey where we are expected to make daily progress on our way to our ultimate home or destination, which is to be with God in heaven. Yes, we have to realize deeply and abidingly that our life here on earth is also like a test God gives us, to see if what he wants us to be is also what we ourselves would like to be.

The peace for all seasons

IF we believe in the words of Christ, we certainly would know where to find the true peace, one that will always be effective whatever the situations and conditions of our life are. It’s a peace that comes to us both in good times and in bad times. “Peace I leave with you,” he said. “My peace I give unto you, not as the world gives, do I give unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be afraid.” (Jn 14,27) 

 We need to know what exactly is this kind of peace, because as Christ clearly said, it is not one that the world gives, not the one that our own human estimation that is based only on worldly criteria gives. 

 It is the peace that comes as a result of our following Christ, of our effort to identify ourselves with him. It is a peace that comes as a result of our pursuit for holiness. It therefore is one that would be a result of some struggle or warfare, of our effort to fight against the enemies of God and of our own soul: our weaknesses and temptations that come from our wounded flesh, the world and the devil himself. 

 Christ is the prince of peace. He knows how to tackle any and all sources and causes of trouble, conflict and war. He meets them head-on, not escaping from them, and in fact converts these causes of evil and war into paths to goodness and human redemption. 

 He goes straight to the very core of evil, the malice that can spring in the hearts of men, the primal source of all our troubles, conflicts and wars. And he does the ultimate to annul the effects of evil, by assuming them himself, killing them with his own death, and conquering them with his own resurrection. He always has the last word. 

 When we do our part in our relation with Christ, we are assured of that peace. Christ himself said it clearly that while in this world we will always have trouble, he said that we should not worry since he already has conquered the world. (cfr. Jn 16,33) 

 We really need to be identified with Christ to have peace in ourselves and in everybody else all over the world. It is a peace that comes as a result of reconciliation. It therefore involves repentance, conversion, struggle, that Christ has shown to us by embracing the cross and dying on it. 

 The cross of Christ is all at once the summary of all our sins as well as the supreme act of love of Christ for us. It is both the tree of death and the tree of life. It’s where all the malice of man meets the tremendous mercy of God. Christ is asking us to carry the cross also with him. Only then can we have true peace that comes from Christ. 

 This is the peace that cannot waver even under the severe assaults of trials, difficulties and failures. It is the peace that involves a certain abandonment of everything in our life in the hands of God, even as we do our part of dealing with them. 

 We have to learn to receive and keep this peace that Christ gives us. We might have to pause from time to time to make this truth of our faith sink deeply in our consciousness and be the guiding principle of our life. 

 This is the peace that leads us to joy. They actually go together—“gaudium cum pace,” joy with peace, as one prayer in preparation for celebrating the Mass would put it.

What true love for God involves

AGAIN, Christ himself tells us very clearly what true love for him involves or, shall we say, requires. “He that has my commandments, and keeps them, he it is that loves me,” he said. “And he that loves me, shall be loved by my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.” (Jn 14,21) 

 If we would just meditate on these words a little, we can readily understand that God’s commandments, as revealed to us in full by Christ, would give us the full picture of the reality we are in, a reality that is not only natural, but also spiritual and supernatural. The commandments of God, who is love, would only lead us to true love as it is through these commandments that Christ will manifest himself to us. 

 It is important that we meditate on these words of Christ very closely if only to understand the relation of how love of Christ is achieved by keeping his commandments and how that love can lead us to the truth that nowadays is being twisted and distorted according to one’s whims and caprices, one’s biases and prejudices, creating all sorts of spins and narratives to suit one’s interest at the expense of truth itself. 

 This distortion of truth is most especially noticed nowadays in the fields of politics, journalism, and even in the sciences, philosophies and ideologies. Even open, unmitigated lies are peddled, and done with so much self-confidence and aplomb that it would seem that the devil, the father of lies, is having a heyday. 

 This will obviously require a strong faith for us to believe in these words. But if we would just be humble enough and acknowledge our total dependence on God, we would have no problem to accept these words even if they sound to be incredible to us. 

 God’s commandments would bring us to another and higher level of how to understand things in general. In fact, they would actually bring us to another and higher level of life, that of God himself, since that is what is meant for us. 

 We have to be wary of our strong tendency to keep only to our human and worldly way of understanding things. Our so-called rule of law, for example, cannot fathom the wisdom behind Christ’s clear injunction to love our enemies. It is trapped in a purely retributive kind of justice, hardly paying attention to the need for restorative and reformative justice. 

 And why does Christ command us to love even our enemies? The simple reason is that no matter how other people are, the fact remains that we are all children of God, brothers and sisters of each other, and bound to love each other. 

 While the distinction between right and wrong, good and evil, virtue and sin will always be maintained, and acted on accordingly, we should never forget that in the end we are meant to love everyone. 

 Yes, we are meant for loving. That’s what would actually bring us to the fullness of our humanity. That’s what would make us God’s image and likeness as he wants us to be. That’s why loving God and everybody else in the way God loves everyone, is the greatest and the second greatest commandments God has for us. 

 We really need to train ourselves and all our faculties to follow what Christ is telling us very clearly. This will require tremendous effort, of course. But if we would just persist in going through this training, time will come when this true love that channels the very love of God in us would become second nature to us.

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.