Keeping the vigil of faith

THIS is how our life should be lived. No matter how brilliant and intellectually and naturally gifted we are, we should always be guided by faith, making it the abiding light of our life, otherwise we would miss the most important goal of our life. 

 Faith is God’s gift to us, his way of sharing the knowledge that he has about himself, about ourselves and about everything else. It is what would give us hope, confidence and sense of security as we journey through the valley of tears that our earthly life can’t help but be. It is what would give us joy and true love that can handle any situation and condition in our life. 

 An appropriate prayer that we can use in this regard could be the following: “Turn our eyes to seek the truth of your judgments, Lord, that, when our spirits are tried by fire, the anticipation of seeing you may make us rejoice in your justice.” 

 Or we can also repeat often some words spoken by different characters in the gospel like: “I believe, help my unbelief!” (Mk 9,24) or “Increase our faith.” (Lk 17,5) We can never say that we have enough faith. We should never be complacent in this regard. Faith is an ever-dynamic thing that needs to grow and grow as well as to inspire us more deeply, thoroughly and consistently. 

 We need to make it grow to cope with our natural needs. In this level alone, we always need faith to make things very clear for us, even if in theory we can handle the natural challenges and difficulties we can encounter in life. 

 We cannot deny that there are just too many of these natural challenges and difficulties for us to handle with a certain ease and confidence. Especially these days when the pace of development is faster, and the developments themselves are more complicated and tricky, we need the light of faith to see things properly. 

 Besides, it is faith that gives the ultimate meaning and proper direction to all our human knowledge and endeavors. It is what gives the original perspective to all events, good or bad, in our life. Otherwise, we would end up confused and lost. 

 We also need to make our faith grow to cope with the multiplying infranatural consequences of our human condition that is weakened by sin. There’s no other way to manage and survive the consequences of sin, ours and those of others, personal as well as the collective and structural, than by relying first of all on our faith. Without faith, we will find no exit, no relief from this wounded status of ours. 

 Also, we need to make our faith grow to cope with the tremendous goal of attaining our supernatural goal in life, that of becoming the true image and likeness of God in which we have been created. Our human and natural powers simply cannot handle this aspiration. It would require nothing less than God’s help which starts by giving us the gift of faith which we have to receive and make full use of. 

 We should not be surprised that life and all the challenges and trials we are going to face in it will always demand from us things beyond our powers and resources. And that’s simply because we are meant to go to God for all our needs, without neglecting any effort we can give along the way.

Christian morality is not just natural morality

THAT’S right! Christian morality goes beyond natural morality that pursues only some earthly and temporal goals. It goes beyond these earthly goals, not suppressing them, but elevating and purifying them to the supernatural order. 

 And that’s because Christian morality is based on the most basic identity of man as God’s image and likeness, sharers of his divine life and nature. We are not just natural beings. We are meant to go and be supernatural. Otherwise, we can only go infranatural. There is no such thing as a purely natural state of man. We are given a choice of whether we want to go up or to go down. 

 More than anything else, Christian morality is not simply based on what is reasonable or what is acceptable by a wide consensus of people. While all these criteria or standards are considered, what distinguishes Christian morality is its being animated by nothing less than God’s grace. And love for God and for everyone, including our enemies, is the beginning, end and everything in it. 

 In other words, to have a good moral sense is none other than having an abiding awareness that all our human acts, starting with our thoughts and desires, and then our words and deeds, should be good in the sense that they ought to be inspired and oriented toward nothing less than love for God and for others. 

 That’s why St. Paul once said in his praise of charity (love of God): “If I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. 

 “And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I should have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. 

 “And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profits me nothing.” (1 Cor 13,1-3) 

 No human act is good unless it begins and ends with God, and as a corollary, with others. This has to be made clear because we often supplant that truth with our own version of goodness based on practicality, popularity, and other worldly criteria that in themselves are good, but can only be truly good if they are related to love for God and for others. 

 In other words, the goodness of our human acts does not depend on us alone. It depends fundamentally and indispensably on God. We cannot help but think theologically if we are truly concerned about the morality of our human acts. 

 That’s because more than just depending on our own individual consciences and collective consensus, we need to depend first on faith, the gift God gives to us to start sharing who he is and what he has, since we are his image and likeness and adopted children of his, expected to share in the very life of God. And faith gives us a basis for hope as we go through this vale of tears of ours, and then also for charity. 

 We need to make a conscious effort to get in touch with God, because only then can we fairly think that we are moral in our actuations. That’s why we need to pray, to act and live in his presence, always purifying and rectifying our intentions, etc.

A clean heart, a new spirit, a new life

WITH the Solemnity of Pentecost, we are assured that God in the Holy Spirit is always with us, intervening always in our lives to lead us to where we should be in our definitive life, i.e., to be truly God’s image and likeness, sharers of his divine life and nature. 

 It would just really depend on us on how receptive and docile we are with the action of the Holy Spirit in our lives. The ball is in our court. And the least thing we can do is to make as our own this prayer suggested to us by the Church: “Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love.” 

 We should repeat this prayer frequently on a daily basis if only to protect ourselves from our strong tendency to ignore the indispensable role of the Holy Spirit in our lives. It is the Holy Spirit who will give us a clean heart, a new spirit and a new life. 

 Perhaps, we can also use a psalm to express this important request we have to make from God: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.” (51,10-12) 

 On our part, we just have to make sure that we take care of our spiritual and moral life since it is through them that we are enabled to receive God’s grace that is the sole principle of eternal newness. Everything else in our life should get its life and purpose from our spiritual and moral dimensions of our life. We have to know what is truly essential in our human affairs and not get confused and lost in the peripherals and incidentals. 

 We need to deepen our faith in God’s love for us, which should be shown in deeds. It’s in this way that we can participate in Christ’s victory over sin and death with his resurrection to eternal life. That victory will always make us new as St. Paul once affirmed: 

 “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, the old has passed away. Behold, all things are made new.” (2 Cor 5,17) In another passage, St. Paul said: “For we are buried together with him by baptism into death, that as Christ is risen from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also may walk in the newness of life.” (Rom 6,4) 

 Again, we cannot overemphasize the need for us to be led by our faith rather by any other principle no matter how important and indispensable it also may be. We have to understand that the passage of time and its cyclical character is meant for us to develop and show our faith and love for God who continues to intervene in our life since he is still in the process of creating and redeeming us in time. 

 Time is meant for the total process of our creation that includes our redemption. Time is not simply some kind of measure or record of what went before and after and what is now. Time is a gift from God that is connected to his eternity. 

 In other words, we should try our best to lead a spiritual and not simply a carnal life. It’s not a matter of suppressing our sensible, material and earthly condition, but rather of going beyond that level. That’s where the road to the fullness of our humanity can be found, and where everything will be made new and eternal.

Expect suffering if we follow Christ

THAT’S how the cookie crumbles. If we choose to follow Christ as consistently as possible, we should expect suffering along the way and at the end. In fact, suffering would be an abiding companion in our life. 

 We can draw this conclusion from that gospel episode where Christ asked Peter three times if Peter loved him. (cfr. Jn 21,15-19) After Peter professed his love for Christ in a most fervent way after being asked for the third time, Christ told him what would happen to him. 

 “Amen, amen I say to thee, when you were younger, you girded yourself, and walked where you wanted. But when you shall be old, you shall stretch forth your hands, and another shall gird you, and lead you where you would rather not go,” Christ told him. “And this he said, signifying by what death he should glorify God. And when he had said this, he said to him: Follow me.” (Jn 21,18-19) 

 What can immediately come to mind is that to be truly in love with Christ and to follow him as we should, we should not be surprised if suffering would come our way. In fact, we have to expect it and be prepared for it, understanding it as the clearest sign of love, of being with Christ. A love without suffering is not true love. 

 And this suffering comes in the first place from our own selves, from our own wounded flesh that would always try to go on its own way and law even if it goes against our very own nature and against God’s law. This predicament will always be with us all the way to our death, no matter how determined we are in trying to live a holy and chaste life. 

 Besides, we have to contend with the many problematic things in this world—a lot of misunderstanding, persecution, injustice, etc. And there’s also the devil who will never take a break from tempting us. He will always cling to us like a leech. 

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

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

 In showing us that love where the willingness to suffer is highlighted, St. Paul made this description of Christ: “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped. 

 “Rather, he emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” (Phil 2,5-8) 

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

Unconditional love

THERE is no doubt that this is the kind of love that Christ is showing us and is commanding us to also live. “Love one another as I have loved you,” he said. (Jn 13,34) And we know that he went all the way by offering his life on the cross for all our sins, offering us mercy even if we have not yet asked for it. 

 He not only became man to identify himself with us all the way to our worst condition. Not only did he proclaim the Good News to us. Not only did he work wonderful miracles that alleviated and continue to alleviate our wounded condition here on earth. 

 He had to offer his life in the most ignominious way, not minding the worst injustice that can be committed in this world, since he was completely innocent and sinless and yet was given the worst punishment. 

 We should meditate often on the passion and death of Christ if only to be inspired as to what real love is, the love that we also are supposed to live also. We know that Christ’s love has a universal scope. It covers everyone, the saintly and the sinful, the friendly and the hostile, the likeable and the hateful, the hero and the villain, etc. 

 This is, of course, a tremendous, if not an impossible, challenge for us. But we should not waste time agonizing on the thought of how this can be tackled. If we have faith, one that is operative, we know that what is impossible to us can be made possible because Christ himself has assured us of his grace. 

 We have to realize that this kind of love is first of all supernatural. It is not simply human and natural love, depending only on some natural conditions and forces. And Christ is ever eager to share this kind of love with us. Things would just depend on how receptive and responsive we are to God’s grace. 

 On our part, we should just try our best to develop the appropriate virtues needed for this kind of love to be lived by us. This will take time, of course. In fact, it will involve our whole life. But we should just go through the discipline required, developing the appropriate requirements gradually and at one step at a time. 

 This will obviously involve times when we succeed and also times when we fail. But however things go, we should just move on, rectifying and growing in that kind of love. To be sure, we need to be tough. And it would also be helpful if we equip ourselves with a healthy sporting spirit and a good sense of humor. Whether we win or lose in a particular battle of love, we should just go on. 

 We have to learn how to be understanding and compassionate with everyone, always taking the initiative to reach out to others. We have to learn how to be adaptive to everyone, to be all things to all men as St. Paul once said. (cfr. 1 Cor 9,22) 

 We have to learn how to give ourselves to everyone without expecting any return, eager to offer mercy to those who may have done us wrong, and to ask for forgiveness once we ourselves can offend others. 

 There should never be the dregs of whatever resentment and critical thoughts in our hearts. On the contrary, we should always show affection to everyone, irrespective of how they are to us. We should be willing to suffer for the others.

Our sinfulness as a fact of life

WE should not overreact when faced with this reality of our life. While we will try our best to avoid sin, we know that, given our weaknesses and the many temptations around, it would just be a matter of time before we fall again into sin, if not a big one then at least a small one which can even be more dangerous since it can easily pass unnoticed. 

 Christ has assured us that he has taken care of everything. Mercy is always available. All we have to do is to go back to him asking for forgiveness as quickly as possible, and minimize the drama that our emotions, still unanimated by our Christian faith, would provoke. 

 This reassurance of the constant availability of divine mercy has been shown and articulated in many instances in the gospel. The parable of the prodigal son, the mercy given to the woman caught in adultery, and ultimately, Christ bearing all our sins and offering forgiveness to everyone including those who crucified him by offering his life on the cross, speak very eloquently of this reassurance. 

 We should not overreact when we fall into sin. Such behavior can only show our lack of faith in God, our preference to be guided only by our own criteria, etc. Rather, what we should do is, after asking for forgiveness, focus more on doing a lot of good as a way of atoning for our sins and of showing our growing love for God and for everyone. 

 We should not be afraid nor ashamed to admit our sinfulness. That would make our life simpler and lighter, freed from unnecessary burden. That would make us more able to carry out our human and Christian duties more faithfully and generously. 

 We should avoid staying too long keeping some guilt-feelings and sadness in our heart. These conditions are not good for us. They are harmful, and worse, they can be like wedges that make more openings for temptations to come to us. We should get rid of these feelings as soon as possible. 

 The ideal condition is always for us to be at peace with God and with everybody else. We have to ooze with our faith-based confidence. The moment we feel some disturbance in our hearts, we should act quickly to seek relief through God’s mercy. Remember St. Paul saying, “Where sin abounded, grace did more abound.” (Rom 5,20) God is slow to anger and quick to forgive. 

 God is always a father to us. He will always understand us and will do everything to help us. Before him, we are like little children who cannot avoid making a mess around. Let’s remember that we have to contend not only with our own weaknesses, but also with powerful evil spiritual enemies. 

 Let’s remember that God never tires of forgiving us. It is not his delight to see our spiritual death. Rather, he is happy when we go back to him like the prodigal son. This should give us an idea about what would make God happy with us. Remember Christ’s words in the parables of the lost coin, lost sheep and the prodigal son: “There shall be joy before the angels of God upon one sinner doing penance.” (Lk 15,10) 

 It surely would be good if we develop the habit of making regular examinations of conscience at the end of each day, and end our day asking for forgiveness. Going to frequent confession is very much advisable, as well as availing of spiritual direction where we should lay all the cards on the table, unafraid and unashamed to show ourselves as we are and ready to carry out whatever piece of advice is given us.

Strengthening our faith in the eternal life

DAYS after the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord, the liturgical prayers somehow lead us to the consideration of the truth of our faith that there is such thing as eternal life. That’s actually our definitive life toward which our earthly life should pursue with our all-out effort and God’s grace. That’s where we achieve our human perfection when we would fully become God’s image and likeness as he wants us to be. 

 We, of course, need to strengthen our faith in it and do everything we can to align all our earthly realities to such ideal. We have to be wary of our tendency, quite strong as it is, to get trapped in the earthly and temporal dimensions of our life, failing to relate them to the ultimate goal of our life. 

 We have to realize that precisely because we have been created as God’s image and likeness, our nature has been endowed with the spiritual powers of intelligence and will. With these powers, we have been given the choice between going up—that is, to choose God—and going down—that is, to choose simply to be by ourselves. 

 But we need to understand that our human nature is poised to enter into the spiritual and supernatural life of God. Failing in that would only mean that our human nature cannot help but fall into an infranatural level, marked by all kinds of weaknesses and sin. In short, there is no such thing as human nature by itself. It either has to go supernatural with God, or to go infranatural like all other animals. 

 In other words, our human nature is actually a work in progress in its earthly and temporal phase. It’s not yet a finished product. Our creation by God is still an ongoing affair, one that requires our cooperation. That’s because God wants us to be like him, intelligent and free, and he just cannot impose his will and designs on us without us knowing and agreeing to it. In a sense, we are co-creators with God of our own selves. 

 It’s important that we have an abiding sense of the supernatural goal of our life and of the eternal life that is presented to us as our definitive life. To develop that sense, of course, requires faith which is first of all a gift from God which we should eagerly receive. 

 Christ articulated what eternal life is and how it can be pursued when he said: “Now this is eternal life: That they may know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” (Jn 17,3) 

 Of course, knowing God and Jesus Christ will always involve loving God and Jesus Christ, doing God’s will or God’s commandments. Thus, Christ said it very clearly, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” (Jn 14,15) 

 This means that our will should be nothing other than God’s will. This, in the end, is what is most important to us. It’s not just following our will which is, of course, indispensable to us. Otherwise, we would be undermining our very own freedom and our humanity itself. Whatever we do is done because we want it. It should be a fruit of our freedom. 

 But what is most important is to conform our will to God’s will, which is even more indispensable to us. Otherwise, we sooner or later would destroy our freedom and our humanity itself, since God is the very author and the very lawgiver of our freedom and our humanity. 

 This is how we can develop a sense of the eternal life meant for us!

The priest as agent of unity

THIS is the ideal condition for clerics to be in, when controversial issues, especially in the area of politics, are involved. Though they can have their own views and opinions, they should see to it that instead of insisting on their own views and even on their beliefs, they should listen to all parties and try, in a charitable way, to sort things out. Everyone always has a valid point to make even if at the end they can be wrong. 

 Let’s remember that no error or anything evil can stand on its own. It always has to stand on something true and good that may not be fully appreciated or understood. Everyone should be made to realize that no one has the monopoly of what is true and good. We should try our best not to project ourselves as having that monopoly. Otherwise, we would only cause division among ourselves. 

 Let’s hope that we can persuade our politicians to go slow on their views and positions regarding certain issues. They should always be open to having courteous dialogues with the different parties involved. 

 Only God has that monopoly since he is the author of all that is real. And if we study how he handles that monopoly, as shown to us by Christ, who is the fullness of God’s revelation to us, we would know that while he was clear about what is right and wrong, what is good and evil, he was open to all kinds of views and beliefs even as he made clarifications and corrections, sometimes quite strongly, but in the end always with mercy. 

 We have to be wary of our tendency to have some kind of exclusivistic or monopolistic mentality, which is part of our wounded human condition. This is due mainly to our tendency to use merely human or worldly standards, instead of the sense of unity that comes from God and is what is truly proper to us, children of God as we are. 

 We also tend to stereotype people, to box them in, practically straitjacketing a person as if that person cannot change for the better. We seldom give others second chances. We end up being stricter than God who always blends his strictness with mercy. 

 Priests should promote the culture of respectful dialogue in the world of politics. That is truly how they can humanize and Christianize politics, rather than allowing it go to the dogs where all sorts of uncharitable and unfair means are used just to hold on to some political power. 

 Here a lot prudence and discretion are needed. It’s indeed a tall order that should not be used as an excuse to completely be indifferent to the goings-on in the political world. And priests should realize that this is part of their pastoral duty toward the faithful. 

 It’s about time to apply the brakes on the free-fall toward utter chaos that our politics in general, here and abroad, is clearly heading. We should avoid at all costs any temptation of bullying just to make our point. 

 Truth is, politics has to be humanized and Christianized through charity. It just cannot be left alone, fully at the mercy of our passions, brute force and worldly elements. It too can and should be a way to our sanctification. 

 Politics ought to be pursued always in charity. It cannot be any other way, since charity is the mother of all virtues and good values. If we want justice, truth and fairness, charity has them all. If we want competence, order, discipline, etc., again charity has them. If we want objectivity, charity has it. Charity covers all our needs.