The pursuit for unity of life

IF we really know what the real and ultimate purpose of our life here on earth is, for sure we would do everything to organize our life in such a way that all the elements involved would work together to pursue that purpose. 

 This is what we may call as the duty to develop a sense of unity of life, where we integrate everything in our life, starting with our ordinary activities and work, our prayer and other responsibilities—social, family, apostolic, etc.—into a constant occasion to sanctify ourselves, i.e., to always do God’s will. 

 In this way, we would be affirming our true identity as children of God who wants us to be like him. That is why in the gospel, Christ always compares us with God our Father. “Be holy as your heavenly Father is holy,” he said. “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Mt 5,48) 

 We have to learn to turn everything into an occasion, means and reason to know, love and serve God, and to do the same to everybody else, since our relation with God is always developed through our relation with others and with everything else in our life here on earth. 

 This would mean that we have to learn how to find God in our daily lives and in all the events and circumstances of our life. If we have the proper frame of mind that is guided by our Christian faith, we know that everything can and should be sanctified, and by so doing, we also sanctify ourselves and others. 

 We should never forget that our life is not only biological that relies simply on our biological functions. Neither is it just purely physical or material that requires merely material nourishment. 

 Our life has many more important aspects and dimensions that need to be integrated into one whole consistent thing. There’s the manual and intellectual, the active and contemplative, personal and social, the material and spiritual, the temporal and eternal, etc. 

 And precisely because of our spiritual nature, we open ourselves to a supernatural level. That’s just how the cookie crumbles. Thus, we should also be aware of what is natural and supernatural in our life, the mundane and the sacred. 

 I must say that of the different pairs of distinctions among the aspects of our life, that of the natural and supernatural is the most tricky, and therefore the most ignored, the least appreciated and lived with consistency. 

 And yet, we also have this intriguing reality that a good portion of the people all over the world, usually the poor and simple, automatically realize that our life has both these natural and supernatural dimensions. 

 The challenge we have is how to integrate all these elements in such a way that we live this unity of life as much as possible with uninterrupted consistency and continuity. This would definitely require God’s grace, first of all, and our all-out effort. 

 There will always be a need for daily struggle. It would be helpful that as soon as possible we realize and start to do something about it. We may never reach perfection in this regard, but at least we can try and try, making progress little by little. 

 To be sure, it will be a very demanding life that we should have, but also one that would give us a certain sense of inner joy and peace that the world cannot give.

“I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven”

TREMENDOUS words of Christ addressed to Peter! (cfr. Mt 16,19) If we would just pause for a while and savor the implications of those words and consider the person to whom they were addressed, we can only think that there is no way these words can be true. This must be a joke! 

 Imagine the power and authority handed to a person like Peter who denied Christ 3 times before he repented, and who received that stinging rebuke from Christ who told him: “Get behind me, Satan,” (Mt 16,23) for trying to prevent Christ from consummating his redemptive mission by offering his life on the cross. 

 A number of times, Christ would castigate his disciples, including Peter, for their lack of faith, and yet Christ still counted on them as his disciples. Even more, Peter, for all his weaknesses, was made the rock on which Christ would build his Church where “the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” 

 It surely would require a deep act of faith for us to believe that these words can be said to Peter. Not only that, we are told that “the keys of the kingdom of heaven” is handed over to the successors of Peter and shared in varying degrees by those who we now call as the clergy. We can never tell if these successors and sharers would be better or worse than Peter. 

 Indeed, we can only say, if we have faith, that God can write straight with crooked lines. That’s what St. Teresa of Avila said when she referred to the fact that in spite of all our human weaknesses, God can still achieve his purpose. Another saint also said that God can write perfectly even with a leg of a table. So, we should not worry so much! 

 And St. Paul has something to say along this line: “God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong…” (1 Cor 1 27) 

 On our part, we should try not to overreact when we notice the weaknesses and even the mistakes of our Church leaders. What we have to do is to first of all pray and offer sacrifices, and then slowly but seriously and charitably exert the effort to resolve whatever issues are involved. 

 Our Church leaders are also human beings who have their own share of the woundedness of our human condition here on earth. No matter how well selected they have been, it’s a fact of life that this condition of human woundedness would always be around. 

 Let’s not be easily scandalized by what may cause us consternation, disbelief and worry due to some actuations of our Church leaders. We should just tackle the issues involved calmly and in the presence of God, so we can manage to handle them and resolve them properly. 

 We should not be surprised that the ways of God can go beyond or even break our usual mold of thinking and understanding. It’s in these instances that God would be trying to bring us to another level of thinking and understanding. The spiritual and supernatural ways of God often defy our human ways. 

 When we find it hard to accept certain things that our Church leaders would tell us, let’s pray harder, asking for more grace, and do whatever pertinent human effort like further study and consultations would be called for. Let’s avoid the temptation of separating from the Church because of our disagreement with some of our Church leaders. 

 Sad to say, that’s what happened with some men and women who put up their own churches, inflicting cracks on the only Church Christ founded.

“My child, give me your heart”

THAT’S from the Book of Proverbs. (23,26) If we would just give some time meditating on these words, for sure we would be moved to realize that God himself is begging us to give our heart to him. He does not place obstacles in this regard. The problem lies in us—in whether we really would be willing to give our whole heart to him. 

 Here, God is asking us to conform our heart to his. That is why when Christ was asked what the greatest commandment was, he clearly said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” (Mt 22,37) 

 We need to realize that the ideal condition for our life is when we have the very heart of God in us. And the way to do that is to give our whole heart, our whole being to him. It involves a transformation that God himself facilitates for us as long as we learn to give our heart to him. 

 Yes, we need to develop a certain discipline which would always remind us that we need to pause as often as possible to see if indeed our heart is vibrating in unison with God’s heart. That awareness should be developed and as much as possible made stable or permanent. 

 Somehow, we would know that our heart is already with God when, as a liturgical hymn would put it, “The heart that truly welcomes Christ brings forth a conscience free from sin.” There would always be a feeling of peace that, as Christ himself said, is of the kind that the world does not and cannot give. (cfr. Jn 14,27) This is a peace that is not fleeting. It’s a peace that offers inner calm and strength even in the face of challenges. 

 We need to constantly ask ourselves as we go through the many affairs of our day, “Where is my heart? Is it with God? Is it throbbing in synch with Christ’s Sacred Heart? Do we really know what is in that Sacred Heart of Christ?, etc.” 

 That way we would get some ideas of what to do to conform our heart to Christ’s Sacred Heart. Yes, there will be some difficulties, awkwardness, even mistakes, but if we persist, for sure the way to see and imitate what is inside Christ’s Sacred Heart would open to us. 

 The secret is in our persistence and perseverance. Let’s not forget that God is a loving father to us. He cannot allow us to wallow in our difficulties without him helping us. And we also have to understand that the difficulties we will experience in this regard would always be helpful to us if considered in faith. There is always a reason behind them. 

 We should just try our best to attain that level where the very stream of our consciousness has God always in the middle of everything. Let’s always make our faith functional, so that this reality would be captured in our heart and mind. To be sure, we are not inventing things here. We are not playing make-believe. God is first of all already in our heart. All we have to do is to learn to acknowledge him. 

 If we become more and more familiar with the Sacred Heart of Jesus, we would know why we always have to be patient, understanding, compassionate, magnanimous, etc. The very image of Christ, the pattern of our humanity and the savior of our damaged humanity, would be formed in us. 

 We can echo the same words of St. Paul: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me!” (Gal 2,20)

Charity always and above all

THAT’S how charity, the one that channels the very essence of God in our life, should be lived. It’s the charity for all seasons, for all conditions, the good times and the bad times, with friends or with enemies, etc. 

 We may have to deal with difficult people, sort out all kinds of issues, pursue the cause of justice where we can have victims and villains, friends and foes, believers and non-believers, etc., but we should never forget that in all these situations, charity has to be lived. In fact, the more difficult the situation is, the greater the charity ought to be lived. 

 We need to prepare ourselves to live out what St. Paul once articulated: “Because you are God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with heartfelt mercy, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another: forgive whatever grievances you have against one another. Forgive as the Lord has forgiven you.” (Col 3,12-13) 

 Then he capped it all by saying, “And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in unity.” (Col,3,14) 

 This, of course, is a tall order and requires nothing less than the grace of God and the willingness to go through what Christ went through with his passion and death. This is how we can pursue the perfection of our humanity when we live out God’s charity, as shown, taught and commanded on us by Christ. 

 Remember St. Paul saying that “charity bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things?” (1 Cor 13,7) We better be prepared to live by that injunction, always asking for God’s grace and constantly cultivating virtues, as we go through the many tricks and snares of the devil and the world. 

 Thus, it’s important that we be sport and game in this life. We need to be charitable all the time. And let’s continue to struggle that it be so, or at least that we recover as soon as we can after a slip or a fall. 

 And charity means that we also have to understand and be merciful to the offender. In the case of the sources of the fake news, we should also be quick to understand and forgive them, even as we try to clarify the issue. Let’s see to it that our clarifications are free of bitterness, sarcasm, irony and like. Charity is not lived when these elements are present in our reactions. 

 Obviously, to be charitable as we should be, we have to learn to suffer. On this, we already have been amply warned by Christ himself. And yes, we can learn to suffer as long as we do our part to correspond to God’s grace that will always be given to us in abundance. 

 For this, we have to learn to see Christ in everyone, including those with whom we may have serious differences or are in conflict. We have to go beyond seeing others in a purely human way without, of course, neglecting the human and natural in us. 

 In short, we have to see others in a spiritual way, within the framework of faith, hope and charity. Otherwise, we cannot avoid getting entangled in our limited and conflict-prone earthly condition. And no amount of human justice and humanitarianism can fully resolve this predicament. 

 Thus, we need to develop and hone our skills of looking at others beyond the merely physical, social, economic, cultural or political way. While these aspects are always to be considered, we should not be trapped by them.

Only with Christ can we bear good and imperishable fruit

CHRIST himself said so. “Remain in me, as I remain in you, says the Lord; whoever remains in me will bear much fruit,” he said. (Jn 15,4a.5b) We need to take these words more seriously so we can begin to act and to live according to those divine words. 

 We have to remember that since our life is always a shared life with God in Christ through the Holy Spirit, there should be no moment where we are not aware of what Christ wants us to do and to be. Otherwise, we would just be at the mercy of our wounded human condition, prone to all sorts of weaknesses, limitations, failures and the like. 

 We have to be careful with what is now popularly known as a “me-time,” which is supposed to give us time for relaxation, self-reflection and personal activities that supposedly promote well-being and enjoyment. 

 While it can offer us a lot of advantages, it can turn out to be a sweet poison if it is spent only with oneself, and not with Christ who is actually everything to us, the one who gives us “the way, the truth and the life” in any situation we might find ourselves in, and the one who clearly said that he will give us the proper rest if we get overburdened by whatever. 

 The proper “me-time” is for us to be with Christ. Let’s never forget that at the very core of our identity is Christ. We are all children of God, created in his image and likeness. Let’s cast out the idea that we are just by ourselves, that our identity is simply uniquely ours, and that everything depends solely on us, on our thinking and decisions. 

 The “me-time” without Christ would simply isolate us from others, first of whom would be Christ himself. We may appear to be doing well for a time because of our innate talents and skills. But without Christ, we cannot last long, and in time we cannot handle well the inevitable decline that we are all subject to. 

 That “me-time” can only lead us to a perishable goal, and not the imperishable one that we are all meant for. There is need to acquire the skill of how to convert the perishable condition of our earthly life into the imperishable quality of our definitive life in heaven.  

Converting the perishable to the imperishable can happen if we see and understand things in a theological way, that is, with faith, hope and charity. We need to realize that our thinking would not work in its most proper way if it is not enlightened and guided by faith, hope and charity. 

 It would be like saying that we can simply be on our own. It’s tantamount to saying that we don’t need God from whom we come and to whom we belong. Or that we may need him only from time to time, but not always, and that he is not truly indispensable in our life. 

 We have to cultivate this theological mind, which is actually necessary for us but which we have to do freely. Theological thinking is actually not an optional thing. With this theological thinking, we would be able to see Christ in everything. This finds basis on the fact that God is everywhere. He is our creator who gives us and the whole world our existence and keeps it. 

 Yes, only with God in Christ through the Holy Spirit can we bear the proper and imperishable fruit meant for us! 

The crucial role of St. John the Baptist

JUNE 24 is the Solemnity of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, and the gospel of the day talks about his circumcision (cfr. Lk 1,57-66.80) which, at that time, meant his entry into the covenant between God and the people of Israel. 

 He plays the very significant role of being the link between the previous covenants, mainly that of the Mosaic law, and the new covenant that is mediated by the most perfect mediator who is Christ, since he is both God and man. The previous covenants were mediated by not so perfect agents, since they were only men, albeit holy men, but not yet God themselves. St. John the Baptist serves as the bridge between the Old Testament and the New Testament. 

 That is why St. John the Baptist is often called the forerunner or precursor of Christ. He prepared the way to Christ’s perfect redemptive mission by preaching repentance and baptizing the people, including Christ himself. 

 As such, he was endowed with some special privileges from God, such as being miraculously born from an old, childless and barren couple, Zachary and Elizabeth. He had a great capacity for sacrifice and was also given the gift of prophecy by pointing to Christ as the “Lamb of God” and telling the people to follow Christ. 

 St. John the Baptist should remind us of the importance of the sacrament of baptism and the necessity for repentance if we are to receive Christ properly. He shows us how to prepare ourselves to welcome Christ into our lives. 

 Like him and following his teaching, we should go through the process of making sacrifices and of overcoming our tendency to hypocrisy and inconsistency. He is asking us for real conversion. In short, he is asking us for a proper spiritual preparation for the coming of Christ into our lives. 

 With what St. John the Baptist reminds us, we should do our best to prepare ourselves to welcome Christ into our lives. This can mean that we should acknowledge our need for salvation, expressing repentance for our sins. We should recognize our sinfulness, and exert the effort to turn away from our old ways, and accept Christ as truly our Lord and Savior. 

 In this regard, we need to express our willingness to follow Christ’s teachings and example, especially accepting that Christ died on the cross for our sins and rose again, offering us salvation. 

 As a consequence, we should feel the need to invite Christ into our life through prayer, letting him to guide us through the Holy Spirit. We should be sharply aware that Christ actually is always intervening in our lives and it would just depend on us whether to accept and respond to his guidance or not. 

 And if we are thoroughly consistent with the example of St. John the Baptist and of Christ himself, we would always feel the need to share our Christian faith and way of life with others, helping them prepare to welcome Christ into their lives. 

 We should teach them that by following St. John the Baptist and Christ, we should also expect suffering and death itself, but regarding death not only as the final deterioration of our natural human life but also and more importantly as death to sin. In that way, our death would be some sort of martyrdom also, like those of St. John and Christ, even if we die in the best of human conditions.

How to judge properly

WE, of course, have heard Christ telling us: “Do not judge, or you will be judged. For with the same judgment you pronounce, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you…” (Mt 7,1-2) 

 We have to understand these words of Christ well. It’s not that we are not meant to make judgments. That is impossible since we can only know something or someone the moment we make some judgments. We are actually meant to judge, but to judge properly. 

 And to judge properly means that we should start always from the indispensable basis that God is the creator of everything and of everyone and he loves all of them irrespective of how they are to him. That should also be how we base our judgments, since we are God’s image and likeness, sharers of his life and nature. Irrespective of our differences, conflicts, biases, etc., our judgments should first spring from charity. 

 Of course, in our daily affairs, our judgments usually come from some immediate reasons or standards—the looks and feel of something or someone, the trends, fashion and culture of the time, the legal systems, etc. All of these have their degree of validity. But we should never rely completely on them. They are never perfect. They can only go so far in terms of what proper judgments should be. 

 We should make the effort to inspire our judgments with charity which, by the way, does not do away with what is right and wrong, what is true and false, etc. Charity goes beyond them. It is willing to show understanding and compassion with everyone, to offer mercy, to bear the burdens and mistakes of the others. It is even willing to offer one’s life for the sake of proper judgments. 

 We need to train ourselves in this way of making judgments, and also in training others to do the same. Nowadays, with all the “Mariteses” around and the pervading culture of spreading all kinds of spins and narratives in the areas of journalism, politics, etc., we need to make extra effort to be protected from the pressure of making rash judgments. 

 But more than just being protective and resistant to this tendency of making rash judgments, we should enhance our duty to take the initiative to make charitable judgments of everyone and everything. 

 That means that we should try to think well of everyone and of everything. Even if we see defects, mistakes and other forms of evil, our judgment should remain charitable rather than simply condemnatory. Of course, we should keep the distinction between what is right and wrong, good and evil. 

 When we are faced with any form of evil, let us remember that we actually are given a golden opportunity to grow in charity. That should be the attitude to have in that kind of situation. Obviously, we would initially feel bad and can fall into anger and the like when evil comes our way. But we should not stay long there. We have to convert that situation into an occasion to be more charitable. 

 For this to take place, we obviously need to identify ourselves more closely with Christ who is the personification of charity and sound judgments. He gives us the proper example of how to be charitable in our judgments and reactions to the various events and conditions of our life. 

 Let’s realize that we can only see, judge and know persons, events and things properly when we have a vibrant interior or spiritual life, a vital link not only with theories and principles, but with God himself!

"Whoever eats this bread will live forever"

AS we celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, we are reminded that Christ has given us everything for us to be what God wants us to be. Christ is the living bread, and he offers it to us freely and abundantly. He offers us all the means so we can handle all the conditions and situations of our life here on earth, both the good ones and the bad ones, properly, i.e., in a way that would lead us to our eternal life. 

 We need to enliven our belief that in Christ we have everything, we have what is truly and ultimately needed by us. Many of our needs are passing, are of a temporal nature. It is Christ who we truly and ultimately need. 

 And he gives himself to us so completely as to make himself bread to be eaten by us. Although he is like air since we cannot truly live without him, he compares and makes himself bread, because unlike air, he as bread has to be deliberately sought. 

 This duty of seeking him is what we have to be more aware of. In the Gospel itself, we hear our Lord saying, “Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well.” (Mt 6,33) 

 We have to learn to subordinate our earthly and temporal concerns and plans to the task of seeking Christ. We have to be wary of being influenced mainly if not solely by the standards of practicality, convenience and other worldly values. That’s our problem. God is often left behind in the play of our competing interests. 

 As our Lord said: “What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life?” (Mt 16,26) We should not lose the spiritual and supernatural character of our life, and do everything to keep ourselves from being dominated by a purely worldly and temporal outlook in life. 

 We need to seek Christ and be close to him always. This intimacy is what we have to build up and maintain. Thus, we have to learn to make seeking Christ a permanent attitude and disposition in our life. Whatever we may be doing, whatever situation we may find ourselves in, let us always seek Christ. 

 Our Lord himself tells us to seek him with insistence. “Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you…” (Lk 11,9) We have to understand that to lead a truly upright and moral life, we need to be existentially close with Christ. 

 And Christ is actually very close to us. He is actually very accessible to us. He does not play hard to get. He is at the very core of our being, because he is the main cause of our existence. Besides, his overpowering love for us is what makes him truly close to us. It’s us rather who tend to ignore him. 

 We have to understand that our moral life does not depend so much on our knowledge of moral principles as on our living relationship with God. It’s this intimate relationship with God that would effectively guide us as to how to think, speak and act. It’s this relationship that would enable us to live charity all the time in spite of difficulties. 

 This intimacy is attained when we develop this Eucharistic mind frame, that abiding belief based on Christ’s teaching, that in the Eucharist we have the real presence of Christ and, in fact, the very bread of life, the bread that gives us the true, ultimate life, and not just biological, physical and material life.

Internalizing, incarnating, spiritualizing, divinizing

THESE, I believe, are the processes we have to undergo to pursue our lifelong duty of transforming ourselves into “another Christ,” having his spirit, his mind and heart, such that even in the level of our body, that spirit of Christ is lived and can be observed externally. 

 We need to internalize first of all the teachings and example of Christ which, of course, would require faith and the effort to make his teachings and example as our own. 

 It does not only involve the duty to know, study and understand his teachings and example, but also to turn them into practice. Our thoughts, intentions, words and deeds should be those of Christ, and not just our own. 

 Such internalizing should lead to incarnating these teachings and example of Christ. In other words, the spirit of Christ should so animate our bodily dimension such that even our instincts, senses, emotions, passions, etc. are guided mainly by Christ’s teachings and example, and not just by hormones and other biological and worldly factors. 

 Of course, that process of incarnating Christ’s teachings and example would involve spiritualizing our bodily dimension which means that we have to train our bodily faculties to go beyond, not suppress, their natural ways. 

 And by so doing, we enter the supernatural level of the life and nature of God who calls us to be one with him. On God’s part, he provides us always with the grace we need to achieve that goal. It just now depends on how receptive and reactive we are to this gift. 

 All these processes will definitely proceed in our human way, which is that of being gradual, requiring all-out effort, and always involving struggle since we have to contend with our own weaknesses and the many temptations around. But we should never forget that it is God who takes the initiative to guide us. 

 In studying and understanding Christ’s teachings, we have to learn how to deal with the many paradoxes and mysteries they contain. For example, how should we understand and live the beatitudes: “Blessed are the poor in spirit…Blessed are those who mourn…Blessed are those who are persecuted…” 

 Or how should we understand these paradoxical teachings of Christ—that whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it, whoever loses his life shall save it; that if any one wants to be first, he shall be last of all; that whoever wishes to become great shall be slave of all, etc.? 

 This lifelong task before us is definitely tremendous. But we just have to acknowledge the basic truth that it is God who directs our life to his. Ours is simply to correspond to his abiding guidance. We obviously have to overcome first our initial human awkwardness in the face of our supernatural goal, and then slowly but persistently develop the appropriate mindset, attitudes, virtues, etc. 

 It’s a process of always conquering new frontiers and defending our fronts from the enemies of God and of our soul. We have to do our part to reciprocate God’s providence over us. 

 We need to develop a theological mind, thinking always in terms of our faith, and not just with our reason and senses. We have to aim at nothing less than being contemplatives, able to see God in everything and everything through the eyes of God. 

 I’m afraid we are still light years away from this ideal. But if we put our mind together, we can achieve what is really meant for us. We just have to be aware of what is involved and consistent in putting into action what we know and realize about our life, thanks to our faith and regardless of the difficulties and mistakes.

The Lord’s Prayer

IN the Gospel of St. Matthew (6,7-15), the Lord’s Prayer or what is commonly known as The Our Father is given after Christ warned the people to avoid babbling when praying. He offered the Lord’s Prayer as the proper way to pray. 

 This is a good reminder for all of us to pause from time to time to see if indeed when we pray the vocal prayers, like this one or the other very popular one of the “Hail Mary,” we really would do them from the heart, meaning what we say, and attaining a real connection with Our Lord or with the Blessed Mother. 

 We cannot deny that we have the strong tendency to fall into routine and into simply repeating the words while our mind and heart are somewhere else or are simply blank. We need to be strongly guarded against this tendency of ours. 

 As the Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us, the Lord’s Prayer is “the summary of the whole Gospel.” It is considered as the fundamental Christian prayer, entrusted by Christ to his disciples, and now to us. 

 As the summary of the whole Gospel, the Lord’s Prayer covers everything that we Christians believe, making it a complete expression of our faith. And thus, it is also considered as the prayer of the entire Church, especially during the Holy Mass, where all the petitions and intercessions mentioned in the liturgy are connected. 

 That it starts with “Our Father” emphasizes the shared fatherhood of God for all Christians, whatever may be our differences. It calls for unity despite our unavoidable differences and conflicts in our earthly affairs. 

 One very significant part of that prayer is its emphasis on forgiveness both from God and from one another. It highlights the importance of having the will of God being followed and lived by us here on earth. 

 For us to pray properly, it would be good to find a comfortable place where we can focus and feel comfortable. This can be a corner in a church or some quiet place or where there is some calm and beautiful connection with nature. 

 It’s also important that we prepare our mind and heart so that they can have the proper focus on God. This can be done by paying attention to the words of the prayer and their meaning. It would also be good be if we can connect the words of the prayer with our thoughts and feeling. Thus, some moments of meditative consideration of the words would be most appropriate. 

 If done in a group, the Lord’s Prayer and other vocal prayers can truly become a very powerful tool where our praises and supplications can assume a tremendous effect on everyone. We can also add that we should feel free to add our very own personal expressions of prayer, showing how involved we are in our prayers. 

 If we carry out these indications regularly, we can really say that we are praying properly which should lead us to an increased faith, a deeper relationship with God, a sense of peace and even physical and psychological well-being. It can also help us in our decision-making, emotional healing, and a stronger sense of purpose. Indeed, it can help in alleviating stress and anxiety since prayer gives us a sense of support and hope. 

 Our spiritual and Christian life would be more consistently lived, and our gradual transformation into “another Christ” takes place, aligning our desires and thinking with God’s will.

We always need to purify our intentions

GIVEN our wounded human condition insofar as our spiritual and moral life is concerned, we really need to make the conscious effort to purify our intentions in everything that we do. We cannot deny that we are prone to give glory to ourselves instead of to God. And we are capable of doing this in a most hidden and deceptive way. 

 Christ was clear in his teaching about this aspect of our life. “Take heed that you do not your justice before men, to be seen by them: otherwise you shall not have a reward of your Father who is in heaven. 

 “Therefore when thou dost an almsdeed, sound not a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be honoured by men. Amen I say to you, they have received their reward,” he said. (Mt 6,1-2) 

 And Christ lived what he taught. He was insistent on not being known as some kind of wonder-worker or superhero every time he performed a miracle. He had a kind of obsession to pass unnoticed. 

 This behaviour somehow contrasted with his open desire to be known and considered by as many people as possible as the Son of God, the Redeemer of mankind. 

 On one hand, he would always tell the beneficiaries of his miracles not to broadcast what he did. Rather he would instruct them to simply go to the priest and report what happened. 

 When, out of extreme gratitude, these beneficiaries offered to join him in his journeys, he would tell them to go back home instead. When the hungry people, who were fed to satiety with just a few loaves and fish, wanted to make him king, Christ quickly withdrew to a mountain. 

 Even after his resurrection, when he was supposed to be in a glorious state, those to whom he showed himself did not recognize him at first. He appeared like anybody else. He obviously did not like to impress and overwhelm people just for the sake of impressing and overwhelming them. 

 But on the other hand, he would also insist, especially to the unbelieving leading Jews at that time, that he was the Son of God. He would, in fact, cite to them the many miracles he did to show to them that he was not merely human. He was and is God. 

 We need to follow the example of Christ. We have 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. 

 We should try our best to shun being simply casual or cavalier about this responsibility. We can easily play around with it, since intentions are almost invariably hidden from public knowledge. We are urged to be most sincere in directing our intentions properly. 

 We can easily fall into hypocrisy and deception, doing what can appear good externally but is not internally, since we could refuse giving glory to God, which is the proper intention to have, and instead feed and stir our vanity, pride, greed, lust, etc. 

 We have to be most careful in handling our intentions. They play a strategic role in our life, for how and where we direct them would determine whether we want to be with God and simply 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? It’s actually a choice between good and evil.

The mark of a true Christian

CHRIST described it very clearly. This is how he said it: 

 “You have heard that it has been said, You shall love your neighbor, and hate your enemy. But I say to you, Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that persecute and calumniate you.” 

 And then he made this conclusion: “That you may be children of your Father who is in heaven, who makes his sun to rise upon the good, and bad, and rains upon the just and the unjust.” (Mt 5,43-45) 

 This is, of course, beyond our human powers in their natural state. But when animated by God’s grace, our natural human powers can assume the divine capacity to love everyone, irrespective of how they are to us, whether friendly or hostile, likeable or unlikeable, etc. 

 It’s when we manage to love our enemies that we prove our commitment to God, a commitment that springs from our conversion of heart. Though we continue to be hounded by temptations and sin, and fall into them from time to time, we also would struggle to begin and begin again, renewing and reaffirming our commitment as often as necessary. 

 This obviously will require a lot of virtues—humility, patience, magnanimity, fortitude, to mention a few. We have to learn how to discipline our emotions and passions, and to be most careful with what we say and how we react to things. We have to be quick to purify our thoughts and intentions whenever some negative elements enter into them. 

 Let’s remember that the greatest evil and the worst injustice have already been committed, and that is the killing of Christ by man. But such evil and injustice did not elicit another evil reaction from Christ. On the contrary, he offered forgiveness. We do not correct a wrong with another wrong. As one saint would put it, we have to drown evil with an abundance of good. 

 To be able to love our enemies even as we try our best to resolve with justice and charity our differences, conflicts and other issues is clearly a sign of being Christ-like. It could be the proof that one’s Christianity is real and genuine, and not fake. 

 We have to be ready to develop and assume this attitude, always asking first of all for the grace of God and trying to have the very mind and heart of Christ. We also need to discipline our reactions and to train our emotions to conform to this basic Christian standard. 

 Yes, this ideal can only be possible and doable with God’s grace and the constant effort to assume the very mind and heart of Christ. We should never take this requirement for granted. 

 This will require tremendous effort, of course, but once done, we will surely feel the way Christ felt even in his most difficult moment when he had to suffer his passion and death on the cross. That’s when we can echo St. Paul’s words: “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” (Gal 2,20) 

 Let us brace ourselves to face this challenge of becoming true Christians. Let’s make our Christianity really work, especially in difficult moments. Christ never abandons us, and he is willing to go through the experience with us. We just have to do our part, that is, to go to him, and follow him as best that we can. 

 Indeed, loving enemies is a sure mark of a true Christian!

True love goes beyond common sense

THAT’S quite obvious if we would just consider these clear words of Christ. “I say to you not to resist evil: but if one strikes you on your right cheek, turn to him also the other. And if a man will contend with you in judgment, and take away your coat, let go your cloak also to him. And whoever will force you one mile, go with him other two. Give to him that asks of you and from that would borrow from you, turn him not away.” (Mt 5, 39-42) 

 We should train ourselves to live by this standard because this is what true love really is. It’s not just a matter of loving the lovable. The authenticity of our love is proven when it is given even, and most especially, to the unlovable. That’s what Christ himself has shown us with his passion and death on the cross to bear and conquer all our sins. He even went to the extent to offering forgiveness to those who crucified him. 

 It’s in the very essence of love to give oneself without measure, without calculation, without expecting any return. It just gives and gives, even if along the way it encounters difficulties, rejection, suffering. It embraces them, not flee from them. By its nature, it is given gratuitously. 

 Love engenders generosity and its relatives: magnanimity, magnificence, compassion, patience, pity, etc. This is the language of love, the currencies it uses. It thinks big, even if the matter involved is small according to human standards. In fact, it’s love that makes small, ordinary things big and special. 

 That’s in theory. In practice, though, there can be elements that put limits and conditions to that love. This can be due to a number of reasons. One, because man grows by stages, and his capacity to love also develops in stages. It goes through a development timeline, much like one’s growth timeline from childhood to adulthood and maturity. 

 Thus, philosophers have distinguished more or less like 3 kinds or stages of love: “eros,” where one loves another because of what he can get from that other person. This usually happens among children who love others mainly because of what they can get in return from others. That’s very understandable. 

 Then, there’s “filia,” where one loves another because he shares the same things—interests, likes and dislikes—with that person. This is typical of young boys and girls who happen to like sharing things among themselves. 

 Then, there’s the final stage of “agape,” where one loves another because they just want to, without expecting any return, and continues to love even if that love is unreciprocated, or worse, rejected. This is the love of the truly mature persons, and definitely of heroes and saints. 

 This kind of love definitely would require us to learn how to be magnanimous, enlarging our heart to make it more universal to accommodate everyone and any situation and condition properly. We have to see to it that our thoughts, desires and intentions, our words and deeds are always animated by charity. There should be no negative elements in them, even if we notice the defects, mistakes and sins of the others, and even if they have wronged us.

 For this, we need to have a good grip on our emotions, able to dominate and properly orient our biases, preferences and other idiosyncracies that constitute our differences and even conflicts with the others. 

 We have to learn to focus more on what we have in common rather than on what divides. And what we all ultimately have in common is that we are all children of God, brothers and sisters of each other, meant to care and love each other.

Never be alone

THIS is the clear lesson we can draw from the Solemnity of the Most Blessed Trinity. If we are God’s image and likeness, meant to share in his life and nature, then we have to realize that just like the Blessed Trinity where the three persons of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are in eternal relation with each other, we too need to be always in relation with God and with everybody and everything else. Only then can we fully attain the life that is meant for us. 

 As a direct corollary of what we have just said, to be by oneself is actually an anomaly that will always lead us to some dangers. We are never meant to be a loner. We need to be with God and with everybody else all the time. 

 That is the main reason why we are endowed with the spiritual gifts of intelligence and will which would enable us precisely, by knowing and willing, to enter into relation with others, first with God. That is the main purpose of our intelligence and will. It’s God who is their main object, and everything else only plays a subordinate, instrumental but also indispensable role. The moment we would just use our intelligence and will for our own self-interest, we would be stepping away from the proper path meant for us. 

 We need to be clear about this basic truth about ourselves because by not living according to it, we now are having all sorts of problems and disorders. This truth has to be spread out as widely as possible, taught and explained as thoroughly as possible to everyone. More than that, everyone has to know how precisely to enter and maintain that relationship in a consistent and abiding way. 

 We have to acknowledge our strong tendency to simply be by ourselves, relying only on our human powers and faculties, and on our natural and human means. We have to learn how to be guarded against that tendency and how to deal with it properly. 

 Obviously, this will require, first of all, God’s grace that will always be made available and abundantly at that. But we have to correspond to that grace as best that we can. Given our human condition, where we learn things step by step or in stages, we should come up with an effective plan where little by little we can approach that ideal of knowing and loving the way God knows and loves his own self and all of us. 

 It’s clear that we really would need to know how to pray, since prayer is our basic way to connect and relate ourselves with God. We have to learn how to live always in the presence of God, which should not be difficult since in the first place, God is everywhere, and his presence is not simply something passive but is always active and attentive, ever solicitous of our needs. He is never indifferent to us even if we are indifferent to him. 

 We have to be guarded against the many things that can take us away from God. Distractions are all over the place, and, of course, without God, we are vulnerable to be affected easily by our erratic emotions. 

 We need to help one another to learn how to be with God always. We have to break whatever barrier there is that would prevent us from being with him all the time.

All the way down to the genitalia

BEGGING your pardon for that rather naughty title of this piece, what I would like to bring out is that if we truly have the Christian spirit, that spirit should animate not only our spiritual soul but also our body all the way to our sexuality as represented by our genitalia where the crudest and strongest forms of our animality are found. 

 That’s because our Christianity should not only be a spiritual affair. It has to impact the whole man, body and soul. Let’s remember that man is always a unity of body and soul. He is not just pure body nor pure spiritual soul. And as our Catechism teaches us, the body, properly animated by the spiritual soul, shares in the dignity of the “image of God.” (cfr. CCC 364) 

 We can say that once our sexuality is animated by the Christian spirit, we truly can consider ourselves as authentic and consistent Christian. That’s because our sexuality can be regarded as the last frontier where the Christian spirit has to conquer. And it’s not an easy frontier to conquer at all. It requires tremendous effort and a special kind of grace from God. 

 Christianizing our human sexuality is not simply a matter of living chastity in the level of continence alone, where we can manage to be protected and to avoid falling into sin. It involves nothing less than making it a powerful means to show our love for God and for everybody else. Its instincts and passions should be trained in the ways of loving and glorifying God and of loving and serving everybody else. 

 We need to see to it that our body, and specifically our sexuality, is properly animated by the spirit of Christ, which is a spirit of love, a spirit of self-giving, willing to make sacrifices even up to death for love of God and of everybody else. This spirit of Christ should be felt in the body. And let’s convince ourselves that it is in this way that our body and our sexuality acquire their best condition. 

 We indeed need to sanctify sex which means that we understand its purpose and use according to God’s will and law about it. It should be trained to behave according to God’s will and law about it. Ideally, every time we feel the urgings of sex, we should always get the sensation of loving God and others. It’s in this way that we can discipline it and put it on its right place and path. 

 But, of course, given our wounded nature, where it is very vulnerable to just follow the blind and erratic ways of our hormones and other earthly factors, we really need God’s grace, first of all, and our all-out effort to attain its ideal condition. 

 Given how difficult this task can be, we have to understand that we may have to resort to some extraordinary means to keep our sexuality in its proper condition. In this regard, a saint once said: “To defend his purity, St. Francis of Assisi rolled in the snow, St. Benedict threw himself into a thorn bush, St. Bernard plunged into an icy pond…” (Escriva, The Way 143) We should not be averse to resort to these means when necessary. 

 We have to understand then that we can only put our sexuality in its proper place and on its proper path when it is lived in the context of a working piety, a living and loving relation with God that is supported by prayers, sacrifices, recourse to the sacraments, ongoing formation, spiritual accompaniment, etc.

The worst evil and the greatest good

WONDERING what these are? Well, the worst evil is when man dared to crucify Christ. Nothing can be worse than that, insofar as we are concerned. Imagine, killing the Son of God himself! And yet such evil also caused the greatest good: man’s salvation due to Christ’s bearing all our sins and conquering them through his passion, death and resurrection. 

 We should bear this truth of our faith always in mind as we go through the drama of our earthly life where we cannot avoid getting involved in evil. We should never forget that God’s love for us is more powerful than whatever evil we commit. 

 What we have to do is simply to go back to him after every fall, which is what would actually make him happy, as dramatized in the parables of the lost coin, the lost sheep and the prodigal son. Besides, we are told that “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” (Jn 3,17) 

 We obviously should do our best to avoid evil, but given our wounded condition here on earth, we should just make it a fact of life that we fall into it one way or another, sooner or later. That’s because not only do we have to contend with our wounded flesh, we also have to deal with the devil who, as St. Peter said, is like a “roaring lion who prowls around, seeking someone to devour.” (1 Pt 5,8) 

 So, let’s not make this fact of life a big issue. We should just be prepared for it, developing the proper understanding of this fact of life, and the appropriate attitude and practices to deal with it properly. Christ assures us of victory as long as we follow him, who gives us “the way, the truth and the life.” 

 In this regard, we should just have to sharpen our zeal for holiness as well as our effort to be well protected from our own weaknesses and the many temptations around. For this, we have to use the means which are actually all provided for. We have to learn to pray, to offer sacrifices, to avail of the sacraments, to submit to some program of ongoing formation, spiritual direction and accompaniment, etc. 

 We have to learn the art of vigilance and sobriety, knowing that first of all we have to deal with our most treacherous body which, if not animated by the spirit of God, would simply go along the ways of the animal in us. 

 We should always be guarded by the antics of our animal flesh. We need to understand that our body is organically linked to our spiritual and the supernatural character of our life. While distinct, it cannot be separated from our integral human nature and condition, from our beginning and end, and from the plan and purpose God our Father and Creator has for us. 

 Given that dignity of our human body, we have to make sure that our piety and our devotion to God and everything related to him has to involve both the body and soul. It has to involve our whole person. It just cannot be purely spiritual or purely material. It just cannot be only a matter of knowing the doctrine, quite cerebral in approach, without some external manifestations, or of practicing all sorts of devotional exercises, without knowing the doctrine of faith. 

 If piety has to be authentic and consistent in all circumstances, then it has to be lived both in our spiritual soul whose main faculties are our intellect and will, and in our material body whose link to our soul, the principle of life, are the emotions and passions, the memory and the imagination, our temperament and psychological state, etc.

The things of God or just our own things?

WE should never forget this basic character of our life here on earth. Whatever we do, whatever situation we may find ourselves in, we should realize that we are always given a choice of whether we want to do the things of God, to follow his will and ways, or we just want to do our own things, our own will. 

 Perhaps, not many people realize this. And so, it is now a big challenge for us to make this truth of our faith about our life here on earth known and acted upon. We need to always be interested and do the things of God, since that would comprise what is proper to us as children of God, and not just children of our parents, of the world and of our own selves. 

 We should be focused on the things of God rather than on our own things. Not that our own things or our earthly affairs are not important. They are, but only as a means or an occasion to lead us to God. Our usual problem is that we get trapped in the drama of our temporal affairs without referring them to what has eternal value, and that is, to be with God, to be like God. That is how we can be rich in the things of God. 

 We need to see to it that in our temporal affairs, even as we take care of their technical and other human and natural aspects and requirements, we should build up things like the virtues of honesty, integrity, patience, compassion, etc., because these are what would make us rich in what matters to God. 

 We have to have the good sense of living the basic social principles of the common good, subsidiarity and solidarity that would constitute the proper sense of responsibility for us. And we have to understand that by the common good, we mean God first before we think of any good for man. 

 To be rich in what matters to God is not so much a matter of how much wealth and possessions we have as it is of how much love we have for God which is always translated in our love for the others, expressed in deeds and not just in intentions. 

 We may be rich or poor in our worldly standards, but what should be pursued with extreme care and seriousness is that our heart gets filled with love for God and love for the others. 

 This, of course, will require tremendous struggle and constant purification and rectification of our intentions and ways, given the fact that we are always prone to get attached to the things of this world and to the ways of greed, envy and the like. 

 We have to continually check ourselves especially these days when we are bombarded with many tantalizing and intoxicating things that can capture our heart and remove God from it. It always pays to lead a very simple and austere life in spite of the great wealth that we may have. 

 And to be clear about this also: that the more wealth we have, the greater also would be our responsibility to show our love for God and others with deeds. The scope and range of that love should grow exponentially, so to speak. 

 We should be wary of our tendency to get complacent in this duty of living true Christian poverty and detachment. We really have to fight tooth and nail against this tendency because the likelihood for us to fall for this sweet poison of the new things today is high. 

 At the end of the day, we should be able to say that with our struggles and rectitude of intention, we are truly getting rich in what matters to God!

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.