Where our true dignity is found

AT one time, Christ told this parable about how to behave when invited to some special event. “When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not recline at table in the place of honor. A more distinguished guest than you may have been invited by him, and the host who invited both of you may approach you and say, ‘Give your place to this man,’ and then you would proceed with embarrassment to take the lowest place.” (Lk 14,8-9) 

 He is obviously telling us that we should avoid feeling entitled and privileged because of some position or status we enjoy in life. We should rather try to pass unnoticed, always concerned with doing a lot of good and with the eagerness to serve anyone and everyone. 

 This way we would be imitating Christ who is the very pattern of our humanity and the savior of our damaged humanity. And with him, we would already have everything we truly need. We would have no more need for any earthly consolation or compensation. It is with him that we have our true dignity. 

 We should therefore be wary of the earthly dynamic and culture that tends to tempt us to feel entitled and privileged. Rather, when honors and praises come our way because of some accomplishments we made, we should feel all the more humble and more eager to serve. 

 That’s because, as Christ said, “From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more.” (Lk 12,48) 

 This way, we live out what Christ himself very clearly indicated as the proper way to go for us. “Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled, and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted,” he said. (Mt 23,12) 

 To be sure, when we are truly with Christ, we would have everything already. We would have no need for any earthly reward. If we do not feel this way yet, it would be a clear indication that we are not yet with Christ. We would just be playing our own game, not God’s real plan for us. 

 We therefore should do everything to acquire, develop and enrich in ourselves this attitude of wanting to serve and not to be served. Let us also try to inspire and inculcate this attitude in others, considering that the prevailing world culture today is practically promoting egoism, pride, vanity and the like. 

 We need to acquire the mentality of a servant which is actually the mentality of Christ himself. Let us readjust our human standards to conform to what is actually proper to us as taught and lived by Christ. We usually look down on the status of servants. This has to change! We should be convinced that by becoming a servant we would be making ourselves like Christ. 

 With God’s grace, let us exert the effort to overcome the understandable awkwardness and tension involved in blending the natural and the supernatural aspects of this affair, as well as the expected resistance we can give, due to the effects of our sins. 

 We can make use of our daily events to cultivate this attitude. For example, as soon as we wake up from sleep in the morning, perhaps the first thing we have to do is address ourselves to God and say “Serviam” (I will serve). It’s the most logical thing to do, given who God is and who we are in relation to him.

Lessons from the martyrdom of St. John the Baptist

INDEED, precious lessons can be learned from the martyrdom of St. John the Baptist whose liturgical memorial is celebrated on August 29. One is that we should expect suffering and possible martyrdom if we truly seek to follow Christ, the very embodiment of truth and love, which we should pursue and defend without let up in our life. 

 Thus, we should lose the fear of suffering and death. If we are faithful to Christ, whom St. John the Baptist served all the way to his death, there is really nothing to be afraid of suffering and death, and the other negative things that can mark our life. 

 With the passion and death of Christ, which St. John the Baptist anticipatedly experienced, the curse of suffering and death has been removed. As St. Paul described it beautifully, “Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” (1 Cor 15,54-55) 

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

 Thus, we have to understand this very well. Unless we love the cross, we can never say that we are loving enough. Of course, we have to qualify that assertion. It’s when we love the cross the way God wills it—the way Christ and St. John the Baptist love it—that we can really say that we are loving as we should, or loving with the fullness of love. 

 The other lesson we learn from the martyrdom of St. John the Baptist is that we should learn how to proclaim and defend the truth of our faith with both holy intransigence and holy tolerance. We have to learn how to blend the exclusivity of truth and the inclusivity of charity. 

 We should never compromise the truth of our faith. But in doing so, we should give due consideration to the concrete conditions of the people we are dealing with. We may have to do things gradually, just like what Christ did when he preached the ultimate truths about ourselves through parables and other literary devices that would lead the people to the ultimate truths of our faith. 

 This will definitely require the gift of discernment which we can have if we are receptive and responsive enough to the constant promptings of the Holy Spirit and the abiding interventions of God in our life. 

 To be able to discern things properly, we need to exert extreme prudence. We have to be sensitive to what would comprise as essential that should not change in a certain issue, and what are incidental that could change and vary depending on the circumstances and other relevant factors. It’s important that we be clear about this, so we would not get lost especially during these very dynamic, technology-driven times. 

 Prudence, of course, presumes a certain hierarchy of values that we should respect, uphold and defend. It should be vitally connected with wisdom that in the end connects us with God and all others, as well as all things in the world, through love and truth.

Slowly, gradually, steadily

IN a gospel parable about a faithful servant and an evil one (cfr. Mt 24,42-51), we are told to be fruitful in our life and, at the same time, vigilant also, since we know that we have to contend with all sorts of enemies—mainly the enemies of God which are also our enemies. 

 We have our own wounded flesh, the tricky allurements of the world, and the devil himself to contend with. We should try our best to be always aware of this condition of our life and to be guarded against them. If we have faith and the grace of God, we are assured that we can actually handle them well, converting them even into occasions and reasons to get closer to God. 

 We cannot deny that we in this life really need to do some struggling, some wrestling. We have to develop the qualities and virtues we need to protect ourselves from these enemies and to pursue the real goal of our life here on earth. 

 Since this condition will be a lifelong affair, we just have to be calm and tackle the endless issues slowly, gradually, but also steadily. Thus, we need to have some daily game plans, so to speak, to make sure that we are progressing in our pursuit of what is truly the goal of our life—our own sanctification, our own redemption, with its accompanying duty to do apostolate. 

 Christian moral and pastoral theology strongly proposes the principle of gradualness that encourages us to grow close to God and his plan for our lives in a step-by-step manner rather than expecting us to jump from an initial conversion to perfection in a single step. 

 We know that our life is very dynamic, with all sorts of challenges to face, problems to solve, issues to be clarified. We need to see to it that our interior life, our spiritual life, our thoughts, desires and intentions are firmly rooted on God, their proper foundation. 

 We need not only to purify our thoughts and intentions from any stain of pride, vanity, lust, envy, sloth, gluttony, anger, etc. We need to also fill them and rev them up with true love and wisdom. These are the reasons why we have to engage in a lifelong interior or spiritual struggle. 

 The ideal situation should be that we are always in awe at the presence of God in our life, making him the principle and objective of all our thoughts, words and deeds. We have to be spiritually fit before we can be fit anywhere else—family-wise, professionally, socially, politically, etc. 

 Let’s never be deceived that our life is mainly physical, and its development is just a matter of struggling externally—that we manage to eat, to work, to earn, to stay away from physical danger, etc. The real battle is in our internal selves—in our thoughts and desires, our will and plans. 

 The struggle in life cannot just be a matter of economics or politics. The battle always starts and ends in our mind and heart, in the spiritual aspect of our life. This is where things start to happen, and where things also get resolved. 

 Even if there are still things to be fixed externally, we can still manage to fix them internally, because that’s where we get in touch directly with God, and with him, nothing is impossible. Let’s disabuse ourselves from the thought that we get our ultimate peace and joy somewhere else.

At every breath and heartbeat

THIS is the ideal condition in our lifelong pursuit of holiness and its accompanying duty of apostolate. The desire for it should be, as much as possible, felt and acted on at every breath and heartbeat. 

 Impossible? No doubt. We can even say it’s crazy to even think about that ideal. But let’s remember that we are not meant to take up this most important duty of ours by relying only on our human powers. We need God himself. As Christ himself said: “With God, nothing will be impossible.” (Lk 1,37) His infinite power and ability, which he is ever willing to share with us, is able to overcome any obstacle or human limitation. 

 The challenge now is for us to learn to be as receptive and responsive as we can to God’s sharing of his powers. We should just relish this truth of our faith. God wants to share what he has with us. He takes the initiative. 

 That he created us without us, endowing us with all sorts of things, foremost of which are our spiritual faculties and the grace which is already a participation in his divine life, are proofs of this tremendous truth of our faith. 

 And the best proof of this truth of our faith is the fact that God himself in the Son became man not only to be with us, but also to share with us in our wounded condition and showing and sharing with us “the truth, the way and the life” that is proper to us. 

 It’s no presumption for us to think that God wants us to share his life, his nature and his powers. In fact, at one point, Christ said, “All power is given unto me,” (Mt 28,18) and then empowered his apostles to go and preach the gospel to all nations. 

 Indeed, Christ shared his power with his apostles and, by extension, with all believers. This power was not meant to be stored or hoarded, but rather to be used extensively to further the Kingdom of God of which we are all meant to be part. 

 We need to feel at home with this tremendous and incredible truth of our faith and start to do whatever we can to make that truth active in our life. We should also realize that this sharing of Christ’s powers and authority is not for one’s personal gain or prestige, but rather to further God’s work on earth. 

 We can actually have a taste of this sharing if, guided by a strong faith with its corresponding practices of piety, like regular prayers and meditations, reception of the sacraments, constant ascetical struggle, etc., we convince ourselves that we are meant to pursue holiness and apostolate at every breath we make, at every beating of our heart. 

 We have to realize that every moment, whatever the situation and condition may be, is an occasion and reason to seek holiness and carry out the duty of doing apostolate. This is what love truly is in its distilled form. We should just do our best to be faithful to this truth of our faith. 

 There will be doubts, fears, awkwardness along the way, and temptations, mistakes, failures and sins can still come to us, but if our faith is strong and deep enough in what God is actually giving and sharing with us, we can make, like God and with God, the impossible possible!

Overwhelming joy and gratitude

THIS is how we should feel everytime we celebrate or attend a Holy Mass. If we only know what a Holy Mass really is, we cannot help but be filled with extreme joy and ineffable thanksgiving. If we do not feel it that way yet, then it’s time we do something about it. 

 What we have in the Holy Mass is what we may regard, if we are to be guided by our faith, as God’s supreme gift to us. He did not only create us, making us his image and likeness and given the charge to have dominion together with him over the whole world. 

 He continues to take care and to love us all the way even if we have been unfaithful to him. And this he has shown by sending his Son to us. His Son is Jesus Christ, the second person of the Blessed Trinity who became man. 

 Christ assumed all our wounded condition, becoming like sin himself without committing sin if only to show and give us the way of how we can convert our wounded condition into “the way, the truth and life” meant for us. 

 For this, what he did was not only to preach and give us good example of how we should live. He offered his life, assuming all our sins and conquering them through his passion, death and resurrection. 

 And that is not enough. He perpetuated this supreme sacrifice and gift of his to us by making his very passion, death and resurrection continually present up the end of time through the celebration of the Holy Mass where he himself gives his whole own self to us as the Bread of Life. 

 For sure, if we can only capture this reality about the Holy Mass, we cannot help but be overwhelmingly happy and thankful. Thus, the challenge for us now is how to train ourselves, involving our mind and heart, our senses and feelings, etc., to enter into this most wonderful reality of Christ’s gift to us. 

 Yes, we have to learn how to step into this wonderful spiritual and supernatural reality and teach ourselves to be truly amazed at what happens in the celebration of the Holy Mass. We should not forget that at every celebration of the Holy Mass, we are made contemporaries of Christ in his supreme sacrifice and gift for us on the cross. 

 It is this sacrifice of Christ on the cross that conquers all sins and evils in this world. We have every reason, despite our weaknesses and sinfulness, to feel ever confident, hopeful and focused on doing what we are supposed to do, that is, to do a lot of good in this world. 

 In the Holy Mass, we are invited to also join, in vivo, in that sacrifice of Christ. Yes, there is suffering and death involved, but let’s not forget that all this would lead us to that victory of Christ’s resurrection that takes care of everything in our life. 

 Indeed, we need to prepare ourselves properly before celebrating or attending a Holy Mass. We should know what is actually taking place everytime the Holy Mass is celebrated. For this, we need time and effort to condition our mind, heart and our whole being to capture this reality. 

 It cannot be denied that despite our weaknesses, mistakes and all that, we would be filled with overwhelming joy and gratitude after each Mass that we celebrate or attend.

Hypocrisy and the proper motive for all our actions

IN a number of instances, Christ lamented over the hypocrisy of some of the leading Jews of his time. At one point, he said: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You lock the Kingdom of heaven before men. You do not enter yourselves, nor do you allow entrance to those trying to enter.” (Mt 22,13) And more “Woe to you’s” followed after that. 

 What in the end Christ was trying to tell us in these instances was that if our motive for all our actions is not love for God which will always involve love for everybody else, we cannot avoid falling into self-indulgence and all other forms of selfishness and egoism which we try to hide. In short, we cannot avoid playing the game of hypocrisy. 

 We need to realize deeply that all honor, praise and recognition should be given to God alone since he is the source of all good things. If we would just pursue our own idea of what is good, we can only go so far before we end up doing crazy things which we would try to hide or rationalize. 

 We have to familiarize ourselves with this Latin expression, “Deo omnis gloria” (To God be all glory) because that is how we should articulate our motive for all our actions. We actually are nothing without God. Without God the only thing we can do is evil. 

 Thus, St. Augustine once said that there is a fundamental choice we have to make in all our actions. It’s always a choice between loving God and loving ourselves in a way that excludes God. We have to make sure that we make the right choice of loving God always. 

 For that, we have to make some conscious effort to really offer everything we do to God as our way of giving glory to him which, in the end, is what should characterize our relation with God. To be blunt about it, we have been created by God to give him glory, that is, to love him, to follow his will, which is what would make us God’s image and likeness as he wants us to be. 

 But given our wounded condition due to our sins, we really need to ask for God’s grace and to exert our all-out effort. Perhaps, a prayer we can make in this regard would be the following: “Incline my heart according to your will, O God.” 

 It’s a passage that is drawn from a psalm (119,36) that expresses a plea for God to guide our heart, our will, affections and desires towards God’s will and away from worldly temptations. 

 It’s a plea that would certainly help us lead to the ideal unity and consistency of life, one that is lived with God always as it should be. That’s because as God’s creature, we are meant to belong to God. But also, as a rational and spiritual creature, we are not meant to belong to God in a merely physical way. We have to belong to God knowingly and willingly, to the point of sharing his life and very nature. 

 Thus, when we are not doing things with God and for God, we are contradicting the proper relation we have with God who is our Creator, Father and Redeemer. We would just be living and doing things purely on our own that has no other end but to be in the wrong side.

Develop the sense of our sacredness

WHEN someone asked Christ, “Lord, will only a few people be saved?” His immediate answer was: “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough.” (Lk 13,23-24) 

 It’s clear that Christ wants all men to be saved, but they—we—have to have what it takes to enter heaven. And that simply means that we have to try our best to “enter through the narrow gate,” which can mean a number of things. 

 Among them is the need for us to develop a sense of our own sacredness, since we cannot deny this basic truth about ourselves: we are not only another creature of God but rather his most special one, together with the angels, since He has created us in his image and likeness, meant to share in his divine life and nature. 

 That is the ontological truth about ourselves, our true identity and dignity, except that since we are intelligent and free beings, we have to do our part to correspond in the best way we can to that dignity. 

 That is why, in the First Letter of St. Peter, we are told, “As he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: ‘Be holy, because I am holy.’ Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear.” (1,15-17) 

 It is no presumption on our part to believe that we are meant to be holy and sacred because that is what God wants us and has designed us to be. No matter how unworthy we feel we are of that dignity, that truth of our being sacred persons since we are children of God cannot be denied. 

 And to have a working sense of our sacredness would actually help us to achieve the ideal condition of our life as we go through the good times and the bad times, our successes and failures, our joys and sorrows, etc. 

 We should never forget that God through Christ in the Holy Spirit has given us all the means to achieve that ultimate identity of ours. Thus, given our wounded condition due to our sinfulness, we should just learn also to wage continuing battle within and around ourselves to maintain that sacredness of ours intact. 

 Actually, when we have a strong sense of our sacredness, we would have the best condition in our life here on earth, no matter how things go. We would have peace and joy, we would always be hopeful, and if we fall, we would readily get up, asking for forgiveness which will always be given, and for the grace we need to continue growing in our spiritual and supernatural life meant for us. 

 A working sense of sacredness would also make us strong against temptations. It would show us how to convert everything in our life, both the good and the bad, into occasions, reasons and means for our sanctification. 

 It would protect us from the danger of self-righteousness, since it would urge us to follow the example of Christ, the pattern of our humanity and the savior of our damaged humanity. 

 It would make us keenly aware and effectively faithful to our duties and responsibilities as a human person and as a child of God. Let’s do everything to have a working sense of our sacredness, knowing that we are not only rational animals but rather also and most especially, true children of God!

Giving our all to God

IN this year’s celebration of the Feast of the Queenship of Mary, the gospel reading reminds us of that time when Christ was asked what the greatest commandment was. (cfr. Mt 22,34-40) We know very well what Christ said. 

 “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment,” he said. Then, without being asked what the second greatest commandment was, he volunteered to say, “The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law ad the prophets depend on these two commandments.” 

 What is clear is that to truly love, we have to give our all or learn to leave everything behind to pursue our real goal in the same way Mary gave her all. The net effect should be a burning and abiding zeal of love for God and everybody else. 

 We have to be wary of our tendency to fall into some kind of lukewarmness in our relation with God and with others. This state of spiritual lukewarmness can be manifested when we fall into some feeling of mediocrity in our work, or into a condition of sluggishness, passivity, complacency. 

 Lukewarmness is actually self-love. It’s just an exercise in self-seeking. It’s not real love. It’s not the love God has meant for us, the one he shares with us, the one Christ referred to when he commanded us to “Love one another as I have loved you.” (Jn 13,34) 

 Thus, lukewarmness distorts love. It’s loving not in God’s terms but in one’s own exclusive terms. It’s a loving that springs from one’s self-justifying reasons. 

 It always likes to mask itself as loving, and is skillful at it. That’s why, not only can it hold a person hostage, it can effectively captivate peoples and societies and cultures. 

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

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

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

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

 We know that with God, everything will always work out for the good. (cfr. Rom 8,28) Even our mistakes and failures, and even our own sins no matter how big, if handled with faith and treated properly, can occasion greater developments in our life.

Daily planning and strategizing

THAT gospel parable about a king giving a wedding feast to his son and invited many guests who, later on, refused to come (cfr. Mt 22,1-14), reminds us that we should see to it that we do not get trapped in our earthly and temporal affairs such that we fail to pursue the real purpose of our life. 

 For this, of course, we should make sure that more than anything else, we should be guided by our faith. But that guidance should be concretized into some effective plans and strategies so that we would always have a working sense of purpose in our life, knowing how to relate all the elements of our daily life to this ultimate purpose of ours. 

 We know very well, especially these days, how we can be distracted by many things, and later on get confused and lost. That’s when we simply would be at the mercy of worldly forces and the erratic and unreliable urges of the animal part of our humanity. 

 The ideal is that even as we immerse ourselves in the things of this world, as we should since the world has been entrusted to us to dominate as God mandated us, we should always have the sense of the eternal and the sacred. We should be keenly aware that we are not meant only for earthly goals but rather for the heavenly and eternal one. 

 In this regard, it is important that we all know how to pray, how to strengthen our faith, hope and charity, how to relate everything in our earthly life to the ultimate eternal life meant for us. We have to be eternity-ready, not just future ready, with the figurative go-bag always by our side.

 This is not going to be an easy job, of course. But it can be done. In fact, it has to be done, no matter what the cost! Thus, we have to learn the art of making daily plans and strategies, consisting of certain practices that would always remind us of the eternal destination meant for us. These plans and strategies should help us keep our spiritual and supernatural bearing even as we occupy ourselves with our earthly affairs. 

 We have to understand that for us to live properly as a human person and as a child of God, we need to establish and continually reinforce our spiritual and supernatural bearing. This duty has priority over all the other duties we have in this life. We may call it the mother duty from where all our other duties and responsibilities, as well as our rights and dignity, spring. 

 We should do everything to establish, recover when lost and maintain this spiritual bearing and supernatural bearing. We should see to it that more than anything else, we should be guided by God’s will and ways that are shared with us through his gifts of faith, hope and charity. We just cannot rely on our own counsel. 

 Given the way we usually are, we really need to exert great effort to comply with this duty of keeping a spiritual and supernatural bearing in our life. Fact is we tend to rely simply on our own ideas, opinions, preferences. We easily allow ourselves to be swayed by social trends and fads, hardly questioning their foundations and orientations. 

 That is why we need some time everyday to do some deep thinking and reflection that should lead us to meditate on God’s word and works, and to pray, that is, to enter into conversation with God. Otherwise, we would not be able to enter the spiritual and supernatural dimension of our life. We would simply remain in the peripherals and the superficial aspects of our life.

Be thankful instead of being envious

THAT’S the lesson we can draw from that gospel parable about a landowner who hired laborers at different hours of the day to work in his vineyard. (cfr. Mt 20,1-16) The landowner promised to pay the usual daily wage to those he hired at the first hour. And to those he hired later, he promised to give what he considered to be just. 

 We know what happened. When the day was done and the time came for the laborers to be given their wages, each one received the same amount, the promised daily wage, which led those hired at the first hour to complain because they were given the same wage as those hired at the last hour. 

 That’s when the landowner clarified: “Did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? Take what is yours and go. What if I wish to give this last one the same as you? Am I not free to do as I wish with my money? Are you envious because I am generous?” 

 We have to be careful when we have the same reaction as that of those hired at the first hour. Such reaction can only show envy and is clearly a rash judgment against the landowner. 

 We have to be wary of our tendency to compare ourselves with others in such a way that think we are being treated unfairly. We forget that we actually have been given what we need to live our life with enough dignity as children of God. 

 Of course, we cannot deny that there are instances and even structures of injustice in our life here on earth. For these we should try our best to resolve the issues and problems involved. But these should not detract from the truth that God has given us everything that we need for to live as we ought. 

 What we have to do is first of all to be thankful for what God has given us, using them in the way God wants us to use them. We can draw this conclusion from the Parable of the Talents (cfr. Mt 25,14-30) where a wealthy master entrusts his property to his servants before going on a journey, giving each one a varying amount of money based on their abilities and telling them to do business with them. 

 As to the forms and structures of injustice that we obviously have in the world, let us just try our best to resolve them, always with charity and proper sense of justice, although it cannot be denied that given our wounded condition, these forms and structures of injustice will always be around. We should just be ready to suffer for them in the same way and the same reason Christ suffered the worst injustice inflicted on him. 

 But with what we already have, we should always be thankful to God and do our best to make these God-given endowments as fruitful and productive as possible. This should be the main thrust in our life, instead of wasting our time comparing ourselves with others that would simply lead us to envy, bitterness and the like. 

 Besides, it’s when we would be thankful first to God for all that he has given us that we would also be in a better position to resolve those issues of injustice in our present life. We would pursue this cause with a clearer mind and a better ability to blend the requirements of justice and charity.

The pursuit of earthly detachment

“AGAIN I say to you, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for one who is rich to enter the Kingdom of God.” (Mt 19,24) These are words of Christ that horrified the apostles when told about the proper condition they should have to enter heaven. “Who then can be saved?” they could only reply. 

 That is when Christ clarified how it was going to be. “For men this is impossible, but for God all things are possible,” he said. This can only mean that the pursuit of earthly detachment is actually tied to our pursuit of holiness, of becoming more and more like God in whose image and likeness we were created. 

 We need to understand that this virtue of detachment has the primary purpose of emptying our mind and heart of anything that can compete or, worse, replace the love for God and for others which is proper to all of us.

 It’s not about running away from worldly things, much less, of hating the goods of the earth and our temporal affairs, but of knowing how to handle them, so as not to compromise the fundamental law of love that should rule us. 

 To repeat, it is not just a matter of emptying ourselves but rather of filling ourselves with what is proper to us. In short, we practice detachment to acquire and enhance the attachment that is proper to us as God’s image and likeness and as God’s children. 

 Christ many times praised this particular virtue, referring to it in one of the beatitudes as being “poor in spirit.” Also, in that episode where a rich young man asked Christ how he could enter heaven, the answer was, after following the commandments which the young man said he was doing, to sell all he had, and to give to the poor and to come and follow Christ. (cfr Mk 10,21) 

 This virtue of detachment is a total self-giving that involves a self-emptying, so we can be filled with nothing less than God himself, and with him, we would have everything else. As St. Teresa of Avila once said: “Solo Dios basta.” (Only God suffices) 

 And our Lord himself said: “Seek first the kingdom of God and his justice, and all these things shall be added unto you.” (Mt 6,33) This should be the trajectory of our attitude towards life, our work and the use of material things. Any other direction would be fatal to our spiritual and moral life. 

 So, the detachment our Lord is asking of us actually does not mean that we hate our life, our parents and others, and the things of this world. Rather it is a detachment that asks of us to have rectitude of intention, that everything that we do be for the glory of God. 

 St. Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians said as much: “Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatsoever else you do, do all to the glory of God.” (10,31) 

 We should not be afraid to go through the required sacrifices and self-denial, since these can only lead us to the joy and peace meant for us. We need to do better than a shallow and narrow view of our earthly life, a knee-jerk reaction to things. 

 We need to give due attention to this duty of rectifying and purifying our intention, filling it with love, and expressing it with generosity and heroism even. Our problem is precisely our tendency to take this duty for granted, and so we open ourselves to the subtle forces of pride, greed, lust, envy, anger, gluttony, sloth, etc.

Drawing good from evil

THIS no pipe dream at all. St. Paul assured us that “in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” (Rom 8,28) It would just be a matter of us seeing to it that our love for God is genuine. And that can only mean that our love for him channels the very same love God has for us. 

 We should not worry at all if in our life we would encounter all sorts of problems, difficulties, trials and challenges. All these can be converted into something good if we would just go through them with Christ. 

 We know that on him the worst evil was committed when he, being God made man, was crucified. But that worst evil was converted to the greatest good when our own redemption was achieved precisely through his very passion, death and resurrection. 

 We should just worry about how we can love God through Christ in the Spirit since that is how we can convert anything evil in our life—be it a sin, a difficulty, etc.—into something that will do us good. 

 For this to take place, we should try our best to achieve a life of intimacy with God. This should be a constant concern of ours. How can we get more and more intimate with God everyday? This is the most ideal condition that we can and should be in, and we just have to figure out how it can be achieved. 

 We know through our Christian faith that God loves us no end. Our weakness, our mistakes, our sins, if acknowledged and repented, are no problem in his undying love for us. In fact, they would even provoke God to love us more, to help us more. 

 We just have to do our part. Perhaps the first thing we have to do is to realize that whatever we are doing, whatever condition we may be in, is always an opportunity to be and to work with God. 

 This is because God is always present in us. And not only is he present in us in a passive way. He is actually always intervening in our lives. He is the one mainly directing us and things in general with his ever-abiding providence. 

 We need to be most aware of this reality and live and act in accord to it. We should not be contented only with fulfilling the technical goals and requirements of our daily work and affairs. While that is necessary, we would still miss our ultimate goal unless we refer everything to God. 

 We should not forget that God meets us in our daily work and affairs which are part of his will for us. The duties and responsibilities that are inherent to our state in life and to our profession, etc., are part of God’s providence over us. It’s there where God actually converses with us. 

 This truth of our faith should not be ignored. In fact, we have to act on it always. That’s why we need to have the constant desire to dialogue with God in all our work and affairs. We need to know him better and find ways of loving him better each day. 

 For this purpose, we have to exert the effort of nurturing the presence of God in ourselves, seeking and renewing the human devices that are so helpful for keeping a constant dialogue with him. We have to reach that point where we can truly say we are saying affectionate words to him, praising, glorifying and thanking him for everything.

Concern for today’s optics

IN the gospel, we can hear Christ expressing his burning desire to pursue his mission here on earth. “I am come to cast fire on the earth; and what will I, but that it be kindled?” he said. (Lk 12,49) 

 If we want to be true disciples of Christ, as we should, we should also have the same zeal to accomplish our common mission of human redemption. We need to sharpen our awareness of this important duty, and to do something drastic about this duty, given the very obvious fact that many of us take this duty for granted. 

 While this mission is usually done in a very personal and private way—as in on a one-on-one basis—we should also be aware that given today’s condition in the world, we need to carry it out also in the public arena. 

 We cannot deny that people nowadays are generally affected by what they see and hear in the media. And neither can we deny that in many instances, what the media offer are many questionable pieces of information, views and opinions. Besides, we can easily notice a very toxic atmosphere in this sector—with exchanges that are bitter and acrimonious. 

 This is where we have to see what we can do to humanize and Christianize the optics or the general perception and understanding people we on certain issues, especially the hot-button ones. Let’s remember that Christ told his disciples, and now to us, to be the light and the salt of the earth. (cfr. Mt 5,13-16) 

 The ideal is that no matter how different or in conflict we are on certain issues, we remain Christian to each other and are always courteous and charitable to each other in our exchanges of views. Charity should always prevail, since in the end it is what would lead us to truth and objectivity, freedom, justice, fairness and mercy. 

 We have to be wary when we allow ourselves to be led and dominated by our emotions and passions. Though these animal part of our being can be blended cleverly by our rationality, we would still be doing badly unless we let ourselves by animated by the spirit of God which is precisely that of charity. In the end, truth, justice and fairness can only be found in charity. 

 In this regard, what is helpful is when we 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. 

 We need to be pro-active in seeing Christ in everyone and in eliciting true charity when we relate to them, regardless of the circumstances. Let’s hope that we can generate a healthy and Christian optics despite, and even because of, our differences and conflicts in views, opinions and even in beliefs.

Strengthening our belief in our heavenly destination

WITH the celebration the Solemnity of the Assumption of Our Lady, we are reminded that though we feel so unworthy of it, we are actually meant to be in heaven in our definitive state of life. And that, not only spiritually, but also corporally. We are meant for heaven body and soul. 

 Thus, we need to see to it that even as we immerse ourselves as deeply as possible in our earthly affairs, we should not lose our sense of heaven and eternity. In fact, the ideal is that as we go deeper in our temporal affairs, our sense of heaven and eternity should also become sharper. 

 This is always possible and doable as long as we are guided first of all by our faith rather than by our feelings and by our merely human estimation of things. Let’s always remember that it is our faith, our Christian faith, that gives the whole picture of our life—where we come from, where we are supposed to go, the purpose of our life here on earth, the true value of our mundane concerns, etc. 

 Let’s be theological in our thinking and reaction to the things of this world. For that, we of course would need some training. It should consist of always referring things to God, whatever they may be—good or bad, a success or a failure, a victory or a defeat, etc. We need to feel the urge to do so. 

 In short, we have to keep our spiritual and supernatural bearing which should involve a certain detachment from the things of the world. For this detachment to be lived, we should assume a certain spirit of gamesmanship or sportsmanship, since the effectiveness of our earthly affairs is not so much in whether we win or succeed in them as in whether we manage to refer them to God whatever the outcome. 

 Just the same, we need to learn how to have a touch and feel of heaven while going through our earthly affairs. No, we don’t have to die first before we can already have a feel of heaven, if not practically touch it. By doing our ordinary daily work, whether big or small, in public or hidden at home, and doing it with real love for God and for others, we can already achieve this ideal that is proper to us. 

 For this to take place, we of course have to work with working faith and piety, since without them, we will not be aware that working with love for God and others can already connect us with our final home in heaven. It’s love that is fueled by faith and piety that does the trick, so to speak. 

 Working with love for God and others lends sacredness to whatever task we are doing, no matter how mundane it is. And that is because as image and likeness of God, as God’s children whose creation is still a work in progress in our earthly life, any kind of work, as long as it is honest and is part of our responsibility, enters into the dynamics of God’s providence over us, his continuing work of our very own creation. 

 God is actually leading us to heaven, providing us with all the means to reach our final destination. Ours is simply to follow him. And we can do that if are keenly aware of our duties here on earth. We have to see the organic connection between our earthly life and duties and our yearning for heaven. We cannot have one without the other.

The pursuit of truth in contentious issues

WITH all the rapid developments we are having these days, giving rise to a number of contentious issues, we need to find a way of how to pursue the truth that should always go with charity. It’s a tall order that we should just try our best to tackle. 

 Definitely, we have to start by being clear about what truth is and where it is to be found. In this regard, we have to be familiar with the Spirit of Truth who will show us the whole truth and not just some aspects of it. We need to get in touch with this Spirit of truth if we really want to be in the truth that always goes with charity and not confused and lost in the many false appearances of truth. 

 Christ himself said: “When he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own. He will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.” (Jn 16,13) 

 We have to take note that this business of getting to the whole truth involves a process. It’s not a one-shot deal. It involves some kind of journey. No one can ever say he has the whole truth until he reaches where the Spirit of truth would finally lead him. 

 We have to remember that everything that exists has something of the truth, since by merely existing, that something is already true. But as to whether it has the whole truth, it would depend whether it has the Spirit of truth or not. 

 The most important thing is to see if something that we consider to be true is in conformity with the Spirit of truth. Otherwise, we will be deceived and trapped by the many appearances of truth that do not bring us to the real thing which, in the end, can only be God. 

 For this, we have to see to it that in resolving the tremendous amount of differences and conflicts that today’s hot-button issues give rise to, we have to learn the art of how to blend the need for tolerance and understanding, on the one hand, and intransigence and fidelity to the truth on the other hand. 

 We need to go through the process of dialogue, pursuing the discussion in a gradual way, always respecting the persons involved in all the differences and conflicts that have to be resolved. 

 We should try our best to avoid getting too hardened in our views and opinions, too quick in making judgments and in finding fault in the views of others, and too strident in voicing our points. These would only lead us nowhere but to undesirable destructive effects and worse consequences. 

 Let’s learn the art of gradualness so we can better blend the requirements of truth and charity, justice and mercy, orthodoxy and tolerance. It enables us to better deal with the realities of life where good and evil co-exist, where what is right and what is wrong will always be around. 

 It helps us to treat each other as persons, as friends, brethren, children of God even if we have different and even opposing positions. It would make us to be more accepting and respectful of everyone irrespective of who and how they are. 

 When we have to express our views, let us do it, of course, with clarity and even with some forcefulness but always in charity, in an amenable, meek and humble tone. We have to have a good grip on our emotions and passions. Anger should be avoided.

Honoring Mary as Mother of the Church

IT’S easy to understand why Mary is honored as Mother of the Church the day after Pentecost Sunday. And that’s because Pentecost, or the coming of the Holy Spirit, being the birth of the Church, it’s logical that Mary, being the Mother of Christ and our Mother too, should also be regarded as Mother of the Church. 

 If the Church is the Mystical Body of Christ whom Mary conceived in her virginal womb, making God man, Mary should also be rightly considered as the Mother of that Mystical Body of Christ in the same way that she became Mother of Christ through the Holy Spirit. 

 On Pentecost, she was with the other disciples—Tradition would put it as she gathering together the disciples who were afraid of the authorities then and prepared them for the coming of the Holy Spirit—when the Holy Spirit descended to put into a continuing life what Christ has established on earth, the Church. 

 We need to develop a strong and deep sense of making Mary not only as a Mother to each one of us but also as Mother of all of us together, the Church, as we navigate the oceans of the today’s world that is becoming more complicated and challenging. 

 She is always around to guide us and to help us to get close to her Son. That’s her sole concern. And she is the best guide since she managed to be fully identified with the will of God. 

 Even in those moments when she could not fully understand the will of God, as in the case of the Annunciation, she just allowed herself to obey what was told her. She was always in the habit of pondering the ineffable will and ways of God in her heart. 

 And she was and is always deeply concerned for the life the Church. Since the time of Christ and the apostles, to the different stages of human and Church history when several Marian apparitions and interventions took place, like the apparitions in Guadalupe, Lourdes, Fatima, etc., she has been around to help us. 

 We, who are the People of God, the Family of God, the Church, should always have recourse to Our Lady. Thanks to God, in our country, we can still observe a great Marian popular piety, with every Marian feast vastly celebrated in many places. But just like anything else, these popular celebrations should trigger in us another conversion, a step further in deepening our Christian life, etc. 

 We should never be contented with just materially and physically joining the Marian festivities which are actually meant to nourish our faith and spiritual life. With each Marian celebration, there should also be some growth and progress in our devotion to her.  

When we pray the Rosary or make a Marian pilgrimage, for example, we should be able to feel that we are getting close to Mary and through her, to our Lord, Jesus Christ! 

 We have to find a way to be always near her and intimately close to her. We need to learn how to read her mind and catch the slightest insinuations she makes, because all these are a tremendous help in our spiritual life. 

 That’s precisely because with all the bombardment of things we are subjected to these days, Mary, the Mother of Christ who gave her to us to be our mother too, shows us how to be spiritual and supernatural in the midst of our glutting human affairs.

What is to be truly great

DEFINITELY, it is not in being adorned with sorts of medals and public recognition, showered with all kinds of honors and privileges. It’s rather in being simple and humble, in having a heart completely emptied of its ego and filled with love and compassion for everyone, even to the extent of offering one’s life for the others out of love, the way Christ offered his life for all of us. 

 We are reminded of this truth of our faith in that gospel episode where the disciple asked Christ, “Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven?” (Mt 18,1) To this, Christ simply called a child over, and placing him in their midst, said: “Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the Kingdom of heaven. Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven.” (Mt 18,2-4) 

 There you have the clear description of who can be considered truly great and how we can be so. It is to be like a child, simple and humble, the qualities that would enable us to be like Christ himself, able to capture and assume the very spirit of God in whose image and likeness we are. 

 We have to acknowledge the intimate and mutual relation between simplicity and humility, on the one hand, and greatness on the other hand. When one is great in his earthly stature and dignity, he knows he has to serve more and to give more, to be truly great. True greatness is never shown in pride and vanity. It is proved and verified in humility and simplicity. 

 Christ is the epitome of true greatness. And he showed it by going through this process of self-emptying that St. Paul once described in this way—that Christ “being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!” (Phil 2,6-8) 

 This mutual relation between humility and greatness is expressed when we manage to value others, whoever and however they are, above ourselves and when we look after their interest instead of our own. (cfr. Phil 2,3-4) 

 In other words, our greatness is when we are fully driven with love. That’s when we would not have any dull moment since we would always be thinking of others, of how to help them. We would even be most willing to make sacrifices for them. We would have our whole life dedicated to serving God and others. 

 This is what we clearly see in the life of Christ. Let’s call to mind that stunning example of his when he shocked his apostles when he started and insisted to wash their feet at the Last Supper. 

 For us to have this humility and greatness in our life, we need to be always with Christ. We need to be in constant conversation with him, referring everything to him, asking him for the answers to our questions, clarifications to the many issues we have to grapple with in life, strength for our weaknesses and temptations, contrition and conversion after our falls, etc.

Always with God while in the midst of the world

THIS is the ideal condition for us to be in. Given the way we are, as willed by God himself, our Creator and Father, we need to be always with him all the time even as we go through our earthly and temporal affairs. To acquire the art and skill for this is definitely a very important, if not an indispensable, requirement of our life. More than that, to have the very spirit of God is the bottom line of our life here on earth. 

 This does not mean that we have to stay away from the things of the world. Rather, we have to learn to love the world without being worldly, trapped in its ways without leading us to God. 

 The secret for this is to see to it that our mind and heart are always with God. We should not allow ourselves to be fully taken by the charms and deceiving allurements of the world. A certain sense of vigilance and detachment is needed so that we avoid ignoring God as we engage in our worldly affairs. 

 But yes, we need to love the world and the things in it the way God loves them. After all, God created them and all he created is good. We just have to understand the true nature and purpose of the world. It has been created for us to be tested whether what God wants us to be—that is, to be his image and likeness, children of his, sharers of his life and nature—is also what we want ourselves to be. 

 We have to be wary when we get swallowed up by our earthly and temporal affairs, making them the main objective in our life rather than a mere occasion and means for us to achieve our real goal as defined for us by our Creator. The world is supposed to be only a pathway to heaven where we truly belong. The proper attitude we should have toward the world is to love it without becoming worldly. 

 That is the challenge! So, the question to ask is: How does God love it so we can also love it the way he does? We just cannot rely on our ideas and ways of loving the world, because without God, that loving would be suspicious at best. 

 Let’s remember that as Creator, God has given everything in the world its proper nature and laws whose purpose is nothing other than to give glory to himself. We on our part can only use and develop the world properly when we respect the God-given nature and laws of everything that is in it. More than that, we should try to discern how each thing in the world becomes a living part of the abiding providence of God over all of us. 

 We have to be wary of our tendency to ignore the designs of God in the world and to simply pursue our own personal interests, leading us to fall into self-indulgence. Rather, what we should try to do is act as a Christian leaven that infuses the Christian spirit in all our worldly and temporal affairs. 

 This duty to be a leaven for the world is actually very doable, because what is needed first of all is the intention to do so. We may not be doing something with big public significance or some external manifestation, but with the little ordinary things that we do everyday and done with faith and love for God and for others, we can already effectively leaven the world.

Vigilance in these tricky times

ONCE again, we are reminded of this need for vigilance in that gospel episode where Christ reminded his disciples to be like the servants who “await their master’s return from a wedding, ready to open immediately when he comes and knocks.” (Mt 12,36) 

 He prefaced this instruction by saying that they sell their belongings and give alms, and to provide money bags that do not wear out, “an inexhaustible treasure in heaven that no thief can reach nor moth destroy.” (cfr. Mt 12,33) 

 In other words, that our whole mind and heart should be focused on God, seeing to it that we would always really feel the need to be with God regardless of how things go or develop during the day. Christ expressed this point by saying, “For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.” (cfr. Mt 12,34) 

 How very important therefore that we keep our mind and heart always feeling the need to be with God. Our need for God should be like our need for air, for food, for anything that gives us pleasure. Our need for God should be our strongest need. We should feel it to the bones. 

 This is the only way we can succeed in navigating today’s very complicated and tricky times that are full of distractions and sweet poisons. We truly need to be vigilant always, in good times and in bad times, and most especially in ordinary times which we still would not know whether it is good or bad. We should never let our guard down. 

 This is simply because we have enemies to contend with all the time. First of all, it is our own selves, our own weakened flesh that will always lure us to do things against God’s will and against what is truly good for us. 

 Then we have the world with all its sinful attractions and temptations. And, of course, the devil himself. Never discount him. He’s always around, prowling like a lion looking for someone to devour. (cfr 1 Pt 5,8) 

 In what may seem to be good times, when things are more or less ok, let us thank God and do our best to make use of all the blessings and good opportunities made available for us. 

 But let’s not forget that the good things can also occasion dangers for us if we are not careful. We should know where those dangers lie in the good things that we may enjoy at the moment. In that way, we avoid falling into complacency that will practically spoil us, and take away the goodness of the blessings we are enjoying. 

 And in what may seem to be bad times, let us never forget to look for the one good thing in those situations. There will always be one or two or even more good things on these occasions and turn them into the vehicles for redemption. 

 If we are effectively guided by our Christian faith, we know that even the negative elements, events and circumstances in our life can be used to get us closer to God, instead of separating us from him. This can only mean that we should always be humble so that we would always feel the need for God whatever the conditions of our life may be. 

 This is how we can be truly vigilant, able to promptly and sharply discern the confusing mix of good and evil in our daily life.

How to follow Christ

CHRIST said it clearly. “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For he that will save his life, shall lose it; and he that shall lose his life for my sake, shall find it.” (Mt 16,24-28) 

 The self-denial asked by Christ is not of the kind that leads us to our self-annihilation. Far from it. It will rather lead us to our self-fulfillment. It is asking that instead of our own selves, we should have Christ as the center of our attention always, the very core and substance of our consciousness. We need, of course, to exercise our faith to live by this divine indication. 

 And the reason is simple. Christ is the very pattern of our humanity in its original state and the redeemer of our damaged humanity. It’s him in whom we can have our ultimate fulfillment, our true and lasting joy and peace. That’s why Christ said he is “the way, the truth and the life” for us. We cannot go to God, our Father and creator, except through him. 

 We have to be wary of certain ideologies, cultures and lifestyles that tend to replace Christ as the cause of our self-fulfillment. Sad to say, these appear to be proliferating these days. We have to learn to do battle with them. 

 The self-denial asked by Christ will obviously require a lot of effort and sacrifice. That’s because we have to contend with our tremendous tendency to stick to our own selves—our own ideas, desires, ambitions, etc. Besides, this tendency is constantly reinforced now by the many allurements of the world, not to mention, the tricks and wiles of the devil himself. 

 But again, we can be sure that all this effort and sacrifice is all worth it. We need to do everything to wean ourselves from our own selves and start to rely on Christ completely. That absolute reliance on Christ does not annihilate us. It will simply bring us to our most perfect and ideal state. We should have no doubts or qualms in pursuing that ideal. 

 Indeed, we cannot deny that we have to make sacrifices if we want to follow Christ and reap some fruits of sanctity and apostolate in our life. Self-denial is necessary since we often put ourselves in conflict with God’s will and ways. We prefer to do our own will. 

 Let’s do everything to develop this habit, if not, an instinct of abiding self-denial so that our mind and heart can only be open to the will and ways of God that often are shown to us through the needs of the others. 

 This habit of self-denial would enable us to do God’s work while being easily flexible and adaptive to the varying challenges and circumstances of the times. We have to be wary of our tendency to be trapped into some closed system of routine, if not to be imprisoned in our comfort-zone. 

 Self-denial will obviously involve certain detachment from things. That is why we should intensify our union with Christ as we immerse ourselves in the things of this world. We can do that if we know how to pray always, converting everything into a form of prayer, a form of engaging ourselves with God. 

 For this, we certainly need to train ourselves and to acquire a certain discipline, so that our union with Christ would be kept alive. We have to realize that our life is supposed to be always a life with Christ and for Christ.

Dealing with our downtime

INSPITE of our desire to continue doing things, we cannot deny that there are times when for one reason or another we would just lose steam and somehow feeling trapped in a condition of inactivity. It’s a classic example of what Christ once said: “The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.” (Mt 26,41) 

 We should not be too surprised by this condition. In fact, we should expect it from time to time and avoid making things worse by worrying too much. What we should do is to take advantage of it to precisely get closer to God. That’s when we can put into life what St. Paul also once said: “It is when I am weak that I am strong.” (2 Cor 12,10) 

 And that is highly possible and doable as long as we have the proper spirit. Which means that we follow what our faith tells us, we enter into the spiritual and supernatural dimension of the reality that governs us. We can frankly tell God how we feel at the moment. We can even complain to him. But we should remain believing his constant providence full of love, care and mercy. 

 There’s always hope even in our worst scenario. And that’s because God never leaves us, but continues to love and care for us, in spite of all. He gives us everything we need to handle this situation. 

 We should be quick to realize this truth of our faith, and act accordingly. Let’s avoid aggravating the situation by avoiding falling into discouragement and depression, a fertile ground for the devil to tempt us into worse conditions. The devil obviously wants us to be alienated as much as possible from God. Rather, like the prodigal son, let’s return to God asking for mercy which he readily gives. 

 We should not doubt that we have our human and worldly limitations. And yet in spite of that, neither can we doubt that deep within us is, at least, the desire to go beyond our limitations. And there’s objective basis for that desire. 

 Given the fact that our human nature is not only totally material, but is also spiritual, we should not be surprised when we feel those seemingly contrasting sentiments. The truth is that we are a material being that is poised for eternity, for immortality. In the end, the truth is that we are meant to live a supernatural life, and not just a natural one, that is, a life with God. 

 This is where we have to entrust ourselves to the workings of the spiritual and supernatural realities that also govern our life. We have to remember that we are not ruled simply by biological laws or physical, chemical, social, political, economic laws. There is a higher law that governs us and that would enable us to transcend our human and earthly limitations. 

 This is the law of grace, a law that is spiritual and supernatural in nature. It is the law that enables us to go beyond our human limitations without, of course, compromising our humanity. It is the law that enables us to enter into the very life of God who created us to be his image and likeness. 

 We have to learn to feel at home with this particular condition of our earthly life. We have to acquire the relevant attitude and skills to be able to live with this condition. It is when we seem to reach our human and earthly limitations that we have to abandon ourselves to the more powerful and merciful dynamic of God’s providence over us.

From our earthly to our heavenly image

ONE liturgical prayer I met sometime ago went this way: “Grant, we pray, almighty God, that we, who have been renewed by paschal remedies, transcending the likeness of our earthly parentage, may be transformed in the image of our heavenly maker.” 

 I found that prayer very meaningful, for, indeed, it is our lifelong endeavor to transform ourselves from simply being our natural selves to becoming the ones God has meant for us—that is, to be like him, sharers of his life and nature. 

 Again, it’s a tall order, and if seen only with our natural powers, an impossible quest. But we just have to convince ourselves, by activating our faith, that in fact everything has been given to us so that we can be what God wants us to be. 

 It’s just a matter of how obedient and docile we are to everything that God, who is our Father more than just our Creator, has provided for us. Even in our worst condition, he has given us a way out, a remedy. He is willing to do everything to bring us back to him. He sent the Son, the 2nd person of the Blessed Trinity who is God himself, to become man to redeem us, offering us the “way, the truth, and the life” meant for us. 

 We just have to go on moving in pursuit of our ultimate goal. We for sure will encounter difficulties and experience mistakes, failures as well as commit sin along the way. But we should just get up and begin again without saying “that’s enough.” 

 God is ever forgiving, even if we may already feel that we are abusing his mercy. God understands that. All we have to do is again to humble ourselves, and ignore the distracting insinuations of our reason not guided by faith, or worse, the insinuations of the devil whose only intention is to block our way toward God. 

 This, of course, would involve a certain dying to oneself so that the beginnings of the divine life meant for us would start to take root again. In this, Christ was very clear. He once said, “Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” (Jn 12,24) 

 We have to learn how to make this “dying in order to live” a reality in our life. This can only mean that instead of simply guided by our own will and knowledge of things, we should let our will conform to the will of God as much as possible. That way, we can share his power over sin and death. 

 This is going to be a lifelong struggle, of course, since we all know that we have the strong tendency to just be guided by our own will. We think that by doing so, we are exercising our freedom, not realizing that true freedom can only be achieved if our will follows the will of God, the very author of truth and freedom himself. 

 It’s for this reason that Christ clearly said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” (Jn 14,15) This should be the main principle we have to follow in our lives. We should convince ourselves that outside of that principle, we would be going nowhere. But with it, we can expect to arrive at our final goal: to be one with God through Christ in the Holy Spirit!

Logic alone cannot hack it

WHILE logic will always have an important role to play in our life, we should also realize that logic alone cannot cope with all the realities that we have to deal with in our life. Our logic can only work within the natural plane and our human level. It can hardly manage to take on realities that are spiritual and supernatural, let alone, divine wisdom which in the end should always guide us. 

 How can human logic, for example, understand such Christian teachings as to love our enemies, to die in order to live, to be the last in order to be the first, the master has to be first a servant, a virgin giving birth, etc.? That’s when our logic would just be kaput. 

 To be guided by human logic alone unavoidably would lead us to be judgmental and self-righteous. This was what happened to some of the leading Jews during Christ’s time. Lacking in humility, their faith was undermined and they ended up not only misjudging Christ but also crucifying him. 

 We have to be humble enough to acknowledge that our logic-certainties can never cope with the mysteries of life. No matter how objective and scientific these certainties are derived, no matter how deep and exhaustive our philosophies, theologies and ideologies are made, our certainties just cannot take all the mysteries in our life. 

 Even in the world of nature where in theory we have the capacity to know things conclusively, we often find ourselves in situations of tentativeness and even of outright error. That is why we are always in the process of discoveries and we would not know when we can end it, that is to say, when we can say that we have known everything to be known in the world of nature. 

 This does not mean that our certainties can never know the truth, even the absolute, and not just relative, truths. Yes, we can, but the best that we can do is to project ourselves to infinite possibilities, because even the absolute truths are not things that are frozen. They are always dynamic. 

 Our logical certainties can only tackle some aspects and levels of the reality that is proper to us. We need to realize more deeply that we have to contend not only with natural and even spiritual realities but also with supernatural realities that simply are above our nature to know, unless some revelation is made which should be corresponded to with our act of belief. 

 Indeed, we have to be truly humble to acknowledge this fact of life and behave accordingly. While we can know some aspects of the truth, we can never say that we know everything. Not even our mathematical precision and scientific accuracy can warrant us to claim that we know everything. 

 That is why we need to be most careful with our judgments. We have to judge fairly, that is, with love of God and neighbor as the main motive for judging. From the Book of Leviticus, we read: “You shall not act dishonestly in rendering judgment. Show neither partiality to the weak nor deference to the mighty, but judge your fellow men justly.” (19,15) 

 If we have love for God and neighbor as the main motive for judging, we would know what to say, how to say it, and when to say it. And somehow, we can manage to judge all things, just as St. Paul once said: “He that is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.” (1 Cor 2,15)

The priesthood

AUGUST 4 being a Memorial of St. John Mary Vianney, patron saint of priests, is a good occasion to review who a priest is and how he should be. St. John Mary Vianney (1786-1859), also known as the Cure of Ars, can provide us with a good idea about this since he was well known for his heroic priestly and pastoral work in a parish in France that resulted in a radical spiritual transformation of the community and its surroundings. 

 To be a priest is actually a profound calling to serve Christ and the Church that necessarily involves a deep relationship with God, a commitment to holiness, and a dedication to lead others to Christ. It is a ministry of sacrifice, love and availability to the people entrusted to his care. 

 With the sacrament of Holy Orders, the priest shares in the priesthood of Christ himself, that is, Christ as Head of the Church and not just a member of it. This is another proof that God shares his power with us since, in the end, we are meant to be his image and likeness, sharers precisely of his life and nature. 

 The priest, so ordained, should realize more deeply that he should transform himself into Christ, and to love and suffer as Christ did for everybody, and to see the things of the world through the eyes of Christ. His lifestyle should be that of total self-giving, unafraid of the effort and costs it involves. This, of course, would require a special vocation. 

 As such, a priest is expected to be a model individual, a living example of faith, love and holiness that should effectively inspire others to follow Christ. He has to see to it that people see and hear Christ through him. He is not just a good orator, an amusing comedian, a creative artist. Of course, it would be good he could integrate all these good traits but seeing to it that it is Christ that is seen and heard by the people. 

 This is, of course, a very overwhelming ideal for a priest to pursue. Thus, a priest should be so deeply rooted in prayer and to spend time with God that he can fairly say he is acting “in persona Christi capitis” (in the person of Christ as head of the Church). He has to realize that his formation—human, doctrinal, spiritual, pastoral, etc.—is a continuing affair, a till-death pursuit. 

 A priest should have a very deep love for souls, always making himself available to the people, offering guidance, comfort and support. He should give priority to the celebration of the sacraments, especially Confession which is a means of grace and healing. Of course, the daily celebration of the Holy Mass holds the most important duty for him. 

 If every person is supposed to be “alter Christus” (another Christ) since we are all created in God’s image and likeness which is what Christ is, the priest should be the first one to show it to the world, aware that he is called to be the very instrument of God’s love and grace. 

 To be a priest should be an all-time affair. Once a priest, he is a priest forever. He cannot say that he is a priest at certain moments of the day only when he celebrates the sacraments, or in certain situations and conditions in life. He is and should be a priest at every breath he makes.