Our need to be always spiritually alert

AGAIN, as we begin another liturgical year with the season of Advent, we are reminded of our need to be always prepared for the end of our life and of time itself. “Watch ye therefore, because ye know not what hour your Lord will come,” Christ told his disciples, and now us, in the gospel of St. Matthew. (24,42) 

 This is a big challenge we have today, considering the tremendous amount of distractions we have, both the legitimate and the illegitimate ones, the latter far outnumbering the former. 

 We just have to be guarded against our tendency to be easily taken by many distractions around. For this, we need to discipline our feelings and passions. We have to give directions to our thoughts. But most importantly, we have to ground our heart on the richf and fertile soil of faith, hope and charity. 

 That’s why we should feel the constant need for some forms of self-denial, mortification and penance, so that our senses and our entire bodily system would be purified and, in a way, exercised to be more attentive to the things of God, to the spiritual and supernatural realities. Otherwise, they would just be immersed in the world of food, drinks and other worldly pleasures and concerns. 

 We have to convince ourselves that all this effort is all worthwhile. With patience and perseverance in this effort, we will soon realize that the joy God and the spiritual and supernatural realities give us cannot be compared to whatever pleasures the world can give. 

 As to our thoughts, we have to frequently examine ourselves as to what their contents and directions are. Are they just revolving around ourselves? Are they hooked only on the worldly standards of effectiveness and efficiency, profitability, fame, power, etc.? We have to see to it that our thoughts begin and end with God. 

 Let’s always remember what Christ himself reassured us. “Seek first the kingdom of God and his justice, and all these things shall be added unto you.” (Mt 6,33) We should not be deceived by the false glitter of fame and wealth that the world likes to bait us with. 

 With respect to our heart, the very seat of our being, we should see to it that it beats only with love for God that gives us the proper love for others and for everything else. When it is truly nourished by faith, hope and charity, it would know how to see and understand things properly, it would know how to react and behave. 

 We need to spend time and to exert effort to conform our heart to the heart of Christ, so that its instincts, attitudes and motivations would be those of Christ. Our heart, like Christ’s, would know how to blend the material and spiritual aspects of our life, the temporal and eternal, the mundane and the sacred, the here-and-now and the ultimate. 

 What can help us in this direction is to manage our environment, making it conducive to our work, then we should prioritize the tasks that we have to do, and learn to be maintain focus. 

 In this regard, we should first identify our common distractions, both the internal and the external ones, so we can make an effective plan or strategy of how we can deal with them properly. Then, let’s also look for an appropriate place to work. We should learn how to be in control of the many digital distractions these days. 

 In the end, what would truly work is when we are most aware that we are actually praying and engaging ourselves with God while working.

“My words shall not pass away”

THESE were spoken by Christ, clearly telling us how important and indispensable his words are to us. (cfr. Lk 12,33) They are living words that while spoken ages ago will always give us something new. As one saint would put it, Christ’s words are both old and new. 

 To be sure, Christ’s words are not just an idea, a doctrine, an ideology. They are not just a strategy, a culture or a lifestyle. Of course, Christ’s words can involve all these, but unless we understand Christ’s word as God himself, the God who became man to reveal to us all that we need to know, all that we need to do to be God’s image and likeness as God wants us to be, we would miss the real essence and character of Christ’s word. 

 We have to realize that the word of God cannot be separated from God himself. That’s because God is so perfect as to be in absolute simplicity. As such, God has no parts, no aspects, no quality or property that are distinct from his very being. His word and his being are just one. There is no distinction at all in him. 

 Of course, from our point of view, we cannot help but to describe God according to our own terms and ways that cannot help but make distinctions between the essence of a being and its properties and qualities. But in himself, God does not have distinction between his essence and the properties that we attribute to him. 

 Of course, this is a mystery, a supernatural truth that our reason cannot fully fathom. That is why we need to have a strong faith to be able to accept this truth. And once we accept by faith the absolute unity between God and his word, then we will realize that reading and meditating on the gospel is actually having a living encounter with God through Christ. 

 That is why, St. Jerome, a father of the Church, once said that to read the Scripture is to converse with God—“If you pray, you speak with the Spouse. If you read, it is he who speaks to you,” he said. 

 We have to realize that we need to be guided by God’s words rather than by our own thoughts, reasoning and estimations of things. No matter how brilliant and clever we are, we can only go so far in understanding things in this world, many of which are very mysterious to us. 

 We have to develop a fondness for the words of God. This we can do as long as we exert due effort and continually ask, with humility, for the grace of God. Without these requirements, we can easily be swept away by the many alluring ideologies in the world. 

 It’s when we listen and live by God’s words that we attain our human and Christian maturity. And as St. Paul would say, we would then be like infants no longer, “tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of the people in their deceitful scheming.” (Eph 4,14) 

 It’s important that we spend time developing a liking and an intimacy with the words of God. We have to read and meditate on them daily, and use them as the spirit behind all events, activities and concerns that we have during the day. 

 We have to understand that God’s words are not meant to give us the technical solutions to our problems. They are meant to be the soul and the spirit of all our concerns and activities.

“In all circumstances, give thanks”

THAT’S from St. Paul’s First Letter to the Thessalonians. (cfr. 5,18) The complete passage goes this way: “In all circumstances give thanks, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.” 

 Indeed, we cannot overemphasize this need to always be thankful for everything, including things that in our human standards can be considered as bad. That’s because as long as things are always related to Christ, everything, including the negative aspects of our life, will work out for the good. (cfr. Rom 8,28) 

 This reminder to be always thankful was also highlighted in that gospel episode where Christ healed 10 lepers, and yet only one came back to him to thank him. (cfr. Lk 17,11-19) It made Christ to remark: “Were not ten made clean? And where are the nine?” 

 Obviously, Christ does not need to be thanked and praised. He already has everything. He is pure perfection. But Christ wants us to be always thankful more for our own good. 

 That’s because by always being thankful we acknowledge what God has given and shared with us. We strengthen our relationship with him which we always need, otherwise we have no other alternative but to go the wrong way in our life. We nourish our love for him which would lead us to enter into a better relationship with the others. 

 Besides, being thankful always can give us many other human and natural benefits. It definitely would improve our mental health since it can lower levels of stress, anxiety and depression. It takes us away from simply thinking of our own selves and leads us to get more actively involved in the affairs of the others and of the world in general. 

More than that, by being thankful always we would somehow improve our capacity to be resilient and to develop better coping skills, softening our structured ways. Yes, it can even help us to enjoy better sleep, since it would bring us peace of mind. 

 Given the many things today that can undermine this spirit of gratitude in us, we should make an effort to develop the habit of being thankful everyday. This we can do if we would only spend some time to acknowledge the many little things of the day for which we should be thankful. It may also help that before going to bed at night, we take note of the good things that happened during the day. And even the bad things can be a reason for giving thanks if we refer them to God. 

 Nowadays, we have to be wary also of the many factors that can undermine this spirit of gratitude we ought to have. Among them is that attitude of entitlement that can lead us to think that we deserve certain things or treatment for which we do not need to be thankful. 

 Another factor would be when we are always comparing ourselves with others, carried away by the strong waves of envy and jealousy. This definitely would negate our duty to be thankful for whatever we have, no matter how small and insignificant, humanly speaking, it may be. 

 This is not to mention that these days, we are bombarded with so many things, locking us in some form of self-entrapment and self-indulgence, such that we would not feel the need to be thankful for what we are enjoying at the moment. 

 There are, of course, some cultural and societal influences that can undermine this spirit of thankfulness, especially when we develop negative thinking patterns and become a very judgmental person. 

 We have to be wary of these dangers and focus on our duty to develop the spirit of gratitude.

God always comes to our aid

WE should make this truth of our faith a strong and abiding conviction in us. In the gospel, we are warned that toward the end of time, all sorts of persecution can be heaped on us. But we should not worry because God will always take care of everything. (cfr. Lk 21,12-19) 

 “They will lay their hands upon you, and persecute you…you shall be betrayed by your parents and brethren…you shall be hated by all men for may sake,” Christ told the crowd. But not to worry, because as he said, “Don’t meditate before how you shall answer: for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to resist and gainsay…not a hair of your head shall perish.” 

 Let’s always remember that God is always with us and is for us. That’s because our life is first of all the life of God which he shares with us and for which we have take care as responsible stewards. But given our human weaknesses, there will be times when we will find ourselves helpless before certain challenges and difficulties. But we should not worry. We should go through that condition always with God. 

 Let’s always reinforce our belief that God never abandons us. We should have that kind of conviction. No matter what kind of difficulties we can find ourselves in, we should always remember that God never abandons us. He is always around to help us, although in ways that may escape our notice. 

 When we are in difficulty and on the brink of discouragement, overwhelmed perhaps by the burdens in our life, let us try our best to remain calm and be prayerful. Let us avail of the sacraments, especially Confession and the Eucharist, so that what we cannot handle can be taken care of by God himself. 

 We should have a good control of our emotions and our other human faculties that certainly cannot cope with all the mysteries of our life so that these do not give problems to our faith and trust in God’s ways. 

 And, yes, we have to learn to suffer. In this life, there is no other way but to suffer. This is simply the consequence of all the sins of men. But if we unite our suffering with that of Christ, we can look forward also to our resurrection and victory over sin and death with Christ. 

 We should just be sport in this life, always managing to be in good spirit, cheerful and optimistic, even if the circumstances are dark and painful. We should never forget that there is such thing as divine providence and all we have to do is to develop a good and healthy sense of abandonment in that providence of God. 

 We have to remember that God completely gives himself to us. He is not sparing in this. He is now with us in the Holy Spirit. In a sense, he is all there for the taking. It’s really just up to us now on how to take advantage of this reality. 

 We just have to learn to go to Christ with deep humility and great faith. Christ is always passing by our side. In fact, he always looks at us and after us, especially when we are in an impossible situation, with special concern, ever ready to give us a helping hand.

“Remain faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life”

THAT’S from the Book of Revelation. (2,10) As we approach the end of another liturgical year, it’s a message all worthwhile to keep strongly in mind. Christ assures us that everything will be all right despite all the trials, challenges and the other negative elements in our life. 

 We should just remain faithful to him who will bring everything to completion and perfection. We should just be eternity-ready, willing to leave everything behind, since all these things only have a temporal and relative value. What is of absolute and eternal value is whether we have faith and love for God which is verified in the way we handle with him all the things of our earthly sojourn. 

 We should therefore develop a sense of the end of our earthly life and the beginning of life hereafter. The end gives us a global picture and sheds light on the present. It guides us. It gives us a sense of confidence and security. It reassures us that we are on the right track, that we are doing well. 

 The sense of the end motivates us to make plans always, to be thoughtful and anticipative of things. It teaches us also a sense of order and priority. It motivates us to set goals, make schedules and the prudent use of time. Ultimately, it helps us to distinguish between the essential and the non-essential in our life. 

 A person who does not have a sense of the end is obviously an anomaly. He tends to be lazy and prone to his personal weaknesses, to drift off aimlessly and lose control of his life. Such person is usually called a bum, a tramp or a vagrant. 

 Since we all somehow pass through this stage, let’s hope that the phase be as short as possible, and that our reaction to it should produce the opposite effect of precisely taking the duty to develop this sense of the end more seriously. 

 There, of course, are some complicated people who philosophize too much by saying that we can never know the end, and so, they ask how can we develop a sense of the end? This kind of thinking is pure sophistry that can easily be dumped by the mere use of common sense. 

 It’s true that we may never know everything about the end, but it’s not true that we cannot know enough about the end of anything. That’s why we can only talk about a sense of the end, since it is a dynamic affair that has known and unknown, absolute and relative, constant and changing elements involved. 

 We are not dealing with mere mathematics and mechanical things alone in this life. There are spiritual and other intangible things involved that necessarily would require us to be continuously open to anything and discerning, flexible and focused. 

 And so, what we instinctively do in our daily ordinary affairs, we should also do, and, in fact, do it as best that we can, in the ultimate dimensions of our life. Here we have to be guided by our core beliefs that should penetrate beyond the material, temporal and worldly aspects into the realm of the spiritual, eternal and supernatural. 

 We need to see to it that even as we immerse ourselves as deeply as possible in our earthly affairs, we do 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.

We are only stewards of our own life

OF COURSE, our life is our own life. We may have to relate ourselves to everybody else, but my life is mine and your life is yours. Still, we should not forget that in the end, the absolute owner of our life, as he is of everything else in the world, is God. We are simply stewards tasked by God the Creator to take care of everything and, in the first place, of our own life. 

 As such, we always have to feel answerable to God. We have to abide by his will and law with regard to our life and to the world in general. We just cannot be on our own, making ourselves practically our own God. 

 Sad to say, this is what we are seeing these days in many places. People, especially the young ones nowadays, are living in their own world, with no clear anchor or point of reference or purpose in life. As they say, they would just do whatever comes naturally, whatever that means. 

 This is now a big challenge for us to face—how to make everyone realize that we are just stewards, not absolute owners of our own life and of things, even if we have the right to own private property. We have to constantly ask God what he wants us to do at every moment, how we ought to behave and react to a certain situation, etc. 

 This fundamental truth about ourselves should be with us all the time, and constantly duly acted upon. Ideally, at every end of the day, as at the end of our life, we should make some kind of a report to God about how we have managed what he has given us. That is why, making a daily examination of conscience at the end of the day is something recommendable for us to do. 

 With God as the absolute owner of our life and of everything else, we are actually given everything that we need not only to survive but also to make “a good business” in our life, irrespective of how things in our life go. We know that we have to expect all kinds of conditions and situations in life, some likeable and favorable, others disagreeable and off-putting. 

 As mentioned in the parable about the man who built his house on rock, God should be the foundation of our life. (cfr. Mt 7,24-27) “The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because had been founded on the rock.” And when our life is not founded on God, “the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.” 

 Indeed, the only thing possible for us when we are not with God and doing his will is to sin. Let’s remember the case of our first parents, Adam and Eve, when they were still in the state of original justice. They were not supposed to die nor to suffer. Their condition was perfect because they were still with God. The moment they forgot God, that’s when they fell. 

 For us to be a good steward, let’s follow the example of that poor widow who, in her poverty, put in all she had to live on into the temple treasury, (cfr. Lk 21,1-4) acting out what Christ once said that anyone who is willing to lose everything for God will gain a hundredfold in this life and life eternal in the age to come. (cfr. Mt 19,29)

Christ is the real, ultimate and universal king

WITH the celebration of the Solemnity of Christ the King, we are reminded to really develop and enliven our belief that Christ is the real and ultimate king for all of us. He is king not only to Catholics but to all of us and the entire universe. As such, we too share in Christ’s kingly office. 

 And his kingship is not only something social, political, economic, cultural, etc. His kingship extends to the spiritual, moral and supernatural dimensions of our life. He rules all aspects of our life—from our most internal thoughts and desires, to our most global and cosmic concerns. There is nothing in our life where Christ is not expected to reign. We are actually nothing without him. 

 It is only when we acknowledge and live this truth of our faith that we too can consider ourselves as king too in him. Thus, we share in his mission of human redemption, by uprooting sin and sanctifying all aspects of our life. We are supposed to actively participate, in accordance to one’s state in life, in the mission of Christ which is now the mission of the Church, and the mission of each one of us. 

 We need to do our part to make Christ our King. We can do this by making little conquests in our spiritual life everyday. We need to understand that our life will always involve some struggle. In fact, it is and should be a daily affair. Failing in that struggle does not only mean getting stuck at a certain point. It certainly means we have retrogressed. In this business of struggle, if we don’t advance, we actually retreat. 

 We should therefore be reminded of our duty to hone up our skills in spiritual warfare. Christ already hinted this much when he said: “from the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent bear it away.” (Mt 11,12) 

 We have to understand though that to be violent in this sense does not mean to be destructive but rather to be constructive, driven by love and the desire to be united with God and with the others in a way proper to us as children of God and brothers and sisters among ourselves. 

 Our life here on earth cannot but be in some form of struggle. Aside from our innate urge to grow and develop that requires some effort, we also have to contend with enemies whose sole intent is precisely to bring us down, to divert us from our proper path toward holiness. This is not to mention that our ultimate goal is to reach heaven, which definitely will require effort and struggle, and of course God’s grace. 

 We need to make little conquests everyday in every front of this spiritual warfare. It can be in the battle for faith, hope and charity. It can be in the way we pray and in the offering of sacrifices. 

 Any progress or victory in any battle or skirmish, no matter how small, counts. As long as we struggle constantly, our spiritual life will always advance. If we persevere in our spiritual warfare, our fidelity to any commitment is assured, for God on his part will always give us what we need. Things would just depend on us. 

 Any progress in the virtues will always go a long way in our spiritual life. We need to remind ourselves strongly that everything that we do should always be for God’s glory and not for our own glorification. 

 This is how we make Christ our real King!

Significance of Our Lady’s Presentation

WITH the Memorial of the Presentation of Blessed Virgin Mary, celebrated on November 21, we are reminded that Our Lady, even at her young age, dedicated herself to God’s service. It highlights Our Lady’s total dedication to God’s will through her life of profound prayer and contemplation. It’s definitely a Memorial that should inspire us to follow Our Lady’s example. 

 Like Our Lady, we should try our best to offer unwavering dedication to God’s plan, even when it would seem impossible or very challenging. We should not be afraid to enter into a serious commitment with God and remain faithful to it, no matter how things go. 

 But how can we be faithful to our commitments given our obvious limitations and imperfections, and the unavoidable mistakes we can commit along the way? The answer is simply to grow in love, like that of Our Lady. It is to enter into the dynamics of love that needs to grow and grow without measure. 

 It is this love that can conquer everything, including sin and death. It is this love that can make everything new. As St. Paul would put it, it is the love that “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” (1 Cor 13,7) 

 To be sure, putting ourselves in the dynamics of love would also perfect us the way God our Creator wants us to be, and not just how we want ourselves to be. If we can only remember this basic truth, we most certainly would have enough motive to go on loving in spite of all the difficulties, challenges, trials, mistakes, etc., we can meet in living our commitments. 

 Everyday, we just have to find ways to grow in our love a little bit more. And this does not necessarily mean that we have to undertake extraordinary acts. It can only mean putting more love in the usual little things that we do everyday. And this can be done easily. 

 We need to overcome our tendency to be easily overtaken by routine and boredom. That is why we have to pause from time to time, and even spend some time praying and meditating, so that we can put that impulse of greater love in the ordinary duties of our day. 

 Our problem is that we tend to put limits and to say enough to our self-giving. While it’s true that in our material and temporal dimensions, we certainly have limits—and it’s good that we acknowledge them and abide by them—in our spiritual dimension we are capable of giving ourselves infinitely. 

 We need to see to it that we know how to blend our material and spiritual dimensions, without confusing them as we exercise them to their fullest capabilities. We need to adapt the relevant attitude and to learn the pertinent skills, art and virtues. 

 The fidelity to our commitments should be carried out in true freedom such that at any given moment we should find ourselves driven by love, where eagerness to do things is quite conspicuous, where there is always a go-go attitude marking our behavior. True love cannot remain stagnant. It is by definition dynamic, productive, fruitful and creative. 

 To be sure, this fidelity to our commitments will perfect us the way God wants us to be. We are supposed to be “the image and likeness of God.” And since God is love, we too ought to be characterized by that divine love as shown in our fidelity to our commitments. 

 This is how we can mirror the fidelity of Our Lady to God’s will and ways!

Assuming God’s very life in our life

WE really have to learn to assume in a stable way God’s very own life and nature in our own life. For this, we should first be firm in our belief that our life is actually the life of God who offers it to us freely since he has made us, of all his creatures, his very image and likeness. 

 We need to be clear about this fundamental truth about ourselves and about everything else in the whole universe. God, being the Creator of everything, shares what he has in varying degrees and ways with all his creatures. He is in everyone and in everything. He is the source and the maintainer of everyone’s and everything’s existence. Nothing can exist without him. 

 In our case, he is with us to the highest degree of connaturality because, with our intelligence and will, plus the grace that God gratuitously offers us, we are made to enter into his very life and nature. 

 We should acknowledge this basic truth that our life is actually God’s life first of all and always, and everything in our life should be in accordance to how God is. That’s why we are given the capacity to know and love him. 

 This fundamental truth about ourselves should be made known universally, and everyone should be prodded to learn how to conform their lives with the very life of God by following and doing God’s will and ways which have been shown and shared with us ultimately through Christ in the Spirit. 

 We need to do our part in corresponding to this fundamental truth by learning how to develop our spiritual life, which is none other than developing an intimate relationship with God in all the events and circumstances of our life. 

 Let’s remember that God is everything to us. Without him or ignoring him can only unavoidably lead us to evil, since God is the only source of everything that is good, true and beautiful. We should never think that we can just be on our own. Of course, we have to be taught and trained first how we can discern the constant presence and interventions of God in our life. 

 In any situation and in whatever we do, we should be aware that God is showing us how to go about it, how to react and behave, etc. We should never think that there are times when God is not around or is not involved in anything in our life. 

 Thus, we should learn how to always live in God’s presence, actively corresponding to his will and ways. God is the pattern of life. He is the shaper and director of our life. He is the purpose and the power to enable us to be his image and likeness. 

 It should not be something out of order for us to learn how to be prayerful, how to be contemplative, especially as we engage in our earthly affairs, since we need to be with him and follow his will in all these affairs. 

 We should therefore be asking ourselves always what God wants us to do, how we have to be in any situation and condition of our life. To be sure, this will give us the proper condition of life where we would always feel confident, happy and at peace no matter how things go in our life.

The double effect of routine

WHILE establishing and keeping a daily routine can have its great advantages, we should also be wary of its disadvantages that are often hidden and unperceived. 

 Indeed, routine can foster increased productivity, since it can help in prioritizing tasks, managing time and boosting productivity. It can also reduce stress, since it minimizes surprises and other uncertainties. It can improve our focus. If well managed, it can even enhance creativity, since it can free up mental resources that can allow us for more creative thinking. 

 But it also has its downside. Since routine involves repetitive tasks, it can lead us to feelings of monotony and boredom. It can also lead us to rigid ways that would adversely impact on our ability to be flexible amid changing circumstances. It can desensitize us from possibilities of innovation and creativity. 

 We should learn how to deal with this negative aspect of routine. We should not allow it to muffle our enthusiasm and love for God and others. The challenge is how to keep ourselves burning with love in spite of our routinary tasks. In fact, if we are clever enough like the serpent that Christ talked about, (cfr. Mt 10,16) we can even make use of these routinary tasks as a way to nourish our love for God and others. 

 For this, we have to see to it that we are always activating our faith, hope and charity by making frequent acts of faith, hope and charity in spite of the lack of gusto for them. Much like everything else in our life, there are things that we should just do even if do not feel like doing them simply because they are necessary to us. These frequent acts of faith, hope and charity can do a lot of wonder and can fan into a flame our waning enthusiasm and love for God and others. 

 These theological virtues, these God-given gifts are the ones that enable us to live our life in a way that is full of love, the love that comes from God himself. It’s a love that always renews itself, not allowing itself to get accustomed, much less, bored by what we do everyday. 

 As the Catechism would put it, these theological virtues “bestow on one the capacity to live in a relationship with the Trinity. They are the foundation and the energizing force of the Christian’s moral activity and they give life to the human virtues.” (CCC 384) 

 With this love that the theological virtues impart on us, everything will always strike us as something new. With it, the prose of everyday is somehow converted into beautiful verses that are engaging to both the body and the soul, the heart and the mind. 

 With this love, we can manage to see beauty and find meaning in everything, even in things, events and situations that humanly speaking are not pleasant. With it we can manage to escape from the shallow and narrow appreciation that our senses and our human understanding can achieve of things in general. It lets us go to the deeper and higher levels of reality. 

 This love enables us to relate the material to the spiritual, the mundane to the sacred, the temporal to the eternal, the natural to supernatural. It connects us and everything else to God, the source of all good things. 

 Obviously, while these theological virtues are divine gratuitous gifts to us, we also have to do our part to take care of them well, otherwise they would have no effect on us. Thus, we need to develop the corresponding human virtues which the theological virtues are meant to animate. We can never overemphasize this point.

Despite our unworthiness

THAT gospel story about Zaccheus (cfr. Lk 19,1-10) reminds us precisely of this point. No matter how unworthy we are of God’s favor, we should never lose hope nor the conviction that God is always there for us, ever ready to grant us mercy and to help us in every way. 

 As the gospel narrates, Zaccheus was a chief among the publicans and a rich man that in the very judgmental ways of the people then automatically meant that he was a big sinner. Yet, despite that condition, Zaccheus had in his heart of hearts a deep longing to see and know Christ. 

 When he heard that Christ was passing by, he immediately climbed up a tree to have a good sight of Christ since there was a large crowd and he was short of stature. And when Christ saw him up the tree, Christ told him to climb down and invited himself to Zaccheus’ own home. That was when the people also exploded in their judgmental ways by murmuring that Christ went to be a guest of a sinner. 

 We should not make a big fuss about our own unworthiness because of all the sins we all have committed. Never lose sleep over it. It’s a given and it is what precisely would attract Christ to us. We should just be transparent about ourselves and welcome Christ into our life. 

 Christ is the good shepherd who would always look for the lost sheep, never stopping until he would find that sheep. We should always be welcoming to Christ. This should be the attitude to have in our relation with Christ. He always takes the initiative to come to us, to knock at our heart’s door. We should be welcoming to him, and more than that, we should be appreciative of his love and concern for us and learn to correspond by knowing, thanking and loving him better each day. 

 Toward this end, we may just need a few moments to touch base with this reality and to make it our guiding spirit all throughout the day. We have to feel this need for him, for without him, we can only do nothing good, or worse, the only possibility left for us is to sin. 

 Christ spelled out this innate need for him when he said: “I am the vine and you are the branches. The one who remains in me, and I in him will bear much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers. Such branches are gathered up, thrown into the fire and burned…” (Jn 15,5-6) 

 Thus, we have to learn the art of praying, or spending a few moments of meditation, which is not only a matter of a technique but more, that of learning how to be with Christ. A few minutes of meditation is like the refueling and the recharging that we need to make us going properly throughout the day. 

 Remember that God first created us. And upon our creation, he took the initiative to establish a personal relationship with us. He talked to our first parents, gave them some instructions. And even if our first parents, and then us, messed up the original plan of God for us, he did not sever that relationship with us. 

 Let us foster the desire for Christ to come into our hearts. We have to remember that as St. Augustine said, “The entire life of a good Christian is in fact an exercise of holy desire.” That desire not only has to be maintained. It also has to increase as time passes.

Persistent hope amid our helplessness

THAT gospel episode about a blind man sitting on the wayside where Christ was passing by, reminds us about this point: we need to always have hope even if we already would feel totally helpless. (cfr. Lk 18,35-43) 

 As the gospel narrates, the blind man, upon learning that Christ was passing by, unabashedly cried out to call the attention of Christ. Even if he was rebuked by the others to keep quiet, he continued to cry out. And finally, Christ approached him, asking him what he wanted. 

 The response was simple and direct: “Lord, that I may see.” It’s a response that should inspire us to also make our requests for some special divine intervention in the same way. We should just say what we want, and if it is for our own good, for sure Christ would grant it. 

 We know that there is always the possibility for us to fall into some state of helplessness, not only of the transitory type but also of the permanent one. That’s just being realistic. And upon that possibility, let’s make the necessary preparation, building up the appropriate attitude, skills and practices to tackle it. 

 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. 

 God, of course, does not spare us from falling into some serious, and sometimes insoluble predicaments. That’s because he will always respect the limitations of our nature that can sometimes lead us to some trouble, and more so, our own freedom, no matter how much we misuse and abuse it and lead us to sin, the worst evil. 

 And even if personally we have not sinned or do not seem to deserve a particular burden, we all suffer just the same as an effect of all the sins of men, ours and those of others. We should not be surprised by this and waste time complaining about it. 

 In other words, we should never hesitate to ask God for any help we need, especially in times of emergency. Even if our appeals appear to be unanswered, we should just go on asking him, never feeling that we would be disturbing him. 

 God always listens and cares for us. Our usual problem is that we tend to lose our faith in him or at least to doubt his compassion when we feel our requests appear to be rebuked. 

 One way to counter this danger is to pray the Rosary. This Marian prayer, which many people consider as boring since they consider it as just a repetition of Our Father’s, Hail Mary’s and Glory be’s, is actually an effective prayer that teaches us how to insist and persevere in our petitions to God. 

 And we do it with Mary, the mother of God and our mother, who is the most powerful intercessor we can have. We know that, as dramatized in that wedding at Cana, when it is Mary who would make the request on our behalf, Christ would find it difficult to refuse.

Preparing for the end

THAT’S what we can get from that gospel episode where Christ made the people, who admired the temple for its rich adornment, to realize how it was going to be at the end of time. (cfr. Lk 21,5-19) 

 Oh, many terrible things were going to happen, he told them. But at the same time, he reassured them that while they shall be hated by all men for Christ’s sake, not a hair of their head shall perish. “In your patience you shall posses your souls,” he said. 

 This gospel episode is definitely a call for us to prepare for the end, either of our own life or of time and the world. It’s a preparation that is also a call for us to really strengthen our faith, and to keep on going and growing in our spiritual life that in the end is what truly matters, since that is the life that brings us to our eternal bliss with God. 

 In this regard, we need to see to it that our profession of our belief in God, and the accompanying practices of piety that it involves, should always continue to grow and improve, making appropriate adjustments, proper adaptations and even necessary corrections along the way. 

 We cannot deny that we always tend to fall into lukewarmness and complacency, leading us to fall into all sorts of inconsistencies between what believe in, what we teach and what we do. It calls to mind that accusation Christ once made against some of the Pharisees whose words we may follow but not their deeds, since, as he said, “they preach, but do not practice what they preach.” (Mt 23,3) 

 We have to continually check and review how we are doing in our spiritual life, in our relation with God and with others. Do we really find time to pray, to know more about God? Are we progressing in our skill in discerning God’s will and ways at every moment of the day? 

 This definitely would require of us to have some kind of a plan of life that covers everything in our life, making them pursue the ultimate goal of our life. If we are to be effective especially in facing the many challenges and opportunities today and in the future, we need to hone our skills at making plans and strategies, both of the short-run and the long-run types. 

 This may require a lot of patience and self-discipline, and the learning curve may be very slow at the beginning. But then again if we persist, there is no other way but to succeed. 

 Of course, the most important goal of the plans and strategies is how to relate everything to God. We have to come out with concrete ideas as to how to make that goal achievable. Obviously, this would involve developing the virtue of order and of inculcating the proper sense of priorities, giving the inputs of our Christian faith the first priority. 

 We have to examine our attitudes, practices and habits, and see which ones would reinforce this effort and which would hinder it. We have to learn how to make plans and strategies that are realistic and are organic in the context of our personal circumstances. They have to be plans and strategies that know how to flex with the changing circumstances without getting confused or lost in our proper focus. 

 We should be able to see a gradual process of developing our spiritual life such that we can feel more intimate with God himself and that our whole life goes truly in synch with God’s will and ways! This is what is meant by preparing for the end.

Save to lose and lose to save?

THIS is indeed a most intriguing and mind-blowing teaching of Christ. “Whosoever shall seek to save his life, shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose it, shall preserve it,” he once told a crowd. (Lk 17,33) 

 We really need to pause and try to figure out how we can reconcile these words with even the most basic common sense we have, since at first glance they definitely involve contradictory ideas. 

 Indeed, this is where we have to go beyond our common sense and our reasoning, and try to penetrate the spiritual and supernatural message these words are trying to teach us. Christ, the very “way, truth and life” for us, the very source of all that is good, true and beautiful, just cannot tell us things that may sound to us as nonsense. 

 First, we have to consider the context in which these words were spoken. He prefaced this teaching by warning the crowd about the danger of worldly entrapment and self-indulgence which are actually a clear and present danger to us. 

 “As it came to pass in the days of Noe,” he said, “so shall it be also in the days of the Son of Man. They did eat and drink, they married wives, and were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark: and the flood came and destroyed them all.” (Lk 17,26-27) 

 We have to be wary of this danger of worldly entrapment and self-indulgence that are clearly becoming widespread, especially because these days, the good and evil things of this world are so mixed up that we would most likely be left confused and easily taken by sweet poisons that today’s new things readily offer. 

 What Christ meant by losing in order to save our life is for us to empty ourselves of our own selves in order to be properly filled up with the very life and nature of God through Christ in the Spirit. We need to lose ourselves to win what is truly necessary for us. We cannot deny that we are notorious for sticking to our own will and ways when it is in God’s will and ways that we would have our real joy, fulfillment and life eternal. 

 Everyday, we have to make the exercise of conforming our will to God’s will by making a bold plan of how to go about following God’s will of personal sanctification and apostolate. In pursuit of these dual purpose of our life, we should try to give our all. We cannot afford to be complacent and lukewarm. We should feel driven and pro-active. 

 When we notice that we are more dominated and guided by our moods, our emotional and bodily condition which often are erratic and inconsistent, or when we notice we feel lazy and empty, we should immediately react. The ideal condition for us is to burn with zeal to follow God’s will. Absent that zeal, we would be giving a foothold to our weaknesses and temptations. 

 We have to develop an abiding and burning desire to fulfill the real purpose of our life. We should be clear about this ultimate purpose of ours so we can have the proper sense of direction and focus in our life, and the corresponding urge to fulfill it. 

 In this regard, the first thing to do is to look at the example of Christ. In several occasions, Christ would say that what he was doing was in fulfillment of what the prophets of old, the advance proclaimers of God’s will for Christ and for all of us, said. This is how we can truly save our lives.

The spiritual gift of understanding

FROM the Book of Wisdom comes this beautiful description of this spiritual gift of understanding: “holy, one, sweet, loving that which is good, quick, which nothing hinders, beneficent, gentle, kind, steadfast, assured, secure, having all power, overseeing all things, and containing all spirits, intelligible, pure, subtle.” (7,22-23) 

 That is how the gift of understanding enriches the gift of wisdom. The gift of understanding provides the foundation for wisdom, since it enables us to comprehend information before applying it wisely. Wisdom, of course, builds upon understanding, helping us to navigate complex situations and make informed decisions. 

 In a sense, the spiritual gift of understanding provides us with a divine ability to comprehend and apply deep spiritual truths in our lives. It enables us to grasp the deeper meaning of faith, and of God’s will and ways. In short, it gives us spiritual insights that in turn would help us to distinguish between truth and deception, right and wrong. More than that, it helps us to understand the spiritual origins of the different situations in our life. 

 Indeed, this gift of understanding gives us a lot of benefits. It helps us build trust in others as well as enhances our connections with them. It promotes self-awareness, emotional intelligence and spiritual maturity. It is helpful in resolving differences and conflicts among ourselves. 

 While it is a gift, it also needs to be received and acted upon properly by us. Thus, we have to realize how necessary it is for us to cultivate a deeper spiritual connection through regular prayer and meditation, and also through engaging in consistent Bible study. Of course, given the way we are, we have to realize that it would always need guidance from reliable spiritual leaders or mentors. 

 For this, we really should look for a good spiritual director since we are poor directors of our own selves. We can easily fall at the mercy of our own weaknesses which we should be humble enough to acknowledge. This is not to mention the many tricks of the devil and the allurements of the world that can imitate God’s voice, offering us sweet poison. 

 And so, instead of recognizing and corresponding to God’s voice, we may just be responding to our own likes and dislikes, our own ideas, our own biases and preferences. We can also fall at the mercy of our own temperaments and trapped by the many social, political and economic conditionings around. These are not necessarily bad, but they cannot be equated immediately to God’s voice. They can mislead us. 

 If we are the intellectual type, for example, we can easily convert our Christian life into a kind of intellectualism. If we are the active type, we can easily fall into activism. The many good things we have, all gifts from God, can be easily corrupted by all sorts of immoral and spiritual viruses that can come to us in a very subtle, imperceptible way. 

 We all need to have spiritual direction. We have to allow the intricate workings of our spiritual life, which has to contend with all sorts of things in life, to be guided by somebody else, because though we are the ones who make the final decisions and choices, we all need to be enlightened, guided, even corrected. 

 Yes, we need spiritual direction because we have to explore our spiritual and apostolic possibilities, map out our plans for spiritual growth, expose and cultivate our hidden potentials, develop virtues and enliven our piety, not to mention, make strategies for our ascetical struggles. 

 In short, we need spiritual direction because we need to live our life at God’s pace. And for this, we need the gift of understanding and wisdom!

“Wisdom is better than strength”

THAT’S from the Book of Wisdom, (cfr. 6,1) simply telling us that true wisdom, the one that comes from and is a participation of the wisdom of God, is obviously far superior over whatever human strength and power we may have. 

 True wisdom guides us in our decision-making and provides us with lasting benefits, builds stronger relationships among ourselves, and gives us a deeper understanding of ourselves and the world in general. 

 For us, Christian believers, wisdom is understood as a divine “gift which perfects the virtue of charity by enabling us to discern God and divine things in their ultimate principles, and by giving us a relish for them.” 

 In the Book of Revelation, it is described as the light that abides in a person, such that “night shall be no more, and they shall not need the light of the lamp, nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God shall enlighten them.” (22,5) 

 To be sure, wisdom can be had by anyone, anytime, anywhere. Everything can be made use of to find, develop and exercise wisdom. The poet and the farmer, with God’s grace received with the proper disposition, can have it. They can arrive at the same truth even if pursued through different ways. 

 What we have to do to make use of this divine gift is for us to regularly reflect on our thoughts, feelings and actions in order to gain a deeper understanding of our own selves and of our motivations. We need to be aware of our strengths, weaknesses and biases in order to make good decisions. 

 We can also make use of our life experiences—our successes and failures—to gain valuable insights, even using our mistakes and failures as opportunities for growth and learning. 

 And yes, we need to continually seek knowledge by reading and studying, and guidance by availing of the help some reliable persons, mentors and spiritual directors can offer. We have to practice mindfulness and patience, cultivate virtues—especially humility, empathy and compassion—so we can better navigate the complexity of human experiences. 

 In the end, we always need to pray, meditate, do regular reflections, and enliven our spiritual and supernatural life, knowing that it is only with God that we can have true wisdom. Indeed, it is through faith and obedience to God’s will that we can enjoy the essential components of wisdom. 

 We just have to be wary of our tendency to have everything that truth stands for—joy, peace, beauty, harmony, etc.—to be almost always abducted and frustrated by an endless number of causes and factors. 

 We tend to get stuck at a certain point, or at a certain level. We don’t want to go on, since we tend to be held captive perhaps by comfort, laziness, ignorance, lack of faith, pride, greed, attachments to worldly things, anger and the unruly movements of our passions, etc. In short, we tend to use our powerful faculties not to seek and love God, who is the ultimate and constant truth for all of us, but to seek and love ourselves. 

 We have to do everything to keep and protect this divine gift of wisdom. This we can do if we regularly reflect on our experiences and decision to reinform our understanding of things. Yes, regular reviews of decisions made and making adjustments when needed are helpful in this regard. 

 It also is helpful to stay curious always for new ideas and perspectives, even considering alternative viewpoints. This will enrich our understanding of things and definitely contribute to make our wisdom channel the very wisdom of God.

Piety and doctrine

THESE two should go together if we want to have a healthy and working spiritual life, full of energy to love God and neighbor at the same time. One without the other can only go so far, and in fact creates a condition where we become vulnerable to all sorts of spiritual anomalies. 

 When there is genuine piety, there is also a deep and personal relationship with God that is nourished through regular prayer, worship and devotion. We can notice a spiritual growth that is sustained by meditation, reflection and self-examination. Virtues would just come about since we would be inspired to follow the example of Christ. 

 But to have solid doctrine is also important, since it provides us with a solid foundation for understanding God’s revelation and the teachings of the Church. It guides our spiritual growth by offering us a way to understand more and more the mysteries of our Christian faith. It helps us to make sound moral decisions in a way that would lead us to live according to God’s will. 

 These two components of our spiritual life should be pursued without let-up, especially these days when we are faced with more complicated and tricky conditions and challenges. While doctrine can provide us with a moral framework for decision-making, piety fosters a deep sense of reverence and connection with God, guiding us to make choices according to God’s will and ways. 

 When we give due attention to these two components of our spiritual life, we would be in a much better position to effectively address today’s social issues. The pursuit of a more just and equitable society becomes more doable and realistic. 

 We just 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. 

 When piety is limited to one or the other essential element of our being, to either our spiritual soul or the material body, then it cannot be consistent. It cannot hold out against that anomaly for long. It sooner or later will fall into the tricks of hypocrisy and self-deception. 

 We also need to see the Church doctrine as the proper spirit that should animate any human doctrine we may make for some practical purpose we may have in the different aspects of our life—personal, family, professional, social, political, etc. 

 Thus, it is essential that we learn to know the Church doctrine or the doctrine of our faith such that this doctrine becomes the moving spirit behind our every thought, word and deed, behind our every plan and project, big or small, ordinary or extraordinary. 

 There is need for us to know how to relate the doctrine of our faith to our daily affairs and to our very serious and big projects and plans, and vice versa. At the moment, this expertise is hardly known, its need hardly felt. 

 This is the challenge we are facing today as we tackle the increasingly rapid, complex and complicated developments.

“Guide me, Lord, along the everlasting way”

THAT’S from the Book of Psalms (Ps 139,24) which can be used as a frequent ejaculatory prayer as we go through our usual daily affairs. It definitely would help us to have a proper focus on life, encouraging us to think about what really awaits us in heaven so that we can live our life here on earth with unshakeable hope. 

 By regularly meditating on heaven, we can aspire to achieve spiritual growth and a deeper relationship with God. By focusing on the promise of eternal life and the joy that awaits us there, we can develop a sense of hope that can permeate our daily lives as we immerse ourselves in our temporal affairs without being trapped in them. 

 We have to realize that heaven is more than just a distant promise. It is a present reality that can transform our lives. When we meditate on heaven, we are reminded of God’s love and his plan for our salvation. We would be encouraged to distinguish between what is of relative value and of absolute value in our daily affairs. We would be encouraged to persevere through life’s challenges and to trust in God’s goodness. 

 Indeed, meditating on heaven regularly can have a profound impact on our lives. It gives us the proper priorities in life. It would give us comfort and meaning to any difficulty, challenge, trial and suffering in our life here on earth. We would know that all these negative things in life are just temporary and that eternal joy actually awaits us. More than that, all these negative things can be converted into a means for our salvation. 

 By regularly meditating on heaven, we can find ourselves grateful for everything that God through Christ in the Spirit has given us. And we would be encouraged to spread his gift of faith and love. Indeed, it would fuel our apostolic duty. 

 It is important therefore that we set aside time each day to pray and reflect on heaven, begging God to deepen our hope and trust in him. Regular reading and meditation on Scriptural passages that speak of heaven and eternal life, such as the Beatitudes and the Book of Revelation, can truly be helpful. Also spending time in Eucharistic adoration, reflecting on Christ’s real presence and the promise of heaven. 

 We should really sharpen our desire and hunger for heaven. We should always remember that while we are in this world, which plays a crucial role in the over-all scheme of our entire life, we should avoid allowing ourselves to be trapped by them such that we would forget that we are meant for a life beyond this world. 

 We are meant for heaven, for life in eternity, hopefully with God our Creator and Father in whose image and likeness we have been created. And so, we should sharpen our constant awareness of our heavenly destination, and the ways by which this awareness can be kept. 

 Christ said it very clearly. “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Mt 6,19-21) 

 And St. Paul echoes the same sentiment. “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” (Col 3,2) We should do everything to avoid getting entangled with our earthly and temporal affairs. 

 Yes, let’s often repeat that beautiful psalm: “Guide me, Lord, along the everlasting way.”

Respecting sacred places

WITH recent cases of sacred places being desecrated, we need to remind ourselves that it is our duty to give these places due respect since they hold deep cultural or religious significance, and they also arouse strong emotional connection with the people. We are reminded of this duty in that gospel episode where Christ drove away those who turned the temple into a market place. (cfr. Jn 2,13-22) 

 In this regard, we have to be mindful of the rules and customs associated with these sacred places and respect them, like dressing in a way that is respectful of the place and its significance, keeping a respectful demeanor, avoiding loud noises, disruptive behavior or disrespectful actions. 

 We have to be most careful with our tendency to trivialize sacred places, items and events. With the sacred, all we have to do is utmost reverence, putting all our faith in them, knowing that through natural and human elements, we are touching the supernatural dimension of our life, we are touching the very life of God. 

 This reality should never be lost in our consciousness. Whenever we get involved in the sacred, as when we attend Mass or go to confession, or read the gospel, etc., we need to make many acts of faith, hope and charity to be able to capture the wonderful reality of being intimate with God. 

 We have to be careful because nowadays, with all the galloping pace of our earthly concerns and developments, we can easily end up treating the sacred things as one more item to be attended to, often with a cursory attitude. 

 We need to put all our mind and heart, all our senses and faculties into the celebration of these sacred things. Our whole selves should be involved there. We have to be aware with the reality of who we are dealing with in these sacred acts. We are not dealing with people only, much less with things only. We are directly dealing with God! 

 It therefore stands to reason that before we get involved in these sacred activities, we prepare ourselves properly. We have to stir up our faith and devotion, priming our heart and mind to align ourselves with the reality involved. 

 That is why we need to spend time preparing ourselves before the celebration of the liturgy, especially the Holy Mass. This is especially so with priests. We, priests, have to spend some time in prayer before celebrating the Mass to see to it that we are assuming the very name and person of Christ who is both priest and victim, the one who both offers and is offered. 

 We need to develop a sense of the sacred. When we pray, for example, we should see to it that the words really spring from the heart, a heart already filled with faith and love for God, since out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. The lips and the heart should be in harmony. And when many people pray together, the prayer should form a lovely symphony. 

 What can help is that when we pray, we should think to whom are we talking, what are we saying, how should we say it, with what sentiments should accompany it, what resolutions should come from it. 

 I remember that as a kid I saw old women in the church praying, and I could not help but be moved to see their faces brighten and darken as they prayed. I understood then that they were talking to God, and what they talked about was reflected on their faces. That is clearly having a sense of the sacred.

In choosing our leaders and public officials

WHAT criteria to use in choosing our leaders and public officials? Definitely, we should hold integrity and competence as indispensable requirements. We need to look into the background of each candidate for public office whether these criteria are met. 

 Integrity ensures ethical decision-making, transparency and accountability that can foster public trust. It makes a leader consistently following through on his commitments and promises. It safeguards the well-being and interests of others, approaching them with empathy and understanding. 

 Competence requires the leaders and public officials to have the necessary skills, knowledge and experience to perform their job effectively. It enables them to navigate complex challenges that are sprouting especially these days. 

 There should be a process of leadership development that highlights these two requirements since leadership plays a crucial role in organizational growth. Such development programs should enhance the skills and knowledge of leaders and public officials. 

 We really should know how to assess the integrity and competence of any candidate seeking public office. Of course, to be realistic, we have to put these qualities also in the context of the candidates’ popularity and electability. But for Pete’s sake, let’s not make mere popularity the main guide in electing our officials. 

 We have to go beyond looks, pr gimmicks, smart sound bites, spins and vote-getting machineries. Sad to say, we cannot help but observe how local candidates tend to congregate around national candidates and political parties with vast and deep war chest. They are there more for the “fund” of it. 

 Neither should we go by mere genealogy and pedigree—that one is the son or daughter of so-and-so, or that his father or mother died in some dramatic circumstances. This is a dangerous way to elect officials. It’s like impulse buying that leaves many of us with the buyer’s remorse. 

 Neither still should we be guided by some forms of kinship—blood, political, cultural, social, geographical. While these factors and conditions have their valid values, they can only play a secondary role. They should never be the primary criteria. Of course, a big no-no is choosing candidates on the basis of who give us more money, dole-outs and other forms of perks. This way can only spell disaster. 

 We should not even be guided solely by the candidates’ fame or their mass appeal, though that would already be a big help. We have to be wary of image-building tactics that do not necessarily show the true character of the candidates. 

 We should not be naïve as not to consider the many subtle forms of propaganda that sway people’s favor unfairly. We have to discern whether that mass appeal that candidates may have, spring truly from some divine or humanly legitimate charisma, or it is simply a product of some witchery. 

 What we should look into in vetting the candidates is their track record, their performance in public service, their achievements and their mistakes and how they handled those. Integrity and competence should always go together. 

Integrity without competence would not give us good governance. Neither competence without integrity. They are supposed to have a mutual relationship. 

 With respect to integrity, we have to be clear that its ultimate foundation source and goal is none other than God, our Creator and Father. Hence, we have to understand that the pursuit of integrity cannot be done outside of this original religious context. Any understanding of integrity outside of this would be compromised right from the start. 

 With integrity properly developed, the pursuit of competence would be facilitated and also properly exercised.

Christian concern for the lost

TO be like Christ, as we should, we have to develop an abiding compassion toward everyone, especially the lost ones. We are reminded of this Christian duty in the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin. (cfr. Lk 15,1-10) Compassion should have a universal coverage, not limited only to some sentimental aspects of things, nor simply to relieving the economic and material needs of the people. 

 The material needs of man may be pressing and urgent, but these should not detract us from giving priority attention to the precious spiritual needs of man to relate himself with God and others in true love, irrespective of whether he is rich or poor, a prince or a pauper. 

 It’s true that looking after the pressing material needs of people can already be an overwhelming task. This should not be attended to on an ad hoc basis alone, giving dole-outs and temporary relief. This has to be given stable and effective solutions, like creating jobs, enabling poor people to find work through education and continuing training, especially considering that the world economy is rapidly evolving, etc. 

 But over and above this concern is the care of the more important necessity of man—his spiritual life, his relation with God that should be developed according to God’s love and concern for everyone, and thus, his relation with everybody else. Christ himself gave more importance to forgiving sins than to curing the paralytic. (cfr Mk 2,1-12) 

 In this concern, we have to understand that the poor may not be the one who are economically poor. They can be the richest, the most educated, the most famous and powerful, but who happen to be farthest from God. They can turn out, in that context, to be the poorest of the poor, the lost sheep that have strayed farthest from God. 

 They pose as the most difficult challenge in our duty to show compassion, to reflect in our life God’s love for all. Are we in the first place aware of this reality? Are we up to the challenge? Do we know how to tackle this problem? 

 And so, we just have to learn how to fraternize with sinners with the view of helping them return to God. That’s what Christ did, even to the extent of ruffling the sentiments of some people who considered themselves to be without sin. For example, he chose Matthew, a tax-collector, another name for big sinners at that time, as one of the apostles. He dined with Zaccheus, another rich man regarded also as a sinner at that time. 

 Fraternizing with sinners is what we all have to cultivate in ourselves also. We have to replicate Christ’s attitude towards sinners, who actually are all of us—of course, in varying degrees. We have to give special attention to the lost sheep and to the lost coin. We have to open all possible avenues to be in touch with all sinners. 

 This capacity to fraternize with sinners is first of all a gift from God which we have to take care of and develop. It’s meant to mature us and to involve us in the continuing work of redemption of Christ. It’s not meant, of course, to dilute the teachings of Christ and the very essence of goodness and true holiness. 

 We need to train ourselves in this department because we obviously have to contend with tremendous difficulties that we have to learn to surmount. We will always have our biases and preferences and other natural and human conditionings that, if not handled well, can be divisive elements in our life.

Bent on pursuing heaven

WE should not be surprised if Christ used what we may consider as harsh words to make us follow him. With all our weaknesses and limitations, there is no way but for him to use these strong words to keep us on the right track and not to get lost in our earthly journey toward heaven, our ultimate goal. 

 This was expressed, for example, in that gospel episode where he told the crowd: “If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.” (Lk 14,26) 

 These words simply mean that we need to have a certain detachment from persons and things to be able to give our heart entirely to God, and with him, we actually have everything we need. As St. Teresa of Avila put it graphically, with God we have enough—“solo Dios basta.” 

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

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

 We should not be afraid to detach ourselves from persons and things because such detachment is proper to us. It’s a prerequisite to be able to follow Christ closely, as we all should. 

 To be sure, such detachment does not compromise our proper attachment to the same persons and things. Rather it would enhance our relation with them, since it would be a relation that reflects God’s love for everyone and everything. Such detachment would facilitate our pursuit for the ultimate goal meant for us—to be with God in heaven. 

 For this end, we also need to make effective plans and strategies. This was also expressed in that gospel episode when Christ talked about a person who would make plans to build a tower. (cfr. Lk 14,28) 

 Making plans and strategies may require some time and effort, but it’s an investment that is all worth it. The little time and effort required can actually multiply our time and make our efforts more productive at the end of the day. It’s like the little rudder that St. James talked about in his letter. (cfr. 3,4) Our plans and strategies can have the power to accomplish great things, like a rudder giving direction to a big boat. 

 In these complicated times of ours with so many issues, problems and challenges spewing out, the need for plans and strategies have become more indispensable so that we can study them better and know exactly what to do with them. The way things are now, these issues, problems and challenges really need to be studied well, making due consultations when necessary. 

 What can help in this regard is to cultivate the practice of making daily examinations of conscience so we can make a review of what happened during the day and come up with the appropriate plan and strategies for the following day. 

 Since these examinations of conscience are usually done at the end of the day when we most likely would already be tired and exhausted, we really would need to motivate ourselves to give due attention to this practice. That little investment of effort and sacrifice will surely give back a tremendous return.