The Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ

THE Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ, or Corpus Christi, should spur us to sharpen our understanding and appreciation of the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist where Christ himself, both God and man, gives himself completely to us—body, soul, his humanity and divinity—so we can be one with him. This is what is meant to be a Eucharistic life and for us to be Eucharistic souls. 

 Through the liturgy, the real Christ comes to us, remains here on earth and makes himself intimately available to us. With the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, Christ and us are not held hostage by the limitations of space and time. We manage to be together—in fact, in so direct and personal a way as to be properly termed as communion, a union of life and love. 

 With this sacrament, time and eternity merge, and so do heaven and earth. United to it, even our smallest and most insignificant detail in our life, including our sufferings and things we don’t like, acquire eternal and redemptive value. 

 This is the supreme treasure of a truth that we all need to be more aware of. Hopefully, we can then start to earnestly conform our whole life to this reality—our thoughts and desires, our feelings, outlook and attitudes, etc. 

 In fact, this is the ideal that we should pursue always. This is because the Eucharist, the real Christ in the sacrament, is the ultimate and constant food for our life. We don’t depend only on food, water and air. We depend wholly on Christ. 

 And neither do we depend only on our intellectual progress and technological and scientific advancement. These things can be very impressive. But they don’t completely satisfy our soul. We long for more. It’s Christ that does that. 

 Our usual problem is that we don’t go all the way in our Eucharistic faith. Our devotion to it often appears simply posed, scripted and staged, and not really issuing vitally from our heart and life. Thus, it is also not abiding, but rather intermittent. It’s on and off depending on conditions. 

 It should be no surprise if we are often dominated by our weaknesses, not to mention, the continuing temptations around us. 

 Our catechesis on this truth of our faith should never stop. Parents in their respective families should talk ceaselessly about this. Priests, of course, should preach about it in homilies and in other occasions. 

 Everyone should do something to help one another live an authentic Eucharistic life. We have to foster going to Mass often, making visits to the Blessed Sacrament, spending time adoring our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament chapels, making frequent spiritual communions, etc. 

 We have to understand that our life should not be any other than Eucharistic! That is how we can be truly human, because the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist is where we have our most precious treasure, our everything, our light, our purification, our salvation. 

 That’s where we have Christ not only in real presence, as in the Blessed Sacrament, nor as spiritual food, as in the Holy Communion, but primarily as our savior who continues to offer his life on the cross for us, as in the Holy Mass. 

 For this, we need to be theological in our thinking to capture this reality and live in accordance to it not only from time to time, but rather all the time and everywhere, whatever our situation is.

Where our perfection lies

THERE’S a passage from the Second Letter of St. Paul to Timothy that tells us where we can have our perfection. It says: “All scripture, inspired of God, is profitable to teach, to reprove, to correct, to instruct in justice, that the man of God may be perfect, furnished to every good work.” (3,16-17) 

 Yes, our perfection is when we truly become men and women of God, having the very spirit of God, sharing his very life and nature. And the way to go is to fully live our faith by embodying the very teachings of God as transmitted to us in the Scripture. 

 This idea of our perfection and of how we can achieve it should be known as widely as possible because nowadays the great majority of the people all over the world, let’s be frank about it, do not anymore know it, if at all they care about it. 

 Many do not anymore have any knowledge, much less, interest and skills, about how to develop a working relation with God, about the need to have an effective life of piety that is given regular nourishment through certain practices. 

 There’s no question that it’s going to be difficult, given the way we are. But it’s never impossible. As long as we open ourselves to God’s will and ways, we can hack it in spite of our natural limitations, not to mention our weaknesses and mistakes. 

 Living by God’s will is what is most important to us. It’s not just following our will which is, of course, indispensable to us. Otherwise, we would be undermining our very own freedom and our humanity itself. Whatever we do is done because we want it. It should be a fruit of our freedom. 

 If we are serious about pursuing an authentic Christian life, then we can readily see the importance of coming up with an effective plan that functions 24/7. 

 We have to go beyond treating our Christian life as if it’s just a matter of a set of pious practices that we do from time to time, or a question of coming up with a good behavior report. In this regard, we have to pass from amateur to professional. 

 The basic attitude that we should keep in our mind and heart is the eagerness to look for God always and in every place, situation or circumstance. We need to look for him, so we can find him, then love and serve him. That, in effect, is what Christian life is all about and where our perfection can be found. 

 This involves trying to live in the presence of God always, discerning what his will really is for us at any given moment, learning how to relate and offer our work and all our concerns to God, figuring out how our activity at the moment fits in God’s overall providence, etc. 

 We have to make this eagerness alive always, fanning it into a flame, even to the point of making some extraordinary sacrifices, as when we have to do battle with our tendency to laziness, attachment to comfort, and when gripping temptations assail us. 

To keep this lifestyle going, we need to make use of effective means that can give us the timely motives, the determined will to move on in spite of all obstacles. Our survival in this area is far more important than our survival in our earthly affairs. 

 Let’s hope that we can create a culture that can effectively relate us to God in all circumstances of our life!

Our need to suffer and die with Christ

THIS need does not mean that we should treat suffering and death as though they are “wanted” for their own sake. Our faith teaches us that they are real evils and enemies. But since we cannot avoid them because of our finite, let alone, wounded condition here on earth, God, who wants us to share his life and nature, can bring good out of them, especially through Christ’s Passion, Death and Resurrection. 

 This need has its basis in those words Christ said in response to the 2 disbelieving disciples on their way to Emmaus: “Oh, how foolish you are! How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” (Lk 24,25-26) 

 We have to be clear about this aspect of our Christian life. Yes, we need to suffer and die, just like Christ, who is the pattern of our humanity and the savior of our damaged humanity. 

 In other words, we need to suffer and die with Christ, assuming the same reason and intention Christ had when he had to suffer and die for us. Only then can our suffering and death acquire a redemptive value. Only then can we be liberated from our sinful selves. Only then can we truly be identified with Christ. 

 We all know that suffering and death are unavoidable in our life. They are the consequences of our sins, starting with those of our first parents and then those of our own. But Christ has shown us how to deal with them so as to convert them into a way of our own redemption. And that is to suffer and die with Christ. 

 Remember what St. Paul said about death when it would happen to us with Christ? “O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Cor 15,55-57) 

 For this to happen, we obviously need to meditate closely on the life and death of Christ. Everyday there should be some progress in our growing identification with him. Thus, we have to realize that our life should be a life of constant prayer and sacrifice, supported by an appropriate plan of life that would keep that lifestyle going. 

 It should be an integral part of our daily life to have some practices of self-denial and mortification. It could be in matters of food and drinks, in the way we use the things of our work, especially these days when we are strongly charmed by gadgets and other powerful technologies, It could be in the way we guard our senses, our thoughts, desires and intentions, our imagination, etc. 

 Of course, this life of self-denial and mortification is lived when we wage a life-long ascetical struggle, knowing how to handle our weaknesses, temptations and sin, and growing in the virtues. We need to convince ourselves that it is when we live this kind of life that we can attain true joy and peace even while here on earth. That may sound incredible, but we have Christ’s clear words to assure us of this truth. 

 For this, we also need to adjust our ideas of what is true joy and peace. We often peg them according to worldly standards alone that give us only so much but cannot go the distance. Let’s remember that Christian life, in spite of its sacrificial dimension, is a truly joyful life. 

 We need to overcome whatever fear of suffering and death we have.

The secret to keeping temptation and sin away

IT’S to fall in love, of course. But the true love that should fill our mind and heart with desires and concern to reach out to the others, to help and understand them, to find excuses for their shortcomings, quick to offer forgiveness just as we too should be quick to ask for forgiveness if we are the ones who fail them. 

 Let’s remember that it’s when we just think only about ourselves, or worse, when our mind and heart are practically empty that we open ourselves to our own weaknesses and the many temptations around. It would just be a matter of time before the fall occurs. When we occupy ourselves with concern for the others, we would have no time to be bothered by whatever weaknesses we have or by whatever temptation can hound us. 

 Nowadays, sad to say, what we are observing in the lives of many people is that they are just pursuing their own interests or, worse, are simply guided by their moods and their bodily condition. They are putting themselves most vulnerable to their weaknesses and temptations. 

 We have a big challenge to face here: how to teach people, starting with the young ones, how to truly love. This is, of course, a very demanding challenge, but it is all worthwhile, to be sure. Any step of success in this regard will have some multiplier effect that should be sustained. 

 The daunting part of this challenge is that, given our wounded earthly condition, to learn to love will always involve effort and sacrifices. It will contradict the common idea that love is always sweet. That is why, to learn to love will always involve fighting against our own selves who precisely have the strong tendency to be trapped in our own world, unmindful of the world outside. 

 But the question may be asked: how can we learn to truly love? What is the source, the power, purpose and scope of love? The answer to this question is none other than God who is love himself. And this love has been shown us by Christ, the Son of God who became man precisely to give us “the way, the truth and the life,” given our wounded condition here on earth. 

 Christ showed us this love not only by teaching us the truth about things, by doing great and very helpful miracles. He showed this love by ultimately offering his life if only to conquer all our sins and convert the death into a way of our own salvation. 

 To truly love, we should be ready to follow Christ, especially in that part of making great sacrifices even to the point of offering our life to God and to everybody else. Can we do this? Is it ever possible and practicable for us to have this kind of love? 

 We obviously can if we, in spite of our weaknesses, persist to relate ourselves with Christ, by getting to know him more, by praying, cultivating the virtues, availing of the sacraments, especially the Eucharist where Christ offers himself to us as the Bread of Life. 

 In other words, we can only truly love if our spiritual life is well taken care of, keeping it as vibrant as possible. With Christ, we would not be afraid to make sacrifices. In fact, with Christ, we can manage to see the wisdom and beauty of the sacrifices, of the Cross. It’s when we manage to love the Cross that we are assured to have the love that Christ himself has. 

 It’s when we love the Cross that we can fulfill what Christ commanded us: to love one another as he himself has loved us. (cfr. Jn 13,34)

Indifferent, self-indulgent, self-absorbed

THIS is the worst condition that we can find ourselves in, the very opposite of what is truly ideal for us. Instead of being connected and engaged to others, especially to God first, we choose to be on our own. Instead of reaching out to others, we prefer to pursue our own interests only. Instead of being empathetic and compassionate, we just focus on our own selves. We are supposed to be men and women for others. 

 We have to be wary and guarded against this possible scenario that unfortunately can be seen as getting common these days. Many people are trapped in their own world. If ever they go out of their own world, it’s because they are forced to do so or because doing so would actually serve their own self-interest. 

 These days, there are many people whom I consider trapped in the world of the senses, ruled mainly by their instincts and emotions, and easily vulnerable to mere impulses of the flesh and the usually improperly grounded worldly values and ways. Yes, many have fallen into all sorts of addiction and mental illnesses. 

 This is not what to be truly human is. A human being is a person, endowed with intelligence and will among many other faculties, and as such he is meant to be related to others. 

 In short, we are not only rational, but also relational. We actually cannot avoid it. This is where we have to consider more deeply certain duties that we have. We cannot be passive and indifferent to our relationships. Our growth, our maturity and perfection depend on how well we take care of this essential aspect. 

 We have to actively purify and strengthen them, enhance and defend them. We just cannot allow them to drift in any direction, blindly obeying the forces and impulses of the flesh and the world. They have to be directed. 

 We have to understand that we are made to enter into relations with others. Having relations is not a marginal or optional aspect of our life. It is essential to us. Even in our conception and birth, we need parents, we need a family, then a community, and all sorts of persons, both individually or collectively considered. 

 It is said that during the creation of man, God first made Adam. And though he already had relation with everything else in Paradise, God later thought Adam needed someone else “like him.” And so, Eve came along. 

 The story tells us of the kind of relationships we have. We have relations not only with objects, plant and animals, but also with other people, and ultimately, as well as primarily and constantly, with God. 

 In fact, the very basis of this relational character of our life is God himself. Though one, he is three persons. That’s because as God, he is never alone, nor idle and cold. Within himself and with the rest of creation, his eternal being and activity produce the three subsistent persons who are in perpetual relation with one another, precisely because of the eternal activity of knowing and loving within him and with the world. 

 This Trinitarian nature and life of God is the ultimate basis, pattern and goal of the relational character of our life. Thus, in the Catechism we are told: “The communion of the Holy Trinity is the source and criterion of truth in every relationship.” (2845) 

 And it adds something worth noting. “It (our every relationship) is lived out in prayer, above all in the Eucharist.” We need to understand then that our relational character is developed and lived first of all in prayer and in the Eucharist. Without prayer and the Eucharist, that relational character of our life is negated.

“Made partakers of the divine nature”

THAT’S from the Second Letter of St. Peter. (1,4) The complete verse says: “All things of his divine power which appertain to life and godliness, are given us, through the knowledge of him who has called us by his own proper glory and virtue. By whom he has given us most great and precious promises: that by these you may be made partakers of the divine nature: flying the corruption of that concupiscence which is in the world.” 

 While this foundational truth might stun us, our calling is to move from passive acceptance to active, lived application. This monumental truth certainly leaves us breathless, challenging us to not just contemplate it, but to truly walk it out. 

 That is why, St. Peter recommended the following steps to follow: “And you, employing all care, minister in your faith, virtue; and in virtue, knowledge; and in knowledge, abstinence; and in abstinence, patience; and in patience, godliness; and in godliness, love of brotherhood; and in love of brotherhood, charity.” (2 Peter 1,5-7) 

 To be partakers of the divine nature means to participate or share in the divine nature. We do not become God by our own nature; rather, God gives us a share in what he is living and giving. 

 The purpose of this participation is for moral renewal, enabling us to escape the corruption in the world. This participation in the divine nature is about being healed and transformed by escaping sin and living a new life. 

 This is the reason why God became man in Christ and made constantly present in the world through the Holy Spirit. In this way, we can truly become God’s children. 

 But for this truth of faith to take place in us, we need to humble ourselves so that the light of faith can guide us rather than we just keeping to ourselves in our own estimations and ways. Let’s remember that God is ever willing and eager to share his life and nature with us. Our sharing in God’s life starts with our faith in God, but for that faith to take root in us, we need to be humble. 

 We should spend time meditating on this truth of our faith, and we should try to overcome whatever awkwardness and disbelief we have about it. Truth is, given the way the world is developing today, with so much drifting away if not rebellion against God, we need some divine powers to put ourselves afloat in our true dignity as children of God. 

 To be sure, if we have the right intention to share God’s life, we would always remain humble and ever eager to help others. Otherwise, we would be playing the game of the devil! 

 With humility, we would be able to give our all to God. We can be generous and magnanimous just as God is overwhelmingly generous and magnanimous to all of us. There has to be that mutual dynamic of love and self-giving that has been initiated by God himself. God loves us first, and we have to learn to love him in return, a love that is also expressed in loving everybody just as God loves everybody irrespective of how they are! 

 Let’s not be afraid of the effort and the sacrifices involved in this process. It will all be worthwhile. If we truly try to identify ourselves with Christ, we would be confident that Christ himself would give us the same peace and joy that he had as he went through his own passion and death on the cross to recover our true dignity as children of God.

Pursuing the Trinitarian life

WITH the celebration of the Solemnity of the Blessed Trinity, we are reminded of the most important mystery of our faith, the fount of all the other truths and mysteries of our faith, since it shows us the inmost and intimate life of God in himself, even before being the Creator of the universe. 

 The relevance of this mystery in our life stems from the basic truth that we, as man, are created in God’s image and likeness, adopted children of his, and therefore made to reflect and, in fact, participate in this very Trinitarian life of God. The implications and consequences of this truth are endless, but let’s tackle at least a few of them for now. 

 Through this mystery, which was revealed to us in full by Christ, we are told that God, though one, are three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, because the absolutely one and simple God is never an idle God, nor a lonely God. 

 He is rather a God who is full of dynamism, an eternal dynamism of knowing and loving. His knowing and loving are no mere acts that begin and end, that come from potency to act, but are so perfect that they create the three eternal persons in that one God. 

 Since the life of God is Trinitarian, we need to know how to deal even while here on earth, even while pursuing our exciting earthly affairs, with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. This will guarantee that whatever we do here would redound to our authentic good, that they are done with God and for God, and not just for ourselves. 

 In fact, our life should somehow reflect the Trinitarian character of divine life. God, though absolutely simple and one, is triune. That’s because even though he is one, he is not alone nor idle. 

 With his eternal dynamic life of knowing and loving, he generates within himself an eternal kind of spiral of relationship of Father, he who knows, the Son, the self-knowledge of God, and the Holy Spirit, the love between the Father and the Son. 

 These are persons who are consubstantial with each other, that is, each one of them is the fullness of God, and not just a part of God. They cannot be separated from one another. In the very one God, there’s one person who knows, another one who is known, and a third one who is the love. All these acting in eternity, and all at once. 

 For our life to reflect this Trinitarian life, we need to follow the teaching and example of Christ, the Son of God who became man who revealed to us this mystery of the Blessed Trinity. 

 Like him, we have to do no other than the will of the Father, and to do it in the Holy Spirit for it to acquire its ultimate eternal value proper to us. This is how our life and all our activities and concerns should be developed. 

 Perhaps as a guiding formula, we can use the expression: “By the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit.” Such motto would also give us ideas of how to deal with each person of the Blessed Trinity, and really live in a Trinitarian way daily, as we ought. 

 We have to learn to deal with God in his Trinitarian life—that is with the Father who knows and loves, and with the Son who is the known and the loved, and the Holy Spirit who is the very love of God. Our knowing and loving should reflect the eternal knowing and loving of the Trinitarian God.

Be fruitful in season or out of season

THIS is what we can draw from that gospel episode where Christ saw a fig tree with a lot of leaves but without the fruit. (cfr. Mk 11,12-13) Disappointed, he said: “May no man hereafter eat fruit of thee any more for ever.” 

 His statement may sound unfair, since it was said that it was not the season for figs. But upon considering who said it and what the tree was to him, it could not be said that it was unfair. Christ wanted to give the lesson that everyone should always be consistent of who we truly are and why we have to be fruitful all the time. 

 Christ is the source of all good things. No one can bear fruit, the real fruit, if he is not vitally connected to Christ, like a branch can only be alive and fruitful when united to the vine. We are expected to be fruitful always because we are expected to always be united to Christ. 

 Everyday, we should be keenly aware that we need to be fruitful and productive. That’s simply because even from the beginning of our creation in Adam and Eve, this has always been God’s will for us. 

 “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it,” (Gen 1,28) God told our first parents, clearly outlining his mandate to them. It’s a mandate that continues to be repeated up to now. Christ himself said as much. 

 In his parable of the three servants (cfr Mr 25,14-30), a master clearly told each one to trade with the amount given to them. He was happy with the first two who gained as much as was given. But he was mad at the third one who did nothing with the amount given. 

 We have to realize that God has already given us everything that we need not only to survive but also to improve our lot that ultimately translates into realizing the fullness of our dignity as image and likeness of God, as children of his. 

 In this regard, we truly should be most enterprising, coming up with daily plans and strategies such that at the end of the day, when we make our examination of conscience, we can show God that we have gained something, and that the daily balance sheet of our spiritual life is in the black, not in the red. 

 We have to realize that the capitalization of this enterprise cannot be any better. God has given us everything–life, talents, intelligence, freedom, all kinds of capacities, his graces, etc. 

 And even if we commit mistakes or we fall into sin, no matter how grave, his mercy is always available. It’s really just up to us to make use of what is all there for the taking. 

 We have to assume the attitude of a shrewd businessman who is keen in discovering new possibilities of making money and expanding his business. Thus, in our spiritual life, in our relationship with God and with others, we should never say enough in loving them. 

 We have to increasingly go deeper, higher and beyond what is already attained. We should avoid complacency and self-satisfaction. Our attitude should reflect the lyrics of a Spiral Staircase song: “I love you more today than yesterday, but not as much as tomorrow.” 

 Of course, we should do all this with rectitude of intention, otherwise whatever good we can derive in being enterprising in our spiritual and moral life can only spoil us. In this, sad to say, we have many examples. We have to realize that the more we gain, the more we have to give. “Freely you have received, freely give,” Christ said. (Mt 10,8)

Desire for God despite our spiritual blindness

THE story of the blind Bartimaeus who reacted strongly upon hearing that Christ was passing by (cfr. Mk 10,46-52) reminds us that despite our blindness to spiritual and supernatural realities, there remains in the heart of man, as created by God, an innate desire for him. 

 This truth of our faith is clearly articulated in the Catechism of the Catholic Church which says: “The desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created by God and for God; and God never ceases to draw man to himself.” (#27) 

 Just the same, this desire for God can be thwarted by a variety of reasons and, thus, cause bad consequences. So, let’s just prepare for the worst scenario and try our best to imitate Christ himself who, in redeeming us, prepared himself for the worst. In fact, he already knew about his death and how it was to be. 

 Toward this end, we should just make sure that our love of God is always vibrant. We have to make it grow day by day. We have to feel that love so intensely such that it is actually what would energize us in any endeavor we have. 

 We have to see to it that we do not take this love for granted. This is the best and ultimate weapon we have to prepare for the worst scenario in our life. With this love, we would be willing to go through what Christ himself went through—suffering all the indignities of the world and ultimately dying on the cross. 

 But then, after death, there is the resurrection, the final victory that is meant for all of us, irrespective of how we fare in this life. 

 Just the same, given our fickle and fragile human condition here on earth, we have to feel the need to feed our desire for God daily. We know all too well that such desire, when we have it, would not last long unless we do something to keep it burning. We are notorious for being easily carried away by merely worldly and temporal interests. 

 Toward this end, we should avail of certain spiritual exercises, like prayer, sacrifices and mortifications, recourse to the sacraments, continuing spiritual and doctrinal formation, etc., to develop in us a true and deep devotion, sharpening our attraction always to Christ. 

 It’s important to realize that the net effect of all these should be a strong and abiding feeling of intimacy with God, a strong attraction to him. We should not allow our attractions to stop at the level of some earthly and temporal goods only. It should be God and his will and ways that should attract us most. 

 Let’s always remember that if it is not God who attracts us, then it would be something else. And that something else can be none other than what is opposed to God. Remember Christ saying, “Whoever is not with me is against me…” (Mt 12,30) 

 We should be always mindful of our need to have the proper focus in our life. We should do everything to be able to have that focus, given the fact that in our earthly life, we cannot help but get immersed in so many earthly and temporal things. We need to sharpen our longing for God in every circumstance of our life. 

 In this way, we can remain faithful in pursuing the real and ultimate purpose and mission of our life.

“With great power comes great responsibility”

THAT’S an aphorism from the movie, The Spiderman, which serves as a moral axiom. It highlights the need to use whatever power or capability one has, for a greater good, and not as a means of entitlement. 

 To be sure, that axiom must have been inspired by what Christ told his apostles. “You know that they who seem to rule over the Gentiles, lord it over them, and their princes have power over them. But it is not so among you. Whosoever will be greater, shall be your minister. And whosoever will be first among you, shall be the servant of all. For the Son of Man also is not come to be ministered unto, but to minister…” (Mk 10,42-45) 

 These words came as a clarification when two of the apostles asked for the privilege to have special places in heaven. The request was quite impertinent as it was made immediately after Christ foretold his forthcoming passion, death and resurrection. These two apostles must have been more focused on the future resurrection of Christ than on his passion and death. 

 These words of Christ are a good warning for us, since we cannot deny that we have the tendency to feel entitled the more honors, power and privileges we enjoy in life. We should do our best to be most guarded against this danger and do everything to develop a keen sense of humility and gratitude for all these blessings. More than that, we should realize more sharply that these blessings are meant for us to work harder and serve others more and better. 

 Let’s remember that to serve is the language and the action of love. It authenticates any affirmation of love that we make, converting it from intention to tangible reality. 

 This is the attitude meant for us, with God himself as the exemplar. Imagine, Christ served us by dying on the cross. Before that, he shocked his apostles when he insisted that he be allowed to wash their feet. That was to give example to them, and us, so that what he did we would also do. 

 The angels too, superior to us in nature, are made to serve us, following a divine law articulated by Christ himself when he said: “Let him who is greatest among you become as the youngest, and him who is the chief as the servant.” (Lk 22,26) 

 Christ is the very epitome of this proper attitude. Being God, he emptied himself to become man and to bear all the sins of men by dying on the cross, all for the purpose of saving mankind. (cfr. Phil 2,7) 

 He reiterated this point when he lamented about the domineering sense of entitlement of some of the leading Jews of his time while praising the poor widow who put all that she had into the temple treasury. (cfr. Mk 12,38-44) 

 While it’s true that we obviously are entitled to our rights, we should not feel entitled to privileges and favors that are above our rights and needs. If they come and we cannot avoid them, then let’s be thankful. 

 But let’s be reminded that these privileges, favors and blessings are meant for us to strengthen our desire to serve and not to be served. But as it is, we should try to avoid them, since they tend only to spoil and corrupt us. We need to be truly guarded against this danger.

A core criterion of authentic discipleship

THOSE words that Christ told his disciples about what it is to be an authentic disciple of his must have shocked them. 

 “Amen I say to you, there is no man who has left house or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or children, or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who shall not receive an hundred times as much in this time: houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions, and in the life to come life everlasting.” (Mk 10,29-30) 

 With these words, we are practically told that an authentic disciple should prioritize Christ above all earthly affections and securities, as echoed in similar teachings of his about self-denial and cross-bearing. (cfr. Mt 16,24) 

 These words are like a test to see if one values the Kingdom of God over natural bonds, which can sometimes hinder divine service and dedication. They are not meant to nullify the value of our natural bonds here on earth but rather to put them in their proper place, not allowing them to undermine one’s discipleship to Christ. 

 Christ, being God, who commanded us to love our parents and the things of this world in accordance to his will, could not contradict himself by telling us to abandon absolutely our parents and temporal affairs. What is meant is that we should give priority to Christ first, without neglecting our duties toward our natural bonds. 

 These words of Christ that describe how an authentic disciple should be is like a test of a disciple’s sincerity, probing if we are willing to detach from earthly things for Christ’s sake. 

 We definitely need to learn how to give ourselves totally to God and to the others, since we cannot deny that we have a strong tendency to put some strings attached whenever we have to give something to the others. 

 We have to make an effort, always asking, of course, for the grace of God first of all, so that we can learn to assume this attitude with respect to our self-giving. In the end, this will make us to be like Christ who gave himself totally to us, including giving his life for our sins. 

 Let's remember what he told his disciples once: "Freely you have received, freely you have to give." (Mt 10,8) Gratuitousness should characterize our self-giving to God and to others, just as gratuitousness characterizes God's love for us. Such gratuitousness will actually gain us much more than what we give away. 

 In this regard, we have to do some continuing battle against our unavoidable tendency to be calculating in our self-giving. Not only do we have to contend with our personal weaknesses in this regard. We also have to contend with a tremendous cultural environment, so prevalent these days, that not only is not conducive to this attitude of Christian generosity but is also hostile to it. 

 We constantly have to rectify our intentions when we have to give ourselves to God and to others—be it things, a service, or matter of attention and affection. This is especially so when our giving is for God. Let's never forget that God cannot be outdone in generosity. 

 We should always be encouraged to give ourselves to God and to others gratuitously without strings attached, without conditions. Even if instead of being reciprocated properly and requited, our love is misunderstood and rejected, we just have to go on loving. The only reason for loving is because that is what true love is. It is this love that is the real essence of God, of whom we are his image and likeness.

Mary as Mother of the Church

IT is no surprise that Our Lady is given a lot of titles and invocations, since among all men and women, she is the one who most closely identified herself in the life and mission of Christ as the Redeemer of Mankind. Since Christ is her son and is the Head of the Church, it should be very logical to call Mary also as Mother of the Church. 

 This has Scriptural basis on that gospel episode where Christ, already moments before his death on the cross, entrusted her to St. John, and through St. John, to all of us. That’s when Christ said: “Woman, behold your son…Behold your mother.” (Jn 19,26-27) 

 Thus, among the titles and invocations mentioned in the Litany of Loreto or the Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the title of Mary as Mother of the Church had been added relatively recently by Pope Paul at the Second Vatican Council. 

 It’s a title based on her divine motherhood of Christ, her close cooperation in Christ’s work of redemption, and her continuing spiritual motherhood toward all the members of the Church which is referred to as the People of God and the Mystical Body of Christ, highlighting the unity and interconnectedness of believers with Christ as the head. 

 As Mother of the Church, she is regarded as the one who closely cooperates in the birth and development of divine life in the souls of the redeemed. Though not considered as above the Church, she is nonetheless seen as the Church’s pre-eminent and singular member and an excellent exemplar in the faith and charity. 

 Her maternal care and concern for all the believers of Christ persist in heaven, always supporting the unique mediation of Christ, the only mediator between God and man. (cfr. 1 Tim 2,5) She is actively interceding for all the Church faithful who are still in their pilgrim journey toward our definitive home in heaven. 

 In the encyclical of St. John Paul II, entitled “Redemptoris mater,” Mary is regarded as “present in the Church as the Mother of the Redeemer who takes part as a mother in that monumental struggle against the powers of darkness.” 

 Besides, Mary is also considered as exemplifying the Church. As virgin and mother, she preserves the faith purely while generating new life through Baptism and preaching. The Catechism of the Catholic Church describes this aspect in the following words: “At once virgin and mother, Mary is the symbol and the most perfect realization of the Church.” (507) 

 Our devotion to Mary as Mother of the Church should lead us toward filial veneration and imitation of her virtues. It should be expressed through prayer and service, developed via liturgy, popular piety, and theological study. It should always be Christ-centered for the Church’s growth in holiness. It should avoid isolating Mary from Christ or the Church. Rather, she should guide us toward the Eucharist and communal solidarity. 

 Like any Marian devotion, it must be developed in “harmonious subordination” to Christ-worship that reflects God’s plan where Mary occupies a singular place. We should consider her always in relation to the Church as the Family of God, the People of God and the Mystical Body of Christ. In other words, our love for Mary should be inseparably united with our love for the Church. 

 Like any devotion, it should foster both personal and communal exercises, interiorizing piety amid modern changes.

The breath in Pentecost

THE gospel of the Mass on the Solemnity of Pentecost reminds us of that part where Christ breathed on the apostles and gave them the breath of God in a way that was new and was greater than the breath God gave Adam during the Creation. 

 “Peace be to you,” Christ told the apostles. ‘As the Father has sent me, I also send you.’ When he said this, he breathed on them, and he said to them: ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained.’” (Jn 20,21-23) 

 This breath in Pentecost signifies the Holy Spirit, making us have the very life of God. It surpasses the breath in Creation that simply makes us a living being that came from dust. In other words, the breath in Creation gives us a biological and rational life, while the breath in Pentecost gives us sanctifying grace, making us adopted children of God. 

 We have to feel very much at home with this very wonderful reality and start to correspond to it as we ought. We have to go beyond our earthly dimensions and enter into the more fascinating world of the spiritual and the supernatural life of God and with God. 

 This does not mean that we escape from our earthly reality to be in the spiritual and supernatural reality. No. It means that while deeply immersed in our mundane conditions, we also have to learn to go beyond them to be with God. This is what the word ‘transcendence’ means. 

 To be sure, we are enabled to do that, because of our intelligence and will. These are powerful faculties that would enable us to know and to love, and eventually to enter in the lives of others and ultimately to be with God. 

 But more importantly, we are always given the grace so that our capacity to be with God is actualized. It’s not enough that we are enabled to know and love God. That potency has to be put into act with the grace of God who gives it to us in abundance. 

 We have to do our part, of course. And the first thing to do is to be aware that there is such a reality as developing a life in the Spirit, and from there start cultivating the proper attitudes, skills and virtues. 

 This may look like a daunting, overwhelming task, but it can always be done. Sure, there will be difficult, awkward moments, but those usually happen in the beginning of the learning curve. As long as we persist, time will come when living in intimate relationship with the Spirit becomes second nature to us. 

 We need to spread this Good News more widely, because many of us are still completely ignorant of it. And of those who may already know about it, a lot of confusion, doubts and misunderstanding abound. 

 So more than spreading the Good News, we need a lot of teachers and models who can clearly show how this life in the Spirit can be achieved. Let’s hope that we can count on many people, especially those who are already active in the Church, to serve as teachers and models for this purpose. 

 Of special interest in this regard is the crucial role of parents. They should be the first teachers and models of their children in living the life in the Spirit. That’s why, parents should do their best to be very consistent to their faith, because the most important duty they have toward their children is to make their offsprings children of God, living the life in the Spirit!

Always be prepared for the worst scenario

WE can somehow draw this conclusion after reading that gospel episode where Christ asked Peter three times whether he, Peter, truly loved Christ. (cfr. Jn 21,15-19) After Peter assured Christ that he indeed loved Christ, Christ proceeded to describe the manner of death that Peter would have later on. 

 Indeed, if we truly would identify ourselves with Christ as we should, we should also expect this kind of tragic death for us. It’s not a condemnation but rather an invitation to share the kind of love that God in Christ has for all of us. 

 We have to understand that suffering and death would be the greatest manifestation of love we can have for God and for everybody else as articulated earlier when Christ said: “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (Jn 15,13) 

 The concrete way of dying may not be like that of Christ nor of Peter, tragic and very bloody. But we should try to develop that kind of attitude towards our death and be prepared for it. 

 We know that there will be a lot of suffering, trials, challenges, and all kinds of negativities which are an effect not of God’s will and designs but rather of man’s weakness, limitations and even malice. We should learn how to handle these situations by following the example of Christ, if not by identifying and uniting ourselves as intimately as possible with Christ. 

 If we are truly with Christ, we would know how to take maximum advantage even of our difficulties, problems and all the other negative things that can take place in our life here on earth. These negative things are unavoidable, in fact. We should know how to handle them properly. But it would be a pity if we fail to see the great potentials they have in generating more and greater good. 

 We should always remember that God takes care of everything. And even from evil, he would know how to derive some good. With him, everything, including our failures and sins, would always work for the good. His wisdom, his omnipotence, his mercy, etc. would take care of all that. 

 The crucial thing to do is to be with God, which definitely will require some discipline from us. And so, even if especially at the beginning, we would find it hard, if not almost impossible to be with God, we just have to do what we can to achieve that ideal condition for us. In time, and with faith and our unrelenting effort, to be with God is not only achievable, but something that can become a stable state of life for us. Again, let’s remember that we are actually meant for that state of life. 

 We can be sure that on the part of God, everything is made available, so that whatever difficulty and problem we can have in this life, we would know how to leverage them to our real and lasting advantage, and not just some false and passing advantage. 

 So, we just have to be ready for the worst scenario in our life and know not only how to deal with our predicaments but also how to derive something good from them. In these instances of the hard predicaments, for example, when we seem to be at a loss as to what to do, we should just see at what God does, after we have done all things possible to solve our problems.

The sorrow of love

THAT’S when whatever causes us pain, suffering and sorrow is referred and united to the saving passion, death and resurrection of Christ. That sorrow, though always with some bitterness, would also assume the flavor of sweetness, something that is not only bearable but also lovable. It’s a sorrow that is lived in love, enabling us to be willing to suffer out of love. 

 We therefore have to learn how to handle our sorrows well, since in the first place they are unavoidable in our life. We have to develop first of all the proper attitude and the corresponding skills so that our sorrows would not just be purely negative elements in our life. They, in fact, can and should become sources and occasions of many good things. 

 For this to happen, the first thing to do is to develop a spiritual attitude and supernatural outlook in life, based on our faith in God that has to grow stronger everyday. That faith, of course, would give rise to hope and charity that would put meaning and sweetness to whatever pain, suffering and sorrow we can experience in this life. 

 Taking care of the spiritual and supernatural aspects of our life enables us to imitate Christ in being patient and willing to go through all the sacrifices we can meet in our earthly life. It's a patience that is also founded on the truth that all our sorrows and sufferings in life always have some redemptive meaning. 

 Our main problem in this issue of our earthly suffering and sorrow is that our attitude towards this unavoidable element in our life is taken out of its fundamental context of faith and religion. We just look at it in a purely human and natural way. We just look for the human and natural causes as well as for their human and natural solutions or remedies. 

 If we follow the wisdom of our Christian faith, we for sure would lose the fear of suffering and sorrow. In fact, the contrary would take place—we would look for occasions when we can suffer and experience sorrow. 

 If we believe in Christ and follow what he has taught and shown us, we will realize that there is nothing to be afraid of suffering and death, and all the other negative things that can mark our life. 

  He bore them himself and converted them into our way for our own salvation. Yes, even death which is the ultimate evil that can befall on us, an evil that is humanly insoluble. With Christ’s death, the curse of death has been removed. “Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” St. Paul said. (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 in his attitude toward them. For Christ, embracing suffering and ultimately death, is the expression of his 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 and instead, convert them into expressions of love. 

 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 loves it—that we can really say that we are loving as we should, or loving with the fullness of love. This is when we can experience the sorrow of love.

Only with God…

TO complete the statement, it’s only with God when we can be right and do right. That’s the ideal condition of our life here on earth, and we should just do everything to pursue that goal which would mean our perfection and fulfillment. 

 Our life, whether we are aware of it or not, is a shared life with God. It’s God actually who, as our Creator, is always with us and is directing us toward our perfection through his providence. Ours is simply to follow him. We should be wary of our tendency to think that to affirm our true identity and to live out our true freedom, we should be just be by ourselves. 

 This basic truth about ourselves was somehow expressed by Christ when in his High Priestly Prayer he said, “Holy Father, keep them in your name whom you have given me; that they may be one, as we also are.” (Jn 17,11) 

 We have to learn to refer everything to God, always asking for his guidance so we may know how to follow what he is showing us amid the varying and often confusing conditions and circumstances of our life here on earth. 

 For this, we obviously need to humble ourselves so we would feel the need to go to God asking for guidance always, even if that guidance is always made available to us. We cannot deny that we are notorious for relying simply on our own knowledge and estimation of things as we carry out our tasks, tackle the different challenges and trials, hurdle the barriers that we encounter in life. 

 For us to see how God is guiding us, we definitely need to enliven our spiritual life that should be nourished by a life of prayer, sacrifices, ascetical struggle, recourse to the sacraments, etc. In short, we should have a plan of a life of piety that is kept going and growing by having a lifelong program of formation. 

 This formation should tackle the human, doctrinal, spiritual, professional and apostolic aspects of our Christian life. This formation would greatly help us to punctually discern what God is actually prompting us in every situation of our life. 

 Also helpful in this regard is to have recourse to spiritual direction and accompaniment with someone who can truly guide us. It is a good way of truly recognizing the voice of God and not easily deluded by other voices that can sound like God’s voice but actually are not. 

 These days, we have to be wary of the many imitations around that can mislead us. We need to have recourse to spiritual direction, choosing a good spiritual director who should be a true man of God, because 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. 

 Definitely, to be able to discern and follow God’s continuing guidance over us, we need to practice restraint and moderation in our speech, sleep, idle mirth, etc. In other words, we should try to live as spiritual men, not just carnal men. 

 We should always remember that our life is not just lived in the level of the physical and material dimensions. It is not even lived in the social level in all its aspects—economic, political, historical, etc. 

 Our life has a prominently spiritual dimension that requires us to nourish the way we think, judge, reason and ultimately to love. These are the functions of our spiritual soul. It’s in this dimension that the supernatural aspect of our life enters.

Insist and persist in prayer

WHENEVER we find ourselves in some helpless situation due to a persistent weakness—like the weakness of the flesh—or to some challenges and trials that are increasingly getting heavier each day, or to some misfortune that we find impossible to bear, then we should just insist on praying and begging our Lord for help. 

 While it’s true that we should also be accepting of whatever fate would come our way, no matter how trying, we have no reason to think that we can and should stop bothering God for the relief that we need. 

 We should rather act like that Syrophoenician woman who displayed a persistent and humble faith while asking Christ to cast a demon out of her daughter. (cfr. Mk 7,24-30) Despite initial rebuffs based on her nationality, she won Christ’s admiration by arguing that “even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs,” resulting in her daughter’s instant healing. 

 That is why it is important that we always think and act according to our faith, more than just our feelings or our own natural and human estimation of things. It is faith that gives us the global picture of things. It manages to give us the real and redemptive meaning to any situation in our life. 

 It is our faith that reassures us that we are never alone, that we are never left abandoned to fend for ourselves against anything that can take place in life. Like that sick man at the poolside of Bethesda, lying there for 38 years, waiting for his lucky turn, (cfr. Jn 5,1-15) we should remain hopeful that not everything is lost. 

 God will always intervene in our life. He is a good father to us, ever merciful and compassionate, slow to anger, quick to forgive. We might be a misbehaving child, but he always looks first at our being his child before he does something with our misdeeds. 

 It might be good to always relish this psalm that reassures us of the goodness of God in spite of our mistakes: “For his anger is but for a moment, and his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may last for the night, but a shout of joy comes in the morning.” (30,5) 

 Our problem is that we many times choose to be guided by our own feelings and private thoughts, detached from our faith. And so, we plunge into fear and shame, sadness and depression, and we suffer unnecessarily. Rather, let’s just be insistent and persevering in our prayer. 

And if God seems to ignore us, we have to realize that he is simply testing us for a number of reasons—to strengthen our faith, to purify our intentions, to grow in the other virtues, etc. But to be sure, God is never indifferent to our needs. He is always solicitous. He even knows more of our needs than we do, and makes provision for them. It’s rather us who do not notice what God is giving and doing for us most of the time. 

 Obviously, for our prayer to be insistent and persevering in spite of what may appear as God’s initial indifference to our requests, we need to spend some moments of special and serious conversation with him, like some period of mental prayer, meditating on God’s word, having recourse to the sacraments, etc. These are like the refueling process that helps us to continue going on with our spiritual life. 

 The important thing to remember is that we should never give up on our prayer. Rather, let us always sharpen our dispositions for prayer.

Despite the heavy drama of our life

WE should stick firmly to what Christ assured his disciples, and now us. Considering that our life here on earth is often referred to as a “vale of tears,” let’s avoid over-reacting to the heavy drama that we can expect in this life. 

 Let’s relish these words of our Lord: “In the world you shall have distress: but have confidence, I have overcome the world.” (Jn 16,33) Yes, our life here on earth is actually just transitory. It is a difficult journey toward our definitive destination. But there is always hope of reaching a better place, that is heaven, in the end. 

 We have to learn to have confidence in God’s loving providence over us by always strengthening our faith and referring everything in our life to him who knows how to derive good from evil.

 Our sense of confidence should spring from a faith that gives us the ultimate meaning and proper direction to all our human knowledge and endeavors. It is what gives the original perspective to all events, good or bad, in our life. Otherwise, we would end up confused and lost. 

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

 That’s why St. Paul said: “Above all, take the shield of faith, wherewith you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.” (Eph 6,16) Faith holds pride of place in our armory to wage that lifelong battle with our wounded flesh, the temptations of the world, and the tricks of the devil. 

 Without faith, we would be easy prey to these enemies of our soul. Without it, we most likely would be filled with fear and anxiety, if not sadness and desperation. Faith unites us to the tremendous power of God over any kind of evil, self-inflicted or caused by others. 

 There’s no way we can achieve our ultimate goal without faith. With God, we have everything. As St. Teresa de Avila would put it: “Solo Dios basta!” (God alone is enough!) 

 And so, there’s really no reason to be too worried and anxious when we encounter some difficulty in our life. In fact, we have every reason to be confident and at peace, focused on what we are supposed to do. And that’s because we are always in God’s hands. 

 Whatever situation we may be in, we can be sure that God will always provide for what is truly needed by us, and it may not be what we want. We just have to trust him completely for he knows better than we do, and what we want may not be what we need. It may not even be what is good for us. 

 Yes, there will always be challenges, problems, difficulties that humanly speaking may be impossible for us to tackle. But as long as we have trust in God, we can sincerely echo St. Paul’s words: “I can do all things in him who strengthens me.” (Phil 4,13) These words have been verified to be true in the lives of all the saints, especially the martyrs. 

 It’s important that we be confident and at peace always, because that would put us in the proper condition to do the things we are supposed to do. It will make us bold and courageous, fruitful and productive.

The significance of Our Lord’s Ascension

A NUMBER of very meaningful considerations can be drawn from the Ascension of Our Lord into heaven. One is that with it we are reminded that like Christ, who is the pattern of our humanity and the redeemer of our damaged humanity, we actually came from heaven and are meant to return there for our definitive state of life after “passing” the test God has given us if what he wants us to be is also what we ourselves would like to be. 

 With our Lord’s Ascension, we are told that heaven is now open to humanity after it has been closed due to the fall of our first parents. We have been alienated from our Father God and are now reconciled through the redemptive work of Christ. 

 Our Lord’s Ascension also brings home to us our true home which is heaven where there will be “no more tears, pain or death, (cfr. Rev 21,1-4) where “no eye has seen, nor ear heard, or the heart of man conceived,” (cfr. 1 Cor 2,9) It’s there where we become a new creation, achieve the perfection of our humanity, and where we enjoy endless peace and bliss. 

 We really need to develop a yearning for heaven, but doing so by being keenly aware of our duties here on earth. The latter are our daily ordinary pathways to heaven, aside from the sacred means Christ has given us. 

Yes, we have to always keep heaven in mind and live our earthly life with this goal in sight, using our daily duties and experiences as pathways to reach God. Yes, as we yearn for heaven, we should be keenly aware of our duties here on earth. We need to see the organic connection between our earthly life and duties and our heavenly yearning. We cannot have one without the other. 

 In this regard, we have to do a lot of apostolate which would require of us that we, first of all, should be driven with love for God. Otherwise, our apostolate, our love for the others would have no steam to run on. 

 We need to see to it that our love for God always grows everyday, so that our love for others would also correspondingly grow. In this, we have to realize, first of all, how much God loves us. Only then can we start loving him and loving the others. 

 That is why we have to pray and consider the truths of our faith that show us much more than what our senses can discover. We can say that a person who does not pray is a person who cannot fall in love properly. 

 That’s because a prayerless love is a love that is simply driven by earthly elements that cannot last for long and cannot cope with all the demands of true love. It’s love that would be completely at the mercy of earthly and temporal conditions. 

 With sincere prayer, we would manage to keep our mind and heart, our thoughts and desires to somehow start and end with heaven. Thus, we can fulfill what St. Paul once said: “Set your hearts on heavenly things, not the things that are on earth.” (Col 3,1) 

 We have to learn how to relate everything to heaven, and not get entangled with our merely earthly and temporal affairs. Everything is meant to start and end with God who is the Creator of everything and the very foundation of reality.

“Your sorrow shall be turned into joy”

THESE are words Christ addressed to his disciples as he bade farewell to them. “Amen, amen I say to you, that you shall lament and weep, but the world shall rejoice; and you shall be made sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy.” (Jn 16,20) 

 Christ was consoling his disciples amid their sorrow over his impending departure. He used the analogy of childbirth to promise transformative joy as well as direct access to the Father through prayer in his name. 

 “A woman, when in labor, has sorrow, because her hour is come; but when she has brought forth the child, she remembers no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world,” he told them. Then he reassured them that “if you ask the Father anything in my name, he will give it to you.” (Jn 16,21.23) 

 This gospel episode simply shows Christ’s assurance of joy, a joy that transcends pain amid temporary worldly opposition, a joy that has lasting effects in eternal glory. This episode somehow reminds us to broaden our understanding of things as we go through the drama of our earthly life that will always involve suffering. More than that, it encourages us to learn the art of how to find joy even in our suffering. 

 We need to realize that in our life here on earth, joy and sorrow are intertwined, and we can manage to find joy even in suffering as long as we identify ourselves with Christ. We have to remember that Christ has conquered everything and has converted all the negative things in life into means for our purification and strengthening. 

 What we have to do is to unite whatever suffering we have with the suffering of Christ, because by so doing, we would be participating in Christ’s redemptive mission. So, we just have to relate everything to Christ by praying always, ever trusting in God’s presence and power. This mindset helps us develop a strong faith and confidence in Christ, enabling us to face whatever challenges and temptations would come our way. 

 Let’s be convinced that with Christ, suffering becomes an act of selfless love that can take on anything. Only in him can we find joy and meaning in suffering. With him, suffering loses its purely negative and painful character, and assumes the happy salvific character. 

 We need to process this truth of our faith thoroughly, always asking for God’s grace and training all our powers and faculties to adapt to this reality. That’s why Christ told us clearly that if we want to follow him, we simply have to deny ourselves, carry the cross and follow him. There’s no other formula, given our wounded human condition. 

 This self-denial and carrying of Christ’s cross will enable us to see that suffering is obviously the consequence of all our sins—ours and those of others. Embracing suffering the way Christ embraced his cross unites our suffering with that of Christ. 

 Our motive for it is like that of Christ. It’s the desire to conquer that suffering and ultimately our death through his death and resurrection. It’s obeying God’s will just like Christ obeyed his Father’s will. “Not my will but yours be done.” 

 Our reaction to any form of suffering in this life should therefore be theological and ascetical. It should be guided and inspired by faith. It should not just be physical or a natural affair. It should reflect the spiritual and supernatural realities to which we are all subject.

Let’s never be just by ourselves

THAT’S how we should be. To simply be by ourselves is actually an anomaly. As persons, endowed with intelligence and will, with the capacity to know and to love, we are meant to relate ourselves with others—with God, first, and then with everybody and everything else. 

 Thus, a point in the Catechism of the Catholic Church clearly states that, “being in the image of God, the human individual possesses the dignity of a person, who is not just something, but someone.” (357) 

 The Catechism explains further, shedding light on the difference between a something and a someone. 

 The human person who is a someone and not just a something is “capable of self-knowledge, of self-possession and of freely giving himself and entering into communion with other persons. 

 “And he is called by grace to a covenant with his Creator, to offer him a response of faith and love that no other creature can give in his stead.” 

 A person is an individual who is always in relation with others. He simply cannot be on his own. His life, his growth and maturity, his capacity to resist temptations and to handle his weaknesses well would depend on his relation with God and with others. 

 Since we are made in the image and likeness of God, we as persons must somehow reflect also the perpetual relation within the three persons in one God. We are meant to be taken up, with God's grace, in that Trinitarian relation of knowing and loving one another. 

 That's why Christ told us in no unclear terms that the greatest commandment we ought to follow is to love God with all our might, and the second greatest is to love our neighbor. 

 We need to train ourselves to be always mindful and thoughtful of the others. In this way, we avoid confining ourselves to our own world which definitely will not be the real world, because it would be a world of pure subjectivism, detached from the objective world outside of ourselves. 

 We have to be both mindful and thoughtful, because this is what is proper to us. If we fail to cultivate these traits, we actually would be harming our very own humanity, aborting our road to human maturity, not to mention, the fullness of Christian life. 

 We need to be mindful because we have to know what’s going around us. We should never be aloof and indifferent. We have to be aware not only of things and events that are taking place, whether near or far, but also and most especially of persons, starting with the one right beside us. 

 And not only should we be mindful. We also need to be thoughtful. We should think ahead of how things are developing and of what we can do to help shape their evolution. Life is always a work in progress, and there are goals, the ultimate and the subordinate, to reach. We should not get stuck with the here and now. 

 We also should learn to read the signs of the times and to prepare ourselves for whatever indications or warnings they are giving us. This way we put ourselves in condition to influence the flow of things, and to somehow already fashion the future. In this way, we extricate ourselves from our own subjective world and get to grapple with the objective reality.

Harmonizing our life’s different dimensions

IT’S obvious that we have to contend with the many aspects and dimensions of our life—the natural and the supernatural, the temporal and the eternal, the material and the spiritual, etc. We cannot deny that very often we see them competing or even in conflict with each other. 

 We, therefore, need to tackle the challenge and the complicated task of how to harmonize them in such a way that we can achieve what we may call as unity of life that pursues the proper and ultimate goal of our life. 

 Said in another way, we have to find a way of how we can live our spiritual and supernatural dimension of our life with naturalness as we go through our daily activities and concerns. The art and skills that are appropriate for this need should be learned and adopted as early as possible. 

 Definitely, this challenge and task would demand a lot of requirements from us. But to be sure, we can say that the basic requirement is for us to be fully identified with Christ, “the perfect God and the perfect man” (perfectus Deus, perfectus homo). 

 He is the very personification of how to integrate the different aspects of our life so we can achieve a certain consistency and continuity that would pursue the ultimate goal of our life. 

 In this regard, we cannot overemphasize the need for us to have regular time for prayer and avail of a plan of continuing formation so that our relation with Christ would really become alive and in a way that can effectively guide us in our daily activities. 

 With Christ, we would know how to live naturalness as we pursue our supernatural goal in the middle of the world. It has something to do with how to handle our human condition considering what we ought to be and what we are at the moment. Fact is, we have a supernatural goal, nothing less than to be united with God, which we have to pursue in the context of our human and natural world. 

 Naturalness is about how to mix the spiritual and material dimensions of our life, our personal and social aspects, and other elements in our life that, given the way we are, appear to compete with each other. How to integrate and harmonize them is the task of naturalness. 

 Naturalness is a very active affair, lived day to day, moment to moment, as we grapple with the continuous flow of our concerns. It’s the front man who does the dirty job of the bigger virtues of discretion, prudence and ultimately charity, the foot soldier who does the hand-to-hand combat, the peddler who does the door-to-door selling. 

 It has to know when to push and when to pull, what to say and show and what to be quiet about and hide. Obviously, it has to follow a game plan, with a clear goal in mind and a detailed knowledge of all the elements it has to contend with. 

 It has to know when to be active and when to be passive, when to be aggressive and when to be patient and tolerant. Of course, in our spiritual life, these elements while initially contrasting, can be blended and lived simultaneously, obviously as an effect of grace and our cleverness. 

 It also has to know how to project oneself to the future, given the data of the present and of the past. It has to learn how to relate history and current events with eternity. It should know how to connect the mundane with the sacred.