The art of passing unnoticed

ONE of the mysterious aspects of the behaviour of Christ was his constant insistence not to be known as some kind of wonder-worker or superhero every time he performed a miracle. He had a kind of obsession to pass unnoticed.

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

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

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

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

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

            This contrasting behaviour obviously baffles us. Why does he want to hide his divinity to some people and affirm it to others?

            I believe the answer lies in the fact that Christ wants to be known both as God and man, and as our Redeemer, not out of idle curiosity or for merely practical purposes, but really out of faith.

            Our problem often is that our belief in Christ is often corrupted by merely human motives. It’s not faith, but some mixture of idle curiosity and other practical purposes that make us follow him.

            And when these idle curiosity and practical purposes would already have their fill, or worse, are not met as expected, then that belief in Christ falls apart. The apostles themselves were not exempt from this phenomenon. Many times, Christ would lament over their lack of faith.

            Same with the crowd. Those who welcomed him at his entry to Jerusalem were also those who shouted, “Crucify him” a little later.

            Christ wants us to approach him with faith. He wants us to consider the spiritual and supernatural character of his life that should also be reflected in ours. He does not want us to get stuck with his merely material, natural and human aspects.

            Not that these material, natural and human aspects are bad or are a hindrance in our proper attitude toward Christ. They are important and indispensable, but they should conduct us to, not prevent us from knowing his real nature and role he plays for us. These aspects should in fact help us to enter into the very life of Christ who is both God and man.

            But given our wounded human condition, prone to see only the partial and the immediate and  to miss the whole picture, Christ must have been playing it discreet when performing those marvellous miracles of his. He was careful his work nourished the faith of the people, and not just met their immediate needs.

            This should also be a lesson for all of us to follow. In all our thoughts, words and actuations, we should see to it that we feed our faith, that we are led to God, that in the end we manage to live true charity that includes all the other virtues.

            We should do our best to avoid getting hijacked in the purely material or practical aspects of our life. We should imitate Christ in his discretion and restraint, in his art of passing of unnoticed, in his effort to avoid grabbing unnecessary and dangerous attention from others, by seeing to it that our thoughts, words and deeds truly lead others to God, and not simply to us.

            At best, we should simply be conductors to bring others to Christ. We should avoid making ourselves something like idols, objects of interest. The ideal situation would be that all who see us should see Christ, as he himself said it clearly to his apostles, then to us.

           

            We have to learn to pass unnoticed while doing things that would lead others to Christ!

We need to be strong and tough

OF course, without compromising our need also to be tender and gentle. We are not meant to be strong and tough like the brute and the monster. We need to have the strength of charity that knows also how to bend, to understand, to forgive.

            It’s a matter of discernment and prudence. They actually can and should go together—our toughness and gentleness.

            But their manifestations vary according to the situation, and we just have to learn how to show and live both anytime, or highlight one over the other given the circumstance or the need of the moment.

            Christ, of course, is the ultimate model of all this. The saints have reflected this integrated quality well. We too need to learn and live this virtue, if we want to be truly human, let alone, Christian.

            We need to be strong and tough, first of all, because our life will always involve, if not, require nothing less than continuing effort and struggle. Christ himself said it clearly: “From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and men of violence take it by force.” (Mt 11,12)

            This is because there are goals and challenges to reach. And they are not merely natural, social or human goals. They are spiritual and supernatural that obviously need both grace and nothing less than our all-out effort.

            Besides, given our wounded human condition, there obviously are problems and difficulties to face, temptations and consequences of our sins, mistakes and failures. There will always be issues that we need to resolve.

            This is not to mention that each one of us has his own personal weaknesses to tackle. Everyone is prone to laziness and complacency, to narrow-mindedness and shortsightedness, if not blindness to spiritual and supernatural realities, all of which can lead to complications in our life.

            We have to deal with the concupiscence of the eyes and the flesh, the pride of life, our tendency to be vain and self-centered, and to be dominated by the urges of lust and sensuality, greed and avarice, gluttony, and the many other disordinate passions we have.

            We have to know the peculiarities of our emotional and psychological make-up, so we can be prepared to deal with the ups and downs of our life, twists and turns of life’s drama that can lead us to wild mood swings and to more serious conditions like falling into bipolar and similar mental and emotional illnesses.

            This is not to mention that we have to learn how to cope with the consequences of the other extreme of committing mistakes and sins, suffering defeat, being a failure that can plunge us to depression, self-pity and despair. Or the sweet poison of success that can spoil us.

            Let’s never forget that we also have to deal with spiritual and supernatural enemies of our soul. We are actually ranged against powerful spiritual enemies.

            We indeed have to learn how to be strong and tough, ever patient, hopeful, trusting in God’s never-failing and ever-wise-and-merciful providence, and optimistic, cheerful, serene and confident. The ideal Christian life is one of being zealous and aggressive, not passive and completely defensive.

            We need to pause and probe deeply into this truth of our faith so we can have a clearer idea of what, aside from God’s grace that we should always ask, we can do to deal with our different predicaments in life.

            Yes, it’s true that we have to be sensitive and delicate, especially in our conscience, but it’s also true that we have to learn how to be thick-skinned, how to be indifferent and to ignore certain things, and just to move on, in spite of cuts and bruises we may suffer along the way.

            Christ told us that it’s better to be one-eyed and to cut one hand off than to have both eyes and hands if one part of the pair becomes an occasion of sin for us. We have to learn to suffer, always trusting in the end in the ever-powerful and wise will of God.

            Let’s remember that Christ himself pleaded with the Father to take the cup away from him, but in the end, he simply submitted to his Father’s will. “Not my will but yours be done.” And he resurrected, and with it, conquered sin and death for us.

            In this Easter season, we need to have the mind of the Risen Christ. Like him, let’s have the mind of a victor, a conqueror who is willing to take on anything and still wins.

Work when sanctified sanctifies

MAY 1 is celebrated in a special way both in the Church and in our civil society. In our liturgical calendar, it is the memorial of St. Joseph the Worker, and in our civil society, it is National Labor’s Day.

            Both focus on the importance of work. We, of course, do not need to belabour the obvious. Work is a necessity in our country if we want to survive economically and even politically. That’s why we are interested to know about productivity, efficiency, profitability, GDP, GNP, ROI, etc.

            There are many issues involved in this particular aspect of work. Generation of employment is one, another is equitable distribution of income. In this regard too, we can also talk about minimum wage, what would constitute as fair work conditions, etc.

            But in the heat of sorting out the macro issues of work, we should not forget that work is first of all necessary for everyone’s personal growth, development and maturity. It unleashes our powers and actualizes our potentials.

            Aside from giving us a source of income and a stabilizing element in family life, it is what gives us a deep sense of fulfilment and joy. Everything has to be done so that these personal, micro aspects of work are always enhanced, and not unduly sacrificed due to some macro goals.  

            This is just to follow that Christian teaching that the person should be given priority over the demands of labor and the economy. The latter should work for the good of the former, and not the former enslaved by the latter.

            Underpinning all these considerations is a more fundamental and radical truth that should always be respected, and in fact, fostered every step of the way and in every level of human life, personal, family, social, economic, political, etc.

            And this is none other than that our work is actually an intimate, personal participation of the continuing work of God which is his abiding providence over all his creation.

            As image and likeness of God, we live and do everything, including our work, with God always. Even without realizing it, the objective truth is that our life, and everything in it, is always a life with God.

            Our work therefore is not just ours. It just does not correspond to some purely natural and human needs. It is by definition a work with God. We need to be most aware of this truth, so we can also consciously and freely work in sync as much as possible with God’s will and ways, as is proper to us as God’s image and likeness.

            If we know, believe and start living this truth, then we can conclude that our work is the usual and main means for all of us to be sanctified, for that is what is meant when we vitally unite ourselves with him, when we conform our will and work with God’s will and work. Our work can make us holy, since it can unite us subjectively with God.

            This effort of uniting our will and work with God’s will and work is what comprises the task of sanctifying our work. When we try to discern what God wants us to do and then do it with utmost love for him and others, we are sanctifying our work.

            That work that is so offered and done to God with love, expressed in doing it with the best competence we can muster, will surely sanctify us. It would purify us and put us on the path of resembling ourselves more and more with God who is our Father, our beginning and our end—in fact, our everything.

            We need to retail this truth more actively and widely. Some of us may already know this truth in theory, but we are not yet there in practice. In this sector alone, a lot need to be done.

            But we also know that there is even a much larger sector who does not know the intimate connection of work with God. In this regard, we really have to mobilize whatever resources we have to establish this truth firmly in our culture.

            May those who know this truth be more consistent in living it. May they also be more active in spreading it until this truth permeates the life of the family, and the spirit with which we live out the social, economic, political aspects, etc., of our life.

            Our times now challenge us to have a more mature understanding of our work, otherwise we would simply get confused and lost in the many new things arising around.