The one to die for

IF there’s anything that should elicit the strongest
passion in us, it should be the desire to be like God. This simply
corresponds to God’s greatest commandment as articulated by Christ
himself: “You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, and
with your whole soul, and with all your strength, and with all your
mind.” (Lk 10,27)

            Let’s see to it that these words do not remain words
alone, nor mere intention or theory that would hardly have any effect
on our feelings nor on the many aspects of our life. Let’s see to it
that these words would set us aflame with love, with a certain madness
which is how love usually expresses itself.

            This love for God—which is like saying, to be like God,
since loving resembles the lover with the beloved—should be the be-all
and end-all of our life. It’s not fame, nor wealth, nor some power.

            Much less should it be some person with great looks or
tremendous talents, or some vain thoughts about ourselves. It should
be God who draws our strongest desire, the only one to die for. Thus,
it is important to ask ourselves from time, what truly is my greatest
passion now? Is it simply food, fame, money, work, power?

            Or it is possible that our immediate passion is some
worldly thing, but do we know how to relate it to the ultimate passion
that is proper to us? Do we know how to relate these earthly passions
to God?

            Everyday, we need to find reason to make this need to love
God and to be like him very much alive in us. That’s simply because we
have been made in God image and likeness. And we have been given the
freedom together with his grace so that we can choose to be like God.

            We have to understand that freedom is best exercised when
used to choose to love God and therefore to be like God. We should not
misuse our freedom by using in any which way, or by simply using it to
pursue our whims and caprices. Only tragedy awaits us in these latter
cases.

            Let’s remember that our freedom is the best endowment God
has given our nature. It is through it that together with God’s grace
we can truly become like God as God wants it, nay, as God commands it.

            As St. Peter would put, let’s not make freedom “a cloak
for malice.” (1 Pt 2,16) Freedom’s ultimate purpose is for us to
become like God, since we have been created in his image and likeness,
something that we have to correspond ourselves to, using our freedom
precisely.

            We need to be more familiar with this need, and little by
little try to feel it and act on it. It does not come automatically.
It has to be educed, obviously slowly but also steadily. And for this,
it requires a lot of formation, of continuing motivations, and the
appropriate attitude, skills and virtues. Let’s hope that everyone
lends a hand in this task.

            We also need to disabuse ourselves from the
thinking—erroneous and baseless, for sure—that adopting this kind of
attitude would make us strange and weird. Hardly anything could be
farther than the truth.

            Passionately desiring to be like God completes and
perfects our humanity, or rather leads us to the fullness of our
humanity. It certainly is not an easy thing to do. There will be a lot
of awkwardness in the beginning, some bumbling and inconsistent
efforts in the process, but then if we persist, for sure, we can hack
it. It’s hard but not impossible.

            Besides, we are assured of God’s grace. This is also
something that we have to be more familiar with. This task and
challenge certainly does not depend solely on our human efforts. It
requires God’s grace which is actually given to us in abundance, but
which we have to ask, even beg.

            We have to remember always that while things completely
depend on us, they also completely depend on God—in fact, they depend
on God primarily. Our role, while done with total commitment, is more
of seconding God’s will and ways, which we have to do precisely with
our God-given gift of freedom.

            It’s time that we instill in everyone this awareness of
our need to cultivate this passion to be like God, who has revealed
himself completely to us in Christ, and who in turn continues to be
with us through the Holy Spirit acting on the many instrumentalities
Christ himself established.

Small and big

IN life we cannot help but deal with things both small and
big. We have to learn how to handle this aspect which can be very
tricky at times, especially when we get subjected to a lot of
pressures.

            In the gospel, Christ faulted some leading Jews of that
time for getting stuck with little duties but neglecting the big ones,
straining the gnat but swallowing the camel. “Woe to you scribes and
Pharisees, you hypocrites,” he said, “You pay tithes of mint and dill
and cumin, and have neglected the weightier things of the law:
judgment and mercy and fidelity.” (Mt 23,23)

            We are familiar with the saying that “the devil is in the
details.” It refers to our tendency to be too concerned about the big
things—like the over-all or long-term goal, while paying little
attention, if any at all, to the details to carry out that goal, as in
not having plans nor the necessary attitude and skills to achieve the
goal.

            But the reverse can also happen. The devil can also be in
the big things, in the sense that we can be too concerned about the
little details, the practice and the routine, but practically
forgetting the over-all picture, and especially the virtue of charity,
the be-all and end-all. The gospel passage above precisely falls under
this category.

            The ideal, of course, is to give due attention to both the
big and small things in any endeavor. And this can happen only when
that dual love of God and neighbor is the motive of all our actions.
God-love-neighbor should be both in the big and the small things in
our life. It is what would make us attentive to the requirements of
the small and big things in life, and see their organic relationship.

            And so we need to constantly rectify our intentions, since
very easily and frequently we can be overtaken by merely practical
motives which in themselves are not bad, but which cannot stand on
their own alone for long without being grounded on love for God and
neighbor.

            Obviously this ideal can seem to be too much for our human
condition to bear, weakened as it is by our sins, defects, weaknesses
and temptations. But we can always begin and begin again. If we have
the necessary humility to acknowledge our downside, we can always
manage somehow. As St. Paul said, “It’s in my weakness that I am made
strong.”

            That is why there is always a need for us to pause from
time to time in order to meditate and examine ourselves whether we are
giving due attention to these dual dimension of our life.

            We have to be wary of the current trend to be taken over
by a merely impulsive and reactive lifestyle that would deprive us of
our need to pray, meditate, study and examine our conscience. These
are the ones that would keep our proper bearing as we cruise through
the vast and often tumultuous ocean of life.

            In this, everyone should help to create the proper culture
and lifestyle that is both contemplative and active. The family
especially plays a very crucial role here, since it is mainly through
it that children and the youth, the future of the world, get formed
and equipped to face the challenges of an increasingly complicated
world.

            Parents should see to it their children learn the basics
of praying, studying and working. They have to teach their children
the fundamental virtues of order, of setting the proper priorities in
life, of organizing their day well, of distinguishing between what is
essential and what is incidental, what is of absolute value and what
is simply of relative value.

            We should see to it that we are continually imbuing our
community and general culture with the proper values and virtues,
alerting the schools, parishes, etc., to do their part. This is
actually a never-ending task that would require of us a lot of
patience and creativity, never afraid to tackle whatever problems and
issues we may encounter along the way.

            As we can see, we cannot anymore remain naïve and
indifferent from this challenge. We have to take the bull by the
horns, always confident that we can do it, since in the end we have
God with us. As St. Paul would put it in his Letter to the Romans: “If
God be for us, who is against us? He that spared not even his own Son,
but delivered him up for us all, how does he not also with him give us
all things?” (8,31-32)

The tree of death and life

I AM referring to the cross. More specifically, the cross
of Christ. It is the tree that symbolizes all our sinfulness and all
its awful effects and consequences, as well as our own salvation, that
is, if we look at it the way Christ did.

            The cross in all its forms should be seen in its proper
perspective, and that is the perspective of our faith, as articulated
by Christ himself not only in words but most especially in deeds. The
cross is not an afterthought of God. It is part of his eternal plan
for us.

            We should avoid regarding it based solely on our own
estimation of things. Such attitude can keep us in an unholy
captivity, since it can only give us its dark, negative side, and not
its redeeming and supernatural character. In this, we have to help
everyone to overcome the common and improper tendency.

            We need to see the cross in all its entirety. It certainly
is not simply bad news. It actually is good news, deserving of being
loved and of looking forward to. We should not be afraid of it.

            The cross is the symbol of our sinfulness and all its
effects and consequences that ultimately include our death. That’s
because our very own nature, which is not only biological but most
especially spiritual with the capacity for the supernatural, would
involve these effects when we misuse the gifts God gives us,
especially that of our freedom.

            It is therefore unavoidable. But Christ shows us how to
suffer it and to convert it into our way of salvation. He has assumed
all our sinfulness and all its effects and consequences, especially
death. But he has turned them, with his death in obedience to his
Father’s will, into our way of salvation. This is the secret of that
happy conversion—suffering in obedience to the Father’s will.

            Thus, the cross becomes a tree of life, a source of grace
and joy. That’s why we should not be afraid of it. We should rather
welcome it and be most eager to embrace it. We need to overcome our
natural fears and resistance, and in fact train our natural systems,
with God’s grace that’s given to us in abundance, to conform to this
wonderful truth of our faith.

            We have to be wary of our tendency to be easily taken up
simply by our feelings when crosses come our way. While we cannot
avoid them, we should not allow them to lead the way in reacting and
accepting these crosses. We have to react in a spiritual and
supernatural way.

            God’s grace in the form of faith, hope and charity can
certainly enable us to bear all things. We may not be able to
understand the mechanism involved. But what we know is that what is
impossible with us is always possible with God.

            And what is usually feared and resisted by us becomes an
object of extreme interest when done with God. Christ has shown us the
way, and the saints have continually given testimony to this truth.

            On our part, we have to take advantage of the many little
discomforts, disappointments, frustrations, problems, etc., we meet
everyday to cultivate this love for the cross. This is how we can
prepare ourselves to face the ultimate big cross of our life—our
death.

            We have to be quick to see the opportunity and the
invitation God is sending us to identify ourselves with Christ when
suffering, in one form or another, comes our way. Yes, for this, we
need to discipline our emotions and thoughts, even as we quicken our
faith, making many acts of faith, hope and charity.

            We should never belittle these practices that may appear
childish to some but actually are clear manifestations of human and
Christian maturity. This is another challenge to tackle, an erroneous
mindset that needs to be changed.

            We have to reassure everyone the crosses, when seen from
the point of view of our faith, are actually welcome events with great
potentials for our own purification and atonement for our mistakes and
sins, and ultimately for identifying ourselves more and more with
Christ. In fact, in this life these crosses guarantee that we are
dealing with Christ.

            These crosses attract graces and occasion spiritual
growth. We should always relate them with the abiding and
never-failing providence of God. Our problem is that we usually fall
into relying on our own estimation of things that no matter how
brilliant can only take so much. We need to change that attitude.