A golden anniversary

MY high school class ‘68 just celebrated our golden

anniversary, and we had a grand reunion the other day. Of the more

than 200 who belonged to that batch, about 60 came.

   

            Of course, quite a number already had gone ahead to

eternal life. In fact, I had to read a long list of teachers and

batchmates who have passed away, before the Mass that I celebrated on

that occasion. Others could not make it for one reason or

another—health, distance, previous appointments, etc.—but everyone

practically followed the event through our new techs.

   

            As the only priest in the batch, I was asked to say two

Masses and to give some spiritual inputs. On the spot, they made me

the chaplain of the class which I, of course, gladly accepted.

            I was moved to see all of them, many of whom I have not

seen for practically 50 years also, since I seldom got back to my home

province and to our former alma mater. As can be expected, there were

those who can be considered as doing very well in life and those who

were struggling, those whom I expected to get into a certain condition

in life and those who gave me a big surprise.

  

            Anyway, what is important—and this was one of the main

messages I gave them—is that we should keep strong our class spirit. I

told them that as persons, we are not only individual beings, but

persons expected to form a strong community spirit in every level in

our life, until we all become the People of God, the family of God.

             For a strange reason, I stood up to sing a number of songs

of our time during our dinners since there was a band playing. It was

a good move, since many others let down their shyness and started also

to sing.

            That was when I had a big surprise—there were actually

many good singers, dancers and entertainers among my classmates. It

took 50 years to discover their hidden talents. You see, during our

time, it was not the usual practice to show off our talents. Unlike

today…

  

            Anyway, I told my classmates that our memories, whether

good or bad, are very precious treasures. If seen with faith, they

actually would show us the guiding and merciful hand of God. They

actually offered lessons to learn from all the events and

circumstances of the past. They are strong reasons to be very thankful

to God for everything.

  

            Given our age now, I told them that we still have to learn

to flow with the times, learning the art of inter-generational

interactions. We actually still have a lot to offer especially to the

young generation who definitely know a lot more in terms of the

technical things. We can show them what is actually most essential in

life—how to love, how to understand and respect everyone including

those with whom we have big differences, etc.

  

            I also told them that while before we were encouraged to

be future-ready by acquiring as many skills as possible, now we have

to be more eternity-ready and to see to it that we have what we would

really need for a happy eternal life.

             And that can only be love—the love that comes from God who

loves us to death with his mercy and compassion. All the events and

circumstances of our life, whether good or bad, should be made to

develop and grow in that love.

   

            I told them not to be afraid of death, since death can

only be the transition from our earthly, temporal life to our eternal

life. I reminded them that our time on earth is the time of God’s

creation and redemption of ourselves. We should try to cooperate with

God’s action on us as best as we could.

Loving God is that simple!

QUITE often, we think that loving God would require

tremendous, almost superhuman effort. In a sense, that is right. After

all, if we have to observe how Christ loved and continues to love his

Father and us, that can only be the conclusion we can get. He went all

the way to offer his life on the cross. Indeed, this love can only

happen with the grace of God, and never just by our own strength.

  

            But from another angle, loving God is actually a very

simple affair. It just requires us to give due attention to those who

are in need of something—food, clothing, shelter, affection, etc.

   

            “Whatever you did to the least of my brothers, you did for

me,” Christ clearly said. (Mt 25,40) He also said the reverse:

“Whatever you did not do for the least of my brothers, you did not do

for me.” (Mt 25,45)

  

            These words of Christ should make us keenly aware of what

St. John said in his first letter about the relation between loving

God and loving others: “If a man says, I love God and hates his

brother, he is a liar. For he who does not love his brother whom he

sees cannot love God whom he does not see.” (4,20) Yes, loving God can

only be by way of loving others.

   

            The immediate corollary we can draw from these words is

that we should try our best to cultivate a pro-active attitude of

loving others, whoever they may be, including those who may be our

enemies in some sense, or whom we consider to be unlovable for one

reason or another.

  

            And we have to understand that loving God by loving others

should not just be a matter of good intentions and sweet words. It has

to be expressed in deeds, and not only from time to time, but always,

starting with the little things we can do for the others, all the way

to the big and extraordinary things that others may need from us.

  

            And when we are faced with a situation where we cannot

help in a human way, we can always turn to God for help, for with him

nothing is impossible. We just have to learn to roll with the punches

of the mysterious ways of God.

   

            Besides, we have to love others by serving them

gratuitously, without expecting any return. We should not count the

cost, because anyway what we have or what we are capable of giving to

the others ultimately comes from God. So we just follow what Christ

once said: “Freely you have received, freely give.” (Mt 10,8)

  

            Everyday, we should see to it that what drives us is to

love the others. We have to start by always thinking of others,

observing them, trying to figure out what they need, and be ready to

spring into action, leaving behind comfort and convenience, which is

often the case.

  

            We should not be afraid to make sacrifices and a host of

self-denials. These instances of self-denials can only reflect

Christ’s own self-emptying for the salvation of mankind. And so we

become more and more Christ-like, which is what our goal should be,

since we are supposed to be patterned after Christ.

   

            This way, we avoid the trap of self-centeredness and

self-absorption, and the many deceptive pleasures and false hopes that

they give. Even if the sacrifices and self-denials involve a lot of

effort and pain, they actually generate a certain indescribable joy

and peace that the world cannot give.

  

            Besides, having this pro-active attitude of loving and

serving others would give us ample protection from our own weaknesses

and the many temptations around.

On judging others

CHRIST told us very clearly that we should refrain from

judging others. “Do not judge, or you will be judged,” he said. “For

with the same judgment you pronounce, you will be judged, and with the

measure you use, it will be measured to you…” (Mt 7,1-2)

   

            We need to understand these words well. It’s not that we

should not judge at all, since with our spiritual nature that endows

us with intelligence and will, part of our way of knowing is precisely

to judge. It’s when we make judgments that we start to know things.

Our process of knowing covers the stages of simple apprehension, then

judgment, then reasoning.

  

            The words of Christ are meant to restrain us from making

rash judgments, especially on other people whose status in any given

moment we can hardly know completely. They are meant for us to judge

well so that we too can be judged fairly, that is, with compassion and

mercy, by others and ultimately by God.

  

            With others, we have to practice a lot of restraint and

moderation because the condition of any man will always involve

certain mysteries that we can hardly fathom. St. Augustine has this to

say about us: “Don’t you believe that there is in man a deep so

profound as to be hidden even to him in whom it is?”

  

            In fact, more than practicing restraint and moderation,

given how man is, or how we are, we should judge with charity, with

compassion and understanding, ever willing to give others the benefit

of the doubt in their goodness and innocence, and even trying to find

excuses for them. That’s because in the end, in spite of our

differences and mistakes, we are all brothers and sisters, all

children of God, bound to love one another.

  

            Even in those instances where one is already known to have

committed a big crime, and worse, is not sorry for it, we still cannot

make a final judgment on him. That final judgment belongs to God alone

who knows everything.

  

            An example of this is what Pope Benedict XVI said of Judas

Iscariot. “This mystery is even more profound if one thinks of Judas’

eternal fate,” he said, “knowing that he ‘repented and brought back

the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders, saying ‘I

have sinned in betraying innocent blood.’ (Mt 27,3-4)

  

            “Though he departed afterward to hang himself (cf Mt

27,5), it is not for us to judge his gesture, putting ourselves in

God’s place, who is infinitely merciful and just.” (Audience, Oct 19,

2006)

             Everyday, we need to make some progress in knowing how to

judge people properly. It may be in the area of patience, of having a

pro-active attitude of thinking well of others in spite of what you

see in them, of learning how to keep quiet, or of simply protecting

ourselves from the more or less general atmosphere of fault-finding,

intrigue-sowing, gossiping, back-biting and the like.

  

            We just have to make sure that we think, judge and reason

out with God, since he gave us these powers that have to be exercised

under his law and terms, so to speak.

  

            God is the very foundation of reality. It is from him that

we come and to him that we belong. He is actually everything to us. It

would be funny if we think otherwise, although that is entirely

possible since we are capable to abusing our freedom, of thinking that

we can be absolutely on our own.

  

            Our usual problem is that we tend to think, judge and

reason out, and even love outside the orbit of God, outside the

purview of his laws and will. This is what our Lord meant when he said

we should not judge.