Why it’s difficult to believe in Christ

“HOW long are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” (Jn 10,24) 

 Perhaps we too can ask the same question. In spite of what we already know about Christ, we may still be harboring doubts as to whether Christ is really the one he presents himself to be. 

 I believe the simple answer is that to believe in Christ requires the grace of God. If we just rely on our human faculties, like our intelligence and common sense, we would actually not go very far. At a certain point, we would start to entertain doubts about who Christ really is. 

 And that is also simply because Christ, while truly a man, is first of all divine. He is a supernatural being. In fact, he is the Supreme Being who has no beginning and no end. While we can know him through his words and deeds as recorded in the gospel, he will always remain a mystery still to us. He overwhelms our capacity to know him. 

 With him, what we have to do is to believe first before we can start to understand him more deeply. With him, we need to have faith first before the operations of our intelligence and our other faculties do their thing. 

 Thus, both St. Augustine and St. Anselm enunciated the proper way to understand and believe in Christ. “Credo ut intellegam” (I believe that I might understand) was what they were saying. They made an appeal to follow first our faith before we start to use our intelligence. Or better said, we have to make our reasoning be inspired by our faith first. 

 We therefore have to see to it that we develop an operative faith. Our faith should not remain only in the theoretical, intellectual level. It has to be a functioning one, giving shape and direction in our thoughts and intentions, our words and deeds. In fact, it should shape our whole life. 

 The ideal is that we feel it immediately. Indeed, it should be like an instinct such that whatever we think, say or do, or whenever we have to react to something, it is our faith that should guide us. 

 We have to understand that it is our faith that gives us the global picture of things, since it is God’s gift to us, a gratuitous sharing of what God knows about himself and about the whole of creation. It is meant for our own good, for us to live out our true dignity as children of God. 

 It is a kind of knowledge that will lead us to our eternal life. It will make us relate everything in our earthly life, both the good and the bad, to this ultimate goal in life which is to be in heaven with God, a state that is supernatural. But it is a divine gift that we need to take care of. It is like a seed that has to grow until it becomes a big tree and bears fruit. 

 For this, we really need to have a living contact with Christ who is the fullness of God’s revelation to us. He is the substance, the content and the spirit of our faith. So, the first thing that we have to do is to look for him always whatever we may be thinking, saying or doing. Never mind if we do not understand him fully. We should just follow him!

The Good Shepherd and the sacrificial lamb

IF we are truly to be like Christ, we also have to be a good shepherd to the others as well as a sacrificial lamb for the others. Not only that. We also need to be both a shepherd and a sheep, one that takes care of others as well as one to be taken care of. Finally, we have to form ourselves as one sheepfold of Christ. 

 All these farm or pastoral images in the gospel remind us of these truths of our faith about ourselves in our relation with God and with everybody else. Let’s keep these precious truths vivid in our mind if only to conform our life—our thoughts, words and deeds, our desires and intentions, etc.—to them. 

 Conformed to Christ, we have to be both sheep and shepherd, both to be guided and to guide, following the same process of receiving and giving that characterizes our whole earthly life. 

 As good shepherd, Christ lays down his life for his sheep. He is willing to be the sacrificial lamb. He contrasts himself to the hireling. The latter “sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees.” 

 As members of the Church founded by Christ, we form one sheepfold whose door is Christ himself. We are a flock taken care of by Christ as the good shepherd, and we also take care of one another. Yes, we are also a shepherd to each other, being so in the name of Christ. 

 We have to understand that we ought to develop a keen sense of the pastoral. We both have to learn and to teach, to be led and to lead, to be offered like the sacrificial lamb and to be the offerer himself. 

 We have to understand that this sense of the pastoral involves all of us, and not just the priests and bishops. It’s for the clergy, the laity and the religious. We all take part in the continuing mission of Christ and of the Church, which is the salvation of man, though in different ways. 

 As sheep and lamb, we have to try our best to learn everything about our faith and to live it to the full. Christ has given us everything already that we need to know. He has given us all the means we need to be who we ought to be—nothing less than to be “another Christ.” 

 To be very realistic in life, we have to be ready and eager to become a sacrificial lamb. This is not bad news. This is Good News. To be a sacrificial lamb actually has a very wonderful significance. Our Christian faith tells us that given who and what we are, we have been taught right from the beginning of humanity, that we need to offer a sacrifice as a way of expressing and affirming the truth that we come from God and we also belong to him. 

 God, our Father and Creator, has been the one who teaches us about this duty. He has also equipped us in our nature so that we can comply with this duty that only shows the intimate relation we have with God. In short, God, who is love, has been teaching us, who are his image and likeness, how to love. 

 This whole business of offering sacrifices is actually the language of love. It acts out the dynamics of love which is that of mutual self-giving between the lover and the beloved. Each party becomes both lover and beloved in the ideal state of love.

Let’s learn to recognize the voice of Christ

“My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one can take them out of my hand.” (Jn 10,27-28) 

 What reassuring words of Christ that also contain a duty that we have to carry out faithfully! If we truly want to be with Christ as we should, we have to learn to recognize his voice, since he is actually always intervening in our life. We have to be the sheep that hears Christ’s voice all the time. 

 And we can effectively carry out this duty if we have that attitude of always looking for Christ in everything that we do. In fact, Christ himself said that we seek first the kingdom of God, and not to worry so much about our temporal and worldly needs, because all these will also be provided by him as long as we look for Christ first. 

 This looking for Christ should be our basic attitude that should guide us daily and give shape to our day. Our life should be characterized by an attitude of looking forward, of watching and expecting, clarifying and pursuing our intentions, and being ever hopeful. 

 We need to realize then that we have to take utmost care of our intention, making it as explicit as possible, and honing it to get engaged with its proper and ultimate object who is God. 

 We should try our best to shun being simply casual or cavalier about this responsibility. We can easily play around with it, since intentions are almost invariably hidden from public knowledge. We are urged to be most sincere in directing our intentions properly. 

 We can easily fall into hypocrisy and deception, doing what can appear good externally but is not internally, since we could refuse giving glory to God, which is the proper intention to have, and instead feed and stir our vanity, pride, greed, lust, etc. 

 We need to actively purify our intentions, since we have to contend with many spoilers in this regard these days. In fact, we just have to look around and see how openly opposed many people are of directing their intentions to God. 

 To them, intentions are strictly personal and confidential matters that others do not have any right to meddle. While there is a certain truth to this claim, we have to remind ourselves that our intentions too are subject to God’s moral law for us. 

 Our intentions can only have at their core the love of God, the giving of glory to God. As St. Paul once indicated, “Whether you eat or drink, or whatsoever else you do, do all to the glory of God.” (1 Cor 10,31) 

 We therefore have to be most careful in handling our intentions. They play a strategic role in our life, for how and where we direct them would determine whether we want to be with God or simply be with our own selves. 

 Our intentions express who and where in the end we want to be. Do we choose God, or do we simply choose ourselves, or the world in general? It’s actually a choice between good and evil. 

 Even if we are not aware, or refuse to be aware, of this choice, which is usually the case, the choice between God and us, between good and evil is always made with every human act we do.