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)