Who do we follow?

WE have to ask ourselves this question from time to time: are we really following Christ, or have we quietly begun following our own likes, dislikes, and opinions? 

 It is surprisingly easy to drift. Instead of allowing Christian faith to guide our decisions, we can gradually depend on our own reasoning, personal tastes, and changing ways. Regular examination keeps faith central. 

 We can see this danger in the Gospel episode about Jesus returning to Nazareth. (cfr. Lk 4:16–30) He entered the synagogue, read from Isaiah, and began speaking. At first, the people were impressed by his words. 

 They wondered at the gracious words coming from his mouth. But admiration soon changed. They asked whether this was not Joseph’s son, someone they already knew from their neighborhood. Familiarity became an obstacle to faith. 

 Then Jesus explained that Isaiah’s prophecy was being fulfilled in him. Suddenly, admiration became resistance, and the people became so angry that they wanted to throw him over a cliff. The story remains relevant. 

 It presents a practical question for us. Do we follow Christ when his teachings agree with our preferences, or do we follow him even when he challenges our comfortable assumptions? That question deserves honest attention. 

 It matters especially today. We live amid remarkable progress in technology, communication, science, philosophy, and other fields. These developments have made life easier, faster, and wonderfully convenient. 

 None of these achievements is bad. They can be gifts when used wisely. Technology can serve humanity, reason can discover truth, and creativity can solve problems. Trouble begins when good things quietly take faith’s place. 

 We may become so impressed by human intelligence that we forget realities which intelligence alone cannot fully grasp. This is one subtle spiritual challenge of our time: placing our methods and opinions above God’s wisdom. 

 Faith and reason, however, are not enemies. They belong together. Both are gifts from God, and properly understood, they cooperate in helping us discover truth, make sound decisions, and live responsibly. 

 The difficulty comes when reason tries to become independent of God. Intelligence can then become a servant of ambition, convenience, or self-interest, rather than an instrument for sincerely seeking truth and what is genuinely good. 

 We should therefore ask ourselves honestly: am I using reason to understand God’s creation better, or mainly to justify what I already want? Modern conveniences can become “sweet poisons,” making dependence on God seem unnecessary. 

 Christ gives us the corrective when he says that anyone who wishes to follow him must deny himself and carry his cross. Faith cannot remain an agreeable idea or Sunday habit; it must shape life. 

 Following Christ means allowing him to challenge us. Sometimes he asks us to forgive when resentment feels justified, serve when we would rather relax, or sacrifice when convenience seems attractive. This makes discipleship concrete. 

 We do not prove faith merely by knowing Christian teachings. We prove it by letting them shape our choices, habits, priorities, relationships, and actions. Therefore, renewed evangelization and apostolate are needed to purify our culture. 

 This renewal should not be hostile. We can present the beauty and reasonableness of Christian living through families, schools, workplaces, parishes, friendships, and communities where truth is respected and charity is practiced naturally. 

 We need not fear modernity, technology, or human progress. Rather, we should place these valuable things in proper order, keeping God at the center and using everything else wisely for serving others. 

 The goal is not to reject the world but transform it. When Christ guides our minds and hearts, our abilities become instruments for serving others. So we ask: am I following Christ, or myself?

The great value of suffering

IT just doesn’t make sense at first glance. Why would Christ tell us to deny ourselves and pick up a cross just to follow Him. (cfr. Mt 16,24) What’s so appealing about suffering that He’d ask us to embrace it? What hidden treasure is there in suffering that should draw our hearts to it instead of away from it? 

 We, of course, now know that suffering stems from our separation from God, who is our true source of joy and life. Because we often choose to act as if we are own “gods,” we bring about our own spiritual distance from him and as a consequence we suffer. 

 To make sense of this, let’s look at the bigger picture. We need to look back to the time of our creation and then forward to Christ’s redemptive mission. In the beginning, suffering was entirely absent from God’s plan. Our first parents existed in a state of original justice. They possessed profound gifts, including immortality, impassibility (the inability to experience physical or emotional pain), and perfect integrity. 

 They lived in absolute harmony with themselves, the world and their Creator. However, all of this was lost when they succumbed to the temptation of disobedience. Seduced by the father of lies, they attempted to assert their own will over God’s, thereby separating themselves from the divine source of life. 

 This rupture severed our intimate connection with the ultimate fountain of all good things, inevitably leading us into a reality marked by pain, sin, and physical decay. Yet despite this catastrophic betrayal, God’s overwhelming love for us never wavered. Yes, there was a period of anger, but His great love for us is so profound that He sent His Son to rescue us. His mercy always has the last word. 

 Because our sinfulness inherently leads us to suffering and death, the Son of God had to become man to address the root of the problem. As St. Paul explained, Christ emptied Himself to share in our humanity, ultimately enduring the agony and humiliation of death on the cross. Christ went to the extent of becoming like sin, without committing sin, if only to identify himself with us and offer us “the way, the truth and the life.” 

 Through His passion and death, Christ paid the ransom for our redemption. But He did much more. He radically transformed the meaning of suffering and death. What was once a tragic consequence of our separation from God has been converted by Christ into a powerful means of our salvation. 

 Christ provided the ultimate paradigm for how we can overcome our fundamental flaw of self-reliance. Our suffering, as long as it is united to the suffering of Christ, can now acquire a great redemptive value. 

 And so, we should not be too concerned about suffering in whatever form it comes to us. We should just learn how to unite our unavoidable sufferings with the suffering of Christ. That way, our sufferings become a necessary mechanism for our healing and reconciliation. 

 Bluntly said, when we embrace our hardships and unite them with Christ’s suffering, our pain can now act as the very cure that draws us back into communion with the Creator. 

 Consequently, we must readjust our perception of pain. Instead of viewing suffering as purely senseless, we should see it as a sacred invitation to “deny ourselves,” to empty ourselves so we can be filled with the spirit of God. 

 Consequently, we must readjust our perception of pain. Instead of viewing suffering as purely senseless, we should see it as an opportunity to empty ourselves so we can be transformed into “another Christ.”

How to develop effective vigilance

THE parable of the ten virgins (cfr. Mt 25,1-13) reminds us of our need to develop an effective way of being always vigilant. This, of course, is only possible if we develop a deep, active union with God. Without his grace, we are would be easily overwhelmed by the modern-day assaults of evil, obsessions, and hidden bondages. We have a lot of sweet poisons around. 

 Safeguarding our souls demands a comprehensive, grounded approach that blends both supernatural faith and practical and human discipline. Because God can call us at any moment, and hidden evils continually hound us, readiness is an absolute necessity. 

 In fact, the ideal and realistic attitude to have is to think that everyday we can die and should be ready to face God in judgment. This is not to have a dark view of life. Rather, it would help us keep the proper priorities in life and lead a confident lifestyle. It would help us lead a life that knows what the ultimate destination is. 

 Today, we cannot deny that we are seeing a disturbing rise in personal obsessions, compulsive dependencies and all kinds of hidden bondages. And many of us feel utterly helpless, find that human willpower alone cannot stop them from giving in to these destructive habits and manias. 

 The only effective way to breaking these chains and achieving our spiritual victory lies in our true union with Christ. As St. Paul assures us, when we suffer and die with Christ, we will also rise with him. (Rom 6,8-11) 

 United with Christ, we can endure evil’s unavoidable attacks and find the peace and confidence needed to properly navigate the heavy dramas of this world. Effectively maintaining this union with Christ requires balancing both the supernatural and human means.

 The supernatural means involve constant prayer, an abiding awareness of God’s presence and solicitous interventions in our life, and frequent reception of the sacraments—particularly Confession and the Holy Eucharist. These spiritual practices must be continually developed because God’s grace is the ultimate foundation for overcoming our deepest predicaments. 

 However, we must never neglect the practical human means. We must keep ourselves consistently occupied, since an idle mind and a lazy body are the easiest targets for the agents of evil. These conditions give the enemies of our soul a foothold, an opening for them to dominate us. 

 We know that spiritual laziness opens the door to a threefold enemy of ours: the weakness of our own flesh, worldly temptations, and the direct influence of the devil. We should be constantly guarded against them. 

 St. Augustine, for one, emphasized that spiritual vigilance is an essential defense against our daily trials and temptations. In his sermons, he frequently referenced the command to “watch and pray” so as not to fall into temptation. He reasoned that since we sin daily and seek daily forgiveness, we must remain constantly vigilant, actively petitioning God to guard our hearts. 

 Yes, we should be humble enough to realize that we need to beg God for his help. We have to accept that we are simply helpless and defenseless if we would just rely on our own human powers. 

 As St. Augustine once said, staying awake and vigilant spiritually is not about physical sleeplessness or constant talking. It is an uninterrupted longing of the heart for God. We should keep that longing alive.