Christ wants us to be missionaries

THIS we can gather from what Christ himself said, practically begging us. “The harvest indeed is great, but the laborers are few,” he said. “Pray therefore the Lord of the harvest that he sends forth laborers into his harvest.” (Mt 9,37-38) 

 And after saying this, he called his twelve disciples together and gave them power over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manners of diseases, and all manner of infirmities. All this simply tells us that we would be properly equipped to carry out that mission work as long as we respond to his call. 

 We need to realize more deeply that Christ and us have the same mission. Since we are meant to be conformed to Christ, the pattern of our humanity and the savior of our damaged humanity, we also are meant to be involved in his mission. Christ treats us the same way he treats himself. 

 We have to be more aware of this truth about ourselves and try our best to act on it. To be an authentic Christian is not simply to be interested in one’s own sanctification. He also has to be involved in the sanctification of everyone. A Christian is at once interested in sanctifying himself and in sanctifying others and the world as well. 

 To be sure, if we have the proper Christian frame of mind, we know that every event, circumstance, situation and condition in our life is an occasion to carry out our mission work. Even when one is isolated for one reason or another, he still can do apostolate, because this duty is not limited to dealing with others in a direct, physical way. It can be done with prayers, sacrifices and intentions. Indeed, there is no moment in our life when we cannot do apostolate! 

 We also have to realize that our pursuit for sanctity cannot be genuine if it does not involve doing apostolate. In fact, the tasks of sanctification and apostolate mutually help each other. One cannot be without the other. 

 In this regard, it behooves all of us to immerse ourselves in the complexities of today’s life. Christian missionaries need not be priests and nuns, consecrated and religious people. Everyone should feel the duty to do missionary work. 

 Where the people are, we should also be there, tackling with everyone else the spiritual and moral challenges of the times, finding ways of sanctifying everything and leading everyone and the world to God. 

 We, of course, have to be properly trained and skilled in the ways of the spiritual and supernatural, on the one hand, and of the mundane and secular on the other. We have to learn how to blend the sacred things in life and the earthly and temporal elements. 

 This means that we have to be truly spiritual men, so vitally identified with Christ that we can take on anything without getting scandalized by the complexities and the unavoidable dirt of today’s challenges. 

 Obviously, we need a working spirituality that is fueled by a deep sense of commitment and love of God and souls, and nourished by an adequate plan or program of acts of piety. We indeed need to pray a lot, and be willing to make sacrifices and all kinds of self-denials, have recourse to the sacraments, continually develop the virtues and constantly sharpen their apostolic concern, etc. 

 We have to bring to life the guidelines that ultimately come from Christ and are expressed more concretely by the Church, especially in her social doctrine.

Heart to heart with Jesus

ON the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, what we are reminded of is the invitation to give our whole heart to Jesus so as to transform it and unite it with the very heart of Jesus. It should remind us of God’s appeal to us as mentioned in the Book of Proverbs: “My child, give me your heart, and let your eyes delight in my ways.” (23,26) 

 On this Solemnity, we should have a personal and most intimate encounter with Jesus himself—especially his pierced love—and respond with trust, love in action and a life shaped by the Gospel. We need to spend time in some quiet and secluded place—better still, before the Blessed Sacrament in a church or chapel—so that we can have a heart-to-heart interaction and experience with him. 

 This is always possible if we would only activate our faith and piety. Perhaps what can be helpful is to take a break from our usual daily activities so we can have a devotional communion with him who is everything to us. 

 If we want our heart to be in its best and ideal condition, it should be conformed after Christ’s Sacred Heart. It should not be allowed to throb for anything else, something that we should train our heart to avoid. Instead, we have to do everything for it be raised to God all the time, whether we are in our good or bad times, in our successes or failures, in our joys and sorrows, etc. 

 Our heart, which is the very core of our being, the most intimate part of our life, the place where things start and end, where we meet God and hear his voice,…this heart of ours comes from God, is actually shaped after the most sacred heart of Jesus who is the pattern of our humanity, and belongs to God. We should be clear about this fundamental truth of our faith. 

 That could be the reason why Christ, when asked what the greatest commandment was, said that it is to love God “with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” (Mt 22,37) God is not asking too much from us with that commandment. He is not asking something unreasonable. In fact, he is offering what would be the best deal for us. 

 We need to broaden and deepen our understanding of the true nature and character of our life here on earth, and of the role of our heart in it, always guided by our Christian faith and not just by any purely human estimation, no matter how brilliant it is, if only to realize that we need to conform our heart to Christ’s Sacred Heart. 

 We need to constantly ask ourselves as we go through the many affairs of our day, “Where is my heart? Is it with God? Is it throbbing in synch with Christ’s Sacred Heart? Do we really know what is in that Sacred Heart of Christ?, etc.” 

 That way we would get some ideas of what to do to conform our heart to Christ’s Sacred Heart. Yes, there will be some difficulties, awkwardness, even mistakes, but if we persist, for sure the way to see and imitate what is inside Christ’s Sacred Heart would open to us. 

 If we become more and more familiar with the Sacred Heart of Jesus, we would know why we always have to be patient, understanding, compassionate, magnanimous, etc. The very image of Christ, the pattern of our humanity and the savior of our damaged humanity, would be formed in us. 

 We can echo the same words of St. Paul: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me!” (Gal 2,20)

Seeing God, seeing all

I LOVE music and I like to sing. And one song that captivated me almost completely during my youth was entitled, “I only have eyes for you.” It’s a romantic ballad with a timeless, sentimental quality. 

 The music is characterized by a gentle, soaring melody that complements the tender lyrics, creating a dreamy, nostalgic atmosphere. The tune is catchy and easy to sing along to, with a simple, yet effective harmony. The lyrics are classic, focusing on the theme of being completely devoted to someone, with a sense of simplicity and sincerity. 

 Part of its lyrics talk about not giving a hoot whether the stars and the moon are out tonight, or whether there are millions of people passing by. They all disappear because “I only have eyes for you.” A similar song came later, entitled, “Can’t take my eyes off you.” It was an upbeat, catchy pop song about being infatuated with someone. 

 Both songs talk about how our eyes are affected when we fall in love. Of course, in these songs, they talk about falling in love with someone that hopefully will end up in marriage. It’s a human love that is exclusive since it involves the use of the body. 

 That’s because if love involves total self-giving, that love which involves the body can only be between one man and one woman, since the body when given totally to one person cannot anymore be shared with anybody else. 

 It’s different when we talk about loving God. When we give ourselves totally to God as is proper of what true love is, then we cannot help but also love everybody and everything else. That’s because God loves everyone and everything, he being the Creator of all creatures, creating them out of love. It’s a love that is all inclusive and universal in scope. 

 We therefore should see to it that our eyes, as a function and instrument of love, should first of all be directed to God so that we can learn to love everyone and everything in the way God loves them. 

 Here we have to train ourselves to use our eyes to look for God first, so that seeing him in everyone and in everything, we can manage to love everyone and everything. 

 Or we have to train ourselves to love everyone and everything, irrespective of how they are, so we can truly say that we love God, following what St. John said in his First Letter that we can love the unseen God by loving the people we can see. (cfr. 4,20) 

 We can do this if we activate our faith that eventually will lead us to charity, enabling us to love everyone and everything, including the enemies and all the other negative elements in our life. 

 We should be wary of using our eyes and all our other human faculties to only pursue an exclusive kind of love, a love that is only lived in the human and natural level. Our true love should go beyond that level. It has to be supernatural, nothing less than the divine love that God shares with us. 

 We should therefore try to develop the instinct of always looking for God so we can see him in everyone and in everything, and from there start to love everyone and everything the way God loves them. This we can do by seeing to it that everything that happens to us, every event in our life, whether considered humanly speaking good or bad, should be referred to God. 

 We should have an intense desire to see God in everyone and in everything. And all this driven by our faith, hope and charity.