Reset by lifestyle change

“Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!” (Ps 119,1) This psalm clearly expresses how we can have a reset by going through lifestyle change. Nowadays, we often hear this prescription from doctors due to the surge of chronic diseases affecting even young people. We cannot deny that there is now a growing trend of chronic diseases like diabetes, heart disease and obesity. And some serious studies today urgently recommend a lifestyle change that would consist of eating a balanced diet, regular exercise, getting enough sleep and stress management. They also recommend quitting smoking and limiting alcohol consumption. But if this is so insofar as our physical health is concerned, it is more so with regard to our spiritual health. Many are now neglecting their spiritual duties and responsibilities resulting in the weakening of faith with matching effects on our morals. We need to feel the urgent call to return to God by cultivating habits and practices that nurture our soul and deepen our relation with God. Definitely we have to learn to pray and to meditate if only to enter into the most important dimension of our life that is spiritual and supernatural. What can also help is to sharpen our sense of mindfulness that would enable us to dominate the many distractions around. Spending time appreciating the beauty of nature that would stir our sense of awe and wonder can aid us to go deeper and beyond appearances of things. There certainly is a crying need to develop the fundamental virtue of piety. The practices that foster this virtue can cover a lot of things: prayer, sacrifice or mortification, recourse to the sacraments like confession, Holy Mass and communion, visit to the Blessed Sacrament, rosary, examination of conscience, spiritual reading, etc. They should correspond to all the different aspects and needs of our spiritual life as it impacts on our daily activities and concerns. They can be described as guideposts in our journey of life full of challenges, problems, pressures and other confusing elements. Or they can offer us the needed respites in our activities, giving us moments to recharge ourselves spiritually so we can maintain a supernatural outlook in life. They are like home bases in our pilgrimage of life where we can recover our spiritual and moral strength. There we can have God in a more direct and intimate condition. They are supposed to be vital organic parts of our day that comprise mostly of mundane activities that need to be sanctified and offered to God and to others. Like meals and our sleep, they are supposed to be availed of by us in a most natural and regular way. We should just flow into them, since in the end all our activities should be oriented toward the ultimate goal of our life, and that is worship of God. These practices should not be considered alien to our daily routine. This is the task we have to do—developing an attitude of relating everything to God by letting all our activities to lead us to these practices. We just have to find a way, with God's grace, to cultivate a spiritual hunger or urge for these practices. What is needed is a certain plan, much like a regimen to which many of us willingly submit when we work out our physical fitness, so that a working and fruitful piety would really take root in our life. We have to go from the fundamental to the more complex levels of spirituality, from the amateur to the professional, from the beginner's stage to the veteran's, until we reach what St. Paul once described as the “fullness of God” to which we are destined. (cfr. Eph 3,19)

How to keep the flame of love burning

THERE’S a Gospel Acclamation that can give us the idea of how to keep the flame of love, notorious for being fickle given our wounded condition, ever burning. It’s from the Acts of Apostles where it says: “Open our hearts, O Lord, to listen to the words of your Son.” (16,14) 

 God, whose very essence is love, has made this love known to us by its incarnation in the Son made man, Jesus Christ. More than that, this love can also be ours as long as we precisely would open our hearts to listen and make as our own the words, the teaching and example of Christ. 

 It’s a love that goes all the way, and remains unfazed regardless of whatever condition we may have in this life. Yes, it’s a love for all seasons, always taking the initiative to reach out to others, again regardless of how the others may be toward us. 

 As St. Paul would put it, it’s a love that is patient, kind, does not envy, does not boast, is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, not easily angered, keeps no record of wrongs. It does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. (cfr. 1 Cor 13,4-7) 

 In other words, it’s a love that would lead us to always think well of others, to be willing and happy to serve others, again regardless of how they are to us. It’s a love that would enable us to love even our enemies. 

 It always thinks ahead of what to do for the others. It does not wait for some favorable conditions to come before it is given. Yes, it is given gratuitously, without counting the cost nor expecting any reward. It’s quick to forgive and to ask for forgiveness. 

 With this kind of love, we will never have a dull moment in our life. We would never run out of ideas and initiatives. We would always feel hot and energetic, if not always bodily or emotionally, then always spiritually and morally. It will always keep us going, irrespective of the varying circumstances of our life. 

 It’s a love that goes beyond the limitations of our natural powers, since it can only be generated and kept with the grace of God. That is, if we listen to Christ’s words, follow his example, and incarnate him in ourselves through the sacraments, etc. 

 This means that we should animate our human powers with God’s grace, and not let them remain on their own, relying only on natural elements. For this, we need to wage continual struggle since we cannot deny that we also have a strong tendency to depend solely on the natural rather than on the supernatural. 

 To be sure, this kind of love would keep us always calm, happy and cheerful, confident and hopeful. It would always prod us to be generous in our self-giving. It is this kind of love that would already give us a foretaste of the bliss we can expect in our definitive home in heaven when we become truly one with God as we should. 

 We need to spread this Good News more widely and think of ways of how this kind of love can be pursued effectively by all. We have to assure everyone that our ideal condition, the perfection and fullness of our humanity would be achieved if we learn how to have this kind of love.

When God tests our faith

WHEN that happens, the thing to do is to stick more strongly to our faith in God and in his loving and merciful providence. We should never over-react by worrying, fearing, and worse, by losing our faith. We should never doubt God’s love and care for us all. 

 When God tests our faith, we should consider it as an opportunity to grow more in our faith. Let’s follow the example of the Syrophoenician woman in the gospel whose request for the healing of her daughter was at first denied. (cfr. Mk 7,24-30) 

 When Christ told her: “Suffer first the children to be filled, for it is not good to take the bread of the children, and cast it to the dogs,” she answered, “Yes, Lord, for the whelps also eat under the table of the crumbs of the children.” 

 That’s when Christ was so happy with her response that he told her: “The devil is gone out of your daughter.” And true enough, when the mother went home, she found her daughter already well.

 We should always feel the need to sustain and ever strengthen our faith which is the bedrock of our Christian life. Without it or with a weak faith, we most likely will compromise our entire life. 

 We need to be more aware of this duty and develop the appropriate attitude and skill to carry out this responsibility effectively. We have to go beyond mere good intentions or being merely theoretical in order to be truly practical and vitally engaged with this obligation. 

 We have to remember that in developing and strengthening our faith, we need to commit our whole selves to God. We should not just be sentimental, emotional or intellectual about it. We have to give our whole selves in good times and bad, 24/7. We have to involve all our powers and faculties, our past, present and future. 

 Faith is not simply an intellectual assent to some truths. It is an act of our entire being wherein we integrally and entirely commit ourselves. If we truly have faith, we will show it in every action of our life. 

 We will consistently refer everything to Christ, look for him, find and talk to him, seek his guidance, follow his will and ways, and put him as the goal of all of our activities. This has to be distinguished from fanaticism, because faith requires a living union with God, while fanaticism can mimic the appearance of faith, but is not based on that living union, but rather on something else. 

 If we truly have faith, we will always make Christ present wherever we are. Irrespective of our human condition, we can always exude a certain aura of wisdom, goodness, charity and kindness, mercy and justice, and power, etc. 

 Faith is something much deeper and more complete than a simple affirmation of some truths. It produces an effective and operative presence of the love of Christ among men. It makes us plant the seed of love in each heart. It leads us to discover all the good things in the world where God himself has placed us so that we may be holy. It also points us where the dangers are. 

 Let's strengthen our faith always by spending some moments everyday in mental prayer, living always in the presence of God, waging continuing ascetical struggle to develop virtues and fight against our weaknesses and temptations, studying and assimilating the doctrine of our faith, pursuing a lifelong plan of formation, etc.