“Abide in me as I abide in you”

WORDS of Christ, addressed to his disciples and now to all of us, that clearly spell out how our ideal condition of our life here on earth should be. (cfr. Jn 15,4) They practically tell us how we can be truly fruitful in this life, and lead of life of purpose, joy and fulfillment. 

Truth is Christ is always with us. As our creator and the pattern of our humanity as well as the redeemer of our damaged humanity, he is always with us. We just have to learn how to be always with him too so we can be what we ought to be. 

This, in effect, can only mean that we should unite our will to God’s will, letting go of our own desires and plans. We should also stay rooted in God’s love and teachings as revealed to us in full by Christ, applying them in our daily life. 

Thus, we should continually ask ourselves: Are we truly abiding in Christ? Do we always give priority to my connection with him? This way, we can aspire to produce spiritual fruit like love, joy and peace. We can be sure that we are properly guided as we go through life’ challenges and trials, finding strength in our weakness and comfort in trials. 

And more importantly, by abiding always in Christ, we can have a clear and driving sense of purpose and direction. It is in this area where most of us fail, thereby giving an easy opening for our weaknesses and the temptations to dominate us. 

When we manage to abide with Christ, we would know and live by the real and ultimate purpose of our life. Such knowledge would help in giving the proper shape, direction and consistency to our life that is now being pushed and pulled in any which way by the many confusing elements in our life today. 

We have to realize the grave duty we have to know and live by this existential purpose of ours, since this will assure us that we are going in the right direction, even if we do it in different ways, paths, forms and manners. 

Especially these days when many people are confused and lost as to what really should be the ultimate goal of their life, we have to make this duty more known and appreciated. We cannot deny that many people do not have a clear purpose in life, or that their worldview is limited, distorted, if not wrong. 

And what is this existential purpose of ours? It’s none other than to give glory to God. It can be expressed also in many other ways. It’s about, as our Catechism would put it, knowing, loving and serving God. In fact, this is the very first point of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. 

“God, infinitely perfect and blessed in himself,” it says, “in a plan of sheer goodness freely created man to make him share in his own blessed life. For this reason, at every time and in every place, God draws close to man. He calls man to seek him, to know him, to love him with all his strength…” 

All this business of our existential purpose is lived and summarized by Christ himself, the son of God who became man to save us. He commanded us to love one another as he himself loved us, which he did to fully carry out the will of his Father. 

And so, it should behoove us to know more and more about Christ to such an extent that not only would we know his life, his teachings and example, but that we also would live his life, his teachings and example as well.

The real peace

THAT’S the peace that Christ gives to his disciples, distinct from the peace that the world may give. It’s a peace that serves as a constant consolation, amid understandable fears, to those who follow Christ on earth and continue with his redemptive mission. 

 “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you,” Christ said. “I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid,” he continued. (Jn 14,27) 

 This peace is not an effect of an absence of war. In fact, there is some kind of war involved because it can only be had when we struggle against our weaknesses and sins, when we try to become more and more like Christ, when we strive to enter deep into the spiritual and supernatural world of God where we will have our ultimate state in life. 

 This peace is not an effect of an absence of troubles and conflict in this life. We can have all sorts of difficulties, challenges and trials in this life, but the peace Christ gives us can hold on. In the midst of life’s storms, Christ’s peace can stand firm and unshaken. It can serve as a safe anchor. 

 Definitely, this peace is not simply a result of ignorance, indifference and death itself. No matter how deeply involved we are in the complicated drama of our life here on earth, we can still manage to be confident and hopeful, firmly convinced that we are all in the hands of God. 

 The peace Christ gives us is a kind of interior tranquility that springs from the divine order of things. It surpasses human understanding and is oriented toward our eternal goal rather than just some temporal security. 

 Obviously, this peace will require spiritual warfare and a strong relationship with Christ. It involves surrendering to God’s will and embracing Christ’s teachings. We therefore should know very well the real source of peace, giving priority to our relationship with God. 

 Thus, we need to be truly identified with Christ to have peace in ourselves. It is a peace that comes as a result of reconciliation. It therefore involves repentance, conversion, struggle, that Christ has shown to us by embracing the cross and dying on it. 

 The cross of Christ is all at once the summary of all our sins as well as the supreme act of love of Christ for us. It is both the tree of death and the tree of life. It’s where all the malice of man meets the tremendous mercy of God. Christ is asking us to carry the cross also with him. Only then can we have true peace that comes from Christ. 

 This is the peace that cannot waver even under the severe assaults of trials, difficulties and failures. It is the peace that involves a certain abandonment of everything in our life in the hands of God, even as we do our part of dealing with them. 

 We have to learn to receive and keep this peace that Christ gives us. We might have to pause from time to time to make this truth of our faith sink deeply in our consciousness and be the guiding principle of our life. 

 This is the peace that leads us to joy. They actually go together—“gaudium cum pace,” joy with peace, as one prayer in preparation for celebrating the Mass would put it.

The need for a daily agenda

LET’S hope that more and more people, especially the young ones, feel the need to have a daily agenda or a to-do list. This will assure us that, among many other things, we would be making good use of time, that we have a clear idea of the things we need to do, keeping us focused on our purpose and helping us to stay on the right track. 

 When we have this habit, we would be more likely to study and plan well the many things to tackle, thus enabling us to effectively prioritize what’s important. More than that, we would be more able to order them in such way that we not only pursue some immediate purpose but also, and more importantly, pursue the ultimate goal of our life which is to relate everything for the glory of God and for our sanctification. 

 Besides, this habit will give us more assurance of peace and a smooth work life even if there are unavoidable surprises along the way. We can feel a certain sense of dominion and an abiding sense of purpose. We would be more able to resist distractions that nowadays are getting plentier and more seductive. Yes, we would be more able to resist the usual dangers of idleness, laziness, loneliness, worries and the like. 

 And what kind of purpose can this be that would keep us going no matter what situation we find ourselves in? Of course, this could only be God, our love of God, from whom we come and to whom we belong. He is our beginning and end, our everything. 

 That’s why we need to sharpen our awareness of him, feel his presence and his abundant merciful love for us, learn to discern his will and ways in every moment, and know how to relate everything in our life to his ever-functioning Providence. 

 We need to strengthen our faith that only in God can we have the ultimate purpose in life. St. Paul said so: “Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” (1 Cor 10,31) 

 Before that, Christ himself told us to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind.” (Lk 10,27) Nothing could be clearer than this as to what final purpose we have in life. All other goals and objectives we have in life should only be secondary and instrumental to this ultimate purpose of our life. 

 We need to find ways to correspond to this clear commandment of God to us. That effort will help us to broaden our mind, to continue making initiatives, to widen our perspectives, to deepen our hope and inflame our charity. It will help us to study things well, not only staying in the theoretical level but also going into the reality on the ground. 

 It will spur us to action always, not contented with knowing things alone or having some theoretical attitude in life. It will push us to develop a universal heart, capable of dealing with everyone and of reaching out to everyone, including the most difficult personalities and enemies. 

 It will enable us to have a sense of unity and continuity among the different elements and the different occurrences in our life, be they good or bad, favorable or unfavorable to us, etc. 

 When we have love of God as our abiding sense of purpose in our life behind our daily agenda, we would find it easy to go from one thing to another, no matter disparate they are from each other. We would find meaning in everything, including what we consider to be human disasters in our life.