Like Christ, we have to be the world’s salt and light

IF we want to be like Christ, we need to be the world’s salt and light. This, in fact, Christ said so very clearly in the gospel of St. Matthew (5,13-16). We have to seriously figure out how we can conform ourselves to what Christ wants us to be. We know that salt somehow gives a certain flavor to our food as well as helps in preserving highly perishable fool items. Light, of course, enables us to see things clearly. 

 We can readily conclude that what Christ wants is for us to provide Christian flavor in a world that is fast evolving as well as help in preserving the true Christian spirit in a world that is so exposed to a lot of confusing changes, many of them with their luggage of dangers even as they also offer a lot of benefits. 

 We also are meant to give light to the others by giving good example and by actively doing apostolate, leading people to God along the right if prudent, tortuous and treacherous paths of this world. With rectitude of intention, we have to inspire others to follow us so that with us they can come to Christ. 

 Let’s be like St. Paul who, with rectitude of intention, said: “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.” (1 Cor 11,1) These words are a corollary to what Christ said about us being light of the world: “Your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father.” (Mt 5,16) 

 Let’s try our best that we too can echo another of St. Paul’s words: “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” (Gal 2,20) This is the ideal to aim at, because Christ himself said, “I am the light of the world…the man who follows me will have the light of life.” (Jn 8,12) 

 Let’s remember that since we are not only individual persons but also social beings, always having some relation with others, we cannot avoid having this duty. We are not meant to be alone, indifferent and detached from others, and especially from God. We are meant to live in communion with others and pumping goodness always to the system, so to speak. 

 We therefore should not be afraid to be in the limelight. In fact, we have to foster a holy desire to be there. Our understanding of humility and that delicadeza of passing unnoticed should not exclude this need for us to give good example and be models of virtues for everyone to see and to hopefully be edified, especially in a world that is increasingly sinking in darkness and confusion. 

 Obviously, we have to do it properly and with the right intention. And that’s because we also know very well of our warped desire to be in the limelight for the wrong reasons. We have the tendency to show off our vanity and frivolity, and to act out our pride, greed, envy, etc. Instead of sowing good things, we can be spreading our unfortunate motives to others. 

 Perhaps what can be helpful here is for us to regularly bring this topic to our prayer so we can come up with relevant daily strategies in the presence of God and with the right intention. We can also make a regular review of how we are faring in this aspect by considering it in our daily examination of conscience. That way we can hopefully keep the right intention as we give ourselves as an example to the others.

Martyred for the silliest reason

THAT’S what happened to St. John the Baptist. (cfr. Mk 6,14-29) Just because he did not want to lose face before his guests, King Herod finally chose to give in to the request of a dancing girl who, advised by her scheming mother, asked for the head of St. John. 

 We should also somehow expect this kind of ending of our life here on earth. We face sinfully complicated situations and evil schemers in our lives, making us vulnerable to suffering like St. John the Baptist. We always have to contend with sinful situations and wicked plots and suffer the consequences. We should just be ready for this eventuality. 

 In this regard, we have to learn to lose the fear of suffering and death. If we believe in Christ and follow what he has taught and shown us, we will realize that there is nothing to be afraid of suffering and death, and all the other negative things that can mark our life. 

 He bore them himself and converted them into our way for our own salvation. Yes, even death which is the ultimate evil that can befall us, an evil that is humanly insoluble. With Christ’s death, the curse of death has been removed. “Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” (1 Cor 15,54-55) 

 So, we just have to be sport and cool about the whole reality of suffering and death in this life. What we need to do is to follow Christ in his attitude toward them. For Christ, embracing suffering and ultimately death, is the expression of his greatest love for us. We have to enter into the dynamic of this divine logic and wisdom so we can lose that fear of suffering and death. 

 Let’s just remember that death definitely does not have the last word. It’s life, everlasting life with God in heaven, or God forbid, eternal condemnation in hell. Neither are pain and suffering the main ingredient or the ultimate goal of our earthly life. It’s joy, peace, victory, success, offered to us by Christ himself, our savior. 

 We need to be clear about these fundamental truths, so we be guided properly in our life, making the right choices, since our life is also not a matter of fate or luck, but rather of choice, first that of God who chooses to love us in spite of whatever, and that of ours. But we have to learn to choose properly. 

 Whatever situation we may find ourselves in, including the worst scenarios possible in our human, earthly condition, we can always manage to find joy and peace if we allow ourselves to be guided by our Christian faith, rather than by our human estimation of things alone. 

 We have to look at death from the point of view of faith. This gives us the ultimate measure of reality. Objectivity is not only a matter of the senses nor of the intellect. We cannot simply rely on our feelings, our hunches, our reasoning. We have to use our faith, which our Lord in the first place gives us abundantly. 

 We need to overcome any fear we may have of death. Any fear of death is actually without basis. If we are consistent with our Christian faith which we should not only profess but should also live out, we know that when it comes, however it comes, it is the time when God, our Father and Creator, wants us to be with him.

“The Kingdom of God is at hand”

THAT’S from the Gospel of St. Mark (1,15), words spoken by Christ himself when he went into Galilee and proclaimed the Good News of God after John the Baptist was put in prison. After saying this he immediately said: “Repent and believe in the good news!” Yes, the way to the kingdom of God is when we repent of our sins and believe, nay, live the very message and spirit of the gospel. We often think of heaven or of the kingdom of God as so inaccessible here on earth that we think it only exists in our dreams, in our fantasies or in our desires. It cannot be here and now. And because of that, we often fail to consider it in our thoughts, words and deeds when in fact it is a very important and indispensable parameter in the way we live our life here on earth. Truth to tell, heaven is and should be a constant element to consider so we would know if we are still doing right, if we are still on the right track. We should never ignore heaven in any way, because that is the final destination for all of us. Yet in all the supposed ineffableness of heaven, Christ described it in very down-to-earth terms. In Chapter 13 of the Gospel of St. Matthew, we are given a series of parables that Christ said to describe the kingdom of heaven. In these parables, Christ compared the kingdom of heaven: - with the man sowing seeds on different kinds of ground; - with the man who sowed good seeds of wheat only for his enemy to sow weeds also; - with the mustard seed that is small and yet grows into a big tree; - with a leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour till it was all leavened; - with a treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field; - with a merchant in search of fine pearls and finding one of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it; - with a net which was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind. When it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into vessels, but threw away the bad. Hardly anything can be more down-to-earth, matter-of-fact, realistic and practical than these descriptions of heaven. And the lessons they impart are actually simple. They are no rocket-science lessons, though we have to admit that to live these lessons we need nothing less than God’s grace and our all-out effort. Another consideration is that while we should be immersed in our earthly affairs, we should see to it that such immersion should actually enrich us spiritually, that is, lead us to God, or make our love for God and others grow, because the earthly things are precisely for that purpose. That is the law and disposition God has imbued in the earthly things that are made available to us for our use. We have to see to it that love for God and others should always be the motive of everything that we do—from our thoughts and intentions, to our words, and to our work. It should also be the motive when we have to go through the different circumstances of our life, the good ones as well as the bad ones, our fortunes and our misfortunes. That’s how we can feel that truly “the Kingdom of God is at hand.”