Cheerful and confident availability

THAT gospel episode where Christ shocked his disciples when he told them that they themselves had to feed the big crowd that followed Christ (cfr. Jn 6,1-15) reminds us that we should just have confidence in the ways of God even if what we are asked to do is considered by us not only as difficult but also impossible. We just have to make ourselves available to his will and designs since in the end he will take care of everything. 

 Yes, God can test our faith. But that test is meant to strengthen our faith in him some more. What we should rather do is to make ourselves readily available, and doing this in a cheerful and confident way. 

 This testing of the faith was shown, for example, when Mary and Joseph were very worried when they lost the child Christ who stayed behind after some trip. “Did you not know that I must be concerned with my Father’s things?” the child told Mary who later on pondered on these words in her heart and made her faith even stronger. (cfr. Lk 2,49) 

 That response of the child Christ to Mary also showed how fully available he was to the will of the Father, something that he must have wanted to inculcate in all of us. We need to learn how to make ourselves fully available to God’s designs for all of us. 

 Those who were close to Christ, starting with Our Lady, made themselves available to God’s ways. “Let it be done to me according to your word,” said Mary to the Archangel Gabriel who was the messenger of God. (Lk 1,38) We see this total availability also in the case of Joseph who even had to do some drastic and difficult decisions just to follow God’s will. 

 In the gospel, many times Christ would tell his disciples to tie their waist with a belt to signify that they had to tighten their loose clothing to be ready to travel and to do a lot of things. We should also understand that to be truly available to God’s will and ways, we have to make full use of our God-given talents and powers. 

 This belt-tightening can also signify that we should free ourselves from certain attachments that would prevent us from fulfilling God’s will. Indeed, we have to make some great effort to practice a certain detachment since we all know that in this life, we often would find ourselves trapped in some worldly concerns that would make us insensitive to the things of God. 

 In this regard, it would be good to examine ourselves to see where our worldly attachments are. We need to make some working system of how to free ourselves from these attachments. This surely will be quite a challenge because more than our efforts, no matter how significant, we need God’s grace to free us from our improper attachments. 

 We need to have a certain detachment from persons and things to be able to give our heart entirely to God, and with him, we actually have everything else we need. As St. Teresa of Avila put it graphically, with God we have enough—“solo Dios basta.” 

 To be a disciple of Christ, we have to give everything of ourselves to him and to the tasks such discipleship entails. This will allow the very power of Christ to work on us. So instead of hindering our apostolic work, that detachment that Christ requires of his disciples would only enhance that apostolic work.

Let’s be the good ground for God’s word

IN that parable of the sower and the seed, (cfr. Mt 13,8-23) it’s made quite clear that we are encouraged to be the good ground for God’s word which actually represents his great love for us and our salvation. We should avoid being the wayside, the rocky ground, and the thorns where the seed of God’s word and love was sown and would just be wasted. 

 As good ground, we are meant to respond properly to God’s tremendous love for us, a response that will surely be fruitful not only for us but also for everybody else. It’s the fruitfulness that would win us the status and dignity of being true children of God, his image and likeness, sharers of his divine life and nature. 

 How should we respond to God’s love for us? Christ himself spelled it out to us clearly. When asked what the greatest commandment was, what God wanted most from us, he said: “You shall love your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” (Mt 22,37) 

 This is God’s most important desire for us and that’s because we are supposed to love him the way he loves us. And his love, as we can see clearly, nothing less than a madness of love. 

 Imagine what he had to do to recover us to him despite the fact that he would lose nothing if we choose to cut ourselves from him through our sinful ways. He had to become man, he had to do a lot of things for us, and ultimately, he had to offer his life on the cross, bearing all our sins and conquering them with his resurrection. Indeed, his love is given without measure and without conditions. 

 We need to meditate and savor on the many details of God’s abiding love for us that goes all the way. We need to feel that love as continuously as possible because that is the only way we too can be moved to love him and love others in return. We should try our best to have our love for him and others measure up to his love for us. 

 We should be eager to fill up what is still lacking in our love for God and for others. Thus, we should try our best to have a sporting spirit in this business of learning how to love the way God loves us. We should try our best, and in our successes and failures in this business, we should just move on, never giving up. 

 When we know and feel God’s tremendous love for us, we for sure would be moved to be very generous and gratuitous in our love also. We would be willing to wage a continuing struggle in growing in our love, making it more theological and supernatural, relying more on God’s grace than our mere efforts. 

 We should never give up in our pursuit to love God the way God loves us. It will be an endless affair that would convince that there will never be a moment when we can think that we have loved enough. 

 It is a love that is willing to take on anything, no matter how unfair things may appear to us, humanly speaking, as when like Christ we manage to love even our enemies and to offer our life for those who may have offended us!

Kindness and flexibility needed in our communal life

ON the Feast of St. James, the Apostle, celebrated on July 25, we are reminded of that episode where his mother asked Christ a favor. And that is that her two sons, James and John, “sit, one at your right and other at your left, in your Kingdom.” (Mt 20,21) 

 We know how Christ responded. In the end what he told the parties involved was to always have the desire to serve, rather than feeling privileged because of some blessings received. “Whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave,” he said. “Just so, the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mt 20,27-28) 

 With these words, Christ gives us the formula of how we have to treat one another in our communal life. We have to be accommodating of everyone, showing kindness and affection always, learning how to be flexible since we have to deal with our unavoidable differences and conflicts. With these traits, it would be easy for us to make the clarifications, suggestions and even corrections when they are needed. 

 This was how Christ behaved when he was with other people. He made them feel comfortable. He avoided projecting a domineering and intimidating presence. Children wanted to come close to him. His manner of preaching and of treating everyone so aroused enthusiasm and admiration that at one point it was said that everyone was looking for him. (cfr. Mk 1,35) 

 In fact, many wanted to make him king. (cfr. Jn 6,15) And they did not hesitate to visit him even at night (cfr. Jn 3,1-21) or engaging with him on the road as happened with the two blind men who heard Christ was passing by. (cfr. Mt 9,27) 

 We should try to adapt this character as shown to us by Christ, since it would greatly help us in our apostolic mission. The way we present ourselves to others would greatly determine whether we can click with others or not. 

 We have to know the kind of temperament we have and see what needs to be polished or even scrapped if only to approximate the character and personality of Christ who is actually the pattern of our humanity, and the savior of our damaged humanity. 

 As much as possible, we should try to echo what St. Paul once said: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” (Gal 2,20-21) 

 With this in mind, we know that we can make ourselves kinder, more affectionate and attentive to the needs of others. We should try to improve our listening skills, our ability to be more understanding of others, avoiding rigidity and small manias, etc. 

 In this regard, we have to learn to deal and truly love the others as they really are in real time, warts and all. Of course, we have to maintain the distinction between right and wrong, good and evil, but we have to learn how to live and love each one individually and personally, helping them as much as we can in their various needs, material or spiritual, etc. 

 This is how Christ loves us. It’s a love that is individualized and personalized, kind of adapted to the way each person is.