With a little help from us

Yes, with a little help from us the full wonder of God’s

grace would be revealed to us. This was articulated by Christ himself

when he compared the Kingdom of God to how a seed grows. (cfr. Mk

4,26-34)

  

            “It is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land and

would sleep and rise night and day and the seed would sprout and grow,

he knows not how. Of its own accord the land yields fruit, first the

blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. And when the

grain is ripe, he wields the sickle at once, for the harvest has

come.”

  

            What he is telling us is that as long as we do our part,

no matter how meager it is, he will astound us with his own tremendous

power! He reiterated this point when he again compared the Kingdom of

God to a mustard seed, a very small seed.

  

            “Once it is sown, it springs up and becomes the largest of

plants and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the sky can

dwell in its shade.”

  

            It is very moving to realize that what God is asking of us

is actually very little in comparison to what he will be giving and

doing for us. Another gospel episode that highlights this point is

that of the miraculous catch of fish. (cfr. Lk 5,1-11)

   

            Christ asked Peter to go to the deep and lower the nets

for a catch. Peter at first was hesitant because he was fishing the

previous night and caught nothing. But to Peter’s credit, he just

obeyed Christ. And lo and behold, Peter caught such a large quantity

of fish that he had to ask help to bring the catch of fish to the

shore.

  

            It is indeed very reassuring that this is actually what

happens in our relationship with God. All that we need to do are just

the little duties we have, and God’s grace will come to us in

abundance.

  

            We simply have to do things in good faith, in obedience to

God’s will, though sometimes God’s will would require extraordinary

effort and sacrifice. But then again, whatever investment we have to

give, even if in our own estimation it is already quite sizable, is

nothing compared to what God will give us in return.

  

            Corresponding to God’s will in our own small way is the

highest yielding investment we can make. Let us remember that God can

never be outdone in generosity. Christ himself said: “Whoever has

(referring to one’s faith and trust in God) will be given more, and he

will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will

be taken away from him.” (Mt 13,12)

  

            Let’s not forget that when we are sparing in our

self-giving to God and to others, God will take away even the little

that we have. The law that should rule our life is that of love, of

total self-giving no matter what it would cost, though most times, the

cost is really little only.

  

            Only to a few people would some extraordinary sacrifices

would be asked by God. For most of us, we would only be asked a

little. The secret is to do God’s will with pure faith accompanied by

the best effort we could give.

  

            And we do not have to wait for some special occasions or

for some special persons to do this. The usual, ordinary events of our

day and the ordinary people as recipients of our good deeds can be the

good occasion to show our faith and love for God.

  

            Remember Christ saying: “Whatever you did for one of the

least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” (Mt 25,40)

Christ is God’s word to us

WE need to understand that God has fully revealed himself

to us in Christ. Christ is the Son of the God, the very Word of God,

who became man precisely to show us who God is and how we are related

to him.

  

            Our need to know and love God is fully met in Christ. As

man, Christ left his words to us so that we can connect ourselves with

God. Christ’s words therefore play a very important role in our life.

  

            To the question as to how our attitude should be toward

the words of Christ, I would say that basically it should be the same

attitude we ought to have toward Christ himself, toward God himself.

  

            And the reason is this—since Christ is God and as God, who

is absolute simplicity, his words are fully identified with his being,

then reading or listening to the word of Christ is like meeting Christ

himself, is like listening to God himself.

  

            Thus, St. Jerome once said that “ignorance of the

Scripture is ignorance of Jesus.” May we always have the eagerness to

know more about the word of God contained in Sacred Scripture. May we

never treat God’s words in the Scripture as another piece of

literature that can have great but limited value.

  

            We have to remember that the primary purpose of God’s word

is to bring us back to God. And so more than just giving us some

helpful earthly knowledge, it gives us the ultimate spiritual

knowledge we need to return to God. This character of God’s word is

described in the following words in the Letter to the Hebrews:

  

            “For the word of God is living and effectual, and more

piercing than any two edged sword, and reaching unto the division of

the soul and the spirit, of the joints also and the marrow, and is a

discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” (4,12)

   

            It would be good if we develop the daily habit of reading

and meditating on the gospel. If done with faith and devotion, for

sure such practice will give us ever new insights into the things of

God and our real duties of the moment.

  

            Being a living word, the gospel will always tell us what

we have to do at any given moment while giving us also a global

picture of the over-all purpose of our life and how we can pursue it.

  

            Thus, every time we read the Gospel, we have to understand by our

faith that we are engaging our Lord in an actual and living way. We

are listening to him, and somehow seeing him. We can use our

imagination to make ourselves as one more character in any scene

depicted by the Gospel.

            For this, we need to look for the appropriate time and

place. We have to be wary of our tendency to be dominated by a

lifestyle of activism and pragmatism that would blunt our need for

recollection and immersion in the life of Christ.

  

            The drama of Christ’s life here on earth has to continue

in our own life. Thus, we need to continually conform our mind and

heart to the Gospel, an affair that demands everything from us.

  

            Our Catechism tells us that “We must continue to

accomplish in ourselves the stages of Jesus’ life and his mysteries

and often to beg him to perfect and realize them in us and in his

whole Church” (521)

  

            Thus, we should realize that all of us have the duty to

spread the gospel to all nations, as Christ himself told his apostles:

“Go, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them…. And behold I

am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world.” (Mt

28,19-20)

   

            Let’s hope that we get the spirit and the urgency with

which Christ spoke those words.

Piety in body and soul

WE have to make sure that our piety and our devotion to

God and everything related to him has to involve both the body and

soul. It has to involve our whole person. It just cannot be purely

spiritual or purely material. It just cannot be only a matter of

knowing the doctrine, quite cerebral in approach, without some

external manifestations, or of practicing all sorts of devotional

exercises, without knowing the doctrine of faith.

            If piety has to be authentic and consistent in all

circumstances, then it has to be lived both in our spiritual soul

whose main faculties are our intellect and will, and in our material

body whose link to our soul, the principle of life, are the emotions

and passions, the memory and the imagination, our temperament and

psychological state, etc.

            When piety is limited to one or the other essential

element of our being, to either our spiritual soul or the material

body, then it cannot be consistent. It cannot hold out against that

anomaly for long. It sooner or later will fall into the tricks of

hypocrisy and self-deception.

            Thus, we can have people who can be described as solid in

their doctrinal knowledge and theological training but suffering from

persistent sinfulness that is usually hidden. Or people who do a lot

of devotional practices, active in parochial activities, but

committing big sins due to ignorance or confusion with respect to

doctrinal and moral principles.

            The challenge is how to put these two essential elements

of our body and soul together in the service of authentic piety. We

know that due to our wounded nature, these two are many times in some

kind of life-long conflict. St. Paul articulated this well when he

said: “I see another law at work in my body, warring against the law

of my mind and holding me captive to the law of sin that dwells within

me.” (Rom 7,23)

            Of course, to tackle this predicament we should first of

all ask for the grace of God in whom nothing is impossible. But we

also have to do our part, which is to struggle and to train our body

to conform itself to the truth captured by our intellect that is

enlightened by faith.

            This will require spending a lot of time meditating on the

word of God, on the life and example of Christ and all the saints,

most especially Our Lady, so that we can develop the appropriate

feelings, emotions and passions that serve as the link between our

spiritual soul and our material body. Hopefully, this will lead us to

have a strong and indestructible attachment to God, one that no human

problem can take away.

            In this regard, it would be good to appeal to the Holy

Spirit, our sanctifier, so that we can receive his gifts and fruits.

As our Catechism would put it, the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit

help us to be docile to the workings of grace (gifts) and to show the

effects of such grace (fruits).

            It’s very interesting to know the fruits of the Holy

Spirit because they show us what great blessing we can have when we

finally receive them. According to the Catechism, they are: charity,

joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, faithfulness,

modesty, self-control, chastity. (cfr. 1852)

            Imagine what we would enjoy if our piety is genuine, if it

truly involves both the body and the soul, if it comes as a

consequence of being with God in the Holy Spirit!

            I would suggest that we should really spend time

meditating on our faith and training our body by developing our

emotions and passions, conforming them to the truths of our faith

rather than to the impulses of the sensible world alone.

            In an authentic piety, we materialize the spiritual and

spiritualize the material.

We all need accompaniment

WE need to be strongly reminded of this basic truth about

ourselves. We tend to ignore it. Especially when we think that we are

already grown-up and mature, well endowed with talents and resources,

and enjoy a great sense of independence, we have to pound it hard on

our mind and heart that we, in fact, would need accompaniment all the

more.

            We have to debunk the idea that accompaniment is needed

only by babies and little children, and by some persons with special

needs. True, these persons need the basic accompaniment of the

physical and emotional type. But otherwise, we all need accompaniment

in all stages of our life, because accompaniment is not only in the

physical and emotional aspects.

            Accompaniment should be exercised in the higher and more

important aspects of our life—mental, psychological, moral and

spiritual, etc. In these aspects, we can never say that our need for

it would already be fully satisfied. In fact, the older we get, the

more experienced and accomplished we are in our life, the more would

be our need for accompaniment.

            And that’s simply because the challenges and trials we

face as we get older and more accomplished become more subtle and

complicated. And we always need others to face them. We need all kinds

of help. Woe to us if we are left only to ourselves to face all of the

challenges and trials in life.

            No man is an island, a 17th century English poet, John

Donne, said it well. It means that we do badly when isolated from

others and need to be part of a community in order to thrive. The

basis for this assertion is that we as persons are meant to enter into

relation with others all the time. We are not only individuals. We all

belong to the family of humankind.

            So we have to realize that that we need to be accompanied

always be others as well as to accompany others. There’s both an

active and passive side of this need of ours for accompaniment. If we

do not feel that need yet, then it is about time that we develop an

abiding sense of that need.

            Let’s remember that this need is not something biological

only, or physical. It is in the higher level, that is, in the area of

our moral and spiritual need for accompaniment, that we would need to

make a deliberate and conscious act of our will to stir up that need

in us. In the end, we need to ask for grace to make that need always

felt and addressed to in the most important aspects of our life—the

moral and the spiritual.

            This will require some training for this purpose, and that

training in its turn will also require some basic dispositions. We

need to be humble and simple for that need to come and develop in us.

Otherwise, we won’t feel that need.

            We have to acknowledge that our life has very complex and

complicated aspects that need to be addressed adequately. The

development and refinement of virtues to make us more human and later

on more Christian would simply demand help from others. Let’s remember

that our humanity and Christianity are always a work in progress. We

can never say we are human enough or Christian enough.

            And especially when we have to give accompaniment to

others, we need to be tough not only physically or emotionally, but

also psychologically, morally and spiritually, because definitely we

will have to bear the burden of the many complicated issues and

problems that we will unavoidably encounter along the way.

            Let’s hope that this business of accompaniment becomes a

common and universal concern and that we would know how to go about

it, both in its passive and active aspects!

Media and information literacy

WE need to have due concern for this matter. We are now in

a fast-moving-and-evolving digital world and we cannot afford to be

ignorant and illiterate in its ways. We have to level up.

            As described by Wikipedia, the purpose of being

information and media literate is to engage in a digital society.

Thus, “one needs to be able to understand, inquire, create,

communicate and think critically. It is important to effectively

access, organize, analyze, evaluate and create messages in a variety

of forms.”

            Wikipedia continues: “Information and media literacy

enables people to interpret and make informed judgments as users of

information and media, as well as to become skillful creators and

producers of information and media messages in their own right.”

            From the UNESCO, we have the following description:

“Empowerment of people through Media and Information Literacy (MIL) is

an important prerequisite for fostering equitable access to

information and knowledge and promoting free, independent and

pluralistic media and information systems.”

            It continues: “A particular focus will be on training

teachers to sensitize them to the importance of MIL in the education

process, enable them to integrate MIL into their teaching and provide

them with appropriate pedagogical methods, curricula and resources.”

            Even Moscow has issued a declaration defining MIL as “a

combination of knowledge, attitudes, skills, and practices required to

access, analyze, use, produce, and communicate information and

knowledge in creative, legal and ethical ways that respect human

rights.”

            This is, of course, an overwhelming challenge. The

technical aspects involved in this matter alone can already pose a

formidable challenge. In this area, things are developing at

warp-speed. But it is more in the moral and ethical aspects where the

real challenge lies. And sadly, this latter concern is lagging behind

miserably.

            That in this matter everything has to start and end with

God is hardly felt by people in general. It would even seem that God

is regarded as a persona-non-grata here. But what is worse is when we

start talking about the concrete guidelines and limits so that we can

indulge in this task with prudence and temperance that would not

compromise boldness and creativity!

            I imagine that more than speaking of general principles,

we have to accumulate a lot of lived experiences in this area before

we can come out with effective guidelines that are adapted also to the

peculiar and unique conditions of individual persons and not just a

class of people.

            Unfortunately, many people nowadays hardly make any

reference to God in their growing ventures into the world of

knowledge, sciences, technology. They seem competent to tackle the

challenge simply by using their increasingly growing technical

knowledge and skills. This is a big challenge to face.

            They have forgotten what St. Paul said in this regard:

“Knowledge puffs up while love builds up. Those who think they know

something do not yet know as they ought to know. But whoever loves God

is known by God.” (1 Cor 8,1-3)

            Maybe what should be done is to come out with a network of

agencies and other relevant institutions that will continually monitor

the developments in this world of the media and information. This

network should cover and be represented by all levels, classes,

sectors of society.

            It definitely would involve technical people, but more

than them, it should involve our spiritual leaders, parents, teachers,

government, etc. There should be representatives from the legal field

as well as from that sphere that studies social developments. There

should be interdisciplinary approach to all this.

            From there, we need to have an army of mentors who can

personally attend to every individual person, especially the young

ones. Of course, everyone should strive to be a mentor too, even if he

himself needs also to be continually mentored. We have to remember

that all of us are meant to be both sheep and shepherd, mentee and

mentor.

Crucifixion time again

WITH new scandals assailing parts of the Church today

(mainly in the US), we are reminded that we are into another round of

crucifixion time for our Mother, the Church. We should not be

surprised anymore by this development. But we should be prepared to

handle this predicament properly and learn some precious lessons.

            The life of the Church cannot help but reflect the life,

passion, death and resurrection of Christ, its founder and its body

into which we, Christian believers, are incorporated. Yes, we cannot

escape the curse of sin in our life as well as in the life of the

Church as a whole.

            Like Christ, the Church has to bear all the sins of men,

including those committed by its temporal leaders. Christ did all he

could to sanctify us. He preached, performed miracles, instituted the

sacraments and founded the Church, etc. But in the end, due to our

hard-headedness and all kinds of weaknesses, he just had to offer his

life to save us. The Church cannot do no less. She has to suffer the

same fate.

            It is, of course, painful to experience all these

scandals, but we should not over-react to the point of making things

worse. These scandals, a consequence of human weaknesses that can

afflict even our Church leaders, are actually a call for another

conversion, which is something that is meant to be a continuing,

life-long process for each one of us. Something very good can be

derived from these scandals.

            We just have to focus more on what we can gain from these

scandals in terms of what can favor another conversion rather than on

getting hooked on their purely negative aspects. Of course, there will

be elements that will rub it in on us. Some sectors of the media will

have a field day in this. But this should also be expected.

            We just have to be ready to react to all this properly, as

shown by Christ himself. And that is simply to suffer together with

Christ—a suffering that is in accordance to the will of the Father. In

a sense, the suffering caused by the scandals is another concrete way

of identifying ourselves more intimately with Christ. In a way, it is

a welcome development.

            In the meantime, we have to do the continuing task of

cleaning up our own selves and the Church as an institution. We cannot

deny that weaknesses, temptations and sins will always hound us. We

have to identify more clearly the deficiencies in Christian life that

give rise to these scandals and come up with the appropriate measures

to address them.

            Offhand, we can take another review of how the formation

of priests and seminarians is done. What improvement can be made in

that department? How should priests be more effectively accompanied in

their ministry so that their spiritual life would remain healthy as

they carry out their heavy responsibilities?

            And since transparency is also a goal to be pursued, how

should this be done without compromising the basic human rights of all

the parties involved? How should Church authorities handle cases where

the legal rights of persons are involved? Justice, charity and mercy

should go hand in hand.

            These, I suppose, are some of the things that have to be

looked into if only to minimize the cases of scandals that can

unnecessarily disturb the people in general. It cannot be denied that

the Church authorities have to install appropriate means and

structures to be in step with the rightful expectations of the world.

            It’s about time for the Church authorities to air out the

hidden dirty closets. Transparency and accountability should be lived

strictly. It certainly will be a very painful and unpleasant task, but

it will definitely be for the common good, and will give due glory to

God!

Despite the persistence of evil

WE should never lose sight of the fact, a happy truth of

our faith, that there is always hope for us despite the persistence of

evil and our continual falls to sin. St. Paul has reassured us that

where sin has abounded, God’s grace has abounded even more. (cfr. Rom

5,20)

  

            God never tires of forgiving us and of giving us more

grace to make us grow spiritually, that is, to grow more in love for

God and others. What we can do with the reality of the persistence of

evil is to take advantage of it to get closer to God and others.

   

            Yes, we may be always hounded by evil, temptations and

sin, but let’s learn the art of converting them into occasions to go

to God more closely. And that’s when, with God, we can manage to

derive good from evil.

  

            On our part, we just have to be humble enough to accept

this fact of life, and more, to go to God to ask for forgiveness and

help every time we are feel the sting of evil. It is pure pride when

we refuse to acknowledge this fact of life, and more so, when we

refuse to go to God for forgiveness and help.

  

            We cannot deny that evil, temptations and sin will always

hound us. It might be good to recall what St. Paul said about this

sad, unfortunate reality in our life. From his Letter to the Romans,

we have this explanation:

            “We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual,

sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want

to do I do not do but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want

to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I

myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.

  

            “For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that

is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but

I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the

evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do

not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in

me that does it.

  

            “So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good,

evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s

law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law

of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work with me.

What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue from this body that is

subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus

Christ our Lord!

            “So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but

in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.” (7,14-25)

            It would be good that we always keep these Pauline words

always in mind so that we do not over-react whenever evil, temptations

and sin unavoidably come our way. We just have to learn to live in

peace with this lifelong disturbing reality and never tire of going to

God for forgiveness and help.

  

            That is why it is always good that we develop the habit of

examining our conscience regularly, making some resolutions after

that, and of going to frequent confession, the sacrament that assures

us of God’s mercy and grace.

  

            There’s always hope despite the persistence of evil in our

life. Conversion should be a continuing affair for us.

God begs us to love him

FROM the Book of Proverbs comes this passage that shows us

how God practically begs us to love him. “My child, give me your heart

and let your eyes delight in my ways.” (23,26) Note that he does not

force us to love him, deferring to our sense of freedom, since that

freedom would enable us to truly love him in return if we use it

properly.

  

            We just have to learn how to give our heart to him and to

be delighted in his will and ways. Let’s remember that our heart is

actually the metonym of our whole being. It means the entirety of our

person and not just the organ that is only a part of our being, just

as the crown is used to mean the king himself.

  

            In other words, we have to learn to give our whole selves

to God, much like what is expressed in a song, “I have no use for

divided hearts / I give mine whole / and not in parts.”

  

            Yes, in spite of the many incomprehensible mysteries that

will be involved in our relation with God, we have to learn to give

our whole heart to him, that is, to say, our whole selves. We just do

not give what we consider to be the best of our being. We have to give

everything, all the rest of us.

   

            On the part of God, he has no problem receiving everything

that we are and have, warts and all, because he is a father who loves

us so much and who understands our weaknesses and mistakes, given our

limitations and the tremendous reality full of mysteries that we have

to contend with in this life.

  

            We should just try our best, knowing that our best will

never be enough. It can always be better. But God does not mind it.

Like a father before a little child, he is willing to get dirty with

us.

  

            And before God, we are actually even less than a child,

because his supernatural life which he likes to share with us, is so

above our nature that we can never reach it using our powers alone. He

is the one who enables us to reach it. He just wants that we would

want it too. Thus, he begs us to give our heart and to be delighted in

his ways, no matter how mysterious and difficult they are.

  

            Let us get to know him more and more. And let us let that

growing knowledge have the effect of making us love him more and more,

that is, of giving our heart entirely to him in a progressive way.

That’s because in this business of giving our heart to God, there is

always room for growing in our total love, in our total self-giving to

him. Love never says enough. By definition, it is something that is

given without measure, without limit.

   

            Let us not love God with our intellect alone, that is to

say, to love him in theory alone, or in principle, but not in actual

practice. Our love for God should involve our whole being, using all

our powers, all the way to our feelings and passions, our imagination

and memory, even in physical and material dimension of our life. It

has a strongly moral dimension, and not just doctrine. It is deeds,

not just good intentions and words.

  

            We have to show that love in our family life, in our

professional, social, political, cultural life, etc. God begs us to

give our heart to him in all moments of our life, not only in our

sacred moments but also in our mundane, temporal activities and

concerns.

   

            Let us help one another in learning to give our whole heart to God!

The child is father of the man

THIS is a line from the poem, The Rainbow, by William

Wordsworth. (1770-1850) It means that man is the product of his habits

and behavior developed in childhood. In other words, how we are as a

child largely determines how we will be as a grown-up person. What we

are today gives shape to what we will be in the future.

  

            This, to me, is a call for us to really take care of

little children, teaching them as early as possible the right things

in life. Of course, there will always be differences among the

different generations, but there are certain things that, irrespective

of the different generations, should remain the same.

  

            These are the essential things in life and refer more to

the spiritual and internal things involving faith and beliefs,

attitudes, habits, orientations, etc. than to the material and

external things in our life.

   

            These essential things can be expressed in different ways.

In fact, each person will have a unique way of living them. But in

their spiritual substance, they are the same and universal, applicable

to everyone, irrespective of race, religion, culture, etc. We may call

these essential things as the content of what we term as natural law.

  

            Some days ago, I happen to visit my 5-year-old and

3-year-old grandnephews. It was a very happy occasion that comes to me

few and far between. The older one was more active, of the choleric

type. The younger one was sluggish with a very handsome smile. I

called him, Shaolin, because of his chinky eyes. I had a grand time

albeit a bit tiring, since there was a lot of movement and action

involved.

  

            There was just one thing that bothered me. They had, to my

mind, too many toys such that they paid more attention to the toys

than to me who, I imagine, they seldom see.

  

            They already had digital gadgets, remote-controlled toys

that roll, walk, run and fly. I can see that they were all fascinated

by these toys. And I must say that their vocabulary was much richer

than what I remember mine was when I was at their age. They were quite

articulate already, but quite impatient too. They, for example, wanted

their gadgets to get fully charged in 5 seconds only. The older one

was literally counting the seconds.

  

            Thing is when I restrained one of them from doing

something for fear that he might break a precious house décor, he

threw a terrible tantrum, shrieking aloud and giving me dagger looks.

I was taken aback.

  

            I know it’s not good to compare, but I don’t remember

behaving like that when I was a child and when what I wanted at the

moment was frustrated. What I also remember was that I had very few

toys, and I was more attentive to the persons around me than to the

toys.

            And so I told my sister to please sweet talk these little

boys so as to learn to give more attention to the persons with them

than to the toys. They have to learn how to control their temper.

  

            I believe that this observation of mine is not an isolated

one. I hear the same things from many people who come to me for a

chat. Yes, something has to be done. We need to study the matter more

closely and come out with strategies to address this issue properly.

  

            We need to help many parents in their task of forming

their children at an early stage. If the child is father of the man,

we can just imagine the kind of society we will be having in the near

future if the children of today fail to learn the basics of filial

piety, respect and cordiality, social skills, etc.

   

            This, I think, is a serious matter that should not be taken lightly.

A more responsible public opinion

WE, of course, are all free to express an opinion on any

public issue at hand. In fact, this should be encouraged, since this

will help in ferreting out what is truly helpful to the general

public.

  

            We just have to do it as responsibly as possible, which

means that we should study the issue very well first, avoiding

off-the-cuff comments that can cause unnecessary distress and acrimony

among the people, and express our views as clearly as possible and

with charity always.

  

            Let’s always remember that our freedom of speech and

expression can never do away with the requirements of charity. Even in

the bitterest of our conflicts, we should always be charitable, ready

to understand the others, to ask for pardon if we commit some mistake

and to forgive when others commit them, etc.

  

            We cannot deny that in matters of opinion we will always

have differences and conflicts. We just have to learn how to be civil

in arguing our points and in sorting out the differences. We have to

learn this art, now so relevant and urgent given the growing

complexity of our times.

  

            What we should avoid is to fall into extreme biases and

prejudices that would compromise a healthy dialogue. Matters of

opinion can lend themselves to different views and positions, all of

them valid and legitimate, with their share of strong and weak points.

  

            They should not be argued as if they are dogmas, because

even in dogmas, when some people cannot accept them, these people will

always be treated with charity. We should avoid absolutizing something

that only has a relative value.

  

            No one should claim that he has the last word in any issue

or question. In matters of opinion, no one can claim that he has all

the good, true and beautiful in his views. One should always be

open-minded to the views of the others, no matter how different and

conflicting they are to his. There is always some truth to what they

say. We can always learn something from them.

  

            And in the discussion, one should avoid trying to simply

score points and dominate the exchange of views. Rather, one should be

interested in arriving at what is the most advantageous, fair and

practical option for everyone. Some kind of consensus has to be

achieved.

   

            A great deal of magnanimity and broad-mindedness are

required here. We should take the initiative to understand the others

with different and even conflicting views, trying to figure out where

they are coming from. We have to learn to agree to disagree in an

amicable way on certain issues. It pays to have a lot of patience, a

sportsman’s attitude, a good sense of humor.

  

            We have to keep a tight and strong grip on our emotions

and temper, preferring not to say anything or to delay to say it when

our sentiments are approaching boiling and erupting point.

   

            Sad to say, what we are noticing these days in the media

is precisely different from how public opinion should be ideally

expressed and dealt with. There is so much bias and prejudice, so much

bashing and rash judgments, so much absolutizing of things with

relative value, so much self-righteous comments. There are times when

we get the sensation that we are talking to a wall.

  

            And so we are reaping our just desserts. There’s a lot of

acrimony and division. Anger and hatred, resentments and bitterness

are rising like anything. And everyone suffers. The common good is

hardly addressed. What seem obvious are the moves to bolster one’s

power, wealth and fame. Brazen pursuits of self-interest are all over

the place.

  

            We can do a lot better than this! We have to start

learning the art of public opinion as it should be.

Our hidden faults and weaknesses

EVEN while we try our best to know ourselves, we also

would know that we can never know ourselves enough, much less,

completely. Man is a great mystery. St. Augustine said as much:

  

            “Don’t you believe that there is in man a deep so profound

as to be hidden even to him in whom it is?” We just have to learn to

live with this abiding predicament of ours and do something to deal

with it as best as we can.

  

            Of course, we are always encouraged that we make regular

examinations of conscience so we can probe into the hidden parts of

our mind and heart, of our conscience, and get to know the motives and

spirit behind our thoughts, desires, words, deeds and negligences.

  

            This is not an easy task, especially if we are burdened by

tiredness and the many concerns that hound our mind. Just the same,

the only thing to do is that we try our best, even if our best is

never enough. We just have to go on and on, trying to know ourselves

well.

  

            We cannot deny that there are just too many temptations

and all forms of evil for us to cope with. A psalm expresses this fact

well: “For evils without number surround me. My sins have overtaken

me, so that I cannot see. They are more than the hairs of my head, and

my heart has failed within me.” (40,12)

   

            We don’t have to look far to verify the truth of these

words. We just have to look at our own experiences and see how many

evils, in all kinds of forms and ways, visit us the whole day.

  

            We therefore should pray a lot, putting ourselves as much

as we can in God’s presence, so that whatever happens, we would still

be with him. We can make use of another psalm as a prayer to go with

our examinations of conscience:

   

            “Who can discern his own errors? Cleanse me from my hidden

faults.” (19,12) Still another psalm is helpful: “See if there is any

offensive way in me. Lead me in the way everlasting.” (139,24)

  

            We need to be humble to acknowledge this fact of life.

Only the proud and the vain would ignore this, and thus neglect the

needed action to address this universal human predicament. It is in

this kind of uncorrected situation that we would be building up a

moral disaster in a matter of time.

   

            No matter how daunting the effort is in knowing more and

more about our hidden faults and weaknesses, we just have to go on

with that duty. It can be a way of showing the authenticity of our

love for God and for others. And it will pay off tremendously.

  

            We would become a better person, more able to handle the

issues and challenges of our life. We would certainly make a better

world for all of us, no matter how small our individual contribution

may be. More importantly, we would be more able to discern God’s will

promptly.

  

            Our interest and motive for knowing more about our hidden

faults and weaknesses is not because of a perfectionist mentality.

Rather it should be because of our love for God and for everyone. We

are interested in this duty because we want to love God more and serve

others better. We want to glorify God.

  

            We need to be reminded of this motive quite often, because

we can easily fall into a perfectionist trap, just wanting to improve

ourselves simply for our own sake alone. This is when we can reinforce

our pride and vanity, considering ourselves as superior to others.

  

            That is why we always need to rectify our intentions. We

should never forget that the danger of perfectionism is always around.

The Mother of Fair Love

NOW that we are in the month of love, it might be a good

idea to revisit one of the titles of Mary, our Lady. She is also

referred to as the Mother of Fair Love, and thus, a good teacher and a

sure guide in our business of loving.

            I suppose that Marian title has basis on some passages in

the Book of Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) where they say: “I am the mother

of fair love, and of fear, and of knowledge, and of holy hope. In me

is all grace of the way and of the truth, in me is all hope of life

and of virtue. Come over to me, all ye that desire me, and be filled

with my fruits.” (24,24-26)

   

            These words, while written in the Old Testament, are

applied to Mary, the Mother of Christ, since they find echo or sound

similar to what Christ said of himself: “I am the way and the truth

and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (Jn 14,6)

  

            I imagine that the similarity highlights the total

identification of Mary with her son, who is the son of God and our

redeemer, giving us the reassuring idea that it is possible for a

human being to be totally identified with Christ. That possibility and

ideal should not be regarded by us as something unreachable.

  

            In other words, the similarity is meant to assure us that,

no matter how impossible it may sound, we too can be totally

identified with Christ who actually is the pattern of our humanity and

the savior of our damaged humanity. We have to learn to feel at home

with that truth of our faith.

  

            The similarity is also meant to tell us that it is in love

as lived by both Christ and Mary when we can be in the truth, the way

and the authentic life meant for us. In other words, it is this love

that summarizes and integrates the qualities of truth, way and life

that are meant for us.

  

            It stands to reason then that in order to love the way

Christ and Mary loved, one great help that we can avail of is to have

this devotion to our Lady under this title of Mother of Fair Love. She

will teach us how to love the way she loved and continues to love God

and us.

  

            In fact, Our Lady, in that passage of the Book of Sirach,

precisely told us to “come over to me…and be filled with my fruits.”

We are given a very accessible way of developing the love that is

proper to us.

  

            And in these times of so many forms of fake love, I

believe this is what is most needed. We have to go to Mary, Our Mother

of Fair Love, so that we would know how to love in all aspects,

levels, situations, circumstances, etc. of our life.

  

            She will be the one to help us animate all our activities

and concern with the genuine love of God and neighbor. We know very

well that we can get easily confused and lost with regard to our duty

of loving while we go about our daily affairs. Our loving, without

her, can easily get entangled in the emotional, sentimental and

worldly values alone that have no other alternative but to lead us to

trouble sooner or later.

  

            We can pray thus, “Our Mother of Fair Love, receive our

hearts and teach us the genuine love of God and neighbor. Your love is

the key to open our hearts that have been hurt. You lovingly nourish

the soil of our emotional and irrational life for the spiritual and

religious values to take root. Your spiritual force with its uniting

and assimilating effect of love can transform our hearts unlike

anything else. Amen.”

Order and focus favor flexibility

IT is often said that when one is very orderly and focused

on things, he most likely will fail to consider other things that may

be more important. He becomes a rigid, one-track-minded person.

  

            Of course, there is some truth to that observation,

especially when the persons concerned precisely are too orderly and

too focused that they become compulsively controlling of things and

therefore end up blind to other considerations that may objectively be

more important than what they are handling at the moment.

  

            Sad to say, we have many cases like this nowadays. This

may be due to the increasing complexity and complications of our life

and the growing clutter not only of material things but also and

especially of moral issues and concerns. As a consequence, many people

react in that way as their means to cope with the situation.

  

            But if order and focus are lived properly, they actually

favor flexibility and creativity, and they can lead one to be more

broad-minded, more objective and more able to tackle what is truly

important to us. And the proper way to develop and live order and

focus is to inspire them with love for God and others.

  

            Without that love and with us simply relying on our own

idea of what is good and advantageous to us, our way of developing and

living order and focus would be greatly limited. And that’s because

our own ideas of these virtues would only be self-serving and would

simply depend on our own powers. We would be easy prey to the

mysterious twists and turns of our life.

  

            A self-serving motive and a self-empowerment can only do

so much. They cannot go the distance.  Their objectivity is hampered

by a heavily subjective approach to the challenges in life. They

practically cannot overcome and go beyond what their current

conditionings and circumstances give them. They are like being fenced

in.

  

            But when the sense of order and focus is motivated by love

of God and others, and empowered by God’s grace, then it can be

developed and lived calmly and with greater sensitivity to the

objective reality of things in their proper hierarchy as willed by God

who knows everything and sets the ultimate standard of things.

   

            We should try our best to live always in the presence of

God that would also bring about the presence of everybody else. That’s

because if our presence of God and love for him is real, then we would

also have a vivid sense of the presence of the others and an abiding

love for them.

  

            It would be good and helpful that in developing this

proper sense of order and focus, we bring things first into our prayer

so we can see them more clearly under the light of God’s will, and not

just under our own interests and purposes. In that way, we can easily

establish the priorities proper to each of the things that come our

way.

  

            There will be a good sense of purpose and direction, and

any unexpected thing or surprise that can come our way can be handled

better without getting confused or lost.

  

            Besides, with this good sense of order and focus and a

good sense of purpose and direction, we can easily discover and

discern other possibilities that are relevant to our plans.

  

            A well-thought-out daily strategy attracts more relevant

ideas. The promptings of the Holy Spirit are more easily discerned. We

become more discriminating of things, and we would know what to get

and give attention to and what to ignore and discard.

   

            In other words, we would become more prudent, our power to

judge things and events properly gets sharpened, and our ability to be

flexible, adaptive to the demands of the moment as well as creative is

facilitated.

Faith and science

THESE two should go together. They are not meant to go

separate ways and, worse, to go against each other. A faith without

science is prone to fall into superstitions, and a science without

faith can only go nowhere.

  

            Yes, a faith without science can only provoke suspicion,

disbelief and criticism. And a science without faith might give an

appearance of sophisticated achievement but it will certainly lead to

getting confused and lost in itself, and can pose as a grave danger to

us.

  

            All of this because faith and science in the end come from

the same source—God the Creator. This is what the Catechism says about

faith and science:

  

            “Though faith is above reason, there can never be any real

discrepancy between faith and reason. Since the same God who reveals

mysteries and infuses faith has bestowed the light of reason on the

human mind, God cannot deny himself, nor can truth ever contradict

itself.

  

            “Consequently, methodical research in all branches of

knowledge, provided it is carried out in a truly scientific manner and

does not override moral laws, can never conflict with the faith,

because the things of the world and the things of faith derive from

the same God.

  

            “The humble and persevering investigator of the secrets of

nature is being led, as it were, by the hand of God in spite of

himself, for it is God, the conserver of all things, who made them

what they are.” (159)

  

            Faith actually needs science to be able to demonstrate its

truths, though faith transcends the powers of science and its scope

goes far beyond what science can reach and cover.

   

            Thus, being a sharing of what God the Creator knows about

us and the world, faith is meant to give light and direction to

science. We need to acknowledge this principle and allow our

scientific work to be guided by faith.

  

            A faith that is not aided by science is a faith that is

out on a limb. It tends to fall into the anomaly of fideism. And a

science that is not guided by faith is blind, or is blinded by its own

light. It cannot cope with all the issues and questions in life and

the realities of the spiritual and supernatural world. It tends to

fall into the anomaly of scientism and technologism.

  

            A faith without science tends to build an ivory tower,

unable to have any impact on the things of the world. Its relevance

and practicability in the world tends to fade away. Its spread and

transmission, its viability in the world would be greatly hampered.

Faith does not undermine the objectivity and realism of science.

  

            A science without faith can become a loose cannon. It is

vulnerable to be exploited by ideologues, to get entangled in partisan

politics, and to come out with biased data, etc. It would not know how

to play along the providence of God, since it would be oblivious of

God.

  

            Faith and science should go together. Scientific studies,

for example, about the origin of the world and of life in general

reinforce the truths of faith about these questions. Of course, there

are differences in the language used by faith and science, but they

somehow are in agreement about the core of these questions.

  

            It is important that we always maintain the strong and

intimate relation between faith and science. We have to avoid the

extremes of “too much faith” with hardly any reference and support

from science, and of “too much science” that practically ignores the

light of faith.

   

            Sad to say, these two extremes can be found in many places

today. We need to correct the situation by undertaking an abiding

catechesis, adapted to the different mentalities of the people, about

the mutual relation between faith and science.

Be truly humble to be ‘capax Dei’

SINCE we are made in the image and likeness of God, we

have been given the power to be truly like God. In fact, we are meant

not only to belong to God, as any creature belongs to him, but to

share in God’s very own life as children of his. We are not just any

ordinary creature. We are very special, the masterpiece of all of

God’s creation.

  

            That may be an incredible statement that we can say about

ourselves, but that happens to be what our Christian faith tells us,

no matter how undeserving we are of such dignity. And if we are

Christian believers even if we cannot understand everything that our

faith tells us, we know that such statement is true. It’s not a

gratuitous affirmation.

  

            This is what is called, ‘capax Dei,’ an expression coined

by St. Augustine that means that we are capable of becoming like God

or that we are capable for God. To be sure, this power is a result

first of all of God’s grace. But that grace requires a human

counterpart which comes in the form, first of all, of humility.

  

            Humility is the virtue that makes us acknowledge that we

are nothing without God. It sort of opens our soul for the grace of

God to enter. And it is this grace that transforms us, irrespective of

our human impotencies, mistakes and errors, into becoming children of

God.

   

            And with God’s grace in our soul because of our humility,

we can manage to receive the gifts of faith, hope and charity. We can

believe natural truths that not only are difficult to discover but

also to understand. Even more, it is humility that would enable us to

believe supernatural truths where there is no way we can fully

understand them, much less, explain them in a human way.

  

            It is humility that would enable us to be like Christ, to

be ‘alter Christus,’ who is the pattern of our humanity and the

redeemer of our damaged humanity. It is when we are humble that we can

manage to bear and to suffer all things, and to love even our enemies,

offering forgiveness to our offenders, just like what Christ did and

continues to do.

  

            Pride, the opposite of humility, is what blocks God’s

grace from entering into our soul. It restricts us to our own powers

alone, which in the first place are given by God but which we consider

simply to be our own. It gives us a false light, quite convincing in

its effect on us, but is really deceptive. It cannot go the distance

insofar as the demands and requirements of our authentic human dignity

are concerned.

  

            We have to do everything to always grow in the virtue of

humility, by training ourselves to always be with God and mindful of

everybody else. Humility is like emptying ourselves completely so that

God can fully be with us and bring us to our fullest dignity.

   

            This will definitely requires a lot of sacrifices. That’s

why Christ told us that if we want to follow him, we should deny

ourselves, carry the cross, and follow him. (cfr. Mt 16,24) We have to

convince ourselves everyday that we cannot actually follow Christ and

identify ourselves with him as we should, unless some self-denials are

involved.

   

            Without these self-denials, which are the sure expressions

of humility, there is no way we can be like Christ. Our capacity to be

like God, ‘capax Dei,’ would be compromised.

  

            Let’s always follow the example of Our Lady, whose

continual ‘Fiat’ (be it done) to God’s will, made her the Mother of

God and our mother. Her humility catapulted her to be the perfect

human person, just like how God wanted us in the beginning, sinless,

pure, fully identified with God!