Our need for God

“AND they came to Capernaum looking for Jesus.” (Jn 6,24) The gospel talks about how the people were so impressed with what they saw and heard from Christ that they were always looking for him. It seemed like they couldn’t help but be attracted to him. 

 This episode points to a basic truth about ourselves, and that is that we actually have a natural longing for God, though such longing can be thwarted by a number of reasons. 

 This is how the Catechism explains this point. “The desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created by God and for God; and God never ceases to draw man to himself. Only in God will he find the truth and happiness he never stops searching for.” (27) 

 As to how such natural desire for God can be thwarted, the Catechism says: “But this ‘intimate and vital bond of man to God’ can be forgotten, overlooked, or even explicitly rejected by man. Such attitudes can have different causes: revolt against evil in the world; religious ignorance or indifference; the cares and riches of this world; the scandal of bad example on the part of believers; currents of thought hostile to religion; finally, that attitude of sinful man which makes him hide from God out of rear and flee his call.” (29) 

 We have to see to it that this natural longing for God is always protected, developed and pursued all the way to its last consequences. We should always feel the necessity for God, an abiding hunger and thirst for God. 

 We have to realize that we need him always, that we need to refer everything that we are, that we have, that we do—from our most private and hidden thoughts, desires, intentions to our most overt and big actions—to him. 

 We need to realize that everything has to begin and end with him. He should be the inspiration and the purpose, as well as the pattern and the way from the start to the end of things. He is the very author of everything in reality, the creator of the nature of each creature, be it living or inert, etc. 

 We need to see to it that we develop a real hunger and thirst for God to such an extent that we would really feel the corresponding urges. Our yearning for God should not just be a spiritual or intellectual affair. 

 It has to be felt, like we do when we hunger for food and thirst for water. It should filter down to our senses that would involve the corresponding organs of our body. Otherwise, that hunger and thirst for God will not last long, let alone, something that is of the abiding kind. 

 Our relationship with God would be compromised if we only manage to give some appearance of piety which many people have become good at. And nowadays, with all the many alluring distractions, it is imperative that our relationship with God is really strong. Our hunger and thirst for God should dominate all the other desires and yearnings we have in life. 

 It would be good if we can find ways to develop a deeply felt hunger and thirst for God. This, for sure, will not compromise our humanity, our naturalness, etc. On the contrary, it will purify, enrich and elevate our humanity to the supernatural life of God that is meant for us. 

 Yes, we are meant for God. We are nothing when we are not with God!

Realistic, patient, charitable

WHEN Christ in that parable of the wheat and the weeds (cfr. Mt 13,24-43) advised that it would be better not to uproot the weeds at the moment since doing so may also uproot the wheat, we are practically told that we have to be realistic about our earthly condition where forms of evil would be unavoidable and that we learn to be patient and to remain charitable always. 

 In other words, we should be strong and tough and try our best not to be scandalized by any evil we encounter in life. Of course, the only way to do that is to have the very spirit of Christ. That is to say, to truly identify ourselves with Christ through his grace to which we have to correspond generously by developing the appropriate virtues. 

 We should try our best to be protected from being scandalized by evil all around us. With all the scandalous things popping everywhere, we should train ourselves to be strong and focused enough to do what we are supposed to do instead of being stalled by them. That is why we should aim at being scandal-proof. 

 We cannot deny that there are many scandals around that can rob us of our desire to do constructive things, often nipping it in the bud. Today’s scandals just do not come from the usual sources from which we may already have developed a good resistance. 

 Nowadays, the scandals can come from very unexpected causes, that is, from people whom we least expect to cause them. These people are supposed to be above suspicion. 

 Yet, we always have to remember that anything is possible under the sun. A saintly-looking person may be a demon in disguise. But the reverse can also be true. A devilish-looking person is, in fact, a saint. We should try not to be too surprised by this. In fact, it can be a healthy attitude to somehow expect this kind of phenomenon. 

 We should never forget that the weeds can try to look like the good seed itself. There’s a lot of pretensions and hypocrisy around, and the issues of lukewarmness, complacency, self-righteousness and the need for conversion are hardly acted upon these days. 

 Just the same, we need to be hopeful about everything and just learn to be scandal-proof. To be scandal-proof that is driven by true love would make us understand why God allows scandals to happen. These scandals actually have a reason for happening. They are actually meant to lead us to some good effects, like our purification, our strengthening in our faith and love, etc. As St. Paul again put it, they in the end will work out for the good. (cfr. Rom 8,28) . 

Thus, instead of responding to evil with evil, hatred with hatred, we should rather respond to evil with good, hatred with love. That way we turn things around, rather than plunge into the spiral of evil and hatred. 

 We should just live charity all the time. That way, we can turn evil things into something that is good for all. We should try our best not to be dominated and scandalized by evil. That’s how true love is, a love that is a clear sharing of the love that is in God as shown and lived by Christ himself. It’s a love that is not scandalized by anything.

Again the problem of familiarity

“A prophet is not without honor, except in his own country.” This is Christ’s indictment against the people of his own place who, instead of being amazed and thankful for having among them not only a very special person but the very son of God, found Christ too much for them, and were in fact scandalized by him. 

 This is what familiarity is all about and what it produces. As an adage would put it, familiarity breeds contempt. It is the state of getting too accustomed to God and to his goodness such that we would not feel the urge anymore to thank and praise him for everything that we have and enjoy, since all these things come from him. 

 It is a very common danger to us, and is at bottom a result of letting simply our senses, feelings and our other ways of purely human estimation to guide us rather than our faith, and its necessary companions of hope and charity. 

 Instead of being amazed and thankful for having among them not only a very special person but the very son of God, Christ’s townmates found him too much for them, and were in fact scandalized by him. That is why Christ refused to do many miracles there. 

 We have to be more aware of this danger of familiarity and install the necessary defenses against it. More than that, we have to aggressively cultivate the art of always being amazed at God and at all his works. That should be the proper state for us to be in. 

 We have to understand, though, that this abiding state of amazement that we should try to develop is not a matter simply of sensations. Of course, it would be good if we can always feel amazed and in awe. But given the limitations of our bodily organism, we cannot expect that to happen all the time. 

 For this to happen, we should always feel the need to renew and purify our love for God and others. That’s simply because of the tension between our nature and our supernatural goal, not to mention our present wounded human condition that is prone to temptation and sin and to all kinds of weaknesses. We unavoidably have to contend with these conditions in our earthly life. 

 We can always start with good intentions and the best of our efforts in anything that we do. But if we do not constantly renew and purify our love for God and neighbour that should inspire all our actions, we simply cannot go the distance. 

 Somewhere along the way, our energy will weaken, our motives will get warped, our objectives will get displaced. We should be realistic and humble enough to acknowledge this fact of life and do something about it. In this life, the law that we ought to follow is to always renew and purify our love for God and neighbour. 

 Our attitude should be that we just have to begin and begin again. We have to learn how to renew ourselves, or how to have another conversion since conversion is going to be a lifelong necessity for us. 

 This is how we can distance ourselves from the constant threat of familiarity and complacency. What we need to do is to continue, without let up, having to begin and begin again. This is a practical law of life that we should apply in our daily affairs.

When we truly welcome Christ

THAT beautiful story of the sisters, Martha and Mary, welcoming Christ into their house (cfr. Lk 10,38-42) teaches us a precious lesson about how prayer and piety should take precedence over any consideration of practicality, no matter how legitimate and praiseworthy such consideration is. Such precedence would indicate the proper way of truly welcoming Christ into our life. 

 When Martha said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving,” Christ clarified about the proper priority to observe when he replied, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her.” 

 This clarification is important and quite relevant these days as many of us are pressured, with all the challenges of our times, to go practical at the expense of our prayer and piety. 

 To be realistic in our present conditions, we need to be ready to resist this great temptation and work toward giving piety priority over practicality. Better still, we should find a way where the two values, in their proper order, can be put together. They need not be at odds with each other. 

 This, of course, will require some deepening in our convictions that God should be treated first before anything else in our life. God should be the beginning and end of everything in our life. 

 He is, in fact, everything to us. We need to convince ourselves more strongly that there is nothing in life where God need not be the center of interest, or where he can be set aside, at least for some time. Again, God is everything to us! That is non-negotiable. 

 We have to understand that it’s when we pray, that is, when we truly pray and not just going through the motions of praying, that we would be engaging ourselves with the most important person in our life, God himself. That’s when we can truly welcome and receive Christ in our life. He is absolutely our everything, without whom nothing and no one has any importance. 

 It’s when we pray that we manage to relate who we are, what we have, what we do, etc. to our ultimate end which, to be sure, is not something only natural but is also supernatural. Nothing therefore can rival the importance of prayer. In other words, prayer is irreplaceable, unsubstitutable, indispensable. It’s never optional, though it has to be done freely if we want our prayer to be real prayer. 

 It’s when we truly pray and when we develop an abiding and vibrant life of piety that we can convert our work and all our other concerns into a form of prayer also, into an act of worship and thanksgiving to God. It can also be a way of making up for our sins and of asking some favors from God. 

 We have to develop a strong sense of piety while being immersed in the world, doing mundane things that are supposed to give glory to God and are the raw material, so to speak, for God’s providence to operate in the world. 

 We have to develop a strong sense of relating things to God, asking ourselves questions like: Is what I am doing now what God really wants me to do? Am I doing things with rectitude of intention? Am I doing it right? What is God trying to tell me at this moment, in this particular occasion? Etc.

The proper priorities in our life

“The Kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field, which a person finds and hides again, and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the Kingdom of heaven is like a merchant searching for fine pearls. When he finds a pearl of great price, he goes and sells all that he has and buys it.” (Mt 13,44-46) 

 With these words, Christ is telling us to have the proper priorities in our life. Nothing should have greater importance than our having an intimate relation with God. Everything else should be made only as a means, occasion or motive to pursue and keep that relation with God. 

 We should assume the same attitude of St. Paul who also said: “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as refuse, in order that I may gain Christ…” (Phil 3,8) 

 How important therefore that we realize that our first priority should be God and our relationship with him which should be sustained with the constant effort to know, love and serve him! We should be ready to throw away everything else that can stand in the way. 

 We need God first of all, and, in fact, all the time. He is our most important objective need, much more and infinitely more than we need air, food, rest, pleasures, etc. For without God, we are nothing. But with him, we can have everything. That is why, St. Teresa Avila boldly said: “He who has God lacks nothing. God alone is sufficient.” 

 We need to learn how to find God in everything we do or we see, handle or get involved in. In this, we have to be pro-active. We should not wait for some inspiration to come or some so-called favorable or conducive circumstances to take place. We have to actively look for him or create the occasion. We can always do this, because God himself empowers us to do so. 

 For this to happen, everyday we have to strongly set our mind to find, love and serve God. We may have to spend time meditating on this most important and objective need of ours, if only to know how to uphold this basic need amid the many other needs and likes that can undermine it. 

 It’s always recommendable that we try our best to carry a running conversation with God, even sharing with him our thoughts and feelings at the moment. We should avoid thinking, judging, speaking, doing things solely on our own. Everything has to be done with God. That is the proper condition for us in this life. 

 For this purpose, we have to understand that we should be willing to leave everything behind for the sake of God who will provide us with everything, including those things that we cannot anymore provide for ourselves. 

 In this regard, Christ was very clear. To the rich young man who wanted to be perfect, Christ told him in no unclear terms, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” (Mt 19,21) 

 Let’s work on having the proper priorities in our life!

Restraint and hope

WHEN Christ explained to his disciples the meaning of the parable about the wheat and the weeds (cfr. Mt 13,24-43), he practically told them to practice restraint in their reactions to all forms of evil in this world while at the same time developing the virtue of hope that would enable them to move on while prudently waiting for the God-appointed time when things can be properly sorted out. 

 To practice both restraint and hope is indeed a big challenge for all of us, since, human as we are, we always tend to act spontaneously or instinctively to things that take place in our life here on earth, with hardly any consideration of the global picture provided by our Christian faith in which things in general ought to be seen. 

 We have to learn how to be prudent, knowing how to practice both restraint and decisiveness in our judgments, reactions and actuation. We should not simply be restrained and moderate if only to play safe. Neither should we be just bold and decisive to make our point clear. 

 Depending on the circumstances of a given situation, a truly prudent man would know how to restrain himself and how to be decisive. If facts are clear and the pieces of evidence are strong, then he would not hesitate to make his views clear and to take the appropriate action. 

 Otherwise, he would prefer to keep quiet and discreet, or at the most would just keep some tentative views and opinions which are usually kept to himself until things become clear in a way that would warrant a clear-cut judgment and action. 

 This kind of prudence can only come about as a result of one’s identification with Christ who would inspire him to always judge, react and act with charity. Yes, if prudence has to be true prudence, it always has to be animated by charity, the one that was shown and commanded by Christ to us. 

 But we should not forget that no matter much we try to be prudent and restrained in reactions to things, we can never completely avoid suffering, and suffering unjustly at that. 

 This unjust suffering is becoming common as the world is getting more and more complicated. We can suffer unjustly because of some rash judgments people can make, or because of exaggerated attachments to political opinions and social trends, or because of racial and even mere regional discrimination. 

 We can suffer unjustly because of family problems that we cannot avoid and we are forced to resolve, like lingering and expensive sicknesses, drug addiction on the part of some family members, marital crises of relatives, bankruptcy, etc. 

 We can suffer unjustly out of sheer malice of others, perhaps driven by envy, greed, lust for power, etc. This is not to mention the growing instances of suffering due to natural calamities and disasters for which we cannot pin down anybody as responsible as well as those errors for which we are truly guilty. 

 In all this, we have to learn to suffer with Christ and foster the virtue of hope that in the end, everything will be made right. And we can be sure that we are having hope when in spite of all the evils we have to suffer in this life, we can still manage to be at peace and even to find meaning and joy in our suffering. That’s when we can say that we becoming more and more like Christ as we ought to be!

Heaven thru the little things

IMPOSSIBLE? Think again. It’s Christ who says it in so many words. “The Kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed…The Kingdom of heaven is like a yeast…” (cfr. Mt 13,31-35) 

 We need to reconcile ourselves with this happy truth of our faith that we do not have to wait for extraordinary circumstances for us to reach heaven and even to have a taste of it even while still here on earth. With the little, ordinary things in our life, we have all the means and chances to have heaven within our reach. 

 The secret again is to do everything, no matter how little or insignificant it is in human terms, with love. That is, with the love of God, reflecting and channeling God’s abiding love for us in everything that we do, which usually are small and ordinary things in our day. 

 Sanctity, our ticket to heaven, certainly requires heroism, even to the point of martyrdom. But we can be sure that by being consistently loving in doing the little things of life, especially when they are hidden and unappreciated humanly, we would already be very heroic indeed. 

 The Book of Sirach says: “He who despises small things will fail little by little.” (19,1) We have to be most careful because the neglect of little things can easily lull us to complacency, or to think that nothing is wrong and that everything is just fine. 

 In short, we fail to develop a unity of life. Not only would we be unable to link the present with the future, the means with the end, the internal with the external, we would also fail to relate the mundane with the sacred, the fleeting character of the prosaic elements in our daily life with the permanent value in our life beyond death. 

 We obviously have to contend with many obstacles along the way. We can tend to be narrow-minded and short-sighted, full of improper biases and attachments. We easily make rash judgments and are often at the mercy of our emotions and passions, putting our reason and faith to sleep. 

 We can also get tired, or rather, we can cover laziness as tiredness. The general environment, the prevailing culture can be insensitive to the value of little things. It only gives attention to the big things, not the little ones, the desired success, not the necessary effort. 

 What we have to do is to learn to find Christ in the little things which comprise most of our day, if not of our whole life. Another way of saying it is to learn to refer everything to Christ, no matter how little or insignificant it is. 

 We should always be with Christ at every moment of our day, offering things to him, asking him questions like, “Lord, how should I deal with this particular situation, be it an exciting work, a boring and tiring moment, etc.?” 

 We should never dare to do things simply on our own. Especially when we find ourselves in difficulties, in a quandary, in moments of temptation, etc., we have to go to Christ as quickly as possible and cling to him as tightly as possible. 

 And we should never forget to thank him all the time, for such gesture connects us with him in an abiding way. When we are with Christ especially in the little things of our day, how can we doubt about having heaven in us while still here on earth?

Vigilant, patient, hopeful

THAT parable about the wheat and the weed, the good seed and the bad seed (cfr. Mt 13,24-30) provides us with a precious lesson that is most useful and relevant especially for our present times. 

 We cannot overemphasize the fact that in this world, especially nowadays, good and evil can be so mixed up that we would find it hard to distinguish between the two. The good may appear like evil to us, and vice-versa. Also, what may start as good can turn out bad later on, and the other way around, what can start as bad can turn out good in the end. 

 In the face of all this, we should just listen carefully to what Christ wants us to learn from this parable. It is none other than that we need always to be vigilant, patient and hopeful. 

 We always have to remember that while we have to do all that we can, in the end it would be God who will take care of everything, who will perfect and complete things that we get involved in, who will make the final judgment as to which is good and which is bad. 

 But, yes, we have to upgrade our vigilance skills especially these days when we are living in an increasingly complex world. The powerful new things we are enjoying these days, while giving us a lot of convenience and advantages, can also occasion greater danger since they can also lead us to graver forms of self-indulgence and other disorders not only in terms of physical, mental, psychological health, but more so in terms of our spiritual and moral health. 

 We should not take this need for granted. We have to continually update and upgrade our vigilance skills. Remember Christ telling his disciples: “Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy from carousing and drunkenness and the anxieties of daily life…Be vigilant at all times.” (Lk 21,34.36) 

 We also need to stretch some more our patience, or our capacity to suffer, to bear the burdens and pressures of the times, the unavoidable sins and their consequences. In that parable of the wheat and the weeds, the master told the servants not to uproot the weeds in the meantime since it would just also damage the wheat. He advised them to wait till harvest time when the separation can be finally made. 

 Obviously, to be patient does not mean that we do nothing about the bad situation we may be in and just suffer. We should do what we can to clean up our environment, but in a way that should not cause more harm and damage. 

 In fact, we should do a lot of good and purification. But we have to remember always that we can never solve everything definitively while here on earth. We live in an imperfect world and we should just learn to live with that condition without compromising the distinction between good and evil. In a sense we have to expect to get dirty but without giving away what is truly essential in us. 

 Lastly, the parable encourages us to strengthen our hope that is firmly anchored on our faith and trust in the ever-wise and omnipotent providence of God. We should remember that it was God who started everything and it will also be he who will end, complete and perfect everything. Ours is simply to go along with him.

Generous sowing and prodigious fruitfulness

“The seed sown on rich soil is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold.” (Mt 13,23) 

 With these words of Christ, many things can come to mind. First, like Christ we should be generous in sowing the word of God that in the end is really what matters most in our life, for it brings us to our definitive eternal life. 

 We should be wary when we depend mainly on our sciences, arts and technologies which, while useful, can only do so much for us. And they can only truly and not deceptively useful when they are animated and guided by God’s word. 

 We have to be generous in sowing God’s word nowadays because the world is in dire need of it. Our increasingly powerful sciences and technologies can and should never replace God’s word. We have to be most careful of them because even if they give us a lot of advantages, they can also occasion in us a lot of strong temptations that would lead us to self-indulgence. 

 Another idea, of course, would be that we should try our best to be that rich soil on which the seed of God’s word would fall, so that that word becomes truly fruitful. We are meant to be fruitful and productive. 

 We truly need to study God’s word thoroughly, understanding it not simply as mere words but as the very person of Christ who is the very Word of God that is given to us. Studying God’s words is actually a matter of having an existential and intimate relation with Christ who is always alive and solicitous of our needs. 

 And from there, let us make that word bear fruit in us and in others. Yes, everyday, we should be keenly aware that we need to be fruitful and productive. That’s simply because even from the beginning of our creation in Adam and Eve, this has always been God’s will for us. 

 “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it,” (Gen 1,28) God told our first parents, clearly outlining his mandate to them. It’s a mandate that continues to be repeated up to now. Christ himself said as much. In his parable of the three servants (cfr Mr 25,14-30), a master clearly told each one to trade with the amount given to them and to make the most out of it. 

 He was happy with the first two who gained as much as was given. But he was mad at the third one who did nothing with the amount given. 

 We have to realize that God has already given us everything that we need not only to survive but also to improve our lot that ultimately translates into realizing the fullness of our dignity as image and likeness of God, as children of his. 

 In this regard, we truly should be most enterprising, coming up with daily plans and strategies such that at the end of the day, when we make our examination of conscience, we can show God that we have gained something, and that the daily balance sheet of our spiritual life is in the black, not in the red. 

 We have to realize that the capitalization of this enterprise cannot be any better. God has given us everything–life, talents, intelligence, freedom, all kinds of capacities, his graces, etc.

From sinner to saint

WE cannot deny we are all sinners. But neither should we deny that we are all called to become saints. That’s because we are all children of God, made in his image and likeness. As Christ himself said, “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Mt 5,48) And St. Peter, echoing the same idea, said, “Just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do.” (1 Pt 1,15) 

 The path to follow from sinner to saint is actually provided for us. Christ not only preached about repentance and conversion, but offers his very own self in his supreme sacrifice on the cross as propitiation for all the sins of men. The secret and the key is to be with Christ. 

 This was what big sinners like St. Mary Magdalene, St. Augustine, and many, many others did in order to make that cross-over. May their example inspire all of us to follow the path they took. They tell us very clearly that the mercy of God is more powerful than whatever sin we may commit, including the ugliest sin. 

 Our sinfulness, defects and errors should not separate us from God. If anything at all, they should bring us closer to him, assured that God’s mercy will never be lacking. 

 These two realities about our sinfulness and God’s mercy always should go together. We should always strengthen our conviction about the helpful relationship these two should have with each other in our life. 

 Whenever we feel the sting of our weaknesses and sinfulness, together with their antecedents and consequences, their causes and effects, let’s never forget to consider also God’s mercy that is always given to us, and, in fact, given to us abundantly. 

 What we have to avoid is to get stuck with one while ignoring the other. Our sinfulness should be viewed in the context of divine mercy. And vice-versa: God’s mercy should be regarded in the context of our unavoidable sinfulness. 

 And from there, let us develop the unshakable conviction that no matter what sins we commit, no matter how ugly they are, there is always hope. God’s mercy can take on anything. 

 Let’s strengthen our conviction that Christ has a special attraction to sinners, that he is ever willing to forgive us as long as we show some signs of repentance that he himself, through his grace, will stir in us. 

 Let’s play the part of Peter who, after denying Christ three times, realized his mistake and wept bitterly in repentance. Christ looked kindly on him and forgave him and even made him the prince of the apostles. 

 We just have to make sure that we do not get spoiled by God’s abundant mercy, because even if his love and mercy is eternal, his justice is never sacrificed. His mercy and justice always go together, in proportions, if we have to speak in human terms, that are just right. 

 That divine justice unleashes its power precisely when with all the infinite goodness of God, we fail to return good with good, love with love. Instead, we allow ourselves to get spoiled. 

 Let’s not forget that getting spoiled is a human choice. It’s not part of God’s plan and will for us. But since our freedom is a real freedom, and not just an imitation, we also have the power to return good with evil, love with hatred. Let’s always be wary of this possibility and do everything to avoid it!

About God’s word

“SOME seed fell on rich soil, and produced fruit, a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold.” (Mt 13,8) 

 With these words, Christ is telling us to be that rich soil that would faithfully and gratefully receive God’s word, and to make it so inspire us as to drive us into a most meaningful and fruitful life of personal holiness and apostolate. 

 Let’s always remember that in the end what really matters in life is for us to be holy and apostolic. And we pursue this goal and ideal through all the events, affairs and circumstances of our life. Let’s hope that we don’t get confused and lost along the way, getting trapped in our temporal concerns that only have a relative value and only play an instrumental role. 

 It goes without saying that we need to study God’s word well, making it flesh of our flesh. On this, St. Paul said: “Not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.” (Rom 2,13) St. James says something similar: “Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.” (1,22) 

 Christ himself lived by this principle, even at the expense of his own life. “I do nothing of myself, but as the Father has taught me...” (Jn 8,28) And in the agony in the garden, he expressed that most eloquent submission to his Father’s will, “Not my will but yours be done.” (Lk 22,42) 

 To study and live by God’s word will always be an ongoing and never-ending affair in this life. Just the same, whatever we know and learn from it, let us also share it with others as widely as possible. We have to continue the sowing, taking the effort also to prepare the ground so that the seed of God’s word would not be wasted but would rather bear a lot of fruit. 

 But we have to understand well what the word of God really is. To be sure, God’s word is not just any word. Neither is God’s word just a brilliant idea, a practical doctrine, and effective ideology. It’s not just a strategy, a culture or a lifestyle. 

 God’s word, of course, can involve all these. But unless we understand that God’s word is Christ himself, the second person of the Blessed Trinity, the perfect image and word that the one God has of his own self, we will miss the real essence and character of God’s word. It’s this word that would bring us to the fullness of our humanity. 

 We need to realize then that the word of God is inseparable from God himself. That’s because God is so perfect as to be in absolute simplicity. As such, God has no parts, no different aspects, no quality or property that is distinct from his very being. His word and his being are one and the same. 

 Of course, Christ, as God’s word, comes to us in human form that is subject to the limitations and fragility of our human condition. He can appear to us right before our eyes, but we still cannot capture everything about him. Such state of affairs should prod us to know him more and more so as to love him more and more also. Our relationship with him should be a matter of continuing knowing and loving. 

That’s how we can handle God’s word properly!

How to be part of God’s family

CHRIST spelled it out to us very clearly about how we can be part of the family of God. “Whoever does the will of my heavenly Father is my brother, and sister, and mother.” (Mt 12,50) And the first one who had this qualification is none other than Our Lady who precisely is the mother of Christ, perfect God and perfect man. 

 When someone told Christ that his mother was around, Christ asked, “Who is my mother?” That retort was not meant to disparage Our Lady. Not at all! On the contrary, it was meant to define who his mother is and who can be part of the family God. It is when one does the will of God. It was actually a praise to Mary. (cfr. Mt 12,46-50) 

 Mary’s total submission to the will of God was manifested when she told the Archangel Gabriel who announced to her that she was chosen to be the mother of the Son of God with her “Fiat,” “Be it done to me according to your word. Mary’s “Fiat” is the perfect model of how our will ought to be conformed to God’s will. We have to be reminded that by the very nature of our will, the very seat of our freedom, our will is supposed to be in synch with the will of its Creator. It just cannot be by itself, turning and moving purely by its own. 

 It is meant to be engaged with the will of God, its creator and lawgiver. It is the very power we have been given by God that enables us to unite ourselves with God in the most intimate way. All the other aspects of our life—physical, biological, chemical, etc.—are also governed by God-given laws but, by themselves, they cannot bring us into intimate union with God, unless moved by our will that animated by God’s grace. 

 We cannot expropriate our will to be simply our own. We are meant only to be stewards of it, not its owner nor its designer, creator and lawgiver. It has to submit itself to the will of God, otherwise it would be working without proper foundation and purpose. 

 Mary’s “Fiat” should be an all-time motto for us, a guiding principle in our whole life. The submission of our will to God’s will is never a diminution of our freedom. On the contrary, it is the enhancement of our freedom. It is where we can have our true freedom and true joy. We have to say “Fiat” also to God’s will to allow Christ to be conceived and born in our life. We are meant to be “another Christ,” patterned after him. 

 We need to be more aware of this fundamental need of ours to conform our will to the will of God. Very often, we behave like spoiled brats who do not yet realize the importance of this need. We have to correct this tendency. 

 We have to train ourselves in the art of deepening our sense of obedience to God’s will, basing it on our faith, hope and love of God and others, and making it intelligent, truly voluntary, prompt and cheerful. 

 That’s when we can be truly children of God, his image and likeness, sharers of his divine life. That’s when we become members of God’s family. This is a basic truth that we need to spread around more widely and abidingly, since it is steadily and even systematically forgotten and, nowadays, even contradicted in many instances.

With conversion there is no need for signs

“Some of the scribes and Pharisees said to Jesus, ‘Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.’ He said to them in reply, ‘An evil and unfaithful generation seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it except the sign of Jonah the prophet…’” (Mt 12,38-39) 

 If there is no faith, if we resist the need for conversion, we will never see the things of God and the rich reality of the truly spiritual and supernatural world, no matter how much we spin our human powers to capture this reality. 

 We need penance and conversion to get in touch with the things of God. And we have to realize that such need is constant. We have to understand that repentance for our sins and conversion are a continuing affair for all of us in this life. We can never say, if we have to follow by what our Christian faith tells us, that we are good enough as to need conversion no more. 

 We are all sinners, St. John said. And even the just man, as the Bible said, falls seven times in a day. 

 Besides, it is this sense of continuing conversion that would really ensure us that whatever we do, whatever would happen to us, including our failures and defeats, would redound to what is truly good for the parties concerned and for everybody else in general. 

 That’s because conversion brings us and everything that we have done in life to a reconciliation with God, from whom we come and to whom we go. 

 In one of the post-resurrection appearances of Christ to his apostles, that time when it was said that Christ “opened their minds to understand the Scriptures,” our Lord told them clearly: 

 “Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, would be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.” (Lk 24,46-47) 

 Yes, repentance for the forgiveness of sins has to be preached far and wide and constantly. These words show how much Christ is bent in saving us, in bringing us to our true dignity of a functioning child of God. This is his will for us. We just have to learn to correspond to that will, which is actually for our own true good. 

 We need to develop the virtue of penance. Precisely, the virtue of penance starts when we acknowledge our sinful condition. We should be humble enough to accept this reality. 

 But the virtue of penance goes farther than that. It grows when we put up the necessary defenses against these enemies of our soul and wage a lifelong ascetical struggle. Yes, our life will be and should be a life of warfare, a war of peace and love that will also give us certain consolations in spite of the tension. 

 And for this penance to be a true virtue, it has to include an indomitable hope that can survive even in the worst of scenarios. In fact, this hope gets stronger the uglier also the warfare gets. 

 It's a hope based on God's never-sparing mercy. Some relevant words of St. Paul: “I am sure that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” (Phil 1,6) It would be good if these Pauline assurance forms the deep attitude we should have toward our fragile human condition. 

 That way, we get to see the things of God more clearly!

Both tender and tough

WE need to imitate Christ’s trait that combines both tenderness and toughness. His tenderness can be shown when this passage from Scripture is applied to him: “A bruised reed he will not break, and a smouldering wick he will not snuff out, till he has brought justice through to victory.” (Mt 12,20) And his toughness can be gleaned from what St. Paul affirmed: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Phil 4,13) 

 Given the varied situations we can encounter in our life where we always have to contend with all sorts of trials and challenges and at the same time try to do all things with charity, we cannot help but try to develop these virtues that may appear at first glance to be contradicting each other. 

 To be sure, the contrast is only apparent, because if we are truly animated by Christ’s love, they actually are not only compatible but also are mutually supportive of each other. 

 To be truly tender requires a certain toughness, and to be truly tough would always need the tenderness of love, affection and compassion. True tenderness is never a kind of spinelessness, a marshmallow kind of sweetness. And true toughness is never that of a brute or a monster. 

 Both these qualities were shown by Christ who, in the face of the greatest injustice inflicted on him by man, continued to be tender and nice with his offenders while being tough on himself. St. Peter described this point very well when he said: 

 “When they hurled their insults at him (Christ), he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him (God the Father) who judges justly.” (1 Pt 2,23) 

 Where there is charity, we would know how to be tough and strong and at the same time how to be nice, affectionate, compassionate, etc. But it should be a charity that is vital expression of the charity of Christ himself. 

 We need to be tender with one another because no matter how mature and developed a person may be, he always has his own share of weakness and is constantly beset with problems and tasked to tackle all sorts of challenges, trials and temptations. We need to nice with one another. 

 We also need to be tough and strong, first of all, because our life will always involve, if not, require nothing less than continuing effort and struggle. Christ himself said it clearly: “From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and men of violence take it by force.” (Mt 11,12) 

 This is because there are goals and challenges to reach. And they are not merely natural, social or human goals. They are spiritual and supernatural that obviously need both grace and nothing less than our all-out effort. 

 Besides, given our wounded human condition, there obviously are problems and difficulties to face, temptations and consequences of our sins, mistakes and failures. There will always be issues that we need to resolve. 

 We need to sit down and try to find a way of how to combine these two apparently contrasting qualities. Obviously, we have to pray and ask for grace from God for this purpose. We also need to study closely the life and example of Christ and of the many saints who tried to follow Christ. And we need to constantly assess how we are progressing in this duty. 

The real purpose of our laws

MAKE no mistake about it. Our human laws are meant to lead us to our ultimate goal which is none other than to be with God, to be holy as God is holy, etc. Irrespective of their immediate temporal purpose, our laws should lead us little by little to become God’s image and likeness as we are meant to be. They in the end should serve the fundamental religious purpose of our life. That should always be the constant purpose of our laws. 

 All the other objectives of our laws, let alone their technical requirements, serve only as an occasion, a reason or motive for this ultimate purpose. Setting aside this ultimate purpose would empty our laws of their real legitimacy, making them rife for all kinds of manipulations and maneuverings by some shrewd men who may enjoy some power at a given moment. 

 We have to realize that it is Christ who ultimately gives the real meaning and purpose of our laws. We have to disabuse ourselves from the thought that our laws can be based only on our common sense, or on our own estimation of what is good and evil according to the values of practicality, convenience, etc., or on our traditions and culture, etc. 

 While these things have their legitimate role to play in our legal and judicial systems, we have to understand that they cannot be the primary and ultimate bases. It should be God, his laws and ways that should animate the way we make laws as well as the way we apply and live them. After all, being the Creator of all things, he is the one who establishes what is truly good and evil. 

 With the way today’s legal and juridical systems worldwide are drifting toward extreme positivism that simply bases itself on our perceptual experiences and people’s consensus and systematically shutting out any input from faith and divine revelation, we need to remind ourselves that God’s law is in fact the foundation, the inspiration and the perfection of our human law. 

 In other words, without any reference to God’s law, our human law cannot help but be out on a limb. For all the brilliance, wisdom and success a Godless human law can have and accomplish, it can only go so far. It cannot go the distance required by our human dignity. Sooner or later, it will fail and fall into forms of injustice, many of them so subtle that injustice can be committed under cover of our human law. 

 A clear example of this latter case is the law on abortion. It is a lot worse than the so-called extrajudicial killing we are hearing about these days. Abortion is clear murder of the most defenceless members of our human society—the infant while still inside the mother’s womb. 

 Of course, we have to understand that to make God’s law the foundation, inspiration and perfection of our human law is not going to be easy. It would require effort to plunge deep in our understanding of God’s law which is full of mysteries, which will always have something new to say even if we would already know its essential part. 

 This will require constant study and reflection, a lot of prayer and consultation, the habit of reading the changing signs of the times in the context of our faith, and also that basic attitude of always deferring to the authority of the Church magisterium who has been given the divine authority to teach and interpret God’s revelation.

Who gives us our proper rest?

THERE should be no doubt as to who gives us our proper rest, or what our true rest really is, etc. Christ said it very clearly. 

 There are, of course, different ways and kinds of rest. But we should try to have a really good one that is fit to our dignity as persons and children of God. And this kind of rest can only be found in Christ who precisely said: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Mt 11,28) 

 It is this rest that takes care of all the aspects of our need for rest—physical, mental, emotional, etc.—integrating them and reinforcing them in their contributions to serve, rather than undermine, our human and Christian dignity. 

 With this rest, our love for God and for others continues to vibrate. In fact, with this rest, our love for God and for others would grow and would keep on being creative and inventive. With this rest, a certain renewal takes place that would trigger impulses and drive to continue doing good in spite of difficulties. 

 We need to know what our proper rest really is. Nowadays, people have different and even conflicting ideas about what it is. For some it is purely something physical. For others, it is more on the emotional and psychological side. 

 There are those who think that resting is doing what they like to do at the moment, enjoying a peaceful moment, sipping a favorite drink. Still others believe it is having the sensation of letting go of something that weighs heavily on their mind and heart. There still are others who think that is about achieving a goal they had set out for themselves. 

 All of these, of course, have their valid points. But I believe there is still a higher metric that would best define what our proper rest is and that would somehow integrate all these other ideas about rest. And that is whether we manage to be with God at the end of the day— and especially at the end of our life. Resting is when we are fully with God, truly identified with Christ. 

 With the present temper in the world of rest, recreation and entertainment, we need to develop a very discerning sense of what is truly helpful and healthy, since a lot of ingredients, heady but harmful, actually glut such world. 

 How many times have I talked with people, both young and old, who, for example, got so addicted to the Internet, or who can’t say no to watching basketball or boxing on TV, that they end up gravely disoriented and even alienated! 

 They can go to the extent of neglecting their meals and sleep. Worse, they can develop asocial or even anti-social tendencies. Other graver disorders can emerge. 

 Many are seriously confused as to what it means to rest properly, or what would constitute as good entertainment. They naively pursue their R and R guided at best only by instincts and common sense, when the present environment is filled with complicated predatory elements. 

 There is a crying need to educate people about the true rest that can only come from being with God. Of course, the big difficulty here is that many people would think that involving God in their search for rest would already compromise their freedom. “What if I am not a God-inclined man? What if I am not a religious person?” some would ask.

Simple and childlike

IF we want to be with God always and to know the fine points of his mysterious will and ways, we need to be always simple and childlike. Christ may have told us also to be clever and shrewd like serpents, but that quality which is also a necessity in our life here on earth should never compromise our simplicity. In fact, that cleverness should also spring from our simplicity. 

 Christ is quite clear about this point. “I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth,” he said, “for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike.” (Mt 11,25) 

 Christ reiterated this necessity of being childlike a number of times during his preaching. “Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Mt 18,3) “Let the children come to me. Do not prevent them, for the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these.” (Mk 10,15) St. James, in his letter, made the same affirmation. “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.” (4,6) 

 With these words, it’s quite clear we all need to be childlike even as we grow in age and stature, and even as we accumulate already quite a significant amount of knowledge with our exposure to the world and the life in general. 

 Yes, children and heaven are almost synonymous to each other. No wonder we feel like we are in heaven every time we see children around. Every time a baby is born, we are very happy because we somehow know that he just did not come out of his mother’s womb, but rather from the very hands of God who created him before the parents procreated him. 

 In spite of the many limitations of children, what makes them always desirable is their pure, innocent heart, incapable of malice, ambition, pride and haughtiness. They are a source of many other good things. 

 Their heart is always trusting in the Lord always, just like a little kid is always confident with his father. Faith and hope easily grow and acquire strength when nurtured in a child's heart. It's this attitude that leads them to go on and move on no matter what, for life to them could only be an adventure of discoveries. 

 Simplicity helps us accept and live the faith. It’s what makes us children who accept things first, who allow ourselves to be guided and taught, before asking questions, not out of unbelief but rather for greater understanding. 

 Remember what our Lord said about the kingdom of heaven. He went as far as to say that it is for little children precisely because of their simplicity: “Suffer the little children, and forbid them not to come to me. For the kingdom of heaven is for such.” (Mt 19,14) 

 We need to devise an interior mechanism, more spiritual than material, to keep ourselves like children even as we grow in worldly knowledge and skills, and prone to thinking that we can already live by ourselves, independently of God. 

 This mechanism can include anything that fosters our presence of God all throughout the day, the practice of rectifying our intention and relating everything that we do to God. We have to break the barrier of awkwardness and incompetence in this regard. We actually have the means. What’s missing is our will to use this mechanism.

Always in need of repentance and conversion

LET’S be frank about ourselves. We are all sinners! No matter how much we try to be good and holy—and to a certain extent, we can actually manage to achieve that ideal to some degree—we can still find ourselves falling into sin, if not big ones, then small ones, which can actually be more dangerous since we can tend to take them for granted, until we get used to them and would not feel anymore the need for repentance and conversion. 

 Christ expressed this concern when he reproached some people for not repenting in spite of the many good things he had done for them. “Woe to you, Chorazine! Woe to you, Bethsaida!” he said. “For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would long ago have repented in sackcloth and ashes.” (Mt 11,21) 

 We have to understand that conversion is a continuing affair for all of us in this life. We can never say, if we have to follow by what our Christian faith tells us, that we are so good as to need conversion no more. 

 We are all sinners, St. John said. And even the just man, as the Bible said, falls seven times in a day. 

 Besides, it is this sense of continuing conversion that would really ensure us that whatever we do, whatever would happen to us, including our failures and defeats, would redound to what is truly good for the parties concerned and for everybody else in general. 

 That’s because conversion brings us and everything that we have done in life to a reconciliation with God, from whom we come and to whom we go. 

 It's good that we never forget this truth. But we need to prepare ourselves for it. Thus, we need to develop the virtue of penance which starts when we acknowledge these conditions about ourselves. We should be humble enough to accept this reality. 

 But the virtue of penance goes farther than that. It grows when we put up the necessary defenses against these enemies of our soul and wage a lifelong ascetical struggle. Yes, our life will be and should be a life of warfare, a war of peace and love that will also give us certain consolations in spite of the tension. 

 And for this penance to be a true virtue, it has to include an indomitable hope that can survive even in the worst of scenarios. In fact, this hope gets stronger the uglier the warfare also gets. 

 It's a hope based on God's never-sparing mercy. Some relevant words of St. Paul: “I am sure that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” (Phil 1,6) It would be good if these Pauline assurance forms the deep attitude we should have toward our fragile human condition. 

 Besides, we should not forget that nothing happens in our life without at least the permission and tolerance of God. And if he allows evil to happen, it is because a greater good can be derived from it. 

 The virtue of penance also includes the desire and practice of regular and frequent recourse to the sacrament of penance, where through the ministry of priests, Christ comes to us as father, friend, judge and doctor. This sacrament not only reconciles us with God, but also repairs whatever damage our sin would cause on others and the Church in general.

Our life-long war of peace and love

LET’S never forget this fact of life. For as long as we live in this world, and if we want to be consistent to our dignity as children of God, waging a kind of war of peace and love is a necessity. We cannot help it. We have enemies who mainly are our own selves. We have enemies because they choose to be enemies of God, and therefore also of our own selves. Yes, we can be our own enemies. 

 Christ, who is supposed to be the Prince of Peace, warned us about this. “Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth,” he said. “I have come to bring not peace but the sword.” (Mt 10,34) But we have to understand these words well. 

 He is actually telling us to wage precisely a war to bring about the real peace meant for us, a kind of war that is inspired by true love that comes from God himself. We cannot deny that with all the goodness God has done for his creatures, practically all of the latter have chosen to go against God. And among the enemies, we can be counted, together with the devil, as the primary ones. 

 But the war we will be waging here on earth will be a constructive war, not destructive. It is a war to win our way toward heaven. It is a war to make ourselves “another Christ,” a new man, stepping out of the old man that we all are due to sin. Any obstacle along the way, including those who are very close to us but who compete with God for our love, should be fought and rejected. 

 We have to remember that we always have to contend with powerful enemies in our spiritual life. The first one would be our own selves, our own flesh that has been weakened by sin. There is such a thing as concupiscence, a certain attraction to evil that leads us to have a lust of the eye, lust of the flesh and the pride of life. 

 Its urges can be strong and can make us feel that they are irresistible. We should not worry too much about them. As long as we beg always for God’s grace and we do our part of prayer, self-denial, recourse to the sacraments, and spiritual struggle, we can manage to take the wind out of these urges’ sails. 

 Then we have the world with many of its sinful, or at least, potentially dangerous allurements. There already are powerful structures of sin in the world, like pornography, religious indifference, secularism or a new paganism, and quite developed ideologies that are openly against God. 

 We need to know how to be discerning of the things of this world. More than that, we have to learn how to relate the things of this world to God, because unless we do that, there’s no other way but for us to be swallowed up by their ungodly dynamic. 

 Then there’s the devil, a very powerful spiritual enemy that can easily insinuate himself in our thoughts and desires. He is indeed very clever. He does his wiles often without us realizing it. But with God we can actually outsmart him. Let’s remember that while Christ told us to be innocent as doves, we should also be clever like serpents. We should be quick to reject those insinuations of the devil in our thoughts and intentions.

No disciple greater than his master

FOR as long as we are true disciples of Christ, we cannot aspire to be greater than Christ, our master. Obviously, among ourselves, it is highly possible that a disciple or even a servant can in time outrank his leader and master, as can easily be verified especially these days. 

 Thus, Christ said, “No disciple is above his teacher, no slave above his master.” (Mt 10,24) In this particular instance, what he was trying to tell us is that we ought to be most faithful to him and to be fully trusting of his will and ways, irrespective of how things go in our life here on earth. 

 We have to be wary of our tendency to easily fall into pride, vanity and conceit whenever we enjoy special status in our life here on earth. We should strengthen and continue reinforcing our conviction that we are actually nothing without God and that we need to continually keep an intimate relationship with Christ in the Holy Spirit. 

 We have to make some readjustments in our understanding of being a disciple of Christ. It should not be pegged only on some worldly and temporal standards. Rather, it should be understood in the context of the role of Christ in our life, he who is the “way, truth and life” for us. 

 To be sure, understanding our being disciples of Christ that way would never be regarded as some kind of downgrading our status. Rather, it would lead us to realize that we are achieving the fullness of our dignity as the “image and likeness” of God, children of his, meant to share in God’s very own life that is supernatural. 

 We just have to be most trusting of God’s will and ways, of his ever wise and omnipotent providence. That way we avoid falling into unnecessary fears and worries. We all know that our life always has more to offer to us than what we can understand, let alone, cope. And they can come in all shapes and sizes, good and bad, pleasant and unpleasant, likeable and hateful. There are surprises and moments when we seem to rot in expectation and still things we long for don’t come. 

 In the face of all this, I believe the attitude to have and the reaction to make is to be calm, pray hard, and while we do all we can, we have to learn to live a certain sense of abandonment in the hands of God. 

 With all the things that we have to contend with in this life, we certainly need to have a healthy sense of trust in God’s loving and wise providence, abandoning ourselves in his will and ways that often are mysterious to us and can appear to be contrary to what we would like to have. 

 A healthy spirit of abandonment in God’s hands is necessary even as we exhaust all possible human means to achieve our goals or simply to tackle all the challenges, trials and predicaments of our life. We should never forget this truth of our faith. 

 In those situations, I believe we just have to allow ourselves to play in God’s game plan, in his abiding providence whose designs are beyond reckoning, are way beyond comprehension and appreciation. In this life, we need to acquire a good, healthy sporting spirit.

To be both like serpents and doves

THAT’S what Christ wants us to be, if we are to be his faithful disciples. It’s not easy, of course. But we have his assurance that as long as we are with him, we truly can be as shrewd, cunning and clever as serpents and at the same time, simple and innocent as doves. 

 This is the proper combination of qualities that is meant for us. That’s what Christ wants us to be. Simple but not naïve. In fact, he wants us to be very clever and shrewd. “Be as cunning as serpents and as innocent as doves,” he said. (Mt 10,16) 

 He addressed these words first to his apostles in the context of their very tricky mission in the world where they would be like sheep in the midst of wolves. Try to imagine that scene of a sheep in the midst of wolves and we cannot help but think there’s no way a sheep has any chance of survival. 

 But these words are actually meant also for all of us who want to follow Christ consistently. We also live in a very complicated world where the spiritual and supernatural values seem to be systematically put out of place. It indeed would appear impossible for us to be consistent with Christ while in this world of ours. We definitely would feel helpless. 

 But these two qualities simply have to be cultivated, as commanded by Christ. But how? I believe the answer can only be when we don’t lose sight of the example of Christ himself. More importantly, the only possibility is when we identify ourselves fully with him. 

 Without losing our simplicity, we have to develop a certain kind of shrewdness, a holy shrewdness which is actually an urgent necessity these days precisely because our environment is fast becoming inhabited by human wolves and hissing snakes full of tricks and deceit and ready to strike and to turn our country into a Godless one. 

 We need to realize that this holy shrewdness and simplicity always go together. We can only be shrewd and clever like snakes, capable of being open, tolerant and versatile to any kind of worldly complicated situations today if we remain humble and simple like doves. A humility and a simplicity that would not lead us to be shrewd and clever like serpents would not be true humility and simplicity. They would simply be the fake ones, or forms of naivete. 

 It is genuine humility and simplicity that would enable us to face the complexities of our life because these are the virtues that liken and identify us with Christ. And with Christ, we can manage to tackle anything. 

 Remember that we are told that with God nothing is impossible. In other words, only with these virtues can we be “capax Dei,” capable of being like God, sharing his power and wisdom. With God, we can handle anything. 

 Perhaps that is the reason why Christ said: “Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden light.” (Mt 11,29-30) 

 Let’s not be daunted by this undeniably difficult combination of qualities we all ought to have. There's God's grace to help us. As long as we also do our part, things would just jell.

Let’s be a generous gift to others

THAT’S what Christ wants us to be. “Without cost you have received. Without cost you are to give.” (Mt 10,8) These words simply tell us that we have to give ourselves to others as generously as God has given himself to us. We have to learn how to give ourselves as a generous gift to others in the same way that God has given himself as a generous gift to us. 

 If we are truly followers of Christ, then whatever we give to others, especially to God, is done without counting the cost. It should purely be gratuitous, given as a gift. 

 If our understanding of giving is that of a gift, we would know that what we give is not just some objects, but rather our own selves. Our giving ourselves as a gift to others then becomes the purest expression of love. 

 We have to do everything so that our self-giving to others conform to this ideal of being a gift—given without counting the cost and with the understanding that what we are giving is not just some objects, but our own selves. 

 If we truly love God and everybody else, with a love that is nothing less than a participation of the love God has for us and as commanded by Christ to us, then we will never say enough in our self-giving. 

 Even if such attitude would already seem to be going beyond common sense, our reason and other human and worldly standards that we usually use to measure our love, we would still go on giving ourselves, never saying enough. We would just give and give, even if we seem to consume ourselves to death. 

 This is, of course, an overwhelming prospect, but that is what true love is. It is some kind of madness that knows no limits. It is given without measure, without cost, without any calculation. 

 And even if such total self-giving is not reciprocated, it would still go on loving. It is purely gratuitous. Even more, even if it is not only unreciprocated but is also violently resisted and rejected, it would still go on loving. 

 That’s simply because where there is true love, there will always be generosity. The two cannot be separated. It’s in the very essence of love to give oneself without measure, without calculation, without expecting any return. It just gives and gives, even if along the way it encounters difficulties, rejection, suffering. It embraces them, not flee from them. By its nature, it is given gratuitously. 

 Love engenders generosity and its relatives: magnanimity, magnificence, compassion, patience, pity, etc. This is the language of love, the currencies it uses. It thinks big, even if the matter involved is small according to human standards. In fact, it’s love that makes small, ordinary things big and special. 

 We need to develop a keen sense of generosity and self-giving that is also a result of detachment. Let’s never forget that whatever we have comes from God who wants us to work for the common good. Thus, we hear St. Paul saying, “What do you have that you did not receive?” (1 Cor 4,7) 

 We have been reminded of this need to cultivate generosity in the gospel. “Take care to guard against all greed, for though one may be rich, one’s life does not consist of possessions,” Christ said. (Lk 12,15)

We are all called to be apostles

HAVE you ever wondered why Christ appeared to just choose his apostles at random? He would just pass by a certain place, and upon seeing someone, he would just say, “Come, follow me.” And wonder of wonders, the person called would just follow him without any question. In fact, it is said that the person called would just leave everything behind (“relictis omnibus”). 

 I guess the only plausible answer to that question is that Christ had all the right to do so, and the person called also had the duty of respond accordingly, because in the final analysis, all of us are actually meant to be an apostle. That is to say, to be some kind of ambassador, a representative of Christ on earth. 

 At bottom, the answer is because we are supposed to be like Christ, another Christ, if not Christ himself (“alter Christus,” and even “ipse Christus”). All of us are patterned after Christ, and so we cannot avoid being involved in the mission of Christ which is the salvation of all mankind. 

 We are all meant to be apostles of Christ with the lifelong concern for doing apostolate, taking advantage of all the occasions and situations in life. Vatican II spells it out very clearly. “The Christian vocation is by its very nature a vocation to the apostolate.” (Apostolicam actuositatem, 2) So, anyone who wants to be truly consistent to his Christian identity and calling should realize ever deeply that he is called to help others get closer to God. This is what apostolate is all about. 

 This duty actually springs first of all from our nature. We are not only individual persons. We are also a social being. Our sociability is not an optional feature. It is part of our essence, violating which would be equivalent to violating our very own nature. 

 We can never live alone. We need to be with others. And more, we need to care for one another. We have to be responsible for one another. And while this caring and loving starts with the most immediate material human needs like food, clothing, etc., it has to go all the way to the spiritual and more important needs of ours. 

 That’s why we need to practice affection, compassion, understanding, patience and mercy on everyone. We have to understand though that all these can only take place if they spring and tend towards God, “the source of all good things” for us. 

 We need to be familiar with this Christian duty. We have to do apostolate, and we need to see to it that the zeal for it is always nourished, stoked and fanned to its most intense degree. 

 Before ascending into heaven, Christ told his apostles: “All power is given to me in heaven and in earth. Go, therefore, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit…” (Mt 28,18-19) 

 While addressed directly to his apostles, these words are meant for all those who want to follow Christ. To do apostolate is part of a Christian’s duty. It’s part of a Christian’s identity. A Christian is always an apostle. No one is excused from it. 

 We have to understand that these parting words of Christ represent his culminating and ultimate desire for our redemption. We can say that all he did in his earthly life—his preaching, doing miracles, his dying—get somehow summarized in this one great desire of God—the salvation of men!