Unity amid our differences, diversity, conflicts

“WHOEVER is not against us is for us.” (Mk 9,40) Words of Christ in response to his disciples who said, “Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name, and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow us.”

 If we have the spirit of Christ, as we should, then we would have the same reaction when we are faced with a similar situation, which is something common since we cannot deny that we will always have some differences and conflicts among ourselves, and will have to contend with the unavoidable diversity of cultures, beliefs, lifestyles, etc., among ourselves. 

 We have to be wary of our tendency to have some kind of exclusivistic mentality, which is part of our wounded human condition. This is due mainly to our tendency to use merely human or worldly standards, instead of the sense of unity that comes from God and is what is truly proper to us, children of God as we are. 

 We also tend to stereotype people, to box them in, practically straitjacketing a person as if that person cannot change for the better. We seldom give others second chances. We end up being stricter than God who always blends his strictness with mercy. 

 And again, we also tend to dogmatize what simply are matters of opinion and personal and class preferences. And so, we end up being unnecessarily divisive among ourselves. This is not to mention that we often compare ourselves with others, and end up falling into petty envies, etc. 

 How can we manage to have unity amid our unavoidable differences, diversity and conflicts? To be blunt about it, it’s when we adapt Christ’s spirit that is marked with pure charity. Only then would we manage to deal properly with our differences.   

Yes, it’s the charity that St. Paul describes as “patient, is kind. Charity does not envy, does not act wrongly, is not inflated. Charity is not ambitious, does not seek for itself, is not provoked to anger, devises no evil. Charity does not rejoice over iniquity, but rejoices in truth. Charity suffers all, believes all, hopes all, endures all.” (1 Cor 13:4-7) 

 Yes, it’s the charity that enables us to bear the burdens of each other and thus fulfil the law of Christ. (cfr. Gal 6,2) It’s the charity that is willing to suffer for the others, and can consider as our real treasures here on earth the following conditions: hunger, thirst, heat, cold, pain, dishonor, poverty, loneliness, betrayal, slander, prison… 

 It’s the charity that considers sacrifice as its way, that welcomes any cross that can come our way, that is detached from passing opinions and views, and willing to suffer for the truth, no matter how unfair that would be. It’s the charity that knows how to love enemies and to be ever merciful and magnanimous, how to be “all things to all men,” (1 Cor 9,22) irrespective of how the others are. 

 It’s charity that perfectly blends truth, justice and mercy, and ends up achieving unity and equality among ourselves. If we have this charity, we would be willing to suffer and even to die for others, as Christ did, if only to achieve the real unity among ourselves. 

 Like Christ, we have to take the initiative to understand everyone, to be patient and willing to suffer for whatever it takes to have that all-inclusive kind of love. Far from turning us off or distancing ourselves from the parties concerned when we experience these differences and conflicts, we should all the more be interested to be with them, to help and love them in whatever way we can, always with God’s grace.

Let’s enter into the wisdom of the cross

THE gospel reading of the Mass on Tuesday of the 7th Week in Ordinary Time (Mk 9,30-37) reminds us that true wisdom, given our wounded human condition here on earth, can only be found in the cross of Christ. 

 “The Son of Man is to be handed over to men and they will kill him, and three days after his death the Son of Man will rise,” Christ told his bewildered disciples as it does to all of us now. But the fact is that it is through Christ’s suffering and death that our redemption is achieved. His resurrection, his victory over all our sins and death itself, is achieved through the cross. This is how we have to see the value and the wisdom of the cross. 

 We need to understand, guided by our Christian faith, that if we want to be truly wise, we need to look at Christ’s cross, understand its significance, and start to be consistent with it. 

 This is the kind of wisdom every believer and follower of Christ should have. It’s not enough to have the wisdom of this world, no matter how practical that may be, nor the wisdom of the flesh, no matter how mind-blowing, much less the wisdom of words, no matter how clever. 

 The wisdom of the cross is first of all a gift of the Holy Spirit to us before it becomes a virtue in us. Since it’s a gift, we have to pray for it constantly and be as receptive to it as we can be. Since it’s a gift that needs to be a virtue, we have to cultivate and develop it also. 

 The wisdom of the cross is the most perfect gift, embodying all the other spiritual gifts, since it makes charity complete and perfect by infusing light and love into our soul. 

 With it we are able to discern God and the divine things in everything that we see and do. It gives us the appetite to relate everything to God, linking us to God through the things of this world. 

 It goes beyond understanding and knowledge which enable us to know divine and natural things in themselves and in their mutual relations, but without relating them to God, their ultimate cause. 

 These gifts and virtues do not automatically lead us to love, since they fall short of bringing us to God who is love, as St. John said so succinctly. It’s wisdom that does that. Wisdom makes us into contemplative souls, seeing and loving God in everything. 

 With this definition of wisdom, it can be said that it’s hardly seen around, since that reference to God is scarcely done in the things we do. We think, reason out, speak, act and behave often by ourselves, without God. 

 But it can reside deep in our hearts, not visible to our senses and our worldly ways. As the Book of Wisdom says: “In each generation wisdom passes into holy souls, she makes them friends of God and prophets.” (7,27) 

 In cultivating and developing wisdom as a virtue in us, we need to struggle against things like laziness, disorder, unhealthy attachments, pride and all forms of sin. In fact, everything can be a frontline in this struggle. 

 Thus, this wisdom has to be the wisdom of the cross, which is the wisdom of Christ, since Christ showed the ultimate saving truth and love, and shares these things with us up to now, by dying on the cross.

Christ gives his mother to be our mother too

IN the gospel reading of the Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church, (Jn 19,25-34) we see how Christ entrusts his mother to St. John. “Woman, behold, your son,” Christ told his mother to St. John who was also present at the crucifixion of Christ. And then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother.” 

 The Church has always interpreted this gesture of Christ as him entrusting his own mother not only to St. John but also to all of us. This is one of the sweetest moments in the otherwise bitter episode of the death of Christ. 

 It shows not only Christ’s magnanimity and love for us, but also validates the basic truth of faith about ourselves that we truly are brothers and sisters of Christ. We belong to the same family. It’s worthwhile to pause for a while and savor this tremendous truth about ourselves that should fill us with great joy and strengthen our faith, hope and charity despite whatever we can encounter in our life here on earth. 

 The Blessed Virgin Mary is the epitome of how a mother should be—always caring for her children, ever ready to suffer for them and to defend and speak well of them in spite of how the children behaves. She, of course, would also be quick to guide and correct them whenever they stray, but always in a most tender way. 

 And that is because of her perfect identification of her will to the will of God, giving us a concrete example of how a human being can be so identified with God’s will that she becomes God’s perfect image and likeness as God wants her and also us to be. 

 We can be sure that how the Blessed Virgin took care of Christ would also be how she would take care of us. And that can only mean that at the end of the day, what she is interested is our own salvation and sanctification. 

 She definitely would help us how to stick with Christ, how to closely follow and be faithful to God’s will and ways, irrespective of how our earthly life goes. She would teach us how to be with God as we immerse ourselves in our earthly and temporal affairs which usually consist of small and ordinary details and items. 

 Yes, she would teach us how to be a real contemplative right in the middle of the world, how to transcend from the natural and infranatural conditions of our life to enter into the supernatural level of God meant for us. 

 How important therefore that we do not take for granted this duty to take care of our true common mother, ever deepening our devotion to her that should be lived with appropriate practices of piety, like praying the rosary, making pilgrimages to her shrines, giving her short ejaculatory prayers that would express our love and affection for her. 

 We should never be afraid nor ashamed to approach her, asking for her powerful intercession, whenever we are in trouble. To be sure, the Blessed Virgin Mary, being a mother, would be quick to clean us up whenever we find ourselves dirtied morally and spiritually. She is never scandalized by our sins. She is all there for us! 

 Developing a deep devotion to her would help us keep our relation with God strong and vibrant.

Developing our spiritual character and personality

WITH the celebration of Pentecost Sunday, we are reminded that the Holy Spirit is always with us, always intervening and directing our life toward its proper end and its fullness or perfection. He is leading us toward how we should be, that is, that we truly become God’s image and likeness, sharers of his divine life and nature. 

 For us to correspond properly to this basic truth of faith about ourselves, we need to see to it that our basic natural humanity, with its given temperament that is the effect of our biological constitution, develops a character and personality that is guided by the Holy Spirit and eventually adapts the spirit proper to us, which is none other than the spirit of Christ who is the pattern of our humanity, the savior of our damaged humanity. 

 This is how we direct our life and our humanity toward its fullness, enabling us to transcend our natural self to our spiritual and supernatural self when we eventually would share God’s life and nature. 

 It’s important that we understand the process of how our basic temperament can develop its proper spiritual character and personality. Each of us, of course, goes through this process in a unique way, but we all have a common goal and the means we need for this process are also common or shared. 

 We know that a person’s temperament refers to one’s most instinctive reactions or automatic behaviors. It is determined by genetics and can be seen in the early stages of childhood or even in infants. It definitely needs to be educated and developed, otherwise it remains in the primitive stage of our humanity. 

 This need for education and development of the temperament is what is called the formation of one’s character. There, of course, are many elements that can go into such education and development. The social and cultural environment, and many other factors, greatly affect one’s character. 

 It is important therefore that for one to have a proper character, he should be educated properly. And that can only mean, in the end, having a truly Christian formation which is not simply a matter of knowing Christian principles and values but rather of truly living and being consistent to these Christian principles and values. 

 This is where the skill of how to discern and follow the abiding promptings of the Holy Spirit should be truly learned. This is where we have to learn to be truly contemplative souls such that even while being immersed in the things of this world, we would still be with the Holy Spirit. 

 The result of educating our temperament and of forming a certain character with its corresponding ways of behaving and reacting to anything in life is what would constitute as our personality. There can be as many kinds of personalities as persons themselves, but what should be common in them is that it is a personality that is animated by the spirit of Christ precisely through the Holy Spirit. 

 It should be a personality that reflects and channels Christ’s goodness, charity, compassion, mercy, etc. Its understanding of what is truth and justice, etc. should be that of Christ himself. 

 Given the confusing environment and world culture we are having now, we really need to work intensely in imparting the formation of our proper character and personality. It’s a duty and responsibility that we have to carry out most seriously.

“Follow me”

THAT’S what Christ told Peter after telling him what to expect as the rock on which Christ would build his Church. (cfr. Jn 21,19) 

 “Amen, amen, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to dress yourself and go where you wanted; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go,” Christ told him. And the gospel said that Christ said this to signify the kind of death Peter would have to glorify God. 

 Let’s remember that the key to enable us to tackle whatever difficulty and challenges we may have in life is to follow Christ. If we want to follow him and to become like him, sharing his very spirit that is intended for us by God, our Creator, we have to learn and even to welcome and love suffering. It’s in suffering that the fullness of love, which is the very spirit of Christ, is attained. 

 We have to understand this very well. Unless we love the cross, we can never say that we are loving enough. Of course, we have to qualify that assertion. It’s when we love the cross the way God wills it—the way Christ loves it—that we can really say that we are loving as we should, or loving with the fullness of love. 

 We have to be wary of our tendency to limit our loving to ways and forms that give us some benefits alone, be it material, moral or spiritual. While they are also forms of love, they are not yet the fullness of love. 

 They somehow are forms of love that have traces of self-interest. They are not total self-giving, completely rid of self-interest, which is what true love is. And if they are not corrected, if they are not oriented towards the fullness of love, they can occasion a lot of danger and, worse, anomalies. 

 Loving the cross the way Christ loved it is the ultimate of love. It is the love that is completely deprived of selfishness. It is total self-giving, full of self-abnegation. St. Paul described this kind of love in Christ when he said: 

 “Though he was in the form of God, Jesus did not count equality with God, a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross.” (Phil 2,6-8) 

 The cross, which is the symbol of all our sinfulness and the death that is the consequence of our sin, has not led God to hate us and to condemn us forever. Rather, it has moved God to love us with a love greater than that of creating us to be his image and likeness. 

 To follow Christ or to be truly Christ-like would, of course, be an endless affair. We can never say we are definitively Christ-like, since we can never exhaust the richness of Christian life no matter how much effort we exert. We just have to try and try. At least, everyday we should be able to say that we are becoming more and more like Christ in a specific aspect. 

 To follow Christ, we have to offer everything in our life to God. We have to learn to give up everything for God, to live true detachment from earthly things even as we continue to use them. We have to reach that point that we are willing to offer our life to God, unafraid of death and all the suffering that goes with dying.

The pursuit for unity with God

ONCE again, we are made to consider the greatest desire Christ expressed just before his passion, death and resurrection in the gospel reading of the Mass on Thursday of the 7th Week of Easter. (cfr. Jn 17,20-26) 

 His desire was “that they (we, all of us) may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me.” May it also be that Christ’s greatest desire would also be our greatest desire! 

 Again, we have to remind ourselves that this is actually the ultimate goal of our life. God wants us to be fully united with him through Christ in the Holy Spirit, a unity that also has as its necessary corollary, our unity with everybody else. It’s a unity that, as Christ said, is the same as that of the Father and Christ. In other words, the unity of the 3 persons of the Blessed Trinity. 

 It’s, indeed, a tall order. We can readily doubt as to the veracity of this revelation. But Christ clearly said it. We cannot doubt it anymore. We should just take that leap of faith, and say, “I believe.” And then, with God’s grace and with all the means Christ has given us, let’s act on this truth of our faith about ourselves. 

 We should consider seriously the fact that we need a working plan that would help us realize this basic truth of ourselves. We cannot overemphasize this basic need of ours to make plans and strategies. 

 We should have some clear vision of our goals and means and timetables involved. That way, we would have a better grasp of how to identify and handle issues, problems and challenges. That way, we would have a good sense of priority, especially nowadays when we are faced with many competing options. 

 Making plans and strategies may require some time and effort, but it’s an investment that is all worth it. The little time and effort required can actually multiply our time and make our efforts more productive at the end of the day. It’s like the little rudder that St. James talked about in his letter. (cfr. 3,4) Our plans and strategies can have the power to accomplish great things, like a rudder giving direction to a big boat. 

 In these complicated times of ours with so many issues, problems and challenges spewing out, the need for plans and strategies have become more indispensable so that we can study them better and know exactly what to do with them. The way things are now, these issues, problems and challenges really need to be studied well, making due consultations when necessary. 

 Of course, the most important goal of our plans and strategies is how to relate everything to God. And then we have to concretize how to make that plan practicable. Obviously, this would involve the whole idea of developing the virtue of order and keeping a keen sense of priorities. In this regard, the inputs of our Christian faith are necessary. 

 We need to look into our attitudes, practices and habits, and see which ones would reinforce this effort and which would hinder it. We have to know how to make plans and strategies that are realistic and are organic in the context of our personal circumstances. They have to be plans and strategies that know how to flex with the changing circumstances. 

 All these should give us the sensation that we pursuing unity with God and with everybody else.

Toward the fullness of our humanity

“THAT they may be one, as we also are one.” (Jn 17,11) Words of Christ just before he entered into the culminating act of human redemption, expressing his greatest desire for us. We have to realize that this is the ultimate goal of our life here on earth. Reaching this goal would constitute the fullness of our humanity. 

 How important and crucial it should be for all of us to realize as early as possible this ultimate goal of our life. That way, we can readily arrange the different aspects and elements of our life to pursue this goal. We need to help one another to make this realization clear and abidingly acted upon. 

 While it’s true that we are already human right at the moment of our conception in our mother’s womb, we know that our humanity needs to develop. We start as a zygote, then a fetus, then a baby at birth. We go through the stages of childhood, adolescence, adulthood and old age. 

 We grow physically, develop emotionally, psychologically, mentally. As a person, we realize that we need to relate ourselves to others. We just cannot be on our own, like an isolated island. We need a family, a community, a society. 

 There are many other things that we have to grow in and develop. But there is one thing we should not forget. With our intelligence and will, we are poised to enter into the world of ideas and reason, until we become aware of a spiritual world that later on would introduce us to the supernatural world. 

 This is where we become aware of a Supreme Being who definitely is above our nature and is therefore supernatural, and who is responsible for everything, creating them and giving each one its nature, order and purpose. 

 And if we believe in what our Christian faith teaches us about ourselves—that we are God’s image and likeness, meant to share God’s life and nature—then we should realize that we not meant only to be a natural man, ruled simply by the law of nature. We are meant to enter into the supernatural life of God. 

 In other words, we are not meant only to stay in the level of the natural. We are meant to live in the level of the supernatural, with God. This is where the fullness of our humanity is attained. It’s when we truly share God’s life and nature through our vital identification with Christ who offers us “the way, the truth and the life.” 

 This identification with Christ is possible with our intelligence and will. That’s when we become capable of receiving Christ in our life. For his part, Christ has already done everything so that he and us can be one. 

 He already paid for our sin through his passion, death and resurrection. He continues to give himself to us especially in the sacraments, and most especially through the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist where he makes himself the Bread of Life for us to eat so we can have eternal life even while here in this world. Christ shows us how to behave and to react to any situation and condition we can have in this life. 

 We should make everyone realize that the main purpose of our life here on earth is to pursue the fullness of our humanity. It is for us to become saints, to be holy, just as the heavenly father is holy, merciful and perfect.

God’s love gives us complete joy

THE gospel of the feast of St. Matthias on May 14 tells us about how much God loves us, where we can find that love and how that love gives us also the complete joy. (cfr. Jn 15,9-17) 

 “Jesus said to his disciples: ‘As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy might be in you and your joy might be complete.’” 

 We all know that we are meant to be happy. When we are sad, for whatever reason, we know that it is not supposed to be. And when that sadness is kind of stable, then we usually consider that situation as illness. 

 We have to learn how to find joy then, its true source, the one that can be attained and felt whatever setting we may find ourselves in. Joy should not be based only on some shallow and shifty ground, like our physical, emotional or social conditions. They are very unreliable foundations, and can be very dangerous. 

 Joy and happiness can only be found in God, that is, in following his commandments. That’s for sure. He is the source of all good things, the creator and foundation of all reality. And when we mess up things that obviously will lead us to trouble and sadness, he it is who will fix things, heal what is sick, repair what is damaged, recover what is lost. 

 This is a truth that needs to be emphasized again. Many have forgotten it, or worse, are ignorant of it. Especially the young who obviously need to be properly taught things, they easily fall into a very restricted and distorted understanding of joy, associating it with some bodily pleasures, emotional highs, or favorable social standing. 

 Many others have sourced it on the possession of good health, wealth, fame, worldly power. This conception of joy is notoriously biased and one-sided. It cannot stand the test of time with all its varied situations. It prospers only during fair weather, not in bad. 

 We need to go to God to find joy. As a psalm says it very well, “To be near God is my happiness.” (72) We have to strengthen this conviction. Those without God will surely perish and get destroyed sooner or later. That much the same psalm warns us. 

 And God is neither far nor hidden nor ignorant. That sensation or attitude that we can sometimes have toward God is at best apparent. It’s false and without basis, since the truth is that God is at the very core of our life. And if we have faith, we can actually see him everywhere. And we know he is a father who always cares for us. 

 The joy that is rooted on God transcends the physical and earthly dimensions. They can be lived even in what may be considered humanly speaking as difficult moments of pain, suffering and privation. 

 We need to go theological to attain this state of joy. We cannot rely solely on the physical, medical and other worldly elements that go into the making of joy. We need faith. We need to be vitally united with God through Christ in the Holy Spirit.

We are never alone

“BEHOLD, the hour cometh, and it is now come, that you shall be scattered every man to his own, and shall leave me alone; and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me.” (Jn 16,32) 

 These words of Christ should remind us of what to expect when we truly follow him. We can expect to be misunderstood and abandoned, and yet we should never feel alone because, as Christ said of himself which can also be said of us if we follow him, we can never be alone, because the Father will always be with us. 

 We just have to train our human faculties—our intelligence and will, our emotions, memory and imagination, etc.—to align themselves to this truth of our faith. Let’s remember that we are not meant to be guided only by our natural powers. Given the way God wants us to be, we should be guided by God’s supernatural powers—the faith he shares with us, and the many graces and blessings he gives us. 

 When we feel alone, we have to convince ourselves that we are not with God, and thus, should correct this anomaly that once was articulated by St. Augustine—that God is always with us but our problem is that we often are not with him. Thus, we can feel alone. 

 But, indeed, we are never alone. Even in our most solitary moments, we have no reason to feel alone. That’s simply because God is always with us, is always intervening in our life, is always pouring out his love and graces to us. 

 And if we make the necessary effort, we will also realize that not only is God with us, but that with God we also are with everybody and everything else. We are actually and objectively in a state of communion with God and with everybody else. With our intelligence and will, plus God’s grace, we are wired for this. To feel alone is actually an anomaly and a magnet for all sorts of temptations and dangers to come and hound us. 

 Not even death nor distance can and should separate us from others, much less, from God. We should be able to echo St. Paul’s words in this regard with conviction: “Neither death nor life, neither angels nor principalities, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord…” (Rom 8,38-39) 

 Let’s never forget that it is only when we are in the company of God and of everybody else, regarding them in the way that our faith teaches us, that we can manage to be on the right path to our eternal destination. Temptations and sin can come only when we dare to be and to feel alone. 

 This reminder is timely especially for those who travel alone and find themselves in new, unfamiliar places, and who do not know the people of the locality. In occasions like this, we should make it a point to make extra effort to realize that we are never alone. 

 Otherwise, we become easy prey to temptations and falling into sin would just be a moment or some steps away. Let’s remember that it is on these occasions that the devil pulls his most devious tricks. 

 He can whisper that since anyway no one knows us here, we can do anything we like. He can induce us to give in to what our wounded flesh likes to do. He can easily lead us to act out our fantasies and our dormant immoral desires.

Always thinking of heaven and our earthly duties

ON the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord, we are reminded that we should always have heaven in mind, for that is where we came from and where we are supposed to go as our ultimate destination and to have our definitive state of life for all eternity. 

 But as the readings of the Mass on this Solemnity would also remind us, we should also realize that the way to heaven is to continue carrying out our Christian duties here on earth. (cfr. Acts 1,1-11; Eph 4,1-13; Mk 16,15-20) 

 In other words, our path to heaven should be our Christian duties here on earth. We therefore have to learn how to unite heaven and earth in our mind and heart, and in our whole life, in their proper order, distinguishing between what is the end and what are the means. 

 We have to realize then that our earthly affairs are actually designed by God to bring us back to him, and it would be up to us to follow that design or not. Of course, knowing how we are, there is always the tendency to follow simply our own designs rather than God’s. And that’s something we have to be wary of and to correct. 

 We should be very clear about this basic truth about the world in general or about the whole of nature that has been created by God. We need to realize that as God’s creation, the whole world of nature has been imprinted with God’s laws that are meant to give glory to God and to lead us also to him, giving him glory as well. In other words, depending on how we see the world, it is actually a pathway to heaven, to God. 

 Everything that we discover and make use of in the world should lead us to ask ourselves whether what we are discovering are truly in accordance to God’s will, to his true designs of the world, and whether we can discern how they can be used to give glory to God, which is a matter of loving him and serving the whole of humanity. 

 We have to be wary of the danger of discovering and using things simply in accordance to our own understanding of them and also to our own interest only. This is a common and abiding danger that we have to be most wary about. We have to do everything to avoid and overcome that danger. 

 Thus, we have to develop that strong and deep attitude of always referring things to God before we put our hands on them. That way, we would be putting ourselves on the right track that hopefully will lead us to God and to see and use things the way they should be seen and used. 

 This attitude, of course, would require us to be guided always by our Christian faith, instead of just being guided by our human estimation of things. And for that faith to be effective in us, we obviously need to be humble. Without humility, there is no way faith can have any effect on us. 

 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 Even, this has always been God’s will for us. 

 We should be looking for God always in everything that we get involved in. In all the things that we do or handle, we should be asking what are there in those things that are for God, rather than being interested only on what are there in those things that are for us.

We should be confident, happy and at peace

YES, we can afford to be confident, happy and at peace in spite of whatever difficulty, trial and challenge we may be facing as we try our best to be consistent with our Christian identity. While suffering will be unavoidable, the grace and the help of God is always assured. There is really no reason for us to worry for long. 

 This is what we can gather from the readings of the Mass on Friday of the 6th Week of Easter. (cfr. Acts 18,9-28; Jn 16,20-23) In the first reading, Christ in a vision told St. Paul: “Do not fear, but speak; and hold not thy peace, because I am with you, and no man shall set upon you to hurt you…” 

 The gospel reading of the day reinforces the same idea. “Amen, amen, I say to you, you will weep and mourn, while the world rejoices,” Christ told his disciples. “You will grieve, but your grief will become joy.” And he continued, “Whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give you.” 

 There we have the basis why we can afford to be confident, happy and at peace irrespective of how our life of taking seriously our Christian duties would lead us. Our sense of confidence, joy and peace should spring from a faith that gives us the ultimate meaning and proper direction to all our human knowledge and endeavors. It is what gives the original perspective to all events, good or bad, in our life. Otherwise, we would end up confused and lost. 

 We also need to make our faith grow to cope with the multiplying infranatural consequences of our human condition that is weakened by sin. There’s no other way to manage and survive the consequences of sin, ours and those of others, personal as well as the collective and structural, than by relying first of all on our faith. Without faith, we will find no exit, no relief from this wounded status of ours. 

 That’s why St. Paul said: “Above all, take the shield of faith, wherewith you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.” (Eph 6,16) Faith holds pride of place in our armory to wage that lifelong battle with our wounded flesh, the temptations of the world, and the tricks of the devil. 

 Without faith, we would be easy prey to these enemies of our soul. Without it, we most likely would be filled with fear and anxiety, if not sadness and desperation. Faith unites us to the tremendous power of God over any kind of evil, self-inflicted or caused by others. 

 There’s no way we can achieve our ultimate goal without faith. With God, we have everything. As St. Teresa de Avila would put it: “Solo Dios basta!” (God alone is enough!) 

 Let’s just strengthen our faith and keep our piety vibrant for only then can we manage to make these very reassuring words of Christ effective in our life. With this condition, we can afford to be hopeful and confident. 

 With this condition, we can be like a good sportsman who would always train himself for his sport and play the game bent on winning though losses can also take place, and yet would still go on playing his game. 

 We should assume the mind of Christ who, when he fell a number of times on his way to Calvary, never let go of the cross. We have to strengthen our sense of being children of God who always takes care of us.

Just continue doing apostolate despite contradictions

THIS is what we can learn from St. Paul who, despite being contradicted and rejected by some people, just proceeded to go on preaching. (cfr. Acts 18,1-8) These contradictions should not stop us from carrying out our important duty of spreading the Word of God, which is another way of showing and imparting the very spirit of Christ on the people. 

 If we have to be consistent with our Christian identity, then we have to be ready to be a sign of contradiction, as Christ himself was and continues to be. Let’s not forget that prophecy made by Simeon when the child Jesus was presented in the temple. “Behold, this child is destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be contradicted and you yourself (Mary) a sword will pierce so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.” (Lk 2,34-35) 

 We have to train ourselves to be tough with the toughness of Christ so we can take on any and all forms of contradictions that we can encounter in life. Yes, we can be misunderstood, slandered, mocked, persecuted and even martyred in this life. But we should not worry, because as Christ himself assured us, “In the world you will have tribulation. But take courage; I have overcome the world!” (Jn 16,33) 

 Our toughness should be the toughness of Christ who was and continues to be willing to bear all the problems of men, and goes all the way to offer his life for the salvation of men. 

 With Christ and in him, our toughness would also know how to be tender and gentle, how to be understanding, compassionate and empathetic, as described in this passage from the gospel of St. Matthew: “A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not extinguish, till he leads justice to victory.” (12,20) 

 While our toughness will always be a fruit, first of all, of God’s grace, it will also depend on our proper attitude, skills and virtues. What we have to do first is to rein in but not suppress our emotions and passions, subjecting them to the tenets of our faith rather than just the impulses of our hormones. 

 We have to learn how not to overdramatize the pain and suffering involved in bearing the burdens of the others. This is important because this will help us to think more objectively, and therefore enabling us to make better judgments and assessments of things. 

 Ideally, we should not be weighed down by any worry since God takes care of everything. Some Bible passages reassure us of this truth. “So do not fear,” the Book of Isaiah says, “for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” (1,10) 

 And St. Paul in his Letter to the Philippians says, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (4,6-7) 

 Still, from the Psalms, we have these reassuring words: “The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life, of whom shall I be afraid?” (27,1)

Creativity in preaching God’s word

IT’S amazing how St. Paul and his companions weathered all kinds of trials and challenges just to proclaim the Good News about Christ and our salvation. Even when he was mocked by non-believers, he just persisted in preaching, trying his best to adapt his preaching to the way the people were, without of course compromising the integral truth of God’s word. He knew how to relate highly supernatural truths to common earthly things. 

 This we can glean in the first reading of the Mass on Wednesday of the 6th Week of Easter. (cfr. Acts 17,15.22-18,1) This example of St. Paul reminds us, especially the priests, to be creative in proclaiming the Word of God. 

 In this regard, we first of all should be properly spiritually prepared to carry out this duty. We really need to have the very mind and heart of Christ whose teachings blended very well the characteristics of forcefulness, charity and mercy, of articulateness, eloquence and fluency. We need to spend time meditating on the life, words and deeds of Christ if only to get an idea of how to preach the way Christ himself preached. 

 The goal to pursue is for us to make Christ words real in us: “He who hears you, hears me.” (Lk 10,16) Let’s remember that Christ imparted highly moral and supernatural truths in ways that can easily be understood by the people. He used parables, metaphors, similes and other appropriate literary devices just to reach people’s minds and hearts. 

 It is also important that we really know the people to whom we would be preaching. That way we would know how to calibrate our preaching—when to be forceful, even to the extent of throwing lightning and thunder, and when to be mild, poetic, using memes and what usually are referred to as “hugot lines.” 

 We certainly have to know the art of gradualness in our preaching. With our times getting more complicated and the discussions and exchanges on several concerns getting more controversial and conflictive, we should truly learn the art of gradualness. 

 For us priests, especially, we need to internalize God’s word, not in the way an actor internalizes his script. We should internalize it by making it the very life of our mind and heart, the very impulse of our emotion and passions. It should be the soul of our whole life. 

 Thus, when we preach we cannot help but somehow showcase the drama inside our heart, giving others a glimpse of how our heart is actually taking, handling and delivering the word of God. 

 Preaching should reflect the condition of our heart as it grapples with the living word of God. It should not just be a matter of declaiming or orating, reduced to the art of speaking and stage performing, a mere play of our talents. 

 Neither should it be just a display of our intellectual prowess or our cultural wealth. It should manage to show the actual living faith and love our heart has for God’s word, how our heart is receiving it and reacting to it. 

 Thus, preaching is a matter of how effectively we manage to show and teach Christ to the others. It’s never about us, the preachers. Rather, it can be about us in our effort to bring Christ to the others. Its success or failure depends solely on this.

Be not afraid

THE story of Paul and his companion, Silas, going to many places to preach and to convert many people, and in the process met severe opposition also and were, in fact, imprisoned and later released in a miraculous way, somehow tells us that we too, if we have to be consistent to our Christianity, should be bold in proclaiming Christ to the world, willing to face whatever difficulty we can meet along the way. (cfr. Acts 16,22-34) 

 We should not be afraid to do so, because in spite of whatever difficulties and contradictions we can meet along the way, God will always take care of everything. He has the last word always. We may undergo a lot of suffering and can be martyred even, but the victory of Christ for us is always assured. 

 What we have to do is to always be bold and magnificent in carrying out this duty of spreading the Word of God far and wide. This task should give us the greatest joy since we would be truly following what Christ wants us to do. 

 It’s important that we set our mind and heart on this divine wisdom that tells us that our joy is in following the will of God as shown to us by Christ and the Holy Spirit. It’s important that this joy and its accompanying peace of mind, is always felt even if we cannot avoid the most painful suffering along the way.

 It would be good if everyday we set some apostolic goals and missions for us to accomplish. This would make our life dynamic, putting it in some adventure that should captivate all our faculties. These goals and missions may be big or small. What is important is that they should urge us to action in order to obey God’s will. 

 Even in terms of mental health, this duty to undertake apostolic goals and missions can be very helpful. It would put us in a positive and constructive frame of mind. It would fill us with a healthy sense of duty, keeping us away from the dangers of idleness, laziness and that state of just floating around aimlessly. 

 It would be good if at the end of the day, as we go to bed, even if there are still issues to resolve and mistakes to correct, we should feel happy and fulfilled, and at peace because of the apostolic goals and missions we carried out. This is the ideal way to end the day—happy and at peace, reconciled with our Lord because whatever mistakes and sins we commit, we can always ask for pardon and God will always be merciful. 

 We should avoid ending the day in the state of anxiety, apprehensions and the like. These are highly toxic to our spirit. They affect even our bodily health. What should prevail in our mind and heart is that of joy and peace, again in spite of things that we still need to work out. 

 Let’s hope that we can make these words of St. Paul our own also: “In all things we suffer tribulation, but we are not distressed. We are sore pressed, but we are not destitute. We endure persecution, but we are not forsaken. We are cast down, but we do not perish. We are always bearing about in our body the dying of Jesus so that the life also of Jesus may be made manifest in our bodily frame.” (2 Cor 4,8-10)

The Holy Spirit strengthens our faith, hope and charity

WE should never take for granted the crucial role of the Holy Spirit in our life. He is God who continues to guide us, to abidingly intervene in our life, prompting us about what to think, say and do. 

 This is simply because our life—we should never forget this—is actually a sharing of the life of God. We are his image and likeness. God and us share the same life and nature, that is, if we only follow God’s will and ways that precisely are shown to us by the Holy Spirit. 

 This truth of our faith can be gleaned from the gospel reading of the Mass on Monday of the 6th Week of Easter. (cfr. Jn 15,26-16,4) “When the Advocate (the Holy Spirit) comes whom I will send you from the Father,” Christ told his apostles, “he will testify to me. And you also testify, because you have been with me from the beginning.” 

 Christ said this to his apostles, and now to us, with the view to strengthen the apostles’ and our faith, hope and charity, given the fact that it would be unavoidable for us to encounter all sorts of trials and sufferings in this world for Christ’s sake. He is reassuring us that things will just be all right despite these trials and suffering. 

 At one point, Christ even told his apostles—and again, now to us—that “they will expel you from the synagogues; in fact, the hour is coming when everyone who kills you will think he is offering worship to God.” (Jn 16,2) 

 Those words, indeed, are very intriguing. They remind us that our enemies are not so much those who openly declare themselves to be so. They rather are those who can appear to be at our side but are sadly entangled in their own world of what is right and wrong and cannot go to the extent of the radical kind of love Christ is showing and commanding us to live. 

 We have to see to it that our relation with the Holy Spirit is strong, deep and abiding. We have to learn to discern his constant promptings, because only with him can we truly be authentic Christians, vitally united with Christ, with no other purpose in life than to carry out the will of God for all of us. 

 We have to disabuse ourselves from the thought that the Holy Spirit guides only some special people. He guides all of us. We have to do everything to keep this awareness of the Holy Spirit’s abiding interventions in our life alive and operative. This duty and task is not meant for some special people only but rather for all of us. And this we can do if we try to keep ourselves always in the presence of God, constantly asking him and consulting him. 

 “Oh, Holy Spirit,” we may start asking, for example, “how should I understand this thing that is happening to me now, how should I react and behave, what are you trying to tell me in this particular event and circumstance, etc.?” 

 If we ask these questions with faith, we know that we are not simply talking to the wind. We would be convinced that we are engaged in an intimate conversation with someone who is everything to us, the one who actually is the main shaper of our life!

True love has a universal scope

THIS is what we can get from the readings of the Mass on the 6th Sunday of Easter, Year B. (cfr. Acts 10,25-26.34-35.44-48; 1Jn 4,7-10; Jn 15,9-17) The true love that can only come and is a sharing of the love God has, will always have a universal scope, irrespective of how we are. 

 In the first reading, we hear Peter saying that “God is no respecter of persons.” We have to understand that expression correctly, because the first impression we might get from it is that God does not respect, and therefore, does not love persons. On the contrary, what it means, as Peter later clarified, is that “in every nation, he who fears him (God), and works justice, is acceptable to him. 

 In other words, God does not discriminate against anyone. The only condition that would enable us to share that universal kind of love that God has is when we believe him and follow his will and ways. That’s what is meant when Peter said, “he who fears him and works justice, is acceptable to him. 

 The second reading from the First Letter of St. John reinforces the same idea when it exhorts us “to love one another, for charity is of God. And every one that loves, is born of God and knows God.” And we are enabled to love one another because God “has sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we may live by him.” 

 And with Christ, we are given all the means and the power to love one another. In other words, we can learn to love one another because God through Christ has loved us first. In fact, Christ goes to the extent of offering himself completely to us so we can love the way he loves all. 

 The gospel reading rounds it off by clearly telling us how we can have this kind of love. “As the Father has loved me,” Christ said, “I also have loved you. Abide in my love.” And he continues, further clarifying what is involved in this kind of love. “If you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love; as I also have kept my Father’s commandments, and do abide in his love.” 

 Clearly, the secret to be able to have this universal scope of love is to follow Christ, to obey the commandments of God. This truth of our faith should always be in our mind and heart, keeping and nourishing it by frequent meditations on it and endlessly developing the appropriate attitudes and virtues. 

 We have to learn how to transcend the limitations of the many human and worldly conditionings that we are subject to. While this will always require tremendous effort and discipline, there is no doubt that we can hack it since we also have a spiritual nature that can go beyond these limitations and that can accept God’s grace that would enable us to enter into the supernatural life, nature and power of God. 

 In short, we need to feel the need to develop a heart like that of Christ, a heart that welcomes and accommodates everyone, irrespective of how they are. It is a universal heart that is concerned only with the salvation of everyone. 

 We may have severe differences among ourselves in the different aspects of our life, but we just have to reach out to everyone if we want to be like Christ as we should.

“Whoever has seen me has seen the Father”

THESE words of Christ were addressed to Philip, the apostle, who asked Christ to show him the Father after Christ said that he was “the way, the truth and the life” and that no one can go to the Father except through Christ. (cfr. Jn 14,6,8) 

 We can easily understand the perplexity of Philip. But this particular part of the gospel precisely clarifies who Christ really is—and that is that he is truly the Son of God who became man, the second person of the Blessed Trinity, and that with the Father and the Holy Spirit, he is the very one God there is. 

 This is very important and most basic truth of faith for which we should develop the strongest conviction and which we have to spread and explain as widely and abidingly as possible. We cannot deny that many people, even those who claim to be Catholics and Christians, who actually do not know who Christ is. 

 For some, Christ is neither God nor man, or that he is a special, unique being. There are others who claim he is only God and not man. And others who say the opposite—that he is only man and not God. There is even one so-called religious leader who managed to get a good following of people and who claim to be the very son of God to whom everybody should go for their salvation. 

 There is a great need for a systematic catechesis to proclaim the truth about Christ. We have to encourage everyone to really know Christ by reading and meditating on the gospel where his life, teachings and deeds are recorded. We have to explain with gift of tongues why Christ has to be the center and focus of our life. Also, that Christ makes himself available to us to the extent that he makes himself the Bread of Life which he commands us to eat if we want to gain eternal life. 

 That Christ is both God and man, “perfectus Deus, perfectus homo,” can only validate the Christian truth that man is meant to share in the very life and nature of God. Not only that, that we are actually patterned after Christ. 

 In short, how God is should also be how we ought to be. It’s a most basic truth about ourselves that we should never take for granted. On that truth depend all the other things in our life. 

 The necessary corollary to this truth is that we should try our best, with God’s grace, of course, to be like Christ who precisely offers us “the truth, the way and the life.” The way to be like God is to identify ourselves as perfectly as possible with Christ. We have to try our best to assume the very identity of Christ. 

 There’s no doubt about it. We are meant to assume the identity of Christ, because he is the pattern of our humanity and the savior of our damaged humanity. We can only be as we ought to be when we assume Christ’s identity. That is to say, when Christ and us become one. 

 Let’s remember his ardent prayer before he entered into his passion and death was that we be one with him and he is one with his Father. “…that all of them may be one, as you, Father, are in me, and I am in you. May they also be in us…that they may be one as we are one, I in them and you in me, so that they may be brought to complete unity…” (Jn 17,21.23) 

 We need to process this tremendous truth of our faith slowly.

What is true love?

AS early as possible, we should be clear about what true love is. At the moment, we don’t have to look far to see how love is understood and lived wrongly by a great majority of the people around. 

 To many, love is just a matter of liking somebody. It’s a love that is based and anchored mainly on feelings, looks, appearances. In some classification of love, this kind of love is termed as “eros,” meaning you love someone because you like something in that person or that you can get or gain something from that person. 

 Others understand love as sharing things in common with another person. This is called “filia.” It obviously is a kind of love, but still not quite perfect, since in the face of the unavoidable differences and conflicts among ourselves, this love cannot survive. 

 The real love is what is called as “agape,” where you love a person irrespective of whether you get or gain something or not from that person, or whether you share some common things with that person or not. This love continues even when it is unreciprocated, rejected and contradicted. 

 This is the kind of love Christ himself showed us and continues to show us. Not only that, he commands us to have this kind of love. Remember him telling us, “love one another as I have loved you.” (Jn 13,34) 

 It is the love that flows from and is a sharing of the love of God who precisely has love as his very essence. In the gospel of the Mass on Thursday of the 5th Week of Easter, Christ practically defined what true love is. 

 “As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love,” Christ said. “If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.” (Jn 15,9-10) 

 We should therefore have no doubt as what true love is. It is in following the commandments of God, in doing his will, since after all we have been created in his image and likeness. How God is, as shown in Christ, is how we should be. 

 This love that comes from God through Christ in the Holy Spirit will always be in the truth, will always be consistent irrespective of our varying and changing conditions and circumstances, will always know how to adapt itself to different situations without getting lost. 

 As St. Paul would put it, “Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends…” (1 Cor 13,4-8) 

 We have to learn to give all our heart to God by exercising those gifts God himself has given us so we can share in his life and love, i.e., the theological gifts of faith, hope and charity. We need time and effort to do this. 

 And given our human condition now, it is a love that knows how to do spiritual battle against the enemies of God and love. It knows how to renew itself always and to go through the lifelong process of having to begin and begin again. Things would always appear new to us even if we handle the same things everyday.

Work as our daily path to heaven

ON the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker on May 1, we are reminded of the crucial role our ordinary work has in our life. We need to convince ourselves more strongly that our work, whatever it is but as long as it is an honest work, is our ordinary daily way where we can find God, where we show our faith, hope and love for God and others. 

 Our work is our usual way to pursue our duty to sanctify ourselves and to help in the work of redemption by doing apostolate. It is where we do our part in achieving the ultimate goal of our life, which is to share in the very life and nature of God who created us in his image and likeness. 

 We know that even if we messed up the original plan of God for us, he also has given us a way to bring us back to him, through Christ who makes himself “the way, the truth and the life” proper for us. 

 The secret to making our ordinary work a path to heaven, a way, a reason and an occasion to sanctify ourselves and others, is to learn this skill of turning our work, both big and small, into prayer and an abiding conversation with God. If we are to be consistent to our faith that our life is supposed to be a life with God, then we have to know how to make our daily affairs an occasion for keeping a living relationship with God. 

 There should be a streaming awareness that we are with God even when we are doing the most mundane and technical activities. This is the goal that we should try to reach, overcoming what separates our life from the life of God. While it’s true that there is distinction between the two, there’s supposed to be unity between them. 

 This affirmation has basis. It’s not gratuitous. It is founded on the truth that God made us his image and likeness, and children of his, meant to participate in his very own life. That’s his will. That’s the reality. 

 In the first place, God is everywhere. We don’t have to look far to find him, since he is at the very core of our being and is also all around us. If we keep ourselves humble and simple, allowing the faith to work in us, we will realize that even in our inmost thoughts and feelings, we will always find him. We may not totally understand him, but we know he is with us. 

 The big task we need to do is how to keep ourselves humble and simple, so that faith can work effectively in us. Our problem is that we tend to be proud, to feel self-sufficient, to think that we ultimately are our own being only. We tend to think that our relationships with others and with God, while convenient sometimes, are not necessary. 

 The task involves the constant effort to be humble and simple, allowing our faith to have full play in us, converting us into contemplatives, seeing God and being with him even while working, and even when we are immersed in the middle of our worldly affairs. 

 But we need to cooperate, because as St. Augustine once said, while God created us without us, he cannot save us without us. We need to correspond to this will of God in freedom and love, so we can return to him.