Interceding for others

WE should develop this practice. Given the truth of our faith that we all form a communion of saints in Christ and in the Church, we should realize that we are so connected with each other that we, with our prayers, sacrifices and good works—can always affect the lives of others hopefully for the good rather than for evil. 

 This truth of our faith is highlighted in that gospel episode where a centurion sent some people to ask Christ to heal his dying servant. (cfr. Lk 7,1-10) When Christ was approaching the centurion’s house, the centurion asked Christ not to bother to go the house for he felt unworthy of Christ’s presence in his abode. Instead, he asked Christ just to say the word of healing, thereby expressing the power of faith in the word of Christ. 

 That’s when the famous lines, that inspired a prayer in the Holy Mass, were uttered: “Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof. Therefore, I did not consider myself worthy to come to you; but say the word and let my servant be healed.” To which Christ was so impressed that right there and then, the centurion’s servant was cured. 

 Yes, we should be eager and quick to help and intercede for others. We should never be indifferent to the needs of others even if we have our own needs and predicaments. Actually, our attitude of interceding for others has a way of resolving or at least of giving some relief to our own problems and difficulties. 

 Our own problems and difficulties should not be a hindrance in our eagerness to intercede for the others. In fact, we should make use of our own predicaments to spur us to get more involved in the lives of others. By so doing, we would actually simplify our life, not complicate it. 

 We very likely would ask, how can that be when we already are burdened by our own problems? And the answer can be that this outlook in life and attitude to our problems can be the practical application of what Christ himself said and encouraged us to do: “Whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.” (Mt 16,25) 

 The same divine logic can be found in these other words of Christ: “Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.” (Lk 6,38) 

 Our eagerness to intercede for others should be based on our faith and love for God. It should never be just a product of mere human calculations. We have to follow what Christ has taught and shown us. 

 To be sure, we always have the capacity to intercede because even if we can be very limited in helping others materially, our capacity to help others spiritually is unlimited. We can always pray for them, offer sacrifices for them. That’s the least that we can do for others but also the most indispensable. 

 We need to train ourselves and form our mind and heart to immediately be mindful and thoughtful of them, getting to know them better, empathizing with them, helping them bear with their burdens, whatever they may be.

With Christ, we become invincible

WE should have no doubt about this truth of our faith. Christ himself said, “Whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the gospel will save it.” (Mk 8,35) There is no greater loss we can have in this life than the loss of our life. But if we lose it for Christ’s sake, we are assured of saving it. In St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans, the same assurance is made. “If God is for us, who can be against us?” he said. (8,31) 

 It’s important that we develop this kind of confidence based on this assurance of Christ. We should feel strongly and constantly the presence and power of Christ in our mind and heart. It’s actually when we fail to feel that presence and power that we become easy target to our weaknesses and the temptations around. 

 Our problem is that we tend simply to rely on our own powers which are no match even to our own weaknesses, much less, to the evil spirits around. Remember St. Paul warning us: “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” (Eph 6,12) 

 But with Christ, we can conquer everything that is not good for us. Yes, we can conquer even death, as St. Paul himself assured us: “If we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.” (Rom 6,8) 

 Let us work on how we can have Christ’s presence and power strongly felt in us. That is the ideal condition for us to have since we have to deal with all sorts of difficulties, challenges, trials, temptations, weaknesses, etc. in this life. 

 When we are tempted, it only means that we have been giving an opening to this temptation since we have failed to be with Christ. Thus, when temptations come, we should enliven Christ’s presence and power in us, perhaps by making many acts of faith and other ejaculatory prayers. That way we will feel strong and ready to face temptations, eager even to do some hand-to-hand combat with the temptations, if needed. 

 We need to see to it that our union with Christ should, as much as possible, be abiding, completely sealed with no opening, no matter how minuscule, that can allow our weaknesses, the sinful allurements of the world and the devil himself to enter. 

 Only with Christ can we be keenly aware of the many dangers that lurk within us and around us. Only with him can we immediately and strongly resist the temptations and be unaffected by our weaknesses and the sins around. 

 In other words, we really need how to pray always. This means we have to know how to convert everything into prayer, always relating everything to Christ—our joys and sorrow, our work and rest, our successes and defeats, etc. Yes, everything can and should be a material and occasion to pray. 

 We should be in constant awareness of Christ’s presence in us and around us. And our relation with him should be driven by love, by our desire to be with him and to do his will. We have to feel the need for him. In fact, he should be our greatest need, without whom we should feel completely empty. Nothing should replace or substitute for him in our mind and heart. We need him more than we need air.

Following Christ

WHEN Christ said that no blind man should lead another blind man, since both of them would just fall sooner or later, and that no disciple is greater than his master and can only be perfect when he is like his master, (cfr. Lk 6,39-42) we are clearly reminded that we have to follow Christ in everything we do. Christ himself said that he is “the way, the truth and the life.” (Jn 14,6) Outside of him, we would simply be in trouble. 

 We just have to realize more deeply that finding Christ in everything we do everyday, making him alive in our mind and heart the whole day, and following him closely, is our daily challenge we face and task to carry out. 

 Is this possible and doable? Definitely! In the first place, Christ is everywhere and, more than that, he looks at us with great affection and solicitude. He always intervenes in our life, enlightening us, guiding us, and helping us in all our needs. 

 He is everywhere. We have to overcome the idea that Christ can only be present in churches or that he can only be accessed when we do some spiritual and liturgical exercises. Let’s not forget that even in the most mundane and technical things we handle, Christ is right there in the middle, since everything that exists can only exist if God in Christ through the Holy Spirit is right in the very core of it. 

 We cannot say, for example, that just because we are dealing with very technical things, God would not be there or that he has nothing to do with these things. Let’s remember that God is the author and creator of everything. All we do with respect to our sciences and technologies is simply to discover what God has designed for them and to make use of them, as commanded also by God who asks us to “subdue the earth.” 

 We just have to properly act on this basic truth of our faith, being as receptive and responsive to it as we can. In other words, even as we immerse ourselves deeply in the things of this world, we should never lose sight of God. We have to develop a certain spirit and lifestyle that can be described as contemplative, so that we can manage to see God and do his will as we go through our worldly and temporal affairs. 

 Thus, given the increasingly pressing conditions of the world today and the permanent, ultimate and most precious goal of ours, we really need to be more serious and more skillful in synergizing both the active and contemplative modes of our life. 

 Yes, we have to be immersed and get involved as much as we can in all our worldly affairs, attending to their requirements as promptly and actively as possible. But we also have to see to it that we do not lose sight of what is most important in our life—to be with God and to aim at heaven. “What does it profit a man” Christ said, “if he gains the whole world but loses his own soul?” (Mk 8,36) 

 We need to be both with God and with the world. These two modes of our life need not be in conflict. They can and should be put together to enable us to live a life that is proper to us as persons and as children of God. We have to learn to find the connection between the material and spiritual aspects of our life, between the temporal and eternal, the mundane and the sacred. And the only way to achieve that is to follow Christ!

The true test of Christianity

I BELIEVE it’s when we manage to love our enemies that we can truly say we are real Christians. That’s because we can only do that when we truly identify ourselves with Christ. 

 It definitely is an identification that does not take place on the natural level alone but mainly in the supernatural ways of Christ who is God in the first place who became man to enable us to attain our true dignity as children of God, created in his image and likeness. 

 Christ said this very clearly. “For if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them,” Christ said. Then he proceeded by saying: “But rather, love your enemies…and you will be children of the Most High, for he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as also your Father is merciful.” (Lk 6,32.35) 

 To be able to love our enemies can only be an effect of grace. It can only take place when we truly are identified with Christ. We simply cannot rely on our human powers alone. Our human powers have to be animated by the very grace of God. 

 Thus, when we find ourselves in situations where we have to contend with some enemies or conflicts, let’s remember that the first thing to do is to go to Christ, to ask for grace, to make our identification with him even tighter. 

 This obviously will require a lot of virtues—humility, patience, magnanimity, fortitude, to mention a few. We have to learn how to discipline our emotions and passions, and to be most careful with what we say. We have to be quick to purify our thoughts and intentions whenever some negative elements enter into them. 

 Let’s remember that the greatest evil and the worst injustice have already been committed, and that is the killing of Christ by man. But such evil and injustice did not elicit another evil reaction from Christ. On the contrary, he offered forgiveness. We do not correct a wrong with another wrong. As one saint would put it, we have to drown evil with an abundance of good. 

 Everytime we are confronted with this challenge of loving our enemies, we are actually being invited to become more and more like Christ. We are given an opportunity to enter into the supernatural life, nature and ways of God that are also meant for us since we are God’s image and likeness. 

 This is the challenge we have to face—how to free ourselves from the controlling grip of our senses and reasoning, of our own human consensus and estimations of things, and to let ourselves be guided by the mysterious ways of our faith, full of wisdom and charity albeit always accompanied by sacrifices. 

 This would require nothing less than God’s grace which we can always safely presume is given to us freely and abundantly. What we have to demand on ourselves is a lot of humility, of simplicity and obedience. Pride makes us deaf and blind, insensitive to the ways of God, and makes us our own guide, instead of God. 

 To be sure, if we follow this commandment, we would be loving God and others the way Christ himself has loved his Father and all of us. 

It’s a love that is totally inclusive on the part of the lover, though it may be rejected by the beloved. It’s a love that would convert and transform us into another Christ, if not Christ himself (alter Christus, ipse Christus), for love, the real love that comes from God, has that power of making the lover united and identified with the beloved.

Divine assurance of victory

THAT was clearly spelled out for us in the Beatitudes as articulated by Christ. (cfr. Lk 6,20-26) As long as we believe and live out what Christ taught, whatever human disaster, disadvantage and inconvenience as viewed according to human and worldly standards can be converted into a source of joy, a means of our redemption, a path to heaven, narrow and difficult though it may be. 

 The Beatitudes expand our understanding of what would comprise as our true happiness by including those situations which we normally regard as unsavory and therefore to be avoided as much as possible and hated. 

 The Beatitudes is Christ’s way of telling us not to be afraid of any cross in our life, of whatever evil can come to us. As long as we tackle them together with Christ, these negative things in our life will in fact be a source of joy and peace for us, for it is through them that we would attain our own salvation and that of many others. 

 We, therefore, have to learn to lose any fear of the cross. That instinct of ours to be afraid and to flee from the cross has to be reversed, and made into an instinct of love for the cross. 

 This may take time and effort, this may require a lot of thinking and discipline, this may involve some drastic and even painful adjustments in our understanding of things, but it is all worthwhile to do so. 

 When we lose the fear of the cross and develop the love for it instead, we would have the proper light to guide us in our life here on earth. Not only that, we can have the invincible peace and joy that is proper to us as persons and as children of God. 

 There’s really no reason to be too worried and anxious when we encounter some difficulty in our life. In fact, we have every reason to be confident and at peace, focused on what we are supposed to do. And that’s because we are always in God’s hands. 

 Whatever situation we may be in, we can be sure that God will always provide for what is truly needed by us, and it may not be what we want. We just have to trust him completely for he knows better than we do, and what we want may not be what we need. It may not even be what is good for us. 

 God always knows what to do in any situation we may find ourselves in. He may allow some evil to come to us, an evil that can do us no harm unless we let it, but God knows how to draw good from evil. 

 Ours is simply to trust God completely, and out of that trust, we should always feel confident and courageous to do what we are supposed to do. We should not waste our time lamenting and feeling like a victim, or wallowing in doubts, passivity and self-pity. 

 We have to remove ourselves from that state mentioned by St. Paul in his Letter to the Ephesians: “children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the cunning of men, by their craftiness in deceitful wiles.” (4,14) We have to move on. There are a lot of things we need to do. 

 It’s important that we be confident and at peace always, because that would put us in the proper condition to do the things we are supposed to do. It will make us bold and courageous, fruitful and productive.

We need to pray

IT’S amazing that Christ had to excuse himself from his very busy schedule in order to pray. He is God himself. He should have no need to pray. But as the gospel many times say, he had to go somewhere to talk to the Father. 

 As the gospel narrates, “Jesus departed to the mountain to pray, and he spent the night in prayer to God.” (Lk 6,12) Why did he have to pray, we might ask. And the answer, to be blunt about it, is nothing other than that Christ is also man who needs to be always in vital and constant connection with his divinity. 

 He is actually showing us that we as man, created in the image and likeness of God, and meant to share in the life and nature of God, also need to be vitally and constantly connected with God. And this is what prayer is all about. 

 Prayer is the most basic thing we ought to do to be with God who is be-all and end-all of our whole existence. All the other necessities we have can only be attended to properly when this need for prayer is first met. Otherwise, everything else would just be waste of time. 

 We need to pray, and at these times, we need to pray more than ever, given the increasingly deteriorating conditions of humanity. Prayer, of course, is our sublime act of worship, of thanksgiving, of asking for pardon and favors. It is what keeps us spiritually alive, vitally connected with our Lord, and in a very mysterious way what keeps us properly linked to everyone else. 

 What eating, drinking and breathing do to our physical organism, is what prayer does to our spiritual soul which is the more important component of our humanity. It animates us, since it exercises our faith, hope and charity that are the lifeblood of our soul. Without these theological virtues, we would just get lost in life, left kaput spiritually and morally. 

 When we pray, we dispose ourselves to receive the wisdom and power of God, so important as we cruise through our very confusing world and contend with the frailties of our flesh, the wiles and temptations of the devil, the sweet but deadening allurements of the world. 

 The challenges of the times simply urge us to pray even more. A quick look around already gives us very sobering thoughts and compelling appeals for prayer. 

 If understood and done properly, praying actually gives us joy always. It enables us to see and understand things better. More importantly, it helps us to have a glimpse of God's will, where everything starts and is governed and led to its proper end. 

 Praying processes and finds the answers to all our needs. In good times and bad times, when we are healthy or sick, when we enjoy successes or suffer defeats or are tempted, praying comes as our natural way of coping with everything that our spiritual life needs just like breathing does with our bodily needs. 

 To those who are afraid that praying just gets in the way of our human activities and concerns, the contrary is true. If anything at all, praying tremendously helps us in putting our activities and concerns in another level so they acquire a spiritual, moral and supernatural value, which is proper to us, since we are God's image and likeness, and children of his. 

 This truth should be spread out quite widely these days, since many now are the factors and elements that tend to deny the indispensability of prayer in our life.

Rash judgments, detraction, calumny

THEY often go together and we are very much prone to them. Thus, we have to be properly guarded, training ourselves to practice restraint and to be quick to rectify once we fall into them. 

 We are reminded of this phenomenon in that gospel episode where the usual critics of Christ were observing closely whether Christ would cure a man with a withered hand. (cfr. Mk 6,6-11) They really did not know who Christ really was, and thus branded Christ as a violator of their man-made beliefs, laws and traditions. 

 Rash judgment is when one assumes as true without sufficient foundation, the moral fault of another person. Detraction is the unjust violation of the good reputation of another person by revealing something true but confidential about him. While calumny or slander is when what is imputed about a person is not true. 

 These moral anomalies usually come about when people indulge in what may be considered as a popular pastime, which is gossiping. To gossip is at least bad manners. If ever we have to talk about somebody with some of our friends, only nice, edifying things should be said. 

 We actually have no right to say negative things about others for the simple reason that the ones concerned would have no chance to explain and defend themselves and those talked to usually do not have any way to do anything about those negative things, since they have nothing to do with the persons gossiped about. 

 We have to be most careful when in a conversation the topic would touch about a certain person who is not there. If the tone is not positive, the most likely thing to happen is that the conversation will turn into backbiting and mudslinging. The temptation is usually strong, and many find it irresistible. 

 Even if the negative things said of a person are true, it is still wrong to gossip because that would be a form of detraction. It would still go against the commandment of charity which has as its finer points the demands of magnanimity, compassion, mercy, understanding, etc. 

 But what usually happens in that hush-hush tone of gossips is that the negative things said are not true or are already compromised, what with all the exaggerations and distortions and the voicing of biases and prejudices that are typical of gossips. In this case, one would commit calumny or slander which is a more serious offense against a person. 

 Gossips encourage rash judgments, silly loquacity and reckless considerations of persons. They actually dehumanize gossipers. They spoil the tongue by letting it have its way without the proper guidance of right reason, let alone, charity. 

 Especially nowadays when we are into rapid communication, we have to be most careful with the words we are using. Words, which are a staple in our exchanges with one another and have great power of influence, need to be handled properly. 

 Their quality both reflects and builds up the kind of person and society we are. We just have to make sure then that they do us what is truly good, that they contribute to the common good. We have to develop a keener sense of responsibility over them even as we grow in our sense of freedom in using them. 

 Sad to say, many now are the indications we are abusing the use of words. Gossips and idle talks are now going viral. All forms of defamation, whether of the detraction type or that of calumny, are spreading like wildfire. 

 Loquacity seems to be the rule of the road nowadays, dumping us with all kinds of exaggerations, reckless words and stray insinuations.

Treating everyone equally in different ways

WE are reminded of this duty in the second reading of the Mass of the 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B. It’s from the Letter of St. James (2,1-5) There, St. James talks about the discrimination one practices when he treats a rich man with a lot of favor and privilege while asking the poor man to sit by the footstool. 

 Of course, to fulfill this duty is not easy, given our wounded human condition. But we can always do something about it. And the first thing to remember is that irrespective of our differences and conflicts, we are all brothers and sisters, all children of God. We are meant to love and care for one another. 

 This does not mean that we have to treat everybody in the same way. That we are all equal in the eyes of God does not mean that we have to treat everyone in the same way. What is meant is that we should love everyone, but according to how one is. 

 Like, the way you deal with an elderly person would be different from the way we deal with a youngster, or a child, or a baby. But it is the same love that we should give them. 

 In this regard, it is important that as much as possible we learn to really know each one we deal with. Our dealings should always be personalized, not mechanical or generic. This will require of us a certain open-mindedness that would enable us to be adaptive to how others are and to be versatile in our dealings with them. 

 For this, we should be ready to deal with the unavoidable differences and conflicts that we can have with others. In fact, we should be welcoming to them for they can occasion further development of virtues and deepen our capacity to live charity as expected of us. 

 Our differences and conflicts can give rise to the development of patience and compassion, and the pursuit for the truth and justice is guaranteed to be more authentic even if it is also arduous. 

 They can actually expand our world of knowledge and understanding, and trigger the dynamics of a more meaningful unity among ourselves, not in spite of but rather because of our differences and conflicts. The unity we are speaking of here is not uniformity, but one that is richly nuanced and capable of accommodating everyone. 

 Most importantly, they can give a tremendous growth in our spiritual life, freeing us from being at the mercy of our personal, earthly and temporal conditions. They contribute greatly in our effort to make ourselves more and more like Christ who is the pattern of our humanity and the savior of our damaged humanity. 

 Our differences and conflicts are a fact of life. They can spring from all kinds of sources—temperament, culture, socio-economic and political status. There are racial and religious differences, etc. 

 These differences and conflicts must be part of our human condition and are an integral element in the providence of God over all of us. We just have to learn to live with them and try our best to use them according to God’s providence. The general pattern of how to live and make use of them is given to us by Christ himself who had to go through the most extreme kind of difficulty and conflict. 

 We may sort them out to simplify things a bit, but we should never think that there will come a time when there will be no differences and conflicts among ourselves. Instead, what we have to do is to refer them to Christ to have an idea of how to handle them.

Continuous adaptation without getting lost

GIVEN the rapid developments all over the world, we are faced with the big challenge of how to adapt ourselves to them without getting lost. Definitely, we are in for a very rough ride here, and we should just learn how to manage, not minding so much the unavoidable errors and the demand of the usual “blood, sweat and tears.” 

 We are reminded of this duty in that gospel episode where some of the usual critics of Christ compared the disciples of John the Baptist with those of Christ. (cfr. Lk 5,33-39) “The disciples of John the Baptist fast often and offer prayers, and the disciples of the Pharisees do the same,” they said. “But yours eat and drink.” 

 That’s when Christ told them, “Can you make the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them?” And then he made this simple explanation as a way of how to do the proper adaptation due to varying circumstances: “No one tears a piece from a new cloak to patch an old one. Otherwise, he will tear the new and the piece from it will not match the old cloak.” 

 The ability to face the challenge of continuous adaptation without getting lost starts with anchoring ourselves firmly and deeply on Christ. He is the embodiment of perfect adaptation without getting lost. 

 Being God he became man. He tried his best to identify himself with our sinful condition by becoming like sin without committing sin just to save us. (cfr. 2 Cor 5,21) He perfectly fits what St. Paul once said about being all things to all men. (cfr. 1 Cor 9,22) 

 We cannot deny that there are just so many things to orchestrate and to put into some kind of organic whole, with due attention to the priorities given to each item. We cannot deny that along the way, we often get entangled with some distractions that can get so bad as to hook us in some form of addiction and obsession. 

 This does not mean that we should close ourselves from these developments taking place like a fish that tries to avoid the murky waters by staying away from the waters. Of course, we should try our best to avoid the so-called near occasions of sin, but given the necessity of getting involved in the current developments of the world, we just have to learn how to do the appropriate maneuvering. 

 Yes, we cannot avoid getting dirty along the way. We would always be hounded by temptations that would coddle our weaknesses. Falls, mistakes and sins are likely to happen. But that’s the challenge we have to face. Those falls can be the occasion to learn and grow in the appropriate skills and virtues. 

 We just have to learn how to be tough, never giving up in spite of the falls and errors, since God, with his mercy, will always clean us if we would just bother to go to him and to be with him as much as possible. 

 What can help is for us to be constantly aware of the ultimate purpose of our life here on earth and to pursue it with as much zeal as we can muster. We can say that the more zealous we are in pursuing that goal, the less problem we would have in terms of living order amid the confusing developments. 

 Deviations from the pursuit of that purpose can always take place. But we should just try our best to be quick to correct those deviations, no matter how slight.

Always mindful of God’s primal will for us

WE should always keep in mind God’s original will for us and do everything we can to fulfill that will of his. We should help one another to be aware of this fundamental condition of our life and to be faithful in effectively living by that condition. 

 We are reminded of this truth of our faith in that gospel episode where Christ, after preaching by the lakeside, told Peter and companions to go to the deep and pay out their nets for a catch. (cfr. Lk 5,1-11) 

 At first, Peter was hesitant because he failed to catch anything the previous night, but later on he corrected himself and did what he was told. And, behold, he caught a huge amount of fish to his utter consternation. 

 This episode somehow reminds us that irrespective of the conditions we may have in life, we should not forget to pursue what really is God’s first will for us. And that can only be our own sanctification and our duty to help build up the Church, the People of God, the Mystical Body of Christ. 

 This will of God is for all of us, irrespective who and how we are in the world. This will is not only for priests or some consecrated religious people or some special people. It is for everyone, although pursued in different ways according to our different conditions and state in life. 

 The laity should not feel that they are some kind of second class citizens in the Church and that they play only a minor role in the life and mission of the Church. They are called to be holy and to be apostolic just as much as the priests and the religious people are. 

 The late Pope, now Saint, John Paul II once said: “Everyone in the Church shares the common vocation to holiness. The lay faithful are called, in full title, to this common vocation, without any difference with respect to the other members of the Church.” 

 In fact, the Code of Canon Law clearly says: “From their rebirth in Christ, there exists among all the Christian faithful a true equality regarding dignity and action by which all cooperate in the building up of the Body of Christ according to each one’s own condition and function.” (Canon 208) 

 For the laity, their responsibility in the Church lies in their duty to humanize and Christianize the secular world in all its aspects. Thus, the Code of Canon Law says that: 

 “According to each one’s own condition, they are also bound by a particular duty to imbue and perfect the order of temporal affairs with the spirit of the gospel and thus to give witness to Christ, especially in carrying out these same affairs and in exercising secular functions.” (Canon 225.2) This is no mean responsibility for which the laity should be properly trained. 

 We have to make this primal will of God for us known by everyone as early as possible. At the moment, what we see is a large-scale ignorance and indifference to this truth of our Christian faith in the world. 

 Let’s see to it that the education and formation given to people, especially the young ones, by the different institutions, from the families to schools, etc., should give emphasis to this primal will of God for us. 

 Now that the world is rapidly evolving, with so many issues and challenges coming up, we should give due attention to this primal will of God for us!

Why we can afford to be always confident

WHY? Because Christ is always around and is ever ready to help us in all our needs. Perhaps not always in the way we want it, but to be sure, he always cares for us even if we feel we do not deserve to be helped by him. 

 We have to train ourselves to have this constant awareness of this truth of our faith, of which we are reminded in that gospel episode where he cured the sick mother-in-law of St. Peter and drove away demons who were possessing a number of people. Big crowds followed him and even wanted to prevent him from leaving them. (cfr. Lk 4,38-44) 

 In this regard, I believe the thing to do is to strengthen our faith and to keep our piety vibrant for only then can we manage to make Christ’s constant solicitude and care over us 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. 

 With that attitude, marked by confidence and courage, we can continue becoming a better person who even knows how to take advantage of our defects and defeats, our weaknesses and limitations as a launching pad to develop the virtues more. 

 And so, there’s really no reason to be too worried and anxious when we encounter some difficulty in our life. In fact, we have every reason to be confident and at peace, focused on what we are supposed to do. And that’s because we are always in God’s hands. 

 Whatever situation we may be in, we can be sure that God will always provide for what is truly needed by us, though it may not be what we want. We just have to trust him completely for he knows better than we do, and what we want may not be what we need. It may not even be what is good for us. 

 The story of Abraham’s complete trust in God is a great lesson for us. (Gen 22,1-19) When God tested him by asking him to offer his only son, Isaac, as a sacrifice, he readily agreed. We already know how the story ended—a happy ending it was—and what great lesson he learned from that test. Abraham named the place where he was supposed to sacrifice his son, “Yahweh-yireh” (the Lord provides), for he was provided in the last minute with a ram to take the place of his son for the sacrifice. 

 God always knows what to do in any situation we may find ourselves in. He may allow some evil to come to us, an evil that can do us no harm unless we let it, but God knows how to draw good from evil. Our reaction whenever we are tested by some difficulty or temptation should be something like this: God wants us to develop us to be more and more like him. 

 We too should not be hindered by our stumbles and defeats in life. They should not separate us from God. Rather, like a little child who runs to the strong arms to his father when he falls, we should go to God as quickly as possible since he knows what to do with our failures.

Sharing Christ’s powers

IF Christ is the pattern of our humanity, if we truly are meant to be “alter Christus” (another Christ), then we can also conclude that we are meant to also share the very powers of Christ. 

 This thought can come to our mind when we consider that gospel episode where the people were amazed when at Christ’s word, a devil that possessed a man was rebuked and thrown out. (cfr. Lk 4,31-37) “What word is this, for with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they go out?” the crowd said. 

 Yes, we can share the supernatural powers of Christ if we would just allow ourselves to be truly identified with him. This possibility should not be far-fetched. Christ himself assured us of this possibility when he said: 

 “Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you. However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.” (M5 17,20-21) 

 Indeed, through the years, we have seen some men and women who have shown some extraordinary powers because of their faith-driven identification with Christ. We can start to cite St. Peter himself who managed to raise Tabitha from the dead in Lydda. (cfr. Act 9,36-43) 

 We should at least be open to this possibility though it may not be advisable for us to insist on it, since it can show a trace of pride and arrogance on our part. God can share his special powers with us if he wants to and if we are open to it also. 

 Let’s remember that gospel episode where Christ, after choosing his apostles in some random way, gave them tremendous powers. “Jesus summoned the Twelve and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them to proclaim the Kingdom of God and to heal the sick.” (Lk 9,1) 

 We have to be most aware of what we can have in our hands. We may feel unworthy of all this, as we should, but the undeniable truth is that Christ can share his powers with us. Let us do our part in corresponding to this stupendous truth of our faith. 

 And the only way to do that is to give our all to God. Let us be generous and magnanimous as God is overwhelmingly generous and magnanimous to all of us. There has to be that mutual dynamic of love and self-giving that has been initiated by God himself. God loves us first, and we have to learn to love him in return, a love that is also expressed in loving everybody just as God loves everybody irrespective of how they are! 

 This is a call to generosity. “Without cost you have received, without cost you are to give,” Christ told his disciples. (Mt 10,8) Christ himself embodied this principle when he, being God became man, and not contented with that, he went to the extent of offering his life to conquer all our sins. He finally gave himself to us in the sacraments, especially in the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, which is a real madness of love. 

 Everyday, let us grow in our identification with Christ. Let’s hope that slowly but steadily we can feel the conviction that we are becoming “other Christ” (alter Christus), if not “Christ himself” (ipse Christus). This will open the way for us to share Christ’s special powers.

To know Christ is to know ourselves properly

THE earlier we realize this, the better for us. And that’s simply because Christ is the very pattern of our humanity. How he is should also be how we should be, not of course in terms of our physical appearance and other natural attributes that we have, but rather in terms of the spirit that should animate our whole life. The ideal condition to have is first to know and love Christ so that we may know and love ourselves and others properly. 

 This was what St. Augustine precisely said. “Noverim te, noverim me,” Latin for “May I know you (Christ), may I know myself.” It is when we know and love Christ first that we get to know who we really are and ought to be. Christ is not only the pattern of our humanity but also the savior of our damaged humanity. 

 It is Christ who will tell us what is true and false, right and wrong, moral and immoral. It’s not us who define and determine these things. And if we know Christ first, then we would know how to relate ourselves with the others, how to love them properly the way Christ loves us, as shown, taught and commanded to us by Christ himself. (cfr. Jn 13,34) 

 Thus, if we really want to truly fall and remain in love with our beloved, if we want our relationships to last long until forever, then we have to base it on our knowledge and love of Christ first. There can be no other way to assure us that our relationships here on earth would last! 

 Even in our wounded condition here in this life, Christ offers us the way how to handle it such that we can still manage to be with him. That’s because Christ himself said that he is “the way, the truth and the life.” (cfr. Jn 14,6) 

 Our relation with Christ should not only be in the level of knowledge. We have to live that knowledge to such an extent that we become “another Christ.” We are supposed to be ‘alter Christus,’ the goal and ideal that is meant for us, though we need also to do our part, free beings as are, to achieve that status. 

 God, our Creator and Father, wants us to be that way, though he does not impose it on us without our consent that should also be shown with deeds and not just with intentions or words. 

 We should try our best to have the very sentiments of Christ who has everything that is good and proper to us. When he said, “Whoever is not with me is against me, whoever does not gather with me scatters,” it is quite clear that for us to be ‘alter Christus’ is a necessity. It’s not something optional, though it has to be chosen freely. 

 With Christ we would have the proper understanding of things. We would have a universal outlook, and we can take on anything that can happen to us, whether good or bad, because Christ himself has assumed everything human including to be like sin even if he himself has not committed any sin. “He (God) made him (Christ) to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be the righteousness of God in him.” (2 Cor 5,21) 

 We have to be wary when we rely simply on our common sense, or some powerful philosophy or ideology, because no matter how brilliant these are, they cannot cope with everything that is possible to happen in a man’s life. Only Christ can!