Concern for the lost

THE lesson we can draw from the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin (cfr. Lk 15,1-10) is very clear. We need to give special attention and exert special effort to recover those who have lost their way toward God. This is the real test of discipleship. 

 We obviously need some special training for this. But let’s not forget that the first thing to do is to beg for that grace and power of God so we can carry out this duty that is clearly beyond our human powers and condition. 

 In our prayer, we should ask God to instill in us this strong urge to be concerned for those who have strayed from the proper way, those who for one reason or another are ostracized and alienated from God and from the rest of humanity. 

 With God’s grace, let’s embark on a plan to develop the appropriate attitude, virtues, skills and practices. Yes, we have to learn how to be “all things to all men to save at least some,” as St. Paul once said. (cfr. 1 Cor 9,22) 

 Definitely this would require of us a very open spirit that would enable us to adapt ourselves to everyone in the way they are, warts and all. Thus, we need to develop the qualities of adaptability, flexibility and versatility. With our increasingly complex times, we need to learn how to flow with the tide without losing our identity and real purpose in life. For this, we definitely need to look and follow closely the example of Christ. 

 Christ, being God, made himself man and went all the way to assume the sinfulness of men without committing any sin if only to identify himself with us in our wounded condition and to give us a way of how to deal with that condition. 

 In his preaching, he used parables to make his lessons more accessible to the people. He was always compassionate, quick to forgive, slow to anger. He was always thinking both of his Father and of the people. Remember him saying, “The one who sent me is true and what I heard from him I tell the world.” (Jn 8,26) 

 He gave preferential treatment to the children, the weak, the handicapped, the sick, the sinners. He was only allergic to the proud and self-righteous whose sense of right and wrong did not come from God, but rather from their own selves in their great variety of human consensus and other subtle forms of self-assertion. But on the cross, he asked forgiveness for everyone. 

 Obviously, to have this genuine concern for the lost, we need to be tough spiritually, not squeamish, much less, self-righteous. We should not be afraid to get the “smell,” as Pope Francis once said, of the lost sheep. If we are truly involved in the life of those who are lost and far from Church, we cannot avoid acquiring that “smell.” 

 Of course, without compromising our need also to be tender and gentle, we have to learn how to be strong and tough with the strength and forcefulness of true charity that would enable us how to bend, to understand and to forgive. 

 It’s a matter of discernment and prudence. They actually can and should go together—our toughness and gentleness. But their manifestations vary according to the situation, and we just have to learn how to show and live both anytime, or highlight one over the other given the circumstance or the need of the moment.

The cost of discipleship

DISCIPLESHIP, as described by Christ, may command a very steep price since it involves a heavy cost, but it actually gives us the best deal. Yes, it demands total detachment from earthly things, even to the extent of “hating one’s father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even one’s own life.” But then again, Christ reassures us that we will have a lot more of them if we would just stick with him. 

 More than that, discipleship also requires us to carry the cross in any form it comes and just to follow Christ. To top it all, it requires us to be very good at planning and strategizing so we can come up with an effective action plan and produce the fruits expected of being a disciple of Christ. All this was described by Christ in the gospel of St. Luke 14,15-23. 

 We should just try our best, always asking for God’s grace in the first place, to meet all these requirements, convinced that they are all worthwhile. A person who professes to be a Christian but fails to be a disciple of Christ is not really an authentic Christian. 

 Of course, this will require time and a lot of effort. But as long as there is some earnest struggle, albeit not perfect, one can truly be called a Christian. Just look at the apostles themselves, starting with Peter, the head of group, and see how with their weaknesses, mistakes and failures, they still managed to be disciples of Christ. The important thing is just to try our best to follow Christ, even if our best is not perfect. 

 Let’s be consoled by what St. Paul said in his Letter to the Philippians in this regard: “Be confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (1,6) Ours is simply to try our best, since as a saying would put it, “God will do the rest.” 

 To be detached is not just a matter of emptying ourselves of earthly things. That self-emptying should lead us to be filled with the very spirit of Christ, a spirit which would make us do nothing other than the will of God. 

 Everyday, we have to make the exercise of conforming our will to God’s will by making a bold plan of how to go about following God’s will of personal sanctification and apostolate. In pursuit of these dual purpose of our life, we should try to give our all. We cannot afford to be complacent and lukewarm. We should feel driven and pro-active. 

 When we notice that we are more dominated and guided by our moods, our emotional and bodily condition which often are erratic and inconsistent, or when we notice we feel lazy and empty, we should immediately react. The ideal condition for us is to burn with zeal to follow God’s will. Absent that zeal, we would be giving a foothold to our weaknesses and temptations. That is why the cross is a necessity in our life. 

 We should also try to cultivate the skill of anticipating and planning as early as possible. It’s actually a necessity, a vital consequence of our nature that needs to work things out instead of just waiting for things to work out by themselves. It’s what is proper to us. 

 With these requirements met, we can expect to be an authentic disciple of Christ in spite of our weaknesses and mistakes along the way.

Passionate to join the heavenly banquet

THIS is the ideal condition for us. Our greatest and strongest passion should be to live our definitive eternal state of life with God in heaven, where we actually come from and where we should be at the end. It’s the definitive home for all of us. 

 We should avoid getting entangled and entrapped in our earthly and temporal affairs as dramatized in that parable narrated by Christ about a man who gave a great dinner but whose invited guests failed to come for all sorts of earthly reasons. (cfr. Lk 14,15-24) 

 Yes, even as we immerse ourselves in our earthly affairs, we should never lose sight of the ultimate purpose and goal of our life. Rather, we should make use of our earthly affairs as the very means, instruments and occasions to lead us to our definitive state of life in heaven. 

 We have to be wary of the danger of being trapped in the world of the senses, of the material and purely natural things. In fact, these days, there are many people who I consider are trapped in the world of the senses, ruled mainly by their instincts and emotions, and easily vulnerable to the mere impulses of the flesh and the usually improperly grounded worldly values and ways. 

 I don’t refer much to those who are already emotionally or mentally disturbed and even sick. I refer more to the so-called normal people, who can manage to behave well in a civil way when in the open, but cannot regulate their wild instincts and emotions when they are hidden and solitary. 

 Their imagination can run amuck. The direction of their thoughts and feelings can really go berserk. And since these are mainly hidden, then they usually go unchecked and are allowed to fester. 

 We should be more aware of the need for us to develop and sharpen our passion and hunger for heaven. Let’s follow what Christ clearly said: “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Mt 6,19-21) 

 And St. Paul echoes the same sentiment. “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” (Col 3,2) We should do everything to avoid getting entangled with our earthly and temporal affairs. 

 It’s not that these worldly concerns of ours are not important. They are very important! But only as means, not as ends. They are nothing, and they can be very harmful to us, if they are not related to our true and ultimate end. 

 We have to find ways to relate everything to God, to the supernatural character of our final destination in heaven. Whether we like it or not, this is how the cookie crumbles for us, given our nature that is not only material but also eminently spiritual. 

 We don’t have to die first before we can already have a feel of heaven, if not practically touch it. By doing our ordinary daily work, whether big or small, in public or hidden at home, and doing it with real love for God and for others, we can already achieve this ideal that is proper to us. 

 For this to take place, we of course have to work with working faith and piety, since without them, we will not be aware that working with love for God and others can already connect us with our final home in heaven. It’s love that is fueled by faith and piety that does the trick, so to speak.

Total self-giving without expecting any return

IT’S the call Christ addresses to us when he told his disciples: “When you hold a lunch or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or sisters or your relative or your wealthy neighbors, in case they may invite you back and you have repayment. Rather, when you hold a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind; blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.” (Lk 14,12-14) 

 True generosity is attained when we completely gratuitously give ourselves to others, just like God who gives himself to us completely gratuitously. Never mind if our generosity is not reciprocated, which is unlikely since when we are generous with others the tendency is also for the others to be generous with us in their own way. 

 The crucial point in this business of generosity is the gratuitousness of our self-giving. This should be the attitude in our self-giving. It has to be done without counting the cost, without expecting any reward. We should not worry about anything, because God knows everything and gives us everything that we need. And he cannot be outdone in generosity. The more we give of ourselves, the more he will reward us. 

 We just have to do our self-giving very freely. As Christ himself told his apostles, “Freely you have received, freely give.” (Mt 10,8) And the first one to live by this principle is Christ himself. He gave himself freely to us, including his own life. He did not mind the sacrifices, the insults and mistreatment he underwent. 

 This is what true love is. It is a total self-giving. But the mysterious part of it is that it actually generates more love and self-giving in others. It inspires others to give themselves in the way of true love. That is why true love has its own reward. It has the dynamic of being repaid also with love. 

 We should always be encouraged to give ourselves to others gratuitously without strings attached, without conditions. Even if instead of being reciprocated properly and requited, our love is misunderstood and rejected, we just have to go on loving. The only reason for loving is because that is what true love is. It is this love that is the real essence of God, of whom we are his image and likeness. 

 This truth of our faith about gratuitous generosity in our self-giving is also amply dramatized in that lesson Christ gave regarding the unprofitable servant. (cfr Lk 17,7-10) “When you have done all you have been commanded,” Christ said, “say, ‘We are unprofitable servants. We have done what we were obliged to do.’” 

 Loving and serving cannot and should not be quantified in terms of cost and reward. It is above all these considerations. It’s a purely spiritual operation that should not be spoiled by giving it some material and temporal value. It’s where we can approximate, keep and build up that dignity of being the image and likeness of God and adopted children of his. It’s how we become God-like. 

 This is how God serves and gives himself to us, with complete gratuitousness. He even goes all the way of still loving and serving us even if we do not reciprocate his love properly. This is how we should serve and give ourselves to the others also!

Another proof God and man share the same life

THAT’S when Christ responded to those who asked him what the greatest commandment was. (cfr. Mk 12,28-34) After telling them that the greatest commandment was to love God with one’s whole might, he proceeded to tell them without being asked what the second greatest commandment was. And it was to love one’s neighbor as oneself. 

 In other words, loving God cannot be real unless one also loves his neighbor, which actually means to love everyone else. Thus, St. John in First Letter said: “If a man says, I love God, and hates his brother, he is a liar: for he that loves not his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?” (4,20) 

 We need to clearly see the link between God and neighbor who should be both the object of our love. We often take it for granted. While we may appear to be close to God because we pray, we profess our faith in him publicly, etc., it may turn out to be only a sham, because how we treat our neighbor, who actually can be anybody and everybody, belies our supposed closeness to God. 

 This is because how we treat others can actually show how we treat God. If we are indifferent to the others, we can actually say that we are also indifferent to God, even if our appearance may seem otherwise. If we hate someone, we can also say that we are hating God. 

 Why? Because if we truly are believers and lovers of God, then there’s no other way but also for us to truly be lovers of everyone else, no matter, how the others are. God loves everyone, even if not everyone may love him in return. 

 What we can draw from these considerations is that for us enter and share in the very life and nature of God, we have to learn to love everyone, as Christ himself commanded us: “Love one another as I have loved you.” (Jn 13,34) He even commanded us to love our enemies. (cfr. Mt 5,43) 

 This may sound like a very tall, if not, impossible order, but it’s clear that for us to share the very nature and life of God, as we are meant to do, we have to have the same love God in Christ has for everyone. 

 This will require a lot of effort and sacrifice, but we should never forget that we can only have that love if we ourselves are receptive and responsive to the enabling grace that God himself pours and shares with us. We only have that kind of love if we truly are with God. On the part of God, he is never stinting in sharing what he has with us. Again, things depend on how receptive and responsive we are to that grace. 

 We should just learn how to truly identify ourselves with God. This we can do if we, with faith, would just follow God’s will for us, as shown to us by Christ. We need to make acts of faith especially because our reason cannot fully fathom and understand the will and ways of God. 

 Said in another way, let’s make our reason to be animated first of all by faith rather than my its natural operation which we should neither give up. Our natural reason should follow what our supernatural faith would show us. 

 This is how we can share God’s very own life and nature and manage to love everyone which is the very essence of God.

November 1 and 2 reminders

THE month of November begins with the liturgical celebration of the Solemnity of All Saints and the Commemoration of All Souls. These celebrations remind us of the wonderful reality that our life here on earth is not just limited by our space-and-time existence, but has other much more important dimensions that we often take for granted. 

 To put it bluntly, these liturgical celebrations remind us that we are all called to be holy, because being a creature of God, created in God’s image and likeness and meant to participate in the very life of God, we really need to assume the very identity of God which is what holiness is all about. We have to be reminded always of who we really are and of how we can be consistent to that identity and dignity. 

 Yes, there is a basic and inalienable equality among all of us insofar as we are God’s creatures and children called to holiness. Regardless of our position and state in life, whether we are priests, religious men and women, or ordinary lay faithful, we have the same calling and purpose in life. 

 Corollary to this truth is that there is also a basic and inalienable quality of everything in the world to be an occasion and means for our sanctification. To be holy does not mean that we only spend time praying, going to church, availing of the sacraments, etc. 

 To be sure, prayer, the sacraments, the doctrine of our faith, obedience to the Church hierarchy are important, even indispensable, but these would hang on thin air if they are not supported and made as the goal and expression of a sanctified life that is consistent to the teachings and the spirit of God. 

 To be holy also means that we have to use our ordinary work, all the things of the world, like the sciences, arts, politics, technologies, etc., properly purified, and all the other circumstances that define our daily life as an occasion and means to look for God, then find, love and serve him. 

 There’s a need to cultivate a unity of life that is inspired by love of God and neighbor and oriented toward the definitive eternal life with God in heaven. We cannot divide our life in two disparate parts—one meant for holiness, and another meant only for some worldly affairs. 

 The November 1 and 2 celebrations also remind us of the glorious truth of our faith that we are meant to form a communion of saints that is meant for all of us, since we are all children of God, and the Christian meaning of earthly suffering and death that while sobering is also uplifting, since these serve for our purification and ultimate redemption. 

 We have to be wary of our tendency to get stuck to the here and now, and to be so immersed in the drama and game of our earthly life that we fail to realize there is a lot more than what we have here, what we do and say now, what we are at present. 

 We may create all sorts of problems and chaos in this life, all kinds of ugliness. But, hey, there is hope! Christ has redeemed us with his death! Sin and death have their sting removed. Let us learn to see beauty in all the chaos and ugliness of the present, and attain redemption in our seemingly hopeless predicament. 

 Let’s remember that Christ’s all-powerful and never-fading work of redemption that culminated on the cross, can take on anything that we say, do or are, whether it is something good or something bad.