“It is the last hour”

THESE words from the First Letter of St. John (2,18) should not scare us, but rather should make ever more realistic about the real purpose of our life, giving us an idea of what the dangers are and what God has provided for us to deal with those dangers and achieve that real purpose of our life. 

 In this particular verse, St. John warns us that a mark that we would already be in the last hour is that not just one but many Antichrists would already be around. Well, we are not sure if indeed we already have these Antichrists, but we can certainly say is that we are witnessing nowadays a number of religious demagogues and false prophets coming up. One even goes to the extent of claiming he is the very son of God. 

 We should not overreact to this phenomenon. In fact, we should expect it. But, yes, we should also be ready to identify these demagogues and to know how to deal with them. Somehow, we can detect them when we can see the following points: 

 - They often use manipulation, flattery, and emotional appeals to gain power, influence, or personal gain; 

- They often use divisive language, scapegoating, or demonizing others to create an “us versus them” mentality; 

- Their primary goal is to advance their own interests, power, or ideology. 

 But what we should focus more is how to prepare ourselves for the “last hour.” In this, what can help us is to develop a healthy spirit of what are called the “last things,” namely, death, then after death, judgment which would determine whether we go to hell or to heaven with purgatory as a temporary state of purification before one enters heaven. 

 The consideration of the “last things” can help us navigate our life here on earth properly. Far from giving us a dark vision of things, this consideration would actually enlighten us with respect to the real purpose of our life. It will give us a positive, constructive push in our earthly affairs. 

 In other words, the consideration of the Last Things gives us the proper perspective within which we have to see and understand every event and development in our life. It should give us a great sense of confidence, peace and joy. 

 We should not be afraid to make this consideration, since it does nothing but to make us very realistic about our whole life. As long as we continue to make some practical resolutions out the consideration of the Last Things, we will always be on the right path. 

 At the moment, we are afraid of death and we refuse to consider the importance that the considerations of judgment, heaven and hell have on us. We get so attached to the here and now that we become blind to our life beyond. 

 It’s a challenge that definitely invites us to live by faith, hope and charity, the theological virtues or gifts that God gives us so we can have basis for making our earthly affairs, our temporal concerns acquire an eternal, supernatural value. 

 These virtues are God’s ways of sharing what he has with us, such that what takes place in our life can actually participate in the life of God in whose image and likeness we are. 

 This ideal of a life of faith, hope and charity is made available to us through Christ who is the Son of God who became man, and who continues to be with us till the end of time through the Church in its doctrine, sacraments and hierarchy.

Transmitters of tradition

THE story of Anna, already advanced in years and a widow, and who “departed not from temple, by fasting and prayers serving night and day,” (cfr. Lk 2,36-40) somehow reminds of those good old women who spend a lot of time in churches doing all sorts of devout practices and even offering to carry out tasks, often gratis, in parishes. 

 The younger generation may have some cheeky attitude toward them, but we cannot deny that they, like Anna, actually do a lot of good to all of us. In their own way, they keep and transmit time-honored pious traditions that would truly help alive our spiritual life. 

 Especially these days when we are often swept away by modern things that tend to detach us from the sources of our religious faith, their example deserves to be given due attention and imitation. Obviously, these pious traditions also evolve in some ways. But they just cannot be ignored. 

 Traditions are important in our life. They are like structures that help us cope with the different necessities of life. They have been built up from the common experiences of a person and of a society and are passed on from generation to generation. 

 That’s what tradition means. It’s a matter of handing down certain shared attitudes, practices, lifestyles from one generation to the next. It’s a continuing process that parallels and supports life itself. 

 Traditions can be personal, family, social, political, historical, cultural, and of course, religious that are in fact the most important. In other words, they correspond to our human needs taken either individually or collectively, spiritually or materially. In short, they cover all aspects of our life. 

 Traditions help keep life going, facilitating the performance of certain duties and the attainment of certain goals and ideals. They give some consistency to our life, and a reassuring sense of direction and fulfillment. 

 Since our identity as a person and as a people is often qualified by the traditions we practice, we need to make sure that we have good and healthy traditions, refining and polishing them along the way, or otherwise starting new ones as circumstances warrant. 

 New traditions somehow are born spontaneously. A certain spirit or ethos must be behind its making after a number of factors and relevant elements come together. There are also those that are quite deliberately engineered. But no new tradition comes about unless it has at least the tacit approval of the majority of the people. 

 Traditions also form some kind of basis or ground on which a person and a society grows and develops. They can be part of the raw material used for growth. Practically no one and no society can live without some tradition in place in their system. No one starts to develop from absolute zero. He has to begin somewhere. 

 We should try, however, to adapt traditions to changing circumstances while preserving their essence and spirit, striking a healthy balance between preserving tradition and embracing progress, innovation and positive change. 

 We should also be respectful of the diverse traditions we can have around, ever mindful of the cultural sensitivities of different communities and avoiding appropriating or misrepresenting traditions that are not our own. 

 We should also engage in open and respectful dialogue with people from different backgrounds to promote mutual understanding and appreciation. Ultimately, a balanced approach that combines respect, critical evaluation, and cultural sensitivity can help us navigate the complexities of tradition and its role in shaping our lives and communities.

“Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice!”

THAT’S a Responsorial Psalm in one of the Octave Masses of Christmas. It expresses precisely how we should feel now that Christ our Savior is born. We have to learn to be truly be happy, confident and at peace always no matter how things go in our life. The secret is to be always with Christ who makes himself ever available to us. 

 “Gaudium cum pace.” Joy with peace. This is the ideal condition we have to reach everyday, especially at the end of the day. It is what is proper to us. Without it, we would be miserable creatures, regardless of the riches, power and fame we may have. 

 As Sacred Scripture would have it, “A merry heart is the true life of man, is an unfailing store of holiness. Length of years is measured by rejoicing.” (Sir 30,23) And St. Thomas Aquinas has this to say apropos: “Happiness is a good proper to human beings. Animals can only be called happy by a misuse of language.” 

 There are many benefits of joy and peace. The Book of Proverbs says, “A cheerful heart makes a quick recovery. It is crushed spirits that waste a man’s frame.” (17,22) Joy facilitates thinking and reasoning. It helps us to more easily understand people and situations. It fosters simplicity, creates a good atmosphere around, and builds up unity. 

 We have to make sure that we are happy and at peace. Obviously, we have to understand that to be in that state is first of all a result of grace which we should always ask and pray for. But it is also a product of our own correspondence to God’s grace, and of our effort to follow more closely Christ’s teaching and example. 

 The joy and peace rooted on Christ transcend 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. 

 Thus, St. Paul once said: “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) 

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

 We have to see to it that every day, and in fact, in every activity we do during the day, we should always end with a sense of joy, satisfaction and fulfillment, no matter how things went. They can go badly, humanly speaking, but if our sense of joy and peace is theological, we will always find meaning, beauty and purpose in them. 

 This is crucial because it is joy that keeps us going, that keeps us alive. We may get physically tired, but our spirit would still be vibrant. We can still manage to smile, to be hopeful and positive about things, to be encouraging in our words and deeds. 

 And all this not because we are inventing things. We are convinced of the solid foundation of our faith that secures and guarantees our conviction about our sense of joy and peace. It’s this conviction that would make us consistently happy in good times and bad times, whether alone or with others.

We are one big family of God

ON the Feast of the Holy Family, we are reminded that we actually comprise one big family of God with Jesus, Mary and Joseph. We are united, despite all the differences and conflicts we unavoidably have, due to the love God has for all of us which we should also reflect in our own lives. If God loves everyone, we too should love everyone. That’s how we become one big family of God. 

 We therefore need to expand our idea of what a family is. Of course, we do this in stages. We start with our own blood family, then with those related to us by sanguinity or affinity, then with those we share culture, nationality, and so on and so forth, until we realize we are one family with God as our common Father. 

 We just have to process this responsibility slowly but constantly until, with God’s grace, we can truly say that, yes, we are a family, all of us, including those with whom we may have serious differences and conflicts, even those we may consider as our enemies under different categories. 

 That is the reason why Christ told us to love our enemies too. (cfr. Mt 5,44) In this regard, we may ask: Does God also love the devils, who do nothing other than oppose him? Of course, he does! It’s not his problem if they do not love him. But he will always love them. 

 The fact that they originally came from him can only mean that God, as their creator, is always with them, and his presence in all his creatures is always a presence of love. If the creature does not reciprocate his love, that’s the creature’s problem. Not his. 

 We should channel God’s presence of love in all his creatures in our own lives. Somehow, we should also be present with the presence of love in the lives of everyone. That is why Christ again told us clearly that we should love everyone the way he loves us. (cfr. Jn 13,34) 

 The details of this kind of love can be seen in some Pauline texts. For example, in the Letter to the Colossians, St. Paul said: “Bear one another, forgive one another, if any has a complaint against another, even as the Lord has forgiven you, so do you also. But above all these things have charity, which is the bond of perfection.” (3,13-14) 

 This is a tremendous challenge for us, of course, but we have to realize that God assures us that we can do it as long as we unite ourselves with him, trying our best to follow his will and ways, and refrain from depending only on our human powers which can only go so far. 

 The moment we encounter difficulties in this area because of our differences and conflicts, we should realize that we are actually given a golden opportunity to grow more in our virtues, to identify ourselves more with God which is the ideal thing to pursue in our life. 

 Indeed, we somehow have to learn how to be present in the lives of everyone just as God is present in everyone. This obviously will require us to go beyond our personal preferences, transcending the many human, natural and other worldly conditionings that tend to separate us from others. 

 Yes, there is always diversity among ourselves, which is actually a healthy feature in our humanity if we only know to handle it properly. But such condition should only sharpen our desire to be one family with God. God himself assures us that we can do this.

Temptations and sin

WE have to learn to distinguish between the two. And more than that, we have to learn how to take advantage, deriving a greater good from them. This is always possible as long as they are referred immediately to God through Christ in the Spirit who is behind what St. Paul once said: “We know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” (Rom 8,28) 

 Temptations are enticements or attractions to act against the laws of God that are supposed to constitute our values, principles and better judgments. They are part of our condition here in this world, given our wounded condition, that is, deprived of the original grace that was meant for us from the beginning but which was lost because of the sin of our first parents and our sins also. 

 We should not be too surprised by them, much less, overreact to them which can only make us more vulnerable to fall into sin. Instead, we should try our best to ignore or dismiss them quickly in the same way Christ dismissed the temptations made on him by the devil. (cfr. Mt 4,1-11) 

 When temptations come, we can take advantage of them by making them the occasion to know where our weaknesses are. They should lead us to come up with a plan to cultivate the relevant spiritual and moral skills needed to counter them. 

 When temptations come, the first thing we have to do is to immediately go to God, to run to him, to stick to him as closely as possible. That’s simply because God is our rock and fortress, the ultimate source of strength. Missing this reaction, we open ourselves to a long, tortuous episode that can end badly. 

 Missing this reaction is actually a common thing to happen because in the first place our relation with God is not strong. If ever there is some relation, it is more on the theoretical level and hardly on the practical, much less something that involves our feelings and instincts. 

 And so, we have to work hard in building up this relation with God if we want to keep some safe distance away from temptations. If our love for God is hot, the devil will find it hard to get near us, just like a fly would not get close to a hot soup. 

 Our usual problem is that we tend to be by ourselves when temptations come, and to rely simply on our powers which actually are already heavily compromised since our wounded flesh is an ally of the enemies of our soul. We always have a Trojan horse in our personal lives. 

 We should not allow temptations to stay long in us to the point that they fester and become irresistible for us not to commit sin. What is even worse than just falling into sin because of them is when we start justifying them that would lead us to make them the normal or ideal condition for us to be in. 

 Unfortunately, this is what is happening these days when our temptations and sins of the flesh have led people in many places to legalize such disorders as abortion, same-sex marriage, etc. Also, the temptations and sins of greed and lust have led many societies to practically build up the so-called structures of sin where it is almost impossible to avoid sinning. 

 We need to see to it that we nip the temptations in the bud before they practically become an incurable spreading cancer.

“Today, a great light has come”

MERRY CHRISTMAS to all! On this most blessed and joyous day when we liturgically celebrate the birth of the very pattern and savior of our humanity, it is most apt to echo as often as we can this gospel acclamation in one of the Masses of Christmas. For, indeed, what can be a light better than him. 

 That is why we have to be most wary of today’s many lights that can offer us some convenient and advantageous chunks of knowledge but can subtly lead us astray. Among them are some ideological and cultural trends like secularism and humanism, materialism and consumerism, misinformation and disinformation, false prophets and gurus, and some philosophies and ideologies. 

 Secularism and humanism, for example, would put our human reason as our supreme guide, regarding themselves as completely autonomous and freed from any submission to a law above themselves and to any spiritual and divine guidance. 

 Materialism and consumerism would make the pursuit of wealth, status and possessions as our ultimate goal. And nowadays, we are practically flooded with all kinds of misinformation and disinformation that are cleverly invented with the help of the powerful artificial intelligence that can only work according to the motives of their users. 

 This is not mention that we are also witnessing today the emergence of the so-called prophets and gurus who claim to have some supernatural mandate but actually are just working according to their different subjective agendas. 

 Of course, we are not lacking in some bright guys who create certain philosophies and ideologies that contradict the Christian faith, like modernism, relativism and the like. 

 We seem to live out what St. Paul once warned us: “The time will come when men will not endure sound doctrine; but having itching ears, they shall heap to themselves teachers in accordance with their own lusts.” (2 Tim 4,3) 

 We really need to be truly prepared and adequately equipped to deal with these elements that are making our world more confusing and complicated. And so, we can never overdo to carry out our duty to really know Christ through and through and follow “the way, the truth and the life” that he is offering us. 

 Yes, Christ is the true light since he is the spirit and embodiment of truth itself, providing us with spiritual guidance in all our temporal affairs, as well as wisdom, and ultimately winning for us our own salvation when we would be reunited with the very origin of our humanity—God himself. 

 It is Christ who fully reveals to us who we really are, what the purpose of our life here on earth is, and how we can pursue that goal, given our wounded condition due to our human frailties and our sinfulness. 

 We should train ourselves to look for Christ as our true light and to consider whatever lights we can have in this world as coming from God and meant to lead us to God. In other words, all the other lights we have in this world should be seen in the context of Christ’s light. Otherwise, these lights can only be false and deceiving. 

 This can only mean that we have to study, meditate, assimilate and act in an abiding way the doctrine of our Christian faith as can be drawn from the Bible, the Church magisterium and Church approved traditions. We have to do it in such a way that we can truly feel that we are becoming more and more like Christ, sharing in his very own light as we navigate the seas of our life.

Christ and the social media

THAT beautiful prayer of praise by Zachary, father of John the Baptist, contains a message that, while directly meant for his son, is actually also meant for all of us, especially the Church leaders, who have the duty to “prepare the way of the Lord.” (cfr. Lk 1,67-79) 

 In this regard, while not neglecting the traditional means of evangelization, Church leaders should realize the importance and the currently and strongly felt need to avail of the social media where most people, especially the young ones, are actively engaged. 

 Yes, Christ should be made present in the social media in ways adapted to the temper and culture of the times. After all, Christ always tried to adapt himself to the ways of the people during his time by, for example, using literary devices like parables, metaphors, allegories, hyperboles, allusions, aphorisms, etc. We should continue the trend, this time, using our new and powerful technologies like the social media. 

 Definitely the social media can offer tremendous benefits for everyone. They enable Church leaders to have direct connection with the faithful, sharing ideas and building some kind of a very personalized link with the people. In a word, they foster a tighter communion among ourselves. 

 They definitely can amplify the gospel messages that are truly needed these days, what with all the complications and confusion around. They can easily spread gospel messages and other Church items of public interest. They also give us an effective feedback system where the faithful can easily raise whatever concerns they have with respect to their faith and the Church in general. 

 Of course, the recourse to the social media should be handled delicately and with due expertise. We cannot deny that messages can easily be misinterpreted and taken out of context. Things should be studied well before putting them out in the social media. In this regard, a system of reviewing the content by a competent body before it is put out should be put in place. 

 It’s important also that there be rectitude of intention in availing the social media. Just gaining popularity and feeding on one’s vanity should be totally put out of place. To put it bluntly, Church leaders should always remember that it should be Christ, not they, who should be known, loved and followed by the faithful. 

 To manage the use of the social media well, Church leaders should clearly define the goals they wish to pursue which is nothing other than to make Christ more known and loved. They also have to be clear about the specific target audience they want to reach. 

 That’s because while Christ’s messages have a universal appeal, they definitely need to be expressed in ways that are attractive to the different sectors and in different conditions in life: young and old, intellectuals and workers, etc. The content, therefore, should be properly planned, considering the appropriateness of the tone, format and frequency. 

 And since the social media can facilitate feedback, Church leaders should also be quick to respond and to engage, showing genuine interest in the feedback of the people. This will help keep the engagement alive and hopefully lead to some welcome changes in the spiritual lives of the people. 

 It would also be good if there is also a way to monitor and track the performance of the use of the social media. There should be some clear standards set for this purpose. 

 Let’s hope that with the social media, Christ can truly be made alive, loved and followed by the faithful all over the place.

In the end, truth and charity are one

AS we approach Christmas and see how God’s ways are quite different from our ways, as can seen, for example, in the naming of John to the son of Elizabeth and Zachary which surprised their neighbors (cfr. Lk 1,57-66), we are reminded that truth and charity, which we normally consider as distinct from each other, are actually one. 

 And the secret is to see, understand and react to things the way Christ would see, understand and react to them. He is the very personification of how the exclusivity of truth and the inclusivity of charity can be blended together perfectly, despite all the differences, conflicts, errors and sins we commit in our life here on earth. 

 For this, we have to learn how to be open to everyone despite the differences of ideologies, beliefs, social conditions, etc. It’s not our job actually to judge since in the end it’s only God who can give the final judgments. We have to consider everyone as our brothers and sisters. 

 Yes, we have to be friendly with everyone regardless of how they treat us. We should try not to have enemies, especially in those conditions when we feel provoked precisely because of our unavoidable differences and conflicts. We should try our best that everyone would feel loved, understood and treated with affection. 

 We even should try to love the most wretched person who is doing some wrong. We may hate the act that was wrong but never the person who did it. Of course, this can be very challenging since very often we can hardly distinguish between the person and the acts of that person. But with God’s grace, which we should always beg, nothing is impossible. 

 At the same time, we should be clear about what is essential in a particular case. In this, of course, we should not make concessions. We have to learn to distinguish between what only has relative value and what has absolute value. In matters of opinions and personal preferences, we should be willing to give way, if only to keep our relation with others intact. 

 Just the same, we have to be wary of the danger of false compassion. We should be willing to suffer, and even to die like Christ, if only to defend the truth in charity. Somehow, we should be willing to replicate what Christ did before dying on the cross—by offering forgiveness to those who crucified him. 

 To be sure, this way of acting, this way of life will definitely be humanly and supernaturally fruitful. We would be attracting a lot of graces and a lot of souls the way Christ attracted them when he said: “And I, as I am lifted up from the earth, will attract everyone to me and gather them around me.” (Jn 12,32) We would be building up a healthier society. 

 We should just be guarded against our tendency to be exclusivistic in our attitude, which undeniably is part of our wounded human condition. We tend to judge things using merely human or worldly standards. Our idea of unity and perfection often does not coincide with what God has meant for these ideals. We, for example, often mistake uniformity with unity and perfectionism with the perfection that comes from God and this is proper to us. 

 We should try our best to follow Christ, even to the extent of identifying ourselves as “another Christ” since that is the only way we can put the exclusivity of truth and the inclusivity of charity together. It’s always God’s way, not our way only.

God is not an outsider in our life

“MY heart exults in the Lord, my Savior.” That’s one of the responsorial psalms in the Mass just days before Christmas. It’s actually from the First Book of Samuel (2,1) which was the prayer of the mother of Samuel, Hannah, expressing her great joy and sense of victory for reversing her bad fortunes. It’s the same expression used by Mary in her Magnificat when she said, “My spirit rejoices in God, my Savior.” (Lk 1,47) 

 It’s an expression that we should try our best to make it our own and to repeat it many times during the day. It would simply remind us that no matter what happens in our life, we are assured of salvation as long as we do our part of corresponding to God’s will and ways. 

 Nothing in our life, no matter how bad and ugly it is, can thwart that divine assurance. But, yes, we have to do our part, which actually is not difficult since God himself, more than us, will take care of it. We should just go along God’s will and ways as far as we can, even if our correspondence cannot be completely perfect, which is to be expected. 

 The reason? God is always with and for us. He is always in us. He likes to be with us. He loves us irrespective of how we are to him. He may get angry at us at times, but we are also told that his anger would just be for a moment. It’s his mercy that will always prevail. (cfr. Ps 30,5) 

 This is because God is never an outsider in our life. He wants us to be his very image and likeness, sharers of his life and nature. He is not just a guide or a boss who directs us in all the events, conditions and situations in our life. Of course, in our relation with him, we consider him first as a guide, a boss, a father. But in the end, what happens is that we are supposed to be one with him. 

 This was explicitly expressed by Christ himself when in his priestly prayer before his passion and death, he prayed to the Father that we be one in him as he is one with the Father (“ut unum sint”), and that we all be made perfectly one in him (“consummati in unum”) (cfr. Jn 17,22-23) 

 We need to process this truth of our Christian faith slowly but constantly because it definitely would shock us and leave us totally incredulous. Indeed, we need to beg for God’s grace for us to believe it and, more importantly, to act on it. It’s indeed no joke to go through what is needed to make this truth sink in our mind and heart. 

 But once, we form the conviction on this truth of our faith, it would truly give us an invincible confidence that whatever happens in life, we would just be ok. More than that, we would do our best to do what is truly good not only for ourselves but also for everybody else. 

 We would always be aware that God lives in me, that it is God more than us who would be doing things of pure love and goodness with us. Somehow, we can repeat those words of St. Paul, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” (Gal 2,20)

Virginal conception

THIS is said of Mary, the mother of Christ and our Mother too. This was prophesied already of her in the Book of Isaiah 7,14: “Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel.” And it was realized by that famous response of Mary to the Archangel Gabriel, despite the tremendous mystery involved: “Behold, the handmaid of the Lord, may it be done to me according to your word.” (Lk 1,38) 

 We need to understand that this part of the gospel should remind us that we too are meant to conceive the very Son of God who is the pattern of our humanity. With him, we actualize the will of God for us—that we be his image and likeness, children of his, sharers of his divine life and nature. 

 Christ did not become man only to save us from our sins. He came to make us one with us. He had to assume our human nature, emptying himself in the process, to be with us, to identify himself with us even to the extent of becoming like sin without committing sin. He did all this, of course, to save us. But what is even more important for us to realize is that he did all this so we can become like him, that he and us can really become one. 

 And for this to happen, what is needed on our part is to give everything to God through Christ in the Holy Spirit. This is how we too can conceive Christ in our life, becoming like him who wants to be born in us and to be one with us too. 

 We definitely need to learn how to give ourselves totally to God and to the others, since we cannot deny that we have a strong tendency to put some strings attached whenever we have to give something to the others. 

 We have to make an effort, always asking, of course, for the grace of God first of all, so that we can learn to assume this attitude with respect to our self-giving. In the end, this will make us to be like Christ who gave himself totally to us, including giving his life for our sins. 

 Let's remember what he told his disciples once: "Freely you have received, freely you have to give." (Mt 10,8) Gratuitousness should characterize our self-giving to God and to others, just as gratuitousness characterizes God's love for us. Such gratuitousness will gain us much more than what we give away. 

 In this regard, we have to do some continuing battle against our unavoidable tendency to be calculating in our self-giving. Not only do we have to contend with our personal weaknesses in this regard. We also have to contend with a tremendous cultural environment, so prevalent these days, that not only is not conducive to this attitude of Christian generosity but is also hostile to it. 

 We constantly have to rectify our intentions when we have to give to others—be it things, a service, or matter of attention and affection. This is especially so when our giving is for God. Let's never forget that God cannot be outdone in generosity. 

 We should always be encouraged to give ourselves to God and others gratuitously without strings attached, without conditions. Even if instead of being reciprocated properly and requited, our love is misunderstood and rejected by others, 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 is how we can have Christ born in us through virginal conception.

Our real fertility and our barrenness

THE gospel episode about the barren Elizabeth, the cousin of Mary, who because of the faith of her husband, Zachary, managed to bear a son who later on became John the Baptist, the precursor of Christ, (cfr. Lk 1,5-25) simply tells us that the key to cure whatever barrenness we have in this life is to have faith in God. 

 Indeed, we can only be truly fruitful and productive if we are vitally connected with God through Christ in the Holy Spirit. Our fruitfulness and productivity may come in different forms that can seem to contradict the worldly standards, but it surely can only come if we are vitally united with God. 

 Let’s remember what Christ said in the parable of the vine and branches. “I am the vine, you are the branches,” he said. “If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” (Jn 15,5) 

 There we can get a clear idea of what is to be fertile and what is to be barren. We should therefore try our best to be united with God by always strengthening our faith and obedience to God’s will and ways. We can never overemphasize this requirement. 

 When we have this vital connection with God, we can expect to have real spiritual growth, marked by an increasing love for God and neighbor. We can carry out many good works despite our limitations. We can develop many positive character traits as we become more and more identified with God in whose image and likeness we have been created. 

 We just have to make sure that we are regularly nourishing our spiritual life by availing ourselves of the spiritual acts of piety—prayer, sacrifices, recourse to the sacraments, ascetical struggle, etc.—much like what we do to maintain our physical life—eating, exercising, working, etc. 

 We need to see to it that we would always feel our total dependence on God even if we also have to make full use of whatever natural endowments we have. We should be wary of our tendency to be on our own alone, especially when we happen to have some resources that can make us feel that way. 

 Let’s make no mistake about this. We always need God. On our own, we can only do evil, and no matter what we do, we can never be fruitful and productive as we ought to be. We may manage to have some appearances of fruitfulness and productivity, but to be sure, they can only be fake. Whatever good we think we can do without God can only be apparent. 

 Without corresponding to God’s will and ways, we are bound to misuse our human powers. If our first parents, still in their state of original justice, managed to sin because in a moment they lapsed into forgetting God and following the suggestion of the devil, how much more us who have been born already with the handicap of the original sin. 

 Without corresponding to God’s will and ways, the use of our human powers will be distorted and will just convert into all kinds of isms. Our intellectual activity, for example, will fall into intellectualism, the exercise of our will into voluntarism, the joy of our sentiments into sentimentalism. 

 For us to correspond properly to God’s will and ways, we need to be always humble, always feeling the need to be in his presence and to know his will in an abiding manner. May it be that no moment passes without being with God and interacting with him. 

 This is how we can truly be fertile.

Our strongest allies in our spiritual warfare

THESE are the angels, of course. Each one of us is assigned a guardian angel which is one way God makes himself present in us and continually helping us. Let us remember that in this life of ours on earth, we actually are engaged in battle not only against our natural and infranatural enemies, but also enemies with supernatural powers. We are always in a spiritual and supernatural warfare. 

 St. Paul once affirmed this fact of life when he said: “Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” (Eph 6,12) 

 That we are continually hounded by these powerful spiritual and supernatural enemies can be verified when we find ourselves in helpless situations where we are completely at a loss as to how to deal with our persistent defects and predicaments. No matter what we do to overcome them, they continue to remain and bother us. 

 It’s important that we realize that we have angels who can deal with these unsolvable problems properly. We need to develop a deep devotion to our guardian angels. It’s actually a very helpful one in our daily affairs, since our guardian angels are our direct link to God. They see and attend to God face to face, and serve as his agents and messengers to us. They can give us a lot of help. 

 Even in our material needs, we can ask them to facilitate things. It may just be a matter of looking for a parking space in a crowded place, or of asking for safety and security when we travel. We should not hesitate to ask them for help. It’s their pleasure to be of help. 

 But our guardian angels are even more helpful to us as in our task of navigating the most tricky spiritual and supernatural realities. When there are strong temptations, or when some unknown evil spirits seem to bother us, or when we are undertaking a spiritual and supernatural project like coming up with an apostolic initiative, our guardian angels make themselves available to help us in any way. 

 Moreover, it is said that our final state of life in heaven will be like that of angels, where our bodily condition will be fully integrated to the spirit. Again, many saints have attested to the veracity of this phenomenon. 

 We should try our best to have a closer relationship with our guardian angels. We can give them a name, and call them for any need we have. We should also greet the guardian angels of the persons we meet everywhere, so our dealings with them would be facilitated. 

 We have to spread this devotion more widely, and enable many people to avail of the many precious services our guardian angels give us. Things will be a lot different, will be a lot better, to be sure, when this devotion is lived. 

 With this devotion, we become constantly aware of their guidance to us, edifying and inspiring us. Our minds and hearts will be filled with many good things that are proper to us, preventing us from falling into self-indulgent thoughts and desires. We would be encouraged to give ourselves to others, to fight with more vigor against temptations. We would be taught how to see things through the eyes of God. 

 With them, we get intimately united with God who in the end provides us with all the help we need to deal with our humanly insolvable problems and challenges in life.

Our genealogy starts with God

WE need to be clear about this. We may have our human ancestry that defines our biological and natural identity. But we should not forget that we all come from God and our identity is not limited to the biological and other natural standards alone. 

 Let’s always remember that we are not simply natural beings. What actually defines us and distinguishes us from all other creatures in the universe is that we have a spiritual soul that comes directly from God and is a sharing of his very life and nature. 

 We should therefore be most mindful of the spiritual and supernatural character of our humanity and try our best, always with God’s grace, to be consistent to it. It would not be presumptuous on our part to claim that there is something already divine in us, just by the way we are. We should just constantly reaffirm that truth and step by step bring it to its fullness. 

 We need to be more adept in attending to the world of the spiritual and the supernatural which is where we also live, whether we like it or not, aware of it or not. The supernatural aspect of our objective reality can be verified by the fact that there are many mysterious, naturally inexplicable things that take place in our life. There are miracles and other wonders that simply go beyond the limits of our nature. 

 We have to learn how to deal with our spiritual and supernatural world because that is where the real action is and where our ultimate goal is. That’s where we are truly defined, where our radical dignity is established. That’s where we can have our encounter with God. 

 We therefore need to think, speak and act in such a way that this spiritual and supernatural character of our humanity is consistently lived out. As God’s image and likeness, our life will always be or should always be a life in God and with God. Let’s feel at home with this fundamental truth about ourselves and do something about it, because while it is God who is the main agent in making our life spiritual and supernatural, we are expected to cooperate and correspond to his will and ways. 

 And one secret that we can use to keep ourselves spiritual and supernatural is precisely to give some spiritual and religious consideration or meaning to every act we do and to every situation, condition and circumstance we can find ourselves in. 

 We need to develop the proper attitude, skill and habit of giving spiritual and supernatural considerations to everything that we think about, say and do, so that we can really say that we would always be with God. That is the ideal that we should try to actualize. 

 One way among many other ways of doing this is to make use of the psalms which are inspired words that express the proper spiritual and supernatural attitude and reaction we ought to have to anything that occurs in our life. 

 Of course, we have to study and meditate on the psalms well so that we can internalize their real meaning and imbibe the spirit behind the words. We have to know the psalms that are relevant to every act we do and to every situation we can find ourselves in. 

 Obviously, we have to fight against our tendency to ignore or belittle the importance of the psalms. Given the pervading mindset and culture of our times, we really would need to exert significant effort to appreciate the value of the psalms in our life.

Our need for continuing conversion

THIS is what we can gather from that parable about a man with two sons, asking them to work in his vineyard. (cfr. Mt 21,28-32) The first one refused but eventually went, while the second one said yes, but actually did not go. 

 That second son somehow personifies anyone of us who think that we are already ok because we do a lot of good things, we pray, we offer sacrifices and all the works, but feel that we do not need anymore to have another conversion, to make another step to get closer to God and to everybody else. We get trapped in our own self-righteousness. 

 This common phenomenon of self-righteousness can be considered as the irony of ironies. That’s because we can earnestly pursue the path of holiness, of what is good and right, and yet end up the opposite of what we want. We can practically have the trappings of goodness and holiness and yet miss the real root of righteousness who is God. It can be so self-deceiving that we become fully convinced we are righteous. 

 The main problem with self-righteousness is when our search for holiness does not go all the way. Our relation with God, our understanding of God’s will and ways only goes to a certain extent. Usually it stops at that point where we feel we already know everything. In other words, we make ourselves the ultimate judge of things, discarding the many other things of God’s will and ways that may still be hidden in mysteries, and for which we need to have another conversion. 

 This was well personified by the Pharisees, scribes and other elders during the time of Christ. They preferred to stick to their own ideas of goodness and holiness, their own laws and traditions, and went all the way not only to be suspicious of Christ, always finding fault in him, but also to finally crucify him. 

 This danger of self-righteousness usually affects people who are considered intelligent, gifted, talented. They often regard themselves, either in an open way or in a hidden way, superior to others. 

 If we are truly righteous with a righteousness that is a participation of the righteousness of God, then we should include in our idea of goodness and holiness the essential virtues of humility, compassion and mercy, for which we need to have conversion. 

 We cannot deny that all throughout our life we will always be hounded by our weaknesses and the many temptations around. We will always have a certain attraction to evil—what is otherwise known as concupiscence. But God knows this and is ever willing to welcome us back to him. Let’s try to be like St. Mary Magdalene and the prodigal son who, after wasting his father’s inheritance, decided to go back to his father. 

 God will always welcome us back, even if we appear to be already abusing the goodness and mercy of God. We should just put our mind and heart to this fact of life that we are all sinners and that we need to convert. 

 We are always in need of frequent and continuing conversions because very often our resolutions are fickle. We neither can deny that in spite of our best intentions and efforts, we still come out with ideas, words, deeds that are spiced with all sorts of imperfections, for which we have to repent. 

 We should be humble enough to acknowledge these, even if we also acknowledge the good things we have done.

“Teach me your ways, O Lord”

THAT’S from Psalm 25,4, and is used as a Responsorial Psalm for one of the Masses in Advent. It’s a psalm that should always be on our lips, since we cannot deny that we are meant to be identified with Christ, the pattern of our humanity and the savior of our damaged humanity. His will and his ways should also be our will and our ways. 

 Obviously, this will involve a daunting task, a formidable undertaking requiring a herculean effort. But we should not forget that God is first of all with us and provides us with everything that we need. It would really just depend on how our faith is strong and deep to be able to carry out this duty. 

 First of all, we should develop in ourselves that constant awareness that since God has made us his image and likeness, he therefore is with us all the time, sharing his life and nature. 

 It should not be difficult for us to conclude and to assume that we also share in his powers and that there is something divine in us. We are not just human beings living simply on the level of the natural. There is something eminently spiritual and supernatural in us. 

 We need to spend time meditating on this basic truth about ourselves so that it may sink into our very consciousness. Also, by continually reflecting on this truth, we would know what we have to do to be consistent to that dignity and identity of ours. 

 Everyday we have to see to it that we are becoming more and more like Christ because we share the same spirit of love and everything that is good that Christ has. In this regard, we should realize that our knowledge of God is always made alive, updated and renewed, and our eagerness to be like him burning. 

 Let’s hope that at the end of each day, as we make some kind of accounting of how the day went, which is what we should be doing, we can truly say that we are becoming like Christ because we are becoming more patient, more compassionate, more apostolic, more hopeful, etc., etc. 

 We have to be clear about this point. We are meant to assume the identity of Christ. And that is not a gratuitous, baseless assertion, much less, a fiction or a fantasy. It is founded on a fundamental truth of our faith that we have been created by God in his own image and likeness. 

 And this truth of faith has been vividly shown to us since it is acted out in the whole history and economy of salvation that culminated in Christ offering his life and his very own self as the Bread of Life so we can have the eternal life with him, and so that he and us can be one. 

 We have to arrive at that point where we can make St. Paul’s words as our own too: “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me.” (Gal 2,20) 

 We just have to learn to set aside whatever difficulty or awkwardness we may have in dealing with this basic truth of faith about ourselves. We have to try our best to know Christ and to adapt his very own mind and will, his own ways, behavior and reactions to whatever situation we may find ourselves in. 

 Thus, we should always repeat, “Teach me your ways, O Lord.”

Why we rejoice in Advent

THE 3rd Sunday of Advent is usually dubbed as Gaudete Sunday (Rejoice Sunday) because the Entrance Antiphon of the Mass for that day starts with the joyful greeting, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice! The Lord is near.” (Phil 4,4-5) 

 We are clearly encouraged to be happy as the birth of Christ is now fast approaching. But we have to know what this true Christian joy is. It simply is not a cheap and shallow one, the effect of feasting and bright and colorful decors with music and caroling all around. Rather, it should be the effect of a clean heart that gives the most appropriate welcome to Christ. 

 Thus, in the gospel of the Mass, we are somehow reminded of the need for repentance, an act of general spiritual and moral cleaning, so Christ would be most happy to enter into our lives. 

 The gospel is about John the Baptist, the precursor of Christ, who when asked by the Jews who he was, clearly said, “I am, as Isaiah prophesied, a voice that cries in the wilderness: Make a straight way for the Lord.” (Jn 1,23) That, though not in so many words, means that John the Baptist is appealing for repentance from everyone, an appeal that given the temper of the times, can be described as a “cry in the wilderness.” 

 And so, even if the season of Advent is in general marked by a spirit of sacrifice as preparation for the coming of Christ, it also should be characterized by joy. Joy is what we all actually long and yearn for. We want to be happy. Glee and bliss are the unspoken ultimate goal we want to attain. But how should we do it? That’s the problem. 

 Especially now when we are bombarded with all sorts of trials, challenges, pressures, we end up harassed, losing joy and peace easily and for extended periods, reacting to things with tension and irritation, and often plunging into despair and depression. 

 In reaction to this predicament, many people resort to deceptive quick-fixes and other forms of escapism—alcohol, drugs, sex, isolation or wild lifestyle—not knowing they are just poising themselves for an uglier crash. 

 We need to clarify some basic issues here, since we seem to be in the middle of a thickening confusion and drifting to a kind of hell on earth. Mental cases are piling up, some studies report, indicating many people do not anymore know how to cope with their situation. 

 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. 

 True Christian joy can only be an effect of repentance, a sincere return to Christ who gives us all that we need to regain our true dignity. And repentance should not be a difficult thing to do. All we need to do is just to say as sincerely as possible that we are sorry for our sins. Better yet, we go to confession, the sacrament that clearly gives us the divine absolution for our sins. 

 And even if at the back of our mind we somehow know that we would still fall into sin sooner or later, we should not be hindered in expressing repentance as often as necessary, since God always forgives. He always understands and is compassionate and merciful. Of course, on our part, we should try our best not to abuse the goodness of God.

Mary the surest way to Jesus

IT’S good to keep this spiritual and ascetical formula in mind as we celebrate the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe on December 12. Mary, the Mother of Jesus is also our Mother. How she cared and identified herself completely with her Son is also how she cares and identify herself completely with us. 

 If we would just have a bit of common sese, we would know that it is always wise to go to Mary in order to get to Christ. As a saint once said, Mary is the shortest, surest and safest way to be with Christ. 

 Let’s see to it that our devotion to her grows. And if it is practically dormant if not dead, then let’s stir it up to life again. She is important to us. In fact, she is indispensable to us. She cannot be treated as an optional feature in our spiritual life, nor something decorative or appendical only. 

 While she is not God and, therefore, not to be accorded with the worship that is only due to God (latria), she rightly deserves to be given the highest form of veneration (hyperdulia) among all the saints who are already with God in heaven. 

 She never undermines our relationship with God. If anything, all she does is to bring us to God and to help us fulfill the will of God. Thus, in that episode of the wedding at Cana where she noticed that the hosts were running out of wine, she told the servants, “Do whatever he (Christ) tells you.” (Jn 2,5) 

 She is the epitome of motherhood who knows how to be a mother even to God and to all of us. All that 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 are often incredulous, even skeptical, about this possibility. But she managed to do it. Obviously, she was given the necessary graces for that. But she also corresponded to those graces with everything that she had, reflecting in the most perfect way the redemptive mission full of suffering of her son. How our Lady was and continues to be should also be how we should be. 

 And she is all there to help us achieve that dignity of being true children of God who can even be a mother of God and a spouse of God as our Lady was the most dutiful daughter of the God the father, mother of God the Son and spouse of God the Holy Spirit. 

 Let us just imitate our Lady’s perfect faith shown especially when she said, “Fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum,” (Be it done to me according to your word) during the Annunciation. With that faith which for sure she could not understand completely, she put herself entirely under the designs and dynamics of God’s will of love, of redemption, toward mankind. 

 As mother, she would really take care of us the way she took care of Jesus. She will always be with us, ever solicitous of our needs, always ready to help and intercede on our behalf. 

 These are basic truths about Our Lady that should never be missing in our mind and heart. On the contrary, they should always be made to be felt more deeply so as to give the pertinent impulses and motivations to our thoughts, words and deeds.

Self-denial a constant necessity

THAT’S because of our undeniable tendency to enclose ourselves in our own world, practically unwelcoming and even hostile to God who actually gives us the proper spirit of our humanity as his image and likeness. 

 We have to find ways of how we can live out this basic necessity of ours. There’s certainly a need for tremendous effort. But we should not forget that the first thing we need to do is to humbly ask for God’s mercy and grace. 

 We need to be humble, first of all, which is an effect at least of what is called as God’s actual grace, before we can successfully proceed with the effort to empty ourselves in order to be properly filled with God’s spirit. 

 Christ himself told us that this should be the law that should rule our life. “He that shall lose his life for me, shall find it.” “Whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel, shall save it.” “He that hates his life in this world, keeps it unto life eternal.” 

 The same idea, the same truth and ideal, is reiterated, developed and expressed in many other ways in different parts of the gospel. In one instance, Christ tells us to be detached from all possessions and even from those we consider close and important to us. 

 “If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple…Everyone of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple.” (Lk 14) 

 As we can see, all this business of losing and hating and renouncing is meant to make us filled with God who after all is our everything. With him, we also would have everything else we need, but in their proper order. 

 “Seek first the kingdom of God and his justice, and all these things shall be added unto you.” (Mt 6,33) We should never worry that what we seem to lose according to our human standards would actually be lost. On the contrary, what we lose would actually gain us a hundredfold. 

 Again, Christ reassures us of this truth. “Everyone that has left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands for my name’s sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and shall possess life everlasting.” (Mt 19,29) 

 We should be quick to react to things and to reason out with faith, so that we avoid going into unnecessary episodes of anguish, sadness and self-pity. Rather, when this belief about losing so we gain the things of God truly rules our life, we can be happy and confident, with the mind of a victor, with a demeanor that would suggest elegance and poise. 

 Far from being a sad life, Christian life is actually a very happy life. When one conforms himself as tightly as possible to Christ, he knows that whatever self-denial and suffering he can experience in life, will always have great redemptive value. 

 We have to learn to rid ourselves of the fear of losing, of renouncing, and even of dying. Like a good, shrewd businessman, let’s not be afraid to throw in a big infusion of investment, as suggested by Christ, into our ultimate business of our redemption, when the hundredfold of spiritual dividends is already guaranteed to us. 

 To learn this, we can start in the self-denial of little things in our daily affairs—in our food and drink, in our comfort and convenience, in our dealings with others that should be marked with utmost understanding and patience, in the generous self-giving with which we do our work and other duties, etc.

“Blessed are those prepared to meet him”

IT’S a gospel acclamation during this Advent Season when we are made to prepare not only for the coming birth of Christ on Christmas Day but also, and more importantly, for his second coming at the end of time. Of course, we should also be prepared to meet Christ, our redeemer and judge, at our death when we are going to face him in our particular judgment. 

 Let’s internalize that Boy Scout motto, Be Prepared, and adapt it within the context of our ultimate purpose and end of our life. This is not meant to scare anyone, but the fact is that the end of time, the end of the world and our own death can come anytime. If we have some common sense, we should know that the natural thing for us to do is to be always prepared, since we would not know how much time we have left. 

 If we want to be realistic in our life, we should always be prepared for Judgment Day which can surely come anytime. In fact, we should go through our daily lives in pursuit of this most important moment when our eternal destiny is determined. 

 This may sound sobering to us, but it is actually meant to put us in the right direction of our life, avoiding the usual pitfalls of being confused, trapped and lost in our earthly affairs. 

 We are reminded of this truth of our faith in that gospel parable where Christ compared the Kingdom of heaven with a net thrown into the sea, collecting fish of every kind. (cfr. Mt 13,47-53) 

 As the parable narrated, once the net is full of fish, then a separation between the good catch and the bad ones is made. That separation is precisely the image of that Judgment Day when God will determine which of us deserve heaven. 

 Obviously, to be properly prepared for Judgment Day, we need to know in an abiding way the real and ultimate purpose of our life here on earth. For this, we need to strengthen our faith that only in God can we have the ultimate purpose in life. St. Paul said so: “Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” (1 Cor 10,31) 

 This abiding sense of the ultimate purpose of our life will enable us to have a sense of unity and continuity among the different elements and the different occurrences in our life, be they good or bad, favorable or unfavorable to us, etc. 

 When we have love of God as our abiding sense of purpose in our life, we would find it easy to go from one thing to another, no matter disparate they are from each other. We would find meaning in everything, including what we consider to be human disasters in our life. 

 Also, the preparation we are asked here need not involve anything extraordinary. It is enough that whatever we do in our daily routine is done with God and for God. That way, we would always be motivated to do things in the best way that we can, leading us to be more and more like God. And even if we cannot escape the limitations and imperfections of our work, God will always understand and would be happy to see us working with that intention. 

 And so, it stands to reason that during the day we make many pit stops, so to speak, so we would know whether we are still on the right path, with the proper direction. That way, we would have the chance to rectify and purify our intentions.

The making of a Good Shepherd

WE are familiar with the usual lesson we can learn from the parable of the lost sheep. (cfr. Mt 18,12-14) Indeed, a Good Shepherd will always look for the lost sheep and would do everything, regardless of the sacrifices involved, to do so. 

 But an upshot of that parable that is often missed is how we can truly be a Good Shepherd ourselves. To look for the lost sheep is indeed already a tremendous responsibility, and undoubtedly a great manifestation of Christian love and concern. A truly Good Shepherd should not just be contented with that duty. He should see to it that all the sheep are led to their ultimate destination. 

 In this season of Advent, we are reminded that we should help each other pursue the real and ultimate goal of our life. This duty is somehow expressed in that gospel acclamation, “The day of the Lord is come. Behold, he comes to save us.” 

 Of course, the parable of the lost sheep simply talks about the furry animal whose end is simply to be eaten and whose fur is made use of. But we are not simply a flock of sheep. We are children of God who need to be reunited with our Creator and Father in heaven. We need to be led there, and the Good Shepherd should take that as his—and our—biggest duty toward each other. 

 This is indeed quite a tough job. To guide souls toward their ultimate destination is truly a very delicate job. It requires nothing less than entering into the inner life of a person with the intention of helping and of eventually leading that person to God. But how can this be? 

 Priests are supposed to be sacramentally configured to Christ as head of the Church and therefore as the ultimate guide of souls, the redeemer of mankind. They are supposed to have the very mind and sentiments of Christ. And if they are truly vitally identified with Christ, they will also share in the power of Christ. 

 But is this possible at all? If we have faith, the answer is yes. The sacrament of Holy Orders configures one to Christ with an effectivity that is called in Latin as “ex opere operato.” 

 It means that by the mere reception of the sacrament and as long as there is no formal impediment to such reception, that sacramental configuration is achieved, not so much by the qualities and dispositions of the recipient as by the power of Christ himself. 

 Would we think that the apostles had the qualities and dispositions of becoming the first bishops in the Church? If we are to go by our human standards, we would have serious doubts about that. But Christ made them our first bishops, and bishops they were. 

 The priestly ideal of being another Christ as head of the Church will certainly demand everything from them. But given that priests are men, with their own share of weaknesses, that ideal will be pursued in stages at best, with its own ups and downs, its twists and turns, its drama. 

 We, priests, should do our part of resembling more and more like Christ with our daily effort to be faithful to our identity and ministry. This can never be overemphasized. And everything should be done so that at least its approximation can be gained. 

 As guide of souls, we should learn how to deal with all kinds of souls with their respective consciences. Indeed, the priest should strive with God’s grace and his effort to be all things to all men, as St. Paul once said, in order to save all. This will require of him to forget himself and just try his best to have the very mind and heart of Christ whose love for us is universal and for always.

What Our Lady’s Immaculate Conception reminds us of

TO put it bluntly, what Our Lady’s Immaculate Conception reminds us of is that, like Our Lady who is our Mother, we are supposed to be immaculate and sinless from our very own conception all the way to the end of our earthly life and our definitive life in heaven. That was the original plan of God for us. 

 Though we lost that privilege and honor because of our sin, we should not worry too much because Christ has secured our salvation. And all we have to do is to correspond to Christ’s redemptive action on us which is always an ongoing affair for us by waging a continuing struggle against sin and against our weaknesses and temptations. 

 That may be an impossible pursuit, since we all know that we all have weaknesses and are most prone to commit sin, but it should not prevent us from doing our best to struggle to be as sinless as possible. In this regard, we should never forget to develop and strengthen our personal skills in handling our weaknesses and temptations. This concern never goes passé, and it touches a basic, indispensable aspect of our life in all levels. 

 We know that these days, temptations can come to us in the subtlest and trickiest of ways. This can be due, at least in part, to the increased level of sophistication both in people’s thinking and in world developments, especially in the area of technology and ideology. 

 With these developments, temptations can easily come undetected, and sin can be committed in a most hidden way and can even be easily rationalized. How important therefore it is for us to always grow in humility and simplicity, aggressively finding practical ways to achieve them! If not, we would just be lost. That’s for sure! 

 What makes things worse is that, as can be easily noted these days, the healthy fear of God is disappearing. In its place, a most heinous sense of self-importance is dominating. The criteria to determine what is good and bad have become blurred. They have gone almost completely relativistic and subjective, declaring total independence from any absolute and objective rule or law that comes from God. 

 Truth is, we always need God in our battle against temptations. We should disabuse ourselves from the thought that with our good intentions and our best efforts alone, we can manage to tame the urges of temptations. 

 We cannot! That’s the naked truth about it. We only can if we are with God who provides us with all the means and power to resist sin. And we have to be with him in a strong, determined way, not in a passive or lukewarm way. Do flies flock on a hot soup? No. But they do on a cold or lukewarm soup. 

 We need to do everything to be with God. Our mind and heart should be fully and constantly engaged with him. We always have reason to do so—at least, we can thank him for what we are having at the moment: health, food, air, work, etc. We should never dare to leave him aside and depend solely on our powers. 

 Also, we should help others in their struggle against temptations and sins. In this regard, we have to learn how to fraternize with everybody, especially those in some bad spiritual and moral conditions. Like Christ, we should learn how to fraternize with sinners to help them.

“Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths”

ON this First Sunday of Advent, we are reminded of these words of the Prophet Isaias as recorded in the gospel of St. Matthew (3,3). These are words that should always be in our mind and, in fact, made as a guiding principle of our whole life. And the simple reason is that our life here on earth is actually a journey toward our final destination in heaven where Christ, the fullness of our humanity, waits for us even as he also always with us. 

 We should constantly check ourselves to see if we are progressing toward that destination and if we are still on the right road. We have to be wary of our strong tendency to be seduced and deceived by earthly and temporal goals even if we feel we appear to be doing great in pursuing them, reminding us of what St. Augustine once said: “You are running well; see that you do not run out of the way.” 

 Let us foster the awareness of this basic truth about ourselves and about our life here on earth. We need to encourage everyone to have a clear and strong sense of purpose, and to know how to pursue it given our human condition and all the means that God has given us. 

 We therefore cannot overemphasize this basic need of ours to make plans and strategies. If we have to develop ourselves as we should, if we have to be truly productive and fruitful, if we have to take advantage of everything in life, whether good or bad, to attain our ultimate goal, then we have to plan and strategize our moves. 

 Making plans and strategies may require some time and effort, but it’s an investment that is all worthwhile. 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 little rudder giving direction to a big boat. 

 We should make it habit everyday to check from time to time to see if we are progressing properly, if we are still on the right road, if there are surprises and other obstacles that need to be resolved. 

 The ideal condition of our life should be that we always get the sensation that we are going well in pursuing our real goal. We have to make each day a microcosm of how we pursue the ultimate goal of our whole life. 

 Thus, at the end of the day, we should make a regular accounting of how the day went by making a thorough examination of conscience. That exercise should be like a rehearsal of that time when we will face Christ on judgment day. It would help us to be properly prepared to face him, avoiding unpleasant surprises. 

 Then as we go to bed, let’s understand it as a rehearsal of our ultimate rest in heaven. We should already forget, at least for that period of rest and sleep, all our daily concerns so that we can practice how to be finally united with God in total bliss. So, we need to learn how to leave everything behind, which is what will happen when we die. 

 To be sure, this practice will make our life here on earth most meaningful, since we would live it according to God’s purpose for it.