“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.

We have the highest dignity in the whole universe

WE should be most aware of this fundamental truth about ourselves. It should make us most happy and most unwilling to exchange it for something else that would undermine it. No amount of worldly pleasure, fame and wealth can surpass and outshine it. 

 And the simple reason is that we have been made in God’s image and likeness, sharers of his life and of his very nature. God shares his life and his very self with us, and it is just up to us to correspond to that truth by following God’s will and ways, instead of just following our own will. 

 Sad to say, we are notorious for doing the opposite. Instead of following God’s will, we prefer to simply do ours. It’s like we make ourselves our own God which is a very strong temptation to us since we usually think that our freedom entitles, nay, commands us to be simply on our own, guided only by our own estimation of things. 

 We need to strengthen our self-awareness of this basic truth about ourselves, recognizing our real worth and value as a child of God who gives us everything to be truly his child. 

 For this, we need to grow spiritually by deepening our relationship with God through prayer and continuing study of our faith so we would know God more and more, so that by so doing we also would know ourselves better. That’s simply because how God is should also be how we should be. 

 It may be incredible and hard to accept, but that who we really are. Indeed, for us to be able to accept this truth and live by it, we need to be truly humble, to continually deny ourselves since we always have the tendency to simply follow what we think instead of what our Christian faith teaches us. 

 Of course, to become more and more like God as we should, we need to develop virtues that would facilitate our unity and identification with God. To mention a few, aside from humility, we need to be compassionate, kind, magnanimous, patient. 

 We should realize that the most important duty we have is to earnestly know and fulfill the will of God for us at every moment. We need to train ourselves for this duty, since we all know that we always tend to do our own will rather than God’s will. 

 This is a basic truth that we need to spread around more widely and abidingly, since it is steadily and even systematically forgotten and, nowadays, even contradicted in many instances. We need to inculcate this truth to children as early as when they can understand and appreciate it. Then let’s give them the example of how it is lived. 

 God’s will is the source of everything in the universe. The whole of creation in all its existence, unity, truth, goodness and beauty starts from God’s will and is maintained by it. The entire range and scope of reality—be it material or spiritual, natural or supernatural, temporal or eternal—is “contained” there, not only theoretically but in vivo. 

 We need to pound it hard into our mind and heart that we need live by God’s will if we truly want to keep our dignity as children of God! We have to be wary of the many things that would now desensitize us from this need as we are prodded to go full-blast into self-indulgence.

Deeds, deeds, deeds, more than words and intention

IN the gospel, we are reminded that we should not just be good hearers of the word of God, but rather its doers. (cfr. Mt 7,21.24-27) In fact, we have to convert God’s word into our very own life, since that’s where we can start and keep our sharing with God’s life and nature as we are meant to do and be. 

 By acting on God’s word, we would actually be living by God’s will, which is what is most important to us. It’s not just following our will which is, of course, indispensable to us. Otherwise, we would be undermining our very own freedom and our humanity itself. Whatever we do is done because we want it. It should be a fruit of our freedom. 

 But what is most important is to conform our will to God’s will, which is even more indispensable to us. Otherwise, we sooner or later would destroy our freedom and our humanity itself, since God is the very author and the very lawgiver of our freedom and our humanity. 

 This is a basic truth that we need to spread around more widely and abidingly, since it is steadily and even systematically forgotten and, nowadays, even contradicted in many instances. We need to inculcate this truth to children as early as when they can understand and appreciate it. Then let’s give them the example of how it is lived. 

 God’s will is the source of everything in the universe. The whole of creation in all its existence, unity, truth, goodness and beauty starts from God’s will and is maintained by it. The entire range and scope of reality—be it material or spiritual, natural or supernatural, temporal or eternal—is “contained” there, not only theoretically but in vivo. 

 We have to learn to live by God’s will that is shown to us, thanks to God, by Christ, the fullness of divine revelation, who left us with his word and the sacraments in the Church. 

 What is God’s will for us? In general, it is to love him and our neighbor. It is to love the way Christ himself has loved us. God’s will is that we continually pray, so we get in contact with him in a direct and intimate way. We have to know him more and more by reading the gospel and following his teaching, and developing a real love for him, complete with feelings. 

 We should just learn to convert God’s word into action. St. Paul has something very relevant to say about this. “Not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.” (Rom 2,13) St. James says something similar: “Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.” (1,22) 

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

 We need to understand that our whole life is a matter of conforming ourselves to God’s will, the very seat of our ultimate identity as persons and children of God. This would involve the stages of knowing that will, believing it, then professing it and putting it into action. In short, receiving our faith, then turning it into life itself.

Assurance of our salvation

THERE’S a gospel acclamation in one the Masses of the First Week of Advent that gives us that assurance. It says: “Behold, the Lord comes to save his people; blessed are those prepared to meet him.” Yes, there is such thing as the second coming of Christ for which we have to be properly prepared. 

 This second coming of Christ is when he, the pattern of our humanity and the savior of our damaged humanity, will come again to make the final judgment on all of us, establishing the definitive and eternal Kingdom of God that is meant for us. Obviously, we have to prepare ourselves for it. 

 This attitude of waiting, expecting and making the proper preparation for the second coming of Christ should be learned by all of us. And we can do that by strengthening our belief that Christ is actually already with us. He is everywhere, around us and inside us. We just have to develop the habit of looking for him in order to find him. 

 Christ is already with us since he is the God who became man, identifying himself with us in all our conditions, even making himself like sin, the worst condition that we can be in, even if he himself has not committed sin. (cfr. 2 Cor 5,21) Yes, he identified himself with us so that we also can have a way of identifying ourselves with him. 

 We should develop the yearning, the longing, the passionate desire to look for Christ, so we may find him; and in finding him we may learn to love him; and in loving him, we get to identify ourselves with him. 

 And Christ is present everywhere. We have to learn to look for him and find him in the little ordinary things of our life—in our respective homes and communities, in our work, in the things that we use and handle, etc. We actually do not need to go far and to do extraordinary things to find him. 

 And most especially, Christ is present in the sacraments, especially in the Holy Eucharist. That is why we are encouraged by the Church to have frequent recourse to Holy Mass and Holy Communion. 

 In this regard, we have to learn how to go eschatological, for which we have to know what it means and how we can acquire its sense. It’s a necessity in our life, since it gives a bigger, if not complete picture of our life. It enables us to go beyond the here and now to enter into the world beyond death. 

 Eschatology is that part of theology concerned with death, judgment and the final destination of the soul and humanity itself, that is, heaven or hell, or the so-called the Last Things. It may sound scary at first, but it actually is very helpful. We just have to make the necessary adjustments in our attitude toward it. 

 So, it’s a part of theology and not a merely empirical science. We need to have inputs of faith which actually play a directing role in the study. We cannot simply rely on so-called observable data, material or sociological, that by definition cannot fathom the spiritual and supernatural dimensions of our life. 

 It shows us that how we live our earthly life has eternal effects on our afterlife. We have to learn how to live our earthly with the view of our eternal and supernatural destination.

“Blessed are the eyes that see what you see”

THAT’S in the gospel of St. Luke (10,23) where Christ said these words to his disciples in private. What Christ was trying to tell them was that the true knowledge of God is a gift of divine mercy, not a reward for human wisdom. It is granted to those who receive it with childlike humility. 

 Only when we are simple and humble like little children that we open ourselves to God’s grace. It’s when we make ourselves receptive and responsive to the God’s abiding providence over our life. 

 We really need to remain childlike even as we grow in age and stature, and even as we accumulate already quite a significant amount of knowledge with our exposure to the world and the life in general. 

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

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

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

 Obviously, the privilege of seeing and hearing what the prophets could not should make the disciples, and now, us, to be ever grateful and to be more committed to carry out the mission now entrusted to the Church. That’s the only way to keep ourselves seeing and hearing what God wants us to see, hear and know. 

 And so, let us realize ever more deeply that we are meant to do apostolate, since that is in the very heart of Christ’s mission which should also be ours. Therefore, we need to sharpen our awareness of our apostolic duty, since left to our own devices, we would rather give our complete attention solely to ourselves. This tendency is a consequence of our sinfulness. But originally, before man’s fall, we tend to love and care for one another. 

 To develop this apostolic concern therefore entails sacrifice. We should not be surprised if in pursuing it we are challenged, faced with difficulties and asked to do self-denials and other forms of sacrifice. 

 We just have to hold firm on our Christian conviction, together with the continuing petition for God’s grace and the generous discharge of our human effort, that to do apostolate is the will of God. He is bent in accomplishing it. It’s his first concern to contend with the difficulties. Ours is simply to cooperate. 

 We have to continually ask ourselves if our thoughts and desires bear an eminently apostolic character. If not, let’s immediately do the necessary adjustments and corrections. 

 We have to embark also on a life-long effort to acquire apostolic skills—how to make friends and deepen that friendship, how to pursue full blast the supernatural apostolic goal of our life while respecting our natural conditions, etc. 

 The apostolic zeal should be revved to the max!

God provides for all our needs

WE should never forget this most important truth of our faith. Especially in our most difficult moments, when we find ourselves helpless and on the verge of discouragement, we should remember that God who is our Creator, and more than that, a loving Father to all of us, is always there to provide what we need. His ways may not exactly be what we want, but he is always around to help us. 

 We are reminded of this truth of our faith in that gospel episode where a centurion begged Christ to cure his paralytic servant. (cfr. Lk 8,5-11) And when Christ told him that he was going to his house, Christ was amazed at how the centurion reacted that showed his great faith in Christ. 

 This was the reply of the centurion: “Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof; only say the word and my servant will be healed. For I too am a man subject to authority, with soldiers subject to me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come here,’ and he comes; and to my slave, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.’” Of course, the centurion got what he requested. 

 As long as our faith is strong, deep and abiding, there is nothing in our life, no matter how difficult and humanly unsolvable, that cannot be taken care of by Christ. Thus, in our moments of helplessness, we should just ask God for help and abandon ourselves in his hands. 

 Let’s always remember that God is with us all the time. He can never stay away from us. As our Creator and Father, he will never abandon us no matter how estranged we might be from him, since he is at the very core of our existence itself. Our life is actually his life first of all. He shares his life and nature with us. That is what is meant by being the image and likeness of God that we are. 

 Ours is simply to live our life with God, always following his will and ways. We are simply stewards of our own life. God is its owner, and so, we are answerable to him as to how we manage it according to his will and ways. 

 And as an omnipotent owner of our life, he provides us with everything that we need. He always has all the solutions to our problems, giving us relief in our difficulties, challenges and trials, and assuring us of final victory irrespective of how the drama of our life goes, as long as we remain faithful to him. 

 And so, when we are faced with our limitations and a state of helplessness, we should just be ready for them and know not only how to deal with them but also how to derive something good from them. In these instances of the hard predicaments, for example, when we seem to be at a loss as to what to do, we should just see at what God does, after we have done all things possible to solve our problems. 

 We need to trust in God’s providence and mercy. We have to learn to live a spirit of abandonment in the hands of God. Yes, if we have faith in God, in his wisdom and mercy, in his unfailing love for us, we know that everything will always work out for the good. If we are with God, we can always dominate whatever suffering can come our way in the same manner that Christ absorbed all his passion and death on the cross.

Our need to be always spiritually alert

AGAIN, as we begin another liturgical year with the season of Advent, we are reminded of our need to be always prepared for the end of our life and of time itself. “Watch ye therefore, because ye know not what hour your Lord will come,” Christ told his disciples, and now us, in the gospel of St. Matthew. (24,42) 

 This is a big challenge we have today, considering the tremendous amount of distractions we have, both the legitimate and the illegitimate ones, the latter far outnumbering the former. 

 We just have to be guarded against our tendency to be easily taken by many distractions around. For this, we need to discipline our feelings and passions. We have to give directions to our thoughts. But most importantly, we have to ground our heart on the richf and fertile soil of faith, hope and charity. 

 That’s why we should feel the constant need for some forms of self-denial, mortification and penance, so that our senses and our entire bodily system would be purified and, in a way, exercised to be more attentive to the things of God, to the spiritual and supernatural realities. Otherwise, they would just be immersed in the world of food, drinks and other worldly pleasures and concerns. 

 We have to convince ourselves that all this effort is all worthwhile. With patience and perseverance in this effort, we will soon realize that the joy God and the spiritual and supernatural realities give us cannot be compared to whatever pleasures the world can give. 

 As to our thoughts, we have to frequently examine ourselves as to what their contents and directions are. Are they just revolving around ourselves? Are they hooked only on the worldly standards of effectiveness and efficiency, profitability, fame, power, etc.? We have to see to it that our thoughts begin and end with God. 

 Let’s always remember what Christ himself reassured us. “Seek first the kingdom of God and his justice, and all these things shall be added unto you.” (Mt 6,33) We should not be deceived by the false glitter of fame and wealth that the world likes to bait us with. 

 With respect to our heart, the very seat of our being, we should see to it that it beats only with love for God that gives us the proper love for others and for everything else. When it is truly nourished by faith, hope and charity, it would know how to see and understand things properly, it would know how to react and behave. 

 We need to spend time and to exert effort to conform our heart to the heart of Christ, so that its instincts, attitudes and motivations would be those of Christ. Our heart, like Christ’s, would know how to blend the material and spiritual aspects of our life, the temporal and eternal, the mundane and the sacred, the here-and-now and the ultimate. 

 What can help us in this direction is to manage our environment, making it conducive to our work, then we should prioritize the tasks that we have to do, and learn to be maintain focus. 

 In this regard, we should first identify our common distractions, both the internal and the external ones, so we can make an effective plan or strategy of how we can deal with them properly. Then, let’s also look for an appropriate place to work. We should learn how to be in control of the many digital distractions these days. 

 In the end, what would truly work is when we are most aware that we are actually praying and engaging ourselves with God while working.

“My words shall not pass away”

THESE were spoken by Christ, clearly telling us how important and indispensable his words are to us. (cfr. Lk 12,33) They are living words that while spoken ages ago will always give us something new. As one saint would put it, Christ’s words are both old and new. 

 To be sure, Christ’s words are not just an idea, a doctrine, an ideology. They are not just a strategy, a culture or a lifestyle. Of course, Christ’s words can involve all these, but unless we understand Christ’s word as God himself, the God who became man to reveal to us all that we need to know, all that we need to do to be God’s image and likeness as God wants us to be, we would miss the real essence and character of Christ’s word. 

 We have to realize that the word of God cannot be separated from God himself. That’s because God is so perfect as to be in absolute simplicity. As such, God has no parts, no aspects, no quality or property that are distinct from his very being. His word and his being are just one. There is no distinction at all in him. 

 Of course, from our point of view, we cannot help but to describe God according to our own terms and ways that cannot help but make distinctions between the essence of a being and its properties and qualities. But in himself, God does not have distinction between his essence and the properties that we attribute to him. 

 Of course, this is a mystery, a supernatural truth that our reason cannot fully fathom. That is why we need to have a strong faith to be able to accept this truth. And once we accept by faith the absolute unity between God and his word, then we will realize that reading and meditating on the gospel is actually having a living encounter with God through Christ. 

 That is why, St. Jerome, a father of the Church, once said that to read the Scripture is to converse with God—“If you pray, you speak with the Spouse. If you read, it is he who speaks to you,” he said. 

 We have to realize that we need to be guided by God’s words rather than by our own thoughts, reasoning and estimations of things. No matter how brilliant and clever we are, we can only go so far in understanding things in this world, many of which are very mysterious to us. 

 We have to develop a fondness for the words of God. This we can do as long as we exert due effort and continually ask, with humility, for the grace of God. Without these requirements, we can easily be swept away by the many alluring ideologies in the world. 

 It’s when we listen and live by God’s words that we attain our human and Christian maturity. And as St. Paul would say, we would then be like infants no longer, “tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of the people in their deceitful scheming.” (Eph 4,14) 

 It’s important that we spend time developing a liking and an intimacy with the words of God. We have to read and meditate on them daily, and use them as the spirit behind all events, activities and concerns that we have during the day. 

 We have to understand that God’s words are not meant to give us the technical solutions to our problems. They are meant to be the soul and the spirit of all our concerns and activities.

“In all circumstances, give thanks”

THAT’S from St. Paul’s First Letter to the Thessalonians. (cfr. 5,18) The complete passage goes this way: “In all circumstances give thanks, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.” 

 Indeed, we cannot overemphasize this need to always be thankful for everything, including things that in our human standards can be considered as bad. That’s because as long as things are always related to Christ, everything, including the negative aspects of our life, will work out for the good. (cfr. Rom 8,28) 

 This reminder to be always thankful was also highlighted in that gospel episode where Christ healed 10 lepers, and yet only one came back to him to thank him. (cfr. Lk 17,11-19) It made Christ to remark: “Were not ten made clean? And where are the nine?” 

 Obviously, Christ does not need to be thanked and praised. He already has everything. He is pure perfection. But Christ wants us to be always thankful more for our own good. 

 That’s because by always being thankful we acknowledge what God has given and shared with us. We strengthen our relationship with him which we always need, otherwise we have no other alternative but to go the wrong way in our life. We nourish our love for him which would lead us to enter into a better relationship with the others. 

 Besides, being thankful always can give us many other human and natural benefits. It definitely would improve our mental health since it can lower levels of stress, anxiety and depression. It takes us away from simply thinking of our own selves and leads us to get more actively involved in the affairs of the others and of the world in general. 

More than that, by being thankful always we would somehow improve our capacity to be resilient and to develop better coping skills, softening our structured ways. Yes, it can even help us to enjoy better sleep, since it would bring us peace of mind. 

 Given the many things today that can undermine this spirit of gratitude in us, we should make an effort to develop the habit of being thankful everyday. This we can do if we would only spend some time to acknowledge the many little things of the day for which we should be thankful. It may also help that before going to bed at night, we take note of the good things that happened during the day. And even the bad things can be a reason for giving thanks if we refer them to God. 

 Nowadays, we have to be wary also of the many factors that can undermine this spirit of gratitude we ought to have. Among them is that attitude of entitlement that can lead us to think that we deserve certain things or treatment for which we do not need to be thankful. 

 Another factor would be when we are always comparing ourselves with others, carried away by the strong waves of envy and jealousy. This definitely would negate our duty to be thankful for whatever we have, no matter how small and insignificant, humanly speaking, it may be. 

 This is not to mention that these days, we are bombarded with so many things, locking us in some form of self-entrapment and self-indulgence, such that we would not feel the need to be thankful for what we are enjoying at the moment. 

 There are, of course, some cultural and societal influences that can undermine this spirit of thankfulness, especially when we develop negative thinking patterns and become a very judgmental person. 

 We have to be wary of these dangers and focus on our duty to develop the spirit of gratitude.

God always comes to our aid

WE should make this truth of our faith a strong and abiding conviction in us. In the gospel, we are warned that toward the end of time, all sorts of persecution can be heaped on us. But we should not worry because God will always take care of everything. (cfr. Lk 21,12-19) 

 “They will lay their hands upon you, and persecute you…you shall be betrayed by your parents and brethren…you shall be hated by all men for may sake,” Christ told the crowd. But not to worry, because as he said, “Don’t meditate before how you shall answer: for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to resist and gainsay…not a hair of your head shall perish.” 

 Let’s always remember that God is always with us and is for us. That’s because our life is first of all the life of God which he shares with us and for which we have take care as responsible stewards. But given our human weaknesses, there will be times when we will find ourselves helpless before certain challenges and difficulties. But we should not worry. We should go through that condition always with God. 

 Let’s always reinforce our belief that God never abandons us. We should have that kind of conviction. No matter what kind of difficulties we can find ourselves in, we should always remember that God never abandons us. He is always around to help us, although in ways that may escape our notice. 

 When we are in difficulty and on the brink of discouragement, overwhelmed perhaps by the burdens in our life, let us try our best to remain calm and be prayerful. Let us avail of the sacraments, especially Confession and the Eucharist, so that what we cannot handle can be taken care of by God himself. 

 We should have a good control of our emotions and our other human faculties that certainly cannot cope with all the mysteries of our life so that these do not give problems to our faith and trust in God’s ways. 

 And, yes, we have to learn to suffer. In this life, there is no other way but to suffer. This is simply the consequence of all the sins of men. But if we unite our suffering with that of Christ, we can look forward also to our resurrection and victory over sin and death with Christ. 

 We should just be sport in this life, always managing to be in good spirit, cheerful and optimistic, even if the circumstances are dark and painful. We should never forget that there is such thing as divine providence and all we have to do is to develop a good and healthy sense of abandonment in that providence of God. 

 We have to remember that God completely gives himself to us. He is not sparing in this. He is now with us in the Holy Spirit. In a sense, he is all there for the taking. It’s really just up to us now on how to take advantage of this reality. 

 We just have to learn to go to Christ with deep humility and great faith. Christ is always passing by our side. In fact, he always looks at us and after us, especially when we are in an impossible situation, with special concern, ever ready to give us a helping hand.

“Remain faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life”

THAT’S from the Book of Revelation. (2,10) As we approach the end of another liturgical year, it’s a message all worthwhile to keep strongly in mind. Christ assures us that everything will be all right despite all the trials, challenges and the other negative elements in our life. 

 We should just remain faithful to him who will bring everything to completion and perfection. We should just be eternity-ready, willing to leave everything behind, since all these things only have a temporal and relative value. What is of absolute and eternal value is whether we have faith and love for God which is verified in the way we handle with him all the things of our earthly sojourn. 

 We should therefore develop a sense of the end of our earthly life and the beginning of life hereafter. The end gives us a global picture and sheds light on the present. It guides us. It gives us a sense of confidence and security. It reassures us that we are on the right track, that we are doing well. 

 The sense of the end motivates us to make plans always, to be thoughtful and anticipative of things. It teaches us also a sense of order and priority. It motivates us to set goals, make schedules and the prudent use of time. Ultimately, it helps us to distinguish between the essential and the non-essential in our life. 

 A person who does not have a sense of the end is obviously an anomaly. He tends to be lazy and prone to his personal weaknesses, to drift off aimlessly and lose control of his life. Such person is usually called a bum, a tramp or a vagrant. 

 Since we all somehow pass through this stage, let’s hope that the phase be as short as possible, and that our reaction to it should produce the opposite effect of precisely taking the duty to develop this sense of the end more seriously. 

 There, of course, are some complicated people who philosophize too much by saying that we can never know the end, and so, they ask how can we develop a sense of the end? This kind of thinking is pure sophistry that can easily be dumped by the mere use of common sense. 

 It’s true that we may never know everything about the end, but it’s not true that we cannot know enough about the end of anything. That’s why we can only talk about a sense of the end, since it is a dynamic affair that has known and unknown, absolute and relative, constant and changing elements involved. 

 We are not dealing with mere mathematics and mechanical things alone in this life. There are spiritual and other intangible things involved that necessarily would require us to be continuously open to anything and discerning, flexible and focused. 

 And so, what we instinctively do in our daily ordinary affairs, we should also do, and, in fact, do it as best that we can, in the ultimate dimensions of our life. Here we have to be guided by our core beliefs that should penetrate beyond the material, temporal and worldly aspects into the realm of the spiritual, eternal and supernatural. 

 We need to see to it that even as we immerse ourselves as deeply as possible in our earthly affairs, we do not lose our sense of heaven and eternity. In fact, the ideal is that as we go deeper in our temporal affairs, our sense of heaven and eternity should also become sharper.

We are only stewards of our own life

OF COURSE, our life is our own life. We may have to relate ourselves to everybody else, but my life is mine and your life is yours. Still, we should not forget that in the end, the absolute owner of our life, as he is of everything else in the world, is God. We are simply stewards tasked by God the Creator to take care of everything and, in the first place, of our own life. 

 As such, we always have to feel answerable to God. We have to abide by his will and law with regard to our life and to the world in general. We just cannot be on our own, making ourselves practically our own God. 

 Sad to say, this is what we are seeing these days in many places. People, especially the young ones nowadays, are living in their own world, with no clear anchor or point of reference or purpose in life. As they say, they would just do whatever comes naturally, whatever that means. 

 This is now a big challenge for us to face—how to make everyone realize that we are just stewards, not absolute owners of our own life and of things, even if we have the right to own private property. We have to constantly ask God what he wants us to do at every moment, how we ought to behave and react to a certain situation, etc. 

 This fundamental truth about ourselves should be with us all the time, and constantly duly acted upon. Ideally, at every end of the day, as at the end of our life, we should make some kind of a report to God about how we have managed what he has given us. That is why, making a daily examination of conscience at the end of the day is something recommendable for us to do. 

 With God as the absolute owner of our life and of everything else, we are actually given everything that we need not only to survive but also to make “a good business” in our life, irrespective of how things in our life go. We know that we have to expect all kinds of conditions and situations in life, some likeable and favorable, others disagreeable and off-putting. 

 As mentioned in the parable about the man who built his house on rock, God should be the foundation of our life. (cfr. Mt 7,24-27) “The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because had been founded on the rock.” And when our life is not founded on God, “the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.” 

 Indeed, the only thing possible for us when we are not with God and doing his will is to sin. Let’s remember the case of our first parents, Adam and Eve, when they were still in the state of original justice. They were not supposed to die nor to suffer. Their condition was perfect because they were still with God. The moment they forgot God, that’s when they fell. 

 For us to be a good steward, let’s follow the example of that poor widow who, in her poverty, put in all she had to live on into the temple treasury, (cfr. Lk 21,1-4) acting out what Christ once said that anyone who is willing to lose everything for God will gain a hundredfold in this life and life eternal in the age to come. (cfr. Mt 19,29)

Christ is the real, ultimate and universal king

WITH the celebration of the Solemnity of Christ the King, we are reminded to really develop and enliven our belief that Christ is the real and ultimate king for all of us. He is king not only to Catholics but to all of us and the entire universe. As such, we too share in Christ’s kingly office. 

 And his kingship is not only something social, political, economic, cultural, etc. His kingship extends to the spiritual, moral and supernatural dimensions of our life. He rules all aspects of our life—from our most internal thoughts and desires, to our most global and cosmic concerns. There is nothing in our life where Christ is not expected to reign. We are actually nothing without him. 

 It is only when we acknowledge and live this truth of our faith that we too can consider ourselves as king too in him. Thus, we share in his mission of human redemption, by uprooting sin and sanctifying all aspects of our life. We are supposed to actively participate, in accordance to one’s state in life, in the mission of Christ which is now the mission of the Church, and the mission of each one of us. 

 We need to do our part to make Christ our King. We can do this by making little conquests in our spiritual life everyday. We need to understand that our life will always involve some struggle. In fact, it is and should be a daily affair. Failing in that struggle does not only mean getting stuck at a certain point. It certainly means we have retrogressed. In this business of struggle, if we don’t advance, we actually retreat. 

 We should therefore be reminded of our duty to hone up our skills in spiritual warfare. Christ already hinted this much when he said: “from the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent bear it away.” (Mt 11,12) 

 We have to understand though that to be violent in this sense does not mean to be destructive but rather to be constructive, driven by love and the desire to be united with God and with the others in a way proper to us as children of God and brothers and sisters among ourselves. 

 Our life here on earth cannot but be in some form of struggle. Aside from our innate urge to grow and develop that requires some effort, we also have to contend with enemies whose sole intent is precisely to bring us down, to divert us from our proper path toward holiness. This is not to mention that our ultimate goal is to reach heaven, which definitely will require effort and struggle, and of course God’s grace. 

 We need to make little conquests everyday in every front of this spiritual warfare. It can be in the battle for faith, hope and charity. It can be in the way we pray and in the offering of sacrifices. 

 Any progress or victory in any battle or skirmish, no matter how small, counts. As long as we struggle constantly, our spiritual life will always advance. If we persevere in our spiritual warfare, our fidelity to any commitment is assured, for God on his part will always give us what we need. Things would just depend on us. 

 Any progress in the virtues will always go a long way in our spiritual life. We need to remind ourselves strongly that everything that we do should always be for God’s glory and not for our own glorification. 

 This is how we make Christ our real King!

Significance of Our Lady’s Presentation

WITH the Memorial of the Presentation of Blessed Virgin Mary, celebrated on November 21, we are reminded that Our Lady, even at her young age, dedicated herself to God’s service. It highlights Our Lady’s total dedication to God’s will through her life of profound prayer and contemplation. It’s definitely a Memorial that should inspire us to follow Our Lady’s example. 

 Like Our Lady, we should try our best to offer unwavering dedication to God’s plan, even when it would seem impossible or very challenging. We should not be afraid to enter into a serious commitment with God and remain faithful to it, no matter how things go. 

 But how can we be faithful to our commitments given our obvious limitations and imperfections, and the unavoidable mistakes we can commit along the way? The answer is simply to grow in love, like that of Our Lady. It is to enter into the dynamics of love that needs to grow and grow without measure. 

 It is this love that can conquer everything, including sin and death. It is this love that can make everything new. As St. Paul would put it, it is the love that “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” (1 Cor 13,7) 

 To be sure, putting ourselves in the dynamics of love would also perfect us the way God our Creator wants us to be, and not just how we want ourselves to be. If we can only remember this basic truth, we most certainly would have enough motive to go on loving in spite of all the difficulties, challenges, trials, mistakes, etc., we can meet in living our commitments. 

 Everyday, we just have to find ways to grow in our love a little bit more. And this does not necessarily mean that we have to undertake extraordinary acts. It can only mean putting more love in the usual little things that we do everyday. And this can be done easily. 

 We need to overcome our tendency to be easily overtaken by routine and boredom. That is why we have to pause from time to time, and even spend some time praying and meditating, so that we can put that impulse of greater love in the ordinary duties of our day. 

 Our problem is that we tend to put limits and to say enough to our self-giving. While it’s true that in our material and temporal dimensions, we certainly have limits—and it’s good that we acknowledge them and abide by them—in our spiritual dimension we are capable of giving ourselves infinitely. 

 We need to see to it that we know how to blend our material and spiritual dimensions, without confusing them as we exercise them to their fullest capabilities. We need to adapt the relevant attitude and to learn the pertinent skills, art and virtues. 

 The fidelity to our commitments should be carried out in true freedom such that at any given moment we should find ourselves driven by love, where eagerness to do things is quite conspicuous, where there is always a go-go attitude marking our behavior. True love cannot remain stagnant. It is by definition dynamic, productive, fruitful and creative. 

 To be sure, this fidelity to our commitments will perfect us the way God wants us to be. We are supposed to be “the image and likeness of God.” And since God is love, we too ought to be characterized by that divine love as shown in our fidelity to our commitments. 

 This is how we can mirror the fidelity of Our Lady to God’s will and ways!

Assuming God’s very life in our life

WE really have to learn to assume in a stable way God’s very own life and nature in our own life. For this, we should first be firm in our belief that our life is actually the life of God who offers it to us freely since he has made us, of all his creatures, his very image and likeness. 

 We need to be clear about this fundamental truth about ourselves and about everything else in the whole universe. God, being the Creator of everything, shares what he has in varying degrees and ways with all his creatures. He is in everyone and in everything. He is the source and the maintainer of everyone’s and everything’s existence. Nothing can exist without him. 

 In our case, he is with us to the highest degree of connaturality because, with our intelligence and will, plus the grace that God gratuitously offers us, we are made to enter into his very life and nature. 

 We should acknowledge this basic truth that our life is actually God’s life first of all and always, and everything in our life should be in accordance to how God is. That’s why we are given the capacity to know and love him. 

 This fundamental truth about ourselves should be made known universally, and everyone should be prodded to learn how to conform their lives with the very life of God by following and doing God’s will and ways which have been shown and shared with us ultimately through Christ in the Spirit. 

 We need to do our part in corresponding to this fundamental truth by learning how to develop our spiritual life, which is none other than developing an intimate relationship with God in all the events and circumstances of our life. 

 Let’s remember that God is everything to us. Without him or ignoring him can only unavoidably lead us to evil, since God is the only source of everything that is good, true and beautiful. We should never think that we can just be on our own. Of course, we have to be taught and trained first how we can discern the constant presence and interventions of God in our life. 

 In any situation and in whatever we do, we should be aware that God is showing us how to go about it, how to react and behave, etc. We should never think that there are times when God is not around or is not involved in anything in our life. 

 Thus, we should learn how to always live in God’s presence, actively corresponding to his will and ways. God is the pattern of life. He is the shaper and director of our life. He is the purpose and the power to enable us to be his image and likeness. 

 It should not be something out of order for us to learn how to be prayerful, how to be contemplative, especially as we engage in our earthly affairs, since we need to be with him and follow his will in all these affairs. 

 We should therefore be asking ourselves always what God wants us to do, how we have to be in any situation and condition of our life. To be sure, this will give us the proper condition of life where we would always feel confident, happy and at peace no matter how things go in our life.

The double effect of routine

WHILE establishing and keeping a daily routine can have its great advantages, we should also be wary of its disadvantages that are often hidden and unperceived. 

 Indeed, routine can foster increased productivity, since it can help in prioritizing tasks, managing time and boosting productivity. It can also reduce stress, since it minimizes surprises and other uncertainties. It can improve our focus. If well managed, it can even enhance creativity, since it can free up mental resources that can allow us for more creative thinking. 

 But it also has its downside. Since routine involves repetitive tasks, it can lead us to feelings of monotony and boredom. It can also lead us to rigid ways that would adversely impact on our ability to be flexible amid changing circumstances. It can desensitize us from possibilities of innovation and creativity. 

 We should learn how to deal with this negative aspect of routine. We should not allow it to muffle our enthusiasm and love for God and others. The challenge is how to keep ourselves burning with love in spite of our routinary tasks. In fact, if we are clever enough like the serpent that Christ talked about, (cfr. Mt 10,16) we can even make use of these routinary tasks as a way to nourish our love for God and others. 

 For this, we have to see to it that we are always activating our faith, hope and charity by making frequent acts of faith, hope and charity in spite of the lack of gusto for them. Much like everything else in our life, there are things that we should just do even if do not feel like doing them simply because they are necessary to us. These frequent acts of faith, hope and charity can do a lot of wonder and can fan into a flame our waning enthusiasm and love for God and others. 

 These theological virtues, these God-given gifts are the ones that enable us to live our life in a way that is full of love, the love that comes from God himself. It’s a love that always renews itself, not allowing itself to get accustomed, much less, bored by what we do everyday. 

 As the Catechism would put it, these theological virtues “bestow on one the capacity to live in a relationship with the Trinity. They are the foundation and the energizing force of the Christian’s moral activity and they give life to the human virtues.” (CCC 384) 

 With this love that the theological virtues impart on us, everything will always strike us as something new. With it, the prose of everyday is somehow converted into beautiful verses that are engaging to both the body and the soul, the heart and the mind. 

 With this love, we can manage to see beauty and find meaning in everything, even in things, events and situations that humanly speaking are not pleasant. With it we can manage to escape from the shallow and narrow appreciation that our senses and our human understanding can achieve of things in general. It lets us go to the deeper and higher levels of reality. 

 This love enables us to relate the material to the spiritual, the mundane to the sacred, the temporal to the eternal, the natural to supernatural. It connects us and everything else to God, the source of all good things. 

 Obviously, while these theological virtues are divine gratuitous gifts to us, we also have to do our part to take care of them well, otherwise they would have no effect on us. Thus, we need to develop the corresponding human virtues which the theological virtues are meant to animate. We can never overemphasize this point.