The significance of Our Lord’s Ascension

A NUMBER of very meaningful considerations can be drawn from the Ascension of Our Lord into heaven. One is that with it we are reminded that like Christ, who is the pattern of our humanity and the redeemer of our damaged humanity, we actually came from heaven and are meant to return there for our definitive state of life after “passing” the test God has given us if what he wants us to be is also what we ourselves would like to be. 

 With our Lord’s Ascension, we are told that heaven is now open to humanity after it has been closed due to the fall of our first parents. We have been alienated from our Father God and are now reconciled through the redemptive work of Christ. 

 Our Lord’s Ascension also brings home to us our true home which is heaven where there will be “no more tears, pain or death, (cfr. Rev 21,1-4) where “no eye has seen, nor ear heard, or the heart of man conceived,” (cfr. 1 Cor 2,9) It’s there where we become a new creation, achieve the perfection of our humanity, and where we enjoy endless peace and bliss. 

 We really need to develop a yearning for heaven, but doing so by being keenly aware of our duties here on earth. The latter are our daily ordinary pathways to heaven, aside from the sacred means Christ has given us. 

Yes, we have to always keep heaven in mind and live our earthly life with this goal in sight, using our daily duties and experiences as pathways to reach God. Yes, as we yearn for heaven, we should be keenly aware of our duties here on earth. We need to see the organic connection between our earthly life and duties and our heavenly yearning. We cannot have one without the other. 

 In this regard, we have to do a lot of apostolate which would require of us that we, first of all, should be driven with love for God. Otherwise, our apostolate, our love for the others would have no steam to run on. 

 We need to see to it that our love for God always grows everyday, so that our love for others would also correspondingly grow. In this, we have to realize, first of all, how much God loves us. Only then can we start loving him and loving the others. 

 That is why we have to pray and consider the truths of our faith that show us much more than what our senses can discover. We can say that a person who does not pray is a person who cannot fall in love properly. 

 That’s because a prayerless love is a love that is simply driven by earthly elements that cannot last for long and cannot cope with all the demands of true love. It’s love that would be completely at the mercy of earthly and temporal conditions. 

 With sincere prayer, we would manage to keep our mind and heart, our thoughts and desires to somehow start and end with heaven. Thus, we can fulfill what St. Paul once said: “Set your hearts on heavenly things, not the things that are on earth.” (Col 3,1) 

 We have to learn how to relate everything to heaven, and not get entangled with our merely earthly and temporal affairs. Everything is meant to start and end with God who is the Creator of everything and the very foundation of reality.

“Your sorrow shall be turned into joy”

THESE are words Christ addressed to his disciples as he bade farewell to them. “Amen, amen I say to you, that you shall lament and weep, but the world shall rejoice; and you shall be made sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy.” (Jn 16,20) 

 Christ was consoling his disciples amid their sorrow over his impending departure. He used the analogy of childbirth to promise transformative joy as well as direct access to the Father through prayer in his name. 

 “A woman, when in labor, has sorrow, because her hour is come; but when she has brought forth the child, she remembers no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world,” he told them. Then he reassured them that “if you ask the Father anything in my name, he will give it to you.” (Jn 16,21.23) 

 This gospel episode simply shows Christ’s assurance of joy, a joy that transcends pain amid temporary worldly opposition, a joy that has lasting effects in eternal glory. This episode somehow reminds us to broaden our understanding of things as we go through the drama of our earthly life that will always involve suffering. More than that, it encourages us to learn the art of how to find joy even in our suffering. 

 We need to realize that in our life here on earth, joy and sorrow are intertwined, and we can manage to find joy even in suffering as long as we identify ourselves with Christ. We have to remember that Christ has conquered everything and has converted all the negative things in life into means for our purification and strengthening. 

 What we have to do is to unite whatever suffering we have with the suffering of Christ, because by so doing, we would be participating in Christ’s redemptive mission. So, we just have to relate everything to Christ by praying always, ever trusting in God’s presence and power. This mindset helps us develop a strong faith and confidence in Christ, enabling us to face whatever challenges and temptations would come our way. 

 Let’s be convinced that with Christ, suffering becomes an act of selfless love that can take on anything. Only in him can we find joy and meaning in suffering. With him, suffering loses its purely negative and painful character, and assumes the happy salvific character. 

 We need to process this truth of our faith thoroughly, always asking for God’s grace and training all our powers and faculties to adapt to this reality. That’s why Christ told us clearly that if we want to follow him, we simply have to deny ourselves, carry the cross and follow him. There’s no other formula, given our wounded human condition. 

 This self-denial and carrying of Christ’s cross will enable us to see that suffering is obviously the consequence of all our sins—ours and those of others. Embracing suffering the way Christ embraced his cross unites our suffering with that of Christ. 

 Our motive for it is like that of Christ. It’s the desire to conquer that suffering and ultimately our death through his death and resurrection. It’s obeying God’s will just like Christ obeyed his Father’s will. “Not my will but yours be done.” 

 Our reaction to any form of suffering in this life should therefore be theological and ascetical. It should be guided and inspired by faith. It should not just be physical or a natural affair. It should reflect the spiritual and supernatural realities to which we are all subject.

Let’s never be just by ourselves

THAT’S how we should be. To simply be by ourselves is actually an anomaly. As persons, endowed with intelligence and will, with the capacity to know and to love, we are meant to relate ourselves with others—with God, first, and then with everybody and everything else. 

 Thus, a point in the Catechism of the Catholic Church clearly states that, “being in the image of God, the human individual possesses the dignity of a person, who is not just something, but someone.” (357) 

 The Catechism explains further, shedding light on the difference between a something and a someone. 

 The human person who is a someone and not just a something is “capable of self-knowledge, of self-possession and of freely giving himself and entering into communion with other persons. 

 “And he is called by grace to a covenant with his Creator, to offer him a response of faith and love that no other creature can give in his stead.” 

 A person is an individual who is always in relation with others. He simply cannot be on his own. His life, his growth and maturity, his capacity to resist temptations and to handle his weaknesses well would depend on his relation with God and with others. 

 Since we are made in the image and likeness of God, we as persons must somehow reflect also the perpetual relation within the three persons in one God. We are meant to be taken up, with God's grace, in that Trinitarian relation of knowing and loving one another. 

 That's why Christ told us in no unclear terms that the greatest commandment we ought to follow is to love God with all our might, and the second greatest is to love our neighbor. 

 We need to train ourselves to be always mindful and thoughtful of the others. In this way, we avoid confining ourselves to our own world which definitely will not be the real world, because it would be a world of pure subjectivism, detached from the objective world outside of ourselves. 

 We have to be both mindful and thoughtful, because this is what is proper to us. If we fail to cultivate these traits, we actually would be harming our very own humanity, aborting our road to human maturity, not to mention, the fullness of Christian life. 

 We need to be mindful because we have to know what’s going around us. We should never be aloof and indifferent. We have to be aware not only of things and events that are taking place, whether near or far, but also and most especially of persons, starting with the one right beside us. 

 And not only should we be mindful. We also need to be thoughtful. We should think ahead of how things are developing and of what we can do to help shape their evolution. Life is always a work in progress, and there are goals, the ultimate and the subordinate, to reach. We should not get stuck with the here and now. 

 We also should learn to read the signs of the times and to prepare ourselves for whatever indications or warnings they are giving us. This way we put ourselves in condition to influence the flow of things, and to somehow already fashion the future. In this way, we extricate ourselves from our own subjective world and get to grapple with the objective reality.

Harmonizing our life’s different dimensions

IT’S obvious that we have to contend with the many aspects and dimensions of our life—the natural and the supernatural, the temporal and the eternal, the material and the spiritual, etc. We cannot deny that very often we see them competing or even in conflict with each other. 

 We, therefore, need to tackle the challenge and the complicated task of how to harmonize them in such a way that we can achieve what we may call as unity of life that pursues the proper and ultimate goal of our life. 

 Said in another way, we have to find a way of how we can live our spiritual and supernatural dimension of our life with naturalness as we go through our daily activities and concerns. The art and skills that are appropriate for this need should be learned and adopted as early as possible. 

 Definitely, this challenge and task would demand a lot of requirements from us. But to be sure, we can say that the basic requirement is for us to be fully identified with Christ, “the perfect God and the perfect man” (perfectus Deus, perfectus homo). 

 He is the very personification of how to integrate the different aspects of our life so we can achieve a certain consistency and continuity that would pursue the ultimate goal of our life. 

 In this regard, we cannot overemphasize the need for us to have regular time for prayer and avail of a plan of continuing formation so that our relation with Christ would really become alive and in a way that can effectively guide us in our daily activities. 

 With Christ, we would know how to live naturalness as we pursue our supernatural goal in the middle of the world. It has something to do with how to handle our human condition considering what we ought to be and what we are at the moment. Fact is, we have a supernatural goal, nothing less than to be united with God, which we have to pursue in the context of our human and natural world. 

 Naturalness is about how to mix the spiritual and material dimensions of our life, our personal and social aspects, and other elements in our life that, given the way we are, appear to compete with each other. How to integrate and harmonize them is the task of naturalness. 

 Naturalness is a very active affair, lived day to day, moment to moment, as we grapple with the continuous flow of our concerns. It’s the front man who does the dirty job of the bigger virtues of discretion, prudence and ultimately charity, the foot soldier who does the hand-to-hand combat, the peddler who does the door-to-door selling. 

 It has to know when to push and when to pull, what to say and show and what to be quiet about and hide. Obviously, it has to follow a game plan, with a clear goal in mind and a detailed knowledge of all the elements it has to contend with. 

 It has to know when to be active and when to be passive, when to be aggressive and when to be patient and tolerant. Of course, in our spiritual life, these elements while initially contrasting, can be blended and lived simultaneously, obviously as an effect of grace and our cleverness. 

 It also has to know how to project oneself to the future, given the data of the present and of the past. It has to learn how to relate history and current events with eternity. It should know how to connect the mundane with the sacred.

Our morality depends on our spirituality

IT’S quite clear that the way we think, speak, react and behave in general is determined by the way we are. This is somehow encapsulated in that Latin expression: “agere sequitur esse” which means that how a thing acts, functions or behaves is fundamentally determined by what it is—its nature or essence. It means that actions reveal the inner nature of a being. 

 In short, we can say that our actions reflect our character. In our case, since we are not purely material beings but more of a spiritual one—given the fact that the spirit is one that gives life, not our bodily dimension—we can conclude that the quality of our behavior depends on the quality of our spirituality. 

 Yes, our Catholic teaching affirms that our morality is intrinsically dependent on our spirituality. That’s simply because, to put it bluntly, our moral life is not merely a set of rules but a response to God’s call. It’s a moral life that is rooted in faith, grace, and that call of God for us to be his image and likeness, i.e., to be holy as God himself is holy. 

 The morality that is proper to us can only be achieved if our human acts are ordered toward God by following his will. That is why, Christ who is the fullness of the revelation of God to us and who offers us “the way, the truth and the life,” clearly told his disciples and us that if we truly love him, we should keep his commandments. (cfr. Jn 14,15) 

 The “way, truth and life” Christ offers us provides us with all the means we need to keep our true identity and dignity as children of God. These are means that can tackle whatever conditions and circumstances we can find ourselves in, that can convert all situations, including the worst sufferings we can encounter in our life, into a path to be with God, to achieve the ultimate end of our life which is our holiness and redemption. 

 In other words, God is always with us, guiding us, protecting us, helping us in all our needs. That is what God’s providence is all about. We need to be aware of this basic truth of our life so we can live our life the way proper to our true identity as God’s children. 

 We have to be wary of certain questionable theories about human morality that would reduce it to mere utility, subjective preference, empirical observation or human autonomy. These theories cut our morality from its true source who is God and his law and grace. These theories fail to account for the spiritual dimension of the person we are, and would unavoidably lead to forms of relativism and the denial of intrinsic evils. 

 Thus, we can say that to have a good moral sense is none other than having an abiding awareness that all our human acts, starting with our thoughts and desires, and then our words and deeds, should be good in the sense that they ought to be inspired and oriented toward nothing less than love for God and for others. 

 That’s why St. Paul once said in his praise of charity (love of God): “If I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. 

 “And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I should have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. 

 “And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profits me nothing.” (1 Cor 13,1-3)

Expect all sorts of troubles in our life

CHRIST himself had already warned us about this. To his disciples, he once said: “They will put you out of the synagogues. Yes, the hour comes, that whosoever kills you will think that he is doing a service to God.” (Jn 16,2) 

 In another part of the gospel, he clearly said: “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (Jn 16,33) Yes, Christ is assuring us that we as his believers will inevitably face trials, suffering and difficulties in a broken world, but we should keep our peace and courage since Christ will take care of everything in the end. 

 Other verses that express the same warning are the following: 

 - “Everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” (2 Tim 3,12) 

- “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God.” (Acts 14,22) 

 We should not anymore make a big issue out of this fact of life. Rather, we should just strengthen our faith in Christ through prayer and the nurturing of the virtues like courage, fortitude, patience, cheerfulness, hope, etc. It would be helpful if we can develop a sporting and fighting spirit in this life. 

 Yes, we need a sporting spirit because life’s true failure can come only when we choose not to have hope. That happens when our vision and understanding of things is narrow and limited, confined only to the here and now and ignorant of the transcendent reality of the spiritual and supernatural world. 

 We therefore have to develop a strong spiritual sportsmanship in the tenor expressed in some words of St. Paul: “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it.” (1 Cor 9,24) 

 Aside from a strong sense of self-discipline and submitting ourselves in a continuing training program, an indispensable ingredient of this healthy sporting spirit is the sense of acceptance and abandonment that we need to deliberately cultivate. This does not come automatically, as if it’s part of our genes. 

We have to develop them. We have to be sport and adventurous in facing the different conditions of our life. And it would greatly help if we too can have an abiding sense of humor. Otherwise, we would just easily fall into states of sadness, pessimism and despair which actually are unnecessary but are avoidable. 

 This we can do if first of all we have a strong and deep faith in God, our Creator and Father. If we have that faith, we know that God holds everything in order through his providence. He takes care of everything, irrespective of how things go. Ours is simply to relate everything to him and to go back to him everytime we go astray especially at the end of the day. 

 When we have this sporting and adventurous spirit, we, of course, would like to play to win and to get as much enjoyment as possible. We would give our best shot. But we also know that this is not going to happen all the time. There will be times when we lose in a game or when we get lost in our adventure. But regardless of how things go, we can always go back to God as we should, and everything would just be all right. 

 Thus, whether we win or lose in tackling life’s many challenges and trials, we can still manage to have fun and, more importantly, to learn precious lessons by getting to know more about ourselves and others, about our strengths and weaknesses, about the virtues we need to develop and grow, etc.

Our true hunger and genuine fulfillment

IN the gospel, Christ tells us about what is involved if we want to truly love him. “If you love me,” he said, “keep my commandments.” And he makes this promise: “And I will ask the Father, and he shall give you another Paraclete, that he may abide with you forever.” (Jn 14,15-16) 

 He further explained why the Paraclete or the spirit of truth is needed. “The spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it sees him not, nor knows him; but you shall know him because he shall abide with you, and shall be in you,” he said. (Jn14,17) 

 The question to ask is, how can we manage to comply with the condition of keeping his commandments to be able to love him, and in so doing, be guided by the spirit of truth in this very complicated and confusing world? 

 Given how demanding Christ’s teachings are, we would likely struggle to live up to them. Yes, Christ’s commands and the high standard of Christ’s teachings are so rigorous that we would be in a tough spot trying to keep them. 

 I believe the secret is found in what Christ himself had recommended. That is, that we do some fasting that would induce a special kind of hunger that is not only a hunger for natural food but rather a hunger for the ultimate spiritual and supernatural food that is God himself. 

 Said another way, it should be a natural hunger that should lead us to this spiritual and supernatural hunger, a hunger for God. We need to train our natural hunger to have the greatest longing for God. 

 In other words, it should be God whom we regard as the true satisfaction of our hunger. It is he who should give us the greatest joy and pleasure. We should not get stuck in the natural level of satisfaction, joy and pleasure only, the effect only of food and other natural things. But our craving for God, while eminently spiritual and supernatural, should first of all be felt in our body. 

 This way we can manage to keep the commandments of Christ no matter how tough, rigorous and challenging they are. And by keeping the commandments, we would feel the presence of the Paraclete, the spirit of truth, as promised by Christ, who will guide us and give us the proper direction in our life, marked as it is with chaotic conditions. 

 With this spirit of truth, we would not be trapped in our temporal world only, playing the game of self-indulgence and simply pursuing self-interest, unmindful of the spiritual, supernatural and eternal destination meant for us. 

 We would know how to relate our temporal affairs to our ultimate goal. We would know how to give the proper priority to all the elements in this life, and how to be firmly guarded against distractions. 

 We really should make this serious business of developing this true hunger a top priority among the things that we need to learn. We cannot take this duty lightly. We have to learn to live in the natural and temporal world while pursuing our supernatural and eternal goal. 

 As St. Paul once said: “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” (Col 3,2) He was practically telling us that we should prioritize heaven, eternal values over temporary worldly pursuits. He was asking us for a shift in perspective to align our thoughts, actions and desires with the teachings and example Christ who shows us the way to heaven.

Synodality and the Church’s continuing mission

DURING the time of the apostles as they started to carry out the mission given to them by Christ, there, of course, were some problems and issues that needed to be resolved. One was when there were disturbances among the Gentile believers who were imposed with unnecessary burdens. (cfr. Act 15,22-31) 

 The apostles wrote a letter telling them: “For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to impose on you no further burden than these essentials: that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what is strangled and from fornication.” (Acts 15,29) At this, they rejoiced. 

 Somehow, this episode illustrates the synodal nature of the early Church since it involved a kind of prayerful dialogue between the apostles, on the one hand, and the Gentile believers, on the other. More importantly, it involved a listening to the Holy Spirit that underscores that true decisions arise from listening to God through prayer and a constant commitment to conversion. 

 Pope Francis brought out this need for synodality as a way to listen to the Spirit’s voice that would promote a culture of encounter and co-responsibility. In this way, synodality can be great help in the Church’s earthly journey toward her heavenly destination, the journey of the Church Militant toward the Church Triumphant. 

 In other words, synodality guides the Church Militant toward the Church Triumphant by emphasizing mission through evangelization and spreading of the Gospel, thereby aligning the Church with its ultimate goal of unity with God. It also cultivates unity and love through dialogue and shared discernment. It encourages the need for continuing conversion. 

 This thrust on synodality has, of course, received both praises and criticisms. Those who praised it see it as a way to revitalize the Church’s mission, making it more inclusive, given the more active involvement of the laity in decision-making processes. It therefore promotes the idea of a certain co-responsibility between the hierarchy and the ordinary faithful but in different degree. 

 Those who criticized it worry that it would lead to confusion and to the watering down of doctrine that may lead to doctrinal ambiguity. Some critics expressed the fear that the process can be too focused on secular or worldly ideas at the expense of the traditional teachings. Still others fear that it would undermine the authority of the hierarchy since it can lead to the democratization of the Church. 

 I suppose that in any process there are always the good side and the not so good one, the benefits and advantages, on the one hand, and the dangers, on the other. I imagine that it will always be a matter of how to go about it with prudence. 

 To balance its benefits and dangers, I believe that the discussions should be rooted on Church teachings and Scripture to ensure alignment with core values. Everyone involved should really pray, earnestly seeking the Holy Spirit’s guidance that would necessarily involve some conversion. Genuine dialogue should be fostered, encouraging respectful listening and sharing, valuing diverse perspectives while seeking unity. 

 Indeed, discernment, prayer and adherence to Church teachings can be good safeguards to keep this process of synodality achieve its real goal. So far, this process has expanded lay participation in Church governance, a fuller recognition of women’s role in the Church. It has also fostered better transparency and accountability in terms of finances and forms of abuses. 

 And yes, it has facilitated ecumenical dialogue, and hopefully, even inter-religious dialogue. It would be good if this process of synodality continues to be practiced as the Church continues with its mission amid fast changing developments in the world.

True love is always linked to sacrifice

THAT’S how true love is. Without sacrifice, love at best can only be apparent. For love to be true, it will always involve sacrifice and great effort, considering the way we really are as God’s children as well as the way we are now in our earthly condition, marked as it is by our woundedness. 

 Genuine love for one another will always involve sacrifice simply because it cannot avoid the certainty that it will always entail understanding, compassion, the willingness to bear the burden of the others, and ultimately to offer mercy and to forgive to anyone who may do us wrong. It will always involve a total self-giving that is not only gratuitous but continues to give and give even if it’s not reciprocated or, worse, contradicted. 

 For love to be true, it has to reflect Christ’s love for all of us, irrespective of how we are to him. And that’s simply because whether we are good or not to God, God will continue to love for the basic reason that we are all his children. 

 A hallmark of genuine love is when we are willing to give up our own interest for God and for everybody else, reflecting the ultimate expression of love of Christ to all of us when he made himself a sacrifice on the cross. 

 Yes, we can say that true love expresses itself in sacrifice. In other words, given our wounded condition here on earth, sacrifice is the very language of love. Love cannot truly be love without sacrifice. 

 This means that unless we love the cross, we can never say that we are truly loving. Of course, we have to qualify that assertion. It’s when we love the cross the way God wills it—the way Christ loved it—that we can really say that we are loving as we should, or loving with the fullness of love. 

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

 So, let’s be clear about this point. Love will always require sacrifice. Where there is no sacrifice, there cannot be love. Love grows only to the extent that we are willing to make sacrifices. Without sacrifice, we sooner or later will be swallowed up by our own egoism, our own selfishness. 

 And this selfishness can take the form of laziness, attachment to certain things to the point of self-absorption, etc. We have to be ready to do battle against these anomalous tendencies of ours. 

 We should always remember that the very essence of love is self-giving. In love, the lover needs to lose himself in his beloved. He has to be identified with his beloved. And this will always involve self-denial. 

 The self-giving and losing that love requires would actually enrich the person in his dignity. This way of loving conforms to what Christ himself said: “Whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” (Mt 16,25) 

 That’s why Christ himself said that if anyone wants to follow him, that person has to deny himself and, in fact, should carry the cross also. Otherwise, he cannot love. And true love is personified in Christ himself. 

 In other words, we can only love truly when we identify ourselves with Christ who precisely commanded us to love one another as he himself has loved us. That is why, he once said: “As the Father has loved me, I also have loved you. Abide in my love.” (Jn 15,9)

“Abide in me as I abide in you”

WORDS of Christ, addressed to his disciples and now to all of us, that clearly spell out how our ideal condition of our life here on earth should be. (cfr. Jn 15,4) They practically tell us how we can be truly fruitful in this life, and lead of life of purpose, joy and fulfillment. 

Truth is Christ is always with us. As our creator and the pattern of our humanity as well as the redeemer of our damaged humanity, he is always with us. We just have to learn how to be always with him too so we can be what we ought to be. 

This, in effect, can only mean that we should unite our will to God’s will, letting go of our own desires and plans. We should also stay rooted in God’s love and teachings as revealed to us in full by Christ, applying them in our daily life. 

Thus, we should continually ask ourselves: Are we truly abiding in Christ? Do we always give priority to my connection with him? This way, we can aspire to produce spiritual fruit like love, joy and peace. We can be sure that we are properly guided as we go through life’ challenges and trials, finding strength in our weakness and comfort in trials. 

And more importantly, by abiding always in Christ, we can have a clear and driving sense of purpose and direction. It is in this area where most of us fail, thereby giving an easy opening for our weaknesses and the temptations to dominate us. 

When we manage to abide with Christ, we would know and live by the real and ultimate purpose of our life. Such knowledge would help in giving the proper shape, direction and consistency to our life that is now being pushed and pulled in any which way by the many confusing elements in our life today. 

We have to realize the grave duty we have to know and live by this existential purpose of ours, since this will assure us that we are going in the right direction, even if we do it in different ways, paths, forms and manners. 

Especially these days when many people are confused and lost as to what really should be the ultimate goal of their life, we have to make this duty more known and appreciated. We cannot deny that many people do not have a clear purpose in life, or that their worldview is limited, distorted, if not wrong. 

And what is this existential purpose of ours? It’s none other than to give glory to God. It can be expressed also in many other ways. It’s about, as our Catechism would put it, knowing, loving and serving God. In fact, this is the very first point of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. 

“God, infinitely perfect and blessed in himself,” it says, “in a plan of sheer goodness freely created man to make him share in his own blessed life. For this reason, at every time and in every place, God draws close to man. He calls man to seek him, to know him, to love him with all his strength…” 

All this business of our existential purpose is lived and summarized by Christ himself, the son of God who became man to save us. He commanded us to love one another as he himself loved us, which he did to fully carry out the will of his Father. 

And so, it should behoove us to know more and more about Christ to such an extent that not only would we know his life, his teachings and example, but that we also would live his life, his teachings and example as well.

The real peace

THAT’S the peace that Christ gives to his disciples, distinct from the peace that the world may give. It’s a peace that serves as a constant consolation, amid understandable fears, to those who follow Christ on earth and continue with his redemptive mission. 

 “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you,” Christ said. “I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid,” he continued. (Jn 14,27) 

 This peace is not an effect of an absence of war. In fact, there is some kind of war involved because it can only be had when we struggle against our weaknesses and sins, when we try to become more and more like Christ, when we strive to enter deep into the spiritual and supernatural world of God where we will have our ultimate state in life. 

 This peace is not an effect of an absence of troubles and conflict in this life. We can have all sorts of difficulties, challenges and trials in this life, but the peace Christ gives us can hold on. In the midst of life’s storms, Christ’s peace can stand firm and unshaken. It can serve as a safe anchor. 

 Definitely, this peace is not simply a result of ignorance, indifference and death itself. No matter how deeply involved we are in the complicated drama of our life here on earth, we can still manage to be confident and hopeful, firmly convinced that we are all in the hands of God. 

 The peace Christ gives us is a kind of interior tranquility that springs from the divine order of things. It surpasses human understanding and is oriented toward our eternal goal rather than just some temporal security. 

 Obviously, this peace will require spiritual warfare and a strong relationship with Christ. It involves surrendering to God’s will and embracing Christ’s teachings. We therefore should know very well the real source of peace, giving priority to our relationship with God. 

 Thus, we need to be truly identified with Christ to have peace in ourselves. It is a peace that comes as a result of reconciliation. It therefore involves repentance, conversion, struggle, that Christ has shown to us by embracing the cross and dying on it. 

 The cross of Christ is all at once the summary of all our sins as well as the supreme act of love of Christ for us. It is both the tree of death and the tree of life. It’s where all the malice of man meets the tremendous mercy of God. Christ is asking us to carry the cross also with him. Only then can we have true peace that comes from Christ. 

 This is the peace that cannot waver even under the severe assaults of trials, difficulties and failures. It is the peace that involves a certain abandonment of everything in our life in the hands of God, even as we do our part of dealing with them. 

 We have to learn to receive and keep this peace that Christ gives us. We might have to pause from time to time to make this truth of our faith sink deeply in our consciousness and be the guiding principle of our life. 

 This is the peace that leads us to joy. They actually go together—“gaudium cum pace,” joy with peace, as one prayer in preparation for celebrating the Mass would put it.

The need for a daily agenda

LET’S hope that more and more people, especially the young ones, feel the need to have a daily agenda or a to-do list. This will assure us that, among many other things, we would be making good use of time, that we have a clear idea of the things we need to do, keeping us focused on our purpose and helping us to stay on the right track. 

 When we have this habit, we would be more likely to study and plan well the many things to tackle, thus enabling us to effectively prioritize what’s important. More than that, we would be more able to order them in such way that we not only pursue some immediate purpose but also, and more importantly, pursue the ultimate goal of our life which is to relate everything for the glory of God and for our sanctification. 

 Besides, this habit will give us more assurance of peace and a smooth work life even if there are unavoidable surprises along the way. We can feel a certain sense of dominion and an abiding sense of purpose. We would be more able to resist distractions that nowadays are getting plentier and more seductive. Yes, we would be more able to resist the usual dangers of idleness, laziness, loneliness, worries and the like. 

 And what kind of purpose can this be that would keep us going no matter what situation we find ourselves in? Of course, this could only be God, our love of God, from whom we come and to whom we belong. He is our beginning and end, our everything. 

 That’s why we need to sharpen our awareness of him, feel his presence and his abundant merciful love for us, learn to discern his will and ways in every moment, and know how to relate everything in our life to his ever-functioning Providence. 

 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) 

 Before that, Christ himself told us to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind.” (Lk 10,27) Nothing could be clearer than this as to what final purpose we have in life. All other goals and objectives we have in life should only be secondary and instrumental to this ultimate purpose of our life. 

 We need to find ways to correspond to this clear commandment of God to us. That effort will help us to broaden our mind, to continue making initiatives, to widen our perspectives, to deepen our hope and inflame our charity. It will help us to study things well, not only staying in the theoretical level but also going into the reality on the ground. 

 It will spur us to action always, not contented with knowing things alone or having some theoretical attitude in life. It will push us to develop a universal heart, capable of dealing with everyone and of reaching out to everyone, including the most difficult personalities and enemies. 

 It 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 behind our daily agenda, 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.

Beware of certain “truths”

WE have to be careful with those truths in quotation marks. They may cite data and facts, they may even invoke some words of the Bible, but if they do not come from Christ himself, they can only give some appearance of truth, or some partial truths at best, that are mentioned mainly in pursuit of some self-interest, if not of deception and manipulation. 

 That’s simply because Christ himself said that he is “the way, the truth and the life” (cfr. Jn 14,6), the only one who can bring us to God. He is the only one that can provide us with the proper way to bring us to our definitive eternal life of perfect happiness in union with God himself. 

 Many people, especially many politicians and businessmen, can dish out a lot of verified facts and data. But this does not mean that they are leading us to the real truth and to God. Most of the time, they only lead us to their own interest and advantage. Yes, they can have some traces of truth, but that’s about it, that’s pretty much everything. Let’s neither forget that when the devil dared to tempt Christ, he also cited some scripture passages. (cfr. Mt 4,1-11) 

 To know the truth and to be in the truth are a matter of being discerning of what Christ in the Holy Spirit is telling and showing us. In short, we cannot know and be in the truth unless we follow what the Spirit tells us. 

 We just cannot rely on facts and data and a majority vote to be in the truth. Understanding truth that way, without the inspiration of the Spirit, would just lead us to be deceived in a way that can be most subtle and convincing. But the result or the effect of such misunderstanding of truth would only be greater division among us or some harm. 

 Somehow, we can verify the effect of such misunderstanding of truth just by looking at how there is now a lot of division and misunderstanding among ourselves in spite of the tremendous developments we have in the sciences and the technologies. We can have a glut of facts and data and we can make choices by majority vote, and still the truth would elude us. 

 Facts and data need a proper spirit for them to serve the cause of truth. We need to realize that truth in the context or setting of our human condition needs a proper spirit. Without considering the proper spirit, they can only be used—or misused—by all sorts of possible human motives that in the end may not be right for us, or may just be self-serving to some of us but harmful to others. 

 We have to realize that the pursuit for truth is a very tricky one. For that, we need to be familiar with the Spirit of Truth. He is the one who will show us the whole truth and not just some aspects of it. If we really want to be in the truth and not confused and lost in the many appearances of truth, we need to get in touch with the Spirit of Truth. 

 Christ himself said: “When he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own. He will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.” (Jn 16,13) No one can ever say he has the whole truth until he reaches where the Spirit of truth would finally lead him, and that is when God becomes “all in all.” (cfr. 1 Cor 15,28)

How small ordinary things can be great

IT’S kind of amazing that in the gospel reading for the Mass of the Memorial of St. Joseph, the Worker, (cfr. Mt 13,54-58) celebrated on May 1, the figure of the foster father of Christ is just mentioned in passing, giving us the impression that he is no important character and that whatever he did was no big deal. 

 That’s when Christ went to his hometown and started to teach in the synagogue, astonishing the unbelieving townmates who could not help but say: “Where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works? Is not this the carpenter’s son,” they commented. They did not even mention the name of Joseph who simply was referred to as a carpenter. 

 But to be sure the role of Joseph in the life of Christ and in the whole economy of salvation cannot be exaggerated. He played a very crucial role in taking care of Christ as a child and in giving us a clear example that one does not have to be a big, prominent man, humanly speaking, involved in some big things, again according to human standards, for him to do the things of God and thereby achieve his holiness and real greatness. 

 The great lesson we can learn here is that all our duties and responsibilities of whatever state in life we may have, whether we are married or single, father, mother, son, daughter, worker, or whether we are a lay person or a religious consecrated person, are our clear way to cooperate in God’s continuing and redemptive providence over us. We need to appreciate more deeply the significance of our ordinary duties which we often take for granted. 

 And this is all because we are all children of God, and as such, our life is always a life with God. Everyone of us has a vocation that gives meaning and purpose, color and direction to our whole life. 

 Whether we are prominent in society or just an ordinary guy, a big politician or a menial worker spending the day toiling in the farms, each one of us is called by God, i.e., is given a vocation and has a mission to carry out in this life. We have to be aware of this basic truth about ourselves and be most discerning as to what specific vocation God is giving us. 

 In the case of St. Joseph, he was called, almost from nowhere, to be the husband of Mary and the foster father of Christ. It would look as if he was just asked to play a cameo role, an extra in a story, some kind of a prop to complete the scene in a given play. And yet he did it very, very well! 

 He corresponded to his vocation as the foster father of Christ and as husband of Mary with all his heart, even going through heroic episodes when, for example, he had to gather Mary and the baby Jesus in the middle to the night to escape the murderous rampage of a mad king. 

 If we would just be faithful to our vocation, no matter how small or hidden it is, we would already be carrying out an important part of God’s providence! We need to set aright our attitude toward whatever condition and state in life we may have in this life. The ordinary little things that we handle everyday are first of all our way to show our love for God and to cooperate in his ongoing providence over us.

From a vicious cycle to a virtuous cycle

A BROTHER of mine once gifted me with a gyro ball. It’s a device used for exercise and rehabilitation that strengthens wrists, forearms and hands, and improves grip strength and dexterity. I was amazed at how it works since with a certain movement of the hand, the ball just spins endlessly inside its shell until I decide to stop it. It has a self-generating momentum that keeps it going. 

 Somehow, the device reminds me of what we may describe as self-perpetuating cycles in our life that can either be good or bad, virtuous or vicious. And nowadays, with the proliferation of all kinds of addiction—from alcohol to drugs to pornography and sex—we somehow need a kind of gyro ball that can replace the vicious cycle into a virtuous cycle. 

 In the area of sexual addiction, for example, I am happy to note that there are now initiatives that promote the ideal of holy purity that would put sexual desires and actions in full agreement of God’s natural and moral law. It’s an ideal that definitely brings joy and peace of mind, and would put us on the proper path toward our ultimate goal in life, which is our sanctification. 

 These initiatives apply the wisdom and science of behavioral therapy to the challenge of overcoming addictive sexual behaviors. They show ways of how to gain mastery over our cravings, anxiety and distraction, using the research results, for example, in neuroscience, psychology, physiology and medicine. Of course, the religious, spiritual and supernatural inputs are used as anchor of the whole exercise. 

 This behavioral therapy addresses the momentum that drives virtuous and vicious cycles of behavior alike. In the vicious cycles, this momentum involves the process of increasing automation as one tries to escape from painful emotions. In virtuous cycles, what is involved is the growth in the sense of meaning, mastery and enjoyment that comes from the pursuit of the ideals proper to us as persons and as children of God. 

 In all this, the virtue of patience is needed first of all. It enables us to be willing to suffer the cravings for the sake of a higher and proper goal. It allows us to see the cravings as precisely the opportunity to convert the vicious cycle into a virtuous one. 

 This exercise also involves a certain kind of reframing that would train us to see trials as opportunities instead of threats. This kind of reframing would change how our brain works during a trial, changing the craving into an ability to make moral decisions. It will teach us how to be less impulsive and less prone to distractions, making our cravings much easier to manage. 

 In the end, what is most helpful is for us to be totally open first to God and to those who can help us spiritually, morally, psychologically and emotionally. For sure, a lot of sacrifice is needed, but we have to be assured that all the things needed, both human and supernatural, are all available. We just have to do our part. 

 It’s highly advisable that we would have recourse first of all to a spiritual director. We should lay all the card on the table without hiding anything. And if the seriousness of the problem warrants it, we may need to have professional help from psychologists, psychiatrists and doctors. 

 There’s always hope. Christ assures us of success. We just have to do our part.

Both with charity and clarity

WITH the very toxic air we have in the arena of public opinion, we need some saint as patron or intercessor who can help us in talking especially about hot-button issues related not so much in politics or business as in matters of faith and morals. 

 A number of saints in this regard can come to mind. To mention a few, we can cite St. Bernardine of Siena who is recognized as a patron saint of public relations; St. Francis de Sales who is known as patron saint of writers and journalists; and St. John Chrysostom who is dubbed the “Golden-Mouthed,” known for his skills in public preaching and public advocacy. 

 But I would like to highlight, in this regard, St. Catherine of Siena (1347-180) who was a Dominican tertiary, mystic and Doctor of the Church. She was known for her spiritual writings, like “The Dialogue” that has become a big influence in the spiritual lives of many people. She also advised popes and worked for Church unity, especially during a chaotic time of the Church. She promoted peace and cared for the poor. 

 Her memorial is celebrated on April 29. And it may be a good idea to develop a certain devotion to her, if only to imitate her way of intervening with charity but also with clarity that would have good impact on the Church and the society in general. 

 Yes, she fearlessly intervened in Church and political affairs, mediating disputes, giving counsels to leaders, and at the time when the Pope was in Avignon, she urged him to return to Rome. 

 Especially for those actively involved in journalism, social media and public opinion, she can be invoked for courage, charity with clarity, and for that delicate art of how to blend prayer with public action. 

 It cannot be denied that public opinion should be guided by Christian values and charity. No matter how deep and strong our differences and conflicts of views and preferences are, the common pursuit for truth in charity should be upheld. There definitely is a need to give-and-take, and for a healthy and courteous dialogue. We should always promote unity and fairness rather than negativity. 

 If we have to be true and consistent to our Christian identity, we should also be actively involved in the world of public opinion. That’s where a lot of action is taking place these days, action that both reflects the flowing signs of the time and helps to shape them. 

 The world of public opinion nowadays precisely needs the presence and active involvement of committed Christians. It now is in great need of the indispensable contribution of faith and religion, since at the moment it is becoming a metastasizing blob of views and positions that confuse people more than enlighten them. 

 The topics and issues discussed there are not anymore merely economic, social or political, but do have eminently spiritual and moral implications. There´s a lot of ignorance, confusion, outright error and, yes, malice, insofar as the spiritual and moral dimensions are concerned. 

 We cannot deny that in matters of opinion we will always have differences and conflicts. We just have to learn how to be civil in arguing our points and in sorting out the differences. We have to learn this art, now so relevant and urgent given the growing complexity of our times. What we should avoid is to fall into extreme biases and prejudices that would compromise a healthy dialogue.

The mark of divine filiation

WE have to be more familiar with this Christian doctrine about our divine filiation. Simply said it means that through God’s grace which he gives us, we become adopted children of his, sharers of his life and nature, without erasing the distinction between God who is our Father, the Model and the Keeper of such identity for us, and who is the creature. 

 We also have to realize that this divine filiation is actually meant for all of us. It is not reserved only to a few people or to some special kind of men and women. 

 To enable us to receive this grace and to become adopted children of his, God created us with a spiritual nature, endowed with intelligence and will that would enable us to know and love him. 

The ideal condition for us is to always have an intimate and constant relation with God. This ideal condition was once expressed graphically when Christ described the relationship between a shepherd and his sheep. “My sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they follow me,” he said. (Jn 10,27) In other words, for us to live out an authentic spirit of divine filiation, there should be some kind of synchronization between God’s will and our will. 

 We would always follow God’s will, regarding such disposition as the perfection of our freedom. To be sure, to attain such setting, we would need a certain discipline that would involve practices like prayer, recourse to the sacraments, deep knowledge of the doctrines of our faith. There is also need for continuing ascetical struggle and conversion, and the ability to discern the things of God amid our varying earthly conditions. 

 In short, we can truly say that we have a healthy spirit of divine filiation when we can honestly, accurately and with conviction say that we are doing nothing other than the will of God. Somehow, we can echo the words of St. Paul when he said: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” (Gal 2,20) 

 This may sound like something impossible to achieve, but with a strong faith lived consistently in our life, that impossibility can become not only possible, but also real. We should just train ourselves to feel at home with this incredible truth of our faith. 

 In this regard, we should try our best to go beyond our natural self without abandoning it, to enter into our supernatural self which God is offering us. For this, we have to live the Life in the Spirit. 

 That is to say, our life should be animated first of all by the Holy Spirit, the spirit of God that makes us children of his in Christ, making us “alter Christus” (another Christ), since Christ is the pattern of our humanity. It should not be a life animated simply by natural elements and principles. 

 Somehow, we can say that we are living the life in the Spirit when we can see in ourselves the fruits of the Holy Spirit as mentioned by St. Paul. They are “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” (Gal 5,22-23) 

 Yes, in spite of the varying conditions of our earthly life, in spite of the many challenges and trials that we are going to encounter here, we can manage to enjoy these fruits. That’s when we can say that we are doing things in synch with God’s will and ways. That’s when we can say that we are truly living as children of God, that we have the mark of divine filiation!

We should always be driven by love

THAT is the proper condition of our life. Everything we do should have love as its principle and end. We should not just be contented with some worldly motives and goals which, by the way, are also important to be taken care of. But we should not get stuck in that level alone. 

 We have to do everything out of love for God, and because of that love, it should also be done out of love for everybody else. This way of doing and working would enable us to enter the dynamic of the real love which is the very essence of God and the essence that is also meant for us. 

 We should not be contented with doing things and working only for some temporal and worldly goals, no matter how legitimate they are. We should not be contented with gaining technical achievement, for example. Nor should we be ok only with some economic gains, some political power and things of that sort. 

 These motives can only give our dedication a short life-span. They often work only under favorable circumstances. And most likely, they tend to corrupt us. Without love for God and everybody else as the motive for all our actions, we would just get involved ins some pursuits that in the end are simply fleeting, meaningless, and ultimately empty, like chasing the wind. 

 It is doing things with love for God and neighbor that would keep us going irrespective of the varying circumstances. It is this love that would unite us with the very power of God himself. We would not be depending solely on our human powers, even if also need to make full use of them. 

 That is why it is important that we be clear about the intention we have in everything we do. Let’s remember that nothing is good, true and beautiful, nothing is fair and just, nothing is perfect if it is not done with God and for God. In short, we need to refer all our acts to God. We have to make this affirmation very clear in our mind and do everything to make that ideal a reality. 

 And so, a lot depends on our intention, because our intention is the very expression of who and where in the end we want to be. Do we choose God, or do we simply choose ourselves, or the world, in general? It’s actually a choice between good and evil. 

 We need to realize then that we have to take utmost care of our intention, making it as explicit as possible, and honing it to get engaged with its proper and ultimate object who is God. 

 We should try our best to shun being simply casual or cavalier about this responsibility. We can easily play around with it, since intentions are almost invariably hidden from public knowledge. We are urged to be most sincere in directing our intentions properly. 

 We can easily fall into hypocrisy and deception, doing what can appear good externally but is not internally, since we could refuse giving glory to God, which is the proper intention to have, and instead feed and stir our vanity, pride, greed, lust, etc. 

 We need to actively purify our intentions, since we have to contend with many spoilers in this regard these days. In fact, we just have to look around and see how openly opposed many people are of directing their intentions to God. 

 To them, intentions are strictly personal and confidential matters that others do not have any right to meddle. While there is a certain truth to this claim, we have to remind ourselves that our intentions too are subject to a universal moral law.

Christ: the one for all

IN the gospel, we can hear Christ declaring himself as the door of the sheepfold. (cfr. Jn 10,7-9) “I am the door,” he said. “By me, if any man enters in, he shall be saved, and shall go in, and go out, and shall find pastures.” 

 With these words, we are made to understand that he is the sole legitimate entrance to human salvation, the protector who safeguards the sheep (us) from harm, contrasting himself from false leaders and prophets who would only exploit the flock. 

 In other words, he depicts himself as the only and unique mediator, as articulated once by St. Paul when he said: “There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” (1 Tim 2,5) In short, his salvific mission and mediation have a universal scope, and not just meant for some people. 

 In this regard, we can cite some points from a Vatican document, issued way back in 2000, entitled “Dominus Iesus, on the Unicity and Salvific Universality of Jesus Christ and the Church.” It responded and clarified certain theological trends that denied Christ’s exclusive mediation and proposed alternative and complementary revelations. 

 It’s definitely a delicate topic that has to be studied well and thoroughly. But first of all, it has to be studied in a way that is always guided by faith and not just by pure human reason that can present all kinds of theories, hypotheses and assumptions. 

 Let’s remember that the ultimate proof of the credibility of our Christian faith is the fact that Christ who is regarded as the fullness of revelation can truly be regarded as God because among the many good things he did, he finally resurrected from the dead. 

 Christ’s resurrection is the pivotal event that validates his claims about his divinity. It shows his power over death and the fulfillment of the prophecies that showed his relationship with God—that he is not just a man, a very special man, but first of all, he is God, the son of God who became man for our salvation. 

 We need to constantly strengthen this belief especially nowadays when there are many elements that tend to distract and weaken our belief in Christ. There even are open efforts to present an alternative to Christ. 

 We need to do everything to make Christ the constant focus and center of our life. May everything that we do, from our thoughts and desires to our words and deeds, begin with Christ as the inspiration, continue with Christ as our main help, and reach its target with Christ as the goal himself. 

 Let’s convince ourselves that any way of being and acting that is outside of this loop would expose us to deadly moral and spiritual dangers. Thus, right from the beginning of the day, as when we wake up, the first thing that should come to mind is regain this awareness that we need Christ always. 

 And so, we should develop the practice of making a morning offering to Christ of everything that will take place on that day as soon as we get up from bed in the morning. It’s what saints and many other people have been doing to set the proper human and supernatural tone to their daily affairs, giving them a sense of direction and purpose for the day. 

 The effort to give the first thought of the day to Christ is all worthwhile since it corresponds to the fundamental reality that our life is always, from beginning to end, a shared life with Christ and therefore also with God the Father, Creator, and God the Holy Spirit, the Sanctifier. Christ should be our all! (cfr. Col 3,11)

“Go out to all the world and tell the Good News”

THAT’S from the Gospel of St. Mark (16,15), words that Christ addressed to his remaining 11 apostles (Judas already quit) soon after his resurrection. In no unclear terms, he commanded them to go to the whole world and to preach the Good News, that is, the Gospel. 

 Now, if we truly feel that we are among his disciples, as we should, we should also feel that these words are also addressed to us. We are also being asked to get out of our own little world, trapped in our own personal affairs, to go global, spreading God’s word worldwide. 

 Here, Christ is giving what may be described as the Great Commission, a call to action for believers to spread the message of salvation through him. Let us remember that Christ is the only mediator between God and man (cfr. 1 Tim 2,5) 

 We need to do this with utmost care and prudence, with utmost discernment and obedience to God’s will and ways, considering that in the world we can encounter all sorts of people with all kinds of beliefs and worldview, some atheists and agnostics, others with religions that offer another god. 

 We need to learn the art of proper inter-religious dialogue to explain as best that we can the unicity and salvific universality of Christ which we have to uphold, explain, defend, etc. 

 Everything has to be done always with charity, because even in the bitterest of differences and conflicts in beliefs, it is charity that will win over. Charity upholds and defends the truth about the role of Christ in our life, and it contains the whole and ultimate truth about ourselves, despite whatever. 

 But we should cultivate the urge to reach out to as many people as possible. While it’s true that we are always limited by certain conditions, we have in our humanity blessed by God’s grace the capacity to go beyond those conditions. Yes, we may be limited by some circumstances, but through God’s grace, we can be given the strength to rise above them. 

 For this, we can use the modern technologies, such as the internet and the social media, as a “pulpit for the whole world.” We have to avoid falling into a parochial or tribal attitude toward our apostolic duty. While it’s true that because of our personal conditions, each one of us will have a particular niche in his apostolic activity, everyone should try to have a universal apostolic concern. 

 We have to be ready to get interested in everyone apostolically. We should be interested both in the rich and the poor, those in the mainstream of society as well as those in the peripheries. 

 We have to learn how to dance with the rich and crazy as well as to get wet and dirty with the poor and miserable. We should be able to do apostolate in any part of the world. We have to learn how to be all things to all men as St. Paul said. (cfr. 1 Cor 9-22) 

 For this, we need to be patient, persevering, creative and versatile. We have to learn how to “waste time” with everyone, especially those who may be very different from us in terms of temperament, social and economic status, etc. 

 We should not wait for some favorable circumstances before we do apostolate. To do apostolate should be like our heartbeat. We should feel its urge the way we feel the urge to breathe, eat and drink.

God’s initiative to draw us to him

THAT’S what Christ said very clearly. “No man can come to me, except the Father, who has sent me, draws him,” he said. (Jn 6,44) These words remind us that there is such thing as divine providence. We need to be most aware of it so we can do our part in corresponding to God’s constant intervention and guidance over us so we can attain our ultimate goal and perfection in life. 

 As our Catechism puts it, providence are “the dispositions by which God guides his creation toward their perfection…By his providence God protects and governs all things which he has made…(n. 302) 

 Furthermore, the Catechism says that “the solicitude of divine providence is concrete and immediate; God cares for all, from the least things to the great events of the world and its history.” (n. 303) 

 We need to understand that as God’s creatures, our creation is still in the making. We are still being formed and led to our perfection, which is none other than to be God’s image and likeness, children of his and sharers of his divine life in the eternity of heaven. He is continually directing and shaping us as he wants us to be. But we need to correspond as best that we can. 

 We have to realize then that God is constantly intervening in our lives, a reality that we should always acknowledge and correspond to properly. There is nothing in our life where God is not present or where he is inactive. 

This is the objective truth about the relation we have with God. For this, we have to be guided first of all by our faith rather than by our mere human powers that can only go so far. It is through faith that our intelligence, will and all the other faculties we have can discern this most wonderful reality of our life here on earth that can already give us a taste of eternal life here. 

 That is why, we need to cultivate our spiritual life, our relation with God which is otherwise called as our religion, that has to be constantly nourished through a life of piety that should be kept as vibrant as possible. 

 Otherwise, there is no other way but for us to fall into self-indulgence that has no other possible end than tragedy. We would be easy prey to our weaknesses, the many temptations around and sin itself. 

 That is why the Catechism tells us that “Jesus asks for childlike abandonment to the providence of our heavenly Father who takes care of his children’s smallest needs.” (n. 305). We should not dare to live solely on our own, something that we need effort to uphold, since our tendency is to think that we can simply be on our own. 

 This basic truth about our need to live under God’s providence should be inculcated on everyone as early as possible, giving out the appropriate means to make this ideal a reality. As the day wears on, we should be asking questions like, “Lord, what do you want me to do now, etc.?” 

 Asking this kind of questions should be like an instinct to us. It definitely would help us to make good use of our time, to have a keen sense of order that would set the proper priorities over the many things we have to deal with everyday. 

 What definitely a wonderful world we would have if all of us learn to live under God’s providence!

Always with God as times change

IT’S unavoidable. We should not be surprised by it. In fact, we should expect it. But let’s see to it that we do not get lost. We should still be clear about where we came from, what the meaning and purpose of life are, etc. We should never miss these existential and ultimate considerations even as we go along the changing fashions, trends and cultures of our times. 

 That way we can still distinguish between what is good and evil, what has absolute and relative value, what is safe and dangerous among the different elements we have to face. The important thing is that we are clear about where we are going, how we are managing to get to our real destination amid these varying conditions that can be very confusing and deceptive. 

 I must confess that I belong to the generation of the Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole songs, and a sprinkling of classical music of Chopin and Mozart. And through the years, I have been enjoying the different kinds of songs that became popular—from the Beatles, the Bee Gees, Rey Valera, Adele, etc. 

 Nowadays, I am listening to the likes of Billie Eilish and those Pinoy comedians who sing Pilipino songs (Tagalog, Bisaya, etc.) in Korean tunes. They provide innovations that elicit mixed reactions, and are often met with both admiration and disappointment, both applauded and criticized. 

 Well, that’s a fact of life. We just have to learn how to accept it and learn to deal with it properly. But we need to recognize that navigating the changing currents of life requires anchoring our souls to something firm and steady. It’s now becoming clearer that we need strong core values—our foundation—to keep us stable when life becomes confusing. In short, we need to have some kind of a ‘safe harbor’ mindset. 

 We have to be wary of the danger St. Paul once warned us about when he said that we should be “no longer like children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men and their cunning and craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive.” (Eph 4,4) 

 In other words, we should not be naïve who would just mindlessly go along where today’s current fashion and trends would bring us. Rather, we should always be circumspect, acting with careful consideration of the different elements involved in a certain matter. Yes, we have to stay guarded and vigilant as well as cultivate a practical wisdom that applies smart and realistic thinking in our daily life. 

 In all this, what is crucial is, of course, to stick with God always. Only with him can we be properly vigilant. It’s a vigilance that is an effect of keeping our love for God and others burn more and more. Without this impulse, we will surely be easy prey to the confusing, alluring and deceptive things of our times. This, of course, will always involve demanding on ourselves more and more. 

 We just have to be vigilant always. That is why the Bible is full of reminders about this need. “Be watchful,” St. Paul says, for example, “stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love.” (1 Cor 16,13) St. Paul practically has given us a good program of how it is to be watchful always. 

 Let’s learn the appropriate skills and art of being watchful both in good times and bad times and also in ordinary times when things appear to be neutral yet. Let’s sharpen our skill in examining our conscience, in reading the signs of the times, in assessing the different circumstances of the day, etc.