“Sent to bring glad tidings”

THIS was said of Christ. (cfr. Lk 4,18) If we are true to our desire to follow Christ, if not to be “another Christ” as we should, then we should also have this concern to bring glad tidings to the poor who actually are all of us. That’s because, although we have different social and economic status, we are all poor since we all need God. That is what is meant by one of the Beatitudes: “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” (cfr. Mt 5,3) 

 Bringing glad tidings to the poor can be carried out in many ways. But for sure, one way is to continually impart and inspire gospel values in all our temporal affairs, especially in those areas that are vulnerable to go wild, as in politics, business, entertainment, etc. 

 We need to make the world of public opinion, for example, human and Christian in spite of our unavoidable differences and conflicts. We, of course, are all free to express an opinion on any public issue at hand. In fact, this should be encouraged, since this will help in ferreting out what is truly helpful to the general public. 

 We just have to do it as responsibly as possible, which means that we should study the issue very well first, avoiding off-the-cuff comments that can cause unnecessary distress and acrimony among the people, and express our views as clearly as possible and with charity always. 

 Let’s always remember that our freedom of speech and expression can never do away with the requirements of charity. Even in the bitterest of our conflicts, we should always be charitable, ready to understand the others, to ask for pardon if we commit some mistake and to forgive when others commit them, etc. 

 For this to take place, we should first of all live out our Christian faith that would lead us to show gospel values like love, compassion and forgiveness in our daily life. We should try our best to be a good neighbor to everyone, irrespective of how they are to us. In whatever we say or do, we should do so with charity, kindness and respect. 

 We should use the social media wisely, sharing inspiring content, stories of hope and messages of love. We should engage in respectful dialogue as we actively participate in online forum and discussions, offering thoughtful and charitable insights. 

 What can also be helpful is to organize community events, like conferences and workshops, that promote gospel values and Christian spirit. Faith-based initiatives that especially serve the needs of the marginalized, promote social justice, and foster community life should be encouraged and supported. 

 Definitely, to be effective in “bringing glad tidings to the poor,” we should all pray first for guidance, seeking God’s guidance and wisdom to be able to inspire others. Also, regularly assessing our initiative and efforts to see their effects and impact on others should be done. This way, we can hope to inspire public opinion and make a positive difference in our community. 

 What we should avoid is to fall into extreme biases and prejudices that would compromise a healthy dialogue. Matters of opinion can lend themselves to different views and positions, all of them valid and legitimate, with their share of strong and weak points. 

 No one should claim that he has the last word in any issue or question. In matters of opinion, no one can claim that he has all the good, true and beautiful in his views. One should always be open-minded to the views of the others, no matter how different and conflicting they are to his. There is always some truth to what they say. We can always learn something from them.

Deep and solid trust in God’s providence

THAT’S what we need in our life here on earth. Given our limited, not to mention wounded, condition, we should see to it that whatever happens in our life, we should have a deep and solid trust in God’s providence. We are always in his hands, and even in situations where we cannot find anymore solutions in this world, we should never doubt that God has assured us that everything would just be all right as long as stick with him. 

 This was once dramatized in that gospel episode where Christ’s disciples were buffeted by big waves while they were in a boat. Christ appeared to them, walking on the sea, reassured them that it was he and not a ghost, and miraculously the tumultuous water became calm. (cfr. Mk 6,45-52) 

 God will always provide for our needs and limitations. He will, in fact, do everything to snatch us from the worst evil that can happen to us through the most effective and wise redemptive work of Christ. 

 God always provides for our needs. He is a very compassionate God who cannot tolerate to see people suffer. That gospel story has a very happy, uplifting ending. 

 And yet, if I may, we can ask the question—that if God is that compassionate and generous, then why is there so much suffering, poverty and misery around? It would even look like God is completely indifferent to this sad condition worldwide. It would look like many people are left to rot in their miserable condition. 

 The answer, of course, is that, yes, God is always compassionate. He cannot tolerate seeing people suffer. He will always provide for all our needs. He even went to the extent of becoming man in Christ who had to offer his life to attain the greatest need of mankind—our salvation. With that supreme act of compassion and generosity freely done, what other need do we have that would not be taken care of by God? 

 The truth is that God has provided us with everything. From our life with all its natural endowments to the air and water, to the abundant food from plants and animals and other resources, he has given them all for us to use and to live with the dignity of being children of God. 

 The problem is that we do not know how to manage them, how to care and help one another. There is so much indifference and self-indulgence, the germs that would develop into a worldwide pandemic of social injustice and inequality. 

 And 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.

All the way to the limit

THAT gospel episode about the multiplication of the loaves and fishes where Christ shocked his disciples when he told them to feed the big crowd with the very few things they had on hand (cfr. Mk 6,34-44) clearly reminds us that we should just give whatever we have, all the way to the limit, in pursuing God’s will for us. That’s because, as often said, we should just do our best and God will do the rest. 

 We should not be afraid when we would already find ourselves at our wits’ end, knowing that we are always in God’s hands. He knows what to do when we would already feel we are at our breaking point or at the end of the rope. 

 Let’s keep this truth of our faith alive so we can continue moving on despite whatever difficulty or failure may come our way. We should never give up. We should put away all forms of doubts and hesitation. With a sporting spirit and good sense of humor which should be the effects of our living faith, we know that even the impossible becomes possible. Christ proved it, and the saints who followed him closely did the same. 

 The important thing is for us to always keep in touch with Christ who is always around, ever eager to help us. Let’s hope that we can sincerely echo St. Paul’s words: 

 “Nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom 8,38-39) 

 We should just give and give. That’s the real language of love that is supported by a deep faith and a working hope. No matter how melancholic or phlegmatic our temperament may be, there should be in our mind and heart something that burns and drives us to action all the time. 

 We just have to train ourselves how to give our all, which is a tall order. But what is clear about this matter is that it is actually a call to enter into the will and ways of God which are supernatural. We are being asked to go beyond, but not against, our natural self. This is a call for us to approximate our identification with Christ. 

 If that pursuit for identification with Christ is strong in us, for sure we will also feel assured that everything would just be ok since Christ himself said: “Everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.” (Mt 19,29) 

 We need to beg God’s grace to be able to meet this Christian standard. We just cannot rely on our human powers to abide by it. It actually is an invitation for us to take a leap to the supernatural world of God where God wants us to be, since we are his image and likeness, meant to share in his very life and nature. 

 We need to develop a keen sense of generosity and self-giving that is also a result of detachment. Let’s never forget that whatever we have comes from God who wants us to work for the common good. Thus, we hear St. Paul saying, “What do you have that you did not receive?” (1 Cor 4,7)

The world and our sanctification

WE need to know the important relation between our temporal affairs in the world and our most important duty and responsibility of our own sanctification. We need to realize more deeply that our sanctification is done always in the world, which is the arena for us to tackle the test of whether we would like to be with God or simply to be on our own. 

 This means that if we truly love God, we should not run away from the world and the many challenges it presents to us. Rather we should love it, immerse ourselves in it, make use of what is true, good and beautiful in it and purify it of what is not. 

 It would clearly be a wrong understanding of what and how it is to love God if we equate loving God with running away from the world, or worse, hating it. The negative and evil things we can find in the world should only spur us to love the world the way God loves it—sending his only begotten Son to it. In other words, we have to be “alter Christus” to love the world properly. 

 Our sanctification therefore should have an effect on the way we carry out our temporal affairs and on the world in general. It just cannot be purely spiritual, mainly in the level of intentions and desires only, or exclusively personal understood as individualistic, with hardly any relation to the others and to the world in general. 

It should not be confined only to isolated and sacred places. It should be knowledgeable about the different issues and problems in the world, unafraid to complicate one’s life and even to get dirty without compromising what is essential in our relation with God. 

 The effect of our sanctification on the world can obviously take on an infinite number of ways and forms. Its impact on the world can be through our charity work, or through the humanization and Christianization of the different sectors and aspects of our society. 

 Aside from its effect on the person and the family, it should leave a sanctifying mark on the world of business, politics, education, sports, entertainment, social life, etc. It should make a better world, more worthy to be offered to God from whom it came, asking us to take care of it. 

 In business alone we need to advocate for an ethical behavior in governance, challenging corruption and greed, and promoting transparency as essential components of just leadership. We need to look into how we can have fair labor practices that ensure employees of dignified and respectful treatment. We have to do something about proper stewardship of God’s creation that avoid environmental degradation. 

 In politics, the duty of sanctification should promote unity and understanding among all people, avoiding polarization and division, relieving cases of injustice and giving due protection to the rights of the vulnerable and marginalized members of our society. We need to uproot corruption and lack of transparency in the government. It should work to inject integrity into the lives and work of our politicians. 

 In entertainment, sanctification can mean promoting wholesome and uplifting content, reflecting God’s design for human dignity and creativity. It should eradicate obscenity and signs of moral decay. Sadly, we have a lot of this kind of dirt these days. 

 Sanctification in the middle of the world can mean praying for our leaders, asking God to guide them with wisdom and justice. Some advocacy work should be encouraged so that policies and practices that reflect gospel values can be promoted. Perhaps, faith-based initiatives that promote social justice, good education and community development can be developed.

Lessons we can learn from the Epiphany

DEFINITELY, the main lesson we can learn from the Solemnity of the Epiphany when we commemorate the visit of the 3 Magi to the newborn Jesus is that Jesus is meant to be the redeemer not only to the Jews, regarded as the chosen people of God, but also to the non-Jews. His message and redemptive work have a universal scope, covering all men and women regardless of background, race, color, social status, etc. 

 That’s because God’s love is for all. And that love had its ultimate expression when Christ died on the cross for the sins of all people, providing a way for reconciliation with God, as articulated in the First Letter of St. John where it says: “He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.” (2,2) 

 Thus, it is through our faith in Christ that all of us can receive forgiveness, salvation, and eternal life. Christ himself said: “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me.” (Jn 14,6) With these words, Christ proclaims that he is the path or direction to God, that he is the embodiment of truth and the source of truth and that he is the source of eternal life. No one can reach God without going through Christ. 

 We need to meditate these words of Christ more deeply so we can truly capture the significance of the Epiphany of the Lord. They surely tell us that Christ’s mission was to bring salvation to all people, breaking whatever barriers there may be due to the diversity of backgrounds, race, color and the like. 

 We also need to understand that while Christ offers us a universal salvation, we too should also realize that we need to properly correspond to that offer. We need to realize that the offer of universal salvation is also a universal call to holiness to all of us. That’s because, as St. Augustine once said, that while God created us without us, he cannot save us without us. 

 We have to overcome the idea that sanctity is reserved only for a few and that it can only be achieved through certain acts and states of life. Sadly, sanctity has often been associated with priests and nuns and others who by some peculiar circumstances prefer to lead a religious or consecrated life practically spent in churches or some isolated or special places like caves, deserts, mountains, convents, monasteries, hermitages, mission areas, foreign lands, etc. 

 As a consequence, the ordinary people who stay at home and work in the fields or schools and offices, or those who simply find themselves in the middle of the world, are often considered out of contention for sainthood. At best, they can aspire only to be helpers and assistants to priests and religious men and women. 

 We need to correct this attitude because it is not quite correct. While such conception about sanctity contains a lot of truth and many good things, it however does not capture many other elements through which holiness can be pursued and achieved. 

 Everyone is called to holiness, because everyone is a creature of God, and as such is therefore created in the image and likeness of God, adopted as a child of his, and meant to participate in the very life of God. 

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

Ready, set, go

IT’S a phrase that is often used to start a race or to signal a countdown, creating excitement and anticipation before a race or an event. It’s a phrase that also can be useful as a daily spur for us as we begin the day. 

 We know that in a very clear way, our daily life is like a race. We should never be sluggish in life, not knowing exactly where we are going. We should be very clear about where we are going, what real goal we are supposed to achieve. Somehow, we should echo what St. Paul once said in this regard: 

 “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore, I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave…” (1 Cor 9,24-27) 

 If we want to have a truly good and happy life, one that is not simply a result of some worldly props that can only go so far, then we should be focused on God and driven and excited in carrying out his will and in following his ways. 

 And the simple reason is because, to be blunt about it, God is already the supreme good for all of us. There could be no other good better than him to whom we should be attracted more or who should arouse in us a greater attraction. 

 God is everything to us. More than that, he loves us so much that he created us to be like him. It’s with him that we can have our eternal joy in heaven, and while here on earth we can always count on his help, guidance and powerful, wise and merciful providence. 

 Obviously, we need to process this basic truth properly and thoroughly, since it is a truth of faith that certainly involves a lot of mysteries that we have to learn to live with. Once we get convinced of this truth, then it follows that God should be the constant and strongest cause of our desire and attraction. His presence and interventions in our life should be intimately felt by us. Pursuing to be with him should give us the greatest joy. 

 We have to be wary of our tendency to get trapped in some worldly and temporal goals as our main focus in life. These goals, for sure, also have their objective value. But we need to understand that these worldly goals cannot stand on their own. They have to be grounded on God, on his will, on his abiding providence over us. Otherwise, they can only pose as a danger to us. 

 This truth was articulated quite clearly by Christ when he said, “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.” (Mt 12,30) We really need to know and love Christ, the fullness of the revelation of God to us. He should not only be known by us. He has to be loved too, so that we can truly enter into his life and be identified with him, which is what is proper to us. 

 We need to examine ourselves to see if we are exerting the necessary effort to know and love Christ. That is why we need to spend time meditating on the life, word and example of Christ to such an extent that Christ becomes alive in us and is the one who motivates us in our thoughts, words and deeds.

Routine and new initiatives

HAPPY NEW YEAR, everyone! 

 As we open another year, let us first of all be thankful for everything that took place in the last year, regardless of what color they came, and look forward to this new year with great desire to do a lot of good things. 

 We certainly have to continue with our usual routine which had been helpful in filling our day with meaningful and fruitful work, but let us not be unmindful of the new challenges that certainly would also present themselves to us. 

 Let’s remember that the world is constantly evolving, and even if there are different times and conditions and things would just be the same in the end, there will always be new things that we need to deal with properly. 

 For us to discern these new things, we need to be most attentive to what God is prompting us in our prayer. He is always showing us the way for us to go. We should be quick to capture these promptings and act on them, coming up with plans and strategies that would involve new initiatives even as we retain the usual routine we have. 

 To take the initiative can only mean that we are following God’s primal command, the one given to our first parents: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and every creature that crawls upon the earth.” (Gen 1,28) It is a command that has not become obsolete nor superseded. It remains effective, reaffirmed in the commandments given later. 

 To take the initiative can only mean that we should be discovering something new, conquering and covering new territories. It need not mean something new in a quantitative sense. It can mean something new in the qualitative sense. “Non multa sed multum,” goes a Latin expression that highlights that point. “Not many things, but much.” 

 So, it is possible that this duty of taking the initiative can be carried out even if we are doing the same things everyday. We may be producing the same quantity of things everyday, but there should be growth in the quality of the things produced, of the way we do things, and of the way we are. 

 In the end, taking the initiative should redound to our becoming more and more a child of God. There should be growth of love, in any and all of its manifestations, because love is the essence of God and it is what makes us more and more like God as we should. 

 We have to be wary of our tendency to be contented at a certain level of human accomplishment. We have to do more to be more like God. That’s because love is not just sweet words, sweet feelings, but rather concrete deeds. And the character of true love involves being open to unlimited self-giving. It is given without measure. 

 Everyday, we have to take initiatives. Otherwise, our spiritual growth gets stalled, stunted or stagnant. And later on, our soul becomes a breeding ground for everything that is the opposite of love. 

 We have to take initiatives in developing our spiritual and apostolic life. We can never say enough—that we are already ok. There will always be new challenges. That is due to our weakened and erratic human condition. God will always be asking for more even as he gives us more graces. He will always be asking us to look for new frontiers in our effort of personal sanctification and apostolate.