BECAUSE of our spiritual nature, because we are free and can choose and determine the course of our life, and a host of other becauses, we are able to turn our life north or south, to rise to the heights of glory or to plunge into the depths of ignominy.
Our dignity is of utmost caliber, nothing less than persons created in the image and likeness of God and made, in fact, as God’s children through the gift of grace. But it’s also by the same token that we can fall far deeper than any creature can into utter meanness. “Corruptio optimi pessima,” the corruption of the best is the worst.
That’s why there’s heaven and hell, eternal bliss and endless damnation. Both truths of faith reflect the best and the worst in us.
Such is our condition. We should be constantly aware of this double-edged possibility that can befall us, so we can be properly prepared and skilled to handle it. Truth is there are moments in our life when we seem to walk on a tightrope between good and evil. We should not be surprised by this situation.
Those who are more gifted in life—in intelligence, talents, looks, fame, wealth, health, power, etc.—usually find themselves with more temptations and trials both in terms of quantity and complexity. Yet, everyone is offered a choice where to turn to.
We have to reassure ourselves that there’s always hope, and that the means for us to make the right choice are always there. As St. Paul once said, “where sin has abounded, the grace of God has abounded even more.” (Rom 5,20)
Yes, our capacity to sin can be endless. If our first parents, Adam and Eve, still in their original condition of sinlessness and excellence, managed to sin, you can imagine how easy it would be for us to fall, since our present condition is much more vulnerable to sin.
Besides, our armory to further this capability to sin to its extreme of malice can be richer. If our fallen first parents only resorted to hiding behind a fig leaf and making petty excuses, we now have far plentier ways of hiding and offering alibis. We can even dare to rebel openly against God, doing so with conviction and indifference.
We should therefore acknowledge our sinfulness and our huge potential to sin. St. John once said, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” (1 Jn 1,8) This is the first step—to acknowledge it—so we can take the necessary succeeding steps.
We need to be constantly on guard against our weaknesses and the temptations both inside and outside us. We have to remember that our worst enemies can be our own selves, and the trickiest temptations can spring from our best endowments. So, let’s not be naïve.
We have to learn how to do battle with them, always coming up with strategies that would clearly identify our specific enemies at the moment (laziness, lust, pride, envy, etc.) and the spiritual and moral weapons we need.
We need to develop virtues and good practices, filling our mind and heart with good thoughts and desires, engaging our faculties with their proper objects. We have to avoid idleness and a selfish loneliness that cuts us from God and from others. Even in our solitary moments, we have to think always of God and others.
Thus, it would be good if we can formulate an effective plan that includes the appropriate acts of piety—prayers, continuing formation, sacrifice, sacraments, etc.—so that we don’t face the day unprepared and ridiculously exposed to our spiritual enemies.
We need also to bolster our faith in God’s everlasting mercy. Our Lord always forgives. He gives special and immediate attention to sinners. Remember the story of the woman caught in adultery and the repentant thief. He didn’t go through complicated investigations. He just forgave them!
He himself taught us to forgive others not only seven times but seventy times seven, meaning always. In fact, God wants us to forgive others so we can be forgiven.
Let us also remember the steps to attain forgiveness and to be able to forgive others—regularly doing examination of conscience, making many acts of contrition reparation, going to frequent confession.
Blessed John Paul II once said it is God’s mercy that limits our capacity to sin. So, it’s very important not only to be familiar with, but also to savor this divine mercy given to us so abundantly.
Monday, January 30, 2012
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Basis for our unity and equality
I SUPPOSE everyone is interested in unity and equality, perhaps more of the latter than the former, though one cannot be without the other.
My feminist friends, for example, would want women to have equality with men. The poor want to be treated with a certain sense of equality with the rich. Same with the young with respect to the oldies, the weak and handicapped with the strong and powerful, etc. It’s a matter of basic justice.
We cannot deny the fact that aside from the uniqueness of each one of us, we form different groups and fall into different classes, kinds, types and categories, based on different criteria—beliefs, culture, profession, to mention a few.
Yet there is also the undeniable fact that despite our many differences, we want to be together in a functioning unity and equality. That’s why we have doctrines, rules and laws, courts, governments and other structures to attain this goal.
We just have to make sure all these human instruments are properly grounded. Which also means they have to be properly driven and oriented, since these requirements actually go together, though they don’t come automatically. We have to work on them.
This can happen only when our pursuit for unity and equality is based on our living union with God shown in obeying the truths he revealed to us about ourselves and living them, of course, in charity. Again, truth and charity always go together if either one has to be authentic, not fake or plastic. Otherwise, we would have a flying elephant.
Our problem is that we often get contented only with our own ideas, ideologies, laws and some consensus to achieve this ideal. Do you think these would be enough? Unity and equality among men and women, for example, just cannot be achieved simply with our human means. We can say, “tell it to the Marines,” when one would dare to affirm so. Imagine when we have to consider the complexities of pursuing social justice.
Though our human doctrine, ideologies and laws have a role to play, they are nothing if they are not inspired or infused with the living spirit of God, who is the source of all unity and equality. This should be made clear to everyone.
We would just be giving appearances, many times deceptive appearances, of unity and equality, when things are not done in the context of a living relation with God. The Trinitarian nature of God—three persons in one God, equal in dignity and in eternal relation with one another—is the pattern of the unity and equality proper to us.
This is just but to be expected, since we are made in the image and likeness of God, and with grace, made children of his, meant to participate in the very life of God. We should never forget this piece of fundamental truth so indispensable in our life here on earth!
Christ, the son of God who became man to give us the fullness of divine revelation, has affirmed this truth when he said in his prayer to his Father: “Holy Father,” he said, “keep them in your name whom you have given me, that they may be one as we also are.” (Jn 17,11) This is the famous “ut unum sint” line of our Lord.
We can only become one and equal with one another in Christ, in spite of or because of our differences. This is what St. Paul said in this regard: “For as in one body we have many members, but all the members have not the same office; so we being many, are one body in Christ, and everyone members one of another.” (Rom 1,4-5)
We need to meditate deeply on these words for in them is contained the very germ of our unity and equality among ourselves. These are no mere words, if approached with faith and piety. They are the living truth that comes from God, effective words depending on how consistent we are with our faith.
Our problem usually is that we tend to refrain from making a theological understanding of our life. We prefer to stay in the “safe and comfortable” vision of life, guided only by common sense, or our reasoning based on our sciences, technology and our so-called democratic way of life.
We need to expand our grasp to reality by being guided mainly by faith and an authentic relationship with God, because only then can we truly satisfy our longing for unity and equality.
My feminist friends, for example, would want women to have equality with men. The poor want to be treated with a certain sense of equality with the rich. Same with the young with respect to the oldies, the weak and handicapped with the strong and powerful, etc. It’s a matter of basic justice.
We cannot deny the fact that aside from the uniqueness of each one of us, we form different groups and fall into different classes, kinds, types and categories, based on different criteria—beliefs, culture, profession, to mention a few.
Yet there is also the undeniable fact that despite our many differences, we want to be together in a functioning unity and equality. That’s why we have doctrines, rules and laws, courts, governments and other structures to attain this goal.
We just have to make sure all these human instruments are properly grounded. Which also means they have to be properly driven and oriented, since these requirements actually go together, though they don’t come automatically. We have to work on them.
This can happen only when our pursuit for unity and equality is based on our living union with God shown in obeying the truths he revealed to us about ourselves and living them, of course, in charity. Again, truth and charity always go together if either one has to be authentic, not fake or plastic. Otherwise, we would have a flying elephant.
Our problem is that we often get contented only with our own ideas, ideologies, laws and some consensus to achieve this ideal. Do you think these would be enough? Unity and equality among men and women, for example, just cannot be achieved simply with our human means. We can say, “tell it to the Marines,” when one would dare to affirm so. Imagine when we have to consider the complexities of pursuing social justice.
Though our human doctrine, ideologies and laws have a role to play, they are nothing if they are not inspired or infused with the living spirit of God, who is the source of all unity and equality. This should be made clear to everyone.
We would just be giving appearances, many times deceptive appearances, of unity and equality, when things are not done in the context of a living relation with God. The Trinitarian nature of God—three persons in one God, equal in dignity and in eternal relation with one another—is the pattern of the unity and equality proper to us.
This is just but to be expected, since we are made in the image and likeness of God, and with grace, made children of his, meant to participate in the very life of God. We should never forget this piece of fundamental truth so indispensable in our life here on earth!
Christ, the son of God who became man to give us the fullness of divine revelation, has affirmed this truth when he said in his prayer to his Father: “Holy Father,” he said, “keep them in your name whom you have given me, that they may be one as we also are.” (Jn 17,11) This is the famous “ut unum sint” line of our Lord.
We can only become one and equal with one another in Christ, in spite of or because of our differences. This is what St. Paul said in this regard: “For as in one body we have many members, but all the members have not the same office; so we being many, are one body in Christ, and everyone members one of another.” (Rom 1,4-5)
We need to meditate deeply on these words for in them is contained the very germ of our unity and equality among ourselves. These are no mere words, if approached with faith and piety. They are the living truth that comes from God, effective words depending on how consistent we are with our faith.
Our problem usually is that we tend to refrain from making a theological understanding of our life. We prefer to stay in the “safe and comfortable” vision of life, guided only by common sense, or our reasoning based on our sciences, technology and our so-called democratic way of life.
We need to expand our grasp to reality by being guided mainly by faith and an authentic relationship with God, because only then can we truly satisfy our longing for unity and equality.
Friday, January 20, 2012
The Good News about our body
THEOLOGY is, of course, still a toxin, a foreign body in the minds of most people, including our leaders in the different fields like business, media and politics, even if they profess to be quite religious and have no qualms showing it off.
This is sad, simply because if we realize that we are not just purely material beings, nor simply rational, but that we are also actually spiritual beings with a supernatural goal, then there is no doubt that we need to be guided by faith, that we actually have to do theology in our daily affairs.
It can be granted that many people know this truth in theory. It’s however a very different story in practice. Many are not guided by faith. They simply rely on reason at best, if not, by other lower human faculties and powers, like feelings, emotions, passions, gut feel, etc.
The common phenomenon is that many still cannot make their faith abidingly functional, even if in theory they profess it. There is still no unity of life, no consistency between faith, reason and the other human powers. Many still do not know how to get their act together.
This is one of the big challenges of our time. We have to find ways to overcome the awkwardness, the inability to exercise our faith or to do theology in our human affairs. We have to find ways to neutralize and dominate the antibodies that seem to render us immune and insensitive to the practical consequences of faith.
Pursuing this goal obviously involves a process, a going through of several stages. This is part of our human condition, even if faith, being a supernatural gift, can transcend the usual human requirements. We need to study, but first, we need to have that faith put in human terms also for us to be able to study and hopefully assimilate it.
That is why it is good news that the late Pope, now Blessed, John Paul II developed the theology of the body to give us a clear idea and guideline about a subject that is often taken for granted or considered not as important as studying the dynamics of our spiritual life. This is a new frontier that many of us still have to cross.
Here lies not only the astounding novelty but also the true significance of this part of theology. The theology of the body recovers the original value and role played by our body, and everything else material and earthly, in our life. A quick look at our human history clearly shows how the truth about our body has been awfully distorted.
This theology of the body makes us see that our flesh is organically linked to our spiritual and supernatural character of our life. While distinct, it cannot be separated from our integral human nature and condition, from our beginning and end, and from the plan and purpose God our Father and Creator has for us.
It is mainly based on the undeniable truth that our body also has been created by God, and when it turned sinful, it has been redeemed by no less than God’s Son and Word becoming flesh.
This theology would certainly deepen and broaden our understanding of our life, and would make us more sensitive to the duties and responsibilities we have toward our body. We have so far been neglectful or ignorant of this part of our responsibilities, and of course, we suffer the consequences.
We cannot deny that even among many good people—those who exert great effort to follow Christ—severe problems and difficulties have been gripping them in their concern to rein in the often erring workings of their own flesh.
This sad phenomenon is often made worse because it is a subject that many people find hard to talk about. And so it tends to fester. Many people nowadays, once they know about this theology of the body, welcome it as a true gift from God that was articulated well by Blessed John Paul II.
We should try our best to spread this Good News about our body as widely as possible. We can take advantage of our new technologies to do this. This task, to me, is quite urgent, if only to redress a persevering, if quiet, crisis we are suffering in the whole world.
It’s good to know that powerful institutes have been put up mainly in the States and are precisely preaching this Gospel. We need to have some of these institutes in our country too!
This is sad, simply because if we realize that we are not just purely material beings, nor simply rational, but that we are also actually spiritual beings with a supernatural goal, then there is no doubt that we need to be guided by faith, that we actually have to do theology in our daily affairs.
It can be granted that many people know this truth in theory. It’s however a very different story in practice. Many are not guided by faith. They simply rely on reason at best, if not, by other lower human faculties and powers, like feelings, emotions, passions, gut feel, etc.
The common phenomenon is that many still cannot make their faith abidingly functional, even if in theory they profess it. There is still no unity of life, no consistency between faith, reason and the other human powers. Many still do not know how to get their act together.
This is one of the big challenges of our time. We have to find ways to overcome the awkwardness, the inability to exercise our faith or to do theology in our human affairs. We have to find ways to neutralize and dominate the antibodies that seem to render us immune and insensitive to the practical consequences of faith.
Pursuing this goal obviously involves a process, a going through of several stages. This is part of our human condition, even if faith, being a supernatural gift, can transcend the usual human requirements. We need to study, but first, we need to have that faith put in human terms also for us to be able to study and hopefully assimilate it.
That is why it is good news that the late Pope, now Blessed, John Paul II developed the theology of the body to give us a clear idea and guideline about a subject that is often taken for granted or considered not as important as studying the dynamics of our spiritual life. This is a new frontier that many of us still have to cross.
Here lies not only the astounding novelty but also the true significance of this part of theology. The theology of the body recovers the original value and role played by our body, and everything else material and earthly, in our life. A quick look at our human history clearly shows how the truth about our body has been awfully distorted.
This theology of the body makes us see that our flesh is organically linked to our spiritual and supernatural character of our life. While distinct, it cannot be separated from our integral human nature and condition, from our beginning and end, and from the plan and purpose God our Father and Creator has for us.
It is mainly based on the undeniable truth that our body also has been created by God, and when it turned sinful, it has been redeemed by no less than God’s Son and Word becoming flesh.
This theology would certainly deepen and broaden our understanding of our life, and would make us more sensitive to the duties and responsibilities we have toward our body. We have so far been neglectful or ignorant of this part of our responsibilities, and of course, we suffer the consequences.
We cannot deny that even among many good people—those who exert great effort to follow Christ—severe problems and difficulties have been gripping them in their concern to rein in the often erring workings of their own flesh.
This sad phenomenon is often made worse because it is a subject that many people find hard to talk about. And so it tends to fester. Many people nowadays, once they know about this theology of the body, welcome it as a true gift from God that was articulated well by Blessed John Paul II.
We should try our best to spread this Good News about our body as widely as possible. We can take advantage of our new technologies to do this. This task, to me, is quite urgent, if only to redress a persevering, if quiet, crisis we are suffering in the whole world.
It’s good to know that powerful institutes have been put up mainly in the States and are precisely preaching this Gospel. We need to have some of these institutes in our country too!
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