Persons of criteria

THIS is what we have to aim at—to be persons of criteria, based on truth and charity—so that whatever situation we may be in, we would always feel confident and certain that what we are thinking, saying and doing is right and good, is helping us and others to reach our common good, both temporal and eternal, material and spiritual.

To be persons of criteria is to be persons who know how to distinguish between right and wrong, good and evil, fair and unfair, the essential and the incidental, etc.  Criteria as a term comes from the Greek word “krineo” which means to sort out, to separate, to distinguish.

In short, to be persons of criteria is to be persons who affirm, strengthen and develop their being persons not things, able to think, judge and reason out properly, and not just doing things mechanically or following things blindly.

They know how to distinguish the many elements and possibilities that go into any situation, and more importantly, know how to judge, how to choose what is truly good and wise for themselves and for all. In this way, they enhance their own freedom and joy, even if they have to ride out temporary difficulties and pains.

Persons without criteria are those who just follow the law of the jungle, who drift to an anything-goes type of lifestyle, allowing themselves to be dominated by feelings and passions alone, or social trends and fashions, not by reason, and much less by faith.

They seem stuck in some invincibly subjective condition, in a gripping state of self-absorption, detached from the objective, universal law that comes from God, our Creator and Father.

We have to be wary of our tendency, due to our weaknesses and other consequences of sin, both personal and social, to abort our growth into a mature person by ceasing or restraining in our lifelong effort to be persons of criteria, of correct convictions.

Nowadays, we even have public figures who not only have wrong criteria, but also flaunt them. They are, in fact, making aggressive action to proselytize others to their mistaken values. Worse, there now are countries that legalize and institutionalize these anomalies.

The world is getting very exciting and challenging. That’s another way of saying, it is sinking into more complex and complicated situations, with deep and vast confusion if not error reigning supreme.

Sad to say, aside from not giving any serious effort to correct this problem by studying, there’s also the trend to come out with half-baked ideologies that precisely give inadequate if not erroneous criteria.

Among the many things thrown into confusion in our world today are the questions about the existence of God, his abiding providence, the essence and role of law in our life, the essence, origin and purpose of our freedom and its intrinsic relation to obedience to God’s will.

            Also many things related to our human nature are getting distorted if not totally ignored. That we are spiritual beings with a supernatural end, and not just material and social beings, that our reason and will are in need of a firm foundation found only in faith and charity, that our emotions should not be on their own but need to be directed by our reason and faith—these are a few examples of what we are not clear about these days.

            In the end, we have to realize that for us to be persons of criteria, we need to be vitally linked to the living God, making use of the many and more than abundant instrumentalities made available to us.

            We have the faith, we have Christ and his doctrine and example, the Holy Spirit who continues to abide in us, making God alive in us here and now, the Church with her sacraments and the various charisms to address all types of needs we have, etc.

            We should not just depend on our rudimentary sense of good and evil that comes when we reach the age of reason or which is mainly dependent on social and cultural trends. Our sense of good and evil that makes us persons of criteria should be based on our living relationship with God, or on our faith.

            It is faith that widens and deepens our understanding of things. It brings us to higher levels and aspects of reality not usually accessible to our senses alone, or even to pure reason. It brings us the spiritual and supernatural realities of our life.

            To be persons of criteria means we have to live with God by faith and charity.

Work and rest

            OUR life is one and we need to protect and strengthen that unity and do everything to guard ourselves from the many elements that can cause its division and fragmentation.

            There are many of them, sad to say. We have to be aware of them and do constant battle against them. Foremost of these hostile elements is the prevailing culture that pits our work and rest, our toil and fun against each other.

            We have to understand that our work and rest, rather than being considered as antithesis or contrary to each other, should somehow blend and contribute precisely in strengthening our unity of life. We cannot have one without the other.

            We have to outgrow the mentality that puts these two vital parts of our life at odds with each other. They have to work in tandem, and that depends on us. Basic of course is the proper understanding of our life in general, and the role our work and rest play in it.

            In the Bible narration of the creation of the world and man, we already have the most fundamental idea about work and rest that offers us the basic pattern of how our work and rest should be.

            God, out of love and sheer goodness, created the world and made us the masterpiece of his creation. At the end of each day of the creation, our Lord admired what he made, and found them to be good and was happy. Then on the seventh day, we are told that he rested.

            Here, we are made to understand that resting comes after working, until we reach the final rest on the seventh day, an image of completion and perfection. We have to realize then that our rest comes after our working, and that that rest should be, as much as possible, an expression of our satisfaction and joy derived from our work.

            Rest, therefore, is and should be vitally linked to our work. We have to correct every tendency to consider our rest as an escape from our work. Unfortunately, that attitude is rampant these days. For many people, rest has become completely alienated from our work.

            Aside from being an escape from work, it has become the moment to engage in self-seeking and self-absorption. Both work and rest have been uprooted from their original meaning and purpose, and that’s the reason the two have become at odds with each other.

            We need to recover the original state of affairs. And I know it’s not going to be easy. Formidable barriers are now formed in terms of culturally ingrained biases and prejudices. How to dismantle these barriers is a big question mark.

            I feel that we need some kind of revolution here. A radical change of attitude is needed, a sea change, a break from our wayward past. But for that to happen, we need to ask how many people realize this need? Frankly, I feel only a few, and the few who do realize seem to be resigned to accept the status quo.

            I suppose we have to be extremely patient and hopeful here. The revolution takes a long time to happen. The gestation period is slow, but let’s hope that we can sustain the focus and concern so that we can attain a critical mass that would trigger this revolution to explode.

            We need to do an extensive apostolate on work and rest, starting with our own selves, then at home, in churches, schools and offices, in public gatherings, etc. Fiestas, for example, which are an example of rest, should be used as an occasion to explain to the people the true meaning of work and rest.

            The connection and relation between fiestas and the ordinary time of the year should always be highlighted, giving due attention to the religious grounding of work and rest, since that is where these two aspects of our life truly originated and derived their meaning.

            We have to impart the proper values especially to the children, because they are our future. So there in homes, churches and schools, a clear and sustained catechesis about work and rest should be made.

            We have to promptly correct the erroneous understanding and practices related to these. When we see them lazy, just melting away in the sofas, or wasting time, we have react immediately.

            Therefore, the parents, clergy and teachers should be the first ones to give good example and to articulate through advice, suggestions, corrections, etc., the relevant doctrine. Let’s hope that we ourselves, the elders, also realize we need the appropriate formation for this task.

For God and for others

WE have to be men and women for God and for others. That’s actually the objectively proper trajectory of our thoughts and desires. We have to be wary when we get trapped thinking only of ourselves, a constant danger to us.

            To be persons for God and for others is written in our nature. The structure and features of our life all demand that we actually need to get out of our own selves, otherwise we get short-circuited.

            Our joy, our fulfilment is in God, and because of God, it’s also in others, since loving God always passes through loving others. The gospel tells us that. “The greatest commandment is to love God with all your might... and the second greatest commandment is to love your neighbour as yourself.”

            We need to be prepared to do serious, constant battle against our tendency also to get self-centered and self-absorbed.  This, of course, is a very like possibility, easily and quickly verifiable around. That’s because we actually contend with a great number of hostile or negative elements.

            First, we have the very understandable basic human need to take care of ourselves. Since birth and during infancy and childhood, our tendency is to be self-centered as we need to be taken care of.

            Then, we have our own weaknesses—laziness, softness, attachments, etc.—that keep us thinking of our own selves, our own comfort, our own interests. If these are not corrected, unweaned from them, they become part of our system, and it’s going to be harder every time to get out of them.

            Babies need to be fed, bathed, clothed, doted, pampered, etc. Children always have to be watched and supervised. These obviously make them think of themselves, an understandable phase that should be vitally joined, never detached, to our need to think, love and serve others.

            We just have to make sure that children, once they reach the age of reason, should little by little be taught to think of others, until they get to understand that it’s when they think  of others and ultimately of God that they find their true joy. We should be clear about this right at the beginning, otherwise we will unavoidably spoil them.

            This task is not going to be easy. But neither is it impossible. We just have to see to it that all the elements that go into the upbringing of children—parents, home, teachers, school, etc.—are properly equipped to carry out this delicate responsibility.

            So important is the need to have the families and the schools undergo continuing formation to be able to cope with new and old challenges! How to form children in virtues to make them more mature and able to face life properly, how to help them make use of their time and overcome their weakness—these should be their constant concern.

            In school, while children understandably have to be given a protective and controlled environment, they also need to be exposed to the realities of life. It would be anomalous if they are quite good in school but seem not to remain so at home, and especially outside.

            We have to consider that nowadays the environment is saturated with a culture that fosters frivolity and easy-going ways, averse to any form of sacrifice, as if sacrifice is per se bad. We have to find ways of how to tackle this real threat to the proper development of children.

            There may be children who can be active, but active in a selfish way—pursuing only their own goals, interests and concerns, and never thinking in terms of God’s will and the common good. This is quite common also.

            We should not hesitate to introduce these realities to them. They are not mere theories or abstract values. The reality and immediacy of God’s will and the common good have to be shown to them as early as possible, done through personal witnessing and timely pieces of advice and reminders.

            Therefore, a lot of catechesis is needed, something that of course has to be done with a lot of naturalness, always respecting freedom, never using coercion or pressures. That’s why it is also important that warm human relations should be fostered and kept. We have to stay away from simply imparting things through lectures.

            We need to spend time and develop the true substance of friendship or paternity or filiation, etc. In these, we cannot cheat for long. It’s an investment worth making, for its dividends will always come, if not here, then definitely in our eternal life.