Never be afraid to approach God

NOR be ashamed. Even if we have offended him big time or

find ourselves in a most shameful condition, let’s never hesitate to

approach God to ask for pardon or any kind of help. God is always a

Father whose only delight is to love us all the way. He is ever ready

for that, and, in fact, very eager too. He will do everything to help

us in any way.

            This is what we learn from the episodes of the Canaanite

woman (cfr Mt 15,21-28), the official whose daughter just died, and

the woman suffering from hemorrhages for 12 years. (cfr Mt 9)

            In the case of the official, Christ dropped everything to

go to the house of that official and along the way happened to help

the woman also.

            In the case of the woman, it has to be noted that she was

publicly regarded as an outcast. But she was determined to approach

Christ even secretly, and even if only to touch Christ’s cloak.

            “If only I can touch his cloak, I shall be cured,” she

said to herself. Her strong faith, her confidence, her humility, all

contributed to the granting of her desire. “Courage, daughter! Your

faith has saved you,” Christ told her. And she was cured.

            Let’s take note that more than just the cure of her

hemorrhages, Christ told her she was saved. Christ is more interested

in the salvation of our sinful soul, which is more important than in

the cure of any health problem.

            In the case of the Canaanite woman, Christ readily saw how

great her faith was, and so he relented even if at the beginning he

ignored her. Christ was simply testing her faith. And by so doing, he

also showed that faith can transcend and cross racial and cultural

boundaries.

            Let’s hope that we can have the same attitude as the

Canaanite woman, the official and the sick woman. Let’s not delay in

going to Christ by whom all our needs are satisfied. Let’s have the

same attitude, the same faith, confidence and humility that these

three characters had shown.

            More than that, let’s also show among ourselves the same

attitude that Christ had toward these three characters. Let’s be quick

to help others, to understand them, to be patient and merciful with

them. Let’s develop a universal heart that can accommodate everybody

with love.

            Let’s remember that we have to like him, since as the Son

of God, he is the very pattern of our humanity, and as the Son of God

who became man, he is our redeemer who definitely resolves our earthly

human predicament.

            Let’s spend time meditating on this wonderful truth about

the fatherhood of God to us in the hope that we can develop that

intimate spirit of filiation to him. Let’s remember that our divine

filiation should be the foundation of our relationship with God.

            We are not just one more creature of his. We are the

masterpiece of the whole of his creation. We are children of his, yes,

in spite of the mess that we can manage to create because of the

misuse of our freedom.

            We have to learn not to be afraid of him, nor ashamed to

approach him because of our stupidities. The fear of the Lord, which

is one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, is simply the fear of

offending him, but not the fear to approach him after we may have

offended him.

            God looks kindly on sinners. The divine justice that our

sins deserve does not undermine at all the divine mercy he is always

eager to give us. So, let’s take heart, just like what Christ told the

woman.

Be confident and courageous

THERE’S really no reason to be too worried and anxious

when we encounter some difficulty in our life. In fact, we have every

reason to be confident and at peace, focused on what we are supposed

to do. And that’s because we are always in God’s hands.

            Whatever situation we may be in, we can be sure that God

will always provide for what is truly needed by us, and it may not be

what we want. We just have to trust him completely for he knows better

than we do, and what we want may not be what we need. It may not even

be what is good for us.

            The story of Abraham’s complete trust in God is a great

lesson for us. (Gen 22,1-19) When God tested him by asking him to

offer his only son, Isaac, as a sacrifice, he readily agreed. We

already know how the story ended—a happy ending it was—and what great

lesson he learned from that test.

            Abraham named the place where he was supposed to sacrifice

his son, “Yahweh-yireh” (the Lord provides), for he was provided in

the last minute with a ram instead of his son for the sacrifice.

            God always knows what to do in any situation we may find

ourselves in. He may allow some evil to come to us, an evil that can

do us no harm unless we let it, but God knows how to draw good from

evil.

            Ours is simply to trust God completely, and out of that

trust, we should always feel confident and courageous to do what we

are supposed to do. We should not waste our time lamenting and feeling

like a victim, or wallowing in doubts, passivity and self-pity.

            We have to remove ourselves from that state mentioned by

St. Paul in his Letter to the Ephesians: “children tossed to and fro

and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the cunning of men,

by their craftiness in deceitful wiles.” (4,14) We have to move. There

are a lot of things to do.

            Yes, there will always be challenges, problems,

difficulties that humanly speaking may be impossible for us to tackle.

But as long as we have trust in God, we can sincerely echo St. Paul’s

words: “I can do all things in him who strengthens me.” (Phil 4,13)

These words have been verified to be true in the lives of all the

saints, especially the martyrs.

            It’s important that we be confident and at peace always,

because that would put us in the proper condition to do the things we

are supposed to do. It will make us bold and courageous, fruitful and

productive.

            It is a confidence that is not presumptuous. It goes

together with prudence, discretion and tact. It is meek and humble,

not pompous, arrogant and vain. It reassures and inspires people. It

would make us credible in our witnessing to Christ’s saving message.

            It is a confidence that is both in heaven and on earth. It

happily blends eternity and time. It is not simply theoretical. It is

also realistic and practical.

            Let’s strive to be always confident and courageous!

Temperance in the digital age

WE need to tackle this big challenge of our time. How do

we live temperance in this very intoxicating and addicting world of

the social media and the digital gadgets today? We now are all too

familiar with the signs of addiction afflicting people, both young and

old.

            We know that these new technologies instantly produce in

us a tremendous amount of dopamine that is so difficult to manage, let

alone, resist. And these gadgets keep on coming, each time with an

improved version, with hardly any manual as to how to use them

ethically and prudently.

            These new technologies are so new and so irresistible that

we, even the old ones with a lot of experience in life, do not have

any sound and effective guideline as to how to use them properly. The

traditional guidelines do not seem to work well, and in some cases,

even tend to aggravate the problem.

            The only light that we can see at the end of the tunnel

seems to be that some professionals are studying this issue very

closely and are now starting to give out some guiding points, even if

only tentatively. Things, of course, are still very much in the

wait-and-see and trial-and-error stage. But let’s continue hoping and

working on this matter.

            Many of these experts are saying that it would be wrong if

we would just come out too strong in banning or restricting these

gadgets especially from the young ones who will always find a way to

get hold of these gadgets, thus producing another variety of anomalies

related to deception, cheating, hypocrisy and the like.

            Having absolute, restrictive and inflexible indications

are now all proven to be counterproductive. What seems to work better

is to have the soft, friendly approach where everyone, especially the

young ones, are closely accompanied and together find practical ways

of how to live temperance in the use of these gadgets.

            It’s a kind of mentoring and accompaniment that has to be

done. But this, of course, would require the necessary dispositions

and structures. Family life should be strengthened, for example, and

teacher-and-student and mentor-and-mentee relationship should be

marked by friendship and confidence.

            Everything has to be done to facilitate sincerity and

openness, especially among the young ones, always reassuring them that

they will always be understood and helped no matter what mistakes they

make. And the guides and mentors should try their best to be

competent.

            There obviously is need for some restrictions and

limitations, but these should be monitored closely to see if the they

are producing favourable results. Otherwise, we have to make some

revisions and adjustments.

            Yes, it’s a different ballgame this time on how to develop

temperance in this dizzying digital age. At the moment, we are still

grappling with the novelty of the phenomenon, but hopefully if we

persist with hope and practical sense, we can manage to come out with

guidelines that are effective.

            For one, we need to loosen up and try to re-evaluate the

traditional concepts and ways of developing and living temperance. Of

course, we should not junk the traditional ones altogether, but we

need to update them and to try exploring the innovative ones that in

the end should be an organic extension of the traditional.