IT’S expected that every new year, people in different fields make year-end reviews and projections of how the new year would likely be as far as their interest is concerned.
The media is fond of this. But so far, this exercise seems to be confined only to the political and business sections. At the moment, we are fed heavily with all sorts of reports and forecasts in this regard. They serve a purpose.
Of course, the lifestyle and entertainment section cannot be outdone. In this area, gossips are made to spill like rampaging lava from an exploding volcano.
The big difference is that instead of running away from it, many people like to be buried by this molten flow of red-hot rumors and juicy blind items. As of now, I’m afraid there is no cure yet for this lunacy.
I believe that this annual practice should also be done—and even with more
reason—in the area of faith and religion as far as these would be assessable in their human and temporal expressions.
I know that life is largely a mystery. Even if we are talking of ordinary, well-known daily events, that mystery is hardly diminished. Well, our faith and Church life are even more of a mystery!
But this does not excuse us from doing what is humanly possible to gain some kind of control and sense of direction in our spiritual and Church life. Yes, everything depends on God, but things also depend on us. Let’s do our part.
If everyone is prodded to do an examination of conscience not only at the
end of the year, but in fact, at every day’s end, then some kind of review and forecast should also be done in the bigger and higher levels of Church life.
Like, how did a particular parish perform last year? And what are its prospects for this year? Any religious organization, diocese, and even the bishops’ conference can ask similar questions if only to infuse a sense of professionalism to their pastoral work.
From there, more people could be better aware of what happened in the past
and of what are planned for the future. There’d be more sense of solidarity in our collective effort to be more consistent to our faith.
We have to overcome whatever awkwardness and amateurism we may still have with respect to our Church life. With the pace of development we now have,
this attitude is really and laughably out of place.
It’s true that the Church is hierarchical and its main thrust is on the spiritual and the supernatural life nourished by God’s word, dogmas and doctrine, the sacraments, etc.
But it also has temporal and human concerns that require active participation as much as possible by everyone. It’s more in this area that some public assessment of things can be made to generate wider participation.
And the media can be a big help. As long as it realizes its need for continuing formation, it can carry out this delicate function properly. This is a challenge for media to assume greater responsibility in Church life.
Obviously there are differences of opinions, and even mistakes can be committed. But it would be wrong if the media just focuses on stoking controversies and denouncing mistakes and scandals.
It has to do a more constructive and cooperative effort by making a kind of
running account of developments in the Church and going deep into the task of making Church life more appreciated by everyone.
It can do better than just announcing town fiestas or reporting the external aspects of whatever events, good or bad, may take place in the parish or the diocese.
It can, for example, make suggestions based on studies or wide consultations on how the continuing task of evangelization can be made or improved.
It can make their views known on how a certain aspect of the faith has
affected or will likely affect a particular group of people. Is their growth in the people’s spiritual life, is there a greater sense of Church among them, etc.?
The media can do many things to deepen and strengthen our spiritual and
Church life. If need be, they can hire experts or consultants in Church affairs. An awful lot can be done!
Sunday, January 6, 2008
Friday, January 4, 2008
Tackling tiredness
LIKE shadows that stick with us and lengthen at sunset, tiredness and exhaustion, stress, toxicity, fatigue, lethargy and plain weariness are increasingly our unavoidable companions everyday.
The present pace of life and the kind of challenges and pressures we face these days make sure they are a mainstream reality. And here, we are not talking only of physical tiredness. That’s the lowest form and the least dangerous kind.
We worry more of the more complex types: emotional exhaustion, mental or psychological stress, spiritual and even moral fatigue.
It’s good that we be more aware of these variations, since most often when
we complain about tiredness, we think only of physical tiredness when in fact what is happening is far worse than that.
Thus, with a wrong diagnosis, we make a wrong prescription. Emotional exhaustion is when you cease to feel, or when your feelings go wild and haywire. This is when you are vulnerable to mood swings, become easily irritable and can go to completely irrational and even violent behavior.
Mental or psychological tiredness is when you don’t like to think anymore.
Thinking is what distinguishes us from other animals. Imagine if what’s supposed to lead the way for us is incapacitated!
Stress is when you seem continuously moving. Unable to rest, you always
feel stretched and burned out.
Spiritual lethargy is when you lack the energy to pray and you don’t understand why you have to make sacrifices. You start doubting about God’s existence and goodness. It’s tiredness at a scarier level.
Moral fatigue is when you start saying you are tired of doing good and you
like to do evil instead. That is, when committing sin appears attractive, when you lose the sense of shame in pursuing it.
For sure, a variety of means can offer relief to these kinds of tiredness. You can take a nap, sleep, travel, go to excursion, exercise and do sports, read books, watch TV, hear music or sing, visit friends, do gardening or hobbies, etc.
But we have to remember that in all these ways of relieving tiredness, God
has to be present. It would be wrong to seek rest without God, since true rest can only come from God and with God.
Let’s never forget: “Come to me, all you that labor and are burdened, and I
will refresh you. Take up my yoke upon you and learn of me, because I am meek and humble of heart, and you shall find rest for your souls.” (Mt 11,28-29)
Resting in whatever form, and praying, going to Mass and confession should always go together. Otherwise, we’d just be deceiving ourselves, creating a
false sense of wellness drawing subtler evils to enter our heart.
Tiredness can be a sign of strength and a golden opportunity to get very close to our Lord. St. Paul said so: “For when I am weak, then am I strong.” (2 Cor 12,10)
It can also be our Calvary with which our day should end, mirroring the way Christ culminated his mission on earth. Thus, it’s good to meditate often on
Christ’s passion and death to savor the spiritual richness of tiredness.
We should not be afraid of tiredness or any form of weakness. We should
rather welcome it, and make it an occasion to feel God’s saving presence in us.
This is no pious fantasy. Saints have left us with moving testimonials of this amazing truth. All forms of tiredness and weakness were for them a getting closer to Christ, who resurrected after suffering the most painful humiliations and the most inglorious death.
With God’s grace and our quiet efforts to accept what befalls us, always hoping and praying, we can manage to be above our physical tiredness, emotional exhaustion, our mental or psychological weariness, even our spiritual and moral fatigue.
When we allow God to take over us, the old become new, the wounds get healed, our tiredness gives way to renewed vigor, even death leads to life. God has mysterious ways far beyond what we can do to restore us.
On the human level, we just have to learn to take it easy, to be game, to just be calm and keep steady focus on our Lord on the Cross. Let’s learn the art of suffering quietly.
The present pace of life and the kind of challenges and pressures we face these days make sure they are a mainstream reality. And here, we are not talking only of physical tiredness. That’s the lowest form and the least dangerous kind.
We worry more of the more complex types: emotional exhaustion, mental or psychological stress, spiritual and even moral fatigue.
It’s good that we be more aware of these variations, since most often when
we complain about tiredness, we think only of physical tiredness when in fact what is happening is far worse than that.
Thus, with a wrong diagnosis, we make a wrong prescription. Emotional exhaustion is when you cease to feel, or when your feelings go wild and haywire. This is when you are vulnerable to mood swings, become easily irritable and can go to completely irrational and even violent behavior.
Mental or psychological tiredness is when you don’t like to think anymore.
Thinking is what distinguishes us from other animals. Imagine if what’s supposed to lead the way for us is incapacitated!
Stress is when you seem continuously moving. Unable to rest, you always
feel stretched and burned out.
Spiritual lethargy is when you lack the energy to pray and you don’t understand why you have to make sacrifices. You start doubting about God’s existence and goodness. It’s tiredness at a scarier level.
Moral fatigue is when you start saying you are tired of doing good and you
like to do evil instead. That is, when committing sin appears attractive, when you lose the sense of shame in pursuing it.
For sure, a variety of means can offer relief to these kinds of tiredness. You can take a nap, sleep, travel, go to excursion, exercise and do sports, read books, watch TV, hear music or sing, visit friends, do gardening or hobbies, etc.
But we have to remember that in all these ways of relieving tiredness, God
has to be present. It would be wrong to seek rest without God, since true rest can only come from God and with God.
Let’s never forget: “Come to me, all you that labor and are burdened, and I
will refresh you. Take up my yoke upon you and learn of me, because I am meek and humble of heart, and you shall find rest for your souls.” (Mt 11,28-29)
Resting in whatever form, and praying, going to Mass and confession should always go together. Otherwise, we’d just be deceiving ourselves, creating a
false sense of wellness drawing subtler evils to enter our heart.
Tiredness can be a sign of strength and a golden opportunity to get very close to our Lord. St. Paul said so: “For when I am weak, then am I strong.” (2 Cor 12,10)
It can also be our Calvary with which our day should end, mirroring the way Christ culminated his mission on earth. Thus, it’s good to meditate often on
Christ’s passion and death to savor the spiritual richness of tiredness.
We should not be afraid of tiredness or any form of weakness. We should
rather welcome it, and make it an occasion to feel God’s saving presence in us.
This is no pious fantasy. Saints have left us with moving testimonials of this amazing truth. All forms of tiredness and weakness were for them a getting closer to Christ, who resurrected after suffering the most painful humiliations and the most inglorious death.
With God’s grace and our quiet efforts to accept what befalls us, always hoping and praying, we can manage to be above our physical tiredness, emotional exhaustion, our mental or psychological weariness, even our spiritual and moral fatigue.
When we allow God to take over us, the old become new, the wounds get healed, our tiredness gives way to renewed vigor, even death leads to life. God has mysterious ways far beyond what we can do to restore us.
On the human level, we just have to learn to take it easy, to be game, to just be calm and keep steady focus on our Lord on the Cross. Let’s learn the art of suffering quietly.
Friday, December 28, 2007
Hope is cool
“SPE salvi,” is the title of the second encyclical of Pope Benedict issued last November 30. It’s lifted from St. Paul’s “In hope we were saved.” (Rom 8,24)
After his first encyclical on charity, “Deus caritas est,” comes this magisterial treatise on hope. If the pattern continues, his third should be on faith.
The Pope seems intent in popularizing these three crucial virtues, lowering
them from the ivory tower. Also called theological virtues, as distinct from human virtues, they have God, rather than us, as primary object.
We need them to live the supernatural life, our life with God. In Christian belief, that’s what our life ought to be.
These theological virtues, God’s gifts first before being products of our efforts, attest to God’s grace in us. As such they serve as the source and goal of our human virtues like prudence, justice, fortitude, temperance, etc.
In fact, the human virtues are confirmed authentic only when they are inspired by these theological virtues. Otherwise, they just appear as virtues, not the real McCoy.
Our crying need today is to realize how our life is made supernatural by the practice of these theological virtues. With these virtues, we can expect better consistency in our Christian life, whether in the personal or social aspect, material or spiritual.
In this new encyclical, the Pope wants us to develop theological hope with God’s grace and our all-out effort. This is hoping in God, and not in some idols like money, power, popularity, etc., that we tend to create.
This is the hope that does not frustrate nor defraud us. Based and animated
by our firm faith in the living God, this hope is no rip-off, no bluff. It’s no phantom of our intelligence.
It brings God to us, the future to the present, eternal value to our temporal affairs. It gives us serenity amid trials. It makes us persevere in our struggles, enabling us to renew ourselves as often as needed.
Faith and charity form the proper orbit for hope to develop. Straying from
this orbit, hope weakens and can die. Or it can devise escape mechanisms by
concocting false hopes.
This is what we see aplenty these days. On one side, many people are losing hope, sinking into discouragement, depression and despair. The growing number of mental cases and aberrant behavior worldwide attest to this observation.
On the other, we have many people creating complex webs of theories and ideologies to prop them. If not inspired by God, these things can only spawn injustice, coercion, deceit, hidden worries, etc.
Sooner or later, their errors or fallacies show, dooming their systems. Their doctrines cannot explain away our ultimate problems—our natural limitations and, worse, sin and evil in all its forms, and death.
In this encyclical, Pope Benedict explains the nature, characteristics and dynamics of Christian hope. He also tells us how to develop it insofar as it depends on us.
In it, the Holy Spirit in a way speaks to us in vintage Ratzinger style—a richly textured analysis using many brilliant threads of Scripture, tradition and magisterium, theology and philosophy, history and culture, even anecdotes. It’s simply breathtaking!
It reminds us strongly of basic truths. God began something good in us, and
is bent, no matter how much we spoil his plans, in consummating it. We have reason to be optimistic, patient, cheerful. It dissolves anxieties.
We are beings created and outfitted to hope, because we always long for something which always transcends what we can find here. Thus, hope springs eternal. It leads us to eternal life with God, ultimately hope’s only proper object.
This hope is not merely “informative” but “performative,” terms the Pope
used to distinguish between intellectual hope and a life-changing one. Hope involves action, not passivity.
It’s not individualistic, not only personal hope, but also social. It’s a hope that truly saves us. I invite my readers to read this document.
Now that everyone wants to be “cool,” please know that the real secret to being “cool” is when we live this unfailing virtue of hope. This is no mere makeover, dude!
After his first encyclical on charity, “Deus caritas est,” comes this magisterial treatise on hope. If the pattern continues, his third should be on faith.
The Pope seems intent in popularizing these three crucial virtues, lowering
them from the ivory tower. Also called theological virtues, as distinct from human virtues, they have God, rather than us, as primary object.
We need them to live the supernatural life, our life with God. In Christian belief, that’s what our life ought to be.
These theological virtues, God’s gifts first before being products of our efforts, attest to God’s grace in us. As such they serve as the source and goal of our human virtues like prudence, justice, fortitude, temperance, etc.
In fact, the human virtues are confirmed authentic only when they are inspired by these theological virtues. Otherwise, they just appear as virtues, not the real McCoy.
Our crying need today is to realize how our life is made supernatural by the practice of these theological virtues. With these virtues, we can expect better consistency in our Christian life, whether in the personal or social aspect, material or spiritual.
In this new encyclical, the Pope wants us to develop theological hope with God’s grace and our all-out effort. This is hoping in God, and not in some idols like money, power, popularity, etc., that we tend to create.
This is the hope that does not frustrate nor defraud us. Based and animated
by our firm faith in the living God, this hope is no rip-off, no bluff. It’s no phantom of our intelligence.
It brings God to us, the future to the present, eternal value to our temporal affairs. It gives us serenity amid trials. It makes us persevere in our struggles, enabling us to renew ourselves as often as needed.
Faith and charity form the proper orbit for hope to develop. Straying from
this orbit, hope weakens and can die. Or it can devise escape mechanisms by
concocting false hopes.
This is what we see aplenty these days. On one side, many people are losing hope, sinking into discouragement, depression and despair. The growing number of mental cases and aberrant behavior worldwide attest to this observation.
On the other, we have many people creating complex webs of theories and ideologies to prop them. If not inspired by God, these things can only spawn injustice, coercion, deceit, hidden worries, etc.
Sooner or later, their errors or fallacies show, dooming their systems. Their doctrines cannot explain away our ultimate problems—our natural limitations and, worse, sin and evil in all its forms, and death.
In this encyclical, Pope Benedict explains the nature, characteristics and dynamics of Christian hope. He also tells us how to develop it insofar as it depends on us.
In it, the Holy Spirit in a way speaks to us in vintage Ratzinger style—a richly textured analysis using many brilliant threads of Scripture, tradition and magisterium, theology and philosophy, history and culture, even anecdotes. It’s simply breathtaking!
It reminds us strongly of basic truths. God began something good in us, and
is bent, no matter how much we spoil his plans, in consummating it. We have reason to be optimistic, patient, cheerful. It dissolves anxieties.
We are beings created and outfitted to hope, because we always long for something which always transcends what we can find here. Thus, hope springs eternal. It leads us to eternal life with God, ultimately hope’s only proper object.
This hope is not merely “informative” but “performative,” terms the Pope
used to distinguish between intellectual hope and a life-changing one. Hope involves action, not passivity.
It’s not individualistic, not only personal hope, but also social. It’s a hope that truly saves us. I invite my readers to read this document.
Now that everyone wants to be “cool,” please know that the real secret to being “cool” is when we live this unfailing virtue of hope. This is no mere makeover, dude!
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