THIS is not just the concern for priests and all those who occupy positions of leadership and influence—teachers, media people, politicians, etc. This is a universal concern.
In the first place, all of us are meant for this activity. We are precisely endowed with intelligence and will and other faculties like memory, imagination, self-expression, etc., precisely because we need to study and take care of our endless formation in life.
We just have to help one another to achieve this goal. Ideally, each one should be responsible. But real life conditions clearly show that this is not so. We have to make that ideal happen with the concerted efforts of everyone, each in the way he can contribute.
Study enables us to penetrate into the essence of things, to discover the relations that exist among them, to understand what are the causes and what are the corresponding effects, etc. It takes us away from a life merely dependent on appearances and external things.
Study makes us get in touch with reality in a better way. It enables us to grapple with our life’s challenges more effectively. It empowers us to grow as a person, skilful in developing our relations with the others and ultimately with God.
Our big problem these days is that the interest to study is waning in many people. If there ever is such interest, it is most likely pursued in a skewed way, considering the confusion around us now.
Many parents, for example, are complaining that their children are not studying anymore, or are studying less. Instead, there seems to be a great incidence of activities that are actually distractions.
People complain more and more of a certain type of obsessions and addictions that are afflicting many youngsters. Someone said a student of his watched 21 movies over the weekend. He hardly goes out of the house.
Another one said his teener is hooked to the internet up to the wee hours of the morning. It’s not just games that he and his friends do. The parents are afraid they’re getting into porno and other dangerous things.
I’m no psychologist nor sociologist, but I strongly think that these data just tell us there’s something gravely wrong in our world today.
This is a complicated challenge that we have to face. We cannot be naïve and simplistic in our approach. We have to exercise extreme prudence as we sort out things and come up with some strategies and plans of action.
Just the same, that prudence always has to be accompanied with decisive and timely actions. While we have to have patience and certain level of tolerance, we also need to be strong and forthright in giving guidance especially to the young ones.
Everyone should do his part to help in solving this problem which is like a creeping sickness that is affecting all of us. We seem to have lost our proper orientation. Our North Star is not God anymore. We are being seduced by another idol.
Thus, the need to study and to take care of a lifelong formation cannot be neglected. In this regard, we have to give due importance to the doctrines that come from God and are now taught by the Church.
We have to understand that these doctrines contain the ultimate truths about us and the world. We can never set them aside, even if for a moment they may seem to be too mysterious for us to handle.
Our problem is that we seem to be so addicted to a practical mentality and to expecting quick and easy results that we immediately neglect or marginalize the doctrines of our faith when they appear to be mysterious.
What we have to do is precisely to study the doctrine more and undertake a more serious and systematic approach to our formation so that we can immediately see the connection between our faith and the many things in our life.
Otherwise, we can easily be deceived, as St. Paul once warned us, like “children tossed to and from, and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the wickedness of men, by cunning craftiness, by which they lie in wait to deceive.” (Eph 4,14)
We should never underestimate the importance and the power of the doctrine, freely given and taught to us, to attain our true joy and peace.
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Monday, April 14, 2008
Expressing artistic inspiration
I CONSIDER it a great blessing to meet a growing number of artists, like painters and poets, and others in allied fields, like those engaged in art critiques and heritage reporting.
I consider them very gifted, privileged people who can play crucial roles in developing and preserving the cultural life of our society. They can become our national treasures and cultural icons indeed!
This view could be because I’m a frustrated artist myself. I know there’s something inside me egging me to perform and dabble in some arts. But this keen desire has never been matched by the corresponding skills and techniques.
My drawings, for example, have never gone further than the level of my kindergarten doodles and caricatures, no matter how much I try.
And my effort at being a kind of art critic or cultural historian has never been supported by one important ingredient—patience. I instantly wilt even at the smell of some difficulty. And there are plenty of difficulties in this field!
My artistic friends come in different shapes and forms. One common thing among them seems to be their propensity to be some kind of non-conformist, if not in dressing and general appearance, then in reasoning and in reacting to things.
When I’m with them, I often get reminded of what St. Paul once said in his first letter to the Corinthians: “But the foolish things of the world has God chosen to confound the wise, and the weak things of the world has he chosen to confound the strong,” (1,27) and I identify myself with them.
They see things differently. They understand things in an unusual way. And more, they manage to express these perceptions in a beautiful manner, leading others, the ordinary mortals, to see and understand things in a deeper sense.
The artists, like everybody else, do their work by complying with the usual requirements of work. Our work is supposed to be a work with God and for God. It’s ideally always a cooperation with God, never just our own. Somehow our work involves a certain inspiration.
Thus, the Catechism teaches us that “arising from talent given by the Creator and from man’s own effort, art is a form of practical wisdom, uniting knowledge and skill, to give form to the truth of reality in a language accessible to sight and hearing.
“To the extent that it is inspired by truth and love for beings, art bears a certain likeness to God’s activity in what he has created. Like any other human activity, art is not an absolute end in itself, but is ordered to and ennobled by the ultimate end of man.” (5201)
But the artists’ work has another special quality. Its inspiration is “sui generis.” It involves uncommon elements. Again, let’s hear from the Catechism about this point:
“Art is a distinctively human form of expression. Beyond the search for the necessities of life common to all living creatures, art is a freely given superabundance of the human being’s inner riches.” (5201)
Arts offers a window to mysterious types of truths that go beyond what words can capture. These truths can be the beauty of creation, the depths of the human heart, the exaltation of the soul, and the very mystery of God.
As can be readily seen, the arts is not just a matter of skills and techniques. Though these elements are always indispensable, it is more a matter of inspiration, of how closely and intimately it is able to mirror these truths that are beyond words.
I would say that the arts is our human effort to reach the very source of truth itself, who is also the very source of goodness, unity and beauty. It, by definition, points us to God. It would be a misuse if pursued any other way.
The arts is the happy marriage between inspiration and execution. It’s when a beautifully inspired message manages to express itself in an equally beautiful way.
Thus, we should feel the great need to develop the arts. Even as we grapple with the more practical needs of our life, we should never neglect the arts.
Our Church’s history reflects this concern. May we always strengthen that trend. We can talk about our rice crisis at present, but let’s not forget the arts!
I consider them very gifted, privileged people who can play crucial roles in developing and preserving the cultural life of our society. They can become our national treasures and cultural icons indeed!
This view could be because I’m a frustrated artist myself. I know there’s something inside me egging me to perform and dabble in some arts. But this keen desire has never been matched by the corresponding skills and techniques.
My drawings, for example, have never gone further than the level of my kindergarten doodles and caricatures, no matter how much I try.
And my effort at being a kind of art critic or cultural historian has never been supported by one important ingredient—patience. I instantly wilt even at the smell of some difficulty. And there are plenty of difficulties in this field!
My artistic friends come in different shapes and forms. One common thing among them seems to be their propensity to be some kind of non-conformist, if not in dressing and general appearance, then in reasoning and in reacting to things.
When I’m with them, I often get reminded of what St. Paul once said in his first letter to the Corinthians: “But the foolish things of the world has God chosen to confound the wise, and the weak things of the world has he chosen to confound the strong,” (1,27) and I identify myself with them.
They see things differently. They understand things in an unusual way. And more, they manage to express these perceptions in a beautiful manner, leading others, the ordinary mortals, to see and understand things in a deeper sense.
The artists, like everybody else, do their work by complying with the usual requirements of work. Our work is supposed to be a work with God and for God. It’s ideally always a cooperation with God, never just our own. Somehow our work involves a certain inspiration.
Thus, the Catechism teaches us that “arising from talent given by the Creator and from man’s own effort, art is a form of practical wisdom, uniting knowledge and skill, to give form to the truth of reality in a language accessible to sight and hearing.
“To the extent that it is inspired by truth and love for beings, art bears a certain likeness to God’s activity in what he has created. Like any other human activity, art is not an absolute end in itself, but is ordered to and ennobled by the ultimate end of man.” (5201)
But the artists’ work has another special quality. Its inspiration is “sui generis.” It involves uncommon elements. Again, let’s hear from the Catechism about this point:
“Art is a distinctively human form of expression. Beyond the search for the necessities of life common to all living creatures, art is a freely given superabundance of the human being’s inner riches.” (5201)
Arts offers a window to mysterious types of truths that go beyond what words can capture. These truths can be the beauty of creation, the depths of the human heart, the exaltation of the soul, and the very mystery of God.
As can be readily seen, the arts is not just a matter of skills and techniques. Though these elements are always indispensable, it is more a matter of inspiration, of how closely and intimately it is able to mirror these truths that are beyond words.
I would say that the arts is our human effort to reach the very source of truth itself, who is also the very source of goodness, unity and beauty. It, by definition, points us to God. It would be a misuse if pursued any other way.
The arts is the happy marriage between inspiration and execution. It’s when a beautifully inspired message manages to express itself in an equally beautiful way.
Thus, we should feel the great need to develop the arts. Even as we grapple with the more practical needs of our life, we should never neglect the arts.
Our Church’s history reflects this concern. May we always strengthen that trend. We can talk about our rice crisis at present, but let’s not forget the arts!
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Immersed in God
THAT may sound fantastic. Wait, a better word might be grotesque, bizarre, weird. Take your pick. How can you in all your senses think of being immersed in God in a world drunk with its own sense of limitless possibilities?
One chronicler of modern growth lampooned that nowadays with our information overdrive, being uninformed seems to be one of the old-fashioned luxuries that are fast disappearing.
To me, though, that cheeky satire actually betrays a deepening doubt worming into many of our pioneering bright guys as to where all their intelligence is leading them—and us—to.
In their haste to conquer not only the material world but also the infinite outer space of possibilities that their intelligence is teasing them, they have forgotten—and very culpably at that—one basic truth. There is God!
That open space of endless possibilities that our spiritual faculties can access is not exactly an anything-goes place were we are absolutely free to do anything. It has laws to be followed or at least respected.
In case we’ve forgotten, God is the creator of the universe, whether in terms of the material, the intellectual, the spiritual or the supernatural. We don’t fool around with that truth without getting into trouble sooner or later.
This truth will always be the breaking news for us, everyday, every minute. Woe to us when we think that news is already dated, and therefore not anymore relevant. It will never lose its relevance.
The problem we often have is that instead of allowing what we see around us and what we feel and long inside us to lead us to God, we choose to get entangled with them.
If we are the intellectual type, then we mesmerize ourselves with the infinite possibilities our intelligence and will can discover. If we are the artistic type, then we make ourselves be completely charmed by the arts.
If we don’t have that much IQ or artistry, and we just like to be very human, then we like to play out the drama of life, its highs and lows, its perks and pains. We snub God. From there it’s easy to alienate ourselves from others.
This is something we have to correct. We are nothing without God. We have to be more consistent to our indispensable and basic need for God.
For this, we have to realize more deeply that often we have to make a conscious, deliberate effort to put ourselves in his presence, to offer everything and do it always with him.
We cannot take this for granted, because there are endless ways for us to get distracted from our orientation to God, to cool down our love for him, to be complacent and later to believe we are just our own God and our own creature.
That’s what’s happening when we see these bright guys pursuing their projects without God. They are prone to exaggerate, to lose sense of balance, to be dominated by obsessions, and all forms of vices like greed, vanity, pride, etc.
The rationalizations behind artificial contraception and the legalization of abortion are pieces of evidence lending credence to this disturbing trend.
We need to learn the art and skill of being immersed in God all the time. This is, of course, a matter of God’s grace, which we can presume to be given to us since that’s His will. But we need to learn the basic essentials and techniques.
Our usual problem in this regard is our tendency to make our experience with God just a fleeting moment, before we freeze, formalize and harden it into some routine, structure or façade. We don’t know how to be immersed in him for long, and in fact, for always.
We need certain practices that organically spring from our authentic faith and love of God and others to keep us with God. These can be prayer, mortification, recourse to the sacraments, waging ascetical struggle, sanctification of work, doing apostolate, etc.
We have to examine whether we are doing them or at least trying to develop them in ways adapted to our circumstances.
Contemplating God is actually easy and can be done anytime. It doesn’t have to involve ecstasies, levitations and stigmata. Just give your mind and heart to him, and you’re already immersed in God.
One chronicler of modern growth lampooned that nowadays with our information overdrive, being uninformed seems to be one of the old-fashioned luxuries that are fast disappearing.
To me, though, that cheeky satire actually betrays a deepening doubt worming into many of our pioneering bright guys as to where all their intelligence is leading them—and us—to.
In their haste to conquer not only the material world but also the infinite outer space of possibilities that their intelligence is teasing them, they have forgotten—and very culpably at that—one basic truth. There is God!
That open space of endless possibilities that our spiritual faculties can access is not exactly an anything-goes place were we are absolutely free to do anything. It has laws to be followed or at least respected.
In case we’ve forgotten, God is the creator of the universe, whether in terms of the material, the intellectual, the spiritual or the supernatural. We don’t fool around with that truth without getting into trouble sooner or later.
This truth will always be the breaking news for us, everyday, every minute. Woe to us when we think that news is already dated, and therefore not anymore relevant. It will never lose its relevance.
The problem we often have is that instead of allowing what we see around us and what we feel and long inside us to lead us to God, we choose to get entangled with them.
If we are the intellectual type, then we mesmerize ourselves with the infinite possibilities our intelligence and will can discover. If we are the artistic type, then we make ourselves be completely charmed by the arts.
If we don’t have that much IQ or artistry, and we just like to be very human, then we like to play out the drama of life, its highs and lows, its perks and pains. We snub God. From there it’s easy to alienate ourselves from others.
This is something we have to correct. We are nothing without God. We have to be more consistent to our indispensable and basic need for God.
For this, we have to realize more deeply that often we have to make a conscious, deliberate effort to put ourselves in his presence, to offer everything and do it always with him.
We cannot take this for granted, because there are endless ways for us to get distracted from our orientation to God, to cool down our love for him, to be complacent and later to believe we are just our own God and our own creature.
That’s what’s happening when we see these bright guys pursuing their projects without God. They are prone to exaggerate, to lose sense of balance, to be dominated by obsessions, and all forms of vices like greed, vanity, pride, etc.
The rationalizations behind artificial contraception and the legalization of abortion are pieces of evidence lending credence to this disturbing trend.
We need to learn the art and skill of being immersed in God all the time. This is, of course, a matter of God’s grace, which we can presume to be given to us since that’s His will. But we need to learn the basic essentials and techniques.
Our usual problem in this regard is our tendency to make our experience with God just a fleeting moment, before we freeze, formalize and harden it into some routine, structure or façade. We don’t know how to be immersed in him for long, and in fact, for always.
We need certain practices that organically spring from our authentic faith and love of God and others to keep us with God. These can be prayer, mortification, recourse to the sacraments, waging ascetical struggle, sanctification of work, doing apostolate, etc.
We have to examine whether we are doing them or at least trying to develop them in ways adapted to our circumstances.
Contemplating God is actually easy and can be done anytime. It doesn’t have to involve ecstasies, levitations and stigmata. Just give your mind and heart to him, and you’re already immersed in God.
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