IT’S good to be reminded about these very basic practical expressions of authentic charity. Our Catechism tells us that “the works of mercy are charitable actions by which we come to the aid of our neighbor in his spiritual and bodily necessities.”
I know that in the current play of things, these works of mercy have been practically exiled to the back of beyond such that hardly anyone, especially those in very good positions in life and even the so-called well-educated, cares for them. That’s the sad reality today!
Ask people in random about “works of mercy,” and most likely you’ll get a blank stare. Same with the Ten Commandments. Ask them about these divine precepts, so fundamental in our lives, and you’re likely to meet a primitive ignoramus.
Sometime ago, I was referring to the sixth and ninth commandments in a talk, without specifying what they were, and many asked me later what I was talking about. And these were already professional men, some of them alumni of Catholic schools! I almost had a cardiac.
Of course, that might be a harsh way to describe the situation now. I know that even without being aware of them, one way or another, people manage to do something with respect to the “works of mercy” and the Ten Commandments.
But we need to put more teeth into the observance of these works of mercy. That’s because they are the ones that keep us grounded in our humanity and fraternity, before they get spoiled with all sorts of rationalizations that we can now easily make.
Without this grounding, we tend to get self-absorbed, building our own world and fantasy, and so propped up by a systematic web of justifications that we would become totally blinded by our own self-generated self-righteousness. That’s when we would need a first-class disaster to wake us up!
This is the ticklish predicament we usually meet in our daily life today. It’s true that we have to be prudent and discreet, knowing that the world is full of tricks. But prudence and discretion should never be an excuse for us not to meet the basic demands of charity encapsulated in the works of mercy.
I refer to that automatic, mindless law that prohibits giving alms to beggars in the streets. Of course, I know the reasons and assumptions behind that law. They have their proper weight.
But that law, purely human and crafted for purely practical ends, does not take away, nor even diminish, our duty to take care of those who truly are in need. Its legitimate rationale, which should be given due attention, cannot erase the fact that there are people who are in great need of help on a daily basis.
What we need to do is to be discerning every time we meet a beggar, and to always favor the demands of charity and mercy when our prudence and discretion cannot clearly establish the reason not to give or share something.
We just cannot, as a principle, refrain from giving alms to street beggars. That would be undermining the proper functioning of our heart, that is meant for love and caring for one another.
The errors of prudence that we can commit in this area do not justify risking the deformation of our heart in this way. We have to trust that with God’s grace and ways, even our own errors, committed in good faith, can work for the good in some way.
And lest we think that these works of mercy should be done only in a passive way, that is, waiting for the opportunities to do so, we should understand that by Christ’s command, these works have to be done in an active and even aggressive way.
We need to do them in season and out of season, because they are the way to make us like Christ who identifies himself with anyone who is in need of something, either spiritually or corporally.
The works of mercy can truly indicate if we are living the very life of Christ, and not just a caricature of it.
Our Catechism says: “Instructing, advising, consoling, comforting are spiritual works of mercy, as are forgiving and bearing wrongs patiently. The corporal works consist in feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and imprisoned, and burying the dead.” (2447)
“Among all these, giving alms to the poor is one of the chief witnesses to fraternal charity.”
Let’s always do works of mercy!
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Monday, August 3, 2009
Leading is following
WE have to be clear about this. Of course, in our usual human way of understanding things, leading and following can strike us as a contrast. Given our human limitations, not to mention, the effects of sin, these two can never be together.
If we have to lead, then we don’t follow. If we follow, then we don’t lead. That’s the simplistic, black-and-white general understanding.
But if we input what we know about ourselves through our Christian faith, these two actually are like a couple married to each other. They need each other. They help each other in a perpetually mutual way. One cannot be without the other.
We cannot lead unless we follow. If we want to lead, we also have to want to follow. And the greater our leading role becomes—in the family, office, society—the more stringent should also be our following.
Our following should have a clearer picture of who we are following, and a tighter grip of that object. Our following should not remain in the cultural, legal or social level. It should be locked on the original and ultimate anchor of our life. Only then can we truly lead.
We have to be wary of our tendency to just follow our own ideas, our own understanding of things, and in the end, our own selves. While it’s true that our following will always be subjective, given our nature as persons, our subjectivity needs to be anchored on an absolute objectivity.
What is this input of our Christian faith that forms the basis of all these affirmations?
It is the consideration that we are first of all creatures of God, made in his image and likeness and elevated into the participation of his very own life and nature through grace, by adopting us as his children. We cannot be, we cannot think, speak and act without God.
And thus, we cannot lead unless it is done to follow God’s will. To lead is, first of all, a matter of knowing God and his will. It cannot simply be a personal exercise using one’s own resources.
We have to understand this reality well. We have to find a way so we can be conscious of it all the time, and make it the principle of our thoughts, words and action.
As a corollary to this, we have to realize that we cannot be truly free unless that freedom is understood as an expression of our obedience to God. Freedom and obedience are an inseparable couple, otherwise neither one without the other would be genuine.
Our freedom is never self-generated. It is something created, an essential part of the gift God gives us, and thus it should be exercised in reference to God’s laws. It would be absurd to think of it as simply coming from us in some spontaneous way. It has to come from somewhere.
Our freedom, and everything related it—our pursuit for the true, good and beautiful, our quest for creativity, originality and authenticity, etc.—can not stand without their proper foundation. They cannot be an anything-goes free-lancer. They need a point of reference.
Which brings us to the point at issue. If we look at our current crop of leaders, especially in the political field, we can readily see a kind of leadership that appears to be out of a God-centered orbit.
For many leaders, their power and authority is understood mainly as a product of their own making—their cleverness, their vast resources, their popularity, etc.
Leadership is deemed as a purely human affair, with a good amount of luck put in. It is hardly seen now as a participation of the power and authority of God. I
Thus, it is not used the way Christ showed it. Instead of humility to serve, there is the tendency to lord it over and to have one’s authority felt by others. Instead of going to the extent of dying for the others, the criterion used to see if one is a leader is whether he has the so-called “killer instinct.”
Sadly, this kind of leadership is now exercised not only in some temporal matters, where a certain autonomy reigns and thus are open to different, legitimate opinions. It’s used in areas that are in open conflict to God’s laws, as can be seen in the life issues of abortion, contraception, etc.
Unless drastic changes are made, this kind of leading can only bring us to the pits.
If we have to lead, then we don’t follow. If we follow, then we don’t lead. That’s the simplistic, black-and-white general understanding.
But if we input what we know about ourselves through our Christian faith, these two actually are like a couple married to each other. They need each other. They help each other in a perpetually mutual way. One cannot be without the other.
We cannot lead unless we follow. If we want to lead, we also have to want to follow. And the greater our leading role becomes—in the family, office, society—the more stringent should also be our following.
Our following should have a clearer picture of who we are following, and a tighter grip of that object. Our following should not remain in the cultural, legal or social level. It should be locked on the original and ultimate anchor of our life. Only then can we truly lead.
We have to be wary of our tendency to just follow our own ideas, our own understanding of things, and in the end, our own selves. While it’s true that our following will always be subjective, given our nature as persons, our subjectivity needs to be anchored on an absolute objectivity.
What is this input of our Christian faith that forms the basis of all these affirmations?
It is the consideration that we are first of all creatures of God, made in his image and likeness and elevated into the participation of his very own life and nature through grace, by adopting us as his children. We cannot be, we cannot think, speak and act without God.
And thus, we cannot lead unless it is done to follow God’s will. To lead is, first of all, a matter of knowing God and his will. It cannot simply be a personal exercise using one’s own resources.
We have to understand this reality well. We have to find a way so we can be conscious of it all the time, and make it the principle of our thoughts, words and action.
As a corollary to this, we have to realize that we cannot be truly free unless that freedom is understood as an expression of our obedience to God. Freedom and obedience are an inseparable couple, otherwise neither one without the other would be genuine.
Our freedom is never self-generated. It is something created, an essential part of the gift God gives us, and thus it should be exercised in reference to God’s laws. It would be absurd to think of it as simply coming from us in some spontaneous way. It has to come from somewhere.
Our freedom, and everything related it—our pursuit for the true, good and beautiful, our quest for creativity, originality and authenticity, etc.—can not stand without their proper foundation. They cannot be an anything-goes free-lancer. They need a point of reference.
Which brings us to the point at issue. If we look at our current crop of leaders, especially in the political field, we can readily see a kind of leadership that appears to be out of a God-centered orbit.
For many leaders, their power and authority is understood mainly as a product of their own making—their cleverness, their vast resources, their popularity, etc.
Leadership is deemed as a purely human affair, with a good amount of luck put in. It is hardly seen now as a participation of the power and authority of God. I
Thus, it is not used the way Christ showed it. Instead of humility to serve, there is the tendency to lord it over and to have one’s authority felt by others. Instead of going to the extent of dying for the others, the criterion used to see if one is a leader is whether he has the so-called “killer instinct.”
Sadly, this kind of leadership is now exercised not only in some temporal matters, where a certain autonomy reigns and thus are open to different, legitimate opinions. It’s used in areas that are in open conflict to God’s laws, as can be seen in the life issues of abortion, contraception, etc.
Unless drastic changes are made, this kind of leading can only bring us to the pits.
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Priorities
THE gospel story of the sisters Martha and Mary (cfr Lk 10-38-42) is classic for its great lesson in priorities. Both did good things, but one got her priorities wrong.
“Martha, Martha, you are anxious and upset about many things,” Christ said. “Only one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the better portion and she shall not be deprived of it.”
It’s a lesson that, despite its age, continues to be new to many people even up to now. Even many priests can fall victim to this predicament. And I can readily understand why. Given their—our—peculiar situation, we are quite prone to this problem.
We do lots of things from way early in the morning to way late at night. Twenty-four hours don’t seem to be enough for the day. Aside from the daily assignments and routine, we are at the beck and call of everyone—just about for any request like confessions, visits and anointing of the sick, Masses at wakes, blessings, etc.
That’s part of the reason why priests are asked to lead celibate lives. It is to make us most available for anyone and for anything. We ought to be ready to minister as requested and to go anywhere.
And so, with this very active lifestyle, the possibility is quite high for us to fall into activism. That’s when we can start neglecting the most basic things like prayer, care and nourishment of our spiritual life. Even our physical health can suffer.
What’s worse is when we unconsciously get into the fix of some obsessions. That’s when we get into a loop, doing our own thing and not God’s, generating energy from our own self and not from God. This can only end in disaster.
Because of these obsessions, many priests can get into unrestrained social action, or get immersed into partisan politics, or to be involved in other temporal affairs not meant for us as in making business, etc.
Another sign of this grip of obsession on us is when we start losing the sense of team work, when we prefer to do things alone, and not to be told anything by anyone, nor to report and account things to someone. We seem to confine ourselves to a certain area restricted to others. It has nothing to do with creativity and originality.
Cases like this are getting rampant, sad to say. They all point to a lack of priority in our attitudes and actuations. We need to see to it that we don’t get lost in the flow of events during the day, and to avoid getting tied down by the subtle threads of self-affirmation.
Thus, a certain detachment in our activities is advisable. It’s the detachment that’s meant to prevent us from being swallowed up by earthly things, thereby losing our contact with God. It’s good that from time to time during the day, we check ourselves if this detachment is still working or we are now sinking slowly into our own world.
When the interest for prayer and other spiritual activities like making sacrifices, going to the sacraments, developing and exercising the virtues wanes, it’s proof that something is wrong and some rectification is needed. Most likely, there is lack of priority involved.
When we experience the surge of irritability, when being nice and patient becomes very hard to do or when we become vulnerable to envy and resentments—these can be symptoms we are losing the proper priorities.
For sure, we have to make use of time, since there simply are just too many things to be done. In the life of Christ with his disciples, there are many references of how busy they were in their preaching such that they hardly had time to eat.
This will always be the situation of those who wish to follow Christ closely. Heroism up to being squeezed like a lemon or even up to death is to be expected.
Yet, priorities should be observed, and there will be times when we have to say “no” to certain things even though they too are good. And we just have to say “no.”
Again, these are easier said than done. To be prudent in making the right judgments, when to say “yes” and when to say “no”, is most tricky. It would be good that everyone avails himself of a spiritual director or confidante who can help him.
In the end, this confidante can only be Christ. We need to be friends of Christ, just as Martha and Mary were of him.
“Martha, Martha, you are anxious and upset about many things,” Christ said. “Only one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the better portion and she shall not be deprived of it.”
It’s a lesson that, despite its age, continues to be new to many people even up to now. Even many priests can fall victim to this predicament. And I can readily understand why. Given their—our—peculiar situation, we are quite prone to this problem.
We do lots of things from way early in the morning to way late at night. Twenty-four hours don’t seem to be enough for the day. Aside from the daily assignments and routine, we are at the beck and call of everyone—just about for any request like confessions, visits and anointing of the sick, Masses at wakes, blessings, etc.
That’s part of the reason why priests are asked to lead celibate lives. It is to make us most available for anyone and for anything. We ought to be ready to minister as requested and to go anywhere.
And so, with this very active lifestyle, the possibility is quite high for us to fall into activism. That’s when we can start neglecting the most basic things like prayer, care and nourishment of our spiritual life. Even our physical health can suffer.
What’s worse is when we unconsciously get into the fix of some obsessions. That’s when we get into a loop, doing our own thing and not God’s, generating energy from our own self and not from God. This can only end in disaster.
Because of these obsessions, many priests can get into unrestrained social action, or get immersed into partisan politics, or to be involved in other temporal affairs not meant for us as in making business, etc.
Another sign of this grip of obsession on us is when we start losing the sense of team work, when we prefer to do things alone, and not to be told anything by anyone, nor to report and account things to someone. We seem to confine ourselves to a certain area restricted to others. It has nothing to do with creativity and originality.
Cases like this are getting rampant, sad to say. They all point to a lack of priority in our attitudes and actuations. We need to see to it that we don’t get lost in the flow of events during the day, and to avoid getting tied down by the subtle threads of self-affirmation.
Thus, a certain detachment in our activities is advisable. It’s the detachment that’s meant to prevent us from being swallowed up by earthly things, thereby losing our contact with God. It’s good that from time to time during the day, we check ourselves if this detachment is still working or we are now sinking slowly into our own world.
When the interest for prayer and other spiritual activities like making sacrifices, going to the sacraments, developing and exercising the virtues wanes, it’s proof that something is wrong and some rectification is needed. Most likely, there is lack of priority involved.
When we experience the surge of irritability, when being nice and patient becomes very hard to do or when we become vulnerable to envy and resentments—these can be symptoms we are losing the proper priorities.
For sure, we have to make use of time, since there simply are just too many things to be done. In the life of Christ with his disciples, there are many references of how busy they were in their preaching such that they hardly had time to eat.
This will always be the situation of those who wish to follow Christ closely. Heroism up to being squeezed like a lemon or even up to death is to be expected.
Yet, priorities should be observed, and there will be times when we have to say “no” to certain things even though they too are good. And we just have to say “no.”
Again, these are easier said than done. To be prudent in making the right judgments, when to say “yes” and when to say “no”, is most tricky. It would be good that everyone avails himself of a spiritual director or confidante who can help him.
In the end, this confidante can only be Christ. We need to be friends of Christ, just as Martha and Mary were of him.
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