ONCE again Pope Benedict has given us some very beautiful considerations about music on the occasion of the anniversary of the start of his pontificate last April 19.
Especially in the context of the increasingly harsh realities of the world today, the papal words offer us a most reassuring balm of comfort. We cannot deny we are drifting in a turbulent sea of anxieties.
We, of course, can always have recourse to prayer. But music adds indescribable beauty to it. When set in music, prayer seems to assume wings and to take off to distant, exhilarating destinations.
In this particular occasion when a concert was held and performed by young students of a music school, the Pope focused on the highly educative dimension of music, especially for the youth of today.
Here are some of the papal words, which I prefer to remit verbatim and unvarnished since they hardly need any improvement. I strongly believe they are worth pausing for and reflecting on.
- “The study of music has high value in the educational process of the person, inasmuch as it produces effects in the individual’s development, fostering his harmonious human and spiritual growth.”
- “We know that the formative value of music, in its implications of expressive, creative, relational, social and cultural nature, is commonly recognized.”
- “Music is capable of opening minds and hearts to the dimension of the spirit and of leading persons to raise their gaze on High, to open to absolute Goodness and Beauty, which have their ultimate source in God.”
- “The joy of song and music is also a constant invitation to believers and to all of goodwill to commit themselves to give humanity a rich future of hope.”
I must say that those words contain a great wealth of truth often lost in the banality and worldliness of our daily activities. They are worth all the effort to mine them, so as to bring out and savor the hidden precious gems of happy verity embedded in them.
To me, music touches a mysterious part of our being, a certain place of contact and linkage between the spirit and the body, the abstract and the concrete. It is capable of bringing the mundane to the sublime, the sensual to the sacred.
It makes the presence of God more felt, more arresting and engaging. It has a language that goes beyond the technicalities of meter and measure. It acquires its own life and awakens our soul, bringing with it our body with all bodily complement of emotions and passions.
It allows us to fathom deep, soar high and traverse the whole length and breadth of human experience and possibilities. It certainly exceeds what our senses and our intelligence can perceive. It gives a new dimension to our life and outlook.
It seems to be the language of the heart that manages to articulate those parts of the heart still covered in mystery. It has a universal appeal as it goes beyond the conditioning of a person’s culture, educational background, social status, etc.
There’s just one crucial point to consider to make music achieve its most sublime potential. A psalm captures this point very well. “Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous deeds. He has revealed to the nations his saving power.” (98,1-2)
In fact, the sacred book is full of exhortations to sing a new song, a new canticle, indicating that Christian life is a happy life, with a certain musicality to it, in spite of its requirements for sacrifice and penance.
Yes, music can release its best potentials when inspired by God, his love, his wisdom, his power that can manifest itself in simplicity and humility, and in mercy and patience. Its beauty exceeds the best that can be found in the natural and material world.
We have to be wary of getting hooked to music that is inspired somewhere else other than in God and in what is objectively good in man. Sad to say, this kind of music is also proliferating, a sign of the thread of decadence also present in the fabric of our present life.
I believe there’s a great need to evangelize that part of our culture today. Many of the songs and music nowadays are tone-deaf to spiritual values. They seem to be born for purely worldly purposes, highly titillating and seductive, but cruelly trapping the human spirit in time and space and the ways of the flesh.
We need to recover the genuine value of music.
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Monday, May 3, 2010
Careerism
THERE’S a story in the life of Christ with his apostles that exposes an anomaly that can lurk even in the hearts of good people. It’s in Matthew 20,20-28. The mother of James and John made a special request to Jesus—that her sons would sit one at his right hand and the other at his left in God’s kingdom.
Christ gave a most gentle excuse that it was not his to grant that request. “It belongs to those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.” That’s when the other disciples became indignant at the two brothers. And so Jesus made the following remark:
“You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. Not so is it among you. On the contrary, whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant. Whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave, even as the Son of Man has not come to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
We can term this moral abnormality, this attitudinal glitch that can come to us in very subtle and beguiling ways as careerism. As defined in some dictionaries, it is the “practice of advancing one’s career at the expense of one’s personal integrity.” It can also be an overwhelming desire or urge for professional advancement.
It corrupts one’s proper attitude to work and serve, and whatever is legitimate in one’s natural desire for professional growth. It’s a terrible illness that has spoiled many people who started to work well and to be properly motivated, but something went wrong along the way.
It can have a very complicated network of root causes. But the real viruses are found in the spiritual and moral aspects. One can readily see traces of pride, egoism and vainglory, disordinate attachments to worldly things, ignorance, error and confusion in relation to the true nature and purpose of work, service and authority, etc.
It develops in a heart that is anemic due to lack of spirit of prayer and sacrifice. And if this is reinforced by a morally sick culture and environment, where the proper values are lived only in the exterior but not in the interior, then we can have quite a pandemic.
Sad to say, signs of these irregularities are getting aplenty these days. It does not require much skill to discern that many people are afflicted with this illness, no matter how much they try to cover it.
It can be gleaned in their attitudes, in their views and reactions to things, in the questions they ask, the interests they pursue, the behavior they project in private and in public. It can be seen in their eyes and faces, the kind of smile they put on. It can be felt in the tone of their voice and the trajectory of their words.
On the other hand, there’s also a lot of “lording it over” around us that tends to cultivate this fixation on careerism. People in position like to show off their power, to flaunt their privileges and all the glittery trappings of their office.
Boasting seems to have found a niche in society. And the corresponding practices of flattery, bootlicking adulation and exaggerated, fawning complaisance are gaining foothold in people’s culture.
We need to go back to what Christ said about just wanting “not to be served but to serve.” We need to generate and develop a strong culture inspired by this attitude. We should be happy to work and serve wherever we may be, whether up or down, front or back, in the city or in the barangay, in public or in private.
Truth to tell, I had the luck of witnessing this kind of culture for a number of times already. And it always makes me happy to see these genuine manifestations of unselfish dedication and service, leaving me truly edified and inspired, and wishing I too could be that way.
When you see people working from the heart, unmindful of what position they have and of the advantages and disadvantages of their condition at the moment, I’m sure you will be moved.
I’ve seen persons who one day were presidents and heads of some groups and then the next day became clerks and assistants and still doing their work with gusto. It’s truly a marvelous experience.
What matters actually is the love one puts in his work. It’s not the position or prestige or privileges. Love equalizes and elevates everything.
Christ gave a most gentle excuse that it was not his to grant that request. “It belongs to those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.” That’s when the other disciples became indignant at the two brothers. And so Jesus made the following remark:
“You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. Not so is it among you. On the contrary, whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant. Whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave, even as the Son of Man has not come to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
We can term this moral abnormality, this attitudinal glitch that can come to us in very subtle and beguiling ways as careerism. As defined in some dictionaries, it is the “practice of advancing one’s career at the expense of one’s personal integrity.” It can also be an overwhelming desire or urge for professional advancement.
It corrupts one’s proper attitude to work and serve, and whatever is legitimate in one’s natural desire for professional growth. It’s a terrible illness that has spoiled many people who started to work well and to be properly motivated, but something went wrong along the way.
It can have a very complicated network of root causes. But the real viruses are found in the spiritual and moral aspects. One can readily see traces of pride, egoism and vainglory, disordinate attachments to worldly things, ignorance, error and confusion in relation to the true nature and purpose of work, service and authority, etc.
It develops in a heart that is anemic due to lack of spirit of prayer and sacrifice. And if this is reinforced by a morally sick culture and environment, where the proper values are lived only in the exterior but not in the interior, then we can have quite a pandemic.
Sad to say, signs of these irregularities are getting aplenty these days. It does not require much skill to discern that many people are afflicted with this illness, no matter how much they try to cover it.
It can be gleaned in their attitudes, in their views and reactions to things, in the questions they ask, the interests they pursue, the behavior they project in private and in public. It can be seen in their eyes and faces, the kind of smile they put on. It can be felt in the tone of their voice and the trajectory of their words.
On the other hand, there’s also a lot of “lording it over” around us that tends to cultivate this fixation on careerism. People in position like to show off their power, to flaunt their privileges and all the glittery trappings of their office.
Boasting seems to have found a niche in society. And the corresponding practices of flattery, bootlicking adulation and exaggerated, fawning complaisance are gaining foothold in people’s culture.
We need to go back to what Christ said about just wanting “not to be served but to serve.” We need to generate and develop a strong culture inspired by this attitude. We should be happy to work and serve wherever we may be, whether up or down, front or back, in the city or in the barangay, in public or in private.
Truth to tell, I had the luck of witnessing this kind of culture for a number of times already. And it always makes me happy to see these genuine manifestations of unselfish dedication and service, leaving me truly edified and inspired, and wishing I too could be that way.
When you see people working from the heart, unmindful of what position they have and of the advantages and disadvantages of their condition at the moment, I’m sure you will be moved.
I’ve seen persons who one day were presidents and heads of some groups and then the next day became clerks and assistants and still doing their work with gusto. It’s truly a marvelous experience.
What matters actually is the love one puts in his work. It’s not the position or prestige or privileges. Love equalizes and elevates everything.
Sunday, May 2, 2010
The way to God
WE often wonder how it is to be with God all day. We’ve been told we should try our best to be with God. But how can that be, when we do not see him, much less, touch him?
One answer that can be offered are some words of Christ right before he entered into his passion and death. To his apostles he said: “A new commandment I give you, that you love one another, that as I have loved you, you also love one another.” (Jn 13,34)
This is the way to God—to love our neighbor as Christ has loved us. To be with God is not so much to be physically with him as to love one another. Being with God is a spiritual and supernatural reality. It’s not simply a sensible reality.
It’s in how we think, how we feel, what we believe in, what we discern in the material reality that envelops us. It’s not so much in what we see and touch outside us. It’s how these external things affect us internally, how they move and stir our mind and heart, our will and desires.
Remember what our Lord said: “The kingdom of God comes unawares. Neither will they say, ‘Behold, here it is,’ or ‘Behold, there it is.’ For behold, the kingdom of God is within you.” (Lk 17,21)
To be with God is an internal affair. For this, we need to be born again. “Unless a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (Jn 3,3) And again, “No one has seen God at any time. The only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has revealed him.” (Jn 1,18)
In short, to be with God is to be born again. To be born again is to be with Jesus, to follow him who is the fullness of the revelation of God to man. To be with Jesus is to love one another, for as St. John said: “No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.” (1 Jn 4,12)
That’s also why St. John said: “How can he who does not love his brother whom he sees, love God whom he does not see?” (1 Jn 4,20) Let’s again examine St. John’s logic:
“Let us love one another, for love is from God. Everyone who loves is born of God, and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” (1 Jn 4,7-8)
We have to love one another, but doing it the way Jesus has loved us. This is the key, the secret to be with God. This is the way to God. We need to find out if we are truly loving one another the way Christ has loved us.
This is the challenge, for often we ignore others, and just remain in the sensible level in our attitude toward them. In fact, because of this disposition, we tend to be judgmental, critical and even hateful of the others. We hardly go beyond the externals in our dealings with others.
We have to make the necessary changes, training ourselves, especially our mind, will and heart, to be constantly interested in others, the way Christ is interested in each one of us.
It’s an interest, a love that goes all the way and that knows how to do it with prudence and naturalness. It is not the showy, sentimental type. It rejoices in suffering, precisely considering the cross as the culmination of that kind of love.
Remember St. Paul’s hymn to charity: “Charity is patient, is kind, does not envy, is not pretentious, is not puffed up, is not ambitious, is not self-seeking, is not provoked. It thinks no evil, does not rejoice over wickedness, but rejoices in the truth. It bears with all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” (1 Cor 13,4-7)
We need to put these words into action. Charity is an always active and operative love that makes use of the immediate and little things of the day to express it. It does not wait for more dramatic occasions to show itself.
We need to constantly ask ourselves, “Is this how we love others? Do I do my best to love others with a love that transcends my preferences, my likes and dislikes, my character and temperament, etc.? Do I love until it hurts?”
It’s actually both easy and difficult, feasible and impossible. But it’s up to us to choose which attitude to take.
One answer that can be offered are some words of Christ right before he entered into his passion and death. To his apostles he said: “A new commandment I give you, that you love one another, that as I have loved you, you also love one another.” (Jn 13,34)
This is the way to God—to love our neighbor as Christ has loved us. To be with God is not so much to be physically with him as to love one another. Being with God is a spiritual and supernatural reality. It’s not simply a sensible reality.
It’s in how we think, how we feel, what we believe in, what we discern in the material reality that envelops us. It’s not so much in what we see and touch outside us. It’s how these external things affect us internally, how they move and stir our mind and heart, our will and desires.
Remember what our Lord said: “The kingdom of God comes unawares. Neither will they say, ‘Behold, here it is,’ or ‘Behold, there it is.’ For behold, the kingdom of God is within you.” (Lk 17,21)
To be with God is an internal affair. For this, we need to be born again. “Unless a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (Jn 3,3) And again, “No one has seen God at any time. The only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has revealed him.” (Jn 1,18)
In short, to be with God is to be born again. To be born again is to be with Jesus, to follow him who is the fullness of the revelation of God to man. To be with Jesus is to love one another, for as St. John said: “No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.” (1 Jn 4,12)
That’s also why St. John said: “How can he who does not love his brother whom he sees, love God whom he does not see?” (1 Jn 4,20) Let’s again examine St. John’s logic:
“Let us love one another, for love is from God. Everyone who loves is born of God, and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” (1 Jn 4,7-8)
We have to love one another, but doing it the way Jesus has loved us. This is the key, the secret to be with God. This is the way to God. We need to find out if we are truly loving one another the way Christ has loved us.
This is the challenge, for often we ignore others, and just remain in the sensible level in our attitude toward them. In fact, because of this disposition, we tend to be judgmental, critical and even hateful of the others. We hardly go beyond the externals in our dealings with others.
We have to make the necessary changes, training ourselves, especially our mind, will and heart, to be constantly interested in others, the way Christ is interested in each one of us.
It’s an interest, a love that goes all the way and that knows how to do it with prudence and naturalness. It is not the showy, sentimental type. It rejoices in suffering, precisely considering the cross as the culmination of that kind of love.
Remember St. Paul’s hymn to charity: “Charity is patient, is kind, does not envy, is not pretentious, is not puffed up, is not ambitious, is not self-seeking, is not provoked. It thinks no evil, does not rejoice over wickedness, but rejoices in the truth. It bears with all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” (1 Cor 13,4-7)
We need to put these words into action. Charity is an always active and operative love that makes use of the immediate and little things of the day to express it. It does not wait for more dramatic occasions to show itself.
We need to constantly ask ourselves, “Is this how we love others? Do I do my best to love others with a love that transcends my preferences, my likes and dislikes, my character and temperament, etc.? Do I love until it hurts?”
It’s actually both easy and difficult, feasible and impossible. But it’s up to us to choose which attitude to take.
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