A MOST interesting passage in St. Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians is very relevant to us given, on the one hand, our limitations, mistakes, failures and sins, and on the other, our exacting spiritual and supernatural goals that require heroic efforts.
It’s the following: “Strength is made perfect in weakness. Gladly therefore will I glory in my infirmities, that the strength of Christ may dwell in me. Wherefore I am satisfied, for Christ’s sake, with infirmities, with insults, with hardships, with persecutions, with distresses. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (9-10)
Of course, we need to understand this truth very well, which is of a highly spiritual and supernatural nature, and spread it as widely as possible, since many of us can be wallowing in the cesspool of difficulties and led to the brink of despair, with no idea of how to get out of it.
We have to slowly but surely explain not only the wisdom but also the practicability of this truth. We need to empower ourselves with this wonderful reality that’s actually very accessible if only we know how.
The secret, for sure, is to have faith, the kind that can truly move mountains. It’s a gift God gives to us to which we should also learn how to correspond.
It’s a gift that has clear doctrinal substance found in the gospel and authoritatively taught by the Church as well as elaborated in Christian tradition and in Christian philosophy and theology.
That task is to go through the relevant doctrine, letting it sink deeper into our consciousness and flower in attitudes, habits and virtues. We need to receive a continuing influx of the doctrinal impulses to facilitate the work of grace in us.
There are many gospel passages containing Christ’s words and example that reinforce our faith in this truth. That Christ gives preferential treatment to those who are ill, weak and broken, that he gives rest to those who are over-overburdened, etc., are reassurances we are dealing here with reality, not fantasy.
His words articulating the beatitudes—Blessed are the poor in spirit, those who mourn, who are meek, who hunger and thirst for righteousness, are merciful, etc., indicate how our lowliness and weakness can be the path to our salvation. They contradict the usual tendencies of our overly human wisdom.
These values and lifestyles that spring from them can be seen in the lives of Christ, the apostles, the saints and many holy men and women through the years and even of today.
A quick look at their lives reveals a certain kind of invincibility that they enjoyed in spite of or because of their weaknesses. Christ achieved the redemption of humanity through his death on the cross. St. Paul has a beautiful description of this reality:
“Though he was by nature God, Jesus did not consider being equal to God a thing to be clung to, but emptied himself, taking the nature of a slave and being made like unto men. And appearing in the form of man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even to death on a cross.” (Phil 2,6-8)
St. Paul himself boasted of his difficulties and suffering. He was imprisoned, scourged, exposed to death, etc., saying that “If I must boast, I will boast of the things that concern my weakness.” (2 Cor 11,30)
Fact is there are many people around us who go through this divine logic in their hour of weakness and suffering. If we humbly accept our limitations and mistakes, we would find it easier to go Christ, to ask for forgiveness and help.
Besides, such attitude of itself attracts divine attention. A psalm expresses this truth this way: “The Lord is near to those who are of contrite heart. He will save the humble of spirit. Many are the afflictions of the just. But out of them all will the Lord deliver them.” (34,18)
It’s always with a humble and contrite heart that enables us to receive God’s grace. It’s with this heart that converts weakness into strength, and fans the fire of spiritual growth.
We have to be wary of our tendency to seek purely human means to tackle our various predicaments. We cannot rely solely on a lucky strike of our natural endowments of intelligence and character, nor of things like pills and potions, physical exercises, diets or psychological conditionings.
While these elements are always useful, they would be nothing but sources of danger without the support of our spiritual and supernatural source of strength.
Monday, August 9, 2010
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Mirroring the holy
IT´S good that many people nowadays are concerned about ecology. That´s an improvement in sensibility. Time was when the average guy paid no attention to ecological matters. Times have definitely changed, for the better.
Let´s do everything to develop this care for the environment to its maximum potential, increasing our scientific knowledge about our world, purifying it of false data that often are presented as gospel truths, and cultivating the corresponding attitudes and skills.
We have to always sharpen our ability to properly manage our surroundings, ever thoughtful of how things are developing and helping everybody else to cultivate the right attitude. In this area, things can be very challenging. But they are not impossible.
Perhaps, what can still make things perk up is to expand that ecological sense to include not only climatic and environmental concerns, but also and more importantly, moral and spiritual interests.
This part of ecology, let´s remind ourselves, is in fact the most crucial since it goes direct to the very heart of our human development. In this regard, we have to be most eager to attain the skill to be able to mirror to everyone around us what is genuinely true, good and beautiful.
This can be summarized as the ability to mirror the holy, sanctity being the tally of all these qualities. We create the most ideal environment when our mind and heart reflect God´s goodness whatever may be the views, positions and situations we may have in life.
We have to remember that our mind and heart have God as their proper, ultimate object, and because of God, also the others. Our minds and hearts should be filled with thoughts and desires to please God and the others. This is how we mirror the holy and create a good environment fit for all of us as children of God.
We would be misusing if not abusing these spiitual powers of ours if we engage them with something else, especially with our own interests and concerns alone. Besides, such misuse would most likely lead to painful divisions.
We should not get lost in our differences and conflicts with respect to our temporal or earthly affairs. While these differences and conflicts cannot be avoided, we can always manage to be good and understanding to one another. This is of course possible only if we manage to refer things to God.
Of course, we have to do all this with naturalness and discretion, avoiding attracting unnecessary attention and creating inhuman ways and lifestyles. Just the same, we should not shy from this constant effort to emit goodness everywhere.
Christ himself knew how to show his divinity, among others, through the miracles he performed. But amazing as the miracles were, he tried to be discreet about them by telling the persons involved not to announce the miracles to the public but rather to report to the priests. Of course, we know that many of these people went out announcing the miracles to all.
In spite of being misunderstood, Christ kept his goodwill to all, resorting to his righteous anger only when he had to declare what was morally wrong with the people´s behavior.
The example of St. Paul can also shed light as to how we ought to mirror the holy. He reached the point of saying that the people, we, should be followers of him as he was a follower of Christ. (cfr 1 Cor 11,1)
In another occasion, he boldly told the Thessalonians that he was giving them a pattern for them to imitate. (2 Thes, 3,9). He was not ashamed to put himself the model for everyone to follow.
There´s a need to cultivate this attitude. Sad to say, many succumb to the false sense of humility of not wanting to be a model of holiness for the others. And yet, irony of ironies, many crave to be an idol to the others insofar as good looks or fashion or sport accomplishments are concerned. In these areas, they can be very daring and shameless.
With all the confusing elements of our modern world, we have to convince ourselves that we need to mirror the holy, that such responsibility is not only possible but also practicable, complete with the sense of modesty we would like to have in fulfilling it.
In a business meeting, for example, where some contentious issues would be discussed, the duty to mirror the holy can mean having a firm grip on the emotions so that the discussion can stick to the essential aspects without getting stranded in the hot incidentals.
Let´s do everything to develop this care for the environment to its maximum potential, increasing our scientific knowledge about our world, purifying it of false data that often are presented as gospel truths, and cultivating the corresponding attitudes and skills.
We have to always sharpen our ability to properly manage our surroundings, ever thoughtful of how things are developing and helping everybody else to cultivate the right attitude. In this area, things can be very challenging. But they are not impossible.
Perhaps, what can still make things perk up is to expand that ecological sense to include not only climatic and environmental concerns, but also and more importantly, moral and spiritual interests.
This part of ecology, let´s remind ourselves, is in fact the most crucial since it goes direct to the very heart of our human development. In this regard, we have to be most eager to attain the skill to be able to mirror to everyone around us what is genuinely true, good and beautiful.
This can be summarized as the ability to mirror the holy, sanctity being the tally of all these qualities. We create the most ideal environment when our mind and heart reflect God´s goodness whatever may be the views, positions and situations we may have in life.
We have to remember that our mind and heart have God as their proper, ultimate object, and because of God, also the others. Our minds and hearts should be filled with thoughts and desires to please God and the others. This is how we mirror the holy and create a good environment fit for all of us as children of God.
We would be misusing if not abusing these spiitual powers of ours if we engage them with something else, especially with our own interests and concerns alone. Besides, such misuse would most likely lead to painful divisions.
We should not get lost in our differences and conflicts with respect to our temporal or earthly affairs. While these differences and conflicts cannot be avoided, we can always manage to be good and understanding to one another. This is of course possible only if we manage to refer things to God.
Of course, we have to do all this with naturalness and discretion, avoiding attracting unnecessary attention and creating inhuman ways and lifestyles. Just the same, we should not shy from this constant effort to emit goodness everywhere.
Christ himself knew how to show his divinity, among others, through the miracles he performed. But amazing as the miracles were, he tried to be discreet about them by telling the persons involved not to announce the miracles to the public but rather to report to the priests. Of course, we know that many of these people went out announcing the miracles to all.
In spite of being misunderstood, Christ kept his goodwill to all, resorting to his righteous anger only when he had to declare what was morally wrong with the people´s behavior.
The example of St. Paul can also shed light as to how we ought to mirror the holy. He reached the point of saying that the people, we, should be followers of him as he was a follower of Christ. (cfr 1 Cor 11,1)
In another occasion, he boldly told the Thessalonians that he was giving them a pattern for them to imitate. (2 Thes, 3,9). He was not ashamed to put himself the model for everyone to follow.
There´s a need to cultivate this attitude. Sad to say, many succumb to the false sense of humility of not wanting to be a model of holiness for the others. And yet, irony of ironies, many crave to be an idol to the others insofar as good looks or fashion or sport accomplishments are concerned. In these areas, they can be very daring and shameless.
With all the confusing elements of our modern world, we have to convince ourselves that we need to mirror the holy, that such responsibility is not only possible but also practicable, complete with the sense of modesty we would like to have in fulfilling it.
In a business meeting, for example, where some contentious issues would be discussed, the duty to mirror the holy can mean having a firm grip on the emotions so that the discussion can stick to the essential aspects without getting stranded in the hot incidentals.
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Our body is for love
I WAS happy to learn that recently a national congress on the theology of the body, the first of its kind, was organized in the US. This, I believe, has crucial importance to all of us—for our life and for forming the right attitude toward our body and everything material in our life.
It is my opinion that something like this has to reach our shores. We need it urgently. The deformation of our attitude toward this aspect of our life is massive and deep.
For years now, I think that there has been a growing misunderstanding of the role of our body and the material world in general in our life. The error may not be the result of deliberate effort, but rather of a certain inertia generated from an incomplete knowledge of the material world.
This is actually a common phenomenon in our life. If we fail to be continually vigilant, if we fail to detect deviations from their beginnings, we can end up in time with monstrous mistakes that started with something good and correct.
Our attitude toward the body and the material world, I am afraid, has suffered a dangerous mutation, a radical reversal of God’s designs for them. We seem to be falling into two extremes.
One is to consider the body as completely evil, as when the distinction between the body and the soul becomes exaggerated that they by nature become hostile to each other. This mindset is prevalent among those who may be regarded as too spiritual in their life.
The other extreme, the more common one, is to consider the body as completely good, with no more need for spiritual animation and direction. This is the case of a variety of people—the hedonists, the naturalists, etc.
While there is a distinction between the body and the soul, between the material and the spiritual realities of our life, we should not forget that both make up our nature. They cannot and should not be separated.
Our Catechism teaches that: “The human person, created in the image of God, is a being at once corporeal and spiritual…The human body shares in the dignity of the ‘image of God’…
“Through his very bodily condition he sums up in himself the elements of the material world…He is obliged to regard his body as good and to hold it in honor since God has created it and will raise it up on the last day.”
It is important that all of us acquire a proper understanding of the world of our flesh and the whole material reality. We have to be quick to recognize their original goodness, since they all come from God, as well as the distortions that came and continue to come as a result of our sins.
What is crucial is that we know how to enter our body and the material world into the dynamics of divine love that is supposed to characterize our life here on earth and, of course, beyond.
The theology of the body, ably systematized by the late Pope John Paul II based on what is revealed in the Gospel and developed in Church tradition, etc., will show how the body has been designed by God for this purpose.
It takes into consideration our body’s original state of goodness and its fallen, wounded nature after sin for which the pathways for its redemption were given to us by Christ.
Here we will see how the language of divine love for our body necessarily involves the character of gift, which is actually a sacrifice that involves self-denial and the whole reality of the cross as dramatized by Christ himself.
The theology of the body definitely deserves to be taught as widely as possible, given the current situation where there seems to be a rush toward a body cult without the animation of faith and charity. It’s pure unredeemed flesh in all its raging wildness and lawlessness!
On the one hand, there’s a lot of vanity and arrogance, the so-called concupiscence of the flesh. On the other, we can have a spirituality that knows next to nothing about the entire reality of our flesh—a disembodied spirituality.
We should all recognize the indispensable role played by Christ’s cross, the whole scope of the spirit of sacrifice, that puts our flesh in its proper place—in profound humility and “extravagant” desire to love the way Christ loves us.
We should always feel the edge of the cross so that our body behaves as it should!
It is my opinion that something like this has to reach our shores. We need it urgently. The deformation of our attitude toward this aspect of our life is massive and deep.
For years now, I think that there has been a growing misunderstanding of the role of our body and the material world in general in our life. The error may not be the result of deliberate effort, but rather of a certain inertia generated from an incomplete knowledge of the material world.
This is actually a common phenomenon in our life. If we fail to be continually vigilant, if we fail to detect deviations from their beginnings, we can end up in time with monstrous mistakes that started with something good and correct.
Our attitude toward the body and the material world, I am afraid, has suffered a dangerous mutation, a radical reversal of God’s designs for them. We seem to be falling into two extremes.
One is to consider the body as completely evil, as when the distinction between the body and the soul becomes exaggerated that they by nature become hostile to each other. This mindset is prevalent among those who may be regarded as too spiritual in their life.
The other extreme, the more common one, is to consider the body as completely good, with no more need for spiritual animation and direction. This is the case of a variety of people—the hedonists, the naturalists, etc.
While there is a distinction between the body and the soul, between the material and the spiritual realities of our life, we should not forget that both make up our nature. They cannot and should not be separated.
Our Catechism teaches that: “The human person, created in the image of God, is a being at once corporeal and spiritual…The human body shares in the dignity of the ‘image of God’…
“Through his very bodily condition he sums up in himself the elements of the material world…He is obliged to regard his body as good and to hold it in honor since God has created it and will raise it up on the last day.”
It is important that all of us acquire a proper understanding of the world of our flesh and the whole material reality. We have to be quick to recognize their original goodness, since they all come from God, as well as the distortions that came and continue to come as a result of our sins.
What is crucial is that we know how to enter our body and the material world into the dynamics of divine love that is supposed to characterize our life here on earth and, of course, beyond.
The theology of the body, ably systematized by the late Pope John Paul II based on what is revealed in the Gospel and developed in Church tradition, etc., will show how the body has been designed by God for this purpose.
It takes into consideration our body’s original state of goodness and its fallen, wounded nature after sin for which the pathways for its redemption were given to us by Christ.
Here we will see how the language of divine love for our body necessarily involves the character of gift, which is actually a sacrifice that involves self-denial and the whole reality of the cross as dramatized by Christ himself.
The theology of the body definitely deserves to be taught as widely as possible, given the current situation where there seems to be a rush toward a body cult without the animation of faith and charity. It’s pure unredeemed flesh in all its raging wildness and lawlessness!
On the one hand, there’s a lot of vanity and arrogance, the so-called concupiscence of the flesh. On the other, we can have a spirituality that knows next to nothing about the entire reality of our flesh—a disembodied spirituality.
We should all recognize the indispensable role played by Christ’s cross, the whole scope of the spirit of sacrifice, that puts our flesh in its proper place—in profound humility and “extravagant” desire to love the way Christ loves us.
We should always feel the edge of the cross so that our body behaves as it should!
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