I KNOW these are four big and stretchable words that can accept an endless series of related concepts and interpretations, including the right and wrong ones. Nowadays, this phenomenon is gaining strength and popularity. Many are the words people speak that are increasingly high-sounding but empty and hollow as well.
There’s a crying need now to clarify things, to pause and go slow if only to savor the many elements that go into these fat words and to get their proper contribution and blend. Hopefully, with this process our words can approach a more faithful description of reality, catching it and not chasing the wind.
As we are becoming more aware of today’s developments, our words seem to miss many things. Yes, we multiply them everyday, coin and mint new ones, infuse them with all sorts of nuances of meaning, and yet we are left with the sensation that we don’t understand each other that well or that we are really going nowhere.
Jargons, from the strictly technical to the jejemon, now dominate communication lines. We blurt out a lot of words, we conjure a lot of ideas and images. We seem to be creating languages of the flesh, of the world, of varied ideologies and fashions like newspeak, commercialism, sensationalism, etc.
Sure, we get something. But do we truly understand one another? Are we really connected with one another? Are we building up a better civilization of love and compassion, a culture of life and not of death?
I have the creeping suspicion that we are playing out the Tower-of-Babel syndrome. We seem to be bloated with our own powers, having produced already a tremendous amount of things, and we now dare to be on our own. The result is that we become more and more subjective, and less and less objective.
We are slowly removing ourselves from the foundation of reality, because we are distancing ourselves from God and relying more on ourselves. This is a tragic disconnect. That’s why we seem to be making own world, our own criteria, our own goals. Instead of a common reality, we are fragmenting it according to our own designs.
We are actually sowing the seeds of discord and conflict. We seem to be communicating with our new technologies, but the content remains impregnated with egoism, selfishness, utter worldliness.
We communicate but we seem to raise more walls among ourselves. The system of linkages has grown, bur ironically we cannot deny the surge of indifference, confusion and studied ignorance of the basic truths about ourselves.
Some people, like Pope Benedict, call this phenomenon, relativism. Everything is relative. Nothing is held absolute. We are entering into an absurd world, and we seem to be happy with it. What seems to be the driving force of our life today is self-interest, in its bold and naked state.
Give it a few more years and it would not be difficult to predict that that relativism will turn to anarchism. It will not just be the economy that will have a meltdown, nor the political world that will have its turmoils.
The civilization of the whole world now faces the threat of decadence and downfall. We are now witnessing sparks of this process in many places. Respect for life, for marriage and family life, for fidelity and commitment, is ebbing away.
Even on the Facebook pages of people, many are those who say under Relationship, It´s complicated. And I imagine that in that social network, people tend to put a nice image of themselves.
A return to God is now most urgently needed. Such return can only happen if it is driven by real love, the love of God himself for us and not just any version of love, like mere philanthropy and humanitarianism. It’s love based on truth as revealed to us in its fullness in Christ and effected in the Holy Spirit.
Alas, these things sound Greek to many, even to so-called Christians. There´s a need for radical, thorough catechesis of basic doctrine of our Christian faith, because even in that level, let alone putting things into life, many are failing.
That´s why they don´t see the connection between love, freedom, commitment and fidelity. If ever they are cited, they are most likely used to impress others, but I´m afraid in most cases they are emptied of their real substance.
The requirements of commitment and fidelity are precisely the strong manifestations of love and freedom. Many miss this equation. And so they easily fall victim to the blind forces of the flesh and the world.
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Loving God and the world
GOD and the world are usually put in contrast. We are supposed to choose one and reject the other. No in-between, much less, both together. This can be gleaned in many parts of Scripture and other spiritual literature.
St. Augustine, for example, put it sharply when he said: “Two loves built two cities - the earthly which is built by the love of self, even to the contempt of God, and the heavenly which is built by the love of God, even to the contempt of self."
And that’s understandable, given the fact that the world has absorbed the sinfulness of man, and in a way has detached itself from God, its creator. Because of that, the world has become the seat of all that is opposed to God.
It follows a law that cannot connect with God. It’s a purely material and natural law, lacking the proper spirit that it needs to link itself with its Creator. That’s our task. We are the ones who can give it the spirit that reconnects it with God, or, sadly, another spirit that separates it further from him.
This state of affairs has given rise to a certain way of life, commonly known as the religious spirituality that considers the world, a priori, as an enemy of God or as something to be treated with much caution.
The corresponding attitude that sprang from this mentality is that of what is known as “contemptus mundi,” a certain contempt for the world, or at least a distancing from the world.
That’s why hermits and monks who started this lifestyle lived in caves, deserts, mountains, etc. This was aggravated because there was aggressive persecution against Christians in many parts of the civilized world and in many periods of time.
This frame of mind eventually graduated into some people living in enclosed and isolated communities, in convents and monasteries. It became their way of protection from the world, and of intensifying their spiritual life and other things, like the spirit of fraternity and the business of formation.
When the missionary activity started, this spirituality also heightened since the hard environment that met the missionaries in the beginning simply forced them to live this religious lifestyle, protected, isolated and conducive to spiritual exercises..
But things have changed lately. With religion given freedom to develop and grow in the world, with persecution and hostile environment significantly diminished, this religious spirituality somehow also waned. What is gaining strength is what is known as lay spirituality.
This is the spirituality of people living in the middle of the world, who have no reason to be afraid of the world and, in fact, are eager to stay in it, convinced that’s where they belong, where God has put them. There they try to infuse the Christian spirit.
It’s not exactly opposed to the religious lifestyle. It´s just different. It simply recovers the original state of things when the world was created good by God. It can and should lead us to God. And even in its alienated status because of our sin, the world is still where our Lord has placed us. It’s not something to run away from.
This truth about the world can somehow be discerned in that prayer of Christ right before his passion and death. To his Father, he said: “I pray not that you should take them out of the world, but that you should keep them from evil. They are not of the world, as I also am not of the world.¨ (Jn 17,15-16)
And right at the beginning of human history, we are told: ¨God created man to his own image...And God blessed them, saying, Increasing and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it, and rule over the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the air, and all living creatures...¨ (Gen 1,27-28)
We have to learn how to find God in the world, and to subject everything in it to God. Obviously, with the evil that has crept into it, we need to be careful and prudent. We are told to be ¨guileless as doves and shrewd as serpents.¨
But we have to learn to make the world our true home with God, renewing it always to connect it with our heavenly home. This, I think, is what is meant by the expression, ¨new heavens and a new earth.¨
This is in St. Peter´s second letter: ¨We look for new heavens and a new earth according to his promises, in which justice dwells.¨ (3,13)
St. Augustine, for example, put it sharply when he said: “Two loves built two cities - the earthly which is built by the love of self, even to the contempt of God, and the heavenly which is built by the love of God, even to the contempt of self."
And that’s understandable, given the fact that the world has absorbed the sinfulness of man, and in a way has detached itself from God, its creator. Because of that, the world has become the seat of all that is opposed to God.
It follows a law that cannot connect with God. It’s a purely material and natural law, lacking the proper spirit that it needs to link itself with its Creator. That’s our task. We are the ones who can give it the spirit that reconnects it with God, or, sadly, another spirit that separates it further from him.
This state of affairs has given rise to a certain way of life, commonly known as the religious spirituality that considers the world, a priori, as an enemy of God or as something to be treated with much caution.
The corresponding attitude that sprang from this mentality is that of what is known as “contemptus mundi,” a certain contempt for the world, or at least a distancing from the world.
That’s why hermits and monks who started this lifestyle lived in caves, deserts, mountains, etc. This was aggravated because there was aggressive persecution against Christians in many parts of the civilized world and in many periods of time.
This frame of mind eventually graduated into some people living in enclosed and isolated communities, in convents and monasteries. It became their way of protection from the world, and of intensifying their spiritual life and other things, like the spirit of fraternity and the business of formation.
When the missionary activity started, this spirituality also heightened since the hard environment that met the missionaries in the beginning simply forced them to live this religious lifestyle, protected, isolated and conducive to spiritual exercises..
But things have changed lately. With religion given freedom to develop and grow in the world, with persecution and hostile environment significantly diminished, this religious spirituality somehow also waned. What is gaining strength is what is known as lay spirituality.
This is the spirituality of people living in the middle of the world, who have no reason to be afraid of the world and, in fact, are eager to stay in it, convinced that’s where they belong, where God has put them. There they try to infuse the Christian spirit.
It’s not exactly opposed to the religious lifestyle. It´s just different. It simply recovers the original state of things when the world was created good by God. It can and should lead us to God. And even in its alienated status because of our sin, the world is still where our Lord has placed us. It’s not something to run away from.
This truth about the world can somehow be discerned in that prayer of Christ right before his passion and death. To his Father, he said: “I pray not that you should take them out of the world, but that you should keep them from evil. They are not of the world, as I also am not of the world.¨ (Jn 17,15-16)
And right at the beginning of human history, we are told: ¨God created man to his own image...And God blessed them, saying, Increasing and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it, and rule over the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the air, and all living creatures...¨ (Gen 1,27-28)
We have to learn how to find God in the world, and to subject everything in it to God. Obviously, with the evil that has crept into it, we need to be careful and prudent. We are told to be ¨guileless as doves and shrewd as serpents.¨
But we have to learn to make the world our true home with God, renewing it always to connect it with our heavenly home. This, I think, is what is meant by the expression, ¨new heavens and a new earth.¨
This is in St. Peter´s second letter: ¨We look for new heavens and a new earth according to his promises, in which justice dwells.¨ (3,13)
Loving God and the world
GOD and the world are usually put in contrast. We are supposed to choose one and reject the other. No in-between, much less, both together. This can be gleaned in many parts of Scripture and other spiritual literature.
St. Augustine, for example, put it sharply when he said: “Two loves built two cities - the earthly which is built by the love of self, even to the contempt of God, and the heavenly which is built by the love of God, even to the contempt of self."
And that’s understandable, given the fact that the world has absorbed the sinfulness of man, and in a way has detached itself from God, its creator. Because of that, the world has become the seat of all that is opposed to God.
It follows a law that cannot connect with God. It’s a purely material and natural law, lacking the proper spirit that it needs to link itself with its Creator. That’s our task. We are the ones who can give it the spirit that reconnects it with God, or, sadly, another spirit that separates it further from him.
This state of affairs has given rise to a certain way of life, commonly known as the religious spirituality that considers the world, a priori, as an enemy of God or as something to be treated with much caution.
The corresponding attitude that sprang from this mentality is that of what is known as “contemptus mundi,” a certain contempt for the world, or at least a distancing from the world.
That’s why hermits and monks who started this lifestyle lived in caves, deserts, mountains, etc. This was aggravated because there was aggressive persecution against Christians in many parts of the civilized world and in many periods of time.
This frame of mind eventually graduated into some people living in enclosed and isolated communities, in convents and monasteries. It became their way of protection from the world, and of intensifying their spiritual life and other things, like the spirit of fraternity and the business of formation.
When the missionary activity started, this spirituality also heightened since the hard environment that met the missionaries in the beginning simply forced them to live this religious lifestyle, protected, isolated and conducive to spiritual exercises..
But things have changed lately. With religion given freedom to develop and grow in the world, with persecution and hostile environment significantly diminished, this religious spirituality somehow also waned. What is gaining strength is what is known as lay spirituality.
This is the spirituality of people living in the middle of the world, who have no reason to be afraid of the world and, in fact, are eager to stay in it, convinced that’s where they belong, where God has put them. There they try to infuse the Christian spirit.
It’s not exactly opposed to the religious lifestyle. It´s just different. It simply recovers the original state of things when the world was created good by God. It can and should lead us to God. And even in its alienated status because of our sin, the world is still where our Lord has placed us. It’s not something to run away from.
This truth about the world can somehow be discerned in that prayer of Christ right before his passion and death. To his Father, he said: “I pray not that you should take them out of the world, but that you should keep them from evil. They are not of the world, as I also am not of the world.¨ (Jn 17,15-16)
And right at the beginning of human history, we are told: ¨God created man to his own image...And God blessed them, saying, Increasing and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it, and rule over the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the air, and all living creatures...¨ (Gen 1,27-28)
We have to learn how to find God in the world, and to subject everything in it to God. Obviously, with the evil that has crept into it, we need to be careful and prudent. We are told to be ¨guileless as doves and shrewd as serpents.¨
But we have to learn to make the world our true home with God, renewing it always to connect it with our heavenly home. This, I think, is what is meant by the expression, ¨new heavens and a new earth.¨
This is in St. Peter´s second letter: ¨We look for new heavens and a new earth according to his promises, in which justice dwells.¨ (3,13)
St. Augustine, for example, put it sharply when he said: “Two loves built two cities - the earthly which is built by the love of self, even to the contempt of God, and the heavenly which is built by the love of God, even to the contempt of self."
And that’s understandable, given the fact that the world has absorbed the sinfulness of man, and in a way has detached itself from God, its creator. Because of that, the world has become the seat of all that is opposed to God.
It follows a law that cannot connect with God. It’s a purely material and natural law, lacking the proper spirit that it needs to link itself with its Creator. That’s our task. We are the ones who can give it the spirit that reconnects it with God, or, sadly, another spirit that separates it further from him.
This state of affairs has given rise to a certain way of life, commonly known as the religious spirituality that considers the world, a priori, as an enemy of God or as something to be treated with much caution.
The corresponding attitude that sprang from this mentality is that of what is known as “contemptus mundi,” a certain contempt for the world, or at least a distancing from the world.
That’s why hermits and monks who started this lifestyle lived in caves, deserts, mountains, etc. This was aggravated because there was aggressive persecution against Christians in many parts of the civilized world and in many periods of time.
This frame of mind eventually graduated into some people living in enclosed and isolated communities, in convents and monasteries. It became their way of protection from the world, and of intensifying their spiritual life and other things, like the spirit of fraternity and the business of formation.
When the missionary activity started, this spirituality also heightened since the hard environment that met the missionaries in the beginning simply forced them to live this religious lifestyle, protected, isolated and conducive to spiritual exercises..
But things have changed lately. With religion given freedom to develop and grow in the world, with persecution and hostile environment significantly diminished, this religious spirituality somehow also waned. What is gaining strength is what is known as lay spirituality.
This is the spirituality of people living in the middle of the world, who have no reason to be afraid of the world and, in fact, are eager to stay in it, convinced that’s where they belong, where God has put them. There they try to infuse the Christian spirit.
It’s not exactly opposed to the religious lifestyle. It´s just different. It simply recovers the original state of things when the world was created good by God. It can and should lead us to God. And even in its alienated status because of our sin, the world is still where our Lord has placed us. It’s not something to run away from.
This truth about the world can somehow be discerned in that prayer of Christ right before his passion and death. To his Father, he said: “I pray not that you should take them out of the world, but that you should keep them from evil. They are not of the world, as I also am not of the world.¨ (Jn 17,15-16)
And right at the beginning of human history, we are told: ¨God created man to his own image...And God blessed them, saying, Increasing and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it, and rule over the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the air, and all living creatures...¨ (Gen 1,27-28)
We have to learn how to find God in the world, and to subject everything in it to God. Obviously, with the evil that has crept into it, we need to be careful and prudent. We are told to be ¨guileless as doves and shrewd as serpents.¨
But we have to learn to make the world our true home with God, renewing it always to connect it with our heavenly home. This, I think, is what is meant by the expression, ¨new heavens and a new earth.¨
This is in St. Peter´s second letter: ¨We look for new heavens and a new earth according to his promises, in which justice dwells.¨ (3,13)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)