The new holier-than-thou mentality

So, the bishops have decided to apologize, then return the Pajeros, submit themselves to an investigation and to accept whatever consequences our honorable congressmen and senators would like to inflict on them. I suppose some people are happy with this development.

I, for my part, am of the opinion that all this hullabaloo is nothing less than a witch hunt, a parody of an investigation more to harass bishops suspected of being anti-government.

Someone asked me if saying sorry is an admission of guilt. I told him outright that it need not be so. While I, for example, say sorry whenever I commit a mistake, I often also say sorry for things I am not guilty of.

I just say sorry for many reasons—to simplify things, to pacify a person in some state of agitation, or simply to be nice with someone, etc. I consider saying sorry a manifestation of delicadeza, and I don't have to be guilty of anything.

Saying sorry can be an act of noblesse oblige, an expression of a benevolent, honorable attitude usually associated with persons of high birth or rank, or with a keen sense of refinement.

The epitome of this attitude is Christ himself. In fact, he is the source of it. More than saying sorry, he assumed all the sins of men and paid for them with his life. What greater love and magnanimity can one have than this?

Christ himself was sinless and guiltless, but for our sake, for our salvation and perfection of our dignity as children of God, he made himself like sin, dying to it on the cross only to resurrect on the third day, giving us the possibility of a new life in him.

There is one thing that we need to learn as a precious lesson form this whole issue of the “Pajero bishops.” It is the readiness to say sorry for any offense or mistake, either real or imagined, without prejudice, of course, to the other requirements of truth and justice.

How many of us are doing this practice of apologizing? I’m afraid, saying sorry is something many people are afraid of doing. That’s understandable, of course. But we have to realize that we need to do it, not only occasionally, but many times. Neglecting this detail can show traces of pride, cowardice, and a grave ignorance of the nature of our life here on earth.

Saying sorry has to be understood first of all in the religious and moral sense, far beyond the very restrictive and often dangerous and unfair political or social sense that does not capture the whole picture of the phenomenon. The latter sense is often partisan and partial, if not maliciously distorted.

We have to realize that we need to imitate the example of Christ who was ready not only to apologize but also to own the sins of all of us, begging his Father for forgiveness. “Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do.”

The whole issue also surfaces what I consider to be a new holier-than-thou mentality. It's the attitude of some people who, rejecting the religious faith, want to impose their own vision of right and wrong based only on their political opinions, some man-made legalistic standards, social and cultural customs, etc.

In this “Pajero bishops” issue, we are made to understand that it is automatically wrong for a bishop to ask for a Pajero and to use it, that a bishop receiving a Pajero is already selling out his soul to a politician, that a Pajero is intrinsically evil, that for a bishop to use a Pajero is like robbing the poor, etc.

Many parts of media lapped up this issue to its grossest level. Just listen to the “incisive” analysis of Bombo Radyo, and you would have an idea of what I mean. The commentators simply oozed with self-righteousness who could not accommodate any other view than their own. As if they are altogether immaculate.

There are many other lessons we can learn from this sad episode. Among them is to treat bishops a bit differently from our other leaders. Bishops, even if they commit a faux pas in public life, ought to be treated with a certain deference, since they are religious leaders, and not just political leaders.

This does not mean we should have little regard for politicians. But bishops as religious leaders involve our religious life which is far more important than our political life. They just cannot be dragged into public shame like what politicians usually do with each other.

Involvement and detachment

ONE of the harshest words delivered by our Lord to his apostles is the following: “Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth. I have come to bring not peace but the sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother…” (Mt 10,34ff)

Down the line, we can hear him say: “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me…whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”

These words remind us, first of all, that we really have to handle the word of God properly. Otherwise we would be crippled in contradiction and even in scandal. We have to be wary of relying simply on our common and current understanding of things. The word of God requires much wider and deeper efforts for it to be understood properly.

We need to consider the overall sense or intent of faith (sensus fidei) of the Bible, giving due attention to the human elements that go into its inspired writing, like the cultural and historical context, linguistic style of the people then, etc. Through them, we can get an idea of what the sacred writers had in mind when they put divine inspiration into words.

We just cannot automatically apply our current mindset on something written centuries ago. That approach would miss a lot of things and would distort the meaning of the inspired word even drastically.

In this particular passage, we simply cannot conclude that our Lord does not want us to have peace, since he is referred to as the Prince of Peace. Even on his birth, angels in heaven sang: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will.” (Lk 2,14) How can we ever think he is does not want peace for us?

Much less can we think that he is asking us to hate our father and mother, since the 4th commandment precisely requires us to honor our parents, and he himself told us to love one another as he has loved us. Nor that we lose our life.

The “harsh” tone of our Lord’s words is meant only to highlight one thing—that our detachment from persons and things in this world should be total to give way to our full commitment to God.

It’s a total self-giving that involves a self-emptying, so we can be filled with nothing less than God himself, and with him, we would have everything else. As St. Teresa of Avila once said: “Solo Dios basta.” (Only God suffices)

And our Lord himself said: “Seek first the kingdom of God and his justice, and all these things shall be added unto you.” (Mt 6,33) This should be the trajectory of our attitude towards life, our work and the use of material things. Any other direction would be fatal to our spiritual and moral life.

So the detachment our Lord is asking of us actually does not mean that we hate our life, our parents and others, and the things of this world. Rather it is a detachment that asks of us to have rectitude of intention, that everything that we do be for the glory of God.

St. Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians said as much: “Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatsoever else you do, do all to the glory of God.” (10,31)

We should not be afraid to go through the required sacrifices and self-denial, since these can only lead us to the joy and peace meant for us. We need to do better than a shallow and narrow view of our earthly life, a knee-jerk reaction to things.

We need to give due attention to this duty of rectifying and purifying our intention, filling it with love, and expressing it with generosity and heroism even. Our problem is precisely our tendency to take this duty for granted, and so we open ourselves to the subtle forces of pride, greed, lust, envy, anger, gluttony, sloth, etc.

Detachment does not remove our involvement and engagement in our earthly and temporal affairs. It simply puts them in the right context and the right direction. It frees us from unnecessary baggage. It improves our vision and understanding of things, and predisposes our heart to the real love which can only a sharing in God’s love.

Let’s live detachment everyday!

Keeping ourselves childlike

A PASSAGE from the first letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians can serve as a very relevant reminder to all of us: “Do not become children in sense. But in malice be children, and in sense be perfect.” (14,20)

Yes, indeed! If we have to grow to maturity, in whatever way we understand it, we should remember that we also have to try to remain like a child, at least in the heart, for that is how we can go on and on in life in spite of the many trials, challenges, excitements, successes and failures. That is how we get to our final destination.

Our Lord himself says the same in so many words: “Suffer the little children, and forbid them not to come to me. For the kingdom of heaven is for such.” (Mt 19,14)

In spite of the many limitations of children, what makes them always desirable is their pure, innocent heart, incapable of malice and source of many other good things.

It's this kind of heart that makes them, and us if we try to be like them, to be trusting in the Lord always, like a little kid always confident with his father. Faith and hope easily grow and acquire strength when nurtured in a child's heart. It's this attitude that leads them to go on and move on no matter what, for life to them could only be an adventure of discoveries.

It's this kind of heart that makes them transparent, sincere and simple, not afraid to be known as they truly are. They may still lack the subtlety of prudence and discretion, and be prone to spontaneity, but they hardly mind these deficiencies.

They are only interested in doing what they think is good and enjoyable. Suggestions and corrections do not humiliate them. Rather, they are welcome.

It's this kind of heart that makes them humble, teachable, flexible and docile. You can tell them anything, and they always tend to believe and obey. Attainments, achievements and successes do not spoil them. Neither do difficulties, temptations and failures crush them and plunge them to sadness or bitterness.

It's this kind of heart that makes them easy to motivate, to be consoled, to be optimistic. Falls and mistakes are easily forgotten. They only leave a mark that becomes a source of precious lessons for them to learn. It's a heart that's quick to heal when wounded.

In short, it's a heart predisposed to see things as they are, whether they are self-evident natural truths or highly mysterious supernatural realities. What they don't yet understand, they simply accept and believe, relying simply on the recommendation of parents and elders.

To remain childlike is a necessity to all of us as we cruise through life gaining and acquiring more knowledge and skills. Otherwise, we would have no other alternative but to get spoiled, and to forget where we come from and where we are supposed to go to. This is when we start to complicate our lives.

That is why our Lord told us: “Be therefore wise as serpents and simple as doves.” (Mt 10,16) We should find a way to arrive at this ideal combination, and never dare to stray from it.

So everything should be done so that this need of ours to remain childlike as we pursue our life's temporal goals be always in everybody's mind. We need to help one another, always giving good example of being childlike to others.

One of the most compelling moments of my life was when I had the privilege to see much older people who were well-heeled, with a long list of achievements to their names, remaining like a child in their attitudes and their actuations. And I saw the effects this childlike quality had on them.

That convinced me that remaining childlike is a necessity, and that it is doable and not just a good idea, a gospel doctrine that will forever remain impracticable.

It pains me to think that many children nowadays are robbed of their childhood because they are prematurely initiated into the adult world of technologies and other things that often leave them confused and bewildered.

What can be worse is to see adults whose fascination for children remains in the superficial level. They just want to look young and to act young like children, but missing the true substance of spiritual childhood.

We need to do a little reminder and catechesis on the necessity of remaining childlike all throughout our life.