Foul!

THAT firestorm caused by the blasphemous “Kulo” exhibit at the CCP showed among other things that even artists in the exercise of their freedom of expression and creativity can commit a foul that can merit a red card. They can overstep their limits.

They should be most careful in their work. Since their work is often pioneering, since it is often breaking new frontiers, artists have to expect to raise eyebrows, to be open to misunderstanding among ordinary mortals, and be ready for it.

Obviously, they can do a lot of good since with their artistry which is a great gift, dubbed in the Catechism as “a freely given superabundance of the human being’s inner riches,” they can offer glimpses of sublime truth, goodness and beauty to the rest of humanity who are otherwise stuck in the banalities of daily life.

Artists often provide alternative beautiful ways of conveying truth and beauty that otherwise cannot be captured in words. They have the gift to enter into people’s mind and heart in ways that go beyond logic and rhetoric.

They therefore have to be aware of their privileged position in society and of the delicate responsibility attached to it. The first thing they have to realize is that their artistry and creativity are a gift of God. These have to be acknowledged as such, and not just a human or natural phenomenon with no deeper foundation.

Failing in that fundamental duty would lead artists to drift to nowhere. They would open themselves to the slavery of their passions and prejudices, and to mere external factors—fads and popular practices and customs, etc. These can pull subtle strings that can deceive us with their supposed advantages while hiding their dangers.

That’s why we can have such exhibit as “Kulo” that was packaged as a way to question and to enter into dialogue and debate about faith and religion. I was just wondering that if that was the purpose, then why would those behind it start that dialogue by offending the sensibilities of their supposed target audience? And why bring it to the general public and not to some controlled environment yet?

It’s amazing that many artists think that they can only be most expressive and creative when they do not have to think about God. This is a very dangerous situation, since they deny the truth that God is the source of creativity. Their creativity is, in fact, always a sharing of the creativity of God.

They fail to realize that their talent is always a gift, something given and received, and that therefore it is not completely theirs. It is not self-generated, nor something that once given entitles them to forget the giver.

Obviously this incident is a manifestation of a world gone secularized, where God is banished away. Many people are just depending on their own ideas to know what is good or bad, right or wrong.

I was mortified the other day, for example, while in taxi and the driver was listening to a radio commentary on some political issue. The commentator, who was supposed to be a prominent media man, was dripping with self-righteousness, speaking as if all his pronouncements are dogmas that cannot be questioned by anyone.

He sounded as if he had the monopoly of truth and justice, the exclusive owner if not the very creator of what true and good in this world. With very weak basis for his statements, he flew into a rage, making below-the-belt blows to his target politician at that time. It was a clear case of character assassination.

It made me think that with the way some journalists are, killing them would come as no surprise. Of course, it is not good. It should never be done. But with the way they comment, done with the air of impunity, I believe that they can invite their own assassination.

This is what happens when God is not at the center of our lives and of our affairs. This is what happens when we would just depend on ourselves. We would just be left to our own devices. We could not see the big picture nor listen and consider the positions of others. And we easily could degenerate to chaos.

This was what some observers said about the violent riots that erupted in London recently. They said it is not so much about politics and economics as it is about Godless people who have abandoned God and taken the law into their hands.

We have to shout, “Foul!”

The power of faith

FAITH is a gift from God given to us so we can initiate our life with him, which is how our life ought to be. Let’s remember that our life is always a shared life with God. It cannot be any other way. We did not come to exist just spontaneously, out of the blue. We have been created, and we have been created for a purpose.

As creatures, we already have God our Creator at the core of our being, since our very existence depends on him. We don’t live by bread alone. We live, we exist because God keeps us in existence.

As persons, we are endowed with the spiritual faculties of intelligence and will whose principle and end can be no other than God. Our thinking and reasoning, our willing and loving, even our feeling and passions would just be floating and drifting here and there if they do not begin and end with God.

As children of God, we are the object of God’s unwavering love. Not even our sins can alter that love. It's only when we drive him away for good that we lose our contact with him.

In short, God is always with us. And he intervenes in our life all the time. We need to acknowledge this aspect of the reality that governs us and act accordingly. That's why, we should live a life faith, not just remaining in the level of reasoning and feeling.

We need to make some drastic changes in the way we understand ourselves, the way we see our life and the corresponding behavior we should be having. Fact is we still are light years away from that ideal.

Many of us, even those who proclaim themselves Christians, do not know exactly what the role of faith in our life is. For a good number of us, faith is just some pious ornament that can be put on and off at one's convenience.

Even those who say they are leading a life of faith belie their fervent affirmations because of the many areas of inconsistencies in their Christian life. And that's also because many may say they have faith, but are ignorant of its content, its practical implications and consequences.

Which is lamentable, because with faith not pursued and lived, or not lived properly, we would just be left to our own devices which, perhaps, can lead us somewhere but not where we ought to be.

We would be living not only away from God, but most likely against God. We would be deprived of God's wisdom and power. Let's remember that only when one has faith do miracles happen. It when we have faith that the impossible becomes possible.

The Letter to the Hebrews says something of the marvels that faith has done to some people:

“By faith Abel offered to God a sacrifice exceeding that of Cain, by which he obtained a testimony that he was just...

“By faith Henoch was translated, that he should not see death; and he was not found, because God had translated him...

“Without faith it is impossible to please God. For he that comes to God must believe that he is, and is a rewarder to them that seek him...

“By faith Noe, having received an answer concerning those things which as yet were not seen, moved with fear, framed the ark for the saving of his house, by which he condemned the world...” (Heb 11)

We need to study the content of our faith and try our best to live it as consistently as possible, always asking for the grace of God. Living by faith, in effect, means developing a contemplative lifestyle that would enable us to see God in everything and in everyone.

It means that our assessment of things (the many events, challenges, projects, problems, successes, failures, etc. that make up our life) is not done only in the level of reason in its many aspects (philosophy, common sense, politics, economics, etc.), but is guided and enlightened by faith, by what God tries to tell us in the many ways he communicates with us.

We have to make this business of thinking and living in faith a part not only of our personal lives, but also of our culture where everyone is sustained in his faith. We have to say enough with a lifestyle that treats faith as an alien, or a burden, or something that is inhuman.

And in this task, everyone is involved and contributes to the extent that he can.

Temperance, mortification, penance

THESE are important and indispensable needs in our life. Without them, we would live handicapped and disoriented. While we have to consider many requirements and face challenges in life, we should never forget to make an abiding self-examination with respect to these virtues.

Let’s not be naïve. From our own personal weaknesses and errant, wild urges to the intoxicating temptations around, we have to contend with tremendous pressures to forget and neglect these virtues.

Truth is we are pushed to get disengaged from God and from others, and to plunge headlong into self-love, which is actually our doom. In fact, we need special efforts to keep ourselves on course, on the right track in our relationship with God and with others.

The media abet this situation. More mindful with profitability and popularity, they practically leave behind the finer demands of morality and spirituality. In fact, they deftly make use of legitimate values, like rights and freedom, rationality and practicality, and the ignorance and vulnerability of the people, to inject effects toxic to us.

We now have, for example, the celebrity syndrome where physical beauty, talents, and accomplishments in the fields of sports, arts and theater, etc., are exploited to market frivolity, vanity, greed, sensuality, envy, etc. These may not be explicitly intended, but they come just the same, and those concerned just try to play blind.

Today’s movies and TV shows now seem to aim at riveting and nailing our senses to the here and now, to the shallow and the pleasurable, to our untamed subliminal instincts, while starving our intelligence and our faith.

They seem to declare war against sobriety, serious thinking and pious believing. In short, they tend to bring out the animal or the savage and the pagan in each one of us. That seems to be their hidden agenda.

Instead of making us more human, more of a person, more rational and spiritual, we are made to be more sensual and irrational, more of an object and target of immoral or at least amoral campaigns than a subject who is supposed to be free, intelligent, responsible and deserving respect always.

It’s a wild, wild world out there in the media. I am afraid it will take time before things settle down. I am of the belief that what is wrong, unfair or immoral will sooner or later be corrected, perhaps only after so much blood, sweat and tears. I believe that immoral laws and practices will backfire and correct themselves in time.

Meanwhile, it’s good that we cultivate the virtues of temperance and penance with their corresponding practice of mortification. They serve to put us on the ground, giving us sure footing and a good hold on reality, when we tend to fly into our fantasy world.

Temperance, mortification and penance can do us a lot of good by purifying us and strengthening us spiritually and morally. They dispose us to enter into the deeper and wider reality of our faith. They give us a fuller picture of our life even as providing us also with life's finer details.

The spirit of penance, for example, shows us the true state of our human condition. And that is that we have been born in original sin which, though erased through baptism, leaves us with a scar of concupiscence, a certain attraction to evil that leads us to commit sin.

Penance makes us feel the need to be contrite for our sins, to ask for forgiveness, especially through the sacrament of confession, and to make up for our sins, doing many acts of atonement and reparation.

We should never leave this aspect of our life, together with its allied need for temperance and mortification, unattended. Everyday, along with our many legitimate human desires, plans and ambitions, we should plot out the concrete program of how to live and develop these virtues and practices.

Let's remember that our Lord clearly told us to enter by the narrow gate, and to avoid the big, wide one that leads to our perdition. He also told us that if we have to follow him, we need to deny ourselves and take up our cross.

These indications should not remain in words or desires alone. They have to be lived if we truly want to lead an authentic Christian life, full of goodness, meaning and love for one another, whatever the circumstances may be.

Let's see to it that no day should pass by without the cross. We need it like we need air.