From gloom to bloom

THERE’S, of course, as aspect of gloom to Lent. That’s

understandable, since the season reminds us of our sinfulness, our

weaknesses and temptations, and the need to struggle, to be patient,

to suffer, etc.

    But it’s a gloom that leads us to the bloom of Easter, the suffering

that purifies and strengthens us, giving us another rebirth and making

us grow to Christian maturity where love and goodness prevail.

    We should look at things from a higher point of view, from a wider

perspective that gives due consideration to the inputs of faith and

the eternal truths, etc., to be able to get a better picture.

The victory of Christ’s resurrection, celebrated on Easter, gives full

meaning to the suffering of Christ’s cross that we are asked to share.

Our problem is the usual tendency to see things externally and

superficially only, and to give knee-jerk reactions to events. We fail

to connect the two.

    The road from gloom to bloom, from Lent to Easter, from darkness to

light, from death to life, has been built for us by Christ through his

words and deeds, through his whole redemptive life here on earth that

was filled with precious lessons for us.

    This road has been perfected, has been given the finishing touches

and polish with his passion, death and resurrection that comprise what

is now known as the Paschal or Easter mystery.

    It’s the mystery that summarizes the whole redemptive work of Christ

and is applied to us through the sacraments, especially the sacrament

of the Holy Eucharist. This is, of course, a truth of faith that we

accept not because we understand it, but more because it is taught to

us by Christ, who cannot deceive nor be deceived by us.

   

    This sacrament, seen under its three aspects as spiritual food (Holy

Communion), supreme sacrifice (Holy Mass), and divine presence

(Blessed Sacrament), makes this Paschal mystery present, and not only

remembered in the usual manner we understand by the word, remember.

    We need to work out our thinking, attitudes and feelings so as to

capture this wonderful reality that we often take for granted. That’s

why, we need to pray, meditate, study, develop the appropriate

virtues, fight against our weaknesses and temptations, etc.

    But one sacrament with its corresponding and underlying virtue that

is indispensable for this effort is the sacrament of penance or

reconciliation. It enables us to be born again, to regain our state of

grace after we have lost it through sin.

    The sacrament presumes and always requires the virtue of penance

which is none other than the abiding acknowledgement of our sinfulness

and the urge to go back to Christ by way of acts of penance, the

highest form of which is by availing of the sacrament of penance or

confession.

    Especially these days when the sense of sin is slowly being eroded by

all sorts of anti-Christian if not anti-human ideologies with their

corresponding lifestyles, we need to bring to the fore the importance

of both the virtue and the sacrament of penance.

    Of course, to recover the proper understanding and attitude toward

penance, we need to go back to Christ, to have faith, to be simple and

humble enough to realize that Christ is the fullness of the revelation

of God who is our creator and everything to us.

    Only through him would we know what is sin and what is not. Without

him, we will just be guided by our natural self that, as we already

know, is quite wounded and handicapped by sin itself. Its estimation

of what is good and evil is at best tentative and many times confused

if not wrong.

    To recover the proper understanding and attitude toward penance, we

need to heed the teaching of the Church that has been endowed by

Christ with the full authority to keep and transmit the deposit of

faith in its integrity infallibly.

    The virtue of penance also involves the need for self-denial,

restraint and moderation in the use of things, especially those that

give us the utmost comfort and pleasure, like food, drinks, fun, and

other sensual delights, especially the direct use of our human

sexuality.

    It is in this area that we should try to be most generous in

abstaining and fasting, because they go a long way in building up our

proper understanding of penance. Let’s remember what Christ said: “For

the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to

you.” (Lk 6,38)

New heart, new creation

ONE objective of Lent is to prepare us for our new creation in Christ.
Yes, we need to be made new, that is, to emerge from our state of
sinfulness and weakness, so as to become “alter Christus,” another
Christ, if not “ipse Christus,” Christ himself.

Christ, the second person of the Blessed Trinity who became man to be
the way, truth and life to us, is the very pattern and substance of
our humanity. Remember that we have been made in the image and
likeness of God, and adopted children of his.

To have a new heart, to be a new creation is the ideal we should
strive to pursue. It requires both God’s action, which is always done,
and our correspondence, which depends on how we use our freedom.

Thus, we hear God saying, “My son, give me your heart.” (Prov 23,26)
It’s moving to hear God begging of us to give what is most precious to
us, our heart. He does this because he does not impose himself on us.
He respects our freedom, which is actually his gift to us, making us
precisely his image and likeness.

And on our part, we should not be afraid to give it, knowing that what
seems a loss to us by giving our heart to God would actually be a
tremendous gain. Christ spoke much about this self-giving that
actually enriches us rather than impoverishing us.

So, our attitude should sound like what is expressed in Psalm 50.
“Create in me a new heart, O Lord.” If we really know who we are or
how we stand before God who is everything to us, I suppose we cannot
ask him in a tone other than this. We also need to beg him, to
importune him, even if we know that as a good Father, he always gives.

This is simply the language of love into which we have to enter if we
want to develop a relationship with God. What all this leads to is
that we need to take care of our heart. We need to protect it and keep
it always new with the newness that can only come from Christ, our
savior and perfecter.

First, we need to be aware of the true nature and proper character of
our heart. Nowadays, many caricatures are made of it, trivializing and
distorting it along childish and frivolous categories.

The Catechism defines and describes our heart as “the seat of moral
personality,” “the dwelling-place where I am, where I live,” “our
hidden center, beyond the grasp of our reason and of others; only the
Spirit of God can fathom the human heart and know it fully,” “the
place of decision, deeper than our psychic drives,” etc.

Finally, the Catechism describes our heart as “the place of encounter,
because as image of God we live in relation—it is the place of
covenant.” In short, it is where we meet God, where we hear his voice
and get to know his will.

Obviously, this ideal definition and description of our heart is often
marred by our own weaknesses and sins. We often ignore our heart, if
not trample over it to allow the impulses of our wounded flesh and the
sinful world to dominate us. And so, we make a wreck out of our own
heart.

Thus, the need to purify and strengthen our heart. One of the
beatitudes precisely talks about this. “Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they shall see God.” And the Catechism comments: “Pure in heart’
refers to those who have attuned their intellects and wills to the
demands of God’s holiness.”

This is what we should be more aware of. How are we thinking, how are
we using our will, how are we desiring, liking and loving? What
usually happens is that we allow our mind and heart to just go
anywhere they like or anywhere our wounded human condition directs
them.

We often forget that we need to anchor and engage them with God
always, whatever we may be thinking, planning, saying or doing. The
effort to do that is what precisely would give us a new heart, making
ourselves a new creation in Christ, the only mediator between God and
us.

We need to leave behind our poor albeit falsely brilliant ideas of how
our heart should be, or of how we can be forever youthful. We need to
be with Christ to have the new heart, making ourselves a new creation
that is imperishable, undefiled and unfading.

Temptations

IT’S important that we know exactly what to do in Lent which is a very

special season in the liturgical year. It is supposed to identify us

more closely with Christ who, as our redeemer and perfecter of our

humanity, shows us precisely how to face the many trials and

challenges in our life.

Among them are the temptations that we cannot avoid. Christ himself

already warned us about this. “Woe to the world because of

temptations. For it must be that temptations come.” (Mt 18,7)

Of course, if we think a little, we will readily realize why it is so.

Our spiritual faculties of intelligence and will, which enable us to

know the truth and to choose the good, have been darkened and weakened

by sin.

Though not completely detached from the source of truth and goodness

which is God, they are in a badly handicapped condition that need to

be cured, healed, rehabbed, or at least purified and strengthened.

Thus, we now have what is called concupiscence, which is a certain

attraction toward evil. St. John in his first letter distinguishes

this concupiscence into concupiscence of the flesh, concupiscence of

the eyes, and the pride of life. (cf 2,16)

We start to feel this concupiscence when we begin to use our reason

and will, because that’s when we can think we can be by ourselves,

instead of being always with God and with others, which is the ideal

way we ought to live our life.

That’s why it is important that at their very tender age, children

should be taught to train their mind and heart to engage God in love,

and because of that love, to be engaged also with everybody else.

Otherwise, the children can harden in their self-centered attitudes as

they grow to adulthood.

Aside from our wounded human nature with its concupiscence, the other

sources of temptations are the world and the devil himself. The world,

which originally was good because it also has been created by God, has

unfortunately absorbed the evil effects of our sinfulness, and so it

can exercise an evil influence over us.

The devil, of course, was originally a good angel created by God also

to be like him, with intelligence and will superior to ours since they

are pure spirits,  but who at the beginning of his existence abused

those gifts and chose to be by himself, making God his enemy.

He is a most powerful enemy that we have to contend with. St. Paul

warns us about this: “Our wrestling is not against flesh and blood,

but against the principalities, and the powers, against the

world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of

wickedness on high.” (Eph 6,11-12)

And we can easily delude ourselves by rationalizing that we can take

all the temptations, even to the extent of falling into the Napoleonic

complex of thinking only ordinary people obey laws, while the

extraordinary people have the right to transgress laws with impunity.

But we should remain calm and optimistic when tempted, since

temptations can usher great benefits to us. They point to us where we

are weak at, as well as what precious treasures we have since the

devil is provoked to tempt us. We usually are not aware of these

aspects of life until we are tempted.

Temptations also can occasion the urge to get closer to God,

developing more virtues and increasing our intimacy with him. In his

letter, St. James tells us, “Count it all joy when you shall fall into

diverse temptations, knowing that the trying of your faith works

patience...that you may be perfect and entire, failing in nothing.”

(1,2-4)

In other words, temptations can purify and strengthen us, and give us

an opportunity to grow in our spiritual life, in our love for God, and

in gaining more merits for our struggles, etc. Besides, we are assured

that with his grace God does not allow us to be tempted beyond our

capacity to resist.

St. Paul tells us that: “God is faithful, who will not suffer you to

be tempted above that which you are able, but will make also with

temptation issue, that you may be able to bear it.” (1 Cor 10,13)

The secret is to meditate on the example of how Christ dealt with his

own temptation. Consider the argument of St. Augustine: “If in Christ

we have been tempted, in him we overcame the devil. Do you think only

of Christ’s temptations and fail to think of his victory?

“See yourself as tempted in him, and see yourself as victorious in him.”