Wean to win

WE go through life in stages. We start as a fertilized egg in our mother’s womb. Then we develop into a fetus. We are born, we are infants, a toddler, a schoolkid, an adolescent, a yuppie, a golden boy or girl, then a senior citizen, etc.

            Some of the shifts are automatic. They are merely chronological, biological, physical. But others require our will and conscious effort. This is where we have to learn the art and skill of weaning from a certain stage to go to the next.

            In the beginning, the weaning is done mainly by others, like our mother, our teacher, etc. But as we go along, we start cooperating in the effort until it becomes mainly ours.

            The gospel is full of images and reference about this need of ours. Classic is the passage from the First Letter of Paul to the Corinthians: “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child. But, when I became a man, I put away the things of the child.

            “We see now through a glass in a dark manner, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know even as I am known.” (13,-11-12)

            We have to be more aware of this need because, knowingly or unknowingly, many of us are stuck at a certain stage and refuse to go any further, even if the clock of time and divine providence, with everything we need for our growth and perfection given in abundance, continue to tick away.

            I just learned recently, for example, that in the States the number of young adults who refuse to work and still depend on their parents is increasing. That phenomenon can also be observed here.

            We can see people who are supposed to be mature because of their chronological age still behaving like irresponsible children. Many are those who not only are bedevilled by childish attitudes but also are plunging deep into the language and logic of the flesh and the world.

            Part of the problem is, of course, lack of formation or ignorance about what truly comprise our human and Christian perfection. Toward this end, we have to understand that education should be an ongoing affair. It should never stop. We can never have enough of it.

            We need to get our act together, for example, since we can see people quite developed in some aspects but are quite a disaster in other and even more important aspects.

            Thus, we can have people who are quite developed physically but stunted emotionally. Or those who are emotionally expressive but are intellectually deficient. Or those who are bright and brilliant but are not pious.

            Or those who are so infatuated with the old and traditional that they do not know how to adapt to the new things. They may look faithful but they are agonizingly not creative and innovative.

            There are those who are theoretical but not practical, or vice-versa. Those who only see parts but not the whole picture. Those who tend to look only at the negative and dark side of life—the problems and difficulties—and ignore the positive and bright side.

            There are those who may be good as an individual worker but fail miserably when they have to work with others. They don’t have the teamwork mentality nor social skills.

            In the field of education, there are those who become so captivated by a very narrow and restrictive specialization that they could not relate themselves to the over-all and dynamic character of education.

            It’s true that we have to have some specialization, but we also need to realize, especially now with a very rapid pace of world developments, that we have to avail of a more multi-disciplinary approach to education to be better prepared to face the challenges of the times.

            The most basic and most important shift that we need to do is the passage from the carnal man to the spiritual man as described by St. Paul (1 Cor 3,1-3). It involves being born again in the spirit, for as Christ himself said: “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” (Jn 3,6)

Anti-greed campaign

YES, why not? Why not launch an anti-greed campaign and keep it going like some lifelong maintenance mechanism in a world that has become rickety with all sorts of moral sicknesses, with greed among the prominent ones?

                We just have to look around, and see greed and avarice and their many faces proliferating like anything, from the individual level to the farthest global ends.

                Many people are trapped in an almost invincible grip of selfishness, pursuing nothing other than their own self-interest and throwing any consideration for the common good to the wind.

                This is not to mention that many have forgotten to relate their earthly business to God, to consider it as a prayer and even an act of worship that is not only pleasing to God but also most beneficial to everybody else.

                We have been reminded in the gospel about this aspect of our life. “Take care to guard against all greed,” Christ said, “for though one may be rich, one’s life does not consist of possession.” (Lk 12,14) We have been warned against storing up treasure for oneself but not being rich in what matters to God.

                Nowadays, many, in fact, do not even know the idea of common good. And if there is anything they do that would contribute one way or another to the common good, it’s by sheer coincidence that it happens. Any deliberate effort to do things for the common good is practically absent, if not openly avoided.

                The world is drowning in a sea of materialism and consumerism, with the spiritual values and the supernatural destination of human life all but forgotten. It’s still working under an increasing infusion of deceptive economic tricks, but the illusion is also getting so increasingly untenable that things now are approaching breaking point.

      It seems that we are being set up higher and higher in our materialistic and consumeristic ways for a deeper and more painful crash sooner or later. The signs are already there, and many of our leaders in politics, business, media and even in the church are hesitant to give the bad news. The predicament is practically left unattended.

                Productivity is dropping, even in an accelerated rate in some places, mainly because without the support of the spiritual and supernatural elements of our life, people have no way but to tend to become lazy, and simply wanting to be comfortable, rich and continually entertained, and with narrow and shallow understanding of things.

                In the corridors of power and influence, graft and corruption have practically become the SOP. Just read the papers, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The banking and financial sector continues to blow bubbles in the hope of stimulating productive economic activity. But they now seem to pop out soon after being launched.

                We need to go back to God and seriously relate our earthly business affairs to him and to his plan and providence. We have to reassure ourselves that this is the proper way to do business, taking us away from the tendency to be swallowed up by the logic of the flesh and the world that cannot help but lead us to greed and its ilk.

                God and economics are not two mutually exclusive realities. God’s eternal law includes the economic laws proper to us as image and likeness of his, and children of his.

                At the moment, we seem to do economics by practically ignoring God, or even openly opposing his laws. The supreme law of charity is often considered as impractical and impracticable. In short, that it is inhuman, anti-business and all that.

                We need to change that mindset. God and charity should be the be-all and end-all of our economic affairs. We just cannot stop at the level of profitability or practicality, making them the supreme goal of our businesses.

                Without discarding them, we need to go beyond them and aim at what really is the goal for us—God and charity, which is the very essence of God and also the essence meant for us precisely because we are God’s image and likeness, and God’s children.

                Doing business with God as the origin, way and end in no way harms our economic activities. On the contrary, it will broaden our perspective, sharpen our creativity, foster our productivity, and increase our capacity to tackle whatever challenges, burden or trials we may meet along the way.

                Doing business with God in mind and heart melts away the fears and doubts that often lead us to be greedy and to pursue only our self-interests at the expense of the common good.

Simple vs. complicated

 IN the heat and frenzy of our modern life, where rapidity seems to be the main rule, disregarding the concern of whether we are in the right course or not, we need to pause if only to be able to distinguish between what is to be simple and what is to be complicated.

            The line has been blurred and all but deleted, and many of us do not care anymore whether simplicity still holds some value to us or whether being complicated holds no danger at all to us.

            We need to resurface the original and undeniable value of simplicity, highlighting why it should be pursued, developed and defended, especially these days when many complicating elements practically glut our existence in all levels.

            Simplicity, which is not equivalent at all to being a simpleton or being naïve, is an indispensable quality in our life for it conforms us to what is proper to our nature and condition, makes us see things very objectively and extensively, and enables us to go through the gyrations of life without losing our focus on our proper and ultimate end.

            It’s a result of a vital union of God, our Creator and Father, who is in fact absolutely simple in essence and power even if he has to contend with the potentially infinite twists and turns that our freedom can take.

            It’s a simplicity that is not rigid at all, but is all flexible, and ever adjusting and anticipating while respecting the way things in general are. In other words, it’s a simplicity that can take on anything, very dynamic and versatile, and would even know how to derive good from evil.

            It’s very much compatible with prudence, patience and hope, and goes all the way to live out the demands of charity, since it can prefer to suffer for any duration of time if only to gain the eternal goal of life everlasting with God who is our ultimate end.

            The opposite of simplicity is to be complicated, which happens whenever we detach ourselves from God and prefer to be guided by our own estimation of things—be it through common sense, our sciences and arts, our social, economic or political consensus.

            In that condition, we are actually making our own world, our own reality, our own set of truths and untruths that actually have no real basis. It’s self-interest that is served rather than the common good. Complicated situations are incapable of serving the good of all.

Yes, for a time, we may enjoy certain perks and advantages, but these will never last long, and in time, the fantasy will just collapse. The perks and advantages, the convenience and comfort that complicated situations give us are notoriously selfish in character, enjoyed at the expense of the necessary good of others.

If this predicament persists without being corrected, then we would be continually undermining the peace and harmony in society and in the world, in general. We would be generating distrust among ourselves, and chaos and collapse in the world would just be a matter of time.

We need to be more attentive to our duty to pursue, develop and defend simplicity. We will always know when we start to be and to get complicated, and we should try our best to avoid or fight that predicament right at the first instance when it makes its appearance.

We should be sincere with God, with ourselves and with others, because that is how we can build and keep simplicity and avoid complications. For this, we have to be ready to suffer, because in our present condition, we cannot help but encounter great difficulties and trials just to be simple, to be faithful to the truth, and to be with God.

We have already been warned about this, and we actually have been given the means to ably face these difficulties, challenges and trials: the doctrine of our faith, the sacraments, the development of virtues, etc.

Our sincerity, which is at the heart of our need for simplicity, should be based on our firm belief that we are children of God, who in his ever powerful, wise and merciful providence, is always there for us. We should not be afraid of whatever difficulty or trial we may meet in our pursuit for simplicity.

Simplicity is actually the demanding responsibility of facing reality realistically, and leads us to eternity. The complications we make, on the contrary, are expressions of our tendency to escape reality and make our own fantasy that is good only for a while.