Beware of losing sense of sin

WITH all this talk and general thrust of the Church today
on mercy and compassion, a very commendable campaign, I must say, we
just have to make sure that we do not lose our sense of sin as a
consequence or unintended side-effect.

            We always have to be wary of the possible bad effects that
our good plans and initiatives can have. The world is not perfect.
Loopholes, hidden traps, mistakes, etc., can always spoil what
otherwise is thought of as a very good strategy.

            We might get too easy and presumptuous about God’s
omnipotent and gratuitous mercy that we may not be able anymore to
acknowledge sins, ours and those of others, that need to be forgiven.

            In other words, we might get too intoxicated with divine
mercy that initially would lead us to think it would just be ok to
commit sin since it will be forgiven anyway, and later on as in a
slippery slope, as we get used to committing sin that can get forgiven
anyway, we would find ourselves not anymore considering anything as
sin.

            Our conscience would be distorted and would become lax.
Little by little, we lose our capacity to hear God’s voice in our
conscience. In its place, we would just hear our own corrupted voice.

            This can happen because our capacity to identify what is
good and evil depends on our relationship with God. If that
relationship is not good, or is not healthy and working, then
obviously we would have a bad or wrong notion of sin, or even lose the
very sense of sin.

            The Catechism of the Catholic Church has this to say about
this point: “To try to understand what sin is, one must first
recognize the profound relation of man to God, for only in this
relationship is the evil of sin unmasked in its true identity as
humanity’s rejection of God and opposition to him, even as it
continues to weigh heavy on human life and history.” (386)

            So what comes to mind is that together with this strong
campaign to reassure everyone of God’s mercy should also be an equally
strong campaign to heighten people’s sense of sin.

            This strong campaign to heighten people’s sense of sin can
be done by encouraging everyone to have a true life of piety, by
having first of all a personal and intimate relationship with God, and
then by availing of the instruments and practices that would sustain
and develop that life of piety.

            All this should be done in a most delicate way.
Preferably, it has to be done in a more personal way than on a
collective way. The latter should be delivered in a positive,
encouraging tone. No thunder-and-lightning condemnations, please.

            Without this working piety, we sooner or later would lose
our sense of good and evil, and we would rely simply on our own
personal hunches or, worse, on some vague social consensus.

            While the loss of the sense of sin is usually associated
with those who are skeptical or have little or no faith at all, like
some self-professed agnostics and atheists, it can also fall on those
we generally regard as “good” or “pious” people who always count on
the mercy of God without making the corresponding effort to be with
God. In other words, they can be spoiled by an easily presumed divine
mercy.

            At least, with the skeptics, agnostics and atheists, we
can easily identify them and be more ready to devise the appropriate
means to deal with them. But with the “good and pious” people, it’s
harder to know if they are really having a working piety. They are a
harder case to handle actually.

            They can easily mimic piety, and hide their sins and
failures by covering them up with their other natural gifts that can
act as a decoy insofar as the true state of their spiritual life is
concerned. They can appear healthy in many aspects other than their
spiritual life and piety.

            Everything therefore has to be done to help everyone
develop and keep a working piety. This is the most challenging task
for those whose office, calling or position, like priests, parents,
teachers, counselors, etc., assign them to render this spiritual help
to others.

            There has to be constant appeal for conversion, a constant
call for confession and spiritual direction. People have to be
encouraged to make use of some plan of piety that works for them,
given their concrete conditions. This is when they can be reassured
that God’s mercy is always available and, in fact, is given in
abundance.

Politics and the Year of Mercy

POLITICS and mercy can and should be together. Contrary to
what many people may think, politics is in great need of mercy,
otherwise it has no other alternative but to go to the dogs.

            It should never be thought of as an anything-goes affair,
an open field for all kinds of shenanigans to take place. We need to
break away from that mindset, for the simple reason that it does us no
good, it corrupts us as a person and as a people, it can only generate
a vicious cycle of evils.

            When politics is merciless, one evil generates another
which reinforces the former that again spawns another evil, and so on
and so forth, until the whole atmosphere is completely polluted and
poisoned. The worst thing that can happen is when this unfortunate
state of affairs becomes normal to us.

            Just like any human endeavor, politics should be done in
the framework of charity and mercy. Mind you, that framework does not
undermine the realism we need to have when doing politics. On the
contrary, it enhances such realism, but prevents it from deteriorating
into a heartless and inhuman activity. We need to explode the myth
that charity and mercy would hinder the workings of politics.

            With mercy, our politics can remain human and with a
heart, capable of seeing things with utmost objectivity and realism,
and with the proper priorities preserved and defended. Charity and
mercy can only sharpen our desire for truth, justice and the common
good, without taking immoral and illegal short-cuts.

            What good does a general political culture of bashing,
mudslinging and fault-finding do? If that’s our idea of being
objective and realistic, we as a people are still light-years away
from the spirit of Christ whom most of us profess to believe and
follow. Put in another way, we would seem to be in the primitive stage
yet as a people insofar as politics is concerned.

            Christ precisely was undeterred by sin and the many
miseries of men. In fact, sin and the human miseries made him to be
most solicitous of us, showering us with an abundance of his mercy.

            What only got his goat was the self-righteousness of some
people who were quick to judge others, to find fault in them, even if
they themselves have their own shortcomings and other worse things.

            This self-righteousness is precisely what is most opposed
to the spirit of Christ. It’s not men’s sins, weaknesses and other
miseries. This self-righteousness is an attempt to make oneself his
own god, his own creator and lawgiver.

            Now that we are in the Year of Mercy, as declared by Pope
Francis, let us try our best to be kind, compassionate and
understanding with the others, including the politicians, especially
those with whom we are at odds.

            After overcoming as soon as possible our initial automatic
reaction of disgust, disappointment and disapproval when we see the
defects and alleged crimes of politicians, let us pray for them and
see how we can help them. This is the Christian way.

            Let us see instead their qualities and accomplishments to
see if they deserve our vote. If in the end, we decide not to vote for
them, then let’s make that decision without falling into lack of
charity and mercy.

            If we feel that they have to answer for their alleged
crimes so that the requirements of justice can be met, then let’s do
so without being uncharitable and unmerciful.

            In this way, our political life and culture would be
cleansed of impurities that only block the proper political effort to
pursue our common good. The Year of Mercy can be a good occasion to
make a good, if not a quantum, leap in the quality of our politics.

            Let’s hope that we can realize more deeply that being
uncharitable and unmerciful in our political life can do a great harm
to us as a people. It is what can constitute as a big obstacle to our
true development and progress, since it harms our soul much more than
our body. It strikes us at the most essential part of our life.

            Everyone of us should make a deep examination of
conscience if only to do some adjustments in our attitude and practice
of politics. Special mention should be given to the politicians
themselves and to the media who play a crucial role in this field.

            Many of us may consider this a pipe dream. But let’s
realize that the pursuit for truth, justice and the common good starts
with a dream that is continually worked on until the dream becomes a
reality.

Christ’s baptism

WITH the celebration of the Solemnity of Christ’s baptism,
we end the Christmas season and enter the Ordinary Time of the
liturgical calendar. It is a good occasion to remind ourselves that we
should try to make our prayer and our whole spiritual life follow the
liturgical calendar.

            Doing so would help us to unite ourselves with Christ in a
living if sacramental way. Let’s always remember that our life is not
anymore just our own. It becomes life with Christ who remains present,
available and actively continuing his redemptive work and dispensing
its merits to us in the liturgy.

            The celebration, of course, commemorates Christ’s baptism
in the River Jordan by John the Baptist where a voice from heaven was
heard: “You are my beloved Son, in you I am well pleased.” (Lk 3,22)
This declares Christ to be both the Son of God and our Redeemer.

            It’s a historic event pregnant with very important
implications. With no need to be baptized, he had himself baptized,
even insisting on it, to institute the sacrament of baptism which is
the gateway for us to Christian life, to incorporate us into the
mystical body of Christ.

            With baptism, we open ourselves to the possibility of
receiving all the other sacraments that fully satisfy our spiritual
needs with the view of attaining our salvation and our eternal life
with God our Father.

            We have to understand then that our life has to revolve
around the sacraments that serve to build it up and make it Christ’s
life as well. As the Catechism puts it, all the sacraments form one
organic whole, and they “touch all the stages and all the important
moments of Christian life.” (1210)

            Also, we have to understand that of the seven sacraments,
the “Eucharist occupies a unique place as the ‘sacrament of
sacraments.’ All the other sacraments are ordered to it as to their
end.” (1211)

            Some spiritual writers have also considered Christ’s
baptism as his second birth. The first one was with Mary, quite hidden
and known only to a few shepherds and mysteriously to three magi who
came from a far country. This second one highlights the fact that
Christ is the Son of God and presents him to the world as such.

            St. Maximus of Turin, for example, has the following
relevant words to say: “At Christmas he was born a man. Today (his
baptism) he is reborn sacramentally. Then he was born from the Virgin.
Today he is born in mystery…The mother holds the child for the Magi to
adore. The Father reveals that his Son is to be worshipped by all the
nations.”

            Yes, Christ’s baptism also marks the transition of
Christ’s hidden life, consisting of more or less 30 years of doing
ordinary things daily, to his public life when he would start going
around preaching and healing and ultimately offering his life on the
cross.

            To be sure, the life of Christ is perfectly one and
consistent, thoroughly redemptive in character both in his human and
divine natures, and also in his hidden and public life. The
distinctions do not divide Christ since all these distinctions are
held in one divine person as subject.

            This truth about Christ should somehow be reflected in our
own lives. We are human, yes, but we are meant for a divine
destination since we are God’s image and likeness, adopted children of
his. With God’s grace, this blend, so to speak, is made possible.

            Also, our personal, hidden life should not undermine the
public life that is also meant for us since we are social beings. We
have need for privacy, for discretion and confidentiality, but all
these should not be made as an excuse to avoid our social duties and
responsibilities.

            We should not be afraid to go public, so to speak, to give
witness to our faith which is not something to be held only personally
but also collectively. We just have to make sure that our “public
life” should not be an occasion to seek human glory, but only for
God’s glory and for the good of all.

            This will be our constant danger, and therefore we need to
rectify our intentions continually and see to it that the means we use
for giving witness to our faith in public are in keeping with the
purpose of simply giving glory to God and for the common good.

            But all the precautions we need for this should never be
an excuse for us not to give public witness of our faith, especially
in areas where Christ is forgotten or deliberately deleted, and that,
unfortunately, is practically everywhere!