Never forget our fragility

 IN the Book of Daniel, we are told of a statue whose head
was made of fine gold, its breast and arms of silver, its belly and
thighs of brass, its legs of iron. All impressive! But its feet were,
sadly, part iron and part clay. (cfr 2,32-33)

            It took only one small stone to hit its feet to bring the
whole statue crumbling down. It’s an image of how we are—we can be
majestic in many aspects, but we’ll always have these feet of clay,
our Achilles’ heel.

            Precisely, our very own strengths and assets, if not
inspired properly by the spirit of humility which acknowledges those
endowments as God-given gifts to be taken care of and not just ours to
be used in any way we want, can be the very source of our perdition.

            “Fame can take interesting men and thrust mediocrity upon
them.” These were words of the late rock superstar Davie Bowie who
must have experienced in an intense way the tension between his
outstanding talents and his weaknesses. They are a proof of the
biblical truth about that impressive statue with feet of clay.

            We should always be on guard, distancing ourselves from
temptations and occasions of sins, purifying our intentions always so
as to ward off unwelcome thoughts and desires, ever developing an
authentic spirit of penance to cleanse and strengthen ourselves as we
go through the adventure of life.

            In this we can never overdo the effort to be most careful
and prudent in our thoughts, words and deeds. Every day we need to
renew and update our resolutions and strategies to live by this norm,
considering that these days especially, we are practically bombarded
with all sorts of things that can spoil, depress or desensitize us.

            We need to be humble and transparent, especially in our
spiritual direction and confession, to have constant recourse to the
sacraments, and also to develop a deep devotion to our Lady whose
utter simplicity and humility can help us to remain simple and
resistant to the allures of the world and the devil.

            Let’s make use of this wonderful Marian month of May to
grow in that devotion and in becoming more and more like our Lady who
was given to us by Christ to be our mother. She will truly take care
of us, who will understand us always and prod us to continue moving on
in spite of our weaknesses and falls.

            We have to be good in waging spiritual combats. We are
ranged against powerful opponents. As St. Paul said: “For our struggle
is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the
powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the
spiritual forces wickedness in the heavenly places.” (Eph 6,12)

            Above all, let’s fill ourselves with a continually
renewing and cross-driven love for God and neighbor. This is the
ultimate way to escape the ever grasping and treacherous clutches of
our weaknesses. We have to be more aggressive than defensive in our
spiritual combats.

            This is, of course, not an exercise in negativism, in
being a wet blanket to human interests. Rather, this is prudence and
wisdom, the cunning of serpents while having the simplicity of doves
that our Lord wants us to have always.

            In the use of the modern technologies, for example, let’s
see to it that our motivation should always be to love, to serve, to
help others more than just satisfying our curiosities and whetting our
worldly if not carnal appetites.

            We need to abide by some concrete norms of prudence, like
seeing to it that during our rest in the evening, we fill ourselves
with prayers and thoughts of how to help others, rather than still
playing with our gadgets, surfing in cyberspace or playing games.

            No matter how strong one feels he is, the feet of clay
will somehow catch up with him if he does not submit himself to some
norms of self-discipline. We can never overemphasize what Christ
himself said about the need to deny ourselves and carry the cross if
we want to follow Christ.

            Otherwise, sooner or later, we will just follow the
impulses of our wounded and sinful flesh and the worldly allures. We
do not need further proofs to substantiate the inevitability of this
possibility.

            We should never forget that we are fragile creatures. The
more and better endowed we are naturally and spiritually, the more
fragile we become, much like those beautiful and fine porcelain set.
Yes, we have to be tough also, but with the toughness that comes from
God, one bathed in humility and holy fear.

Putting passion into piety

LET’S try to put passion into our life of piety. That
would make our relation with God and everybody else more integral,
more completely human. That would take us out of the dangers of
intellectualism and spiritualism, caricatures of the proper use of our
intelligence and will that will need the full complement of our
feelings and passions.

            To be sure, this is not to make our spiritual faculties
and our bodily sentiments fight with each other. They are both needed
by us. In fact, between the two, we have to give priority to our
spiritual faculties of the intelligence and will, because they are the
ones that would lead and engage us with truth and love. Thus, they are
the leading agents to give shape and direction to our thoughts,
desires, words, and deeds.

            The emotions cannot go that far. They are pegged to the
sensible and tangible aspects of life. They are guided and motivated
more by what is comfortable, convenient, practical and pleasurable
than by anything else. By themselves, they are incapable of perceiving
the spiritual and supernatural values that also govern us. They need
to be directed and managed by our spiritual faculties.

            That is why we have to discipline and educate our feelings
and passions properly. They cannot be left on their own. They are like
little babies, quite cute and amusing, but they need to be reared
properly.

            Just the same, our feelings, emotions and passions are
certainly important to us, because they are an integral part of our
humanity. When they are not properly developed, we end up cold,
indifferent, hard to approach. We would end up having a hard time to
relate ourselves with God and with everybody else.

            What is worse is that when our feelings, emotions and
passions are not mainly grounded on our faith and our religion, then
they will just be completely dominated by worldly values that many
times will get in conflict with our spiritual and supernatural goal in
life.

            Thus, St. Paul eloquently articulated this anomaly when he
said: “For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very
evil that I do not want…For I delight in the law of God, in my inmost
self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my
mind and making me captive to the law of sin which dwells in my
members.” (Rom 7,19ff)

            We have to see to it that our feelings, emotions and
passions, and everything related to them, like our memory and
imagination, should have their source, end, motive and direction on
our faith. That’s when our piety acquires a more integral character.
That’s when our piety becomes more solid, stable and consistent.

            Besides, such piety lends itself more easily to attract
others to the faith. It would encourage others to spawn and develop
their own piety too. That’s because people notice first what they see
in us physically and outwardly before they get to discern what is
inside us. The fervor that the passions generate is highly contagious.

            We just have to make sure also that our passions are
properly regulated by our intelligence and will that should give due
consideration to factors like the culture of the people and other
relevant current conditions of the place.

            In this way, the passions that are put into our piety
would not overstep and deteriorate into some fixations, obsessions and
fanaticism. They would be compatible with a healthy sense of
naturalness that knows how to be prudent and discreet. They would
avoid the pitfalls of being showy and preachy in the negative sense.

            In this way, the passionate piety would avoid the dangers
of making rash judgments on people, falling into self-righteousness
and the tendency to control others rather than motivating them. It
avoids the kind of ardor that turns off people.

            To develop this kind of passionate piety, we need to
follow very closely the life, example and teachings of Christ who many
times said that he does nothing other than to do the will of his
Father. Yes, he preached, but he also knew how to pass unnoticed. When
people get attracted to him wrongly because of his miracles and would
like him to become their king, he knew how to disappear.

            He was always praying, even getting up very early in the
morning to pray. He would even spend the whole night in praying. His
mind and heart were completely identified with the will of his Father.

            These are just few considerations we can make to give us
an idea of how to develop this passionate piety.

Maintaining maintenance

WE need to be careful not to restrict the relevance of
maintenance to health reasons. The duty of maintenance has a much
wider applicability in our life than is usually known or admitted. In
fact, it’s a lifelong responsibility.

            We have to say this, because somehow it has become a term
associated only with the oldies, and even with some young ones, who
have some medical conditions—hypertension, diabetes, etc. This is a
very unfair, partial and dangerous understanding of maintenance.

            For example, maintenance is indispensable in the proper
running of an entity or institution. How many times have we heard—and
have been disappointed—that a certain project that had a brilliant
beginning folded up precisely because of lack of maintenance?

            This example can be multiplied endless times. Roads,
bridges, buildings are rotting away because of lack of maintenance. A
business enterprise gets bankrupt, again because of negligence. Public
services are found wanting also because of lack of good governance.

            Even religious institutions are not spared. Some are
fading away, their original charism weakened, because of lack of
fidelity of the members. They have detached themselves from the source
of their life, purpose and direction.

            It’s important that we cultivate a strong, clearly
articulated culture of maintenance and governance, continuity and
fidelity, so that we don’t waste what we already have. In fact, we
have to make use of them, cultivating them in an organic way, in our
pursuit for progress and development.

            We have to understand that this culture of maintenance is
an expression of our cooperation in God’s abiding providence over us
and everything that happens in the world.

            Divine providence, which is God’s governance over his
creation, always requires our active cooperation. It never means we
can be passive about things. God governs through us, who are his image
and likeness, children of his who participate in his very own life and
work.

            And so, we have to realize that this culture’s real
foundation can ultimately be in the area of religion, in our relation
with God. It cannot simply be anchored on purely human
reasons—personal, social, economic, political, etc.

            While these human reasons are unavoidable, we have to
understand that they cannot stand on their own without being rooted on
a deeper foundation, which can only be God.

            All this concern about maintenance, governance,
administration, continuity and fidelity need the animating principle
of God, the beginning and end of all things, the Creator, the eternal
being who is also a father to us who never lets us down.

            We have to be wary of a secular, worldly view about what
can motivate and keep us in the duty of maintenance. It can have very
many convincing arguments, but the moment it sets God aside, giving
him, at best, only a decorative role, we would be in the wrong track.

            When a genuine living relation with God is achieved, our
awareness of our duty of maintenance, continuity and fidelity acquires
its most fundamental and reliable source and lifeblood.

            It makes us keenly aware of the many aspects and
requirements of this duty, capable of making long-term plans and
strategies as well as flexible enough to cope with changing and
unexpected circumstances. It tries its best to avoid a short-sighted
vision of things and other stop-gap measures and knee-jerk reactions.

            In short, we would be doing all the tasks of maintenance
out of pure love for God and for souls. The virtue of prudence will be
lived to the hilt.

            The duty of maintenance then becomes an exciting
adventure, with all the possible situations that can happen. But
there’s confidence and sense of security among those involved.

            With that love, we would be willing to go all the way, not
afraid of sacrifices to be made, effort and expenses to be spent, etc.
If corrections are needed, then they are done, irrespective of who
gets hurt.

            The problem is that many of us still find it corny to put
God and love in this equation. We prefer to remain in the humanly
advantageous level—what is profitable, practical, popular, etc. This
only shows lack of faith, or a faith not well digested and
assimilated.

            With this attitude, we immediately narrow and impoverish
our idea of maintenance and governance. And sooner or later, we get
what we deserve—troubles, failures, disappointments, termination, etc.

            It’s important that we cultivate and spread this culture
of maintenance far and wide. Its rudiments can be done in the
families, in schools, churches. Then it can radiate its influence in
our neighborhood, our cities and the government.