Always strengthening our hope

THIS is a crucial virtue to have. Given our condition of
pilgrim here on earth, we should make sure that we are always on the
move toward our ultimate, spiritual and supernatural goal.

            We should not get distracted or entangled by our earthly
affairs, whether good or bad, for as the Letter to Hebrews would put
it: “For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the
city which is to come.” (13,14) Thus, we have to strengthen our hope
always.

            Hope is first of all not just a virtue that we produce,
cultivate or keep ourselves. It is first of all a gift of God, given
to us in abundance. It is the gift of Christ himself who, by the Holy
Spirit, is made present in us through his words, his sacraments, his
Church. All we have to do is to correspond to this wonderful reality
as vigorously as possible.

            That is why we need to be most mindful of the truths of
our faith, giving time to meditate on them and to make them sink in
our very consciousness. We have to be wary of our tendency to be
carried away by our earthly concerns, no matter how legitimate they
are. For again, as the gospel would say, “For what shall it profit a
man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” (Mk
8,36)

            It’s important that just like in that management style
called MBO (Management by objective), we have to have a clear vision
of our ultimate goal and make it the strongest desire of our life, so
that we don’t get entangled with the ups and downs and the drama of
life.

            This, of course, will require some significant effort,
because especially nowadays people are getting too hooked in their
earthly, temporal affairs. Some of them who are considered more in the
successful side, get too immersed in them that they forget their
spiritual and supernatural goal. Others, who are more in the losing
side, eventually fall into discouragement and despair. They end up
finding no meaning in life.

            For example, we now have many young people, the so-called
successful millennials, who paint themselves as innovators, tech
savvy, rising business titans, etc., but who miserably fail in their
spiritual and moral life. They can cover their failings, but for sure,
only for a while. The true character will show sooner or later.

            With this gift and virtue of hope, we are always given a
sense of direction. Our goal is made clear. All the means are made
available. Every event, whether humanly good or bad, always has a
meaning and can be made use of to attain our eternal goal.

            While it’s true that we are completely responsible for our
life, we should not forget that life has more things to give us than
what we can handle. Hope gives us that impetus to let things be and
let go of certain things, abandoning ourselves in the hands of God who
is in control of everything, just like Christ abandoned himself to the
will of his Father and submitted himself to his own death on the
cross.

            Hope gives one the conviction that God has the last word,
goodness has the last say. It reassures everyone that it is all
worthwhile to suffer a little or a lot in life as long as one does not
lose sight of his eternal goal.

            Hope gives one a deep sense of peace and joy, and an
abiding sense of confidence, regardless of how things play out in
one’s life, since life always has more to offer than what we can
expect or handle.

            Yes, indeed! And they come in all shapes and sizes,
likeable and hateful. There are pleasant surprises and moments of
horrible frustrations.

            Life can’t be restricted simply by our senses and
preferences, nor by our knowledge and wisdom. It gives us a lot more.
There are things that simply are beyond our control. We have to learn
to face life as it unravels by itself.

            When we seem to be overwhelmed by trials, challenges,
tasks, pressures that can come anytime anywhere, I believe the
attitude to have and the reaction to make is to be calm, pray hard,
and while we do all we can, we have to learn to live a certain sense
of abandonment in the hands of God.

            In those situations, I believe we just have to allow
ourselves to play in God’s game plan, in his abiding providence whose
designs are beyond reckoning, and are always effective. This is what
hope is all about!

Let the Spirit speak

\“WHEN they hand you over, do not worry about how you are
to speak or what you are to say. For it will not be you who speak but
the Spirit of the Father speaking through you.” (Mt 10,19-20)

            What reassuring words from Christ! After warning us, his
followers, that we are sent like sheep in the midst of wolves, he
consoles us with these words. We should not be afraid to do what
Christ has sent us to do. Everything will be taken care of.

            In another part of the gospel, the same reassurance is
also given. “In the world, you have tribulation, but take courage. I
have overcome the world,” he told his disciples. (Jn 16,33)

            But this divine reassurance does not exempt us from
cultivating a theological mind, conforming our thoughts, words and
deeds to those of God who now actively intervenes in our life through
his Spirit.

            We have to learn to think, judge and reason in terms of
faith. We have to learn to develop a supernatural outlook in life,
always referring things to God. We have to be convinced that for us to
be objective, to be discerning of the endless subtleties and mysteries
in life, we need always to refer things to God.

            Otherwise, we would just be at the mercy of what our
senses can only provide, of what our intelligence can only understand,
of what the worldly trends and conditionings can only show us.

            Not that these are unimportant. They will always be
indispensable and we need to gather as much as possible all the
pertinent data through these human powers and factors. But we would
still miss the real thing if all these data are not referred to God.
That is, if we do not listen to what the Spirit tells and shows us,
the Spirit who is always intervening in our life.

            We have to allow the Spirit to speak and we listen and
discern as attentively as possible. It is in this way that we can
participate as intimately and as actively as possible in God’s wisdom,
power, knowledge and understanding, his love and mercy. It is in this
way that we get to do God’s will that will always be for the good of
all. In short, we get to do our part in his providence.

            We have to adjust the way we think and see things in
general to accommodate this very crucial truth about ourselves and
things in general. We are often so hampered and then entangled by
merely earthly and material considerations that we fail to see things
in their real and ultimate perspectives, with the all the inputs of
sense data, pure reason and faith considered.

            We need to pray to the Holy Spirit, to develop an abiding
and intimate relationship with him. In this, let’s hope that we can
pass from the infantile stage to the more adult and mature one that
would enable us to resolve the many questions and doubts we can have
about the Holy Spirit.

            Let’s remember what Christ told his disciples about the
coming of the Holy Spirit: “I tell you the truth. It is expedient for
you that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Comforter (the Spirit
of God) will not come unto you. But if I depart, I will send him unto
you.” (Jn 16,7)

            And the Spirit finally came on Pentecost and continues to
stay with us till the end of time, guiding us toward our proper end.

            It’s usually our pride that makes us blind and deaf to the
Holy Spirit, and to depend solely or mainly on ourselves. We have to
melt that pride away, sometimes using strong solvents for that
purpose.

            But it’s important that our dealings with the Holy Spirit
be constant. We have to learn to be sensitive and docile to his
promptings to the extent that our thoughts, words and deeds would
reflect the mind and ways of the Holy Spirit.

            Toward the Holy Spirit, the proper attitude to have is to
want to be filled with him. Let’s be zealous in reaching that goal,
without being distracted by our other concerns no matter how urgent
they may be.

            Let’s promptly second the Holy Spirit’s inspirations,
because delays will only distance us from him. His ways may make us
suffer and to keep quiet on certain issues, like what happened to
Christ himself, but his ways are always effective in leading us to our
proper end.

            Let’s hope and pray that we develop a culture that is
attentive to the workings of the Holy Spirit in our life.

Who is our neighbor?

DEFINITELY, not the one who happens to live close to us.
That’s a very shallow definition of neighbor, unable to capture the
richness that our Christian faith teaches us.

            Neighbor, according to Christ, is anybody with whom we
have to love, giving ourselves to him the way Christ gave himself to
all of us, irrespective of how we are, whether a friend or foe, and
continues to do so. In other words, a neighbor in the Christian sense
can be a complete stranger to us. He can even be an enemy.

            This is verified in the gospel about the good Samaritan. A
scholar of the law tried to test Christ by asking what he had to do to
inherit eternal life. (Lk 10,25-37) When Christ responded by asking
the scholar what was written in the law, the latter answered correctly
that one has to love God with everything and your neighbor as oneself.
But the scholar raised the notorious question, “And who is my
neighbor?”

            That’s when Christ narrated the story of the man who fell
victim to robbers and was left on the road half dead. A priest passed
by, also a Levite, but they did not bother to help. It was a Samaritan
traveler, who was supposed to have no relation with the Jews, who came
to his help.

            When Christ asked who among the three proved to be the
neighbor, the scholar had no choice but to say, the Samaritan, the one
who treated the victim with mercy. And so Christ told him, “Go and do
likewise.”

            It’s important that we broaden our understanding of who
our neighbor is. If our basic understanding of neighbor is that of a
person who is quite close to us, then we have to understand that such
closeness is not just something physical, material, social, etc.

            That closeness should be all-inclusive, which means it can
only be something spiritual and moral, something that is only
generated by love, and a love that goes all the way to showing mercy
that also goes beyond simply giving sympathy and compassion.

            Obviously, this love-generated closeness can only take
place if we are truly and vitally identified with Christ who is love
personified, the quintessence of love, he who goes all the way to
offer his life for all men, saints and sinners. We know that with his
death, he bore all the sinfulness of men.

            This kind of love that makes everyone a neighbor of ours
is readily available and attainable, because Christ has made it so. In
this, he is not sparing. Everything that we need to have that love has
been given to us. It’s up to us to make use of it.

            Ok, to have this kind of love is not easy. We have to
contend with many and endless obstacles. It’s going to take our whole
lifetime, in fact, and even more, to achieve that kind of love. But
neither is it impossible.

            If we only exercise our faith, and follow Christ closely,
through his teaching and example that are now authoritatively taught
and shown by the Church in all its dimensions, we can have that kind
of love.

            We just have to be game in this effort, never saying
enough, and learning how to move on when we encounter setbacks along
the way. We will discover that in spite of the trials and difficulties
we can meet, we can enjoy some peace and joy, and a mysterious sense
of fulfillment.

            And we don’t have to wait for some special and
extraordinary opportunities and occasions to attain this kind of love.
Even in our most isolated conditions, we can still generate that love
simply by praying and doing what we have to do with great love for God
and everybody else.

            This love goes beyond the limits of time and space. It
transcends the restrictions imposed by our various human and natural
conditionings—biological, cultural, historical, social, political,
etc. It even melts away the wall that classifies people into friends
or foes.

            Everyone becomes a neighbor with this kind of love. We may
not know the names of people, their background and so on, but with
this love, we somehow do away with anonymity. Everyone becomes known,
because everyone is loved with the love of God.

            We should be game with all the possibilities that our
human condition can occasion, whether good or bad. We don’t get
entangled with that predicament. We get focused on what is truly
important. And for this we are not afraid to suffer, just as Christ
was not afraid even to die for all of us out of love.