To impress or to be impressive

NO matter how fine and tricky the distinction between the

two, the effort to know the difference and to act accordingly is all

worthwhile. Yes, there is a lot of difference when whoever does some

public intervention gets to be impressive without intending to impress

the people.

            There is grace, a certain charisma, that undefinable

X-factor involved when one is impressive in whatever performance one

may do in public. But when one acts to impress the people, everyone

gets to know it also, both the performer and the audience. Everyone

gets to know the artificiality involved.

            A person who is impressive in public actuations usually

does not mind how people react to his performance. He just delivers it

from the heart, with unquestionable authenticity. He is not so much

concerned with ratings as with being faithful and true to his mission.

            He is even willing to be unpopular, if things have to come

to that point. He may even be bumbling and awkward in his performance

but the authenticity of his actuations simply shows. And that’s what

people will always perceive.

            Of course, things also depend on the people. If they have

good will, then they can see things objectively. If not, no matter how

anointed and faithful God’s minister may be in his ministry, he will

not be impressive to them. In fact, they will always find fault in

him.

            This has happened to Christ himself. To those with simple

hearts and open minds, those with good will, they immediately were

impressed and amazed at Christ’s words. They perceived a certain

spirit of authority that they did not see in the leading Jews at that

time. But to those with closed minds and complicated hearts, Christ

was always an object of suspicion. They saw nothing in him except

faults.

            But when one is driven in his public interventions by the

motive of simply impressing others, he already suffers a big handicap.

And this is made worse when he possesses certain talents that can

mesmerize people. The audience may applaud him, but for sure any seed

sown in these interventions, any message or lesson given, will not

take deep roots.

            We need to see to it that in our public discourses, we be

guided by a clear and pure intention of glorifying God and truly

serving the needs of the people. For this, we have to rectify our

intention often, since it can easily be swayed away by some ulterior

motives.

            We need to see to it that these public discourses,

irrespective of how mundane the topics and issues involved are, are

seen as an encounter with no one else than God himself. They are

occasions to have a dialogue with God before it is a mere discourse

with the people.

            Of course, we have to prepare ourselves adequately in the

technical aspects of these discourses. But we should see to it that we

do not get swallowed up by the technicalities. Our main focus should

be God and our main motive is to glorify him. Everything else that we

consider important to us will just follow as a consequence.

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The concern for accountability

            YES, we should all have an abiding concern for accounting

everything that we are and that we have. We just cannot go on with our

life as if we are not answerable to anybody, especially to God, from

whom we all come and to whom we all belong.

            This is an indispensable part of our life, an

unrelinquishable duty to perform. Our problem is that many still are

ignorant of this duty, and of those who already know about this, the

tendency is to take it for granted or to do it badly or to avoid it if

always given the chance.

            We need to find a way of instilling this duty in everyone,

starting with oneself and then encouraging others to do the same, in

the context of the families, schools, parishes, offices, etc.

            We always have to remember that what we are and what we

have are not self-generated but are always given to us one way or

another, if not by someone or by some other institution and authority,

then by God ultimately.

            Yes, we are always answerable to some people in varying

ways and degrees. These people can be our parents, teachers, friends,

neighbors, public officials, etc. In the end, we are all answerable to

God who has given us everything, starting with our life and all the

endowments that go with our life.

            We need to smash the thought that what we are and what we

have are just our own. That is a thinking that is completely false,

that stands on no objective foundation.  It needs to be corrected

drastically and urgently.

            Sad to say, it is a thinking that is quite prevalent these

days. And so we need to be constantly reminded of this truth, because

we always tend to ignore if not openly deny it.

            We have to be most aware of where we come from, what

dignity and status we are given, what duties and responsibilities are

entrusted to us, etc. And let’s remember that we need to handle them

properly.

            That is to say, that we are keenly aware of the purpose or

reason the giver or author has when giving us what we are and what we

have. And we should try to make use of them in the best way we can,

making them as productive as possible.

            Since man’s creation, God our creator has always told us

to be fruitful. “Be fruitful and multiply,” he said. “Fill the earth

and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the

sky…” (Gen 1,28)

            And this command has been constantly reiterated all the

way to Christ who in many parables told us clearly to be fruitful. The

parable of the three servants (cfr Mt 25,14-30) is one example among

many.

            We have to learn how to be accountable to God and to

others. One concrete way of doing that is by making a daily

examination of conscience before going to bed. This will allow us to

see how we fared during the day, whether we were fruitful or not, and

to make the necessary plans for the following day.

            “Without cost you have received. Without cost you are to

give.” (Mt 10,8) For sure, with these words of Christ, we are strongly

reminded to be generous, to give ourselves completely to God and to

others, sparing and keeping nothing for ourselves, because God has

been generous with us. He gave nothing less than himself to us. And he

wants us to share what we have with everybody else.

            This should be the attitude we ought to develop when we

have an abiding concern for accounting all that we have received from

God.

            We should never marginalize, much less, ignore, the Holy

Spirit in our education.

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The goal of education

THIS is none other than for us to be another Christ. After

all, he is the very pattern of our humanity in the beginning and the

redeemer of our damaged humanity. If education is for us to achieve

the fullness of our humanity, we should not look at anything, no

matter how lofty and useful, other than at Christ.

            St. Paul, in his Letter to the Ephesians, describes it

this way: “His (Christ’s) gifts were that some should be apostles,

some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip

the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of

Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the

knowledge of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of

the fullness of Christ...” (4,11-13)

            Yes, education is not simply about acquiring some worldly

knowledge and skills. It’s about achieving this “mature manhood” St.

Paul was talking about, a mature manhood that is “to the measure of

the stature of the fullness of Christ.”

            Obviously, knowledge and skills are important and are, in

fact, indispensable. But they have to be oriented toward the ultimate

goal of education which is the pursuit for the fullness of Christ in

us.

            We have to be wary of the strong, almost irresistible

temptation to downgrade the purpose of education to simply achieving

some worldly values like wealth, honor, popularity, efficiency, etc.

These worldly goals, if not related to the ultimate goal, can very

well be sweet poisons that can corrupt the process of education.

            Some sectors may claim that putting Christ as the main

goal of education undermines the technical rigor that should accompany

the task of learning the sciences and the arts. They claim that that

approach would be too other-worldly as to restrain us to go to the

last consequences of our studies.

            We should not be deceived by such claim, because the

opposite is, in fact, the case. When we put Christ on top of

everything else in our education, we would be most motivated and

pressured to be thoroughly exacting in our studies. Christ himself

would require nothing less than that.

            Thus, the ultimate goal of education is when we learn to

deal in an abiding way with the Holy Spirit, who is the spirit of God,

who will remind us of everything Christ taught us, who will lead us to

the complete truth and would tell us of things to come.

            At this time of the world’s life, we should do much better

than the early Christians who, when asked by St. Paul whether they

have received the Holy Spirit, answered that “we have not even heard

that there is a Holy Spirit.” (Acts 19,2)

            All the technical things involved in our education should

somehow tend to the learning of how to deal with the Holy Spirit. For

this, it might be useful also to know the gifts of the Holy Spirit

which enable us to know things the way the Holy Spirit knows them.

            We should never marginalize, much less, ignore, the Holy

Spirit in our education.