Adapting to everyone’s mentality

THIS is a big challenge to anyone who takes his duty of

helping in the evangelization of people seriously. He has to convey

the highly spiritual and supernatural doctrines of our Christian faith

in such a way that these doctrines are understood, appreciated, loved

and lived by the people.

  

            Given the immense diversity of people in terms of

backgrounds, intellectual levels, let alone, in spiritual and moral

life, anyone who has to evangelize should really have to count on a

deep mastery of the subject, a wide variety of styles, and a keen

sense of knowing how the people are.

  

            But, really, before anything else, he has to count on the

supernatural help of the Holy Spirit to whom he should first pray,

asking for help and enlightenment. With the Holy Spirit, he can speak

and evangelize in ways that are beyond his human capabilities, no

matter how developed these human powers are.

   

            With the Holy Spirit, whatever effort he makes, which will

always be inadequate, we can manage to touch the hearts of the people.

We should never forget that in this business of evangelization, it is

the Holy Spirit who is the prime mover. The evangelizers are just

human instruments who are effective only to the extent that they are

vitally united with the Holy Spirit.

  

            This does not mean that the evangelizer is spared of his

duty to study things well and to learn the fine art of adaptation to

all kinds of people. That’s because it’s only when he does his part

that he can be an effective and faithful instrument of the Holy Spirit

in the act of evangelization.

  

            The implications of this condition are indeed tremendous.

For one, the evangelizer really has to study the doctrines so well as

to incarnate those doctrines in himself. Hardly anything is more

put-offish to the people than when the people feel they are just given

a lecture, a disembodied intellectual exercise.

  

            In this regard, one should distinguish among simply being

a performer, an actor and being a true minister who would faithfully

personify Christ in his own way. He actually does not need to be a

consecrated person to personify Christ. To be credible, he just has to

be consistent to his Christian identity and to what he is conveying.

  

            Otherwise, he can get the accusation Christ hurled once on

some false teachers: “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in

Moses’ seat. So you must be careful to do everything they tell you.

But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they

preach.” (Mt 23,2-3)

  

            Besides, the evangelizer should really make the effort to

know the people well, so that as much as possible he can be on the

same wavelength when he evangelizes the people and so that he more or

less can speak the same language of the people.

  

            In this, some knowledge of psychology, people’s culture,

temper of the times would be very helpful. What is more, it would be

very advisable that the evangelizer spend time with the people to such

an extent that he can identify himself as one of them or as intimately

related to them. As. Pope Francis once said, the shepherd has to have

the smell of the sheep that he tends.

   

            Again, all these are possible if one is vitally united to

the Holy Spirit, to the spirit of Christ. He can personify what St.

Paul once said about how we should be: “I have become all things to

all people so that by all possible means I might save some.” (1 Cor

9,22)

  

            To be sure, to able to adapt to everyone’s mentality in

evangelizing is something that will require a lifelong process of

study and deepening in one’s spiritual life.

The passions of ignorance

THE expression is referred to in one of the passages in

the first letter of St. Peter. The complete passage says: “As obedient

children, do not conform to the passions of your former ignorance…”

(1,14)

              Of course, as human persons, we always have some passions.

These are strong emotions that drive us to action. They are a result

of a combination of things—genes, a sensation of an inner need that

seeks to be satisfied, etc.

  

            We just have to make sure that while our passions can have

their own constitution peculiar to each individual, they just cannot

be left at their biological level. Otherwise, our passions would be

akin to the passions of any animal that is by nature irrational,

following a logic that is completely shaped by instincts alone and

nothing beyond.

  

            Like anything else in human life, our passions also need

to be educated, grounded and oriented to what is truly proper to us.

They should not just be a product of our genes and hormones and the

other chemicals and elements that come into play. They have to be

under the ‘supervision’ of our reason and ultimately of our faith,

hope and charity.

  

            Thus, depending on how they are educated, they can either

be good passions or bad. Yes, we should try to be passionate in our

life, because that is what is ideal for us. But let’s make sure that

our passions are the good ones, those that are properly inspired and

directed, and that truly express our dignity as persons and ultimately

as children of God, image and likeness of his.

  

            The passions of ignorance refer to those that do not

spring from our knowing and loving relation with God. They are more

like the passions of the animals, except that they are fueled not only

by instincts, which are what fuel animal passions, but also by the

powers of our intelligence and will that go beyond what our instincts

can dictate. And these powers of our intelligence and will are not

inspired by faith, hope and charity.

   

            To avoid falling into this kind of passions, we have to

see to it that we inspire them with the spirit of God, which is one of

love, compassion and everything else that God has shown us through

Christ in the Holy Spirit.

  

            In other words, our passions should not just be purely

human passions which, as described in many instances in the Bible, are

“lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the

mind.” (Eph 2,3)

              Again in that first letter of St. Peter, we are told about

what these passions of ignorance were: “For you have spent enough time

in the past carrying out the same desires as the Gentiles: living in

debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable

idolatry…” (4.3)

  

            Our passions should be divinized. They should aim at

nothing less than holiness, just like what St. Peter again said in his

first letter: “But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in

all you do, for it is written, ‘Be holy, because I am holy.’” (1,15)

  

            We really need to check if the passions we have are the

right ones. At the moment, it can be clearly seen that most of the

passions many people show nowadays are spent on self-seeking and

self-absorption. They are not oriented toward God, toward

sanctification.

  

            There is also that wrong belief that being passionate

about God will compromise our humanity. Hardly anything can be farther

from the truth. Being with God, in fact, perfects and completes our

humanity. Without God, our Creator and heaven, we are nothing, or at

best, we would turn out to be like any animal in human form. Yes, we

would look and behave like humans, but we really are not if we are not

with God!

Loving God by loving others

WE sometimes wonder how we can truly know and love God who

is so supernatural and mysterious as to make us doubt whether we can

have that possibility. We should wonder no more, because no matter how

hard and apparently impossible that endeavor may be, all we have to do

is to know and love our neighbor.

            Let’s always have recourse to what St. John said in his

first letter: “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ but hates his brother, he

is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen,

cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And we have this commandment

from him: whoever loves God must love his brother as well…” (4,20-21)

            Said in another way, if we want God to love us, all we

have to do is to love our neighbor. In this we have these words of

Christ himself: “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. Stop

judging and you will not be judged. Stop condemning and you will not

be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven…For the measure with

which you measure will in return be measured out to you.” (Lk 6,36-38)

            Thus, when Christ was asked what the greatest commandment

was, he readily said it was to love God with everything that we have

got, and without being asked what the second greatest commandment was,

he volunteered to say it—that it was to love your neighbor as

yourself. (cfr. Mt 22,36-40)

            As we can see, loving God and loving others always go

together. We cannot have one without the other. The immediate

corollary we can derive from this consideration is that we do not have

to wait for some special occasions, some special reasons or persons to

show our love for God.

            Every moment, every person, every situation, no matter how

ordinary and plain they may be, is a moment to show our love for God.

The moment we start to be nice to others, we are already starting to

be nice with God, and thus loving him.

            This realization should console us and calm down our

anxiety that may spring from the mistaken belief that knowing and

loving God will always demand heroic and extraordinary efforts. Of

course, while it is true that some extraordinary effort can also be

asked of us in this regard, we should not forget that the usual way of

knowing and loving God is simply by taking care of our basic duties

towards others.

            In other words, it is always possible that we can be with

God at every moment of the day as long as we realize that everything

can be an occasion to know and love God by knowing and loving others.

We should not mind so much the mystery and the supernatural things

involved in this duty. If God chooses to hide them from us, we should

just be contented. If he reveals them to us, with their corresponding

demands, then with his grace let us try to respond accordingly.

            In this, let us also remember that if we want God to be

very generous with us, let us also be generous with the others by

giving and helping them more than what we think they deserve. Remember

Christ’s words, “For the measure with which you measure will in return

be measured out to you.” Let’s remember that God cannot be outdone in

generosity.

            We can revise the golden rule a little. Instead of just

saying, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” we can

say, “Do unto others as you would have God do unto you.” That way we

can establish a certain closeness with God since we will always be

close, at least physically, with the others. God will never be far

from us nor will he be an abstract notion to us only!