Be always in awe

IT may sound unrealistic and impracticable, but it happens

to be the ideal condition for all of us to be in. If we truly believe

in God, if we live fully by our faith, we would know that we have a

tremendous treasure in our life and that the only proper way to

correspond to that reality is to be always in awe.

   

            Yes, we have to do our part in what we may call the game

or the drama of our life, and it’s true that our part is no laughing

matter. It is horribly serious! It would require of us nothing less

than total detachment from earthly things, even from our very own

life.

  

            But then again, if we manage to do our part and place our

life entirely in God’s hands, we have no reason whatsoever to fear or

to worry. In fact, we have every reason to be cheerful, confident and

in awe.

  

            God has taken care of everything that can happen to us in

this life. We just have to go along with his will and ways as revealed

to us fully in Christ and as executed for us even up to now and till

the end of time via the many instrumentalities that the Church now

provides.

   

            We have been left with God’s word, with the sacraments,

with the ever moving testimonies of the heroic lives of saints. Every

situation in our life, whether considered humanly speaking as good or

bad, is given a way of how it can sanctified, of how it can be a means

and an occasion to be with God, to give glory to him, to be occasions

to develop and to show love.

  

            God gives us his grace, a participation of his divine life

even while we are still here. He is not sparing in giving that grace.

Whenever we commit a mistake or even a grave sin, he is quick to

forgive. As St. Paul once said, “Where sin has abounded, grace has

abounded even more.” (Rom 5,20)

   

            We, of course, have to live this awe with naturalness. We

should not flaunt it. The genuine awe that is based on our vital union

with God will always be expressed in humility. And it is very much

compatible with human suffering and that attitude of wanting to serve

and not to be served. It is never arrogant, vain and self-absorbed.

   

            Very seldom would it manifest itself in some extraordinary

ways as in those cases of ecstasy, levitation, bilocation,

transfiguration and the like that some saints experienced. Ordinarily,

it is lived without grabbing attention from anyone. But definitely, it

would be observed and seen by others one way or another.

  

            We need to study and know more about what our faith tells

us about God and us with the view of acquiring that conviction that

God loves us so much as to effect in us that state of joy and awe.

  

            When we notice that we are easily affected by the problems

and difficulties we encounter in life, or when we seem to be always

bored and feeling dry, it is a clear sign that we not living our

faith, maybe because we have not studied it well and embodied it in

our life adequately. The true life of piety is not yet developed. The

state of joy, peace and awe is not yet achieved.

  

            We have to realize that to be always in awe would enable

us to have the proper attitude toward God and others. We would be

thankful to God and we would show it by doing a lot of good without

counting the cost nor expecting any reward. We would also be generous

in our self-giving to others.

  

            Let’s see to it that we are striving to attain this state

of awe, joy and peace in our life.

Touch base with God always

THIS is what we should do everyday, even if we give it

only a few minutes. That short period of prayer and meditation will

surely give us the proper tone and color for the day, whatever may

happen along the way.

   

            This is what Christ himself did. There are so many

references in the gospel of how Christ would get up early in the

morning, even way before daybreak, and go to certain place just to

pray, to talk with the Father.

  

            Christ always felt the need to touch base with the Father.

In fact, before he launched his public life, he had to spend forty

days in the desert to pray and fast. And to think that he is God

himself! It gives us the idea that even in that Trinitarian nature of

the one God, there is a perpetual knowing and loving among the three

divine persons, a perpetual praying and relating with each other.

   

            Being the image and likeness of God, we too should realize

that we need to touch base with God in the Trinity—Father, Son and

Holy Spirit. And we should do this daily.

  

            No wonder that all the saints, whatever their particular

conditions and situations were, were always men and women of prayer

before they were known for some spectacular feats and anything else.

  

            It’s important—in fact, indispensable—that we touch base

with God always because without him we are nothing, even if we manage

to show ourselves to be something or to have done something great for

a while.

   

            Touching base with God will give us the proper and

constant perspective amid the changing circumstances of our daily

life. It will remind us of who we really are, where we came from and

where we are supposed to go. It will enlighten us about the proper

attitude we ought to have toward our daily work, concerns, projects,

duties, etc.

  

            We have to do everything to overcome whatever obstacle

there may be in fulfilling this most basic daily duty. We have to stir

up our faith. We have to fight against our laziness, both physical and

mental. We need to find time and in fact give priority to it. That’s

because nowadays, there are just so many things that are so alluring

as to grab us away from this duty.

  

            Touching base with God will put us in the best condition

to face the day, whatever way it will turn out. It will prepare us to

react properly both in good times and bad. It will reassure us that

God is in control of everything, and gives us all the appropriate

means to handle whatever predicament we may be in.

  

            Touching base with God will also remind us that our life

here on earth is a pilgrimage to our definitive homeland. We do not

have our definitive home here on earth (cfr. Heb 13,14) Everything

that we do should be a step forward to that homeland.

  

            Touching base with God will also remind us that we are

actually co-creators with God and co-redeemers with Christ of our own

selves. It will sharpen our sense of duty and priority amid the many

competing values and tasks we have to choose along the way.

  

            To touch base with God is actually not difficult to do.

All that is needed is the right disposition of faith, hope and charity

with their corresponding ‘requirements.’ In the practical level, all

that is needed is just a few minutes, usually in the early part of the

day, and an appropriate place that is conducive to prayer and

meditation.

  

            Let us encourage everyone to develop the habit of touching

base with God everyday. We need to have catechesis on this, and

practical lessons and even classes to put this practice in place in

the life of everyone, especially the young ones.

If only we know...

THAT is, if we only know what God has given us, for sure

we would freeze in astonishment, and once recovered, would spring to

action to correspond generously to his great tremendous gift to us!

            That is, if we only know. The problem is that we hardly

know about this gift because we always tend to take things for

granted. We only or mainly see the physical things. Anything beyond,

anything spiritual and supernatural, is at best given a lick and a

promise.

  

            We need to make some changes, even some drastic

adjustments, in our way of perceiving and discerning things. We just

should not stay in the level of the material, the worldly and the

temporal. We have to learn to capture the spiritual, the supernatural

and the eternal realities in our life.

  

            And this means that we have to sharpen our faith, our

skill at praying such that we can truly say that we are having a

direct encounter with God our Father. We need to convince ourselves

that this is possible and doable. Precisely God’s tremendous gift to

us is he himself, his giving his own self to us, offering us whatever

is good to us all the way to offering us mercy and forgiveness even if

we have not yet asked for forgiveness.

  

            It is important that we pause from time to time to

consider this basic truth about God and us and to let it sink in our

consciousness so as to make it the motivating and guiding principle in

our life.

  

            We may have to do a number of things to achieve this goal

or ideal, and they may vary depending on the concrete conditions of

each one of us. For some of us, it may be a matter of taking the word

of God as found in the gospel, in the catechism, in the prayer books,

etc., more seriously.

  

            We cannot deny that for many of us, reading the gospel,

for example, is just a reading exercise, or at best a purely

intellectual affair. We fail to perceive the voice of God in it,

encouraging us to transform ourselves in becoming more and more like

Christ.

  

            It’s about time that we allow ourselves to be ruled by a

living faith that would enable us to see and hear Christ everytime we

read the gospel. The net effect should be that we would be moved to

follow Christ more closely and even to identify ourselves with him

more and more.

  

            For others, it may be a matter of seeing that our work and

study are occasions to relate us to God. Our work and study should not

just be a purely technical or intellectual affair. This attitude

toward our work and study should be improved.

             Truth is that our work and study will always have God at

their beginning and end. In fact, God should always be in the middle

of these human activities. In fact, he should always be in every step

of the way. Without God or putting God aside would simply put our work

and study in jeopardy. They would become an occasion for all kinds of

temptation and sin.

   

            We should aim at truly becoming contemplative souls who

not only believe in God, but also lives with him. We should be able to

see and hear him in all places and times. Our will should be in synch

with God’s will, which is what is proper to us, since we are meant to

be his image and likeness and to share in his life and nature.

  

            On the part of God, he has already given us everything

that we need to be as we should be according to God’s will. We have to

find ways of how to effectively enable each one of us, in our

distinctive conditions, to appreciate God’s tremendous gift to us!