Tolerating but not condoning

TO be realistic about the concrete conditions of our life

here on earth, we need to know how to be tolerant of certain

unavoidable evils without condoning them. The distinction may be

difficult to make, but we simply have to learn it if we want to

survive the drama of our earthly life. I believe this is a basic skill

we all have to acquire, given the way we and the world are.

            We cannot deny that in our life, we will always be hounded

by evil in all its forms. We have our own weaknesses to contend with,

in the first place. St. John already warned us about the “lust of the

flesh, lust of the eye, and the pride of life.” (1 Jn 2,16)

            Then we have to cope with the many temptations and

structures of sin now proliferating in the world. This is too obvious

and conspicuous to merit further elaboration. Just think of the

network of corruption, deception, pornography around!

            Worst of all, we have the devil, the trickiest and

smartest of all evils, to grapple with. And he is very good in the art

of conspiracy, putting snares and traps at every move we make. It is

really important that we know how to deal with this fact of life

without unduly compromising what is truly essential in our life.

            We have to learn to be tough and be ready to get dirty

somehow without surrendering the essential. And we should not lose the

hope of overcoming evil, fighting it out till the end of our life, if

needed.

            To be tolerating is to assume an attitude of allowing some

evil or something that we do not like, to exist or to occur without

interference from our part, at least in the meantime.

            It is to suffer that evil or negative element if only to

give more attention to something that is of higher value.

This may involve a certain material, not formal, cooperation in evil.

            It should be a function of a divinely inspired sense of

practicality, reflecting the lesson we can learn from the parable of

the unjust steward. (cfr. Lk 16,1-13) and from the example of Christ

himself who fraternized with the sinners more than with the

self-righteous persons.

            It, of course, does not mean that we do nothing about

these negative elements, nor be indifferent to them, turning a blind

eye toward them. Much less, does it mean that we approve these bad

elements, regarding them as somehow good and acceptable, giving false

excuses for them. That would already be condoning evil.

            In this regard, we have to remember that if we cannot help

it, we should be willing to lose whatever is necessary to lose if only

to save the essential, as articulated by Christ when he said:

            “If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and

throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than

for your whole body to be thrown into hell.  And if your right hand

causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for

you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into

hell.” (Mt 5,29-30)

            To be sure, for us to be able to distinguish between when

to be properly tolerant of certain evils and when we would already be

falling into condoning them, we would need God’s grace and our vital

union with Christ, no less. The spiritual and supernatural means

should always be given priority over the human means.

            On our part, we should study well the moral doctrine of

our Christian faith, especially on the principles regarding material

cooperation in evil, and to make proper consultations with the right

people. It would be helpful if we can have regular spiritual direction

where we can air out our experiences in this matter.

Stay humble and simple despite…

AMID the complexities of our life today, we have to learn

to stay humble and simple because that is the basic way to precisely

handle these complexities well. When we are humble and simple we would

know how to blend openness, tolerance and versatility on the one hand,

and to stick to the truth in charity on the other hand.

            Remember Christ telling his disciples: “Look, I am sending

you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore, be as shrewd as snakes and

as innocent as doves.” (Mt 10,16)

            We can interpret these words as Christ telling us that we

can only be shrewd and clever like snakes, capable of being open,

tolerant and versatile to any kind of worldly complicated situations

today when we remain humble and simple like doves. A humility and a

simplicity that would not lead us to be shrewd and clever like

serpents would not be true humility and simplicity. They would simply

be the fake ones.

  

            It is genuine humility and simplicity that would enable us

to face the complexities of our life because these are the virtues

that liken and identify us with Christ. And with Christ, we can manage

to tackle anything.

            Remember that we are told that with God nothing is

impossible. In other words, only with these virtues can we be “capax

Dei,” capable of being like God, sharing his power and wisdom. With

God, we can handle anything.

            Perhaps that is the reason why Christ said: “Learn from

me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for

your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden light.” (Mt 11,29-30)

            Of course, this is a mysterious and intriguing kind of

reasoning that Christ is telling us. And that is simply because he is

telling us something that is mainly spiritual and supernatural in

character. He is not giving us an indication that is meant to tackle

purely natural situations and predicaments.

            We have to realize that our life does not only have

material, temporal and natural dimensions. It has an eminently

spiritual and supernatural character for which the spiritual and

supernatural means are more important and necessary than the natural

ones.

            We just have to activate our faith to be able to put

ourselves in the proper condition to face the challenges of our life.

And that faith tells us to be humble and simple always even as we wade

through the complexities of today’s life.

            Humility and simplicity are the virtues that would make us

acknowledge that we are nothing without God. They sort of open our

soul for the grace of God to enter. And it is this grace that

transforms us, irrespective of our human impotencies, mistakes and

errors, into becoming children of God.

            And with God’s grace in our soul because of our humility

and simplicity, we can manage to receive the gifts of faith, hope and

charity. We can believe natural truths that not only are difficult to

discover but also to understand. Even more, it is humility and

simplicity that would enable us to believe supernatural truths where

there is no way for us to fully understand them, much less, explain

them in a human way.

            It is humility and simplicity that would enable us to be

like Christ, to be ‘alter Christus,’ who is the pattern of our

humanity and the redeemer of our damaged humanity. It is when we are

humble and simple that we can manage to bear and to suffer all things,

and to love even our enemies, offering forgiveness to our offenders,

just like what Christ did and continues to do.

            It would be a disaster to us if we respond to the complex

challenges of our times with our own version of convoluted

self-justifications. This happens when we start thinking, judging,

reasoning and concluding without God or, worse, when we think God's

clear commandments are already obsolete, irrelevant, a drag to our

interests, etc.

Preparing for the future

I AM very happy to note that there are serious agencies

that are concerned about preparing people, especially the young ones,

for the future. They are talking about the need for upskilling and

reskilling them to cope with the demands of the future.

            What is more, they are providing pertinent training

programs as their way of walking their talk. They have programs, for

example, for critical thinking, creativity, entrepreneurship and

analysis, etc., that definitely will be helpful to them as they enter

a fast evolving and very dynamic world.

  

            The other day, I made a quick overnight visit to some

relatives in Manila and spent some time bonding with my nephews and

nieces who are already young professionals and the little ones.

            Frankly, I was amazed at the way these young ones are

now—very knowledgeable about technical things and full of

self-confidence. But at the back of my mind was the question whether

they would know how to relate themselves and the things that they do

to God.

            My fervent wish though is that together with these

indispensable technical skills is the more important ‘skill’ of

relating everything to God. We should not just remain in the practical

and technical levels, since everything would just end up of no value

when God is not involved.

            In fact, God has to be the prime motive and the ultimate

goal of all the new skills people today have to learn. He should not

be exchanged for something merely technical, material and temporal.

Rather, these material and temporal things should be the means for us

to get to God.

  

            We all should learn how to offer everything that we are,

that we have and that we do to God. Our work, for example, should not

just be a technical affair with purely earthly and temporal goal. It

has to be an expression of our love for God, our way of adoring,

praising and thanking him.

            To be sure, everything can be related to God, since

everything comes from God and belongs to him. And if we follow the

example of Christ, we would know that all our earthly affairs can and

should be an occasion or means to relate ourselves to God.

            Even our mistakes and sins, if we have the faith and the

proper attitude, can be an occasion to go to God who is full of mercy

and compassion. Going to him with repentance will surely draw his

forgiveness and will bring us back to his good graces. There is really

nothing in our life that cannot be related to God.

            This basic truth about ourselves and our life should

always be in our mind. The real problem we have is when we ignore God

or when we are indifferent to him, which is just one step away from

going against him.

            There is indeed a great and urgent need to make especially

the young people aware of the importance of God in our lives. Everyone

has to know how to relate themselves and everything in our lives to

God. I believe this is the great challenge facing all centers of

learning.

            To prepare people for the future, we need not only

reskilling and upskilling the technical things, but rather and most

especially the spiritual and moral aspects of our life. We need to

find ways of how to effectively train people to be with God right in

the middle of their technical work.

            For this, we cannot underestimate the importance of a

certain plan of life that should include first of all some acts of

piety and a program of continuing spiritual and moral formation.

            Yes, we should learn to spend some time daily in prayer

and meditation, in getting to know more about God through reading the

gospel and other spiritual books. We should have recourse to the

sacraments, etc.