Our ghostly foes

NOW that the ECQ is extended to May 15, let’s be more

skillful in dealing with the extended condition of our restricted

lifestyle. And among the things to consider are what we may refer to

as our ghostly foes that include not only the invisible Corona virus

but also the more nasty dark and negative thoughts we can have, our

fears, anxieties and even depression that can eat us up like worms.

            But more importantly, let us not disregard the wiles and

tricks of the bad spirits, the demons who can easily take advantage of

our predicament these days. Let’s never ignore them. They are always

around. In fact, these days I am receiving more reports of demonic

activities afflicting many people, and requests for deliverance and

exorcism have gone up. Let’s be forewarned to be forearmed.

            In the meantime, let’s continue praying that we can find

the necessary cure or vaccine for this deadly virus that has been

menacing us already for months and that we can return to some degree

of normalcy. Prayer should always be the basic weapon to use in these

times. Let’s never be tempted to abandon it, thinking that we would be

more successful if we simply rely on science, medicine and our wild

politics.

            These ghostly foes of ours should be tackled head-on. We

should not think that by ignoring them they would just go away. The

contrary is true. The more we ignore them, the more they become

stronger and more dangerous. We have to drive them away forthright.

            With these ghostly foes of ours, what we have to do is to

strengthen our spiritual and supernatural life. These trying times we

are having now are actually good occasions for us to truly live the

life in the spirit with God. We are no match against these ghostly

foes if we would just depend on our human and natural powers.

            If we live by the spirit of God, using to the hilt our

God-given faith, hope and charity, we would be convinced beyond any

trace of doubt that we have no reason to be afraid, over-anxious or

sad. God takes of everything, and he knows how to derive good from

evil. With him, everything, including our difficulties and disasters,

will always work for the good. (cfr. Rom 8,28)

            We should just train our natural powers to be enlightened,

guided and strengthened by the supernatural power of God who likes to

share it with us by precisely giving us the theological virtues of

faith, hope and charity.

            Let us have a good grip on our thoughts and feelings so

they would not stray away from the path of our faith. We should never

dare to think that we are just living on our own, that we are alone

and lonely. God is always with us. We have to feel his immense and

abiding love for us.

            Regarding the evil spirits, neither should we be too

afraid of them. They actually cannot do anything against us unless we

allow them. But we have to acknowledge that they are the smartest of

all conspirators. Just the same, they cannot do anything unless God

allows them to tempt us. And if God allows them to do that, it is

because a greater good can be derived from such situation.

  

            This is a truth of faith that should always be kept in our

mind. We have no reason to be afraid of them, but neither should we be

welcoming of them, much less, enter into some dialogue with them.

Let’s always remember that being spiritual beings, they are far

smarter than us no matter how brilliant and smart we think we are.

They can always outsmart us.

            The thing to do is to dismiss them outright. That is the

example Christ himself gave us when he was tempted after his forty

days of praying and fasting before he started his public life. (cfr.

Mt 4)

Fighting boredom and dryness

IT cannot be denied that even with all our best efforts,

the danger of slipping into boredom and dryness is always there, what

with all this somewhat ‘forced’ stay-at-home dispensation we are

having these days. It’s truly a big challenge for us to be resilient

and practical, but we know that we have our limitations.

            Unless we let it, this should not be a big problem. We

just have to be constantly aware of that danger and do something about

it. There is always hope. As St. Paul said, “God will not let you be

tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will

also provide a way out so that you can endure it.” (1 Cor 10,13) So,

let’s not exaggerate our predicament.

            But, yes, we have to learn how to fight boredom and

dryness. They usually come when the heart is not anymore beating with

love, or is weakening in that vital function. What we have to do is to

stir it up again, asking first for God’s grace but without ever

neglecting the appropriate human effort we have to exert.

            Of course, the effort we are expected to exert is no walk

in the park. We have to be ready to be heroic, to go to the extreme of

our self-giving. Let’s take comfort in the thought that God cannot be

outdone in generosity. If we are heroically generous with him, you can

just imagine how generous he will also be with us! Let’s always

remember that he promised to give a return of a hundredfold to

whatever we give him and others out of love. (cfr. Mk 10,30)

            But, yes, we have to be practical in this. What comes to

my mind is, of course, to see to it that we are always praying

whatever we may be doing at any given moment. Every activity that we

do should somehow be a form of prayer. And let’s see to it that our

prayer is a real encounter and conversation with God. It should not be

just a make-believe thing.

            Concretely, we have to see to it that our awareness of the

presence of God is constant. For this, we may have to do many acts of

faith, hope and charity, some short ejaculatory prayers or aspirations

that truly voice out what is in our heart. God, being a father, will

always understand us, no matter how much we complain in a filial way.

            It will also greatly help if we can have a list of

intentions to pray for and to offer our tasks for. These days, these

intentions are endless. There are just so many people in great need of

things, both material and spiritual. We have to do whatever we can to

help them meet those needs.

            Of course, real love is not just a matter of good

intentions and sweet words. By its very essence, it has to be

expressed in deeds. And nowadays, despite the stay-at-home order,

there will always be things to do.

            Usually they are small tasks, even menial in character.

But if done out of love for God and for others, they can acquire

tremendous power to help people in their needs. God’s mysterious ways

and the Christian doctrine about the communion of saints will see to

it that even in our hidden work done with love can reach out to people

we may not even know.

            It is also good that we come out always with some plan or

schedule of activities during the day, so that we do not get lost and

confused easily, and so that we can manage our energies properly. We

have to realize that while God’s grace can make the impossible

possible, we continue to remain human with our natural limitations.

            Let’s hope that in the end, we are always on the move,

acting with zeal. That way, we can effectively fight boredom and

dryness!

Staying on course

OUR earthly life, it is said, is a matter of a journey, a

pilgrimage toward our eternal destination. Given our conditions here

where we have to contend with all sorts of things, there is great need

for us to stay on course, avoiding getting diverted and lost along the

way.

            To be sure, we already have been given everything for us

to stay on the right track. And that’s nothing else or no one else

than Christ himself who tells us that he is “the way, the truth, and

the life.” The constant order of the day for us, therefore, is how to

be identified with Christ all the time.

            We need to be deeply and permanently convinced of this

truth of our faith and also of its practicability, otherwise we would

be wasting time. That’s because we can appear to be doing a lot of

things and yet miss the goal to which we are meant to reach.

            Especially these days when we have to contend with more

and more things brought about by our technological progress, we can

find ourselves losing focus and getting confused and lost. Our

attention can easily get scattered, our thoughts become shallow and

narrow, our reactions automatic, mindless and involuntary.

            That is why we can never overemphasize the need to be

always vigilant, ever rectifying our intentions to make sure that

whatever we are doing or whatever situation or circumstance we can

find ourselves in, we are always focused on God and on his will and

ways.

            God is both the principle and end of our life, as well as

the pattern of our life as shown to us by Christ who is made alive to

us by the Holy Spirit. He is the one that enables us to blend all

aspects, situations and circumstances of our life into one consistent

unity. In short, that’s when we can have unity of life.

            We need to be wary of our tendency to get easily entangled

in our worldly and temporal affairs. Even if we are pursuing lofty

earthly goals, like philanthropy, social justice, economic well-being,

etc., we would still end up a big failure if all these otherwise

legitimate pursuits are not inspired and aimed at the twin love of God

and neighbor.

            When we notice, for example, that we are doing well in our

business and other professions, but are rather cold and indifferent to

our duty to do apostolate and to help others get closer to God, then

we actually are not loving God by doing his will. We are simply

pursuing our own self-interests. We are apt to be reproached by Christ

who once said: “What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the world,

and lose his own soul?” (Mk 8,36)

            We cannot deny that this is the common phenomenon

nowadays. Many people are just after their own things at the expense

of their duty toward God and others. We need to see to it that in all

our activities, plans and concerns, there should only be one

objective. And that is to love God and neighbor, as we have been

commanded.

            We therefore need to devise some kind of plan of life

where everything mutually influences each other in pursuit of our

ultimate goal of loving God and others. For example, our prayer should

inspire our work just as our work should give fuel and inspiration to

our prayer.

            We need to close the gap between our life of prayer or our

contemplative life, on the hand, and our active life of work and our

involvement in worldly affairs, on the other hand. Our thoughts should

always be both in heaven and on earth, not one without the other.

            This means that we should develop and grow in our

spiritual life as we get more and more immersed in our earthly

concerns. This is what is ideal for us, and it can be achieved if we

just put our whole mind and heart into this pursuit. It’s not an

impossible dream. We can always count on God’s grace.

            We need to see the intimate union between the natural and

supernatural, the material and the spiritual, the temporal and the

eternal. These are dimensions and parameters that are involved in our

life, and we just have to learn how to deal with them.

            As said earlier, we already have been given everything for

us to stay on the right track as we go through our life. We just have

to be constantly vigilant, making the necessary corrections along the

way.