Let’s grow in our Marian devotion

IT’S May again, and we are reminded to turn our mind and

heart to the most beautiful, blessed, divinely honored woman in the

whole universe, none other than our Our Lady, “Mater Dei et mater

nostra,” the Mother of God and our mother.

            Let’s see to it that our devotion to her grows. And if it

is practically dormant if not dead, then let’s stir it up to life

again. She is important to us. In fact, she is indispensable to us.

She cannot be treated as an optional feature in our spiritual life,

nor something decorative or appendical only.

            While she is not God and, therefore, not to be accorded

with the worship that is only due to God (latria), she rightly

deserves to be given the highest form of veneration (hyperdulia) among

all the saints who are already with God in heaven.

            She never competes nor undermines our relationship with

God. If anything, all she does is to bring us to God and to help us

fulfill the will of God. Thus, in that episode of the wedding at Cana

where she noticed that the hosts were running out of wine, she told

the servants, “Do whatever he (Christ) tells you.” (Jn 2,5)

            She is a mother to us. In fact, she fulfills the

perfection of motherhood because she conceived the Son of God in her

womb, thereby making herself, in a mysterious sense, the mother of God

(Mater Dei), since Jesus is not only man, but is, first of all, God.

            And since Christ is the “prototype” of the redeemed

humanity, she, being the mother of Christ, can rightly be called the

mother of all humanity that has been redeemed by Christ.

            That is why before Christ died, he gave his mother to us

through the Apostle John when he said, “Woman, behold your son.” And

to John, he said, “Behold your mother.” Like John, we should bring our

Lady to the home of our heart. We would stand to benefit tremendously

from such gesture.

            If Eve was the first woman and thus the mother of all

humanity who fell into sin with her, Mary is the second Eve who begot

all of us by begetting the very son of God, “the way, the truth and

the life” for us, the savior of all humanity.

            And as mother, she really takes care of us the way she

took care of Christ. She will always be with us, ever solicitous of

our needs, always ready to help and intercede on our behalf. As

mother, she will always understand us, and will be quick to help us

fix whatever mess we make in our life. Most importantly, she is

focused in helping us achieve our ultimate goal—our salvation.

            These are basic truths about Our Lady that should never be

missing in our mind and heart. On the contrary, they should always be

made to be felt more deeply so as to give the pertinent impulses and

motivations to our thoughts, words and deeds.

            Let us develop the habit, even the instinct, of bringing

Our Lady wherever we are. To be with her is to be with Christ, to be

sure. For this, let us soften our heart to welcome and accommodate

her, and develop an intimate mother-and-child relationship with her.

With her we can never outgrow our condition as a little child who

always needs his mother.

            Let’s develop a certain fondness for her by availing of

some human means that are used for this purpose. These can be

developing the habit of looking affectionately at her pictures, saying

something nice to her, saying the rosary and explore the different

mysteries of Christ’s life with her, etc.

            And even if we are in this stay-home order, we can still

do some pilgrimages to Marian shrines by doing it online. Love and

devotion will always find a way.

To be credible

I SUPPOSE that’s what everyone wants. We want to be

credible when we speak, preach or teach. In all forms of

communication, we want everyone to at least take us seriously. They

may not believe everything that we say, but at least we are given some

considerations. That, at least, would show we are credible enough.

            There may be many and endless standards of credibility.

For one, we have to have clear facts, those that at best should be

beyond doubt. If we are not very certain about the facts, then we

should be humble enough to say so even as we explain as convincingly

as possible why we are citing them.

            Yes, to be credible is about telling the truth which

actually is not a walk in the park, since truth goes beyond objective

realities and enters into the subjective world. This is where we are

going to swim in some uncharted waters, full of mysteries and unknown

factors. In the end, truth is being with God who is Truth himself.

            For us, that means that we have to be vitally united to

Christ who said he is “the way, the truth and the life.” It may be

remembered that Christ was so credible in his preaching that

practically everyone, except those who were bent not to believe him,

“hung on his words.” (Lk 19,48)

            As St. Mark noted in his gospel, he attracted so many

people, that “when the people heard he was at home, they gathered in

such large numbers that there was no more room, not even outside the

door.” (2,2)

            When we are vitally identified with Christ, we would know

what, why and how to communicate. That is how credibility is developed

and earned, even if we have to expect that not everyone would believe

us. We should not be surprised by that disbelief of some people.

            If Christ experienced that, we should somehow expect the

same to happen to us. In fact, we can say that the resistance and even

hostility that some people may have toward us when we communicate, is

a sign that we are actually telling the truth, and thus, are credible.

We should learn to be sport also in this department. Let’s not be

oversensitive. This thing is part of the territory.

            Ultimately, what should guide us in developing credibility

is the duty to spread the truth of the gospel which we should learn to

do “in season and out of season,” as St. Paul once said.

            It might be good to remit here the pertinent text of St.

Paul in his second Letter to Timothy: “Preach the word,” he said. “Be

prepared in season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke, and encourage

with every form of patient instruction. For the time will come when

men will not tolerate sound doctrine, but with itching ears they will

gather around themselves teachers to suit their own desires…” (4,2-3)

            We should see to it that even if we are communicating very

technical, mundane or secular matters, everything has to be done in

the spirit of the gospel to be truly credible.

            So, credibility is about preaching the truth of the gospel

even as we try our best also to adapt our preaching and communication

to the level of the people whom we are addressing. In this, we should

make continuing effort to know the people well, so we would know how

to approach and talk to them.

            Indeed, to be able to read the mind and heart of the

people, to know how to address them is a precious art and skill to

have, and an even more precious gift to ask from God.

            Just the same, we can be truly credible when our life and

preaching, our deeds and words are consistent. This is when we would

automatically generate a certain aura, or what some people call as

charisma, that would act like a magnet attracting people to us. That’s

what credibility is all about—people seeing Christ in us!

Chill it out, take it slow

THE expressions are part of the lyrics of a pop rock song

entitled, Best of both worlds, as performed by Miley Cyrus. It talks

of a small town girl who enjoys privacy and the status of an ordinary

girl in her school but is a big-time phenom when performing on stage

because of her extraordinary talent. She’s just cool about that

condition.

  

            The expressions can also be applied to what our attitude

should be in these times of uncertainty and suspense due to this

Covid19 pandemic. We are quite aware that we are thrown into an ocean

of mysteries and unknowns, and we are trying our best just to coast

along if only to survive with a certain level of ease and comfort. As

long as we continue to pray and be vigilant, I believe such attitude

is the right thing to have.

            Let’s be careful when we get carried away by our emotions,

usually of fear and anxiety that often are manifestations of our

over-reaction to what we have now. Let’s just take it easy, and as the

song puts it, let’s just “chill it out, take it slow.” Otherwise,

things would just be worse for us.

            Thus, let’s not be rash in our thoughts, words and deeds

in reacting to what we are having now. Let’s restrain ourselves from

giving in to ideas and pieces of information that are thrown to us in

abundance, thanks but no thanks to our modern communication

technologies.

            By now we should already be quite familiar with what are

known as fake news. We should be properly guarded against them. They

can come from different sources.

            We know that there are people out there who, wittingly or

unwittingly, are too focused on pushing their own agenda without due

regard to other views. This usually happens with those with a

political agenda. And there are people who simply come out with wild,

completely baseless assertions, relying more on their biases and

prejudices—yes, even religious biases.

            But before all that, we cannot deny that there are things

that still are up in the air as to their veracity. Like whether the

virus is man-made or is something natural, whether it came from China

or wherever, whether lockdown, ecq, gcq are the right thing to do,

whether we have a real pandemic or a ‘plandemic,’ etc.

            Of course, we should follow the exchanges of views, but

let’s not be rash in making judgments. What we should not forget is

that God is always in control of everything, and that while we have to

do our part, we neither should worry too much nor over-react to the

developments of this crisis.

            Whether we end up right or wrong in our views or positions

about these issues is not as important as whether we are with God or

not in living out these trying times. Yes, we should try our best to

get to the bottom of these issues, but we should never leave God

behind. He is in the middle of all this, and the way we react to it

would show how we are relating ourselves with God.

            So, more than anything else, what is always needed are

prayers, sacrifices, works of mercy and all the other spiritual and

supernatural means that are still made available to us.

            We should try our best to live and act in solidarity with

others, which does not mean that we all have a uniform way of doing

things. Solidarity involves the variety of the subsidiary ways to

serve the common good. Let’s do what we can to help, and let’s do it

in coordination with everyone else.

            So, let’s just chill it out, take it slow. No need to be

tense. We have to learn to smile and ride out this storm. This one

will also pass, just like the previous one, though we are still held

in suspense at the moment.