On the matter of rest

“Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.” (Mt 11,28-30) 

 Words of Christ that clearly tell us where we can find true rest, as well as the kind of things we need do and bear if we want these things to be light and easy. These are words that are most relevant these days, since we are often confused and lost as to where we can find true rest and the kind of things that should properly engage us. 

 With how things are now in the world of rest, recreation and entertainment, there is a great need to develop in ourselves a sharp discerning sense of what is truly helpful and healthy. 

 Our need for rest just cannot and should not be met merely by earthly solutions. Our rest should involve our whole being that is not only material and natural, but also, and most especially, spiritual and supernatural. 

 Unless our rest covers these latter dimensions, we can never find true rest. We may have some degree of physical relief which, if not related to the spiritual and the supernatural, can only poise us to greater dangers sooner or later. 

 To be sure, our true and proper rest can only be found in Christ. He gives us the rest that is not only physical. It is a rest that includes all the aspects of our life—emotional, psychological, mental, moral and spiritual. We need to broaden our understanding of rest to go beyond the physical dimension. 

 Christ offers us the due rest for our soul that can be harassed by the problems of this world and the requirements of our lifelong pursuit for holiness and apostolate. (cfr. Mt 11,29) This is the real rest that is indeed meant for us. Short of this, our rest would be at best only apparent, and cannot cope with the over-all demands and pressures of our life. 

 For this he advises us to learn from him, particularly in his meekness and humility. I imagine that these virtues were highlighted because they are the ones that would open the gates of our soul to receive God’s grace, to be guided by faith rather than simply by our senses and emotions and even by our intellectual powers. 

 We have to see to it that our search for rest should not get stuck in the level of our physical, emotional and intellectual conditions. This is a crucial point because the entry point in our process of knowing is through our senses, instincts and emotions, before things get processed by our intellect, and later inspired by our faith. We should avoid letting our rest get trapped only in the world of the senses, instincts and emotions. 

 Our Christian faith has to enlighten us as to what kind of rest is proper to us. This faith is a God-given view of the all the truths that we need to know. It is God revealing and sharing his knowledge of things with us. It is God sharing his powers with us. We just should not be guided by our own lights and faculties, but by the light God gives us through the gift of faith. 

 To be sure, our faith is not just an intellectual affair, limited to the world of ideas. It involves our whole person and requires that our correspondence to it should precisely involve our whole person. Our search for true rest should be guided by our Christian faith.

Dealing with sinners in this world

IF we have to be like Christ, as we should, we should learn how to deal with sinners who actually are all of us. Instead of being turned off by them, or by that state of affairs, like Christ we should have the interest to look, help and care for them, as Christ himself told his disciples about the story of the lost sheep. (cfr. Mt 18,12-14) 

 “What is your opinion?” he asked. “If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray, will he not leave the ninety-nine in the hills and go in search of the stray? And if he finds it, amen, I say to you, he rejoices more over it than over the ninety-nine that did not stray.” (v. 12-13) 

 Our initial reaction when we notice a mistake or a sin of somebody may be that of being critical. But we should not remain long there. We should rectify as quickly as possible, and proceed to do whatever we can to help. At the very least, what we can do is to pray and offer some sacrifices for that sinner. 

 In a sense, we should try our best not to be scandalized by whatever mistake or sin committed by others or even by our own selves. Our mistakes and sins should rather move us to go to Christ and to act the way Christ acted toward sinners. 

 We should try our best to be protected from being scandalized by whatever mistake or sin we see around. With all the scandalous things popping everywhere nowadays, we should train ourselves to be strong and focused enough to do what we are supposed to do instead of being stalled by them. That is why we should aim at being scandal-proof. 

 We cannot deny that there are many scandals around that can rob us of our desire to do constructive things, often nipping it in the bud. Today’s scandals just do not come from the usual sources from which we may already have developed a good resistance. 

 Nowadays, the scandals can come from very unexpected causes, that is, from people whom we least expect to cause them. These people are supposed to be above suspicion. 

 Yet, we always have to remember that anything is possible under the sun. A saintly-looking person may be a demon in disguise. But the reverse can also be true. A devilish-looking person is, in fact, a saint. We should try not to be too surprised by this. In fact, it can be a healthy attitude to somehow expect this kind of phenomenon. 

 We have to learn how to fraternize with sinners in order to help them get out of that state of sin. This was what Christ did. 

 Fraternizing with sinners is what we all have to cultivate in ourselves also. We have to replicate Christ’s attitude towards sinners, who actually are all of us—of course, in varying degrees. We have to give special attention to the lost sheep and to the lost coin. We have to open all possible avenues to be in touch with all sinners. 

 This capacity to fraternize with sinners is first of all a gift from God which we have to take care of and develop. It’s meant to mature us and to involve us in the continuing work of redemption of Christ. It’s not meant, of course, to dilute the teachings of Christ and the very essence of goodness and true holiness.

Beware of the critical spirit

THAT gospel story of the paralytic brought by his friends with great effort to Christ for healing, (cfr. Lk 5,17-26) can tell us a number of things. One is that we need a strong faith when we need to ask God for some special favor. 

 Another would be that miracles are meant more to forgive sins than just curing some physical ailment. That’s because the spiritual health is more important than our bodily health. After all, it is our spiritual soul when animated by the Holy Spirit that gives life. (cfr. Jn 6,63) The body’s life and health ultimately depends on our soul, the principle of life. 

 Still another lesson we can get from that gospel story would be that we have to be wary of our tendency to have a critical spirit. That’s because in that gospel story, Christ first forgave the sins of the paralytic for which some of the Pharisees around accused him of blasphemy, convinced that Christ was already overstepping his authority and power. That was when Christ proceeded to cure the paralytic to show he had the power to forgive sins since he indeed was the expected Messiah from God. 

 Let’s be wary of our tendency to be fault-finders, negative thinkers, incorrigible critics, etc. This tendency usually springs from a brand of righteousness that is not properly rooted on the real source of righteousness who can only be God, as shown to us by Christ and inspired in us by the Holy Spirit. It is more self-righteousness. 

 We have to be most wary of this spiritual anomaly that can come to us anytime. It usually takes advantage of our natural inclination to seek the truth, the good and the beautiful in life—in short, what is right—and corrupts that inclination because it is not properly rooted on the ultimate source of righteousness who is God himself. It’s so blinding that it can even assume the appearance of holiness. 

 Most prone to this illness are those with some special endowments in life, be it intelligence, talents, wealth, fame, power, health, beauty, etc. When all these gifts are not clearly grounded and oriented toward God, the source of all righteousness, the problem starts. 

 This is the irony of ironies because one can earnestly pursue the path of holiness and does practically everything to be good and holy, and yet ends up the opposite of what is intended. That’s when one practically has the trappings of goodness and holiness and yet misses the real root of righteousness who is God. 

 To deal with this tendency properly, we have to see to it that in whatever we do, we should always have purity of intention. And that can only happen when everything we do, from our thoughts, desires to our words and deeds, is done for the glory of God and for none other. 

 Also, we have to learn how to react properly when we see the defects, mistakes and sins of the others. That we see them does not entitle us to be critical and uncharitable. Rather, we should try our best to help them in any way we can. And the most basic thing we can do is to pray for them, even offering sacrifices for them, so that they can be transformed or converted by God’s grace. 

 We should never be critical-minded for long. While we cannot avoid being critical as our spontaneous reaction, we should try our best to overcome it as soon as possible.