Let’s follow the advice of St. John the Baptist

EVEN while in prison, St. John the Baptist told his disciples to go to Christ to see if Christ indeed was the expected messiah. (cfr. Mt 11,2-11) Obviously, St. John knew about who Christ really was. He just wanted to let his disciples to know Christ and to follow him. 

 Christ, for his part, told John’s disciples about what he had done so far, if only to give some evidence about who he really was. “Go and tell John what you hear and see,” he said. “The blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them. And blessed is the one who takes no offense at me.” 

 After which, Christ gave a most wonderful praise for John. “Amen, I say to you, among those born of women there has been none greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he,” thereby also affirming the superiority of those already in heaven over those who are still on earth, even if the latter are already very holy. 

 The lesson to learn here is for us to always look for Christ and to make him the center of our life. We should be clear about what we are after in this life. Is it just to spend time and see what is going to happen? Are we just totally dependent on chance or on luck? Or are we only interested in some fame, wealth, power, pleasure? 

 We cannot deny the obvious fact that many people nowadays are not quite clear as to their purpose in life. And those who seem to have some idea about it, have it wrong, since their idea of purpose is simply time-and-earth-bound. There’s hardly anything transcendent about it. 

 Some may leave a worthwhile legacy beyond their death, but again it is something that can only fade in time. It cannot stand the test of forever! We should always be curious about Christ and follow him. 

We should always look for him, for he is “the way, the truth and the life” for us. We cannot go to the Father (God), we cannot attain the eternal life proper to us, without him. 

 That is also why Christ himself said that we seek first the kingdom of God, and not to worry so much about our temporal and worldly needs, because all these will also be provided by him as long as we look for Christ first. 

 This looking for Christ should be our basic attitude that should guide us daily and give shape to that day. Our life should be characterized by an attitude of looking forward, of watching and expecting, clarifying and pursuing our intentions, and being ever hopeful. 

 We need to develop the instinct of always looking for Christ, making him alive in our life and patterning our life after his. This business of always looking for Christ is a basic duty of ours, a grave responsibility, in fact. Without him, we would just be on our own, relying simply on our own lights and powers that, no matter how excellent, can never accomplish our real ultimate need of our own salvation, our own perfection as a person and as a child of God.

Developing a deep sense of religion

THE liturgical season of Advent can be a good occasion for us to develop and strengthen our sense of religion, our life of piety, our intimacy with God. We have to remember that as human beings, we often are trapped in our human and natural world and quite indifferent to the spiritual dimension of our life, let alone the supernatural goal our life is meant to pursue. Let’s do something about this predicament. 

 Let us hope that as we prepare for Christmas during this Advent season with our customary excitement for the holidays, we do not neglect the religious significance of Advent, and enkindle an intense desire to have a living encounter with Christ who is God who became man to be with us and to show us the way of how we ought to be, since he is the pattern of our humanity and the savior of our damaged humanity. 

 We cannot deny that there’s vast religious indifference and even hostility against religion today. A complex structure of rationalizations now supports religious indifference and hostility to religion. It seems that the threads of naturalism, skepticism, agnosticism, atheism, relativism, etc., have become more sophisticated, snuffing whatever religious ember that may still remain in a person or in society. 

 Nowadays, reason and empirical findings are considered the ultimate measure of things, and are made to dispute the claims of faith, steadily removing its attractiveness to the people. With this approach, piety is slowly eroded until it becomes practically dead. 

 With this trend, it is held that if things could not be fully understood and explained, if they could not be directly verified, if they are not socially, economically or politically practical, then they should be rejected. They are deemed senseless. 

 It’s as simple, or rather, as simplistic, as that. Such attitude sorely misses the point that truths of faith, being spiritual and supernatural, require more than human reason to be believed. It’s a tyranny to force everyone to work only within the framework of reason and understanding alone, beyond which things simply cannot be true. 

 It sorely misses the point that we precisely need the gift of faith, because we are men of belief, more than of reason. Faith always respects reason, and always works through it, but is beyond it. It cannot be fully grasped by reason, much less by our senses. It has a longer spread, a wider scope, a deeper reach, a firmer grip on reality. 

 It is our faith that will tell us that we need not only to be with Christ, but also to be like Christ. And the season of Advent is a good time to develop a burning desire for this purpose. 

 We need to be reminded that we have to develop an abiding and burning desire for Christ to fulfill the real purpose of our life which is precisely for us to be “another Christ.” We should be clear about this ultimate purpose of ours so we can have the proper sense of direction and focus in our life, and the corresponding urge to fulfill it. 

 Our problem is that we often take our life’s real and ultimate purpose for granted, preferring to sway and dance according to the music played simply by worldly conditions. We prefer to be guided by our senses and emotions, or by our reasoning alone as expressed in our man-made different ideologies, philosophies, sciences and technologies, etc.

What Mary’s Immaculate Conception reminds us of

THE Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary reminds us of a most basic and heartwarming truth about ourselves. It reminds us that like Mary, we are actually meant to be sinless. That was the original design of God for man, as experienced by our first parents, Adam and Eve, until it was damaged by their fall as well as ours. 

 This solemnity also reminds us of the ultimate design God has for us in our definitive state of life in heaven after going through the redemptive work of Christ and meriting its effects. Thus, in the eucharistic preface of this solemnity, we are made to say: 

 “You (God) allowed no stain of Adam's sin to touch the Virgin Mary. Full of grace, she was to be a worthy mother of Your Son, Your sign of favour to the Church at its beginning, and the promise of its perfection as the bride of Christ, radiant in beauty.” 

 Of course, in our earthly life, we do not enjoy such status yet. We all sin, no matter what we do! And yet, in spite of that fact of life, we just have to do our part, always with God’s grace, to rid ourselves of sin until we attain that state of sinlessness, of purity of heart, as is proper of our dignity as children of God, image and likeness of his, sharers of his divine life and nature. 

 This Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of Mary should make us feel urged to persevere in our struggle to attain that state of sinlessness, which is another way of saying that we are meant to pursue our total identification with Christ, the pattern of our humanity and the savior of our damaged humanity. 

 It is not supposed to make us feel privileged and entitled. Quite the contrary.  It is supposed to demand everything from us, so that we can merit the effects of Christ’s redemptive work. 

 This is what sanctification is all about, the lifelong process of seeking holiness which can only be carried out if we channel the very love of God, as shown, taught and shared to us by Christ, in our life. 

 That love has its own brand of sweetness. It offers us a sense of peace, of the kind that the world cannot give and that only God can give (cfr. Jn 14,27) But it definitely would demand from us a lot of effort and sacrifice. Given our human condition here on earth, it is a love that would require us to wage a lifelong struggle against our weaknesses, temptations and sin. 

 We should be relentless in this struggle. We should try our best to be with God always, rectifying ourselves as quickly and as often as necessary whenever we stray from him, which is actually quite often in this life. 

 We need to do everything to be with God. Our mind and heart should be fully and constantly engaged with him. We always have reason to do so—at least, we can thank him for what we are having at the moment: health, food, air, work, etc. 

 What can help us in this is the effort to get involved in the lives of the others, helping them in any way we can, because that would be a clear way of being and of serving God. 

 This is the way toward the ideal of becoming immaculate like our Mother Mary, as God wants us to be.