From mere curiosity to serious commitment

THINGS like this can happen in life. What may appear at first as something insignificant and casual may end up as something extraordinary and very special. This was the case of St. Andrew, the apostle, who was simply curious at where Christ was staying after St. John the Baptist referred to Christ as the “Lamb of God.” 

 He ended up as an apostle who had to give up everything just to follow Christ most closely. And he eventually invited his brother, Peter, the unlikely person to be the head of the apostles, to be the first Pope to whom the “keys of heaven” were first given. (cfr. Jn 1,35-42) 

 It can even happen that what may appear first to be something against the things of God can provoke an instant conversion, just like the case of St. Paul who in the middle of his campaign against the early Christians heard the voice of Christ that led to his conversion. 

 The providence of God, the ways of God, can certainly work beyond what we can imagine and expect. It can adapt itself to the ways of men and can take advantage of whatever human condition and circumstance there is to execute his divine designs for us. As is said, God can write straight with crooked lines. 

 There have been many stories of unlikely characters who became saints or at least made significant transformations for the better in their lives. That was the case of St. Augustine, for example. 

 Of course, there also have been unfortunate stories of men and women who started well but ended badly. This only shows that in our relationship with God, there is always the interplay of God’s grace and our freedom at play. It’s in how we use our freedom that would determine whether things would go north or south. 

 What we should draw from this observation is that every event, condition and circumstance of our life, whether considered humanly good or bad, can be a pathway to God if we only know how to deal with these situations properly, as shown to us by Christ himself. 

 Yes, Christ has shown us how to deal with any situation, whether we are at the peak of human glory and success, or at the abyss of the worst human misery imaginable. That is why we can never overemphasize the need for us to know and follow Christ who himself said that he is “the way, the truth and the life” for us. 

 Making Christ the center of our life, making him alive in our life through our prayer, studying his life and words, and having recourse to the sacraments, etc., should be the main concern that we should have. After all, he is the one who will enable us to make any situation in our life as a way to heaven, a means to achieve our sanctification which is the fullness and perfection of our humanity. 

 That is also something that we have to be more aware of. The fullness and perfection of our humanity is when we truly become God’s image and likeness, sharers of his divine life and nature, as he wants us to be. This truth of faith may sound too incredible to us, but that is just how it is. 

 Let’s remember that we are not meant to understand everything about God and ourselves. What we are meant is to be guided by faith, hope and charity more than anything else.

Knowing Christ leads us to know ourselves

ONE of the things that St. John the Baptist did was to testify who Christ really was—that he was “the Son of God.” (cfr. Jn 1,29-34) This detail is crucial for us because once we know who Christ really is, then we would know who we really are, since we are supposed to be patterned after Christ. 

 Let’s remember that we have been created by God to be his image and likeness. And Christ, being the Son of God, is the perfect image God has of his own self. We are therefore patterned after him. How he is, is also how we should be. 

 We, of course, are made to choose, free as we are, whether we want to be like Christ or not. That is actually the purpose and the test we are given here in our earthly sojourn. We should be very aware of this condition in our life. 

 That the Son of God became man in order to save us can only mean that we are so special to God that he cannot kind of “afford” to lose us, even if he loses nothing if we choose to be lost. It can mean that how God the Father treats his Son in God’s trinitarian life is also how he treats us. His love for the Son which is eternal and boundless is also lavished on us, a love that is boundless and goes all the way to offer one’s life. 

 We have to be clear about this point. We are meant to assume the identity of Christ. And that is not a gratuitous, baseless assertion, much less, a fiction or a fantasy. It is founded on a fundamental truth of our faith that we have been created by God in his own image and likeness. 

 We have to arrive at that point where we can make St. Paul’s words as our own too: “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me.” (Gal 2,20) 

 We just have to learn to set aside whatever difficulty or awkwardness we may have in dealing with this basic truth of faith about ourselves. We have to try our best to know Christ and to adapt his very own mind and will, his own ways, behavior and reactions to whatever situation we may find ourselves in. 

 What is also clear is that Christ is actually already living with us. He is in us as the pattern and perfecter of our humanity, and the savior of our damaged humanity. We just have to learn to live with Christ. He is never far or indifferent to us. Even in our miserable and wounded condition, he continues to be with us, showing us with greater solicitude. It’s rather us who tend to ignore and contradict him. 

 The ideal condition to have is first to know and love God so that we may know and love ourselves and others properly. This was what St. Augustine precisely said. “Noverim te, noverim me,” Latin for “May I know God, may I know myself,” St. Augustine said. It is when we know and love Christ first that we can know who we really are and ought to be. God is our Creator and Father in whose image and likeness we have been made. How he is, who is pure love in essence, is also how we ought to be.

The sterling example of John the Baptist

IT’S definitely an example of supreme humility, of total identification with Christ, of a wholehearted dedication to his ministry. Though he clearly played a very important role in the whole economy of human salvation, he avoided grabbing credit for himself and instead consistently let Christ be known as he truly was. The only interest of John the Baptist is to let Christ shine, and be loved and served as he deserved. 

 This can be seen in that gospel episode where some Jews sent priests and Levites to ask him who he really was. (cfr. Lk 2,19-28) “Who are you?” they asked. And he immediately replied, “I am not the Christ.” Neither did he say he was Elijah nor one of the prophets. He simply said, “I am the voice of one crying out in the desert, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord…’” 

 This example of John the Baptist is worth imitating by everyone, but especially by the clergy who, by being sacramentally conformed to Christ himself as head of the Church, should always make Christ, not them, come out in all their actuations—when they administer the sacraments, when they preach, and even in their ordinary daily activities. A priest is always a priest even when he is doing sports or having an excursion. 

 This will always require some effort since we cannot deny that there is that tendency of ours to make ourselves known, appreciated and praised, instead of Christ. Especially these days when this tendency is constantly reinforced in our new and powerful means of communication, we really would need some strong, conscious effort to make ourselves pass unnoticed so that only Christ should have the impact on people’s mind. 

 We can manage to do this if we earnestly make the effort to refer everything that we think, say and do to Christ. This will never be a way of annihilating our personality, but rather, on the contrary, of perfecting our humanity. We should not be casual nor cavalier in this duty. Christ himself said that the greatest commandment of God is to love him with all our heart and mind, all our strength. 

 As to whether it is possible, let alone, doable, to refer everything to Christ and to identify ourselves to him, the answer is clearly a resounding, Yes. This is what our Catechism teaches us clearly: “Christ enables us to live in him all that he himself lived, and he lives it in us. ‘By his Incarnation, he, the Son of God, has in a certain way united himself with each man.” (Catechism 521) 

 Let us remember what Christ said so clearly. He is the vine, we are the branches. We can only have life, let alone, consistency and fruitfulness in our life, if we are united to him. Outside of him, we can only expect death, inconsistency and sterility. When Christ is not earnestly followed, we are prone to play the game of hypocrisy. 

 Yes, only in and with Christ can we have the real principle of unity and fruitfulness in our life. We would be fooling ourselves if we fail to recognize this basic truth about ourselves. 

 We really have to learn how to refer everything to Christ. This should be like an instinct, an urge that needs to be corresponded. We should always remember that the constant and ultimate parameter of our life is Christ, since he is the one who sets the final conditions and purpose of our life. He is also the one that takes care of everything, including our mistakes and other negativities that we can encounter in life.