Be prepared for more responsibilities

IT’S quite clear that when we do some good, we should expect that our life can get more complicated. We are reminded of this fact of life in that gospel episode where Christ went to Peter’s house and cured his mother-in-law. Because of that, many more sick people went to see Christ for cure. (cfr. Mk 1,29-39) In fact, it is said that the whole town went to him. 

 Try to imagine how it was with Christ! Of course, Christ is Christ. He never runs out of strength, compassion, patience, etc. Still, we could not deny that his life got complicated. 

 The same fact of life was also highlighted in that parable of the three servants who were given some amount of money and told to do business with it. The first two who made money of the initial amount were given the responsibility of taking care of cities. (cfr. Mt 25,13-40) Obviously, when we do something bad, we would also complicate our life. But that’s another story. 

 Well, that’s just the way the cookie crumbles. And so, we should just be prepared for it. Anyway, God is always around and is all ready to provide the help needed. We should not worry too much and just try whatever we can to handle the unavoidable complications. 

  Just the same, in that gospel episode, in spite of the many cures Christ made, he did not forget to pray, even making the effort to go to some isolated place to do his prayer calmly. And neither did he forget to carry out the more important responsibility to go to the other towns to preach and continue doing good. 

 This is a lesson for us to know how to handle the competing goals we have to pursue in life. We need to have a good sense of priority, and learn how to properly orchestrate the many responsibilities we have without getting lost or confused. 

 The secret here, I think, is to always refer everything to Christ. First of all, because we need to ask for grace that would enable us to do things they way he does them. And we, of course, need to follow his example. 

 Such effort would surely involve a certain detachment, since we tend to get attached to our own way of doing things rather than Christ’s way. Quite often, we get sentimental in these affairs, our emotions getting the better of us, and so we tend to fall into some disorder, since our reason and much more, our faith, that are supposed give us the better light, would be set aside. 

 Given this condition in our life, we should see to it that we live order in the best way we can. We need to be clear about the goals to pursue, and the different tasks we need to carry out. We have to be most careful with the use of our time. There are only 24 hours in a day, and we need to attend to more than a hundred things daily, including the rest that is due to us. We cannot afford to be wasteful of our time. 

 To be sure, we need to constantly examine and rectify our intentions, because with all the distractions that we are exposed to these days, we can easily stray from the right path dictated by our prudence. Thus, a lot of pit stops during the day are needed to see if we are still on track.

Teaching always in Christ

WE should be clear about this. The best teacher we can have, the ultimate one, the one that teaches us everything and in the proper way is Christ. When we have to carry out the task of teaching, we should see to it that we always teach with Christ, in Christ and for Christ. 

 We are reminded of this truth of our faith in that gospel episode where Christ entered a synagogue on a Sabbath and taught. The people were amazed at his teaching because, as they claimed, “he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes.” (cfr. Mk 1,21-28) 

 Later on, their amazement even grew some more when with his words, he drove out an unclean spirit from a possessed man. “What is this?” they exclaimed. “A new teaching with authority. He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him.” 

 We should be wary of our tendency to teach simply on our own authority, or on the basis of some ideology or philosophy, etc. This tendency arises when we think that what we are teaching are simply mundane matters like our sciences, technologies and ideologies. We tend to think that Christ, that God, has nothing to do with it. 

 This is when we have to remind ourselves that everything that we use as subject of our teaching comes from God and is meant to lead us to God. There is nothing that is a subject for teaching that does not come from God. 

 Christ, and the Church now, may not be directly involved in the technicalities, but there is no doubt that it is God who created everything, including the technicalities, imbuing it with their proper laws. What we do is simply to discover these laws with their technicalities, sometimes coming out with certain inventions and innovations. 

 But we should not forget that in using these laws and technicalities to achieve a certain good for man, we ought to thank God for them and to glorify him through them. Failing in that regard constitutes failure in teaching. 

 Thus, a good teacher is one who manages to relate the things he teaches, no matter how technical and mundane, to God and to others. He should inspire the students to love God and others more through the things he teaches. The things he teaches should bring students closer to God. 

 Failure in this crucial point would expose the things taught and learned to the dynamics of merely worldly values that are very vulnerable to being used and exploited by evil spirits or to being used as means for self-indulgence, the antithesis of love. 

 This is actually what is taking place these days. We have quite progressed in terms of knowledge. Our sciences and technologies are practically bursting with new developments and possibilities. We are having an overload. But without charity inspiring them, they can easily be misused and abused. Let’s remember what St. Paul said once: “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.” (1 Cor 8,1) 

 A good and ideal teacher, let’s reiterate it, always manages to relate the things taught to God and to inspire his students to love God and others through these things. The lessons he teaches are not merely technical things, or intellectual or theoretical affairs. He manages to link them to the abiding providential action of God. 

 In other words, while he is most rigorous in the technical and intellectual aspects of the lessons taught, his teaching is such that piety is not impaired or forgotten, but is rather, in fact, fostered!

Christ’s baptism: end and beginning

THE Feast of the Baptism of the Jesus Christ marks the end of the Christmas Season and opens the beginning of the Ordinary Time in our liturgical calendar. There are a few things we need to consider to savor the significance of this feast. 

 One is that Christ’s baptism instituted the sacrament of baptism that would incorporate us into Christ’s mystical body. Such truth of our faith would enable us to share in Christ’s life, in his continuing redemptive work. It gives us the rights and duties, the privileges and responsibilities of a Christian. It should make us realize that our life is not just purely ours anymore, but is rather a shared life, a life with Christ. 

 It’s important that we always realize this truth about ourselves and about our life if only to make us keenly aware of the role we have to play in that shared life. We often take this truth of our faith for granted and thus also often fail to fulfill our real duties and responsibilities. 

 Especially now that the Feast of Christ’s baptism also opens the ordinary time of the liturgical calendar, we need to realize that our duties and responsibilities as a Christian need to be lived as consistently as possible in the ordinary flow of daily life, consisting mainly of small and routine tasks and concerns. 

 We should not be Christians only during big and special occasions. Rather our Christianity is more authentically verified if we live it properly in our daily life. We need to realize more sharply that the ordinary work we do everyday is where we usually encounter God, since our daily work is to do the will of God. It is where we correspond to God’s continuing creation of us, until we conform to his radical will for us to make us his image and likeness and children of his. 

 This means that our work is not simply ours, but is rather a work with God. In fact, it is first of all the work of God, before it is also our work. It’s important that we be keenly aware of this truth so that we can consciously and freely work in sync as much as possible with God’s will and ways. 

 We need to spend time to make this truth sink into our consciousness and become an abiding guide in our daily life. If our work does not make us feel at least the presence of God, let alone, get to know his will and ways, then we are not working the way we should work. 

 In a sense, our work becomes prayer, even if it involves dirt and the so-called “blood, sweat and tears.” Our work is where we engage ourselves with God and enter into the dynamics of love that characterizes our relationship with God and with others. 

 Indeed, our work can somehow be considered as sacred, because in spite of its mundane character, it is still a work with God and a work of God. This is a truth that we have to appreciate some more and to accordingly act on. 

 We should disabuse ourselves from the thought that to be sacred and holy would involve us only in activities inside churches or that things should be done in silence and in great solemnity. Sacredness can be had also in the middle of the world, in the hustle and bustle of mundane concerns and businesses. The only crucial thing to remember is that irrespective of where we are, we should always be with God and do things with him and for him!