Be humble and hide and disappear

THAT’S the attitude to have if we have to follow Christ who at one point said, “The greatest among you must be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; but whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” (Mt 23,11-12) 

 Those words of Christ were preceded by his observation of how some of the religious leaders behaved at that time. “The scribes and the Pharisees have taken their seat on the chair of Moses. Therefore, do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you, but do not follow their example. For they preach but they do not practice.” 

 He continued: “They tie up heavy burdens hard to carry and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they will not lift a finger to move them. All their works are performed to be seen. They widen their phylacteries and lengthen their tassels. They love places of honor at banquets, seats of honor in synagogues, greetings in marketplaces, and the salutation ‘Rabbi.’ As for you, do not be called ‘Rabbi.’” (Mt 23,2-8) 

 An authentic Christian is always a humble person. He will always channel the very humility of Christ which is not a matter of being timid or shy. It’s a humility that knows when and how to appear and disappear, when and how to show and hide, when and how to be forceful and mild. 

 We need to realize that if we have to follow what Christ teaches us, whatever talent, privilege, advantage we enjoy should be used purely for doing good, for carrying out God’s will for us, for giving glory to God. We should never adulterate it with any trace of self-indulgence, pride, vanity and the like. 

 We need to be guarded against our strong tendency to show off our good deeds. We need to find effective ways of how to hide and disappear whenever we do something good. 

 We can manage to do that if we always have Christ in our mind and heart. With him, we have all the reasons to be happy and serene. We would not feel the need to satisfy our egos. With Christ we have more than enough in terms of joy and peace, even if we encounter some difficulties and defeats along the way. 

 Humility is obviously the effect of being with Christ. It also a cause for Christ to be with us. It is what gives an opening to Christ to enter into our lives, giving him a hearty welcome. 

 With humility, we can start to think and act like Christ. We get to see things better, since we would be guided mainly by our faith rather than by our mere human powers. Humility leads us to enter into the spiritual and supernatural world of God, the world of grace that transcends and purifies our human intelligence and our other human faculties. 

 That kind of life, marked by the spiritual and supernatural life of Christ, is what is proper to us. We should try our best to develop and maintain it. Thus, we need to avail of certain practices and means, like prayer and meditation, recourse to the sacraments, waging interior struggle for develop the appropriate attitudes and virtues, etc. 

 Again we can only do that if we humble ourselves, always feeling the need to be with Christ and not just relying on our own human powers. Of course, we have to use our human powers also to the full, but always in the spirit of Christ which can only happen if we are humble!

Let’s learn to be always forgiving

THAT’S a clear mark of a true Christian. Christ has told us clearly: “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” (Lk 6,36) There are no ifs and buts in these words. In fact, Christ continued to say: “Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you…For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” (37-38) 

 Christ was and continues to be always merciful. How? Well, first of all, being the son of God, he emptied himself to become man. That way, he already adapted himself to our wounded, sinful condition. He identified himself with us so that we would have a way to identify ourselves with him. He preached the truth about God and about ourselves. 

 He gave preferential attention to the sick, that is, the sinners. He was always ready to forgive, his mercy and compassion having no limits—“not only seven times, but seventy times seven times.” (Mt 18,22) He taught about loving the enemy and lived it. He did not mind all the insults and mockeries that were poured on him just to accomplish his mission of saving us. 

 Even while hanging on the cross, he offered forgiveness to those who crucified him. And in the end, he assumed all our sins without committing sin by dying on the cross. In that way, he dealt death to all our sins, and with his resurrection he offered us a way for our own salvation and reconciliation with our Father God. He was thoroughly magnanimous. Yes, mercy is a clear mark of magnanimity. 

 We need to train our faculties—our intelligence, will, emotions, passions, memory, urges, appetites—to have this spirit of Christ of being merciful always. For this, of course, we need time, effort and a certain discipline to acquire this indispensable quality of a true Christian life. 

 Especially when we become a victim of some offense by someone, we really have to learn to forgive and to move on, focused on doing what we are supposed to do. We should avoid getting stuck with the offense, wallowing in anguish, complaints and hatred, and keeping resentments, grudges and desires for revenge. That’s why we need to deny ourselves, and carry Christ’s cross as Christ himself told us, to be able to do this. 

 Let’s remember that all of us have sins that need to be forgiven also. And as Christ said it clearly, we can only be forgiven if we also forgive others. “If you will forgive men their offenses, your heavenly Father will forgive you also your offenses,” he said. “But if you will not forgive men, neither will your Father forgive you your offenses.” (Mt 6,14-15) 

 Other relevant gospel passages are the following: “Whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses.” (Mk 11,25) “Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.” (Lk 6,37) 

 What would be helpful here also is to develop a sporting spirit, so that even if we encounter failures, defeats, injustices, unfairness, etc., we would just go on with the game of life where we know God is always in control. With him, everything will work out for the good. (cfr. Rom 8,28)

Humanizing God, divinizing man

THE amazing gospel story of the Transfiguration of the Lord (cfr. Mt 17,1-9) reminds us that in the end Christian life involves a dual process of how to humanize God and at the same time, how to divinize man. 

 And that’s because if Christ was transfigured, with his face shining like the sun and his clothes becoming white as light, we can expect ourselves to be so transfigured also, since we are actually patterned after him. We have some basis to conclude that the ultimate condition of our life in heaven would look like that of the transfigured Christ. 

 For this to take place, we have to follow the example of Our Lady whose faith enabled her to conceive the very Son of God in her womb. She made God man. And we can also say—and this is not a gratuitous affirmation—that God wants to be born in each one of us, to be incarnated in each one of us, precisely because we are meant to be his image and likeness, sharers of his divine life and nature. 

 That God wants to be one with us can be supported by the fact that God became man to recover us from our state of alienation from him. He gave his all for this to happen and continues to do so up to now and till the end of time. Not only did he become man, he also assumed all the sins of men without committing them, conquering them ultimately with his passion, death and resurrection. 

 For us to incarnate God in us, we should try our best to have the same faith as that of Mary, that faith that was described at one point by her cousin, Elizabeth, in these words: “Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!” (Lk 1,45) It’s a faith that shows total and unconditional belief in everything God tells us through Christ and now through the Church as always inspired by the Holy Spirit. 

 To which, Mary responded with her Magnificat that expressed what she glorified the most in her life: “My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior…” (Lk 1,46-47) We should also glorify the Lord in that way. 

 With God wanting to be born and incarnated in us, we now have to learn how to divinize our humanity. And for this, Christ offers us “the way, the truth and the life.” 

 Christ not only showed us the way of how to handle our human condition here on earth, nor did he only teach us the whole truth about ourselves. He also instituted the sacraments, especially the Holy Eucharist, so that his very own life, which is both human and divine, could also be possessed by us. 

 We have to do our best to follow the very teaching and life of Christ. Our faith in him should not only be a matter of profession, intention and nice words. It should be expressed in deeds in a consistent and abiding manner. As St. James said in his Letter, “What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him?” (2,14) 

 When we follow Christ and Mary, we can develop a taste and even an appetite for the supernatural life with God and of things supernatural in general. We would be on our way to our own transfiguration and be like God himself in our ultimate home in heaven since we are children of his!