Let’s be bold and aggressive in our Christian life

THAT gospel episode about Christ commanding Peter to “go to the deep and lower down your nets for a catch” (Lk 5,4) reminds us, among other things, that we should be bold and aggressive in our Christian life, stretching ourselves to the limits to do apostolate and actively cooperate in the continuing work of human redemption. 

 Peter at first told Christ that he tried to fish the whole night before and caught nothing. But because of his strong faith in Christ, he just obeyed what Christ told him, and lo and behold, he caught a big amount of fish. Fully astonished, he could not help but tell Christ to depart from him for, as he said, “I am sinful man.” That was when Christ told him to be a fisher of men. 

 We need to understand that our Christian life will always be involved in the continuing work of human redemption. It is in essence also an apostolic life, something that we have to be most aware of and for which we should be duly trained. The ideal to pursue is to be zealous in doing apostolate, always coming up with effective apostolic plans and strategies. 

 Christ’s intense desire for human redemption, expressed in his words, “I came to set fire to the world, and I wish it were already burning!” (Lk 12,49) should also be the desire of a true disciple of Christ. 

 This is something we have to be more conscious about, since right now I believe that many of us are buried under a heavy albeit deceivingly sweet yoke of spiritual lethargy. We take things easy in our spiritual and apostolic life. What would arouse us are mainly material and worldly things. 

 We need to react to this stranglehold of our spiritual and apostolic life, helping one another to be more spiritually alive, considering each one’s conditions and possibilities, giving good example and timely pieces of advice and suggestions, and leading the way in actively cooperating in this exhilarating divine adventure God is inviting us to join in this life. 

 Everyday, we should be seized by that urge to “carpe diem,” to kind of strike while the iron is hot. If we have faith, each day brings with it its own adventure orchestrated by God in his abiding providence, and we are invited to it since we are supposed to be co-agents with God in our life here. 

 To be sure, our life here on earth is never just an interplay of our plans and the other natural forces. God is very much in it, a fact that we have to be more aware of it and more importantly, better skilled in handling. We cannot go on unmindful of this fundamental truth. 

 We should not be afraid to enter and take most active part in this drama with God and others, because even if it involves everything and all sorts of trials and difficulties, it is always worth it. This is what our life is really all about. We avoid making a fiction of our life, deluded by its false images. 

 To top it all, if we have faith and trust in God, we know, in spite of passing contradictions, that what we get involved in is always something for the good of all of us in all aspects of our life, from the most personal to the most global.

Martyrdom can be due to some silly reasons

THAT’S what we can gather from the story of the martyrdom of St. John the Baptist. (cfr. Mk 6,14-29) What an absurd turn of events it was! That martyrdom by beheading was simply triggered by King Herod not wanting to lose his face before some people. He made a crazy promise to a dancing girl that eventually led him to make a crazy judgment—the head of St. John the Baptist in exchange for the delight of a dance! 

 Indeed, we can expect this kind of phenomenon if we are not guided by faith. When our reasoning and our human ways of resolving issues end up grasping at straws, not anymore able to cope with what we consider as humanly possible, then we can be forced to make an idiotic judgment. 

 Thus, to be realistic about our Christian life that would always find opposition in the ways of the world, we should just prepare ourselves for possible martyrdom anytime and even for the flimsiest of reasons as what happened to St. John the Baptist. 

 In this regard, we have to learn to lose the fear of suffering and death. If we believe in Christ and follow what he has taught and shown us, we will realize that there is nothing to be afraid of suffering and death, and all the other negative things that can mark our life. 

 He bore them himself and converted them into our way for our own salvation. Yes, even death which is the ultimate evil that can befall us, an evil that is humanly insoluble. With Christ’s death, the curse of death has been removed. “Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” (1 Cor 15,54-55) 

 So, we just have to be sport and cool about the whole reality of suffering and death in this life. What we need to do is to follow Christ in his attitude toward them. For Christ, embracing suffering and ultimately death, is the expression of his greatest love for us. We have to enter into the dynamic of this divine logic and wisdom so we can lose that fear of suffering and death. 

 What can help us in this regard is to practice the spirit of active mortification, that is to say, that we would always be looking for occasions to mortify ourselves, rather than just wait for mortifications, which are actually unavoidable, to come to us. Let’s convince ourselves with the reasoning of our faith that mortifications or dying a little to ourselves everyday possess a tremendous sanctifying and redemptive value. 

 If we faithfully follow and live our Christian faith, we know that suffering and death are like our brothers and sisters whom we should welcome into our life, as many saints have testified. 

 Our Christian faith tells us that suffering and death have ceased to be a punishment, but rather a means of our salvation. They are not anymore merely negative elements in our life, but are in fact now what would bring us to our eternal life with God. When seen with faith, suffering and death are actually happy events, not sad ones. We should be welcoming to them. 

 And even if we suffer and are martyred for the craziest of reasons, we should avoid responding to these possibilities with anger and hatred. We obviously can defend ourselves with some arguments, but we should see to it that we avoid falling into lack of faith, hope and charity. On the contrary, we have to convince ourselves that those possibilities are golden occasions to show the authenticity of our faith, hope and charity.

The task of saving souls

THIS is, of course, no joke, no easy task at all. But we just have to do it because Christ commands us to do so. What he told his apostles, sending them in pairs and giving them special powers, can and should also be addressed to us. 

 In spite of our unworthiness, we should just take to heart this command of Christ: to preach repentance and to lead people back to God. This is what apostolate is all about, though we should do it with both supernatural and human means. 

 This task of saving souls is first of all a continuing divine work of human redemption which we are asked to cooperate. It cannot stop. And yes, we are expected to cooperate in it, since if we are incorporated into Christ through baptism and in the Spirit, we can’t avoid getting involved in God’s plans and actions. 

 The realization of this crucial aspect of our Christian life gives proper meaning and perspective to our whole life and everything contained in it. It puts our life in the right orbit. 

 Our life can’t simply be a life in pursuit of personal sanctity without doing apostolate. These two go together inseparably, mutually affecting each other to put us on the right track in our life. 

 This joint God-and-man effort is also in keeping with our dignity as persons and as children of God. As persons, we need to see to it that we get to be responsible also for our whole life, for attaining its true fullness of purpose. 

 And that’s nothing less than to participate in the life of God, since more than persons, we are children of his, meant to live with Him. 

 Thus, to do apostolate engages our intelligence and will in their proper way. It’s how we can best use our freedom and our loving. It’s how we can be truly responsible for our life. 

 In short, if these distinctive human faculties and activities are not used for apostolate but rather for some other human purpose only, we would be misusing them. No matter how noble these human purposes are, if the apostolic dimension is missing, we would be misusing these God-given powers. 

 To do apostolate also corresponds to a most basic reality about ourselves. We are never alone, meant to live our life in isolation from the others. Like it or not, conscious of it or not, we live with others. We are somehow responsible for one another. 

 Therefore, we need to sharpen our awareness of our apostolic duty, since left to our own devices, we would rather give our complete attention solely to ourselves. This tendency is a consequence of our sinfulness. But originally, before man’s fall, we tend to love and care for one another. 

 To develop this apostolic concern therefore entails sacrifice. We should not be surprised if in pursuing it we are challenged, faced with difficulties and asked to do self-denials and other forms of sacrifice. 

 We just have to hold firm on our Christian conviction, together with the continuing petition for God’s grace and the generous discharge of our human effort, that to do apostolate is the will of God. He is bent in accomplishing it. It’s his first concern to contend with the difficulties. Ours is simply to cooperate. 

 We have to continually ask ourselves if our thoughts and desires bear an eminently apostolic character. If not, let’s immediately do the necessary adjustments and corrections.