How to be both idealistic and realistic

THESE should be the abiding traits we ought to have in this life. Given the fact that we are just having a pilgrimage toward our eternal destination in this life, we should see to it that we don’t lose sight of the idealism meant for us as well as the realism that properly considers the realities on the ground that we have to contend with on our way to our final destination. 

 And the way to combine these traits is simply to be like Christ or to be with Christ. Christ presents to us the highest ideal meant for us as well as “the way, the truth and the life” so we can successfully traverse this valley of tears and trials that we have in this world. 

 Idealism and realism need not be in contrast with each other, as many people tend to consider them. They ought to be united, since our life in this world, as has been said so many times, is like a journey toward our eternal destination. 

 It’s important that as much as possible we sharpen our idealistic attitude toward life, aiming at no less than what God wants us to be, i.e., for us to be like him, sharers of his life and very nature. We should nourish this idealism constantly, ridding it of false values and goals that many times are presented to us by some ideologies, cultures, etc., and overcoming whatever disbelief we have about it. 

 This idealism presented to us by Christ should be the dream of our dreams which we should pursue without pause as much as possible. If we pursue it with Christ, we would see that our dreams will, in fact, fall short, since Christ gives us much more than what we can expect to reach or achieve. 

 We have to be wary of our tendency not to anchor our idealism on Christ. That’s when we can tend to build some kind of ivory tower, enclosing ourselves in our own ideas, theories and doctrines that, while useful to a certain extent, will always need to be adapted properly to the objective realities on the ground. 

 That’s when we become armchair players in the drama of life, not realizing that ideas, theories and doctrines are no cold, frozen things, but are meant to be dynamic, subject always to some development, deepening, and evolution. 

 In our hot pursuit for the ultimate goal of our life, we should also be realistic. In this, we just have to follow what Christ once said: “Be shrewd as serpents and simple as doves.” (Mt 10,16) 

 It’s indeed an overwhelming combination! But hard and even impossible as it may seem, we just have to try our best to achieve such condition, obviously with God’s grace, because as Christ himself warned us, in this world we would be like sheep in the midst of wolves. We just have to be clever without compromising our human and Christian integrity. 

 Is it possible? Is it achievable? We can always ask these questions, but in the end, we just have to reconcile ourselves with what Christ is telling us, since he himself will do it for us and with us. All we have to do is try our best to be like him who precisely epitomizes this most intriguing blend of shrewdness and simplicity. 

 Definitely this is a combination that will be very challenging for us to develop. But we can always try, like taking one step at a time in pursuing this goal. For this, we may have to spend some time studying on how to develop it, coming out with some plans and resolutions along the way.

When our dormant weaknesses get enkindled

WE have to be wary of this possibility. Given how things are nowadays, we should be prepared to deal with this phenomenon that, sad to say, is getting more common. We should realize that instead of feeling sad when such thing occurs in us, we should rather somehow welcome it, since it is an opportunity and an invitation to grow more in the virtues and to make progress in our pursuit for both human and Christian maturity. 

 As St. Paul once assured us, “All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose.” (Rom 8,28) Yes, the secret is always to refer these occurrences to God. We should never dare to deal with them solely by our own selves, relying only on our own strength that can only go so far. 

 We should not be surprised that we have these dormant weaknesses. These are our vulnerabilities that have been hidden or inactive because we have managed to put them under control so far, or because we simply did not realize we have them. 

 We may have impressive talents and other qualities, but let’s not forget that we all have “feet of clay.” (cfr. Dan 2,33) Just a little disturbance, and the whole edifice of our humanity would just crumble down. 

 When our dormant weaknesses get stirred up, the first thing to do is to pray, to refer them to God, asking for help and strength. And then let’s do all that are needed to confront this problem properly. 

 Obviously, we would need some concrete help from outside. We should not just handle this thing on our own. We need counselling and accompaniment, both human and supernatural, material and spiritual. 

 There’s always hope even in our worst scenario. And that’s because God never leaves us, but continues to love and care for us, in spite of all. He gives us everything we need to handle this situation. 

 We should be quick to realize this truth of our faith, and act accordingly. Let’s avoid aggravating the situation by avoiding falling into discouragement, depression or self-isolation, a fertile ground for the devil to tempt us into worse conditions. The devil obviously wants us to be alienated as much as possible from God and from others. Rather, like the prodigal son, let’s return to God asking for mercy which he readily gives. 

 We should not doubt that we have our human and worldly limits. And yet in spite of that, neither can we doubt that deep within us is, at least, the desire to go beyond our limitations. And there’s objective basis for that desire. 

 We have to learn how to react according to our Christian faith when our dormant weaknesses get enkindled. We should never just rely on our own estimation of things that would often lead us to be scandalized, to feel bad and discouraged, and to run away from the one who precisely can resolve everything for us, including those problems we cannot anymore resolve. 

 We need to trust in God’s providence and mercy. We have to learn to live a spirit of abandonment in the hands of God even as we do our best to develop the appropriate virtues and norms of prudence. Yes, if we have faith in God, in his wisdom and mercy, in his unfailing love for us, we know that everything will always work out for the good. (cfr. Rom 8,28)

Learning the art of sifting and discerning

WITH the way the world us currently developing, with so many things coming out that can easily grab our attention and interest, we really would need to hone our skills at sifting and discerning, since these developments can easily give us a lot of dangers even if initially they can offer, or at least, promise to give us a lot of good. 

 These are skills that are urgently needed these days. With so many things competing for our attention, we need to know which ones we ought to give priority or which ones are truly God’s will for us. We cannot deny that there are many things that can look like they come from God but are not. 

 For this, the first thing to do is always to be guarded, and not just allow ourselves to be easily held captive by the many charms these new developments offer. We need to be clear about what the real and ultimate purpose of our life is, that is, to be properly anchored and focused, so that no matter how things go, we would not get lost or confused. 

 To be properly anchored and focused means to have God as the be-all and end-all in all our human activities and affairs. More specifically, to have love for God and for everybody else as the motivating principle of our life. 

 That’s when we would be able to distinguish what is essential from what is non-essential, what has absolute value from what only has relative value. We would have a proper sense of priority that would guard us from falling into self-indulgence which is actually the very opposite of true love. 

 Let’s never forget that we have a very strong tendency toward self-indulgence. That is why Christ clearly told us that for us to follow him, which is what is proper to us, we need to deny ourselves and to carry the cross. (cfr. Mt 16,24) 

 We should not ignore this clear indication Christ gave his disciples. We have to strongly convince ourselves that such indication never undermines our humanity. What it would rather do is to purify our humanity, put it on the right path in pursuit of our ultimate goal, and eventually elevate it to the very life and nature of God himself as we are meant to have. 

 This habit of self-denial would enable us to do God’s work, which is actually meant for us as his children, sharers of his life and nature, while being easily flexible and adaptive to the varying challenges and circumstances of the times. We have to be wary of our tendency to be trapped into some closed system of routine, if not to be imprisoned in our comfort-zone. 

 Self-denial will obviously involve certain detachment from things. That is why we should intensify our union with Christ as we immerse ourselves in the things of this world. We can do that if we know how to pray always, converting everything into a form of prayer, a form of engaging ourselves with God. 

 For this, we certainly need to train ourselves and to acquire a certain discipline, so that our union with Christ would be kept alive. We have to realize that our life is supposed to be always a life with Christ and for Christ. 

 Only then can we learn how to bear all things to achieve the fruitfulness of Christ who gained our salvation through his passion, death and resurrection. The paradox of dying in order to be fruitful would become a reality in our life.