The best deal is when we give our all

WE should have no doubt about this. We may at first be scared when Christ told his disciples, and now us, “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children and brethren, and sisters, yes and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whosoever does not carry his cross and come after me, cannot be my disciple.” (Lk 14,26-27) 

 We have to be most careful when considering these strong words of Christ who even went to the extent of commanding us to love our enemies. What he is actually trying to tell us that is that for us to be truly his disciple, to be fully identified with him, especially in the task of continuing the work of human redemption, we have to give our all to him. Nothing and no one should undermine that proper relation we ought to have with him. 

 We have been assured that as long as we are with him, everything else in our life will be taken care of. “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness,” he said, “and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” (Mt 6,33-34) 

 God, who created everything and loves them all the way, even to the extent of becoming man and offering his life for us and for our sins, cannot tell us to hate anyone or anything. When Christ says about “hate,” referring to our parents and loved ones, he must have meant it as us not making anyone and anything to undermine our love for him. 

 To be a true disciple of Christ, to be a full Christian as we should be, involves a certain detachment from people and things, a certain emptying of ourselves to be properly filled with what is proper to us—the very spirit of God in whose image and likeness we have been created, and in whose life and nature we meant to share. 

 Yes, in a certain sense, our life here on earth can be described as a matter of emptying ourselves of our own selves, of our own egos, and of any worldly attachment, so we can be filled with God, with love, which is what is proper to us. 

 We can somehow know that we are truly emptying ourselves properly when we can also see a certain growth of love and practical concern for the others, even if great sacrifices are involved. It’s when we would be willing to complicate our life for God and for the others that we can say we properly emptying ourselves and filling ourselves with the spirit of God. 

 To be sure, to give ourselves completely to God and to others is not easy. We need nothing less than the grace of God and our generous and prompt correspondence to it. But it’s not impossible. 

 We just have to learn to give ourselves to God and others more and more each day. We can ask ourselves, for example, “Today, what can I give more to God and to the others?” “What else have I been keeping to myself rather than giving it away to God and to the others?” 

 For sure, we will have some answers to those questions and start to act on them. In this way, the attitude and practice of giving our all, even if in instalment basis, can be achieved. Let us not fail to see the best deal Christ is proposing to us.

Let’s be adaptive but properly focused

WHEN Christ said, “No one tears a piece from a new cloak to put it on an old cloak; otherwise, not only will the new one be torn, but the piece taken from the new will not match the old,” (Lk 5,36) we are somehow reminded that in our life there is always need for continuing adaptation due to the rapidly varying situations, circumstances and conditions that we are having these days. 

 He reiterated this point when he said, “Nobody puts new wine in old wineskins; otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins and run to waste, and the skins will be ruined.” (Lk 5,37) 

 We cannot overemphasize this need to adapt. We just have to learn how to go about it without getting lost with regard to the real and ultimate purpose of our life here on earth. Yes, we have to be adaptive, but also consistent and properly focused. 

 This would really require of us to have the very wisdom of God as shown to us by Christ who knew how to adapt himself to the varying conditions of man and yet always focused on fulfilling his mission of human redemption. 

 As St. Paul would describe it, we have to learn to be “all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel.” (1 Cor 9,22-23) 

 We cannot overemphasize this need to adapt. And we just have to learn how to deal with it, considering that it will demand of us a lot of sacrifices. Perhaps that’s one reason Christ told us that if we want to follow him, we need to deny ourselves and carry the cross. (cfr. Mt 16,24) 

 This aspect of an authentic Christian life should be taught as early as possible to everyone. While it’s true that each one is somehow defined by his own peculiar personality, temperament and character, we need to realize that as persons we are meant to relate with each other and, thus, need to learn to properly adapt with everyone and with everything. 

 We can always manage to be all things to all men because we are governed not only by physical and biological laws. We have a spiritual nature that can take on anything, especially when that spiritual nature is animated by the very grace of God who is ever willing to give it to us. With God’s grace, even the impossible becomes possible. 

 We should try our best to assume the very mind and heart of Christ, because as St. Paul again said: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Phil 4,13) This definitely would require of us to spend time meditating on the word and example of Christ with the view of eventually assimilating the very spirit of Christ in us. 

 Aside from meditating, we need to develop the relevant practices and virtues that Christ himself is showing us. He was always prayerful, self-mortified, unafraid of sacrifices and consistently zealous to carrying his mission. 

 He knew how to proclaim the Good News in ways that can somehow be easily understood, or at least appreciated, by the people. In other words, we need to have a vibrant spiritual life, an ever-growing intimacy with Christ who makes himself available to us not only in the gospels, but also and most especially in the sacraments. 

 Let’s hope that we never get tired in following the example of Christ so that we can truly be adaptive to all the varying conditions around as well as be properly focused in pursuing the real purpose of our life.

Spiritual deepening

WHEN Christ told Peter to “put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch,” (Lk 5,4) the immediate conclusion we can make is that Christ was telling Peter to be enterprising and aggressive in reaching out to people, i.e., in doing apostolate. This can be validated when Christ told Peter, after such a big catch of fish was made, flooring Peter in amazement, that “from now on you will be catching men.” (Lk 5,10) 

 But we should not forget that for us to be good apostles, we should first take care of our growing identification with Christ because only then can we feel the urge to be energetic and vigorous in our apostolate. Our apostolic zeal can only come about when we truly identify ourselves with Christ, assuming his very mind and heart that is full of desire to save all men. 

 Thus, we can say that unless we have this burning apostolic zeal, we are not really identifying ourselves with Christ as we should. Of course, this goal of identifying ourselves with Christ would be a lifelong endeavor. But we should start it as soon as possible and sustain it as far as we can. To be truly apostolic, we need to have a continuous spiritual deepening. This apostolic duty can only be an overflow of our spiritual life with Christ. 

 Yes, we need to spend time meditating on this Christian duty of ours so that little by little we can start to feel this apostolic urge and sustain it as much as we can. We also should sharpen our apostolic skills, training ourselves to enter into the lives of everyone we meet. It always pays to be friendly with everyone, despite our unavoidable differences and conflicts. Smiling, having a warm and open disposition, will go a long way in carrying out this apostolic duty. 

 But even before all this, we should bring to our prayer our apostolic plans and desires, since only then can we be divinely inspired to carry out this apostolic duty as Christ wants. Only then would we be bold enough to talk about God, about things spiritual and supernatural, about vocation, with everyone. 

 We have to be ready to get interested in everyone apostolically. We should be interested both in the rich and the poor, those in the mainstream of society as well as those in the peripheries. Everyone without exception should be an object of our apostolic duty. 

 For this, we need to be patient, persevering, creative and versatile. We have to learn how to “waste time” with everyone, especially those who may be very different from us in terms of temperament, social and economic status, etc. 

 We should not wait for some favorable circumstances before we do apostolate. To do apostolate should be like our heartbeat. We should feel its urge the way we feel the urge to breathe, eat and drink. And this can only happen when we truly are with Christ. 

 Of course, to do apostolate is not a biological urge, but a spiritual one, to be triggered by an act of our will that is animated by God’s grace. We do not do apostolate because we happen to have some extra time. We do it because we are supposed to be apostles, and we always look for time to do it. 

 We should neither forget that first of all we should ask for God’s grace, since only then can we be truly effective and zealous in our apostolate.