How to properly handle our greatness

THIS Lenten season, let's reflect on the importance of serving others, especially when we have been blessed with talents and privileges. Instead of expecting to be served, let's cultivate a heart of service and humility. 

 This we can gather from what Christ himself said once to his disciples: “Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave—just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mt 20,26-28) 

 This is how we can properly handle our greatness which we can always presume since, first of all, among God’s creatures we are the ones who have been created in his very image and likeness, meant to share in the very life and nature of God. All other creatures, except the angels, come from God and belong to God, but do not go to the extent of entering into the very life and nature of God. 

 We need to realize that our greatness as God’s image and likeness and that attitude of wanting to serve and not to be served are like two sides of the same coin. One cannot go without the other. This was clearly shown by Christ himself who, being God, emptied himself by becoming man and going all the way to offering his life as a ransom for our sins. 

 Indeed, there is an intimate and mutual relation between greatness and humility expressed in wanting to serve rather than to be served. When one is truly humble, it can only show the greatness of his heart. And when one is great in stature and dignity, he knows he is there to serve more than anything else. True greatness is never shown in pride and vanity. It is proven and verified in humility. 

 This mutual relation between humility and greatness is expressed when we manage to value others, whoever and however they are, above ourselves and when we look after their interest instead of our own. (cfr. Phil 2,3-4) 

 This is what we clearly see in the life of Christ. Let’s call to mind that stunning example of his when he shocked his apostles when he started and insisted to wash their feet at the Last Supper. 

 For us to have this humility and greatness in our life, we need to be always with Christ and Mary. We need to be in constant conversation with Christ and Mary, referring everything to them, asking them for the answers to our questions, clarifications to the many issues we have to grapple with in life, strength for our weaknesses and temptations, contrition and conversion after our falls, etc. 

 We should do everything to keep this state of humility alive in us all the time. We know very well how easy it is for us to take this virtue for granted. We have to realize more vividly how vulnerable we are to the ways of pride, arrogance, self-centeredness, desire for power and domination, etc. Humility keeps us guarded against these dangers. 

 And when we happen to receive praises and honors from others because of our good works, let’s keep our feet firmly stuck to the ground, not allowing ourselves to be intoxicated. We should not allow these praises and honors to go to our head and cast some evil spell over us. 

 Instead, we have to thank God profusely. All praises and honors belong to him. What we should realize also is that those praises and honors given to us are actually a sign that we have to give ourselves more to God and to others. Our sense of duty and responsibility should become sharper.

The proper setting of our intentions

THIS is none other than to do everything in our life with the intention of loving and glorifying God. And given how we, as children of God, are related to him, we should also do everything with the intention of loving others. We should not be doing things just for our own good. 

 This is what purity of intention means. We should be very careful with our intentions. Since they are hidden, we can easily play around with them. We can appear good outside but bad inside. Our deeds may be considered as acts of generosity and compassion, but the intentions may be those of envy, conceit and the like. 

 We have to be most careful in handling our intentions. They play a strategic role in our life, for how and where we direct them would determine whether we want to be with God or simply with our own selves. 

 Our intentions express who and where in the end we want to be. Do we choose God, or do we simply choose ourselves, or the world in general? It’s actually a choice between good and evil. 

 We really need to take care of our intentions. We have to do our best to see to it that we always have purity of intention in everything that we do, so that we only love and serve God, and because of that, we can properly love and serve everybody else. 

 This concern was somehow referred to in that gospel episode where Christ lamented over the hypocrisy and inconsistency of the leading Jews at that time. (cfr. Mt 23,1-12) “All their works they do for to be seen of men. For they make their phylacteries broad, and enlarge their fringes. And they love the first places at feasts, and the first chairs in the synagogues,” he said. 

 When our intentions are not pure, when they are diluted with some ulterior motives, there is no way but for us to fall into some form of inconsistencies and improper priorities. 

 We need to realize then that we have to take care of our intention, making it as explicit as possible, and honing it to get engaged with its proper and ultimate object who is God. We should try our best to shun being simply casual or cavalier about this responsibility. 

 Right now, we can say that hardly is this concern given due attention. People seem to be simply pursuing their own personal intentions, practically doing self-indulgence. We need to correct this anomaly. 

 In anything that we do, let’s see to it that our intentions are pure. That is to say, that we have to be motivated always by love for God and neighbor. And by love, we mean that we follow God’s commandments as clearly articulated by Christ himself: “If you love me, keep my commandments.” (Jn 14,15) 

 And the epitome of this obedience to God’s commandments is Christ himself, who said: “I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but to do the will of him who sent me.” (Jn 6,38) The secret therefore of love, which is obeying God’s will, is to have the mind and heart of Christ. That is to say, to be ‘another Christ’ which we can always attain because Christ himself has given us all the means to achieve that ideal. 

 For us to have purity of intention, we should be humble enough to ask for it from God first. We should not dare to think that we can have purity of intention by simply relying on our own efforts. We need God’s grace first of all.

Let’s always be merciful

ONE of the things that we are encouraged to learn and develop during this Lenten season is how to be merciful always. This we can gather from the gospel of St. Luke where we hear Christ telling his disciples: 

 “Be therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful. Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you shall be forgiven. Give, and it shall be given to you: good measure and pressed down and shaken together and running over shall they give into your bosom. For with the same measure that you shall mete withal, it shall be measured to you again.” (6,36-38) 

 It’s quite clear that what Christ was telling his disciples, and now us, is to reflect the very love and generosity of God to everyone, irrespective of how they are to us. Yes, we need to sort out all our differences and conflicts as best that we can, but knowing our wounded condition, we can only go so far in that regard. What is important is that no matter where our justice can only reach, we should never fail to show mercy to everyone. 

 Christ himself showed us how to live by this standard when, in spite of all the preaching and miracles he did for the people, he just submitted himself, completely sinless as he was, to death by crucifixion without any complaint if only to save us, to recover us from our alienation from God in whose image and likeness we have been created, and in whose life and nature we are supposed to share. 

 And so, whatever differences and conflicts we may have among ourselves, whatever mistakes and failures we commit, we just have to be merciful in the end. 

 Mercy should be above all other considerations. It certainly goes beyond what our human justice can cover and resolve. Thus, even as we try our best to resolve our differences and conflicts through our legal and judicial system, and our other informal ways of justice, we should be ready and quick to dispense mercy to everyone. 

 Let’s not get detained too long by the mistakes that we all commit. Rather, assured of God’s mercy and liberally dispensing mercy ourselves to one another, let’s look forward to what can be done to help, to heal what is wounded, to restore what was destroyed, to repair what was damaged, to improve what still needs to be improved. 

 Christ was clear about how it is not in him to condemn people. “The Son of man came not to destroy souls, but to save.” (Lk 9,56) We should also have this attitude. And so, we need to expand our mind and heart so as to be magnanimous always with those with whom we have some problems. 

 We have to be wary when we get too concerned about justice without as much being concerned about mercy. We would be treading on dangerous ground that way. Instead of attaining justice, we most likely would be generating more injustice. 

 In fact, we should be more concerned with mercy than with justice, given the obvious limitations of our human justice. It’s not that we should ignore justice altogether. We have need at least to air out our differences and enter into some discussion. But everything has to be marked by delicacy and refinement. 

 And no matter how far our justice can only take us, we should be in the end always merciful. This is how God treats us. This should also how we should treat one another.