THIS is the joy associated with Easter. The very canon and source of joy, it’s an organic fruit of Christ’s cross. And it can only be achieved through it. In short, if not rooted in the cross, you can be sure it’s not real joy.
To understand this joy, we have to go theological. We surely would miss it if we just depend on the biological, psychological, physical, social or economic approaches to it.
Sad to say, these attitudes are common nowadays—of course, in constantly morphing ways. The latest it would seem is to have some makeover. We’ve been through the wellness fad, accessorizing, health tonics, reality shows, etc., all with their intense but fleeting feelings of high.
The late Pope Paul VI described this unfortunate phenomenon once: “Technological society has succeeded in multiplying the occasions of pleasure, but finds great difficulty in giving birth to happiness.
“For happiness has its origin elsewhere. It is a spiritual thing. Money, comfort, hygiene, material security, etc., may often not be lacking but nevertheless, despite these advantages, boredom, suffering and sadness are frequently to be found supervening in the lives of many people.”
And to add some more, it’s not only boredom, suffering and sadness that come, but also all forms of destructive obsessions and sweet poisons can become unavoidable.
Many things now lend credence to this observation. Just look at all the scandals sprouting not only in the entertainment world, but also in the world of politics. Even in some religious circles, these scandals can erupt precisely because the idea of joy is wrongly understood and developed.
Going theological means going beyond the purely human factors that can produce some elements of joy. It means relying more on our Christian faith, letting it integrate all the other aspects to be able to take part in Christ’s joy, no less.
This point is crucial, because it sets us in the most adequate framework in which any effort to understand and attain joy has to be made. Faith corresponds to our fullest stature as persons and children of God, indicating to us what we truly need to be happy.
Faith engages us in our very core and embraces our whole being. It goes much further than what our biological, physical or social nature can cover. It takes us out of the confines of time and space.
It enters into that inmost sanctuary where we relate our time with eternity, what is material with what is spiritual, the human with the divine. It links us with God, our Father and Creator.
For many, the cross that leads to joy is how to actuate our faith. This can be a real test, since faith is not readily felt. Besides, it requires tremendous effort to get around to it. Primarily a supernatural gift, it defies sensible grasping.
Our great challenge is how to make this supernatural faith take deep root in our life so that it can work according to our human condition. We have to aim at that moment when we would have a sensible appetite for it, like what we have for food and air.
This is not an impossible, quixotic dream. We have the means, we have the capability. There’s also, first of all, God’s grace that makes this supernatural phenomenon take place in our often weak, frail selves.
We just have to be brave enough to carry the cross. And this means that we have to learn to activate our spiritual faculties, that is, the use of our intelligence and will animated by grace.
The problem is that we often don’t develop our spiritual faculties. We prefer to remain carnal and material, completely time-and-earth-bound. Worse, there are now systematic ideologies that espouse and reinforce this attitude, and we readily fall for them.
We have to break loose from this veritable slavery. We have to learn to pray, makes sacrifices, study, avail of the sacraments, develop virtues—literally carrying the cross to achieve that resurrection of a joy that the world can never give nor understand.
It’s the joy that flourishes even in the midst of problems and difficulties, the joy that refuses to get spoiled by an atmosphere of human success and prosperity. It’s the joy of being with God.
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Regarding culture
WE sometimes need to think big to see if the little, fine things are properly in place. We need to look far to see if items near us are in the right direction. Same with thinking abstract, to see if the concrete, tangible things are according to plan or design.
These are dimensions of our life and behavior, ignoring which unavoidably brings us to some trouble.
Among the big things we need to consider is culture. Yes, it’s kind of abstract and intangible, perhaps too invisible for us to derive any practical use from. But it’s actually like the air we breathe, the water we drink.
Culture is inevitable and necessary, and yet this combination of qualities makes it prone to be taken for granted. We have to be more aware of it to be able to have greater control and direction, in short, sense of responsibility for it.
Even the air we breathe now cannot anymore be ignored. We have to contend with relevant issues like pollution, etc. As to the water we drink, just consider the mushrooming purified water business, to drive home the point. We cannot sideline culture.
Culture is our collective quality of life. It is our abiding self-knowledge, the continuing accumulation and purification of our collective wisdom, the flowing consensus of our attitudes, mentalities and practical ways.
There’s a lot of varieties of elements involved, differences and even conflicts of views and positions, and yet there appears also to be a unifying element in it.
It’s so important in our life that we ought to exercise greater responsibility for it. Especially if we consider that it’s also a living thing, capable of growth and development as well as deterioration, decay and death.
Thus, when we speak of culture, we should not just think of our traditional dances, arts, historical items, etc. At best, these are only reflections, snapshots, rich or poor, of our living culture. They are important, but they don’t capture the essence of culture.
When we speak of culture, we have to enter into our collective soul which, in itself, is already a tremendous effort. No matter how daunting, we just have to do it. Anyway, we always have some ways and means for this purpose.
Some basic principles to follow are that culture is more spiritual than material, that it connotes a necessary linkage between what is internal and external in us, and among our thoughts, words and action.
Thus, it’s capital that we find regular ways of checking how this connection is maintained, adjusted, attuned and updated, as well as strengthened and enriched.
It also involves all of us, obviously in varying ways and degrees. Leaders and those in position of power and influence, like the media, should sharply feel their responsibility of shaping it as best as it can get, given the concrete conditions of our society. The rest of us should learn to follow and do our part.
As a living thing, it needs constant renewal, purification, and an increasing capability to grow and to cope with changing conditions. Though it can have a stable identify and character, it is and should never be rigid, inflexible and stuck to a certain place and time.
A very crucial element in it, one that I consider its life-giving germ and its integrating agent, is its attitude toward faith and religion. These provide us with our basic and abiding sense of values supposed to guide us, giving us meaning and direction to the different things in our life.
Thus, it is important to take care of our faith and religion, making it as strong and vibrant as possible. Problems surrounding this area should be duly attended to, using the proper means and always respecting the freedom of all.
In developing our culture, we should be constantly guided by certain absolute laws and ideals. Using them as criteria, we should have a running knowledge of our strengths and weaknesses, and see what practical strategies we can have as a nation to attain a good and rich culture.
Everyone should feel free to help and contribute in this collective endeavor. In fact, everyone should be generous in doing so, not counting the cost and only thinking of the good of our people, for the greater glory of God.
These are dimensions of our life and behavior, ignoring which unavoidably brings us to some trouble.
Among the big things we need to consider is culture. Yes, it’s kind of abstract and intangible, perhaps too invisible for us to derive any practical use from. But it’s actually like the air we breathe, the water we drink.
Culture is inevitable and necessary, and yet this combination of qualities makes it prone to be taken for granted. We have to be more aware of it to be able to have greater control and direction, in short, sense of responsibility for it.
Even the air we breathe now cannot anymore be ignored. We have to contend with relevant issues like pollution, etc. As to the water we drink, just consider the mushrooming purified water business, to drive home the point. We cannot sideline culture.
Culture is our collective quality of life. It is our abiding self-knowledge, the continuing accumulation and purification of our collective wisdom, the flowing consensus of our attitudes, mentalities and practical ways.
There’s a lot of varieties of elements involved, differences and even conflicts of views and positions, and yet there appears also to be a unifying element in it.
It’s so important in our life that we ought to exercise greater responsibility for it. Especially if we consider that it’s also a living thing, capable of growth and development as well as deterioration, decay and death.
Thus, when we speak of culture, we should not just think of our traditional dances, arts, historical items, etc. At best, these are only reflections, snapshots, rich or poor, of our living culture. They are important, but they don’t capture the essence of culture.
When we speak of culture, we have to enter into our collective soul which, in itself, is already a tremendous effort. No matter how daunting, we just have to do it. Anyway, we always have some ways and means for this purpose.
Some basic principles to follow are that culture is more spiritual than material, that it connotes a necessary linkage between what is internal and external in us, and among our thoughts, words and action.
Thus, it’s capital that we find regular ways of checking how this connection is maintained, adjusted, attuned and updated, as well as strengthened and enriched.
It also involves all of us, obviously in varying ways and degrees. Leaders and those in position of power and influence, like the media, should sharply feel their responsibility of shaping it as best as it can get, given the concrete conditions of our society. The rest of us should learn to follow and do our part.
As a living thing, it needs constant renewal, purification, and an increasing capability to grow and to cope with changing conditions. Though it can have a stable identify and character, it is and should never be rigid, inflexible and stuck to a certain place and time.
A very crucial element in it, one that I consider its life-giving germ and its integrating agent, is its attitude toward faith and religion. These provide us with our basic and abiding sense of values supposed to guide us, giving us meaning and direction to the different things in our life.
Thus, it is important to take care of our faith and religion, making it as strong and vibrant as possible. Problems surrounding this area should be duly attended to, using the proper means and always respecting the freedom of all.
In developing our culture, we should be constantly guided by certain absolute laws and ideals. Using them as criteria, we should have a running knowledge of our strengths and weaknesses, and see what practical strategies we can have as a nation to attain a good and rich culture.
Everyone should feel free to help and contribute in this collective endeavor. In fact, everyone should be generous in doing so, not counting the cost and only thinking of the good of our people, for the greater glory of God.
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Our democracy needs to mature
OF course, everyone needs to mature. That’s the natural flow of things. In our social life, which we try to organize through our politics, an abiding process of maturation is a must. We have to be conscious of this so everyone would know the role he plays toward that end.
We have embraced a democratic way of life for quite some time now. In that regard, we are lucky or, some priest-friends would tell me, blessed. There are still a few countries not as lucky or blessed, even to this day of frenzied progress.
And those that are democratic unfortunately show many signs they are missing the true essence of democracy. This is because their ideas of the rule of law, man, truth and freedom are at best questionable.
Of all forms of government, the Church has recommended democracy because of its inherent advantages. This is what John Paul II’s “Centesimus annus” says:
“The Church values the democratic system inasmuch as it ensures the participation of citizens in making political choices, guarantees to the governed the possibility both of electing and holding accountable those who govern them, and of replacing them through peaceful means when appropriate.” (46)
We just have to be aware that democracy is a living and very dynamic process. It cannot be expected to automatically give us its true benefits if the actors and the other elements do not do their part.
We have to constantly give life to it, by properly exercising our freedom which is democracy’s animating germ. We say, “properly,” obviously because there are improper ways, millions of them, of abusing our freedom.
The Gospel already warns of this. “Do not use liberty as an occasion for sensuality, but by charity serve one another.” (Gal 5,13) “Live as freemen, yet not using your freedom as a cloak for malice but as servants of God.” (1 Pt 2,16)
We have to be vigilant of the many forms of false freedom that warp and distort our values that are supposed to guide us. Maturing our democratic way of life depends on how we live our freedom.
Sad to say, misunderstanding freedom is what we are seeing these days in abundance. Even the hallowed passage often quoted by people that “the truth shall make you free” is abused, because it is detached from its foundation.
The complete words of Christ are: “If you abide in my word, you shall be my disciples indeed, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (Jn 8,31)
In short, if truth, supposed to make us free, is not derived from Christ’s word but merely from what we want no matter how consensually determined, we will never have true freedom, in spite of our fervent professions for truth and freedom.
As the same Church document teaches us, a democracy that is not firmly based on this understanding of truth and freedom will lead us to be easily manipulated for reasons of power. It can lead us to open or thinly disguised totalitarianism. (cfr 46)
We have to react more sharply and promptly whenever we see traces of true Christian freedom undermined either subtly or otherwise. Nowadays, these attacks on true freedom are plenty and unrelenting.
To mention a few, we have to be extra careful with the games our politicians play. These are often aggravated by the media. When we hear a lot of either positive or negative words from them, so as to weaken what is the realistic situation, we would good reason our freedom is undermined.
When very rosy pictures without any references to problems and difficulties are made to paint our economy, for example, then we have to be suspicious.
Also, when very negative portraits are done without any references to gains and achievements made, we should exercise a healthy dose of doubt.
Right now, my pet peeves are politicians and journalists who just bicker, nitpick, denounce, complain about anything, usually directed against a specific official, without offering any constructive idea or solution to the problems.
I hope we can go further than these useless exercises whose only fruit is to agitate the others and advance the personal agenda of some characters. Truth, freedom, democracy are not for destruction. They are meant to edify the people.
We have embraced a democratic way of life for quite some time now. In that regard, we are lucky or, some priest-friends would tell me, blessed. There are still a few countries not as lucky or blessed, even to this day of frenzied progress.
And those that are democratic unfortunately show many signs they are missing the true essence of democracy. This is because their ideas of the rule of law, man, truth and freedom are at best questionable.
Of all forms of government, the Church has recommended democracy because of its inherent advantages. This is what John Paul II’s “Centesimus annus” says:
“The Church values the democratic system inasmuch as it ensures the participation of citizens in making political choices, guarantees to the governed the possibility both of electing and holding accountable those who govern them, and of replacing them through peaceful means when appropriate.” (46)
We just have to be aware that democracy is a living and very dynamic process. It cannot be expected to automatically give us its true benefits if the actors and the other elements do not do their part.
We have to constantly give life to it, by properly exercising our freedom which is democracy’s animating germ. We say, “properly,” obviously because there are improper ways, millions of them, of abusing our freedom.
The Gospel already warns of this. “Do not use liberty as an occasion for sensuality, but by charity serve one another.” (Gal 5,13) “Live as freemen, yet not using your freedom as a cloak for malice but as servants of God.” (1 Pt 2,16)
We have to be vigilant of the many forms of false freedom that warp and distort our values that are supposed to guide us. Maturing our democratic way of life depends on how we live our freedom.
Sad to say, misunderstanding freedom is what we are seeing these days in abundance. Even the hallowed passage often quoted by people that “the truth shall make you free” is abused, because it is detached from its foundation.
The complete words of Christ are: “If you abide in my word, you shall be my disciples indeed, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (Jn 8,31)
In short, if truth, supposed to make us free, is not derived from Christ’s word but merely from what we want no matter how consensually determined, we will never have true freedom, in spite of our fervent professions for truth and freedom.
As the same Church document teaches us, a democracy that is not firmly based on this understanding of truth and freedom will lead us to be easily manipulated for reasons of power. It can lead us to open or thinly disguised totalitarianism. (cfr 46)
We have to react more sharply and promptly whenever we see traces of true Christian freedom undermined either subtly or otherwise. Nowadays, these attacks on true freedom are plenty and unrelenting.
To mention a few, we have to be extra careful with the games our politicians play. These are often aggravated by the media. When we hear a lot of either positive or negative words from them, so as to weaken what is the realistic situation, we would good reason our freedom is undermined.
When very rosy pictures without any references to problems and difficulties are made to paint our economy, for example, then we have to be suspicious.
Also, when very negative portraits are done without any references to gains and achievements made, we should exercise a healthy dose of doubt.
Right now, my pet peeves are politicians and journalists who just bicker, nitpick, denounce, complain about anything, usually directed against a specific official, without offering any constructive idea or solution to the problems.
I hope we can go further than these useless exercises whose only fruit is to agitate the others and advance the personal agenda of some characters. Truth, freedom, democracy are not for destruction. They are meant to edify the people.
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