Fathoming God’s love

need to know the real essence of love, its true and

ultimate dimensions, its theoretical and practical implications, its

source, power and goal, its pattern, ways and manifestations.

            Though it is an endless exercise, it would always be

worthwhile since from that effort is derived everything that is true,

good and proper to us. Especially if done in earnest, such effort

generates vitality, health, meaning and joy in our life.

            As much as possible we should try to stay clear from an

understanding of love that is based only on feelings, instincts,

sensual urges, or on some social trends and fads that often trivialize

and distort love even as they make a lot of hype about it.

            Not even should we rely merely on some ideological,

philosophical or cultural and historical factors. They may give

something valuable, but if they are not grounded on the real source

and power, which is no other than God, they can mislead us.

            God, for sure, is everything that we need to go to not

only know but also live the true love meant for all of us. He is the

creator, the source of all things good and true, the very foundation

of reality.

            He is the very author of love who loved us first and

continues to love us no matter what. We can only love properly if our

loving is based on his, if it is inspired and energized by his. No

true love exists, much less, prospers, if it does not begin and end

with God.

            This love, in its fullness, has been revealed to us by

Christ. More than that, this love, again, in its fullness, is given to

us by Christ through the many instrumentalities he himself has left

us—his living word, his sacraments, the Church, etc.

            That is why he makes himself the standard of our loving.

“A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another, as I

have loved you…” (Jn 13,34) We should let these words to sink deep in

our mind and heart, making them the soul of our life.

            And how does Christ love us? Aside from the basic goodness

of creating us and endowing us with such great gifts that we have

become the masterpiece of God’s creation, he has forgiven us our sins

by assuming all our sinfulness and dying to it to rise from it.

            In this way, he gives us the means to liberate ourselves

from our sinfulness. It is for us to die with Christ so that we too

will rise with him. Our death should not just be a matter of the

collapse of our vital organs. It has to be a death with Christ. We

have to be more attentive to the religious dimension of death than to

its physical aspects.

            And that means we have to love God and everyone else all

the way, in spite of all. If we look at Christ closely, we know that

he was very compassionate with everyone. He gave special attention to

the sick, the deaf, dumb and lame. This is an attitude that we should

continually develop in ourselves.

            And more than those who were sick, Christ gave utmost

attention to sinners. He knew these were the ones who needed the most

of him, who needed what truly mattered in our life, our own eternal

salvation and joy with God in heaven.

            If we are interested in fathoming the love of God for us,

we have to examine ourselves and see the kind of attitude we have

toward those who may have offended us. This is where we can see

whether we have true love for God and for others.

            Does our reaction toward those who may have offended us

one way or another reflect Christ’s reaction toward sinners? Are we

quick to forgive and forget? Are we even willing to bear the

consequences of their misdeeds, yes, even all the way to the cross?

            This is the litmus test of our love. We have to be wary of

our tendency to pursue the cause of justice outside of the context of

charity. To be sure, justice without charity is not true justice. At

best, it may appear like justice, but it would end up only as a shell

without the substance.

            We need to remember that we have to distinguish between

the sin and the sinner. The sin, we have to hate, but the sinner, we

are obliged to love and to do everything to convert him into a saint.

Christian maturity

I AM now in the process of talking with parents of the

students who will receive the sacrament of confirmation in October.

The idea is to explain and remind them of the nature and purpose of

the sacrament, and the many implications, both theoretical and

practical, that it brings about.

            By some twist of circumstances, this sacrament happens to

be one of the less known and appreciated sacraments. Even in my case,

I received it when I was already about 20 because it was not felt to

be that necessary in the province where I grew up and had my early

education.

            But it’s actually a very important sacrament, for it gives

us the gift of spiritual strength and perfection that go into what we

may call our Christian maturity or the fullness of Christian life.

            Let’s remember what St. Paul once said about Christ

providing us with apostles, prophets, evangelists, and obviously many

other gifts too so that we can be “a perfect man, unto the measure of

the age of the fullness of Christ, that henceforth we be no more

children tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of

doctrine…” (Eph 4,13-14)

            God is never sparing in sharing what he has with us who

are his image and likeness and his adopted children. The sacrament of

confirmation is a gift that together with the other sacraments

perfects us and brings us to the possibility of living the fullness of

Christian life while still here on earth.

            It gives us nothing less than the Holy Spirit, the very

love of God. The Holy Spirit is now our sanctifier, who nourishes our

faith, hope and charity. He gives us his 7-fold gifts of wisdom,

understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety and fear of the

Lord.

            Besides, the Holy Spirit gives us his perfections or the

fruits of charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,

generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control and

chastity.

            With these, the Holy Spirit who is given to us in

confirmation just like in Pentecost, roots us more deeply in divine

sonship, and binds us more firmly to Christ and to the Church. He

gives us strength to witness to the Christian faith, (cfr Catechism

268) It imprints an indelible character that resembles us more closely

to Christ.

            We need to be aware that this sacrament is a supernatural

gift. As such we need to receive it with profound gratitude and to try

to make use of it as best as we could. That is why we need to know

more and more about it and to live by its law and purpose.

            Just like the many sophisticated gadgets that may be

gifted to us, whose manual and instructions we need to study to make

them useful, we also need to study well the nature and purpose of the

sacrament of confirmation to make it effective in our lives.

            As a supernatural gift, it transcends without rejecting

our human conditions. Usually administered when we reach the age of

discretion or at 12 years of age, it can be given to us even when we

have not yet achieved our full human maturity in terms of our

emotional or intellectual development.

            The grace of God and our correspondence to it through

faith and piety can somehow make the effects of the sacrament

manifested in our life. One psalm beautifully expresses this truth

when it says, “I have had understanding above the aged, because I have

sought your commandments.” (Ps 119,100)

            It is simply by following the commandments of God that

would lead us to love God and others, that we can attain our Christian

maturity. Christian maturity does not depend so much on our temporal

age or on earthly erudition. It’s a matter of grace which God actually

gives us in abundance.

            We need to see to it therefore that we are trying our best

to live by the grace of God. In practical terms this means we need to

study and assimilate his teaching and commandments, develop the

virtues, have recourse to the sacraments, learn to pray and offer

sacrifices.

            We need to learn to think in terms of our faith, and not

just in terms of our sheer reasoning, feelings and other means of

human estimations of things. Our attitude and outlook should be

supernatural, based on our faith and love of God.

            This is how the greatness of God himself can sit well in

the midst of our human limitations and errors. Given our increasingly

challenging times, we need to spread more widely the good news about

the sacrament of confirmation.

A taste of heaven

WE have just celebrated the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed

Virgin Mary, the perfect and universal mother given to all of us by no

less than Christ himself. The celebration somehow reminds us that,

like her, we are meant for heaven, our ultimate destination. Where she

is now, we can expect ourselves to be, if we do our part.

To be sure, as based on our faith, this is God’s will for us. He will

do everything to make this will of his a reality. He created us

endowing us with faculties that would enable us, together with his

grace, to attain this end. But obviously, he does not impose his will

on us forcefully. We need to correspond to this will freely and

lovingly.

It’s true that when we die, our body and soul would be separated, but

that separation would only be temporary, since at the end of time, our

faith tells us that there will also be the resurrection of the body

which will reunite with the soul. Our definitive state will be as man

with body and soul together either in heaven or in hell.

It would be good if we can include in our mentality, lifestyle and

culture the frequent consideration of heaven. It would be good if we

develop a taste of heaven even now. This is not an impossibility. In

fact, it is a necessity.

Such awareness and attitude would help us greatly in giving our

earthly life its proper shape and direction. It would give us a

complete picture of our life that should go beyond the here and now,

and even beyond death.

Otherwise, we would have a myopic, shallow, narrow, if not distorted

and erroneous view of life, and would be, in the words of St. Paul,

“tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine by

the wickedness of men…” (Eph 4,14)

In other words and contrary to some claims, the frequent consideration

of heaven would make us more realistic in our outlook and

understanding of our life. It does not desensitize us from our more

immediate needs and duties in our life now. Rather, it sharpens our

sensitivities and brings them to their proper and ultimate goal and

consequences.

But we have to understand what heaven really is. There are now a

myriad of versions of heaven based more on one’s condition rather than

on our Christian faith. Some people make money, food, power, drugs,

sex, beer their heaven, for example.

Others, like the hedonists, materialists, naturalists, stoics,

Communists, Buddhists, Confucianists, Shintoists, Hindus, etc., have

their  own versions of heaven.

It’s good for the Christian faithful to firm up their belief and

understanding of the Christian heaven. It is not so much a place as a

state of life. Though it is a supernatural mystery, it is very much

accessible in a tentative way even while here on earth.

Let’s remember Christ telling us, “Blessed are the poor in spirit for

theirs is the Kingdom of heaven,” the first among the beatitudes and

expressed in the present tense and not in the future tense, as in a

promise.

Heaven, at least in its initial state, can be had here and now. The

greatness of God, his power and majesty, his infinite wisdom, love and

mercy can be played out in the ordinary circumstances of our life. We

can already enjoy heaven here on earth as long as we have the proper

attitude and the proper state of our soul.

Obviously, heaven is impossible to describe in human terms. It will

always escape human definition and description. St. Paul once said:

“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither has it entered into the

heart of man, what things God has prepared for them that love him.” (1

Cor 2,9)

But based on what our faith tells us, heaven must be when we are truly

and completely identified with Christ forever, when God becomes “all

in all” (1 Cor 15,28).It is when our mind and heart are fully in synch

with God’s will, whether here and now or at our death and after.

Christ used parables to describe the kingdom of heaven. It’s good to

go through them to give us at least some ideas of how heaven is now

and will be in the future, in eternity.

We need to review the parables of the sower and the seed, the good

seed and the weeds, the mustard seed, the hidden treasure, the good

fish and the bad fish. These parables tell us where we can find heaven

even while here on earth.