Caring for our spiritual life

IF we can only give to our spiritual powers just a
fraction of the attention we usually give to our physical faculties, I
think we would be much better off. Our problem is that most of the
time we ignore the needs of our spiritual soul while we pamper and
spoil our body.

            Just look at the time, effort and money spent on things of
the flesh—wellness craze, looks, sports and fashion, body cult,
etc.—and compare these with the ones spent for our spiritual
needs—prayer, sacraments, interior struggle, etc. You´ll notice there
can hardly be any worse inequality.

            That´s why, in the long history of ascetical literature
written and lived by saints through the centuries, there has been that
consistent insistence to curb the tendencies of the flesh to give way
to the more important aspirations of the spirit.

            These two constituent elements of our human nature have
become fierce competitors, not so much on the part of the spirit as it
is on the part of the body. The trouble is that our body wants to
dominate the spirit, reversing the order proper to our nature.

            This tension was vividly expressed by Christ himself when
he warned his sleepy disciples—Peter, James and John—to watch and
pray, because ¨the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.¨

            To remedy this predicament, Christ taught that we enter by
the narrow gate—putting ourselves to some inconveniences and
discomfort, etc.—because ¨wide is the gate, and broad is the way that
leads to perdition.¨

            In fact, in the end, he indicated that to follow him, we
have to deny ourselves and carry the cross. And so the cross or the
sense of penance, sacrifice and mortification has been made an
integral part of Christian life and even of human life in general. We
would go crazy without it.

            Why is this so? Simply because the body needs to be
properly animated by the spirit. For us to be truly human and fit
according to our dignity as person and God´s child, our body has to be
animated by the spirit that in turn should be animated by the Holy
Spirit.

            The body on its own is nothing without the soul. Christ
said: “It is the Spirit who gives life. The flesh profits nothing.”
(Jn 6,63) The quality of our life does not depend solely on our
material needs, but relies more on the nourishment we receive from the
spirit.

            On its own, the body has appetites that are purely
material. Alone, it cannot enter the intellectual and spiritual world,
not to mention the supernatural goal that our faith tells us is our
original and ultimate end.

            Our body has to submit to the order proper to us, that is,
it has to be directed by our spiritual faculties. Thus, St. Augustine
said in this regard: ¨Where the flesh commands and the spirit serves,
the house is turned the wrong way...Man is rightly ordered where the
spirit commands and the flesh serves.¨

            We need to be more wary of our duty to take care of our
spiritual powers. Sad to say, many people do not even know what these
spiritual powers of ours are.

            This to me is a real disaster, since many people are
well-versed with the material and technical world—think of the skills
people have in gadgets—while confessing to be ignoramuses and pygmies
with respect to spiritual and supernatural realities.

            Our spiritual powers are mainly our intelligence and will,
our thinking, judging, reasoning and loving. These need to be managed
and supervised well, seeing to it that they are engaged with their
proper objects and not simply allowed to drift and flow wherever they
are blown by our bodily and worldly conditionings.

            St. Paul talks about the distinction between the carnal
man and the spiritual man, and we should make the right choice and
develop it to its maturity. St. Augustine warns us not to allow our
soul, our spiritual powers, to become carnal by consenting to the
affections of the flesh.

            Unfortunately, this is what we are seeing aplenty these
days—people are not only consenting but also are glorying in the
affections of the flesh. We need to reverse this trend. It may be a
painful process requiring nothing less than heroic effort and
dedication of nothing less than a martyr, but it would be all worth
it.

            Caring for our spiritual powers means exerting realistic
effort to always find reasons, motivations and ways to relate all our
thinking and loving to God and all souls.

Way beyond words and deeds

LET’S be most careful with our judgments. Yes, we are made
to judge, and that’s simply because we are spiritual beings with
intelligence and will whose operation is precisely to know, to think,
to judge, to reason, etc.

            We cannot know things, we cannot develop and grow, we
cannot have some semblance of justice and love unless we make some
judgments. We just have to make sure that our judgments do not go
beyond the limits that we are all subject to.

            Our judgments can only be relative, never absolute. Or
better said, we can make absolutely right judgments, but always based
on facts and data, on objective truth and fair laws, and always given
in the context of charity and mercy. Outside of these, we would be
making improper judgments.

            These latter are what Christ warned us about. Remember
when he said: “Do not judge, that you may not be judged.” (Mt 7,1) We
should be careful when we read the gospel, otherwise we will come out
with funny conclusions. If considered only in itself, this passage can
make us conclude that we should not judge at all. And that’s funny.

            But the second line after that somehow puts those words in
the right context. “For with what judgment you judge, you shall be
judged; and with what measure you measure, it shall be measured to
you.” These presume that we judge, but that we should judge properly.
That’s the catch.

            We have to realize that our judgments can only go so much
because we obviously do not know everything, especially the most
intimate core of one’s thoughts and very being. We cannot make
judgments that go beyond what we know as our basis for such judgments.

            Yes, we can make some judgments on a person’s words and
deeds, but always based on some verifiable facts and made according to
some agreed laws and standards. Beyond these, we should not make any
judgments. That would be foul. We would be overstepping.

            Only God can make the absolute judgment on any person and
event, since he knows everything. And what we know is that God loves
all, including those whom we consider to be in error according to our
human standards.

            Christ precisely made this clear when he said that we have
to love our own enemies. Let’s again go through that wonderful gospel
passage if only to savor its divine message:

            “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and
hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those
who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.
He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on
the righteous and the unrighteous.

            “If you love those who love you, what reward will you get?
Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your
own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do
that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Mt
5,43-48)

            Here we have the complete picture of how we ought to
judge. Yes, we have to make judgments, but knowing the limits, the
conditions and requirements that would make our judgments proper.

            What is clear is that while we make judgments, we have to
be charitable all the time. We should always make our judgments defer
to the absolute judgments of God who “causes his sun to rise on the
evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the
unrighteous.”

            What we can derive from all this is that while we have to
make some judgments, we need, to be charitable to everyone, to go
beyond the words and deeds of persons, even beyond the strengths and
weaknesses of a person’s character and temperament, beyond the
different conditionings we all subject to—genetic, social, cultural,
historical, etc.

            We need to acknowledge the ultimate reality about
ourselves—that we are all creatures of God, children of his, created
in his image and likeness. He will love us still like crazy, in spite
of our stupidities.

            Remember that beautiful passage from the Book of Isaiah:
“Can a woman forget her nursing child and have no compassion the son
of her womb? Even these may forget but I will not forget you.” (49,15)

            Let’s be quick to understand each other, ready to forgive,
sport in our differences, magnanimous in our victories and gracious in
our defeats. Let’s not waste time keeping grudges, living in fear and
enmity with others. We would be wasting our life that way!

From minimalist to maximalist

THAT’S what happens when one is in love. He is not
contented with doing things just to get by or just to get a passing
mark. He does things to the best of his abilities, always seeking new
frontiers of creativity, effectiveness and efficiency. That’s simply
because love is giving not only things but his own self without
measure. That’s love most intrinsic law. It’s given without measure.

            We need to learn to adopt this kind of lifestyle. It’s not
going to be easy, of course. Many things have to be resolved and
mastered. We have to contend with our tendencies to be self-centered,
to be attached to things, to be materialistic, complacent, cold or
lukewarm, etc. But with God’s grace, our full trust in God’s ways
matched with our efforts, we can enter and flow in this amazing
dynamics of true love.

            Truth is for this love to develop and grow, we do not need
some special moments and opportunities to trigger it. Any occasion,
any event, no matter how small and, humanly speaking, insignificant
can be a golden privilege to live heroism that is inseparable from
loving.

            Thus, the possibility of living this kind of love is
always around, because even in the most humdrum activity, we can
choose to make it exciting with love. As one saint would put it, we
can make verses out of the ordinary prose of each day. We need to
condition our mind to be more aware of this oft-forgotten truth. We
don’t need to be martyred like Rizal in Luneta to prove our love for
God, people and country.

            And one neither needs to have some extraordinary talents
to achieve the ever-dynamic fullness of love. It’s all a matter of the
will giving itself fully in corresponding to God’s will that is all
that is needed. And so, even a very ordinary person, with below
average IQ and forgettable endowments, can have this kind of love.

            Yes, I have known a good number of people, very simple and
modest in the way they are and do, who, I believe, have this kind of
love. Their heart, the seat of their will, is pure and is fully given
to God and to others, even when they still can commit mistakes and
their best can still be made better, which is always our case since we
are always a work in progress in this life.

            We have to realize that on the part of God, who is the
source, pattern and end of love, everything is already given to us. In
fact, nothing less than God himself, in Christ through the Holy
Spirit, and abundantly made available to us through the many
instrumentalities of the Church, is given to us.

            As St. Paul would put it: “Know the love of Christ which
surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of
God.” (Eph 3,19) These words may sound tremendous and unbelievable,
but they happen to be words of our faith. It’s really up to us to
choose between a minimalist or a maximalist, a mere bureaucrat or a
true lover!

            We need to cultivate the proper attitude, understanding
and skills, as well as the corresponding lifestyle and culture with
respect to this wonderful truth of our faith. We have to help one
another in this endeavor, making use of the ordinary events and
circumstances of our day, as well as the extraordinary occasions,
challenges and trials we encounter in life. In fact, everything in
life is an opportunity to grow in love.

            We have to be wary of the tendency to get entangled with
the technicalities of any situation that, though they certainly have
to be attended to, would lead us to miss the real spirit that ought to
animate us.

            With this attitude, we end up not choosy as to when we can
develop this love. Whether we are engaged with small or big things,
manual or intellectual work, etc., we follow the same principle and
are happy all the time, even if we have to contend with the usual ups
and downs and drama of life.

            It would be good that starting with the family and the
schools, this awareness of the possibility of love to develop and grow
even in the most ordinary events is firmly established and continually
reinforced in the higher levels of our social life.

            Let’s hope that this becomes an abiding awareness of
everyone and of every institution. Let’s hope that we continue to
develop the appropriate programs and strategies, both personal and
collective, to make this awareness constant.