Be like an eagle, not a hen

YES, let’s be like an eagle, soaring quietly high up in
the sky, having a good, extensive view of the things on the ground,
and not like cackling barnyard hen whose flight is low and is mainly
done to escape something or to boast to the whole world that it has
just laid an egg. The hen, of course, has a very limited view of
things.

            The other thing about the eagle is that in spite of the
tremendous altitude that it can climb, it has a sharp vision that can
see even a running rodent on the ground and has the agility to swoop
down quickly to catch its prey. That’s really quite a combination.
This can never be said of the hen.

            I know that it is unfair to compare a hen with an eagle.
Each one has its own nature and purpose for being. But for our sake,
we can compare ourselves to them because as human beings, we have the
choice to assume the qualities of an eagle or those of a hen.

            To be like an eagle can mean to think big instead of being
contented with small, petty things. It can mean to take on more and
more responsibilities, instead of being contented with what we are
having at the moment.

            We can always do more. With our spiritual nature, the
possibilities for growth and improvement are infinite. This simply
corresponds to the fact that the demands of our own sanctification and
the needs of other people about whom we should always be concerned are
also infinite.

            To be like an eagle can mean expanding our generosity
instead of simply being self-satisfied with our current state of
charity. It can mean pushing ourselves up to the next level in every
aspect of our life. We should never be contented with the status quo,
no matter how good it already is. Let’s remember the saying that “the
good is the enemy of the best.”

            It can mean to be always zealous in any endeavor we do,
instead of simply being complacent and lukewarm. It can mean to be a
maximalist rather than a minimalist, contented with a passing mark.

            That’s what happens when one is in love. He is not
contented with doing things just to get by. 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.

            Another reason why we have to be like an eagle in our
spiritual and moral life rather than just be like a chicken is that
when we have an outlook and lifestyle that can be characterized as
big-hearted, eager to do big things without neglecting the fine
details, and magnanimous, we can more easily handle the many
weaknesses and temptations that will always hound us.

            A person stuck in petty things is an easy target of his
own weaknesses and the temptations around. He tends to be lazy and
narrow-minded, unable to develop the resistance to bear things and the
strength to move forward.

            A phenomenon that is getting common nowadays is that of
many smart people with impressive accomplishments but who are unable
to escape the bad allurements of the world and the subtle tricks of
the devil.

            And that’s simply because they have stopped growing and
moving forward. They get self-satisfied with what they have already
accomplished, showing in effect that all that effort was not really
for God and for others, but simply for themselves, a clear
contradiction to what loving is supposed to be.

            We need to alert everyone about this danger. That’s why
it’s good to keep in mind this comparison between the eagle and the
hen.

Keeping the integrity of education

I REMEMBER that some years ago, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI
sounded off the alarm that the way education was being done in the
West, it would seem that the essence of education was getting lost.

            In our case, when we talk about some problems in
education, we refer more to lack of classrooms and the need to attune
and synch our educational programs such that they solve our headaches
in poverty and literacy.

            Thanks to God, our difficulty is mainly in that level
which, I admit, is already big, urgent and really crying for immediate
solutions and relief. Still, if compared to those of the West, our
worries are mere chicken feed.

            Our predicament is more in the material dimension of life.
That of the West is already undermining the more important spiritual
dimension of life. Many times I have seen people, materially poor but
full of faith in God, who cope better in life than those materially
rich but with weak faith.

            We are, of course, a unity of body and spiritual soul.
They cannot be separated in life. Only in death, and in a temporary
way, since Christian faith teaches us that both body and soul reunite
at the end of time.

            Our education, for sure, has to take care of the needs of
both our constitutive elements of body and soul, but always giving
special attention to those of the soul. We may have to make the proper
priorities in tackling these needs of our education, but it’s not
right to put them in conflict with each other.

            Just the same, we should not be complacent with our
apparent luck. We need to give serious attention to the root causes of
the educational crisis that the Pope Emeritus talked about, because
even in our country we can see traces and symptoms of these Western
anomalies emerging and developing.

            The Pope Emeritus pointed a finger at two culprits
responsible for the emergency situation in the educational system in
the West. These are, first, the false notion of human autonomy that
confines us to ourselves, and, second, the spreading mentalities of
relativism and skepticism.

            These things may sound abstruse to many, but I’m afraid
they now need to be understood by as many people as possible, since
these factors affect all of us. We may have to explain a little about
these disturbing phenomena so we can get a handle on the situation

            The first cause mentioned by the Pope Emeritus, which is about a false
idea on human autonomy, refers to the exaggerated understanding of our
freedom and autonomy such that we think education is simply our
development purely by and for ourselves.

            We make ourselves the be-all and end-all of everything. We think we
are not meant for something greater than ourselves now. We make
ourselves our own God. Everything else is just used for our
self-development.

            This attitude is basically wrong since we by nature and as
persons need to be in relation with others and ultimately with God. In
short, we become more human and better persons the more we relate
ourselves to God and the others.

            Sad to say, the educational thrust in many places in the
world today, including ours, appears to go in this direction of being
selfish and of tending to self-absorption, detached from the immediate
and ultimate sources of our life and our wisdom.

            This first cause of the education crisis, as the Pope
Emeritus warned us, leads to the second which are the dangerous
attitudes of relativism and skepticism. With faith ignored, divine
revelation blocked and the understanding of human nature twisted, we
now create our own world devoid of absolute truths.

            Everything is now held relative to whatever criteria we
may want to consider as our truths and values. This will lead to
skepticism and a host of kindred anomalies. In the end, what would
rule will just be the law of pragmatism and eventually the law of the
jungle, of brute force, etc.

            These considerations of the Pope Emeritus, I believe,
should not be taken lightly, thinking that they are not quite relevant
to our present condition. They are always relevant. And the sooner we
include these warnings into our educational system, making the
necessary adjustments, the better for us.

            We should not regard these caveats as something abstract.
They have direct impact on our lives and on our society. We have to
overcome that tendency to get stuck with the material and temporal
purpose of education and give priority attention to its spiritual and
supernatural objective.

Conversing with God

FATHER, are you serious when you say we can talk to God?

            Questions like that are often asked of me by people who
find it incredible that we can talk to God. They have come so often
that my answer has also become quite standard and routine.

            Of course, we can talk to God! It’s no big deal to
converse with God. It should be the most normal thing to do, since in
the first place God is always with us. While we cannot always have
anybody to talk to, and sometimes we can even forget to talk with our
own selves, God on the other hand is always with us and is always
willing to listen and talk to us too.

            That’s his nature. That’s his desire. God is the very
support of our own existence, and that of everybody and everything
else. And he, mind you, does not support our life only in a passive
way. He’s full of love, of solicitude, of attention and concern. He’s
actually hot with us.

            St. Augustine said, “to know where God is may be
difficult, but to know where God is not, that is even more difficult!”
Christ himself reassured his apostles, “Behold, I am with you all
days, even to the consummation of the world.” (Mt 28,20)

            We just have to learn how to acknowledge this reality. Our
problem is that we restrict our grasp of reality to what is observable
only by the senses, and captured by our feelings. Our thinking is
often so dominated by these human faculties alone that it fails to
enter into the spiritual and supernatural realities.

            Worse, some people believe with the conviction of a
man-made faith that reality cannot be anything beyond the biological,
physical, or social at most. They laugh at any talk about anything
spiritual or supernatural. Faith and religion have no place in their
worldview.

            In short, in the development of our humanity, many of us
get stuck—or prefer to get stuck and even to rationalize it—in the
anal stage. We hardly grow and approach the fullness of manhood. We
seem to prefer to remain puerile or juvenile.

            Conversing with God is always possible if we exercise our
faith, and not just be influenced by the senses, emotions and an
intelligence detached from faith. While faith is a gift, something
given and received, it also corresponds to a need in our human nature.
We always need faith, if not the one given from above, supernatural,
then our own man-made faith.

            Learning to talk to God, of course, goes through stages
and requires a kind of training program. That’s what we all go through
when we learn something—like to eat, walk, talk, study, etc.  We need
to practice and practice, then doing it until it becomes second nature
to us.

            In the beginning, just like anything else, learning to
pray and talk to God is quite awkward. We have to go through the baby
steps, the basic drills, etc. Of course, in learning to pray at the
start, the awkwardness is not only physical. It’s emotional, mental,
spiritual and moral.

            Just the same, the obstacles can be hurdled one way or
another. We just have to help one another and endlessly find ways to
solve the problems that can come along the way.

            For sure, the problems are myriad. In the first place, we
have to contend with the stiff requirements of faith. Then we have to
grapple with our laziness, not only the physical but also the mental.
We can also suffer a lot of distractions and a languishing spell of
spiritual dryness. But these are not insoluble. With God’s grace and
our effort, we can overcome them.

            Obviously, a lot of catechesis and apologetics is needed.
We cannot deny the fact that there is an ocean of ignorance, error and
confusion in this regard. Then a program of learning has to be devised
and adapted to the personal conditions of each one of us. The
objective has to be made subjective.

            Very important are the living witnesses of people who
truly pray and know how to relate everything to God. Their example can
speak volumes and can drastically shorten the learning process of
praying for all of us. Let’s hope that we can cultivate a culture of
prayer in our midst!

            Let’s make our raw prejudice against prayer a thing of the
past. Let’s talk to God, bringing everything to him, including our
problems and failures. Let’s grow to the fullness of our human and
Christian maturity.