Mercy and fullness of redemption

WHAT a consoling and reassuring psalm! It should always be

in our heart and on our lips. It is what gives light when darkness

descends on our life. It makes a life-stirring impulse when things

seem to be dead.

            Psalm 130,7 tells us where we can find this guaranteed

mercy and fullness of redemption. It is with God who has deigned to

become man and to assume all our sins, rendering death to them with

his own death on the cross, and conquering them with his resurrection.

            We should have no doubt whatsoever that on the part of

God, everything is already given to us so we can be what we ought to

be—children of God, sharers of God’s life. Any doubt in this regard

can only come from the devil.

            Whatever happens in our life, as long as we are open to

God’s will and ways, even if that openness is unarticulated, God’s

mercy will always have the last word. Our redemption is assured. God’s

will is clearly for our redemption, though we, free as we are, can

reject that divine will.

            Yes, we may die with sins still in our hearts, with

failures and weaknesses still unresolved, but as long as we are open

to God’s mercy by not blaspheming the Holy Spirit which is the only

sin that cannot be forgiven, our redemption would be at hand.

            Remember Christ just moments before giving up his spirit.

“Forgive them, Father,” he said, “for they know not what they are

doing.” (Lk 23,34) He even looked for excuses for those who crucified

him! And let’s also remember that we, with all our sins, contribute in

the end in the crucifixion of Christ.

            This does not mean that we do not do our part in our own

redemption. Christ himself has clearly told us what to do—from denying

ourselves and carrying our cross, to praying without ceasing, to

following the Church authorities, etc. What he wants us to do are

clearly spelled out in the commandments that he gave and the many

promptings and inspirations that can come to us like a wind that blows

from nowhere.

            We should avoid falling into presumption and even tempting

God. God wants us to give our all to him just as he gives his all also

to us. He has given us various instruments so we can attain the

fullness of our humanity, as attested by St. Paul when he said:

            “God gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some,

evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the

saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of

Christ: till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the

knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of

the stature of the fullness of Christ…” (Eph 4,11-13)

            Let us take full advantage of everything that God has

given us not only for our redemption but also for the perfection of

our humanity. God wants us recovered in our fullness, not only

partially.

            Of course, in the gospel Christ once said that in our

struggle to enter heaven, we should be willing to lose an eye or an

arm if that should become necessary (cfr. Mt 18,8-9). But once we get

to heaven, everything that we lose here on earth due to our struggles

will be restored in full.

            Again, it’s good to repeat in our mind, heart and lips

that reassuring psalm of God’s mercy and the fullness of his

redemption so that we would always be motivated by God’s love in all

our earthly affairs, especially when we encounter difficulties,

setbacks, failures, and even temptations and sin.

            That would surely enliven our faith and keep us united

with God in all the events of our day.

Faith heals our blindness

THAT gospel episode about the blind man whose vision was

restored because of his great faith gives us a good lesson to learn.

(cfr Lk 18,35-43) And that is that we have to be like that blind man

eager to ask Christ for a cure.

            Regardless of how others may restrain us from getting the

attention of Christ, as what happened to that blind man, we should

just insist, fearlessly and shamelessly, in asking Christ for a cure.

Christ will always attend to us, no matter how disturbing we may

appear to him according to our human standards.

            But first of all, we should be like that blind man,

acknowledging our own blindness. Yes, we are all blind, even if we may

be gifted already with immense knowledge of things because of our

studies and experiences.

            In fact, we can say that we are more blind the more

knowledge of things we seem to accumulate, because this latter status

usually sheds some light that blinds us rather than clarifies things

for us. It tends to take us away from God rather than lead us to him.

            Let’s hope that we can echo what is attributed to

Socrates, i.e., that “the more I know, the more I realize that I know

nothing.” These Socratic words somehow also find basis on some words

of St. Paul who said: “The one who thinks he knows something does not

yet know as he ought to know.” (1 Cor 8,2).

            And that’s because a knowledge that is not guided or

enlightened by faith is a knowledge that does not lead to charity. It

leads to pride, vanity and arrogance instead. Again, St. Paul in this

regard said: “Knowledge puffs up, but charity builds up.” (1 Cor 8,1)

            We have to be wary of our tendency to think that we are

just fine because we happen to be very knowledgeable about things in

general, or that we know much more and better than the average fellow

in the street.

            This is our usual problem which we should resolve by

always deepening our humility. If we notice that the growth of our

knowledge of things does not lead us to a greater love for God and for

others, then it is bogus knowledge no matter how scientific that

knowledge may be.

            We need to humble ourselves so that our pursuit for

knowledge will always be inspired and accompanied by the desire to a

growth of faith, of an insistent faith like that of the blind man in

the gospel, so that that knowledge will lead us to have greater

charity.

            Remember that gospel episode of the cure of the man born

blind. (Jn 9,1-41) Christ cured that blind man, and that is why the

cured man could now see Christ, believe him and worship him. But the

self-righteous, know-all leading Jews, who prided themselves as being

knowledgeable, turned out to be actually blind—that is, spiritually

blind—because they could not recognize Christ as the redeemer even if

Christ was right in front of them.

            The relevant passage goes this way: “Jesus heard that they

had cast him (the blind man with restored sight) out, and when he

found him, he said to him: Do you believe in the Son of God? He

answered and said: Who is he, Lord, that I may believe in him?

            “And Jesus said to him: You have both seen him, and it is

he that talks with you. And he (the blind man) said: Lord, I believe.

And he worshipped him. Jesus said: For judgment I came into this

world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become

blind.” (Jn 9,35-39)

            We have to acknowledge our blindness, ask Christ for a

cure with a lot of faith, so that we can actually see and know things

as they really are.

The twins of war and peace

BECAUSE of our earthly condition, marked by our call to

holiness in the middle of our wounded, if not sinful, condition, we

cannot help but have war and peace in this life. They may be

considered as fraternal twins, looking different from each other, but

bound intimately from conception to birth and to the whole lifetime.

  

            Truth is, in this life we have to make war to have peace.

And peace can only come about, at least in this life, as a consequence

of some war. Our life here on earth will always be a war of peace. We

should not be surprised by this phenomenon anymore. It should be a

given. Thus, Christ, who is considered the Prince of Peace, once said:

  

            “I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it

were already kindled! But I have a baptism to undergo, and what

constraint I am under until it is completed! Do you think I came to

bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division. From now on there

will be five in one family divided against each other, three against

two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son

and son against father…” (Lk 12,49-53)

  

            But the war we will be waging here on earth will be a

constructive war, not destructive. It is a war to win our way toward

heaven. It is a war to make ourselves “another Christ,” a new man,

stepping out of the old man that we all are due to sin. Any obstacle

along the way, including those who are very close to us but who

compete with God for our love, should be fought and rejected.

  

            We have to remember that we always have to contend with

powerful enemies in our spiritual life. The first one would be our own

selves, our own flesh that has been weakened by sin. There is such

thing as concupiscence, a certain attraction to evil that leads us to

have a lust of the eye, lust of the flesh and the pride of life.

   

            Its urges can be strong and can make us feel that they are

irresistible. We should not worry too much about them. As long as we

beg always for God’s grace and we do our part of prayer, self-denial,

recourse to the sacraments, and spiritual struggle, we can manage to

take the wind out of these urges’ sails.

  

            Then we have the world with many of its sinful, or at

least, potentially dangerous allurements. There already are powerful

structures of sin in the world, like pornography, religious

indifference, secularism or a new paganism, and quite developed

ideologies that are openly against God.

  

            We need to know how to be discerning in the things of this

world. More than that, we have to learn how to relate the things of

this world to God, because unless we do, there’s no other way but for

us to be swallowed up by their ungodly dynamic. We have to be clear

that with the things of this world, it is always a choice between

using them for God’s glory and man’s common good, and allowing them to

separate us from God and others.

  

            Then there’s the devil, a very powerful spiritual enemy

that can easily insinuate himself in our thoughts and desires. He is

indeed very clever. He does his wiles often without us realizing it.

But with God we can actually outsmart him. Let’s remember that while

Christ told us to be innocent as doves, we should also be clever like

serpents.

  

            We should be quick to reject those insinuations of the

devil in our thoughts and intentions. Once we could smell that our

thoughts and intentions are not inspired by God, we should give them

no further attention.