Glorifying God

THAT, to me, is the best condition, the best moment we can

have in this life. To be able to glorify God presumes that we have

been able to identify ourselves with God in his will and in his ways

as revealed fully in Christ, the Son who became man to save us,

offering us the way of how to be with God in spite of our limitations,

mistakes and sins. It is in this condition that we can attain our

supreme joy and our total fulfilment.

            It corresponds to what St. Paul once said, “Whether you

eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God.” (1

Cor 10,31) And the ultimate foundation of that assertion is because

the purpose of our creation is none other than to give glory to God.

In fact, the ultimate purpose of the whole of creation is to give

glory to God, its creator. There is no other reason why God chose to

create instead of just being by himself.

            It is not an expression of selfishness on the part of God

that he be given glory. He does not need that. He is the fullness of

being already. But by giving glory to God, we make ourselves, and the

rest of creation, to participate in God’s glory. That’s when we

achieve the best and ultimate dignity we can ever have.

            We need to be most conscious of this duty and do all we

can to carry it out in every act we make, whether it is physical,

mental or spiritual, etc. The big problem we have today is that

instead of giving glory to God, we tend to give glory to ourselves,

thinking that that is where we will find our joy and fulfillment.

            That’s when we fall into vainglory that can come to us in

many and very subtle ways. It can only be a false glorification of

ourselves and a very deceptive one that can give us some degree of joy

and pleasure but is actually setting us for a bigger and graver fall.

            We have to be wary of this danger. Instead, we have to see

to it that we are conscious in truly giving glory to God in all that

we do and in any situation that we may find ourselves in, whether such

situation is happy or sad, good or bad in human terms.

            In this regard, we have to closely follow the example of

Christ, “the way, the truth and the life” for us, who did nothing

other than to give glory to the Father by doing the Father’s will all

the time.

            It is with Christ that we can manage to give glory to God

in everything that we do and in any situation we may find ourselves

in, especially in those unavoidable difficult situations where we are

made to suffer in this life.

            Yes, every situation can and should be an occasion to give

glory to God. As long as we follow the example of Christ, and more, as

long as we identify ourselves with Christ, we can manage to give glory

to God even in our worst predicament.

            The awareness of this duty and the development of the

relevant attitudes and skills should be spread more widely, especially

to the young ones who are dangerously exposed to all sorts of new

things that tend to desensitize them from their duty toward God. There

seems to be some kind of systematic secularization of world culture

today that needs to be corrected and reversed.

            Let us hope that we can have credible teachers, endorsers

and models who can make this duty attractive, appreciated and

eventually lived by many if not all of us. To repeat, it is when we

manage to glorify God that we can have our best condition in life, our

best moment of true joy in this life.

The subtle forms of self-indulgence

WE have to be most careful with the many subtle forms of

self-indulgence that take us away from our real home-base who is God.

These subtle forms of self-indulgence usually spring from the many

blessings and good things God has given us, but which we misuse or

abuse. Instead of glorifying God as we should, we use them to indulge

ourselves simply.

            These forms of self-indulgence can be so tricky that we

may not be very aware that we are falling into them. In fact, we can

even think that with them we are doing right, that we are making good

use of our time and our talents, that we are simply exercising our

freedom, that we are affirming who we are, etc. It’s a very insidious

type of self-deception.

            Aside from alienating us from God, they alienate us also

from others. We may not even realize that we are building an

impenetrable wall around ourselves. We become insensitive to our

responsibilities toward God. We become deaf and blind to the needs of

others.

            They usually start as something like fine, flimsy threads,

similar to the sticky, silky ones produced by spiders that easily trap

little insects, and once trapped these insects are immediately wrapped

with them and devoured.

            They usually start as something legitimate, but somehow

the intention with which we use them is not quite right. Instead of

leading us to God and to others, they simply feed our egos and give

free rein to our curiosities, love for comfort and bodily pleasure,

etc. Before we know it, we would find ourselves wallowing in the mud

of self-absorption, unable or at least finding it hard to extricate

ourselves from that condition.

            Thus, we are now having a high incidence of all forms of

addiction—from alcohol to drugs, and even to very legitimate things

like our work, our hobbies, sports, games and other forms of

recreation. We are now very familiar with workaholism, but there are

now many other forms of addiction as in that of pornography, gambling,

etc.

            These subtle forms of self-indulgence can even enter into

the area of religion and spirituality when we get hooked on to some

superstitious beliefs and practices, leading us to such anomalies as

hypocrisy, self-righteousness, rash judgments, gossiping, spiritual

lukewarmness and the like.

            We really have to make conscious effort to protect

ourselves from these dangers. For this purpose, we need to constantly

rectify our intention. Sometimes, it is God who takes the initiative

of prompting us what to do, and in this case, we should try our best

to be very docile and faithful. At other times, we are the ones who

initiate a plan, and we should always refer it first to God before

acting on it.

            We need to develop a strong ability to say no to certain

things that we know can already invite us to self-indulgence. Thus,

Christ told us to learn how to deny ourselves and carry the cross.

(cfr. Lk 9,23) This skill is so indispensable in our life. Everyday,

we should be conscious that there is something at least, no matter how

legitimate, that we manage to say no to.

            We have to develop the fine art of self-discipline and

self-control. It may just be matter of putting away the cellphone when

we already are in bed, or making the resolution to look at the

cellphone only once every hour or every thirty minutes, etc.

            We have to be wary of the many conveniences and amenities

we enjoy these days, because they can easily spoil us. The powerful

gadgets and useful modern technologies would really need not only

technical expertise in using them, but more importantly, a strong

discerning moral and prudential sense.

            In this, we have to help one another by giving good

examples of prudence and sobriety, timely and regular reminders and

even corrections.

Christ in the making

THAT’S what we all are in this life. We are still a work

in progress. We as a creature of God are still under construction. And

the completion of that divine project is when we become another

Christ, “alter Christus.” Yes, we are still Christ in the making.

            That’s because Christ being the Son of God is the perfect

image God has of himself. Since we have been created in God’s image

and likeness, we are supposed to be children of God in the Son. He is

therefore the pattern of our humanity.

            And as God made man, Christ is the savior of our humanity

that is damaged by sin. For this, Christ has given us all the remedies

for the deficiencies and irregularities we may have in this life due

to our sin-damaged condition.

            In other words, the mould of our humanity is Christ. This

mould is already in us, and we need to flesh it out. It would not be

presumptuous on our part then to presume that we already have the

mould of Christ in us. We just have to fill out that mould, making

ourselves more and more like Christ.

            But first, let’s be conscious that we have that mould.

This may cause us some awkwardness at first, but it’s an awkwardness

that we just have to overcome. It’s part of our human weakness, let

alone, the consequence of our sinfulness, that we feel that way. But

Christ reassures us that we are meant to be one with him.

            For this, Christ has reassured us by always showing how in

the gospel he reached out to the sinners and those in all kinds of

human weakness and misery. “Be not afraid,” he would often say. “Come

to me,” he would invite us. He wants all of us, and not just some of

us, to be with him, no matter how we are.

            The fact that we are still light years away from being

like him should not deter us from going to him. Rather, it should be

the very reason to go to him. To be sure, Christ is not scandalized

and disturbed by whatever unworthiness we feel with respect to Christ.

We need to get over it as soon as we can. We just have to be humble to

accept this reality about Christ and us.

            No matter how awkward and clumsy we may be in this

respect, let’s be determined to acquire or assume Christ’s mind,

heart, spirit, will, ways, etc. We just have to aim at becoming

another Christ.

            To be sure, it will be Christ who will accomplish

everything for us. On our own, we simply cannot, and we should not be

bothered by that fact. What we need to do is simply to be as docile

and as malleable as we can be for Christ to make us like him.

            This means that we, of course, have to know him as best we

could, using all the means that Christ himself has made available—his

life, word and example as found in the gospels, etc.

            And let’s hope that from that knowledge we can develop

love and affection for him. He has left us with the Church, the

sacraments, etc., that would perpetuate his redemptive presence and

action in us. We have to find a way of being aware of this reality and

to correspond to it properly.

            It would serve us well in this regard if at every moment

of our life, at every step of the way, whenever we have to think,

speak and act, we first ask Christ, “Lord, what is it that you want

from me now? What would you like me to think, speak, act or react at

this particular instance, etc.?”

            And whatever happens in our life, whether good or bad, let

us be quick to refer ourselves to Christ. There has to be a conscious

effort to do everything with and for Christ!