Going beyond but not against

“Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes

and Pharisees, you will not enter into the kingdom of heaven. You have

heard that it was said to your ancestors, ‘You shall not kill; and

whoever kills will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you, whoever

is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment, and whoever says

to brother ‘Raqa,’ will be answerable to the Sanhedrin, and whoever

says, ‘You fool,’ will be liable to fiery Gehenna…” (cfr Mt 5, 17-37)

            Christ continued to make more clarifications about how we

should behave by following some laws. It would be good if we can

revisit the whole passage about this point since it can give us a

clear picture about how often we need to go beyond but not against

what our human laws permit us to do to attain what is truly proper to

us as persons and children of God.

            We need to see to it that our observance of our human laws

is not guided only by our human understanding of these laws nor by the

many human values that we can aspire and pursue. Our observance of our

laws should not be guided by our sense of justice alone.

            While these understanding and values and sense of justice

are indispensable, unavoidable and legitimate, we need to see to it

that it is charity that inspires our observance of our human laws.

            In fact, our understanding and the human values and the

sense of justice that can motivate us in observing our human laws

should come as a consequence of charity. They are not supposed to be

the original principle in our observance of our human laws.

            Short of that ideal, our observance of our human laws will

lead us sooner or later to all forms of anomalies, many of them can be

so subtle that we can hardly realize that they are anomalies.

            Our human laws should be understood simply as guides and

not as the ultimate end itself. And that’s because we can find many

exceptions to them because of their inability to capture all the

possible situations that man get into.

            That’s the reason why many of them become obsolete, or are

even outrightly rescinded, or at least updated, modified, fined-tuned

from time to time. Our laws should be made to serve our ultimate end,

and that can only be that we be led to God.

            It is quite clear that our laws should be made to serve

our ultimate end, and that can only be that we be led to God, our

original source and ultimate end. Our laws should be such that they

should not negate nor even undermine the achievement of this

fundamental purpose of the laws. Even our traffic laws, so

insignificant if impacted with our ultimate end, should respect this

fundamental purpose.

            Ideally, both the letter and the spirit of our human laws

should be in perfect harmony. But that is hardly the case in real

life. The problem, of course, is that the articulation of our laws is

conditioned and limited by our human powers that cannot fully capture

the richness of human life, considering its spiritual and supernatural

character that will always involve the intangibles and mysteries and

the like.

            That is the reason why we can go beyond but not against a

particular law, when such law cannot fully express the concrete

conditions of a particular case.

            So the proper understanding and application of our law can

only be achieved if we discern closely the spirit of God. Tackling our

laws only by means of our common sense or our other ways of estimation

can open the possibility of missing the real intent of the laws. We

really need to go to Christ to know the real spirit behind our human

laws!

Our daily orchestrating task

I BELIEVE this is what many of us are fast realizing these

days. With the multiplying things we have to attend to each day, we

are pressured to learn how to orchestrate them if only to come out at

the end of the day with some meaningful accomplishment and with a

great sense of consistency despite the different tasks involved.

            Yes, we have to learn when to move fast and when to move

slow, when to be active and when to be contemplative, how to

distinguish between the essential and the incidental. We have to

sharpen our sense of order and priority, especially because very often

we would be faced with competing priorities.

            Besides, we have to know how to combine the intellectual

and the physical aspects of our work, the old and the new, the

traditional and the innovative. We have to know how to blend our

duties at home with our responsibilities at work. We have to be ready

to cope with our usual daily routine and the occasional surprises that

come our way.

            That task of orchestrating all these things has become an

urgent necessity indeed. And it is understandable that we be tempted

to be very practical about this concern and to meet its demands with

simply practical means.

  

            But I believe that being practical in all this would at

best be only a temporary remedy. It cannot go the distance. What is

absolutely necessary to properly tackle the challenge is to root

ourselves on God. He is the source and goal of unity among the endless

diversity and variety we find in our life.

  

            God is the one who can show us the proper priorities among

the many concerns and tasks we have. After all, he is the creator of

the whole universe and as such, is the original and supreme lawgiver,

the establisher of the proper order in the world.

            In Christ, the God made man to give us “the way, the truth

and the life,” we are given the way of how to orchestrate the many

tasks and the diverse concerns we have everyday. In Christ, we are

given how to orchestrate things in the context of our fallen nature,

our wounded condition that is in need of healing and redemption.

            We cannot deny that this delicate task of orchestrating

the many things in our day, some of them competing or even conflicting

with each other, has to contend with our weaknesses and the many

temptations around, plus the many sinful structures already embedded

in our systems and culture.

            It’s only with Christ that we can orchestrate the many

confusing things without getting lost along the way. Only with Christ

can we learn how to orchestrate things properly in the midst of the

many evils in the world, teaching us when to tolerate certain evils

and when not, and most importantly, how to suffer and to derive

something good from the consequences of all the sins in the world that

we cannot avoid.

  

            Yes, it is only when we get vitally identified with Christ

that we can achieve a certain unity and consistency of life amid the

many variables that condition us. Only with Christ can we truly

achieve our proper ultimate end even as we immerse with the changing

circumstances of our life.

            In this regard, we cannot overemphasize the need for a

certain plan that would put us always in God’s presence, at least, as

we go through all the tasks and concerns of our day. There is

definitely the need to spend some time in prayer and meditation if

only to develop a certain intimacy with Christ that hopefully would

last the whole day.

            We need to develop the attitude of constantly looking for

Christ in everything that we do, with the hope of finding him. And in

finding him let’s hope that we can be moved to love and serve him.

Salt and light

THAT’S what Christ tells us about who we are and what we

are supposed to do in this world. “You are the salt of the earth…You

are the light of the world.” (cfr. Mt 5,13-16) He addressed these

words to his disciples. And if we consider ourselves also as disciples

of his, then we should also regard these words as being addressed to

us.

            We have to take these words seriously and figure out how

we can conform ourselves to what Christ wants us to be. We know that

salt somehow gives a certain flavor to our food as well as helps in

preserving highly perishable food items. Light, of course, enables us

to see things clearly.

            We can readily conclude that what Christ wants is for us

to provide Christian flavor in a world that is fast evolving, as well

as help in preserving the true Christian spirit in a world that is so

exposed to a lot of changes, many of them with their luggage of

dangers even as they also offer a lot of benefits.

            We also are meant to give light to the others by giving

good example and by actively doing apostolate, leading people to God

along the right if prudent and tortuous and treacherous paths of this

world. With rectitude of intention, we have to inspire others to

follow us so that with us they can come to Christ.

            Let’s make St. Paul’s words ours also: “Be imitators of

me, as I am of Christ.” (1 Cor 11,1) These words are a corollary to

what Christ said about us being light of the world: “Your light must

shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify

your heavenly Father.” (Mt 5,16)

            Let’s try our best that we too can echo another of St.

Paul’s words: “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” (Gal 2,20)

This is the ideal to aim at, because Christ himself said, “I am the

light of the world…the man who follows me will have the light of

life.” (Jn 8,12)

            We can only give the true light if we have the light of

Christ, if we are with Christ and so identified with him that whoever

sees and hears us sees and hears Christ. (cfr. Lk 10,16)

            We cannot overemphasize, therefore, our need to be

identified with Christ who, after all, is the pattern of our humanity

and the savior of our damaged humanity. We are supposed to ‘alter

Christus’ (another Christ) if not ‘ipse Christus’ (Christ himself), an

ideal that can be realized by us because Christ has given us all the

means for it.

            We should just do our part, studying deeply the life and

teachings of Christ, incarnating them into our life, and availing

ourselves of the sacraments where Christ himself, especially in the

Holy Eucharist, gives himself to us even as food.

            We should be so identified with Christ that wherever we

are, whatever the situation, we always feel the urge, if not the

instinct, to give witness to him through our words and deeds. Even if

we are deeply immersed in our earthly affairs, with all the mundane

and technical things they involve, we should be able to project and

channel the presence and the abiding work of Christ on all of us.

            For this, we need to have a certain boldness, overcoming

our usual shyness and awkwardness in carrying out this duty. If we

remain simple and humble, we actually can do it with great ease,

because more than us it would be Christ who will be doing things

through us and with us.

            Let us be salt and light of this world as Christ wants us

to be. And let’s encourage and help everyone else to be so. This is

actually where our true joy is, where our true self-fulfillment can be

achieved.