Charity requires toughness

WHEN Christ talked about the lost sheep and how the good shepherd would do everything to find it (cfr. Mt 18,12-14), he must be telling us that we should be tough in our love and care for one another, such that even if someone is in grave error, we should do our best to help and save him rather than leave him to remain lost. 

 This is the charity Christ is showing us. It’s the charity that is meant for us. With God’s grace, let us learn to develop that charity, cultivating the relevant allied virtues of optimism, patience and fidelity, so that instead of being turned off or scandalized by the evils of others, we would even rev up our concern and solicitude for those in some form of disorder. 

 We need to be tough in this life, otherwise we will fail to follow Christ who is the epitome of how we should be since he is the pattern of our humanity, the savior of our damaged humanity, the “way, the truth and the life” for us. 

 Christ was tough to carry out his mission of saving us. He knew from the beginning that he would be betrayed by someone close to him, that he would suffer and die a most ignominious death, but these did not deter him from pursuing his mission. His love for us was and is such that he can take on anything that would come his way. 

 Christ already warned us of the kind of suffering to expect in our life. “They will seize and persecute you,” he said. (Lk 21,12) “You will even be handed over by parents, brothers, relatives, and friends, and they will put some of you to death.” (Lk 21,16) 

 All these should not affect our charity. If anything at all, we should even be more charitable with those who give us trouble. Thus, St. Paul described such charity when he said that “love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” (1 Cor 13,7) Christ already reassured us that as long as suffer with him, we will also have the victory of his resurrection. 

 In other words, we have to learn how to be friends with everyone regardless of how they are, because only then can we help them to attain the ultimate goal common to all of us. We also have to learn how to deal with any situation, no matter how difficult and ugly, not so much in physical terms as in the spiritual and moral. If we are truly Christian, we would have his desire “not to condemn the world but to save.” (cfr. Jn 3,17) 

 As one saint said it, we should be willing to go to the very gates of hell, without entering it, of course, if only to save a soul. This obviously would require of us to be tough and clear about the real goal to reach, and yet flexible and adaptable to any person and to any condition. 

 In this regard, we have to learn how to fraternize with sinners. We have to replicate Christ’s attitude towards sinners, who actually are all of us—of course, in varying degrees. We have to give special attention to the lost sheep and to the lost coin. We have to open all possible avenues to be in touch with all sinners.

Miracles more for our salvation than mere cure

THAT beautiful gospel episode about a man with palsy who was brought to Christ by his friends for a cure in a very dramatic way (cfr. Lk 5,17-26) teaches us the lessons that a strong faith is needed for miracles to happen, that miracles are meant more to forgive our sins and for our salvation rather than just curing an ailment, and that we have to be wary of our tendency to be fault-finders due to our unbelief. 

 Indeed, miracles require a strong faith since they are an extraordinary divine and supernatural intervention. They are like asking God to go beyond but not against our natural capabilities that will always be hounded by our limitations, weaknesses and the consequences of our sins. 

 God never abandons us and is always solicitous of our needs. The problem is simply ours because we tend to ignore him and, worse, to be weak in our faith or even not to have faith. We need to do something to address this predicament of ours. Let’s study the doctrine of faith, start to live it by making many acts of faith throughout the day, etc. 

 Let’s remember that if we have faith, Christ assured us that nothing would be impossible. Let’s relish his words: “If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain, Remove from there, and it shall remove, and nothing shall be impossible to you.” (Mt 17,20) 

 Also, we have to realize more deeply that miracles are meant more for the forgiveness of our sins, for our salvation, rather than just giving us some cure or remedy to an ailment of ours. 

 In fact, we can say that any miraculous cure is meant for the purpose of our salvation. It’s not just to give us some earthly relief, though there is no doubt that such relief would already constitute a tremendous favor. We should never miss this aspect of a miracle that can come to us, otherwise that miracle would go to waste or would spoil us. 

 In this particular gospel episode of the man with the palsy, Christ did not immediately cure him of his ailment. Rather he forgave the man’s sins which led to some of the unbelieving Jews to question him. Christ used that occasion to clarify that he has the power to forgive sins, precisely because he is God who became man to save us. The miraculous cure served as some kind of proof to his divinity. 

 We also have to be wary of our tendency to be unbelieving, especially because we have to contend with spiritual and supernatural realities that may challenge our understanding. Here, we simply have to be humble to be able to receive what is told to us by faith. We have to realize that our life, being a life with God and therefore is supernatural, needs to be lived by faith more than just by our reason alone. 

 We have to constantly struggle against our tendency to be dependent only on our reason and our feelings. These human faculties of ours can only capture a part of the reality that governs us. It is the faith that gives us the global picture of things, since it relates us to God, our Father and Creator, and tells us everything we need to know and do to be able to be with God, as our life ought to be.

Advent and our ultimate goal

THE gospel of the Second Sunday of Advent (cfr. Lk 3,106) somehow reminds us to appreciate the role of St. John the Baptist in the whole economy of salvation. It’s definitely a role that encourages us to be very clear about our ultimate goal in life for which we have to do everything, so we can attain it. Let’s remember that this is the most important concern we have in this life. 

 And this ultimate goal is nothing other than that we be “another Christ” who is the pattern of our humanity and the savior of our damaged humanity. All the other things in our life—our personal circumstances, our profession, our politics, etc.—should only serve as means to our ultimate end. While we have to be immersed in them, we should see to it that we are not confused, trapped and lost in them, diverting us from our true goal. 

 We have to be more sharply and continually aware that all the things in our life serve simply as the occasions where Christ is intervening in our life to create and redeem us, to shape us to be like him. For this, we have to avail of the appropriate means to keep that awareness alive. Ignoring this condition in our life would compromise the real purpose of our life here on earth. 

 Thus, we have to come up with the proper plans and strategies that would help us effectively act on this condition and purpose of our life. They obviously should be plans and strategies that should be inspired by our faith and not by some human motive or ideology alone. 

 Let’s remember that our faith gives us the complete picture of the reality and purpose of our life. Any awkwardness or difficulty we have in living our faith should be overcome. This obviously will require some discipline. But we need to study our faith, and start living or putting into practice what our faith teaches us. 

 We have to understand that our formation in this regard should be a lifelong business. We need to realize that our Christian formation will take our whole lifetime. This should come as no surprise to us, since our ultimate goal in life is none other than for each one of us to be “alter Christus,” another Christ. And can anyone dare to say that he is Christ-like enough? 

 We always have to remember that our march toward full development and maturity, human and not to mention Christian, never ends in this life. It’s supposed to be an ongoing affair, a work in progress. We should never say enough. 

 The duty to take care of our formation is coterminous with life itself, which will always give us lessons. And that’s because the basics and essentials, the absolute, old and the permanent truths, which we may already know, will always have to cope and somehow need to get enriched by the incidentals in life, by the relative, innovative and changing things. 

 In his second letter, St. Peter urges us to go on with our formation: “Strive diligently to supply your faith with virtue, your virtue with knowledge, your knowledge with self-control, your self-control with patience, your patience with piety, your piety with fraternal love, your fraternal love with charity.” (1,5-7) 

 And as we all know, charity is a never-ending affair, ever making new demands on us, and introducing us to more aspects, dimensions and challenges in life. It will always push us to do more, to give more, to be more!