WE should not be surprised anymore by this fact of life and truth of our faith. If we truly are in love with the love of God, the love of Christ who gave us the new commandment to love our neighbor as he himself has loved us, then we should be ready and eager to take on any suffering such love would unavoidably involve.
We have to be ready to go all the way to offer our life, and before that, to suffer all kinds of indignities, insults, mockeries, injustices, persecution, etc. To top it all, we should be ready to offer forgiveness, understanding and compassion to all our offenders.
In fact, we have to be prepared to bear all the sins and evils that may be inflicted on us, because that was how Christ, the way, truth and life for us, showed his love for us. Yes, like Christ, we should proclaim and defend the truth and observe justice as strictly as possible.
But in the end, we should realize that no matter how much we proclaim and defend the truth and observe justice, things just cannot be made right, given the way we are. It is only through divine love shown in its best way in the form of mercy that can put everything and everyone right.
Was Christ able to convert everyone with his preaching and miracles? Obviously not. In fact, his preaching and miracles somehow triggered some people then to render to him the worst injustice of all timethe killing of God himself in Christ.
It was only through his passion and death that did it, though its fulfillment is still an on-going affair until the end of time. In short, we have to be ready to suffer the way Christ suffered if we have to aim at having and living the love with which Christ himself loved us.
To be sure, only when we believe in Christ and have his grace that we can manage to love the way Christ loved us. Just the same, we need to do our part of developing the proper attitude, understanding, skills and virtues involved in this divine love.
We have to learn to let go of our human standard of what is right and wrong, of what is fair and unfair. That is to say, we have to observe them, preach and defend them, but we have to go beyond them.
And that is simply because our human standards, no matter how excellently developed, can never capture the whole reality of divine love. Its only when we identify ourselves completely with Christ and follow him in his passion and death that would result in his resurrection that we can manage to love as we should.
Sticking to our human standards as the ultimate guide for us can only bring us to the anomaly of self-righteousness. This has happened to the leading Jews of Christs time. They got so stuck to their ideas of good and evil, fair and unfair, and of God and the redeemer that they ended up killing Christ.
Our knowledge of the truth, our practice of justice will always be imperfect. Their perfection can only be in the form of our earnest pursuit to follow Christ and to identify ourselves with him in the end.
But we should not worry too much because of the unavoidable suffering involved in charity. As long as we suffer with Christ, we would know how to bear it. We are already assured that as long as we suffer with him, our resurrection, our final victory will come as a consequence.
In the meantime, lets just be sport and fill ourselves with a good sense of humor in the drama of our life here on earth. Its actually our choice to make our life here a tragedy or an adventure or a sport with some comical parts.
Email: roycimagala@gmail.com
WE should not be surprised anymore by this fact of life and truth of
our faith. If we truly are in love with the love of God, the love of
Christ who gave us the new commandment to love our neighbor as he
himself has loved us, then we should be ready and eager to take on any
suffering such love would unavoidably involve.
We have to be ready to go all the way to offer our life, and before
that, to suffer all kinds of indignities, insults, mockeries,
injustices, persecution, etc. To top it all, we should be ready to
offer forgiveness, understanding and compassion to all our offenders.
In fact, we have to be prepared to bear all the sins and evils that
may be inflicted on us, because that was how Christ, the way, truth
and life for us, showed his love for us. Yes, like Christ, we should
proclaim and defend the truth and observe justice as strictly as
possible.
But in the end, we should realize that no matter how much we proclaim
and defend the truth and observe justice, things just cannot be made
right, given the way we are. It is only through divine love shown in
its best way in the form of mercy that can put everything and everyone
right.
Was Christ able to convert everyone with his preaching and miracles?
Obviously not. In fact, his preaching and miracles somehow triggered
some people then to render to him the worst injustice of all timethe
killing of God himself in Christ.
It was only through his passion and death that did it, though its
fulfillment is still an on-going affair until the end of time. In
short, we have to be ready to suffer the way Christ suffered if we
have to aim at having and living the love with which Christ himself
loved us.
To be sure, only when we believe in Christ and have his grace that we
can manage to love the way Christ loved us. Just the same, we need to
do our part of developing the proper attitude, understanding, skills
and virtues involved in this divine love.
We have to learn to let go of our human standard of what is right and
wrong, of what is fair and unfair. That is to say, we have to observe
them, preach and defend them, but we have to go beyond them.
And that is simply because our human standards, no matter how
excellently developed, can never capture the whole reality of divine
love. Its only when we identify ourselves completely with Christ and
follow him in his passion and death that would result in his
resurrection that we can manage to love as we should.
Sticking to our human standards as the ultimate guide for us can only
bring us to the anomaly of self-righteousness. This has happened to
the leading Jews of Christs time. They got so stuck to their ideas of
good and evil, fair and unfair, and of God and the redeemer that they
ended up killing Christ.
Our knowledge of the truth, our practice of justice will always be
imperfect. Their perfection can only be in the form of our earnest
pursuit to follow Christ and to identify ourselves with him in the
end.
But we should not worry too much because of the unavoidable suffering
involved in charity. As long as we suffer with Christ, we would know
how to bear it. We are already assured that as long as we suffer with
him, our resurrection, our final victory will come as a consequence.
In the meantime, lets just be sport and fill ourselves with a good
sense of humor in the drama of our life here on earth. Its actually
our choice to make our life here a tragedy or an adventure or a sport
with some comical parts.
