The Patient Side of God

One side of God that we often overlook is the patient side of God. We are too often involved in our own personal sphere of happenings we seldom look through God's eyes, how He looks at the world, and how He looks at His children. For while the world is concerned about being on time, being most productive in the shortest amount of time, and running after lost time, God appears to be above it all, looking at the whole stretch of history and events in a single snapshot of the now.

Why do evil people prosper? Why do sinners take root? These are questions we often ask when faced with our own problems. We can, however, be the source of the problems too. So we could also ask ourselves, why in my sinfulness am I still alive? Why the second chance from God? Why does God allow evil to happen? Why does God allow me to hurt Him?

The patient side of God is the most evident expression of His Fatherliness, or Motherliness if you don't mind. Parents often give their children space to grow. That space includes an allowance for mistakes and blunders, capacity to absorb damages and costs, and ample time for growth and learning. Humans after all are creatures of process. We take time through life in growing and learning. We make mistakes, we forget, we fall, but we learn to stand up and begin again. Our parents must have taken after God.

My own experience of sinfulness allows me to appreciate the mercy of God expressed through this patience. Despite my shortcomings and my ill will, how is it God still loves me for who I am? Is it because He sees something or someone in me that needs to grow out of its cocoon? Are the frustrations, pains, and disappointments all part of the labor pains of someone being reborn? I believe God is one who knows most His children and who has everything at His disposal to provide for them. He gives us opportunities. He gives us time. He does this even if it means He will also get hurt in the process.

God is not only Creator, not only Judge, but above all, He is revealed as Father. He has kept His hope in the goodness He has planted in each one of us.

I believe part of that hope is also wishing to see that His children show the same mercy to one another.

Sanctified Humanity

As Christians, we believe that God became man in Jesus Christ who was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary. While such an article of faith is already pinned at the back of our heads, I cannot help but wonder at the great and merciful action of God in stooping down to the level of man. What is so special about us humans with all our warts and scars? Or is it that we haven’t truly seen our full worth that’s why we act like we’re all warts and scars?

The birth of the Virgin Mary is celebrated in the Church because it highlights the Incarnation. Jesus Christ was born from a human mother, who herself was born, traditionally known, to Joachim and Anne. Her birth acts as the “dawn” signaling the rising of the sun, the birth of the Savior. All these happenings were carefully orchestrated by the Father, arranged in such a way as to fully reveal to us Himself in the baby Jesus. The Supreme Artist and Tactician, carefully spread out His plans, chose Mary, played along with human contingencies, and humbled Himself by becoming man. At the heart of this great and woven tapestry is our humanity.

Humanity has been accused of self-indulgence and narcissism. Once again, even in the story of the Incarnation, man is at the center? Or is he? From the beginning of the biblical story, God has been depicted as the Creator who made a creature in His image and likeness. This creature sabotaged himself and the whole Bible speaks of how the Creator has painstakingly saving the creation that bore His image and likeness. We have here a merciful God who goes to any lengths to reclaim what is rightfully His.

God acts in such a way that in saving man, He involves humanity itself. It is not an action that comes from outside, a deus ex machina, that suddenly saves the day. God acts through and within man. So He chose a baby girl and prepared for her the vocation of being the Mother of God, preparing her by bestowing upon her the foretaste of the salvation won at the Cross, when she was born Immaculate. He chose to be born in a kingly but sinful family, allowed human conditions to play its part in the birth of the savior: that Mary is placed in a dilemma in her motherhood facing the prospect of death, that Jesus is born into a human family in a human society. The Savior is to be born into a human culture, immersed in human exigencies. Jesus was Jewish, a man of color, poor, shaped and conditioned by our humanity.

It stands to speak of how humanity was saved not by the flick of the fingers, nay, not even by pronouncement as in the creation story, “Let there be salvation for man,” but through a God who enters into the story of our humanity. Indeed, God is Immanuel, God-with-us. He has dwelt inside our very skin and embraced the experience of being human, only to tell us that salvation is not about escaping our humanity but embracing it. In becoming more human we become divine, as Divinity Himself sanctified our humanity. We are not passive recipients of God’s saving action, we have become partners with God, who works with us and through us.

When other Christians reject Mary for fear of idolatry, one should rather see that God has made use one of the most sacred part of being human: motherhood. We all have a special and sacred bond with our mothers. God knew that, and used it to bestow humanity to Jesus, but also raised it when Jesus said, “behold your mother!” The mother-child relationship between Mary and Jesus was not exclusive to them but extended to the bigger, and mystical, body of Jesus which is the Church. The Church has faithfully celebrated the sublime marriage between divine and human, because, after all, this marriage is will of the God who stooped to our level.

Humanity is sanctified because God took it upon Himself. All things human has been blessed because Jesus lived and shared our human experiences. Our human relationships - fatherhood, motherhood, childhood, has taken on divine dimensions. Jesus the new Adam, was the immaculate Son. Mary the new Eve, was the immaculate mother. In the same way that they were born as redeemed and renewed creation, so are we, as a Church, saved, by being redeemed and renewed every day as sanctified humanity.

She who chose the Freedom of the Free

What is human freedom in the truest sense? It is the capacity to choose between two options. In its very essence lies an irony - while it is a capacity to choose it is limited to two options. Human Freedom was from the beginning limited. There is no such thing as absolute freedom.

Thinkers describe our generation as a generation that exalts freedom. The preoccupation with civil liberties is the natural expression with the Enlightenment's focus on the human person.The human person is free to decide for itself, to define and redefine itself. Freedom is what makes us human. It is the foundation of all our relationships since we choose to establish and terminate them at will.

Freedom, like all things human, has a limit. As it is a capacity to choose, it remains wanting. That capacity must be exercised in order for our freedom to be true and perfect. Here we see that while everyone has freedom, not everyone is free. It is our choice that determines how free we are. Choosing freely the best option, the good option, no matter how scary or difficult, is what makes a human person free.

Mary, the Virgin of Freedom

Annunciation (Domenikos Theotokopoulos). Wikipedia Commons

It is in the Annunciation that we first glimpse the great freedom that God gave Mary and the freedom that Mary exercised and perfected. To be the Mother of Redeemer is not an assignment that God gives and assigns to any woman. God offered it to the Virgin Mary. He did not command but through the angel Gabriel, He asked for her cooperation.

It was a difficult choice. Mary was already betrothed to Joseph. To conceive a child that is not Joseph's before the marriage is consummated is tantamount to adultery. She risks her future, her honor, her family, and even her life. Despite the fear and the questions in her head, she did what many of us should do: she listened. She listened to the words of Gabriel and submitted to them. Exemplifying obedience for everyone, she gave her fiat, "Let it be done to me according to your Word."

She gained true freedom when she surrendered her freedom to God. That was the great paradox of her choice and the great paradox that awaits us in front of God's invitation. It was a surrender because she could have chosen otherwise, she could have played safe. Mary, however, knew that God is always the best option, the greatest option, no matter how scary or difficult circumstances might be. She knew such surrender can't make her rich or famous. She knew that such surrender entails great pain and suffering. But even so, she surrendered her will and she was made free.

Freedom for the Christian

Religious and consecrated men and women practice true freedom in their vow of obedience. It is a vow made before God where one surrenders one's will. It is a promise made after Mary who was obedient to God's will. It is a promise that follows after Christ who perfected that surrender on the cross.

For Christians who live and move in the world everyday, it is a great challenge to speak of obedience. The world loves its freedom. It thinks that freedom lies in its capacity to choose. It is drunk in that kind of power. So the world seeks to expand its choices if only to avoid the best the one. Christians must rise to the challenge of being counter-cultural. Even since the beginning of Christianity, or even farther in the Annunciation, faith in Christ always meant surrender to God's Will.

She Who Loved Much and Loved Well

If I am to propose a definition of 'chastity' I would say chastity is the eloquence of love. Our culture today in movies, songs, and images tend to glorify and abuse sexuality and equate it with love. This makes it difficult for us to understand the true meaning of chastity. Everywhere we look sex is screaming at us. This is the vision of sexual freedom the architects of popular culture has designed for the world today.

True freedom however is found not in the unbridled expression of love through sexual intimacy but in the practice of chastity. Chastity is the elegance of love. Love, for it to be true, is a personal decision to will the good of another and enter into communion towards unity with the beloved. Love is not just a feeling but is an act of the will. We choose to love. We choose to love by showering our beloved with all the goodness that makes their happiness more perfect; then their happiness becomes ours. We choose to love because we are enamored with our beloved that we wish for nothing else but to be united with them in heart, mind, body, and soul - in all that we are. This we call personal communion.

In a sense, love is also a language. It speaks in acts of goodness and tenderness so that its words may touch the heart of the beloved. As the lover and the beloved learns to speak the language of love to each other, it becomes a dialogue of two hearts. These two hearts become closer as each heart speaks to the other. In this dialogue and conversation, the speech of love must be eloquent.

Eloquence of Love

Eloquence of speech is what inspires, touches, attracts, and converts the listener. Not all speeches are made equal. Some speeches are so powerful they change opinions, worldviews, incites emotions, and calls to action. To be effective, a speech must be eloquent. And so it is with love.

The eloquence of love comes from its clarity of message. For love to be eloquent, the lover must be clear in his intentions. He must be clear in his words of love. He cannot say 'I love you' but do otherwise. There is a certain integrity and honesty to eloquent love. Clarity in love is like a sharpened tip of the arrow that pierces through the depths of the beloved's heart. It allows the lover to love single-heartedly.

The eloquence of love also comes from the proper use of expressions. An eloquent speech cannot just use any set of words. Each word is chosen carefully to best express the mind and soul of the lover. It takes a certain feel to determine which expressions are best and proper in conveying love. Here we find that propriety is an essential element of love. Love expresses itself appropriately to the beloved. It does so in order to respect the good of the other. There is a sense of order in love.

Lastly, the eloquence of love requires purposefulness. Purposefulness is the thrust that cuts deep into the heart of the beloved. The speech of love is purposeful when all of its parts go together for one specific reason: the self-giving of the lover.

Chastity as Eloquence

These three characteristics make Chastity the eloquence of love. Chastity is not equivalent to modesty or, worse, aversion to sex. Chastity is the virtue that makes the expression of love clear, proper, and purposeful. It is practiced differently by people from different walks of life.

The religious and the consecrated do not marry and vow perfect continence because they want to make their love for Jesus clear, proper, and purposeful. All other loves, while remaining good, are subordinated to a greater and more radical expression of love for Jesus. These people love Jesus above all that they are willing to let go of all other loves. All married men and women practice chastity by remaining faithful and devoted to their spouses. Even Jesus would say that lustful thoughts of others apart from one's spouse constitutes adultery. All those not married practice chastity by respecting love as it truly is and as it properly ordered to. This involves self-control and discipline of the body. For them, the body is the sacred instrument through which their vocation to love is expressed and fulfilled. So they give the body the respect and honor it deserves.

Chastity is not limited to the sexual dimension of the human person. Rather, it encompasses everything the person is. It focuses the love of the person proper to his vocation in life that it clarifies that love. It is the standard with which a person judges his actions that it gives beauty and order to that love. It is channels all the activities of the person for him to truly give himself to love with purpose.

Mary, the Model of Chastity

We call our Blessed Mother "most chaste" not because she surpasses God in chastity but that she perfectly practiced God's chastity. From the moment she gave her 'yes' to the angel Gabriel, all her life were directed to Jesus, all her decisions were directed to Jesus, all her heart were directed to Jesus. She gave everything to her Son so much so that the sight of her Son on the cross completely crushed her heart and her being. Hers was a clear, appropriate, and purposeful love for Jesus.

In our society where we often equate love with sex, the virtue of Chastity is one that challenges world values. Chastity today does not subvert sexuality but orders that sexuality and harmonizes it with the person in all his dimensions. It harmonizes it so that it is not just sexuality that loves but the whole person, his total being. After all, true love is seen in the totality of generous self-giving.

She Who Followed Closely

This begins my series of reflections on our Blessed Mother as we begin the Year of the Clergy and the Religious this new Liturgical Year in the Philippines. The Christmas novena that we celebrate every year in the Misa de Gallo or Simbang Gabi is a journey with the Blessed Mother in anticipation of Christ's birth. The birth of Jesus Christ is for us a sign of God's love and an invitation to follow Him more closely, Him who came to be close to us.

The Priesthood and the Religious Life

The Second Vatican Council ushered the Church into the modern era. It challenged her to rethink and reinvigorate her life and ministry to be more consonant with the signs of the times and relevant to the ordinary man of today. Church people saw it as the opening of windows to let in fresh breeze into a house that is in danger of growing cold and stale. This included rethinking what priesthood and religious life is in the modern world.

Icon of Christ the High Priest (Wikipedia Commons)

The ministerial priesthood is a vocation, a gift, given to some who are called to serve the Church in her official and public worship especially in the Eucharist. It grew out of the long tradition of ritual priests in Israel who were representatives of the people before God in their act of offering sacrifices and prayers at the Temple in Jerusalem. The priests of the Catholic Church however draw their priesthood not from the Old Testament but from the person of Jesus Christ who perfected the old priesthood and is called the High Priest by the author of the Letter to the Hebrews. Jesus does not offer animal sacrifices but instead offers Himself as the only acceptable Sacrifice of the Father, the Lamb of God slaughtered for the salvation of the world. Our priests today share and participate in this ministry as they perpetuate and make present the very same sacrifice of the cross in their celebration of the Holy Eucharist in which Jesus offers Himself as the Paschal Sacrifice today.

Saint Francis of Assisi. (Wikipedia Commons)

Religious life grew out of the devotion of early Christians who sought to follow Jesus more closely. It has a long history and development, renewals and reforms. What was clear and constant in its tradition is the willingness to emulate the life of Jesus Christ as faithfully as possible. Multi-faceted as Jesus is, each religious order is known for its charism, a spirituality inspired by the Holy Spirit that stresses on a particular aspect of Jesus. One of the oldest orders, the Benedictines have monks that try to follow Jesus through work and prayer. The Franciscans follow Jesus in their practice of evangelical poverty. The Jesuits follow Jesus in discernment for the glory of God. We, Salesians, follow Jesus the Good Shepherd to young people especially the poor and abandoned.

Mary, the first and radical disciple

Even before the Eucharist was instituted and the Christians were inspired to follow Jesus, Mary in a preeminent way was His first disciple. She was first to join in the mission of Jesus as Messiah by making possible the Incarnation of the Son of God when she gave her fiat, her 'yes' to the invitation of God by the Angel Gabriel to become the Mother of the Messiah. Her whole life, from that point on, was intertwined with that of her Son. From the crib to the cross, it was hers to accompany Jesus in the path that led to Calvary. At the top of that mount, she joined in the Passion and Death of her Son as she watched helplessly yet in faith the torment and pain Jesus underwent, which is for her the prophesied sword that will pierce her heart. At the resurrection, Mary accompanied the nascent Church as they accepted, reflected, and imbibed the mystery of the Resurrection. In the most crucial points of Jesus' Paschal Mystery, Mary is to be found.

All these makes our Blessed Mother the radical disciple. She is radical inasmuch as she is very much connected to the roots of our Christian faith - Jesus Christ, His Person, His Life, His Words, His Actions. Radical comes from the Latin radix, meaning 'root'. The very root of Christianity is Jesus Himself and that root is forever intertwined with the person of Mary. This radical connection is not only by virtue of consanguinity by Mary's motherhood of Jesus but even more so in the life of faith. Events in Jesus' life could not have been possible or would not be what they are if not for the presence, intercession, and cooperation of the Blessed Mother. The stories about Jesus infancy could not have been made known to the Church without the Blessed Mother who accompanied the infant Church.

In our time when radical is synonymous with 'ultra conservative', 'ultra orthodox', 'fundamentalism' and 'extremism', it is easy to fall into the trap of limiting radicality with 'keeping the rules'. Radical discipleship, as the Blessed Virgin has demonstrated in her life, is not about rules and practices. Radical discipleship is a close following in all aspects of our life of the Person and Teachings of Jesus. If being radical makes us less charitable to others then we have entirely missed the point of discipleship. Being radical simply means we become more and more like Jesus by grace and by personal effort.

Mary and the Clergy and Religious

Mary remains the ultimate example of how to be a radical disciple of Jesus Christ. Those who have received the Sacred Orders of the Diaconate, Presbyterate, and Episcopate are called to unite their very persons to the Person sacrificed on the Altar of the Mass. Like Mary, each time a priest breaks the bread, he too is broken together with the Body of Christ as an offering to God for the benefit of the people. While the Blessed Virgin Mary was not a priest she exemplified in herself the act of total offering united in the offering of Christ which priests are called to. She invites even the lay, the non-priests, to fully embrace the common priesthood each of us received in Baptism which allows each disciple to commune with that One Sacrifice.

The Nativity of Jesus (Wikipedia Commons)

While becoming more alien to the youth of today, religious life remains a valid and relevant way of life for those who are called to become radical disciples. Following Jesus Christ more closely entails a set of life choices that stands at odds with the values of the world. Religious men and women are called to be obedient, chaste and poor as Christ is. Religious men and women are called to make present the future glory of heaven in the way they live in communities as brothers and sisters. Religious men and women are witnesses to the present generation of the future glory that is to come. Mary was all that. She anticipated the faith of the Church by her Christian faith. To her was revealed the glory that Christ was to accomplish in His earthly life and she grew in that revelation by her life of faith. To religious was given the invitation to live the glory that Christ is to accomplish in humanity, they too, like Mary, must grow in their lives of faith.

Conclusion

Christmas is nine days away. These novena days is for us a graced moment of preparation together with our Blessed Mother in our path towards radical discipleship. Not all of us are given the gift of priesthood and religious life, but we all are given the gift of the Divine Life that the Word and the Spirit has given us in Baptism. That Divine Life is a life of discipleship, of following the Person of Jesus Christ. Let Mary, the First and Radical Disciple become for us a guide and help in our own following of Jesus.

Mary, the Immaculate Kecharitomene

Icon of St Anne, Mary, and Jesus

As we celebrate today the Solemnity of our Blessed Mother, the Immaculate Conception, my thoughts dwell on the richness of our Catholic tradition. The circumstances and details of the family life of Jesus in Nazareth is not recorded in the Gospels. What has been handed down to us came from a long line of tradition that stretches back to earliest Christianity. Mary's mother was named Anne, her father, Joachim. Sts. Joachim and Anne then are the grandparents of Jesus. We celebrate their feast on July 26 which we consider as grandparents' day.

It is important to note that such details were not recorded in the Bible because the early Christian writers were first preoccupied in writing the core of the Gospel message: the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Its beginnings saw Christianity struggle to form its distinct identity by anchoring itself in the Paschal mystery of Jesus. Only later did the Church begin to explore the other details of Jesus rich life.

The belief in the Immaculate Conception is rooted in the belief of the purity of Jesus. The writer of the Letter to the Hebrews would say that Jesus was like us in all things except sin (Hebrews 4:15). It is important to hold on to this truth because our salvation rests on the fact that the Son of God became man. Being God, the Second Person of the Trinity had to be incarnated as the Perfect Man for him to become a worthy thanksgiving to the Father in behalf of humanity. But to be born as a man, Jesus needs a mother from whom He will receive His humanity.

Mary was chosen beforehand to be the mother of Jesus. And so, in a singular grace granted to her, she was given the grace of being born without sin in order to prepare her for her role as the mother of Jesus. It is only right that the flesh and womb that would carry the Son of God for nine months be preserved from all stain of sin. But this grace is not given to her because she deserved it. Rather, it was given to her in view of Jesus. This grace of being free from sin is not something that is outside the work of Jesus. Rather it is something that we can call as a "preview" of the salvation that is to be won on the cross. It is the same salvation that we have received at Baptism except that Mary had a foretaste of it at her conception while we receive it after the cross through the water and the Spirit.

This is why our Blessed Mother is often called the Tabernacle because she would carry in her womb the Son of God in the same way our tabernacles in churches would hold the reposed consecrated bread. She is also called theotokos, meaning God-bearer for the same reason. To do this singular role, she was designated and prepared beforehand by the Father.

The angel Gabriel would affirm this her state when he would greet her: "Hail Mary, full of Grace! The Lord is with you!" A more faithful translation would be: "Rejoice, O Graced one! The Lord is with you!" The original Greek would highlight the relationship between joy (rejoice) and grace. Not only is Mary given grace by God but she is graced to to the full. We would say to her fullness because this grace is but a manifestation of the presence of God (Lord) in her life. This is so unique to her that St. Luke's Greek gave her a theological name: kecharitomene - a title that fully describes her unique role (Luke 1:28). Our Blessed Mother is the Kecharitomene.

The title Immaculate Conception is but a negative statement of the Kecharitomene. God and sin are mutually exclusive of one another. Sin the separation from God. To the Hebrew mind, it is 'missing the mark' of doing God's Will, the Law, which separates us from the righteousness of God. Not doing God's Will is separating, excluding, isolating ourselves from God (and not God separating Himself form us). Grace is its opposite: it is communion with God where we receive the fullness of God who is Grace Himself through whom we become just and saved. To be fully graced then is to be without sin!

Yet it is not our act that accomplishes this. It is only through God's mercy that these things happen. Mary was the recipient and God was the benefactor. She only completed this preparation given her when she said her fiat: "be it done to me according to your word" (Luke 1:38). If through her human nature God has dwelt like the fire that dwelt in the bush before Moses, now her 'yes' allowed for God to dwell in her womb. Grace prepared her to be the Mother of God.

The Immaculate Conception is the most proper solemnity to prepare us for the Birth of Jesus which we celebrate every Christmas. When we see the Madonna embracing the little Child, we see in her the representative of all humanity that has been longing to embrace and receive salvation. The little Child that slept soundly on her breast should be able to sleep soundly on our hearts. We might not have been conceived immaculately in the wombs of our mothers but we have been spiritually born immaculately in the womb of the Church when the waters of Baptism have completely washed away our sins. Let us maintain this purity through the practice of the virtue of chastity and allow Grace to dwell in us especially as we await the birth of Christ in our hearts.

Peace in a Restless World

I grew up in a relatively peaceful world. I was born a month after the Martial Law regime collapsed. The second world war was four decades behind me. So I never really knew what real conflict is. I have not seen the horrors of war that our grandparents have seen. You might call me lucky or blessed but the problem with a generation that lived in peace is that it is difficult for them to appreciate the gift of peace that they have received. Eastern thought would teach that to know hot you must experience the cold, to know joy you must experience sadness.

People like me who did not know armed conflict cannot easily relate the experience of those who are in Syria, in Africa, or in the Middle East where powers are having their tug of war at the expense of the innocent and the defenseless. Now more than ever this world is in need of peace. Yet peace is such an ambiguous term so much so that some would say it is impossible to attain. For as long as man has the tendency for aggression there would always be conflict and war.

Yet as Christians we believe in peace. All throughout its pages the Sacred Scriptures speak of shalom. As Christians we have been offered that shalom. "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you," (John 14:27) is something very familiar to us as we hear it Sunday after Sunday. We have been offered the shalom of Christ. How are we to understand and experience real shalom?

The original peace (shalom) that existed in creation before the fall of man is a state of harmony of relationship between man and God, between man and himself, and between man and the created order. When sin entered the world, that peace was broken and Eden was taken away from man. But within humanity is that deep desire to return to that original peace and harmony. Within each of us is a longing of true and lasting peace.

One can see this in the way Filipinos describe the departed. "Nagpapahinga na siya." (He is already resting.) "Nakapahulay na gyud intawn siya." (Finally he finds rest.) These are statements we give to console ourselves of people who pass away. It is a universal longing that holds true in all societies all around the world. I remember an anecdote that described how during World War II, the French and German forces sang Christmas carols on a Christmas eve in the battlefield. The mystery of life is that there are moments even in suffering and war where peace can exist!

Photo credit:
Eternal Struggle by Skull of DeviantArt.com 

Jesus is our peace. His peace goes beyond human conflict for within Him is the original harmony that this universe desires. It is the same peace given to us every Eucharist and the same peace offered to us today. Where Jesus is, there is true peace because in Him everything finds their place, everything finds their meaning. In Jesus, man finds his true place before God. Humanity is the beloved of God and God is humanity's lover. There is no greater proof of this love than the Word-made-flesh. In Jesus, man finds peace in himself, for he sees himself as he is, warts and all. He realizes that beyond the imperfections and weaknesses and the sins is a person that is worthy to be loved. In Jesus, man finds peace with his neighbor and creation for in another man he sees the face of Jesus and in creation he finds God's love letter to him. Jesus is the true and everlasting peace.

Peace is not the absence of conflict. Politicians and philosophers cannot hope to find peace if their flavor of peace is Utopian. True peace, especially in Asian thought, is the capacity to exist between two opposing forces, the capacity for co-existence and dialogue, the capacity to bear with another. Jesus' peace goes beyond that. It is a peace that first purifies and causes division, calling one to a radical choice of loving and forgiving but at the same is inclusive and tolerant. It is a peace rooted in the love of God, impossible for man but possible through Christ.

To help us remember the original peace that was we remind ourselves of the Spirit of God that hovered over the primeval waters of chaos. While outside God was chaotic, was nothingness, within Him is the Spirit of peace. In our country beset by political and social concerns that have dragged on for decades leaving in its path innocent victims, we Catholics are called to hover over this chaos in the Spirit to influence it and shape it so as to form from our country the new Eden.

We Become What We Worship

I was watching the first of Rev. Fr. Robert Barron's (now bishop-elect) series on Catholicism when one statement struck me. It struck me because it was something new to my ears but at the same time felt like it has been there all along: we become what we worship.

Like everyone else, I have had my share of questioning my faith and my religion. Why do we pray? Why go to mass? Why is God necessary to my life? In these six words I received a summarized answer.

The concept is basically Jewish and a mentality of ancient Israel. To detail it's background here would take more research and exposition. It's quite simple: for ancient Israel, there was only one God, YHWH and they are His people. This is their covenant with God. This covenant is not some static agreement. It is a relationship. But it is also not an ordinary relationship.

The beauty of the relationship between Israel and God is that the moment it was established it was already lopsided. Here is a people, obscure and weak, insignificant and powerless, but all the same gathered together before God because He wants to be with them. Even in the Old Testament writings, the theme of God wanting to be with His people is already very strong.

The worship that God asked from His people, mind you, goes beyond our concept of prayer and rituals. Worship for God is that man remain in His presence and is aware of God's intimate advances in his life. The Ten Commandments and the numerous laws in the Torah were but guidelines to this. And the prophets were quick to point out that this worship is not confined to sacrifices and offerings but a holistic and all-encompassing movement of man towards God. Here is the undertones of the great triad of faith, morals, and liturgy.

What we know about worship then is but a fragment of the worship that God demands from us. We think that going to church weekly on Sundays is enough to fulfill our Christian duties. Far from truth! The worship that God demands is a worship of being. That in who we are - how we think, feel, and love - we are united with Him and in His Being. God loves us so much He wants us to be always in Communion with Him in all that we are.

And here, I end with the great Sacrifice of the Mass where Jesus becomes food and drink for us. Jesus takes a step further in God's act of stooping down to embrace man. He embraces humanity not just spiritually but also physically. Jesus' sacramental presence in the consecrated bread and wine, that is His Body and Blood, is the most corporeal way He is present and consumed by man. Biologically, take in Jesus and His Divine Life whenever we receive communion.

In all these developments of God's relationship with man, from the ancient covenant with Israel to the definitive revelation of Christ, there is that God who call man to communion with Him. He calls him and sets him apart and teaches him how to stay with Him. This is true worship: that man should stay, commune, and in the process become as he was meant to be from the beginning - become like God.