Sense of continuity

WE need to build and strengthen our sense of continuity, now that we are in a world of multi-tasking, diverse concerns, disparate events, competing and even conflicting interests.

We need to know how to put them together as in a synergy, integrating them into one meaningful and somehow consistent and organic whole. It’s like weaving a fabric of different threads and producing a beautiful piece of cloth, or a seamless garment like that worn by Christ himself.

 

We also need to know how to move from thing to another, without getting stuck at a certain point, the previous phase, no matter how different from the succeeding one, actually preparing and launching us to the next.

This again is another challenge of our modern times. We cannot deny that many people today, especially the young, are floundering in this particular aspect of the today’s challenge.

They can appear to be doing and achieving many things, and yet they don’t get the corresponding reward of satisfaction. A paradoxical predicament besets them—they look filled with many things, and yet they feel empty. The more they do many different things, the more the urge to escape from them builds up.

They feel forced to do things, they feel used and prostituted. They can hardly relate what they are made to do to a bigger picture of things. And so they also become very prone to seek improper and harmful compensations, as in, recourse to drugs, drinks, sex, etc.

Others literally get sick, if not physically then, worse, mentally and emotionally. They feel their health, physical, mental and emotional, not to mention the most important, spiritual, ebbing way.

Incidence of cases in this area has increased drastically today. Young people especially, the most vulnerable sector since many of them are not actually prepared to take on the more subtle demands of their work, often fall into conditions approaching what is called a bipolar disorder.

They seem unable to control their high and low moments and tend to fall into violence either on themselves or on others. Actually they swing from one pole to another, from moments of hyperactivity and invasiveness to moments of indifference and apathy, from excitement to sadness.

All these observations only show the urgent need to develop a sense of continuity in our life and in all our activities and concerns. What should we do to face this challenge? What principles should be highlighted? What plans and programs can be made to tackle this challenge very realistically?

It’s good that, first of all, we raise the public consciousness of this issue, since most times, it is simply taken for granted, and often considered not very important and urgent.

And then we all need to realize more deeply that the basic and ultimate principle to help us build a sense of continuity is our vital union with God. As Creator who continues to govern us till end of time with his divine providence, God holds the law that contains the unity and continuity of everything in our life, including our mistakes and sins.

It is only through him, when we try to know his will at every moment, that we can achieve a sense of continuity since he is the one who governs everything and leads things to their proper goal.

Our main problem, which we should try to overcome, is that we tend to work simply on our own, just following our own will, our own plans, and relying simply on our natural powers. We should immediately dismiss this kind of thinking, for the simple reason that it simply does not hold water.

This will, of course, require a lot of humility, because we are all dominated by a deep-seated pride and vanity that can blind us from the objective reality of our total dependence on God, even as we also depend on ourselves completely.

From there, we should avail of a personal plan of life that contains certain acts of piety, spread throughout our day, our week, months and years that would keep alive our need for God.

This should include a time for prayer, continuing study of

the doctrine of our faith, recourse to the sacraments, never-ending

ascetical struggle to develop virtues and fighting against sin and

temptations, etc.

Very often during the day, we need to pause and ask ourselves: Is this what God is asking me to do at this moment? Is this how God is asking me to do?

And then, we should launch into an active apostolate, both personal and collective, so that this indispensable need for God is lived by all, and help us build a sense of continuity in our lives.