IT’S a skill we all
need to learn. And given the current conditions of the world where many people
are trapped in their earthly and temporal affairs, this skill is urgently
needed. Converting the perishable condition of our earthly life into the
imperishable quality of our definitive life hopefully in heaven is actually
expected, nay, commanded of us by Christ himself.
“Labor not for the meat
which perishes, but for that which endures unto life everlasting, which the Son
of man will give you,” Christ told the crowd who followed him. (Jn 6,27)
Converting the perishable to the imperishable can happen if we
see and understand things in a theological way, that is, with faith, hope and
charity. We need to realize that our thinking would not work in its most proper
way if it is not enlightened and guided by faith, hope and charity.
It would be like saying that we can simply be on our own. It’s
tantamount to saying that we don’t need God from whom we come and to whom we
belong. Or that we may need him only from time to time, but not always, and
that he is not truly indispensable in our life.
We have to cultivate this theological mind, which is actually
necessary for us but which we have to do freely. Theological thinking is
actually not an optional thing.
With this theological thinking, we would be able to see Christ in
everything, as expressed once by St. Josemaria Escriva. “Understand this well,”
he said. “There is something holy, something divine, hidden in the most
ordinary situations, and it is up to each one of you to discover it.”
This finds basis on the fact that God is everywhere. He is our
creator who gives us and the whole world our existence and keeps and maintains
that existence. With Christ who is the Son of God who became man to redeem us,
God identifies with each one of us.
The Catechism expresses this truth in this way: “Christ enables
us to live in him all that he himself lived, and he lives it in us...the Son of
God has in a certain way united himself with each man...” (CCC 521)
Also with this theological thinking, we would be able to relate
everything to God, as we should, regardless if in human terms these things are
good or bad.
As a creation of God, everything in the world can and should
actually lead us to him. Nothing in it is non-relatable to God. Everything in
it comes from him and belongs to him. There is no dead spot in it where God is
absent or irrelevant.
Our sciences, arts and technologies can only discover the laws
and the ways of nature that have been created by God. We do not create these
natural laws. We just discover them and make use of them.
As such, we have to at least thank God for whatever usefulness we
can find in the things of the world. But more than that, we should try to
discern how the things of this world play in the all-embracing providence of
God over his creation, since we also have a role to play in that providence.
God somehow makes us as his living and loving instruments in governing the
world.
This is how we can turn the perishable into the imperishable!
Comments
Post a Comment