THIS is indeed a most intriguing and mind-blowing teaching of Christ. “Whosoever shall seek to save his life, shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose it, shall preserve it,” he once told a crowd. (Lk 17,33)
We really need to pause and try to figure out how we can reconcile
these words with even the most basic common sense we have, since at first
glance they definitely involve contradictory ideas.
Indeed, this is where we have to go beyond our common sense and our reasoning
and try to penetrate the spiritual and supernatural message these words are
trying to teach us. Christ, the very “way, truth and life” for us, the very
source of all that is good, true, and beautiful, just cannot tell us things
that may sound to us as nonsense.
First, we must consider the context in which these words were
spoken. He prefaced this teaching by warning the crowd about the danger of
worldly entrapment and self-indulgence which are actually a clear and present
danger to us.
“As it came to pass in the days of Noe,” he said, “so shall it be
also in the days of the Son of Man. They did eat and drink, they married wives,
and were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark: and
the flood came and destroyed them all.” (Lk
17,26-27)
We have to be wary of this danger of worldly entrapment and
self-indulgence that are clearly becoming widespread, especially because these
days, the good and evil things of this world are so mixed up that we would most
likely be left confused and easily taken by sweet poisons that today’s new
things readily offer.
What Christ meant by losing in order to save our life is for us to
empty ourselves of our own selves in order to be properly filled up with the
very life and nature of God through Christ in the Spirit. We need to lose
ourselves to win what is truly necessary for us. We cannot deny that we are
notorious for sticking to our own will and ways when it is in God’s will and
ways that we would have our real joy, fulfillment, and life eternal.
Everyday, we have to make the exercise of conforming our will to
God’s will by making a bold plan of how to go about following God’s will of
personal sanctification and apostolate. In pursuit of this dual purpose of our
life, we should try to give our all. We cannot afford to be complacent and
lukewarm. We should feel driven and pro-active.
When we notice that we are more dominated and guided by our moods,
our emotional and bodily condition which often are erratic and inconsistent, or
when we notice we feel lazy and empty, we should immediately react. The ideal
condition for us is to burn with zeal to follow God’s will. Absent that zeal,
we would be giving a foothold to our weaknesses and temptations.
We must develop an abiding and burning desire to fulfill the real
purpose of our life. We should be clear about this ultimate purpose of ours so
we can have the proper sense of direction and focus on our life, and the
corresponding urge to fulfill it.
In this regard, the first thing to do is to look at the example of
Christ. On several occasions, Christ would say that what he was doing was in
fulfillment of what the prophets of old, the advance proclaimers of God’s will
for Christ and for all of us, said. This is how we can truly save our lives.
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