CLEAN/PURE, JOYFUL, and POWERFUL LIVING

CLEAN/PURE, JOYFUL, and POWERFUL LIVING

We are well advised to discover our talents/gifts and develop them for the glory of God, and in the service of our community. It will be very unfortunate to not achieve our full potential and be the best that we can be. It is even more sad to not even discover our hidden talents and therefore fail to hone them.

Happily, there are two gifts/powers we all know we have, talents of sorts–our intellect and free will, the two major power parts of our soul that make us in the image and likeness of God. And to develop these we simply need to direct them to their proper object consistently.

Now the object of the intellect is TRUTH, while the object of the will is the GOOD. Hence we are to direct our mind to the truth and our will to the good [i.e., to know the truth and to love the good]. Any divergence from these objects are a waste and will be to our detriment.

Of course we know that the ultimate TRUTH is God who is GOODNESS in Himself. Therefore ultimately our minds and wills have to be constantly directed and aligned to God in order to fulfill what these powers were made for. Any academic discipline or skills development for the good of humanity participates in the truth of God. And any real good we desire shares in the goodness of God. Therefore the pursuit of excellence in any discipline and any noble desire are indirectly a pursuit of God–the ONE, TRUE, GOOD, and BEAUTIFUL.

Still the most direct way of fulfilling that for which our intellect and free will were made for is through PRAYER. For the essential act of all prayer is the raising of the mind and heart/will to God–Truth and Goodness in Himself. No wonder many uneducated but prayerful people have reached the heights of wisdom and holiness.

Today It is very unfortunate that too many people waste so much time in endless scrolling down social media inundated with an information overload of trivialities, vanities, advertisements, and some people's self proclamation, but no time to pray. Too many busy themselves with unnecessaries or at least non essentials, yet spend very liitle to no time on the one thing necessary. As our Blessed Lord reminds Martha (and us) in the gospel: “You worry and fret about so many things, and yet few are needed, indeed only one. It is Mary who has chosen the better part; it is not to be taken from her.” (Lk 10:42) This is not to say that all we should do is stay in church and neglect the duties of our state in life; but that we should join prayer with our work, and our work with prayer, directing all our activities to God Who empowers us to do everything well.

It is good to be reminded that prayer is accessible to all, anytime, anywhere. We have within our souls a portable altar, there to commune and converse in silence with our Lord. And instead of endless scrolling, games, gadgets, addiction to entertainment, we can cut on all those so as to devote more time to the study of the sublime truths of our faith and the contemplation of the Goodness of God. There's the Scriptures, spiritual classics and other sources in today's digital world. Or we can spend time bathing in the presence of our Lord in the Eucharist. There is no occupation more powerful than Eucharistic Adoration, as therein we contemplate Truth and Goodness in Person.

As we more and more fix our whole being to God (truth and goodness) we will little by little experience that profound, serene, and untouchable joy, a RESTING IN THE GOOD, even amidst afflictions, adversities, sufferings and trials– that inner joy which is independent of all the chances and changes of life- that joy promised us in the Beatitudes.

The only sadness we will have is seeing our loved ones not yet engaged in this great adventure of seeking the TRUTH and GOODNESS. But our very devotion to God Who is TRUTH and GOODNESS is itself an offering to strengthen our intercession for our loved ones, that they too may seek and find God.

May we bask in the clean air of truth and goodness who is God, be filled with joy, and empowered to love. For God is love in Himself, and the more we fasten ourselves and cling to God the more we will be empowered to love genuinely, affectively and effectively. This is the talent/gift we all have –to love as God loves. And what a powerful and joyful way to live! Hence over and above developing our talents should be the training of our intellect and free will, not necessarily by study, but by prayer and training in virtuous living.

It is simple, (though not easy), is it not? Why does man persist in the folly of complicating life?