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| There is only one forked road we have to face,. |
Even for the “most religious” among us, it
is not that easy to latch on to God’s every word as we go through the
hurly-burly of our daily life. Almost
everything in our environment—especially in the metropolis—tells us that
earning a living ought to be our most important concern, and that all our
waking moments must revolve around it.
And to be effective at earning a living, we must be and acceptable to
the world, because our face, our appearance, is our calling card.
Advertisements reinforce this idea in
telling us how to start our day: they nudge us to drink brand-X coffee if we
want to be alert and productive from nine to five, to shower with brand-Y soap
so that we’re germ-free all day, to use brand-Z deodorant in order not to
offend the noses of fellow train passengers, to wear this or that style to
project power, to drive this or that car, etc. etc. Media reinforce the dream that advertisers
sell, lionizing “successful” people and their lifestyles, making the illusion
so widespread that people thoughtlessly believe it is true.
The world offers us so many choices, but
sets only one worldly goal—success—and so it teaches us that to be successful
we must be smart. We have to be “cool”
in everything we do, in choosing what to wear, say, and do; where to eat; what
projects to do; whom to hang around with; which stocks to invest in; etc. In the way of the world, achieving “a happy
and successful life” does not necessarily mean choosing to be ethical, moral, or
even legal sometimes—we just have to be smart.
But is this the way we should go as citizens of the “only Christian
nation in Asia”?
In reality—come to think of it—there is
only one choice we as baptized Christians have to make in order for us to live
a happy, productive, and fulfilling life of dignity. There is only one forked road we have to
face, and there we ask ourselves: shall I follow the will of God or only mine?
Choosing to follow God’s will over ours
means recognizing our Creator, gratefully giving Him Number One position in our
life, and embracing the truth that He has sent His Only Son to us in order to
show us the way to life eternal. Earning
a living may be important, but it is only so if that living points to another
life. This world is beautiful, marvelous,
and enjoyable, but it is only a stepping stone to the next.
Debunk the advertisers’ promises, puncture
the illusions media propagate about having a “happy and successful life” as a
human being’s worthiest goal. If we
call ourselves followers of Christ we should let Him cleanse our system of
false ideals and worthless models. Jesus
came to live with us to show us lonely goal worth pursuing. Believing in the cause that Jesus died for, we
are given the grace to live “on every word that comes forth from the mouth of
God”—we are renewed, “re-programmed” to receive and be moved by the Divine.
This season of Lent, we take a break as we
turn our back to the monsters that we have created by our inordinate belief in
their worth—events, persons, things, news that give us nothing but bad vibes
and tempt us to forget about God’s eternal love for us. These next 40 days, we pray even for a whiff
of that strength that sustained our Lord in the desert against the devil’s
temptations. It is not true that we are
“only human” and therefore too weak to rise above the allurements of this
world. We do have a choice. There is such a thing as transcendence, and because
we are God’s children the desire for it is in our DNA, so to speak. This holy season of Christ’s passion, we pray
to be able to make that one choice to transcendence. And that’s the truth.
