Life or lifestyle?

Christ confronted his disciples: Do you want to follow me and my way of life, or will you insist on following your own lifestyle? You have to choose once and for all, for you cannot have both!

This is the very same choice that Christ is confronting us with at this point in our lives. What exactly was the difference between the two? Christ’s way of life was from the spirit, while the people’s lifestyle was from the flesh. "It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless." (From today’s Gospel reading, Jn. 6: 60-69).

Lifestyle of the Flesh. What is this all about in our world of today? Nothing more and nothing less than this postmodern, narcissistic, consumerist lifestyle that so many of us Christians get addicted to. A preoccupation with the culture of bodily pleasures, worldly conveniences, luxuries, insatiable wants, all the way to easy and irresponsible sex. The ever-increasing disciples of this lifestyle are mercilessly in the hands of business, industry, the media, and what-have-you.

Malls and megamalls and Market! Market! are all over the place. Can you imagine us, a third-world country and one of the poorest, priding ourselves with having that Giant Mall of Asia?! As a Christian nation, we allow ourselves to be taken advantage of by a high-tech commercialized culture without a conscience. Further and further away from Christ’s way of life.

Just this past week, a giant commercial billboard collapsed at EDSA corner Boni Avenue. MMDA chairman Bayani Fernando has repeated his call for a body to regulate such structures along main thoroughfares that endanger the lives of motorists and pedestrians. The incredible numbers and sizes of these billboards on EDSA alone are most likely not to be found anywhere else in the world. What is the meaning of all this in a country where the majority of our people are living in sheer poverty? Can we answer to God for this?

Life of the Spirit. The compassionate, merciful Christ gives us the option that leads to God and not to damnation – through his own teachings as well as in his personal life. The life of unconditional love and other – centeredness. The life of stewardship, simplicity, and sharing. His solidarity with the poor and powerless, as well as his stubborn advocacy for social justice, turned off many of those who initially followed him, as today’s Gospel reading tells us. "Many of his disciples broke away and would not remain in his company any longer" (v. 66). It was then that Jesus asked his disciples: "Do you also want to leave?" The enlightened, courageous Peter said: "Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life" (vv. 68-69).

Let us be most especially concerned for our youth, our young people who are being constantly bombarded and seduced by endless consumer goods for a lifestyle of the flesh. Our youth, after all, are our leaders of tomorrow. Will they lead our people to a lifestyle of the spirit, or to a lifestyle of the flesh?

Thank God for the growing numbers of Christian renewal groups and communities among our youth. This may very well be our saving grace. For my limited space, let me just focus on one such group - Life’s Directions (LD) - led by our associate in the ministry, Fr. Ted Gonzales, S. J. This community of young professionals has for its vision/mission "to go back home to the Father, by bringing the healing love of Jesus to the lost, the least, and the last." They recently published a collection of some of their own life-stories entitled Stories From A Weekend. Essays on Life Journeys by the Life’s Directions (LD) Companions.

One such life-story is about a young, female professional. She was initially leading a lifestyle of the flesh – addicted to name brands, was a member of the so-called SPP’s (Shopping People of the Philippines), often partying with friends and frequenting bars and discos. Until she went through a conversion process, which has dramatically changed her life and lifestyle.

One day, she came upon an e-mail about a very sick, two-year-old boy, whose only chance in life was a liver transplant. She found herself volunteering to be a liver donor to save the boy’s life. After the operation, she herself suffered from a persistent swelling of her vile duct that endangered her own life until it was finally removed. She was hospitalized for a whole month, but finally recovered. And the boy? He is "a happy healthy boy with his whole life ahead of him."

Young people of the spirit — may your tribe increase!