Life-death-life

Christ was born and lived by loving unconditionally through dying to self until His mortal death, only to live again with more loving, this time without end. The total meaning of his ordinary birth and extraordinary life of happiness as well as crosses, death and resurrection is nothing more and nothing less than unconditional love. This is why God became man, so that you and I can experience that divine love, and as a response, we could love as He loves. The only meaning of our own life. “Love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another” (Jn. 13:34).

“Peace be with you.” This is what the Risen Christ kept repeating to His disciples every time He appeared to them, as recorded in today’s Gospel reading (Lk. 24: 35-48). For as long as you commit yourself to the Risen Lord by following His way of loving, you will continually experience inner peace, through thick and thin, light and darkness, laughter and tears, joy and sorrow, consolation and desolation, success and failure. As He lived, died, and rose from the dead so will you, so will I provided we go through all that with unconditional love. What a divine privilege that He shares with every human person, and not with any other species or animal in all of creation.

Remember the triple denial of Peter? To save himself from persecution, he vehemently denied that he was a follower of Jesus, and yet he was supposed to be the leader of the apostles. What about that doubting Thomas? He refused to believe that Christ had risen from the dead unless he could see the mark of the nails in his hands and put his finger into the nailmarks and put his hand into his side. And what about that weeping, inconsolable Mary of Magdala who was convinced that the dead body of Jesus was stolen from the tomb? Last but not least: Take that ruthless, heartless persecutor of the early Church named Saul, who consented to the execution of Stephen and was responsible for the imprisonment of many others.

All of these, and many, many more are now canonized Saints, because of Christ’s unconditional love. Believe it or not: You and I will never be canonized Saints with a capital “S,” but we are all called by the ever-loving and merciful Christ to be saints with a small “s.” The loving mercy of God is simply incomprehensible.

As I look back at my own personal life, I cannot but marvel with awe at the numberless times that the Lord reached out to me with His most personal love and compassion. As I have mentioned in this column once before, I was born to a most loving and dedicated couple, who were literally the closest of friends and the most passionate of lovers until my mother passed away at the age of 57. I am the eldest of nine children, and we all grew up with so much inner security, affection, and peace. My call to the priesthood and the family ministry for all these past 40 years and more is just unbelievable, knowing that I am full of human imperfections and deficiencies. I have been making efforts in responding to the Lord through my ministry of love and service, but all this put together is nothing just a drop in the bucket compared to the love and mercy that I have been receiving from the Risen Lord.

I am certain that each one of you, gentle readers, can look back at your own unique lives and come up with the same conclusion. In so many different ways, how has the Risen Lord sustained you with His deeply personal love and compassion, throughout the different stages of your life? And how have you been responding to all this? Only you can answer that at this point in your life. Are you inspired to do something more? Read on with what comes next.

Moving from the personal to the metapersonal level, we can say the same concerning Christ’s unconditional love for our country, in spite of all our national imperfections and deficiencies.

The most recent and current response to this mercy and love of Jesus for our people is the Moral Reform Movement initiated by our Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Reynato Puno. He is doing this as a private Filipino citizen, inspired by God. He has formed a council composed of credible leaders from different sectors: church groups, business, media, and the youth. The movement is not anti-administration or pro-opposition but a “positive-neutral constructive” force, an on-going advocacy against widespread corruption in our country.

Focusing especially on the forthcoming 2010 elections, this movement will lead us in choosing “transformational leaders” from the highest post to the lowest post. According to Justice Puno, transformational leaders induce followers to transcend self-interest for the sake of the greater good of the country as against “transactional leaders” who motivate followers by appealing to self-interest.

Let us actively support and do what we can to collaborate with this God-inspired Moral Reform Movement. The Lord’s hand is leading us toward national resurrection.