Though we don’t hear it nor speak about it often, the reality of fools obviously continues to take place today and, in fact, in a more rampant albeit subtle ways. I suppose it is out of good manners that we refrain from using the word. We actually now employ a lot of euphemisms to refer to the same banana.
In a sense, it is good that it be that way. Refraining from using the word in our daily conversations, I imagine, would make for a cleaner and calmer environment. But neither should we forget it, since the reality, sad to say, continues to be around.
In fact, the Bible speaks about fools and its variants many, many times, thus, often jarring the sensibilities of the people of today. This is one more reason why the Bible has to be handled with deliberate care, since its language belongs to a different age and to a different culture.
But the Bible teaches truths for all times and defines things in their radical and ultimate dimensions. As to what a fool is and what things fools do, the Bible, especially in the books of Psalms and the Proverbs, has a lot to say.
Many times, it defines a fool as anyone who does not believe in God. “The fool says in his heart, there is no God,†Psalm 14,1 says. And Proverbs 1,7 describes something about fools: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Fools despise wisdom and instruction.â€
And so a long series of descriptions about fools continues all the way to the New Testament. We have the famous parable of the wise and foolish virgins, for example, and passages about how a foolish man who only hears but does not act on the word of God is like a fool who builds his house on sand, without good foundation.
The Book of Ecclesiastes sums up the whole thing when it says: “Infinitus est numerus stultorum,†(Infinite is the number of fools), referring not only to the number of fools but also to their ways, since our freedom, which launches us into infinity, can be used either for good or for evil, distinguishing the wise from the fool.
In spite of all these, there is always hope for as long as we are still alive and capable of changing and converting. “Where sin has abounded, grace has abounded even more,†says St. Paul (Rom 5,20).
So, there’s no use simply branding people fools and then lamenting about the predicament. What we need to do is to understand why many people still are fools in the biblical sense, and try to do something about it.
And the common reason for this is that they do not know how to relate themselves to God. They don’t see him, they cannot touch him, they don’t have any special feelings for him.
There is obviously some ignorance and confusion involved here. While it’s true that we don’t see God, nor touch him, we cannot deny that God is everywhere, since he is the very author and the very supporter of everyone’s and everything’s existence. By merely existing, everyone and everything unavoidably reflects God’s eternal existence.
Besides, to start relating to him and developing certain feelings for him is a matter of loving. As long as we love, in any way we express our love, we are at least already on the way to reaching God who is love.
We just have to make sure that our loving is the right kind of loving. And that ultimately means we need to conform our love to the love of God who revealed and lived it to the full in Christ.
Thus, Christ summarized all the commandments of God into the new commandment of love: “Love one another as I have loved you.†Christ makes himself the standard of our love that necessarily has two inseparable objects: love of God and love of neighbor.
Loving God and thereby reaching him and being with him is actually not difficult and much less, impossible to do, since loving God can simply be a matter of loving others the way Christ loves all of us.
We need to be clear about this doctrine and do everything to live it. It is very doable. We obviously need the grace of God for this, but insofar as we are concerned, we can do it.
We just have to stir ourselves everyday to feel that love, making use of some plans, devices or gimmicks to put us into the system. But we can truly reach God here and now!
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Email: roycimagala@gmail.com