Are we still capable of praising God?
It's a good question to ask. We have good reason to think that we are losing this most fundamental human need. And we should be concerned about this, and do something about it. Otherwise, we would be deforming our humanity.
We need to ask this question because we are now seeing cases upon cases worldwide of quarrelling, mudslinging, fault-find, cursing, backbiting and backstabbing, all indications of losing the attitude of praising God. We practically do not hear anymore nice, positive words about others.
And if some good words are said, we cannot help but suspect, based on our common experiences, that they are not that sincere, or that there are hidden strings attached, or even traps laid stealthily.
In the world of media, for example, there is such a lot of hype, bombast and frivolity that we would not know what the truth or the real intention of the people involved is. Things are not said plainly as they should. Layers of ulterior motives are quite perceptible.
It is even worse in the world of politics where with runaway partisanship, we see an alternation of bootlicking and brazen attacks, simplistic branding of people and sophisticated rationalizations. Candidates and public officials are regarded either as thoroughly evil incapable of any good, or thoroughly good incapable of any evil.
In the face of all these anomalies, many have become indifferent, if not skeptical and cynical about things. These are clear escape mechanisms that do not solve anything but rather worsen things.
We have to look into whether we really are still praising God. That would indicate whether we are still with God or just by our own selves, relying simply on our own devices. That would indicate whether we are quite clear about the Creator-creature relation we have with God.
When we are truly aware of who God is and of who we are, the fundamental reaction we would have is to praise and adore him, since we would surely know that absolutely everything we have and that is around us comes from him. Everything comes from him and belongs to him.
It is this awareness that constitutes the fundamental attitude we have not only toward God but also toward everything else in life and in the world. It is what gives us the basic perspective of reality, giving us a proper sense of priority.
It gives us a sense of intimacy, something very important for us since without intimacy we would be moving toward becoming automatons. It gives us a sense of the sacred while immersed in the world. Thus, we could keep seeing God in everything, even in our mundane affairs.
If this attitude is compromised, everything else somehow would also be distorted. Our understanding and reaction to things would be gravely limited, since they would lack the spiritual and supernatural dimensions of our life. We would be vulnerable to fall into confusion, fears, doubts and despair, or to the other extreme of presumption.
We have to see to it that this need to praise God is very alive in us, affecting us not only intellectually, but also emotionally. More than that, it should so affect us as to move us to make deeds worthy of being intimate with God. The whole person should be permeated by this need.
We have to be wary of playing games with this need, something that we are also very capable of doing. We can go through the motions of praising, making some lip service, but our mind and heart are not actually in it.
We can sing and dance, but still the spirit is absent. It would just be a merely physical, mechanical exercise, or an act of fawning or flattering. It can be showy, and yet can show hardly anything as fruits of praising.
Or praising would just be a sentimental expression with hardly any meat and substance in it. Praising simply becomes a function of our emotions and feelings at the moment. It is more for our benefit than for truly paying homage to God that by definition would involve deeds of self-giving.
Let us try that every morning. We do some praising so that we can be filled with awe by the grandeur of God's majesty, and by his wisdom and power. It is not without reason that the beginning of the daily priestly prayer called breviary is a prayer of praising God.
"Let us rejoice in the Lord, with songs let us praise Him, The Lord's is the earth and its fullness, the world and all its peoples," it says, setting the tone for the day.
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