|
About
CFC-FFL
Who
is the CFC-FFL?
The
Movement for Restoration Our
Covenant
Our
Mission and Vision
Our Statement of
Philosophy
Our
Core Values
Family Ministries Kids
for Family and Life (KFL) Youth
for Family and Life (YFL)
Singles
for Family and Life (SFL)
Handmaids
for Family and Life (HFL)
Servants
for Family and Life (SvFL)
Wish
to JOIN?
The
highest courage is to dare to be yourself in the face of adversity,
choosing right over wrong, ethics over convenience, and truth over
popularity.
Travel the path of integrity without looking back, for THERE IS
NEVER A WRONG TIME TO DO THE RIGHT THING.
-
Bishop Soc Villegas
25 July 2007
|
THE WAY FORWARD IN CHRIST
(Part 38)
THE SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINES
June
15, 2011
Today’s reading: Matthew 6:1-18
Jesus has told us about the high calling of being a Christian. From the
beatitudes to love of enemies, culminating in the call to be perfect as
the heavenly Father is perfect (Mt 5), Jesus presents to us the
challenge of following him. It is a calling that we cannot do on our own
strength. But when God calls, He provides. He certainly freely provides
grace. And God also provides particular human disciplines by which we
can tap on to that grace, and have the strength to live according to His
ways.
So what immediately follows Matthew 5 is Jesus’ teaching on
almsgiving, prayer and fasting (Mt 6:1-18). How do these three spiritual
disciplines relate to our Christian life?
We could visualize it like this.
| Spiritual Discipline |
Our Relationship With |
Touching on Our |
To Rid Us of |
| Prayer |
God |
Mind and Spirit |
Pride and the desire for
power |
| Fasting |
Self |
Body/Flesh |
Lust |
| Almsgiving |
Neighbor |
Heart |
Love for possession |
The
two greatest commandments (or one commandment with two parts) is to love
God with our whole being and to love our neighbor as ourselves. On these
two depend the whole law and the prophets, that is, the fullness of
God’s call to us. How can we love if we do not have a relationship?
Thus we pray so that we communicate with God and grow in a loving
relationship. Thus we fast and so get to know ourselves and what
controls us in life. Thus we give alms and manifest our loving care and
concern for those around us, especially those in need.
In growing as a Christian whose body is the temple of the Holy Spirit,
no part of us can be detached from responding to the fullness of God’s
call. We cannot give generous alms but hate a brother. We cannot spend
time in prayer but beyond prayer give free rein to the lusts of the
flesh. Thus fasting disciplines our body, our flesh. Almsgiving touches
our heart. Prayer transforms our mind and spirit. Together, the three
disciplines form and transform our whole being, everything that we are.
Now there are three fundamental challenges that face us, those things
that can easily bring people down. These are money, sex and power. The
antidotes are the spiritual disciplines of almsgiving, fasting and
prayer.
Let us visualize it like this.
| Challenge |
Sins |
Antidote |
Values |
| Money |
Inordinate
love for money and possession |
Almsgiving |
Poverty and
detachment |
| Sex |
Lust of
flesh |
Fasting |
Chastity and
self-control |
| Power |
Pride and
abuse of power |
Prayer |
Humility and
servanthood |
When we get into the practice of almsgiving (not just giving to the poor
beggar on the street but looking to the needs of all, including the
financial needs of our community and parish), we can begin to think not
so much of “our” money that we use for our own good, but we can
begin to realize that we are just stewards who manage God’s money,
which is to be used for the common good and for His mission in the
world. The more we grow into this, using more and more for the good of
others rather than ourselves, then we attain to the poverty of Christ
and the detachment that we need to have from material goods.
When we get into the habit of fasting regularly, depriving ourselves of
what is good (basically food, but can also be an activity one favors
doing), we can begin to master the unruly and sinful flesh in us. Our
life is no longer dictated to by what our human mind and body and
emotions desire. We can start to look to the more sublime things in
life. We can begin to grow in chastity, in living pure for God.
When we get into the habit of daily prayer, God teaches us a lot of
things. We get to know God more intimately, and thus His ways. When we
come into worship before Him, we realize what a great and awesome God He
is, and how truly insignificant we are. Then we are led to humble
ourselves before Him. We also realize that He is Lord and Master, and we
are His servants. We then grow in our desire to serve Him and to give
more and more of our life to Him.
God’s call is to perfection. For human beings that is impossible. For
God, nothing is impossible. The God who calls us is also the God who
provides for what we need to properly respond to His call. Thus He has
given us the spiritual disciplines of prayer, fasting and almsgiving.
These three are so easy to neglect. But we do so at the peril of being
unable to respond fully to God’s call. On the other hand, we might be
intimidated by the call to holiness and perfection, but the process by
which that can be achieved is not really all that hard. We simply make
use of what God has provided us.
And so we pray--daily personal prayer, worship is community gatherings,
weekly Eucharist, rosary and Marian devotions, plus many other ways by
which our relationship with God is built.
And so we fast--weekly fast from food, fasting from something we
normally like to do as a particular offering to God, fasting from
unchristian speech, and the like.
And so we give alms--giving money to the beggar, supporting our
community and our parish with our finances, helping build a church or
send a missionary, sharing our resources with those in need, and so on.
Let us all move on to Christian perfection.
*
* *
|
