You are reading this because you are related to me by blood, friends at work, my previous and current studies, church, through my children’s friends or in sports. Regardless, I wrote this for you, for me not to impose but to share my innermost thoughts and disposition hoping that one day you will find this worthy of considerations to live and love to the fullest.
Still here? Thanks. This write up could be well introduced by the selected lyrics contained in the “This Is Me” song from the movie “The Greatest Showman” – “I am not stranger in the dark,” “Being ashamed of my scars,” “I know that there is a place for us.” Let us break each one down. Being in the dark for me is synonymous with being a slave. Slave to seven capital sins namely, pride, covetousness, lust, anger, gluttony, envy, and sloth [1]. Being ashamed of my scars is a spiritual state where I acknowledge having committed them, being sorry and resolving not to be slave again. Easy said than done, right? Well, truly the devil will always be here with us without taking a holiday just to enslave everyone. Why? Because each one of us is so valuable and that bad guy wants us. According to Fr. J. Corrigan [2], “Scientist had concluded that the odds of each of us being born is 1 in 10 to the power of 2.5million (0.00004%).” – Wow! He added that “we are not casual and meaningless product of evolution. God thought about our existence. Each of us is willed and loved by God our Father. Each of us is necessary.” This idea will bring us to the third lyric – “I know there is a place for us.” Still with me? Great, thanks. I am nearly halfway. Different beliefs describe this place in several ways. What I liked most is that “no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9). I thought about this for a second, and I asked myself, should I have all the richness, popularity, and pleasures of this world, say in 75 or 90 years, while being slave and lost the “place” prepared for me which lasts forever? or follow God’s will and gain eternal life prepared for me? No brainer. I would pick the one that last longer 😊. Easy said than done, right? but hey, good news. We have Christmas. The Creator, God our Father just send us his Son (the Greatest showman) – Who showed us the Way, the Truth, and the Life! What now then? (By the way, being rich, popular, and having pleasures are not bad if they are used as a means to do the will of God and that gives glory to God – I need another write up for this 😊). For now let me end this with discussing about something common to us – WORK as a means to get to the “eternal place” we talked about, because work is means for us to gain the happiness our heart deeply longs for.
When Fr. Ocariz, Prelate of Opus Dei visited Sydney last August 2023, my dear wife Joan bought me this book entitled “Holiness Through Work” – A conversation with Monsignor Fernando Ocariz about the Teachings of Saint Josemaria. The book is all about imitating the Son of God, Jesus’ hidden life. It is summarized as sanctifying our ordinary work, sanctify oneself at work and sanctifying others through work. Thus work becomes a source of becoming holy as opposed to work as a burden [3]. Just like the example of Jesus of Nazareth, his 30 years of occupation as a carpenter was similar to millions of people all over the world, was converted into a divine task. From St. Josemaria’s own words, ”there is something holy, something divine, hidden in the most ordinary situations and it is up to each one of you to discover it.” Of course the work must be honest and the one performing it must be in communion with God. Part of being baptised as Catholic is to travel the road to the “place prepared for us” (let us use the word “heaven” now) with other people, practicing all the virtues, especially charity. We should turn our work into real service, taking advantage of the advances in technology and culture. In other words [3], “if work is motivated by generosity, not selfishness and directed towards the welfare of everyone and not our own advantage then work will be filled with the Christian sense of life.” It will not be easy though as “slavery” is dragging us down, most of the time without knowing it – examination of one’s conscience could help. Fortunately, Jesus instituted the sacraments as sources of grace to help Christians to go through life. Moreover, current technology makes it easy for us to get informed and educated about anything we need to prepare for our final destination. Furthermore, there are sources of formation we can attend to like Catholic doctrine classes, retreat, recollection etc. Last but not the least, norms of piety are excellent means not to be stranger in the dark as they are the means to follow the light – contemplative life. This is it for “This is me”. Thank you for reaching this end.
References:
[1] Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, “Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church”, St. Paul Publication, World Youth Day Edition, 2008.
[2] D. Hopper et al, “The Sign”, Catholic Diocese of Wollongong, 2023.
[3] M. A. Ferrari, “A dialogue with Monsignor Fernando Ocariz about the Teachings of Saint Josemaria” Scepter Publishers, 2020.