Team L’ALPHA

French Philosopher Pierre Teilhard De Chardin conceived creation as “spirit moving slowly enough to be seen,” and believed that “we are spiritual beings having a physical experience.” St. Paul comprehends this truth in a similar way and says, “We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time” (Romans 8:22). He adds, “Oh, my dear children! I feel as if I’m going through labor pains for you again, and they will continue until Christ is fully developed in your lives” (Galatians 4:19). We gather that all waiting is worth the pain; all pangs of labor will give way to the joyous tears of childbirth. Once born, the baby’s horizons will, also, be widened and it will get to see life from an entirely different perspective.

“We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time” (Romans 8:22). He adds, “Oh, my dear children! I feel as if I’m going through labor pains for you again, and they will continue until Christ is fully developed in your lives” (Galatians 4:19) St. Paul

Just as in the process of metamorphosis where a caterpillar turns into a butterfly, we, too, are in the process of becoming children of God. Someday, we will stop chasing the wind and sit down to ponder over the realities of life like the caterpillar stops eating. Someday, we will look up to the heavenly abode and thirst for the divine like the caterpillar hangs upside down from a leafy branch forming itself into a cocoon. Someday, we will flutter freely in the skies crying, “Abba, Father” ( Romans 8:15).

God is good! The creation is, also, inherently good which is vividly portrayed in the Book of Genesis 1:31: “God saw all that He had made, and it was very good.” Although the pride and disobedience of man and the subsequent fall separated him from the love of God and corrupted the original goodness in him, God the Loving Father willed to restore the relationship through the sacrifice of His only Son on the cross. Complete self-emptying of Jesus (kenosis) obtained for us reconciliation with the Father. Thus, Christ became a ransom for us and all things were made anew. “I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you” (John 15: 15). Therefore, we are called to be co-heirs to Christ in the new heaven and earth, when He comes in His heavenly glory.

“I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you” (John 15: 15)

In order to actualize this newness and to inherit the kinship with Jesus, we need to forgo the acts of darkness and set our hearts on heavenly things because, the Bible says, “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9).

Christian life is a decision to be led by the divine counselor and guide – the Holy Spirit – who reminds us of everything Jesus taught us and enables us to do everything God wants us to do. The Spiritus Sanctus enkindles a deep desire within us to love God and one another just as Jesus did, and saves us from the temptation of “the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life” (1 John 2:16).

The Sacred Body and Blood of the Son of Man gives us the strength to “glorify God in our bodies” (1 Cor 6:20). We are transformed into beacons of light that shine before others. “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light” (Ephesians 5:8). In other words, we are made Christlike and eternalized. On the contrary, when we engage in acts of darkness and indulge in “immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these” (Galatians 5: 19 – 21), we will only evoke within others a sad picture of the malevolent betrayer who hatched plans in the dark against Jesus even after dipping his hands into the bowl with Him. Like the Satan in Milton’s Paradise Lost, we will be left to our own vanity only to spend life in weeping and gnashing of teeth:

“Abashed the devil stood and felt how awful goodness is and saw Virtue in her shape how lovely: and pined his loss.”

Having fondly remembered our mothers in the month of May, we are looking forward to celebrating Fathers’ Day in June! The festivities associated with these occasions speak volumes of the wonderful love and care our parents have for us and how we try to reciprocate appropriately. The Feasts of Corpus Christi, The Immaculate Heart of Mary, The Sacred Heart of Jesus, and the Feast of Pentecost, along with those of St. Mariam Thresia and Saints Peter and Paul, also, fall in June making it a liturgically rich month. The crux of all these commemorations and festivities is the ultimate goodness of God and His all-embracing love, and our earnest longing to belong to that goodness and love; he who misses it, misses it all!