Respecting the conditions in life

Yes, we are meant to live a spiritual and supernatural life. This will have its definitive state in heaven where we will share the eternal life of God, our Creator and Father, who has made us his image likeness and adopted us to be his children.

That spiritual and supernatural life starts here while we are still in this world, immersed in our temporal affairs and subject to all sorts of conditions and varying circumstances of life. We have to understand that our spiritual and supernatural life here on earth is still in its work-in-progress stage, and thus, is still tentative, depending on the ebb and flow of things.

This is where we have to learn how to respect the limitations and constraints of the different conditions in our life without compromising the eternal goal we ought to be aiming for. In fact, we have to learn how to convert these limitations and constraints into aids rather than obstacles in our pursuit for that definitive eternal life.

Our different conditions and circumstances in life can either be conducive or unfavorable to the attainment of our definitive eternal life. But just the same, whether conducive or unfavorable, they can either lead us to heaven or away from it, depending on how we handle them.

What may be regarded as a conducive condition or circumstance may lead us to pride, vanity, and complacency. So, instead of bringing us to heaven, they can take us away from it.

And what may be deemed as unfavorable may elicit in us remorse and conversion, and therefore can lead us to heaven. So, it’s clear that it is a matter of how we handle these different conditions and circumstance to determine whether we are heading toward or straying away from our definitive eternal life.

What is of key importance in all this is whether we follow the example of Christ. Better still, if we vitally identify ourselves with him. As “the way, the truth and life” for us, he shows us how to deal with the different conditions and circumstances in life so as to lead us to heaven.

Let’s remember that being God, he became man to fully identify himself with us. And vice-versa. He became man so that we can have a way to identify ourselves with him. This is the purpose of the mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God.

Christ went all the way to assuming our human condition to such an extent that, as St. Paul said, he was made like sin without committing sin to save us.

It’s good to review what the Catechism says about this truth of our faith. “Christ enables us to live in him all that he himself lived, and he lives it in us,” it says. “By his Incarnation, he, the Son of God, has in a certain way united himself with each man.” We are called only to become one with him, for he enables us as the members of his Body to share in what he lived for us in his flesh as our model.” (521)

We can never overemphasize the need for us to do all we can to identify ourselves with him. We have to have recourse to the sacraments, especially the Holy Eucharist, since it is there that Christ makes himself fully available to us even if we do not understand everything that is taking place there.

We also need to learn to pray always, to know the art of sacrifice, to go through a constant process of conversion, and to actively participate in the continuing redemptive work of Christ by doing apostolate.

All these will help us deal with our different conditions and circumstances properly so as to make them our clear path to eternal life.