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At the Heart of Our Questionings

Many seem to work from the principle that questions are more important that answers. St Augustine is one of these people. He never misses an opportunity to ask questions. In his attempt to answer a question, he asks more questions. Thus, in this post, I am going to consider two of the many questions he asks in the Confessions. The first questions deals with what it means to ask God to come into us. He wants to know what comes first— to call upon God or to praise God and whether knowing God precedes calling upon God. The second question has to do with how to use the gifts bestowed on us by God. For Augustine, all talents/gifts must be used as a mean to come closer or to give glory to God. So, he questions: what advantage to have a good thing and not to use it well? I want to show that questioning leads him to find the truth— God, and that truth must be given priority over everything.
In answering the first question, he believes first of all that we must know God in order to call upon him. As he puts it, we must know something before we can call on that something; otherwise, we may end up calling on the wrong thing. However, there is no knowing God unless we call him in prayer. So, before we start calling, we need to have faith. In order for faith to grow, preaching is necessary. Unless the message is preached to us, faith cannot be developed (Confessions book I, I, 1). In summary, the message is heard through preaching, then that gives rise to faith. Through faith, we beg God to make his dwelling in us. When he does that, we truly know him. Then, he delves into a series of rhetorical questions about what it means to call God to ‘come into me’. How is he coming in us? He creates heaven and earth, and they cannot contain him. How can he come into us small as we are? Whatever exists has existence because God sustains it into being. So God is in everything (II, 2). How? Is he in everything as a whole or does each thing contain some parts of God? Is God in heaven and earth or is heaven and earth in God? (III, 3) Are we in God or is God in us? Why call on God if he is already in us? He wrestles with that question back and forth. He then concludes that God is incomprehensible and immutable (iv, 4). That tells if a person cares about finding the truth and lets himself be led by reason, he can come to know some of the attributes of God even before he hears the message of the gospel.
The next question that I find interesting is Augustine’s personal reflection of how poorly he had used the immensity of his talent. He realizes he was gifted in the art of speaking and disputing, incisive in the liberal arts, and well versed in music and numbers without the need of a teacher. However, instead of using them to come closer to God, he used them to travel away from God. He feels his capacity causes him more harm than good (book IV, 30-31) because he did not dedicate the vastness of his knowledge to God. In hindsight now, it is clear to him that knowing all these things without knowing God was worthless. A person who knows God is happier than a person who has all the knowledge of the world and yet is ignorant of God. It is infirmity to rely on one’s own strength. The good life is to be in the bosom of God. No knowledge of the sciences and the liberal arts are needed for that(iv, 31). If we do have them and fail to use them for the honor and glory of God, what advantage is that?
Each one of us has an Augustine in us. Deep down, we are all looking for answers. We are all seekers of the truth. Although it would take long period of frustrations and incalculable amounts of time to find, the truth can be found in philosophy, philology, mathematic, physics if we carefully look. But I shall show you an even shorter and more excellent way— Jesus Christ. He is the way, the truth and the life. He is the answer to your questions. Give him a chance. He is looking for you even more than you are looking for him.

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The Ultimate Purpose of Marriage

We are living at a period in history where the sense of sacrifice is at its lowest.  Dead is the time when young men would go to the army out of a sense of love of country, justice, and peace. Forgotten is the time when God was the background of people’s acts. Now is the time of Descartes who conceived the person without a body, J. Celebrated is T. Hobbes who aimed at making science more useful to human, and Clifford who claimed that it is wrong always and everywhere to believe without evidence. We are harvesting the fruit of the Enlightenment  that rejects faith for reason;  we are living in the post-modern time, as a result, where reason is trampled underfoot. So, instinct without reason and the light of faith is now in session. This mindset invades the family, governments, every aspect of society, and the few that resist it are under fire.

These erroneous and disordered views have become the way people conceive life itself. They assume that it should always be without trials or difficulties. Marriage, which should be a lifetime commitment where a man and a woman swear to love each other in rainy as in sunny days, is baffled in the midst of this whirlwind.

My goal is to discuss the true purpose of marriage. Though marriage’s prima faciae achievement is union and procreation, I believe its deepest accomplishment lies in saving one’s partner’s soul. To save sometimes requires sacrifices. To save means the total gift of oneself to the point of dying if necessary. To save is demanding. Marriage is a beautiful commitment in which we promise that our will and desires will no longer be our own, but shared with someone else. However, it does not always go this way. Sometimes, one marries to only soon discover that the relationship sucks, or it becomes unlivable. After the honeymoon’s ecstasy is over in a few weeks or months, one can realize that it becomes dull. There is no emotional thrill in seeing the other person anymore. If anyone experiences this, he must know that he is not alone. Even saints undergo dryness at one point in their lives. Though man and woman complement each other, there will still be feeling of emptiness. That’s normal. As St Augustine said, “Lord you have made us for yourself; our heart is restless until it rests in thee” (Confessions I). The psalmist hit the same note when he proclaimed, “in God alone is my soul at rest” (Ps 62). The truth about ourselves is that we are made for infinity. Only when we work toward heaven are we truly happy and satiated. No finite things, no amount of human love can ever satisfy our yearning. No human being can fill our hunger. Know then that when, not if, faced with trials, it is God’s way to make us search for Him. Our loneliness, our encounter with a brick wall in marriage is to save our soul and/or our partner’s soul.

So when love becomes impossible, when the relationship seems to be heading toward divorce, then we need to offer it up as a sacrifice. Your sacrifice will allow you to save your partner’s soul, and your soul of course. Is there something greater than to save someone’s soul? Does Our Lord not say: there is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for our friends? When marriage becomes unlivable, intensify your love of God and tell me what happens next. The greater our love for God, the greater is our capacity to love others. When our partner becomes an invalid, it is the time to increase our love of the cross. Penance, Eucharistic adoration, and scripture readings must be augmented.

It is often the case that after a young man or a woman attains the zenith of their prime and enjoy life to its fullest extent, he/she decides that it is time to get married. Those people usually are not married due to falling in love most of the time. They do so out of necessity. They simply seek a person capable of helping them to pay their rent or mortgage. They see marriage in this lens as something to ‘use’. It is those kinds of people that have recourse to divorce first when the relationship does not work out as planned. I must say it is always a bad idea to marry because one sees the other as something to be use. Marriage should happen only within the context of love. Only the bond of love, which is more stern than death, can unite two different beings. Love is not something ready-made. It requires works. It is a standard to which people must live up. They must liberate themselves from the utilitarian idea, using a person for one’s own interest, and become faithful to the principle than a human being is a phenomenon that must be treated always as an end rather than a mean.

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What Is Youth?

Anyone who knows me can acknowledge that I enjoy working with young people. I love them, and am very concerned about their well being. I love working with them because I enjoy their vigor for life, their tireless search for meaning in life, and their enthusiasm about discovering what the next day, week, month or year holds. The desire to look for meaning in life is analogous to the attempt to look for the meaning of a text; just as we want to know the meaning of a text through the author’s view, we refuse to accept life’s meaning without God in it. God is the author of life, and we want to know life’s meaning through His own eyes; that is a sign that we bear the stamp of God, His seal. I want to be part of your life, my dear young friends, because I want to accompany you in this exciting journey of finding that meaning.
With that being said, I want to dedicate the next few posts to them in the hope of addressing some of the issues they face daily in life. I hope these posts prove useful to their needs and help answer some of their questions.
Youth is not only a period of life that corresponds to a certain numbers of years, it is a time given by Providence to every person and given to him as a responsibility. During this time, every youth searches, like the young man in the gospel (Mark 10, 17-31), for answers to basic questions. No youth want to be like Ivan Ilych in Leo Tolstoy story who thought he could live life as if it has no meaning. No one wants to approach life as having no meaning like Meursault in A. Camus’ The Stranger to only face the cruelty of his mindset later. Youth is when we look for answers to our questions, and the meaning of life. It is when we look for God with our whole being. It is when we ask whether we can experience God’s existence. It is when we want to know why there is evil, or why people do bad things. It is a period where we have time to question why food, video games, time with friends, TV shows don’t satisfy our deepest longings. My dear fellow young friends, the fact you are asking these questions means that you are looking for something deeper. It means that you don’t want to settle for something shallow. You want answers and you want truth. Youth not only searches for the meaning of life but also for concrete way to go about living it. You want to try things and are very adventurous. It is my conviction that every mentor, parents, and pastors must be aware of these characteristics. They must learn how to identify them in young people.
Are these questions simply empty dreams that fade away as we become older? No! We were created for something great, for infinity. That fact does not erase with old age. As I have quoted multiple times from my favorite Saint Augustine, “our hearts are restless till they find their rest in you”. Because human beings are made in the image of God, we do this in a unique and special way. We reach out for love, joy and peace. So we can see how absurd it is to think that we can truly live by removing God from the picture! God is the source of life. To set God aside is to separate yourselves from that source and, inevitably, to deprive yourselves of fulfillment and joy. Without the Creator, the creature fades into nothingness. In the very asking of questions lie the search for God. Don’t settle for anything other than the truth.
If at every age of this life people desires to be his own person, to find love, during his youth he desires it even stronger. However, the desire to be one’s own person must not be understood as license to be anything without exception. It is the time to engage in discussion and learning to discover what it really means to be free. I guarantee that rationality and the grace of God are sufficient to lead you, dear young friends, to see that there is no freedom outside the Gospels. Unlike what many have said about you, my dear friend, I know that you are willing to be corrected. You want to be told yes or no and be explained the reasons behind it. You need guides, and you need it close at hand. That’s why you turn to authority figures as a search for human warmth and a willingness to walk along the right path. Listen to those wiser than you.
So, if there is a problem of youth as many have argued, it is profoundly personal. In life, youth is when we come to know ourselves. It’s a time we are deeply hunger for communion. It’s a time we come to realize that life has meaning only when we come to freely give ourselves as a gift. That is the origin of all vocation— priesthood, married life or a career. However, many young people are not seeing that today. Utilitarianism ad hedonism are in the forefront of all newspapers and every internet page. They have very few good examples to live by. So the deeper problem is an adult problem rather a youth problem. It is time when adults need to step up to build a better future generation.

For this reason, dear young friends, I encourage you to strengthen your faith in God. You are the future of society! During this beautiful period of your life, I urge you to study hard and be passionate about the truth. Christ is the ultimate answer to the questions you are asking. He is the true love you are so much in love with. Make him the background of your search. Make Him your point of reference. Many people have no stable points of reference on which to build their lives, and so they end up deeply insecure. You don’t want to be one of them. There is a growing mentality of relativism, which holds that everything is equally valid, that truth and absolute points of reference do not exist. But this way of thinking does not lead to true freedom, but rather to instability, confusion and blind conformity to the fads of the moment. As young people, you need a solid point of reference to help you to make choices and upon which to build your lives. you need direction like a young plant that needs solid support until it can sink deep roots and become a sturdy tree capable of bearing fruit. Christ is that support. Don’t be afraid to entrust yourself to Christ. An important day in your young life, dear young friends, is the day on which you become convinced that Christ is the only friend who not disappoint you and on whom you can always count.

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Dear Woman

I want to remind you that we are living in a time of crisis. I want to you to look at the family and see how broken it is. Each one of you knows a broken family due to divorce, infidelity, immaturity, lack of faith, and failure to dream.
Dear woman, you are my mother, sister, niece, god daughter, god mother, cousin, and friend. I love you and need you. When I am around you, you brighten my smile. You inspire me to dream big. I become a man because of you. You make me live my manhood more completely. You have educated me, raised me, carried me, inspired me, and wiped my tears. Thank you. The moon, the sun, and all the stars in all their surpassing beauty do not come close to your beauty. You are the most beautiful phenomena that God has ever created. You know how to console better than any other creature. You know what soothes and satiates my deepest anger and hunger. Of your own, you are a wonder. I want you to know how important you are in my life. In my sorrows, the kindness and sweetness of your voice change my sadness into joy. To you I turn for love, friendship, companionship, motivation, faith, and wisdom. I hope this gives you a glimpse into what you mean to me.
Dear woman, the world needs you right now. Just as God turned to a woman after the Fall to bring about redemption, the world needs you to put its train back on the right track. I must admit that due to a lack of focus on your value, you have taken your eyes off the right path. The world needs you right now. The world needs you to show its daughters how to grow to become women respected by all. The world needs you to educate its boys how to treat and look at women. The world needs your deep motherly love for family and desire to build a world founded on love, truth, peace, and justice to fix our broken society. The world needs your concern for values to teach its young women what it means to be mother. The world needs you to tell its young men how to be a man. The world needs your genius. Please come back; we are perishing in this valley of tears. If we ever did something that hurt you, we want to pay four times more. All we want is you. We will do whatever it takes to have you back. We cannot afford continuing on this path without you.
Dear woman, you are the only who has the power to rebuild my broken life. Even if a man has everything he needs, without you he is like broken Frigidaire. These and many other concerns tell me that you have the solution to my problem.
Dear woman, do I have to make an argument to convince you? If arguments ever mean, yes I will make one. When humanity was standing at the threshold of life and death, when humankind was galloping toward its bitter destiny, when the world was facing the greatest crisis it had ever known, it was to you that God turned to save us and you have not failed us. Though Pilate, Annas and Caiaphas found no reason to condemn Jesus, they did not have the courage to go against the current. However, veronica did not fear the soldiers to wipe the face of the world’s savior. Pilate’s wife did not fear the fury of court officials to tell her husband that the man is innocent, so have nothing to do with his death. Was it not to a woman the greatest news in history has been announced? We need your genius because we have failed. You have the secret of this dark hour. So to you, we want to entrust it. We, man, have been governing the world, but it keeps on collapsing. Our strongest qualities are evaporating. Reason is gradually being abdicated. As philosophy no longer seeks truth, as psychology is concerned more and more with cavernous instincts of the subterranean libido, as right and wrong are decided by pool numbers, as democracy is no more about arithmocracy, we need your genius to stop this train wreck.
Dear woman, do you see how much I need you? Thank you for listening.

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What It Means to Be Human

The human being is the most complex and fascinating phenomenon ever created. All people of knowledge from philosophers, to scientists, sociologists etc. have attempted to come up with propositions capable of summarizing the human being. Some have provided propositions that destroy the very dignity of the human person. Others have come up with more or less acceptable view. I call their view acceptable because they have sustained the test of time and debates in the philosophical arena.
Here, I want to consider Aristotle’s view of the human person, which deals with basics of what a human being is, but lacks what makes us great; and I want to express one of the elements that make us stand apart from all other beings.
In the De Anima, Aristotle argues that the human person is a composite of body and soul. For him, the body cannot be separated from the soul in the same way form cannot be separated from matter. The soul, as he conceives it, is the substantial form of the body; by this, he means that it needs the body for its subsistence, but it is not a body. It is what makes a human being a human being in the same way the ability to cut is what makes an axe an axe, sight is what makes an eye an eye, so the soul is makes a human being what he/she is.
It is noteworthy to mention that the telos of Aristotle in studying the soul is not because he believes that it has some value beyond this life; he is studying it because he believes that it is something fascinating as any philosophical concept. Knowing what something is tells us what it can do. As a result, he defines it as the first actuality of a natural body that potentially has life.
Due to this understanding, he maintains that anything that has life has also a soul. So plants have nutritive soul- meaning the can take in food and so grow; animals have perceptive/sensitive soul, which means that they can do what plants do, and they can also sense and reproduce. Human beings, according to his view, have a rational/intellective soul which is unique to them. Humans have the capacity to do what both plants and animals do, but more importantly, he/she has the capacity to reason. Due to that capacity, human can strive toward a higher telos (end).
How does the body communicate with each other as we observe it? Unlike most thinkers, Aristotle differs between the mind and the soul. The mind is part of the body and so is a physical thing while the soul is an immaterial, non spatial thing that acts in a physical thing (the mind). So the soul interacts with the body by means of the mind. The soul acts on the mind which acts on the body, but it is unaffected by it and has nothing in common with the body. So when the body is deteriorated, the soul remains intact. The soul never gets tired doing what it does. If the mind can be weary thinking, if the body gets tired daily, the soul can never be tired exercising its activity.
A concept that Aristotle was probably never interested in, but which interests me greatly, is that the human person originates from love, by means of love, to become love, and ultimately return to love. As such, he is the only being capable of selflessly giving himself as a gift of love. Actually, love is the only requirement that a person asks of others. We are just to a person if we love him/her. This is true for God as well as human. Love, for a person, excludes the idea that he/she is being treated as object of pleasure. Here, I think Kant would strongly agree with me since he maintains that a person must always be treated as an end in his Categorical Imperative.
Thus, the way we manifest our humanity, the way we echo our identity is when we let love blossom selflessly. It’s in selfless love that we become fully human. As a consequence of this behavior and understanding, before we do anything, we must always question whether or not that elevates the human person to love more deeply and so allows him/her to flourish as a person of dignity. Moreover, the capacity to offer ourselves as a gift of love when we fully know what that involves is a testimony that we are unique and was intentionally given that capacity. It is a witness that we were created as an intrinsic end for a particular purpose. As a result, we must live in a way that bears witness to that. We are truly human when we avoid engaging in what compromises the purpose for which we were made.
So to be human means to be constantly giving ourselves as a selfless gift. In fact, every move we make in life, our cravings, restless effort to succeed, search for friendship, bonding, conviviality, and striving to know the truth and the good are done for the sake of love. Entrust your self to selfless love so we can attain the depth of human existence. Know this. That love you are seeking, the love you have a right to enjoy and should selflessly die for has a name and a face— Jesus of Nazareth who died on the cross to give meaning to your life and purpose to your endeavors.

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The Just Man

I find it necessary to write on the characteristics of the just person because it seems no longer praiseworthy to remain just in the face of temptations, adversities, and threats. We emphasize wealth, fame, and power, it seems that if there is a choice between acting justly and wealth, fame and power, it would be stupid to choice the former. The truth is some values are irreplaceable and worth pursuing regardless of what people think. I do not think sufficient focus has been put on how important it is to do the just thing despite how unpopular, or politically incorrect it may perhaps be.

It seems that no one cares about how someone becomes successful. Here I want to maintain that it is expedient to always act justly regardless of how people may judge the action.
When I was a little younger than I am now, my mother used to tell me this story: there was a man who became wealthy by literally selling one of his children to the devil for money. Well, he had an avalanche of money pretty quickly after the child’s death. There was a poor neighbor who knew about the matter. One day, the rich man was going home from his store, and he saw the poor neighbor coming home from work. The wealthy neighbor stopped to give the poor one a ride. the neighbor refused saying, “I do not want to associate myself with you due to the means by which you acquired your money”. The moral of the story was to teach me honesty or the value of achieving success through just means.

It matters how one makes one’s money. A man who makes his money by the sweat of his brow is honorable while another who makes his money through evil or corrupted means is disgraceful. Dont get me wrong; Success is not intrinsically bad at all, but it must be achieved through honest means. We must disdain those who try to achieve success through corrupted and vicious means.
Plato, in the Republic, was asked the following question: is it good to be just if no one would know about it? In other words, is it rational to be just for the sake of being just? To illustrate the point, Plato’s brother, Glaucon, uses this metaphor known as the ‘Ring of Gyges’: while tending the flock of his master, a shepherd found a golden ring that allows him to become invisible at will. With that newly found power, he quickly arranged to be chosen as one of the messengers who reported to the king on the status of the flocks. Arriving at the palace, he used his new power of invisibility to seduce the queen, and with her help he murdered the king, and became king of Lydia himself.

Glaucon asserts, “If you could imagine any one obtaining this power of becoming invisible, and never doing any wrong or touching what was another’s, would he not be thought by the onlookers to be a most wretched idiot?” (Book II, 360d). Thus, this story suggests that being just is not easy; many are only just because they are afraid of the consequences of getting caught. If there is a way they can get away with it, they would not act honestly. We act justly only if that can bring us fame, which in turn would bring us money. For Plato, It is in our interest to be just even when no one would notice it. It is advantageous to be honest though there may be no chance of getting rewarded for it. Whoever abuses the power of the Ring of Gyges enslaved himself to his appetites, while the man who chose not to use it remains rationally in control of himself and is therefore happy (Book X, 612b). One does not become happy through fame, power, or wealth; one is made happy when he/she cultivates the virtue of excellence. So the person who does not abuse the power of the ring is virtuous and intelligent, and so is happy. So being just leads to happiness.
It does not matter what people think about the man striving to be just. The question that carries any weight is whether the unjust man is happier than the just man. About this, Plato says, since the unjust man succumbs to completely unlimited desire, he can never be satisfied with anything he has. Thus, in the deepest of his soul, he is unhappy while on the outside everyone might think he is happy. On the other hand, the just man is rarely recognized because his justice is an internal matter. He lives his life according to this justness. He is a man of true simplicity of character who wants “to be, and not to seem, good”. The just man has sometimes the worst of reputations even though he has done no wrong. That happens to him, according to Plato, as a way to test his justice and see if it can stand up to unpopularity and all that goes with it; he has an undeserved and lifelong reputation for wickedness, and make him stick to his chosen course until death … The just man will be scourged, tortured, and imprisoned. his eyes will be put out, and after enduring every humiliation he will be crucified, and learn at last that in the world as it is we should want not to be, but to seem, just (Republic 361e). Beware that passage was written around 430 B.C. Does this description remind you of anyone? This, then, must be our conviction about the just man, that whether he fall into poverty or disease or any other supposed evil, for him all these things will finally prove good, both in life and in death. For by the gods assuredly that man will never be neglected who is willing and eager to be righteous, and by the practice of virtue to be likened unto God so far as that is possible for man (the Republic, Book 10, 613a-613b).
Such is Plato’s description of the just person. Do you still want to be just after this? It takes a lot of courage to act justly, doesn’t it? Despite this mountainous description, Plato rightly tells us that it is good to imitate the just man than the unjust one. Now, tell me whether we should not honor those who try to be honest. If a man is willing to go to such drama for the sake of acting justly, if there is no reward for the just man in this life and yet he remains just, tell me a society should not promote and encourage such behaviors and values. This description is nothing unlike what Christianity demands by the way. No wonder Christians are so few. Honestly, it seems impossible to choose being a just person. Yes, it is impossible from a human level, but it is achievable because of the grace that we receive from God through the sacraments. On a human level, of course we would fall, fail, and probably give up, but Jesus gives us the Holy Spirit to strengthen and encourage us in the slightest effort we make toward being just. Therefore it is within our reach.
It is not easy to remain just in the face of such pressure, but to those who are trying out there I want to say ‘courage’. Don’t give up the fight! You will not regret it, and thank you. Tremendous recompenses are in store for you as Solomon said,
“The souls of the just are in the hand of God, and no torment shall touch them. They seemed, in the view of the foolish, to be dead; and their passing away was thought an affliction and their going forth from us, utter destruction. But they are in peace. For if to others, indeed, they seem punished, yet is their hope full of immortality; Chastised a little, they shall be greatly blessed, because God tried them and found them worthy of himself” (Wisdom 3, 1-5).
Yes, honesty when no one is watching us, or when no one around us is pursuing it is difficult, but greatness is accomplished only through trials. One day, your heroic action will brighten like the noonday sun and we will all see who gets the last laugh. We all have before us greatness and mediocrity, justice and injustice, eternal bliss and eternal torment. Are we going to choose greatness, justice and eternal bliss. If you do, you may for a time have to endure many trials, but this is so that your virtuous acts, which are more precious than fire-tried gold, may by its genuineness result in honor, praise, and glory when the Just judge is deciding our fate.

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The Inner Fight!

If you have been following my posts religiously, you should notice how I have been emphasizing that we have a God shaped vacuum in the deepest of our self that can only be filled when we turn our heart and mind to God. I have said times and times again that the way to fill that empty fountain is to wholeheartedly surrender ourselves to God, the pioneer and the perfecter of everything we do. The point I want to accentuate here is that I believe that the vacuum we have in our soul is created by our Creator to keep in touch with us. It is actually very important to continue to have that vacuum in order to continue to be thirsty and hunger for God, and so search Him ever more intensely. Without the need for God, there would be an African desert inside of our soul that would never be quenched. We would constantly be yearning for something that could never be found. I believe it is God, in His unfathomable mercy, that creates that great divide in us to help us in this valley of tears in which we find ourselves.

This generation is probably the first generation where human nature is looked down upon. Every generation before us understood that we are a certain way, and there is a certain way we need to live in order to best fulfill the being that we are. From antiquity to the modern time, all understand that we have an inner conflict. Some knew better how to deal with it, but they at least understand that we have it. Nowadays however, even though we are experiencing the conflict, many prefer to ignore it. And that’s alarming.

Thomas Aquinas understood the conflict thus: between the spirit and the flesh there is a continual combat that needs to be dealt with by prayer and fasting. Ovid, the Roman poet, saw the same war in himself as well. He wrote, “I see the better thing, and I approve them, but I follow the worse”. St Paul too understood it very well when he wrote, “the good that I want to do I fail to do, but what I do is the wrong that is against my will” (Roman 7, 28-9). Pascal truly understood the nature of man’s emptiness when he wrote, “the cruelest war that God can wage against men in this life is to leave them without the war he has come to bring”. That war is present in every human soul, and I believe it is to our advantage that it is there. It is an inner conflict between our desires and the principles by which we set for ourselves to live; it is a war between our emotions and reason, grace and nature, doing this and that…. It is an inner conflict between the actual and the ideal self. That is a good thing; it keeps us going; it allows us to strive to be the best-version-of-ourselves and reach holiness.

Whatever forms that conflict takes, it can only be resolved in isolation; only when we remove ourselves from the noise of this world to completely surrender ourselves in mind, heart and soul to God by telling Him how much we hunger and thirst for Him, and how without Him we are a failure is that longing satisfied. I believe that conflict is almost necessary for our spiritual and human development. The way we handle it can perfect our nature and help us attain the true greatness for which we were born. It reveals our true character. It is not permissible to give up that fight. It is through fire that gold is tested. We want to say like St Paul, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Tim 4, 7) so we can be told, “Well done, good and faithful servant, come and receive the reward of eternal life” (Mat 25).

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How to Best Live Life

This simple question has been the concern of thinkers in every period in history. However, it seems that our culture seems to characterize these kinds of questions as unnecessary because, as they say, they are the fruit of primitive thinking, or psychological hang-up, or simply they don’t help put food on the table. Whenever we will to rise above our imagination, it can be observed that things work for the sake of an end. So, we too are not spared from this natural phenomenon of life. As Thomas Aquinas says, “it is characteristic of man to do everything for an end” (ST II-I, 1, 1). That means every action we do, we do it for the sake of an end. Corollary to that statement, we have an end. Everything has an end. For instance, a chair’s end is to provide seating for people; a car’s end is to bring people wherever they want to go very quickly; nature’s end is to provide oxygen, beauty, location, good condition for human beings to flourish; the weather’s end is to furnish good season so we can grow the appropriate crops… according to our needs. The question is rightly asked: how should we live life in order to become the best person possible? In other words, how do we need to live in order to fulfill our end? Philosophers have proposed many different ways we can live in order to be as flourishing as possible. In this post, I will expose Kant and Christianity’s proposal on how to best live life
Kant’s first proposal on how to best live life is his Categorical Imperative. It states that a person is to “act only in accordance with that maxim through which he/she can at the same time will that it becomes a universal law”. If whatever we are doing can be universalized i.e. it would not caused any morally harm if everyone does it, then we can pursue it. Otherwise, it would be wise to jettison it. Kant’s second proposal is that we should never act in such a way that we treat Humanity as a means but always as an end in itself. Well, there is nothing wrong with these proposals if people did not want to get their way out of everything. It is unbelievable how much many people are not even trying to be honest. Since it is the case, they give voice to many who think Kant’s proposal is confusing, or cannot really be universalized. Why is it hard to not do to others what you yourself dislike? Kant’s way can keep the world together, but many prefer to conjure up issues that have never existed. Who can deny that if something cannot be universalized, it is probably wrong? Who can deny that all human beings must be intrinsically valued, and so must never be treated as means?
We are wired for God. As the great Augustine says, “O God, you have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in thee” (confessions I). It is true the technological advancement that our world has known surpassed our wildest expectations. We can sit here in America and instantly experience what is happening in Japan. I can testify to this since I see any soccer game live in Europe though I don’t live there. But the human heart longs for something that they sciences or technology can never deliver. We are yearning for something that lies beyond the limited human mind. “Only in God is our soul at rest”, the psalmist said. Only when we are living in communion with God can we find what we are looking for. That is the Christian message. Anyone who denies that will experience this for himself. No one can deny that he does not long for infinite happiness that he does not find in anything earthly. All pleasures we have experienced so far are ephemeral. They come and go. So, what are we to do in order that our yearning may one day be satisfied? That is what Christianity is; she proposes the answer to our longing. The answer is Jesus Christ, but it is intrinsically dependent on us to choose and embrace Him with our heart, mind, soul, and every fiber of our being. Three principles are proposed by Christianity on how to best live life and at the end reach something that can satiate our longing. The first principle is to become holy. Holiness is man’s first vocation. Aquinas calls this ‘human flourishing’; some motivational speakers call it ‘the best-version-of-ourselves’. Is it not true that we all would like to become the best person we can be? Is it not true that we all have an ideal for ourselves? It seems to be that there are two versions of each of us. The one that we actually are, and the one that God wants us to become. Christianity offers the best mean to reach that ideal self. No one in their right mind can reject such a view altogether. The second is to become virtuous. Virtue is at the heart of the Christian life. The more virtuous we become, the easier it is for us to reach holiness, flourishing, or the best version of ourselves. The more virtuous we are, the more our neighbor, society, church, and family benefit. The whole world prefers virtue to vice. Something vicious committed by one man hurts not only the wretched person, but also the family of the hurt. The third principle that Christianity proposes on how to best live life is to cultivate love. We need to start advertising a culture of life ground on firm examples that inspire others to choose God’s way above vengeance. We need to publicly live and make choices that testify our Christian faith. When we get the opportunities, we need to make it count so deeply that no one can resist asking us what inspires us to act like that. There will be occasions to refuse suing someone because we choose to forgive though we are hurt. We leave justice to God. Living this way is living for the end for which we were created. Yes, each of us has a vocation that will most fulfill us. However, most of us will never find out that vocation. Therefore, as Christian, we need to develop the best version of ourselves and live it as no one else could.
I am not talking about anything abstract. All of us know how to be kind. We all know we must help those in needs. We all know that we can love more. The question is: are we doing with all our heart, mind, strength, will, and intellect? I am asking that we do these in ways that reflect the best version of who we are. Action follows upon being. What we do reflects who we are. Who we are is not mediocrity. We are made for greatness. We cannot simply help. We must be the greatest helper we can possibly be. We cannot afford to simply be kind. We need to be the kindest person we can be. We need to live in ways that show greatness. Do you think this is the best you can can give at what you are doing? Are you the best son you can be? The best neighbor, friend, coworker, student, Christian you can be right now? Ok, you’re probably not, but is this the best you can do? Do you think you can live in accordance with the greatness that you are? Mother Teresa said, “Let no one come to you without leaving better and happier. Be the living expression of God’s kindness in your eyes, smile, and greeting”. When we are virtuous, we benefit as well. A virtuous act expands our heart and brings us a sense of achievement and self-realization. When you develop these characteristics, you reach the end for which you were created. Don’t ever give it up.
That is my proposal. Would you like to propose a way, too? Feel welcomed.

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The Important of Teleological Thinking

There was a time in the history of the Western world, no one would do, think, act on anything without considering the purpose and end for which he is doing, acting, thinking that way. There were a time people thought in term of end and purpose. They did not do something because they have the capacity and means to do. They did something because they wanted to accomplish something that elevates the human person to a more flourishing state. So, their thinking was not simply people oriented, it was specifically human dignity oriented. At that period, leaders and thinkers could see a little further than their own toes. Their needs were not put before the human race’s needs. Scientists and philosophers of old would not do something merely because it brings pleasure to people. However, since Descartes came up with his method in the 16th century, conceiving actions in term of end and purpose have been going downhill. Scientists and politicians do and say things because they want to fulfill their own selfish interest, be it fame, wealth and power. They no longer conceive things in term of Aristotle’s four causes. The point I want to stress here is that without those four causes, especially the last one, we cannot be anything but a boat on the deep sea without a captain. In this imbroglio, we are nothing but sheep without a shepherd, or wayfarer without a destination.

What are Aristotle’s four causes and do they make sense? The first of the four causes are the Material cause: “that from which a thing comes to be. Material cause is the raw material (matter) out of which something is made. For instance, in the case of human being, our material cause is body. In the case of a table, it is wood. The second of the four causes is the Formal cause is the form i.e. that which makes matter a particular type of thing. What allows us to recognize something as a particular type. In our case, our soul is considered the formal cause. For a table, it is its shape (eidos). What allows us to recognize human beings as human being is because they possess a soul. The soul allows us to look a certain way (upright posture), and act a certain way. The formal cause is what allows us t distinguish a table from a chair though they are both made of woods. We recognize and are able to identify a table because of its shape—its formal cause. The third cause is the Efficient cause. It is what initiates something, or what brings it into existence, or as Aristotle put it, efficient cause is the source of the primary principle of change or stability. An artist who creates a piece of art is the efficient cause of that piece of art. The person who comes up with the idea of a great business plan is the efficient cause of that business. And the fourth cause is the Final cause. It is the end, the purpose (telos) for which something is made. The final cause allows us to ask ‘what something is for’. What we considered at this stage is the ‘why’ of a thing. What is the why of a table? What is the why of a human being? What is the why of the universe? This can be asked about anything.

Now what interests me and the reason why I am writing this article is because our culture, apart from some Christian’s groups, completely rejects this way of thinking. As a result, we are having all the confusions we currently have in our conception of arts, ethics, traditional understanding of marriage, friendship etc. As soon as we return to this way of thinking, all our confusions and unending arguing everything would make sense. Sadly, not knowing the ultimate why of something does not hamper us from doing the thing, but deep down something fundamental is lacking. For example, even though I may not know what I want to accomplish in writing this article, I can still write an awesome article that speaks to many. It may happen that this article helps someone to see the light, but the disaster it causes later may surpass the few people it reaches. Its disastrous consequence may outdo any good help it may bring. Now someone may say that I could never predict all the consequence of an action, be it an article, a scientific discovery, or a sentence I utter. I agree. Our limited mind can never see all the consequences of an action. However, some of the consequences are so evident, no one can say they could not see them coming.

Thinking teleologically gives shape, meaning, and direction to a story, be it our story, an imaginary story written in a book, or a story heard on the radio or TV. If we turn on the TV for the 5pm news and find a reporter explaining something, would we get the point he is making without knowing why he is telling the story. Had Dante not understood ‘why’ Virgil wanted to take him through hell, purgatory, and heaven, would he actually trust him through these scary roads? Had M. L. King, M. Ghandi not clearly defined their purpose during their respectives civil right movement, would they have accomplished anything? If a business owner does not define his long and short term goals, could he really prevail in this competitive market? Goal/purpose/end defines the direction we go. We don’t go to Europe by going through the North Pole, or the Bermuda triangle. Ask C Columbus, he will tell you that if one wants to reach India, they have a specific direction they need to follow otherwise that person will end up in the Americas. Our society has lost its sense of purpose. As a result, relativism and terrorism rule. It is purpose that helps people to flourish or accomplish ultimate happiness, or leads them closer to the true, the good, and the beautiful. Nothing should be done because we have the capacity to do it. This has been the failure of most scientists in the last century. They believe because they can do something, they must do it. Something should be pursued only if it helps human beings to be more human. Otherwise, it should be abandoned even if we have the means to do.

Do you think our (governments and churches’) plans include elevating the human person to a higher standard of being human?

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Some Reasons We Think Philosophy Impractical and Some Reasons We Are Wrong

Living in a society where capitalism is championed as the best means to economic prosperity has consequences. When a society’s schools focus more on how his students will get a job after graduation while undermining how virtuous that student will become later in life, a science like philosophy cannot be highly regarded trampled over. When we believe that being successful means having a lot of money, while being a good person is undervalued, philosophy of course will be underestimated. When a society values appearance, looks, and sense experience in such a profound magnitude, of course philosophy lost his seat of honor in the house of argumentation. I am not proud to say that philosophy in of itself loses the debate, but it is the sad reality. When a society adopts a distorted view of human nature where it no longer means striving for perfection or excellence, that society has issues. When freedom means having the power to do as one sees fit, of course that society will think that philosophy is futile and needs to be pursued only by those who has no need to pursue an ambitious career. Our society wants to devalue anything that does not bring money and fame. I want to tell those people who think this way, not so fast. Money and fame do not bring the happiness they yearn for in the deepest self. They don’t feel the God shaped vacuum in their heart that can never be filled by the fleeting things f this world. As human beings constructed with a physical and a spiritual nature, we were not made for fame and wealth; we were made to live in communion with Our Creator. Among all the sciences, philosophy and theology provide the quickest means to reach Our Creator’s hands. Therefore, philosophy must not be dismissed. It must not be dismissed because it helps us answer the deep questions of life that we are all concerned about. It is true philosophy students are one of the highest unemployed people in the country, which is again due to our view of it. It is no denial that philosophy is not discussed in our TV stations like history and the sciences. However, when everything is said and done, I mean when we get comfort, a roof over our head, a car, a decent standard of living, the first question we ask in one form or another is what the point of it all is. In absence of religion, philosophy is the first that allows us to ponder this non dismissible question. Relying on a lecture I have attended at Providence College and my own insight, I will give some of the reasons why we think philosophy is not beneficial, and some reasons why we are wrong.

The biggest reason behind our incorrect view of philosophy is due to the deep seated cultural view of life. Most people today think that good looks, wealth, and fame make people happy. Therefore, these aids to happiness are no longer seen as means toward happiness, they are seen as happiness itself. The happy life does not mean living in accordance with virtue and excellence. The happy life simply means following whatever allows one to get rich and famous. So our view is too tied up to one of the means that lead to happiness. Moreover, most people have a distorted view of happiness. They believe that happiness is the satisfaction of our desires. Since philosophers are usually concerned with the deep questions of life while seemingly suggesting little about how people can satisfy their desires, they assign philosophy a red card. So it is out of the game. Despite the fact that philosophy departments in our colleges and universities tout themselves as that which gives the tools to attain the highest thing of life, most students entering college don’t care about majoring in philosophy. Although philosophy majors outperform all majors except math in the GRE test for graduate schools, and have highest acceptance in medical schools, that is still not sufficiently appealing to people. Why do those people prefer a fish to the skill of fishing? Why do students not care about the almost guaranteed tool of success in a career and in life?
The most important factor behind that unfortunate choice is that we are too value-blind and money-oriented. We think we know when we actually don’t know. Value is thus very contingent upon people’s level of education. No one who cares about education, and who is actually educated would think that philosophy is impractical. Value is too contingent upon our subjective view of life. Since our culture rejects all her points of reference, since relativism is so prevalent in the mind of our people, of course we have to confuse the means of life with the end of life. Moreover, we never learn from our mistake and we have no role model. One would think that when it dawns upon us that money and what we value are unsatisfactory and leads us nowhere close to happiness, we would give philosophy a chance; everyone keeps looking away as if there is no past; they refuse to give such a noble path a chance. They suffer and the whole society suffers with them due to their foolish choice. Where has happened to our sense of sacrifice? We need to give up some worthless value in order to rise to our being, or in order to start moving toward our end. We should at least try to let go of things; if doing so makes us less happy, then we can go back to them, but if we become more content in doing so, it is probably the right thing to do and must be pursued further.
Have you noticed since this generation overwhelmingly rejects philosophy, they overwhelmingly reject God and religion? They think there is no such thing as first principles. Even if two ideas are contradictory, they still hold on to it. They only believe in what they cannot dismiss like the law of gravity and sciences; everything else is simply body of opinion. They believe that anything that cannot be proved scientifically is false although they cannot prove that statement themselves. We are not heading the right direction folks. It is time to wake up and realize that as a boat needs a captain, as a country needs a leader, as the body needs the soul and the soul needs the body, as matter needs form and the latter needs matter, so it is with us in relation to philosophy. We need it to trigger our mind to thinking about higher things.
The lecture was given by Dr Kelly, Associate Professor San Diego University on April 2013 at Providence College

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