Beyond simply seeing the world

Many commercials flaunt the slogan that if you become someone or do something, you get to see the world. “Be a flight stewardess and see the world,” is an example. “Be an IT expert or a caregiver, and see the world,” is another.

Many young people obviously get attracted to the idea. And that’s understandable. But we need to remind everyone that there is a much better way to see the world and even to go beyond simply seeing the world. And it need not involve any travelling at all.

It’s when we get identified with God’s will that we get to see not only the world in the manner of a tourist, an immigrant or an OFW, but also beyond the world, and even beyond space and time toward eternity and the spiritual and supernatural realities which no amount of earthly travelling can reach.

Christ said as much when he addressed his disciples who believed in him, “Blessed are your eyes for they see, and ears, for they hear. Truly, I say to you, many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it” (Matthew 13:16-17).

In another part of the gospel, Christ told one of his apostles, “He who believes in me will also do the works that I do, and greater works than these will he do” (John 14:12).

Still in another part, St. Paul wrote, “Being rooted and grounded in love, you may have power to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge” (Ephesians 3:17-18).

We need to explode the myth that taking our faith seriously and consistently living our piety in all the circumstances of our life means having a deprived and secluded life. The opposite is true.

With faith we get to see both the macro and micro levels of reality. With faith, our power to cover big and distant areas as well as to penetrate things to their core is mightier than what the Internet and other new technologies, for example, can do. It would be mightier than what our senses and our intellectual powers unguided by faith can reach.

That’s the reason why we should always enliven our faith through constant prayer, recourse to the sacraments, assiduous study of the doctrine of our faith, waging a continuing spiritual struggle against our weaknesses and temptations, and growing in the virtues.

The saints achieved a universal mind and heart, with the effects of their sanctity reaching distant lands, simply by living their faith to the full even if they were confined to a certain area. The life of St. Therese of the Child Jesus is proof of this. Her heroic sanctity, lived and developed in the confines of her convent, made her the patron of the missions.

We need to understand the dynamics of faith. It has the power of God’s grace that can go beyond our human limitations. It can purify and elevate our natural faculties. It can enable us to enter into the spiritual and supernatural realities.

We need to be spiritual, not carnal. It’s not a matter of suppressing our sensual, material and earthly condition, but rather of going beyond that level. That’s where the road to the fullness of humanity can be found. That’s where we are freed from the constricting world of our senses, emotions and passions.

St. Paul said something to this effect. “Put off your old nature which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new nature, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:22-24).

In another instance, St. Paul talked about talking or preaching in a spiritual way and not just according to human and worldly wisdom. “My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power” (1 Corinthians 2:4-5).

More clearly, he said, “We speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words” (1 Corinthians 2:13).

This is a big challenge for us all. We have to learn to think, speak, and act in a spiritual way, and not just mainly conditioned by our sensual, material, and worldly aspects.