Trigger Happy

“What’s the trigger for your gout, Father?”

“My gout? Why do you want to know, Pete?”

“‘Coz maybe I could avoid it when I get old one day,” he munched on his fried chicken.

“Old?” I raised my eyebrows at him.

“Nah, I meant…,” he tried rectifying.

“No problem, dude! Just kidding. Does your dad have gout?” I asked.

“I don’t think so, why?” he asked.

“Then you most likely won’t have it! It’s more genetic, I guess,” I enviously watched Pete devour his chicken while, like an old cow, I was monotonously chewed on my green.

“How do you avoid it, Father?”

“My doctor told me to avoid triggers for it.”

“Triggers?”

“Food or drinks that increase uric acid in my system that cause the gout.”

“Like what kind of food, Father?”

“Chicken!!!?” I quipped.

“Ew!!!” He suddenly dropped the chicken wing.

* * * * * *

Constant advances in science and technology are discovering and offering means to prevent illnesses that one upon a time were considered incurable. Thus, we lounge in a health-conscious society that offers us unimaginable states of integrity and longevity of life.

But sometimes, the cure to pain isn’t always with a pill. Instead, some doctors tell their patients to avoid certain food or ask them to change their lifestyle to avoid stress related illnesses. As the adage goes: An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Unfortunately, there are many who would rather let the pill do the healing instead of exercising their willpower to become physically and spiritually healthier. Pills undoubtedly help, but it doesn’t necessary mean that one is living a healthy lifestyle and mindset.

Likewise, in the spiritual life one may want an easy fix to moral problems and weaknesses. People seem to be looking for the impossible condition of somehow enjoying the best of two worlds: not falling into sin and enjoying the good derived from sin.

There isn’t a pill, thanks to God, that will remove our proclivity to sin and other disorders. But some ignorantly think that the Sacrament of Confession is precisely that pill. Thus, some say: ‘There’s confession anyway!’ But this incomplete statement leads to a conclusion that people are reluctant to conclude: ‘…so it’s OKAY to sin!’

But no one, in his right mind, enjoys sin for sin’s sake. We often fall because we are disorderly attracted to disordered good or something that isn’t meant for us. Thus, it is clear that sin isn’t what is in our agenda.

Upon falling, people go to confession hoping for a full spiritual recharge. But they wonder why they keep on falling into the same faults. In some cases, it is due to only see the Sacrament as a cure (like a pill) for their guilt, but not as a constant companion (prevention) to help them live a virtuous lifestyle of penance.

A lifestyle of penance is oriented towards a life of hidden but unconditional service to God and others. Rather than monotonously avoiding occasions of sin, it craves for triggers of grace that will allow the soul to grow in virtue and apostolic fruitfulness. One can call it a trigger-happy life, but one that aims on switches that turn us on with greater love for God and others.

It is also called a happy and meaningful lifestyle, because one is engaged to think less of self and his comforts, and gives himself as a gift instead.