Alienated from God, alienated from others

THE month of February usually evokes the theme of love since it’s when we mark Valentine’s Day. This event—quite embarrassing to admit, given our Christian identity—would even overshadow the spirit of Ash Wednesday that starts the Lenten season.

Actually, these two events need not compete with each other but should rather mutually reinforce each other if we only know how to handle them properly. And that is, that we always consider them under the light of our faith. Outside of our Christian faith, there is no way a mutual relationship can be established between the two.

Fact is, love for many, especially the young ones, would only mean the mushy type, the one that is based mainly if not only on feelings, looks and appearances, or on what they call some magic that has nothing to do with faith-based commitment. It’s a highly perishable type of love that cannot stand the whole gamut of the realities of life. It’s a love that is developed and lived more in fantasy, in a make-believe world, than in the real world.

It’s time to remind everyone that true love can only come from God whose essence, which we also share, is precisely love. “Deus caritas est, God is love,” as St. John said. (1 Jn 4,8) And this love is shown to us in the concrete in Christ who makes it available to us in many ways, especially through the sacraments. It is this love that connects the sentiments of Valentine’s Day with those of Lent.

A love that is not a participation of the love of God can never be a true love. It may manage to attract us and to give us a lot of conveniences and advantages, but sooner or later its fraud would be exposed.

We cannot deny that when we are alienated from God, we would also be alienated from others, even if things may appear otherwise. It cannot be otherwise. Let’s remember also that we can be good at pretending, which is what devils are also very good at.

Nowadays, there are many reports based on some medical studies about young people falling into depression. And they somehow put a good part of the blame on the social media where the young ones would not know how to handle their reactions of anger, envy, sadness and other negative things toward what they see in the social media.

As a result, they tend to isolate themselves and become victims of their own dark and negative thoughts. Thus, the number of people with mental illness and even of suicide has increased lately.

We need to reiterate this basic truth about ourselves: that we need God, that we can only learn to love properly if our love is based on the love of God. God not only defines what true love is. He gives us the means to live it properly. True love cannot be found anywhere else.

We have to do everything to help everyone, especially the young ones, to develop a true relationship with God. This will require a lot of effort—explaining the doctrine of our faith, giving accompaniment and ongoing formation, developing the proper attitudes and virtues, etc.

But this would be all worthwhile. Let’s hope that even as we grapple with the more immediate needs and challenges of our daily, we do not neglect our more important duty to develop this relationship with God!