The truer reality of the UNSEEN..

The Truer Reality of the UNSEEN

I Dare Not Offend My "Glorious Unseen Master"!

It’s a Church tradition to believe and to celebrate the supposed happening of the Lord Jesus’ seeing and meeting with her Mother Mary soon after he rose from the dead. This was probably true because Mary, after, all is our Lord’s mother.

The Church points to Christ’s resurrection being the main event, upon which the Church and the Faith of the people bank on the dogmatic declaring of the un-assailability of the Faith, which Jesus preached, and of the Church, which he founded. Yet the Lord Jesus Christ was not at all too eager to make grand exhibit of his Divine Rising from the death after evil people put him to death. Jesus did appear soon enough to Mary Magdalene, Peter, and the rest of the Apostles & disciples, including the famed pair of travelers to Emaus. And Jesus did his appearing to them, specifically to the Apostles in the Upper Room only after a few days, then again the following week perhaps, sort of, for the sake of the "doubting Thomas". Surely nothing could have prevented him from showing himself right away and much more publicly to his dismayed ‘followers’ if at least to give them, like a father, the tender reprimanding words: "Didn’t I tell you I will rise again in 3 days?" Indeed, he did; but did not right away make it so evident,ie. did not make it known...... so very publicly, as it were, to larger assembly of his followers! Didn’t this seem to tell us Christ wanted believers to believe he rose from death BECAUSE HE SAID SO beforehand, and BECAUSE his followers, who had not seen him but HEARD THE FEW WHO HAD SEEN HIM TESTIFIED TO THE BELIEF, AND BELIEVED.

Indeed, theologically the resurrection of Christ is the justification of the salvation preached, promised, and delivered by himself the Messiah. Incarnationally,, ie. in terrestially metaphysical, logical & epistemological terms it would not have completely ‘demonstrated’ the saving act of and by Christ before men unless Jesus did rise and show himself to have risen from death. It would not be a completed act unless the rising from death & the vision of his having risen is realized as one progressive act. Hence, the importance of Christ’s rising and proof-positive vision of his risen life! (Caveat! But this is not to say Christ’s resurrection has to be proved, ie. logically demonstrated to be so before men or before some sort of historical commission, in order for the Church to be able to teach or convince mankind of the salvation in Christ. In terms of man’s salvation by Christ and in Christ, all that is necessary to be true is that Christ the Son of God, was born of woman, lived as a man, preached of man’s salvation and his Messiahship, suffered & died on the cross, and rose from the dead. All that is required is that it be the truth of God, the truth which God says so to be true And this truth of salvation in Christ is essentially the truth only because God said it so. Revelation, alone, is the basis of the truth or of all fundamental events of salvation. For God alone is the truth, and the basis of truth. With regard to truth, thus, God alone is trustworthy. God alone is free from perjury.

Thus, I repeat what is stated above: "This is not to say Christ’s resurrection has to be proved, ie. logically demonstrated to be so before men or before some sort of historical commission, in order for the Church to be able to teach or convince mankind of the salvation in Christ." For the Church’s dogma of Christ’s resurrection is a dogma of faith ; it is not a human declaration by reason. It was enough that Christ said he was to rise from death, and that he did appear to ‘some’, or has shown very positive sign he had done so. Any, as it were, big circus displaying or formalistic assembly demonstrating of his immediate rising by Christ was/is not fundamental. But the universal preaching of his resurrection is fundamental as part and parcel of the preaching of salvation.

All the above brings us to the teaching of or about faith. The belief in Christ’s resurrection is a gift of faith from God by the Holy Spirit in Jesus Christ. The Christians’ concern about the resurrection of Christ, and for that matter about all his other teachings are that they exercise an act of faith: an act of accepting the truth of resurrection and of the doctrines of salvation because God revealed it to us as dispensed by the power of the Holy Spirit through words and the sacraments as administered by Christ’s Apostles.

Let us recall again, the words of Jesus to the unbelieving Thomas, "Blessed are those who have not seen; and have believed!" As regards human relating with God, the Lord puts a high premium on believing.

In contrast the world puts the accent upon seeing, or touching, or facing up to the real thing. No wonder many a man rushed their aging process. They could not wait. They want instant gratification in everything. And so they ended up forcing the issue, even twisting some facts, so they could right away get their premature rewards and untimely finishes. How often do we see these people winding up in trouble with the law on account they forced their way to the obtaining of their heart’s desire.

The Lord ever unfolds to us how many times something good happens to them who waited. It is not a cliche why it is often alluded the golden years of experience when applauding some people who have truly deserved having arrived in their lives.

We are not here, however, merely making considerations about wise living, or exercises in prudence and discipline. For these are really praiseworthy virtues but are virtues extolling human efforts & diligence, or crediting human works.

But as we deal with faith, we are dealing with a human condition or state that man gets to have the faith because of grace. We are talking about the gift of faith. It is God’s love for man which enables man to love him back; but never the other way around. God is always the initiator in calling man back to himself, and in establishing a loving relation with man. With God’s loving grace, man just needs to respond with the very means God provides him: grace. Thus, we are dealing here with a virtue that is arrived at not by sheer power of the will, mind, and body; but by an opportune taking advantage of the graciousness of God whose Spirit itself affords us to collaborate with the Spirit in loving back the God who is after us. Un-like the Spartan Athenians, who were brainwashed with in order to garner medals and awards for the Athenian State; the believers are completely given the freedom, and the use of freedom with which to express the responding back to God. With Athenian warriors, or for that matter, all excelling athletes of the world Olympics from any over-achieving national contingent of competitors, it is not uncommon to witness participating competitors or even victorious performers that ended up depressed or burned-out. There was, there were the moments of glory; but there followed too many more moments of depression or burning out. This is not to relegate to nothing the accomplishments of excellent athletes and warriors or performers. We are just pointing out here the not very uncommon toll on the competitors, especially the losers-competitors, who naturally greatly outnumber the ones who got the prize. But with Christian believers, who are also in for the run and for the long haul race, St Paul says they survive and finish the race because as they have learned to trust the Lord in total abandon they winded up discovering finishing their race with absolute peace of mind and freedom from worry. Indeed Jesus assured the heavy laden they can always find welcome in him, and in the process find their yoke easy and burden light because of him or of his grace.

By faith, the believers attribute the credit and honor primordially to God. Believers attest to the process of intervention by the Spirit in the happening or accomplishing of a miracle situation, ie. actual situations, where it was but by the intervention of the Almighty that some feat which could have but did not turn into a failure or a fiasco, or that some event which could have but did not become a tragedy or disaster. In other words, we are talking about certain things materializing, despite seeming very scarce time or very meager means, and despite some insurmountable odds and roadblocks, because of divine intervention . In ordinary framework, these could be supposedly ordinary day to day happenings in life that inexplicably developed smoothly and pleasantly to their finish with very little, though deliberate & concerted, input and action on the part of man.

With testimonies of God’s coming through for them, the believers further testify to the testing universal circumstances being placed upon them prior to their witnessing to the divine intervention that took place in their lives. They invariably disclose how initially and beforehand God has permitted their lives to be enmeshed in challenging sacrifices along with seemingly un-ending periods of trials and tribulations, which are not necessarily of their own making. They also attest to being thrown into humbled prayerfulness and divine trusting in the process. These are people who have been, or are being through many a difficult and trying tests by God. But they are also the ones who have persevered, thus, in their faith. Through it all, God has been providential in delivering them through their trials while in the process experiencing profound experiencing of the working of the Spirit of God, who carried/carries them through along the way. (We have referred to examples of these testimonies in our Mission Series: Chapter 10 & Chapter 14.)

Whereas throughout all of the Mission Series postings, along with most of my other postings on-line, I always make my hope pointer the End Times, during which everyone else, who has come to be born and has lived the lives like those of us that have already been part of God’s creation, and, who --  during which the whole world over and entire generations of mankind -- shall have to be judged whether to belong to the Book of Life or not. We make reference to this Judgment time as the fulfilment of hope; hence my term hope pointer moment. This on account that it will be the time indeed when all unfairness and injustice will cease; it will be the real milestone when the just will be avenged by God, and the unjust condemned to everlasting punishment. Upon that moment it shall finally be revealed to us individually the answers to all the "why" and the " how come" of our life circumstances and life vicissitudes. Everything shall finally all be clear and non-confounding! Indeed, as it will mark the beginning of the New Heaven and New Earth particularly for the rewarded perseverers or just, together with the other inhabitants of the New Heaven and New Earth (- especially on account of the ultimate union with the Divine Trinity, the Triune Godhead), living thus will simply be spelled : G-L-O-R-Y!!

Yet our message to all from this our Balik Sa Panginoon faith website is not all about the future, no matter how "grand and most glorious" that future will be. Even N-O-W, and on this temporal life we live we echo the Good News of our Lord Jesus Christ that his promised new life is already given right now on earth. He has promised an abundant life; and it begins right now where ever we are, and in whatever shape and condition of circumstances we find ourselves. This abundant life is the Life of Grace, which characterizes the very life of Christ as a man, and which has been lived in grace by all saintly souls that have lived ahead of us, or are living in our midst. This is the life of faith in and love of God, and of our neighbor. But this is the life characteristically marked by diligent compliance with the commandments of God, or with the will of God. We have described in what shapes and forms they are lived and manifested in Chapter 10 of the Mission Series; but they all come down to God realistically and unfailingly coming through for the believers whereby they genuinely live their distinct or unique lives according to individual life circumstances yet were not short of God’s providential graces. These graces are both visible/tangible and invisible/intangible. According to what type of needs the individual has does God provide the corresponding invisible/intangible or visible/tangible provisions.

But we began this discussion with the title phrase alluding to the "unseen Master". We phrased it so not without an important reason. The important reason being this referred-to desire of God that his believers get to authentically live lives of true faith and reliance upon God, and upon God alone. The proper time for God’s direct validation of himself, or of his glorious un-ending satisfying of man’s enjoyment of God, namely his face-to-face unveiling of his awesomeness to man will yet be in the afterlife and in the End-Times. Nevertheless, like alluded to about grace, in this lifetime man is already given periodic satisfaction of the goodness of God. And meantime, in between moments of inspired union with God, ie. moments of being in the perfect state of grace, like after a very devout reception of the Eucharist or after a contrite sacramental confession, after a performed sincere work of mercy, etc..., there will be those long and plenty moments of imperfect but human seeming distancing by God & likely actual doubting of and longing for God by man. And this type of God-man interrelating, no matter how honestly and sincerely man wants to know, love and serve God in varying degrees and in different life circumstances will invariably characterize men’s manner of individual living throughout the world, and through all generations. After Jesus ascended for heaven, no man could ever see God ever while on earth until he comes again in Judgment times. So I repeat Jesus’ words to Thomas, "More blessed are those who have not seen; but have believed." More blessed were Jesus’ other followers who, unlike Thomas and the other Apostles/disciples who saw Jesus, did not get to see Jesus, but believed in him per testimony of these privileged Apostles/disciples. And along with them are bunched all the rest of us, from then to now and later, who have not seen & will not see Jesus but who believe in him, anyway, as Christians. In this manner will consist always and through time immemorial, thus, every believer’s totally unconditional believing. It is with this type of faith that will characterize Christian persevering, and therefore, Christian holy living.

So what are these characteristic ways of believing the unseen Jesus, the unseen God? Literally these are the characteristic manners of living up to his precepts and commands precisely in this God-denying and God-hating world. Believers will so testify as true believers if and when they profess belief in Jesus along side or in the midst of non-believers who deny and hate Jesus. Amidst these situations, where non-believers loudly profess and exhibit their ways of un-belief, or their literally atheistic and agnostic lifestyles or sinful lifestyles, are Christians surviving and bearing witness to their proclaiming of a living God exactly in their lives, and within this sinning world.

Being strong or steadfast in their testimony, believers demonstrate their consequential non-adherence to the world’s opposite cult of the seen, visible, & tangible goods in the world. Thus, whereas the ‘people of the world’ assiduously chase after every such visible &tangible good of the world every chance they could, the "people of God within the world" only seek after such good if it is truly beneficial to them and is glorifying to God. In concrete, whereas the people of the world shamelessly engage in tangible pleasures of gluttony, promiscuity & sexual depravities, physical violence & abuse, aggression & enslavements, murder & homicides, deceits & fraud, greed & monopoly, robbery & stealing, etc....; the people of God shy away from them and do away with them. The people of the world are slaves of sins; the people of God are repelled by sin.

And in order that believers withstand the seductive allurements of sins, or in order that they do not fall to the attractions of temptations believers are wisely wary and detached from ‘the world’. They are Scripturally reminded they are in the world but they, like their Master Jesus, are not of this world. Up front are Christians forewarned how as a matter of fact or as the predicament of the fallen creation, the world will not welcome ‘them’ who refuse to love the world. Like already stated, the people of God will be hated by the world like it hated God, Jesus. Aware thus, Christians, again up front, accept the dilemma of living in the world without necessarily embracing the world or all worldliness. And so as they learn and train themselves to deal prudently with the seductions and allurements of the world, they necessarily learn and train themselves to be above all the world’s obsession with the tangible, eg. absolute materialism, consumerism, or sensualism. Early on as young Christians, they are warned to watch of roving eyes, of inappropriate touches, im-modesties in dressing & physical-sexual manners, intemperance both with food & liquor, excesses in leisures, and the waste of time & money, etc..

Summarily, the orientation for Christians is that nothing in the world is to be sought after so seriously and so literally. Beauty, health & physical well-being, comforts, conveniences, money, career & work, properties, & wealth, personality & skills, social stature & rank, honor & prestige, power & authority, and every other identifiable good in the world is not the be-all of life, ie. neither one them can completely satisfy man and make man happy. In the first place nothing of this world is perfectly available or obtainable to all men; and in the second place nothing of this world can absolutely liberate man from boredom & angst. To deviate thus from this practical fundamental orientation is to stray into an erred direction of living, and is a straying away from the safe ways of God’s guiding precepts and commandments.

"Ex opere operato", a doctrinal maxim phrase of the Church, assures the believers in Christ that because he is already ascended in heaven, ie. Jesus has come down from heaven to earth, has lived & finished his earthly mission, and has died & risen from death & is back in heaven seated at the right hand of God the Father, and finally has sent the Holy Spirit down to mankind & thus has completed the mission with the establishment of the Church; thus God’s promised salvation of man is done and accomplished. Christ has conquered the world, ie. Christ has become victorious over the sin of mankind. Therefore every man born in the past, living in the present, and to be born & to live throughout the future until the judgment time is delivered from the power and enslavery by sin. The fulness of supernatural believing and supernatural life by grace by man is now on active dispensation by the Spirit through Christ’s Church per all the sacraments and sacramentals of God.

If man chooses God and his goodness, God will dispose his weak natural person – body & spirit – to receive and to be empowered with the graces of the new life in Christ, and man will have become the new man that God had willed him to be from since Adam’s fall-away from God. Thus, "ex opere operato", (literally – from the work already finished), man by this faith in and grace from Christ can now freely choose God & his goodness, and can now do all the good the Lord Jesus has destined for man to receive, possess, and enjoy. Now, thus, by the grace of God, man could go straight to heaven or detour to heaven via purgatory. In addition, also by the grace of God, man could do all the individual good he will be inspired and asked to do if he chooses to completely use up all of God’s graces of living the abundant life Christ has promised for them who totally embrace the new life in him. It goes without saying this is true for each and every man in the world who is a victim of sin in one way or another, including in poverty and sickness.

But faith & grace are from God and are only received by man when God gives them, or when the Holy Spirit dispenses them.

The question, thus, is when does the Holy Spirit dispense graces on individuals? The usual way this question is asked is: how and when does a person live the life of grace, when is the soul in the perfect state of sanctifying grace, or, when is the soul saved?

There is another maxim phrase used by the Church called, "Ex opere operandi". Literally, it is translated, "From the work of the one working". Rough translating would be: "Based upon the individual, who applies the work". And with reference to grace, the real translation should mean: depending upon the individual’s total receiving disposition and use of the grace of Christ.

What is the application of this doctrinal phraseology regarding the efficacy of the grace of Christ in the salvation of man? Does this mean the supernatural salvation from and by Christ is dependent upon the free will of man in order for Christ’s salvation to work out? Or, how does human free will affect the absolute power of Christ’s grace?

Before we answer the questions, and before we fully explain the doctrinal maxim, ‘Ex opere operandi", we are going to bring in related maxims on spirituality, namely: "Lex credendi, lex orandi". It translates as: the measure of your believing speaks of the measure of your praying, or literally how you believe, thus you pray.

This maxim is a barometer and a warning sign that the level of our gift of faith is parallel to the level of prayerfulness we will only be capable of. By this is implied upon us how the Spirit sees into our hearts. If there is some degree of lukewarmness in our belief in God, this will similarly show in the degree of lackaidaisicalness of our prayer life. In concrete, if our faith in God is easily rattled by little tribulations, our manners of calling upon God will reflect constant and habitual distractedness in prayers not to mention quite a few forgetfulness to pray or even express thank God for our daily blessings. Then in the larger scale the degree of trusting by a particular parish community reflects the degree of devotedness and attendance by the same parish community in its worship services, especially the Sunday Masses. It could be the parish’s priests and the parish ministers, and parishioners are much more attentive to activities of fund-raising than to the richer liturgical activities of really devotedly and faithfully praying often as a parish community. And it could be, this explains perhaps the parishioners’ rather casual attitudes & concern for their Church, along with evident Church’s empty pews on Sunday Masses.

Similar juxtaposing of factors may apply to the previous spiritual maxim, "ex opere operandi". Could it be thus, some individual Catholics kept receiving the Eucharist on Sunday yet kept retaining his many uncharitable habits of neighbor gossiping beyond the Church door? Likewise, could it be some parishes kept baptizing new youths & new catechumens during Easter time, while these same youths easily disappear from regular and repeat Sunday reception of the sacrament?

How many former Catholics indeed that have even attended our Catholic parochial schools that turn out to be prouder members of this or that Protestant Church in the neighborhood? And worse, how many former Catholics or Christians later turn out to be unremorseful university or college atheists or agnostics; or the so-called deists? Could it be they are the unraveling of their previously lukewarm Catholic or Christian faith? Could it be that they were those former believers that exhibited some early symptoms of habitual neglect of the Scriptures and Church worship & use of the sacraments?

In conclusion, thus, it surely could have been God and his Church has provided individuals plenty of access to or availing of its ministry to the people; but the people could have somehow taken for granted all these sacramental presence of God, including even the active evangelizing to them by the Church ministers. And if, in effect, these supposed Catholic or Christian parishioners have become nothing more than Catholic name-bearers or Christian name-bearers; then it could explain how upon these alleged Catholics or Christians the grace of Christ makes no efficacy not per the nullification of the power of grace but by the non-application of the appropriate use of individually availed and even somehow received channels of graces like baptism or even the Eucharist.

A Scriptural illustrating of situations exemplifying the applicable cases of failing grace ex opere operandi are the three categories of believers symbolized in the parable of the Sower & the Seeds. Ex opere operandi because it has befallen some seeds to be snatched by the birds, or remain in thin rocky ground, or to have grown along thorn bushes which choked them out. These thus refer to them believers that indeed have not opted to use grace against the Devil the thief symbolized by the birds for not protecting it, ie.not escaping the company of evil/devil by their being stucked to pagan or habitual sinful ways, or to them believers that indeed have not opted to use the grace to nurture their soil of faith appreciation by failing to increase on their freshly learned faith with further and more profound learning of the faith, or to them believers that indeed imprudently allowed the worldly cares & materialist obsessions to supplant from their heart & mind their fundamental faith. In all of these situations, the believers had the opportunity of having received the faith and the grace but for yielding to the mentioned life circumstances consequently were responsible for the loss of God’s grace. The application of the maxim here consists in that in itself, the seed, which is the word of God, in whatever form of Sacrament or (small-letter) sacramental signs it may come to us, whether by any of the Sacrament or by any sacred object or activity that calls to mind the presence of God, is by itself a reality of grace or an action of the Holy Spirit. Thus, in each occasion that this takes place, the Sacramental/sacramental expression of grace by the Spirit, the working of grace is always supernaturally powerful and efficacious. Ie. each grace here is the ultimately the merit of Christ’s Incarnational redemption or salvation of man. Ex opere operato, all sacramental acts of the Spirit work to advance Christ’s and his Church’s mission of evangelization and salvation of souls.

Now a more telling illustrating of application of our initial two-part spiritual maxims, ex opere operato, ex opere operandi is the following. Ex opere operato, the faithful celebrates the Mass and receive the Eucharist with the absolute efficacy of grace being received and enjoyed by them; even if, per chance the Priest saying the Mass is unfortunately in the state of mortal sin during the time he performs the Rite of Transubstantiation or during the time he invokes Christ’s personal presence into the bread & wine during the Mass. Notwithstanding the Priest’s personal unworthiness, by itself the Eucharistic Celebration and the Sacrament of the Eucharist are both validly transpiring in the Mass, and are genuinely received in communion by the participating attendees at Mass. Another example is the case where the Priest hearing a penitent’s confession is himself unfortunately in the state of mortal sin; yet his absolving of the contrite penitent receives the full pardon in grace from God. Thus, again, the Priest’s personal unworthiness does not and can not stop the sacramental efficacy of delivering pardon to the confessing penitent. While the Priest remains in his state of sin as he administers the Sacrament of Reconciliation;nonetheless, ex opere operato – per the power of the Sacrament of Confession in itself he delivers the forgiveness of the sins of the confessing penitent. Thus, ex opere operandi, the Priest as the administering minister of the Sacrament and as an unworthy administering minister does not diminish or obliterate the effectiveness of the reception of grace by the sacrament using penitent.

Last words to end this article:

Christ precisely exhort us in the practice of this essence of faith, the unconditional belief namely the believer believing the unseen. He conditioned us to normally getting used to this aspect of faith because through man’s journeying or pilgrimage on earth Christ’s followers will have to continually adore his unseen presence in the Holy Eucharist; also these same believers are commanded and exhorted to normally get used too to the other unseen great presence of Christ’s Mystical Body, the Church.

Alleged polls about Catholics’ lack of belief in the Eucharist do not essentially describe the faith character of the Church. During the time Jesus began his teaching and institution of the Eucharist, many of his disciples also turned away from his company, and deserted their belief in the Master Jesus. But his more faithful followers, the Apostles stuck with him and subscribed to his words about the Eucharist. This will always be one distinguishing mark between present day disciples and present day faith turn-coats. Christians/Catholics of today submit to the supernatural character of the Eucharist; while only pretending followers of Christianity will always chase after comfortable/politically correct perceptions of the faith, including of the Eucharist. Because Jesus said the bread and the wine during his Last Supper were his to be broken body and to b shed blood, the Apostles did not think otherwise about Jesus’ words. They took it to mean what Jesus shared with them during that supper were his body and blood which will have been broken and shed in Calvary a few hours later. They did not interpret the Lord’s breaking of the bread and blessing of the wine as mere symbols of his act of self sacrifice. They did not complain what they only saw were pieces of bread and cups of wine. They did not insist upon seeing only what they saw. They accepted to believe what they did not see. They believed in the "unseen real body and real blood of Jesus" in that supper. Likewise, true Christians and Catholics see in the Eucharistic Host the unseen real body and real blood of Christ of the Sacrifice of the Mass. Every each attendance to the Mass, which is the same one Calvary sacrifice of the Lord Jesus, is the faithful’s worshiping of the truly present Jesus at every altar & tabernacle on earth where a Catholic Priest celebrates the Eucharist, and where the Eucharist is deposited in all Catholic Churches awaiting visit by truly believing followers of Christ in the present times. This is the reason for our title of this article. Myself and all other members of the faith and of the Church have this obligation to testify to this divine and material presence of Christ within our midst in our Eucharistic Celebrations, and in our Church Tabernacles. More importantly myself and all believers – especially Catholics – owe it to God to be ever conscious, and vigilant about paying homage to Jesus Christ in the Eucharist if at least in gratitude for our privilege of Christ’s staying and being here for us and our faith. Individually, thus, I dare not offend Jesus Christ, my God by ignoring he is always there in the Church, or by having no mind at all he took it upon himself to be alone many moments in our tabernacles for love of us. Thus, in effect, I dare not offend my glorious Unseen Master – Jesus Christ – , my God by casually forgetting of his unique presence for me, and for the Church on earth even as he has ascended and is seated magnificently in heaven, and even as it is awaited his final and ultimately glorious personal coming in Judgment Times. How fortunate we are that at any time we want, but specially when we are down in life and most in need, we could always come to Jesus really present to talk to us in Spirit.

Finally, another fundamental and principal reality of our faith, which truly calls on our genuine believing is the invisible presence of Christ’s Body, the Mystical Body – the Church of Christ. This is that entity consisting of Christ, – the head, and the believers, – the member parts.