LIFE IS NOT A PROBLEM TO BE SOLVE BUT A MYSTERY TO BE LIVE

“The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”

“I am the light of the world.”

~ Luke 6: 5, John 8: 12a

Introduction
Have you ever wonder how come you are alive today and probably reading this reflection of mine or doing something else? What about the human physiology of going to sleep and waking up and when someone sleeps never to wake up again? How many times have we confronted ourselves to appreciate the fact that in spite of all our technological and scientific advancement, mankind has not been able to create life nor prevent death? Life is more than just breathing air in and out of your lungs it is mysterious!

Life is not a problem to be solve but a mystery to be live is my simple reflection on what are most important to mankind in order to live happily in this world, namely love, hope and faith and how we can use these virtues to bring glory to God and love to our neighbors. Additionally there are other things in life that are just absolutely unnecessary such as worrying about things we cannot change for instance life and death and the many other challenges that are beyond our scopes to deal with! The convergence of our limitations and the unlimited power of God are to help us live a purposeful life while on earth, in anticipation of the eternal life in the Kingdom of heaven.

Our life and humanity are full of oxymoron indeed; the necessary evil of life and death, the poor and rich, wise and foolish, hope and despair, faith and doubt, plenty and insufficient, fear and courage, beauty and ugly, obedience and noncompliance, love and hate, loyalty and infidelity, freedom and slavery, sin and righteousness, justice and discrimination, happiness and sorrow, and war and virtue, peace and war, and so on and so forth! These contradictions help us to appreciate our limitations and God's infinite interventions in manifesting the purposeful life that we ought to live and therefore become the light of the world.

In the midst of all these inconsistencies we are being challenged and at the same time encouraged by our Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Savior of the World and the Son of the living God to trust and look up to him, with our mindset focused on his divine providence which will enable us to live as the disciples of light in the world. He wants you and me to understand that it is not our prerogative to solve the many problems associated with living under the sun, but by our act of hope, faith and love for him, we can live out the mystery of this life in peace and enjoy eternity with him in the Kingdom of God.
Jesus and the Pharisees
Saint Luke in the Gospel narrated an incident in which some Pharisees questioned Jesus Christ disloyalty toward the Sabbath day, when the observed his disciples picking the heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands, and eating them. According to the Pharisees, this very act must be considered as a “work” and shouldn’t man rest on the Sabbath?

Jesus said to them in reply, “Have you not read what David did when he and those who were with him were hungry? How he went into the house of God, took the bread of offering, which only the priests could lawfully eat, ate of it, and shared it with his companions?” Then he said to them, “The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”
And in many other instances, our Lord, Jesus Christ displayed his disdain for the legalistic self-confidence of the Pharisees, who in their attempt to keep the Laws of God essentially excluded the hearts of the same law, which are justice, mercy and faithfulness. In their blindness they fail to see the love, compassion and mercy of God in those who may not conform to their rigid tradition.
We too share in the fundamentalism displayed by the Pharisees whenever we become egoistic, selfish and exhibit self-righteousness and look down on people as less than us. Any time we are unable to use the words of God to help our neighbors by showing them compassion and the image and likeness of God, we become part of the problems rather than solutions!

Life and Death
Man is a two-dimensional being, the physical (seen) and the spiritual (invisible) and the fact that some are not willing to appreciate this reality does not change our nature. Without doubt and in spite of man’s technological and scientific advancement, the question of life and death remains essentially unchanged; there is a time to be born and also a time to die. No man has been able to either create life or prevent death, and these obvious limitations are necessary to manifest the obvious the existence of a supernatural being who is the creator of the universe and all that is within.
From the moment we are physically born, the countdown towards are necessary ends begins, however the reverse happens in the spiritual realm, in that from the very day we are born, while our body transform from the young and vibrant to the old and weak and eventual death, our souls anxiously wait to be release from the corruptible body.

The Transfiguration of our Lord Jesus Christ gave us a glimpse of this incorruptible body that no words can adequately described but by faith is real. He is indeed the light of the world and the giver of the light of life. We are therefore encouraged not to bother about life and death in a way that it becomes a problem for us to contemplate on. On the contrary, live the mystery on a daily basis by recognizing your limitations and God’s unlimited power. There is no oxymoron to the reality of eternal life!
Peace and War
Our lives here on earth are intertwining of peace and war! Peace is not the absent of war or violence and neither is war the absent of peace or tranquility. In the physical, many of us easily translate peace to imply the absence of fighting with guns and other kinds of weapons and at the same time classify peace to be when you are not engage in such kind of fighting. In reality though, true and enduring peace is not just the freedom from violence or war, but the recognition of Jesus Christ as the Prince of peace, the Son of God! Before departing from this world he said:
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts troubled and do not be afraid.”

There are various spiritual wars that we encounter in life that are not related to violence, but equally detrimental enough to make us detest life. These kinds of wars are manifested in hatred, discriminations, injustices, insults, immorality, and licentiousness, pride in doing evil, greediness, lawlessness, drunkenness, racism, killing and cheating, etc. The only way we can find true peace in the midst of these constant physical and spiritual wars is to anchor our hope, faith and trust in our Lord Jesus Christ by emulating him and praying for a better world.

Love and Hate
How did we come about the brokenness in the families, societies and in the world at large? Essentially it is our inability to love as God has commanded us to do! Most often we translate love to mean a happy and romantic emotional feelings. Regrettably by nature, man is incapable of maintaining this kind of emotions euphoria steadily without recourse to some types of external influence as we weather the storms of life.
In our contemporary society, many have turned to wealth, education and sports to keep this “elation”, whereas others have recourse to drugs and even violence to maintain their apparent status quo of “love.” These external influences are by themselves saturated with limitations and short-lived factors and therefore do not produce the required enduring love needed to keep humanity connected to divinity.

Uncountable examples abound to show the limitations of our definition of love as evident in well celebrated marriages that going sour, leading to divorce, legal battles and in the worst case scenario the plotting and carrying out of death threat. The problem with our kind of love is its selfish attribute! Our love is fundamentally enshrined in our egocentric inclinations and careless about the necessity to make sacrifice and put the other person above our interest or satisfaction.
Jesus Christ kind of love is an embodiment of selflessness and sacrifices.
Hate is a result of our inability to completely see God and we in others, a state that may be liken to blindness and coldness of heart! Only God is perfect and therefore, our attempt to see him in others should enable us to see the beauty of creation, and furthermore see ourselves in others will help us to appreciate the limitations that exist in our human nature.

These two factors when taken into consideration will help us to show compassion, mercy and understanding when people hurt us or commit sin. It is good to hate what is bad, such as to sin against God and our neighbors, stealing, immorality and killing among others. In our attempt to hate what is wrong, many have unfortunately begin to hate the perpetrator of such wrong, a situation that end up making the culprit to feel rejected and at times difficult for the person to change his ways of life. Over and again, Jesus Christ demonstrated the best way to reproach sin and the sinner, by denouncing the sin, but not the sinner as exemplified in the story of the woman caught in the act of adultery.

Jesus straightened himself up and said to her, “Where are they?” Is no one left to condemn you”? “No one, sir,” she answered. “Well, then,” Jesus said, “I do not condemn you either. Go, but do not sin again.”

Pride and not humility is the root of the hatred we exhibited toward those who may not concur to our ways or lifestyle and instead of showing the kind of compassion, mercy and love that Jesus Christ displayed toward the woman caught in the act of committing adultery. The implications are that these folks at the receiving end of our apparent judgmental hatred are worst off than before, which is in sharp contradiction to the forgiveness that the woman received in the hands of our Lord Jesus Christ

Wisdom and Foolishness

“I am the light of the world, says the Lord; whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
What is wisdom and foolishness in our lives? To know God is to be wise and to appreciate the limitations of humanity and complete dependence on God is also wisdom. Above all, the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. On the contrary, a fool claim not to need God and can do, as he wants. Any “wisdom' that takes us from God or make us to hate others does not come from God and therefore is foolishness, and any “foolishness” that enhances our relationship with the almighty God and increase our love for our neighbors is true wisdom before our God.
An individual that understands the shortness of life is considered wise before God principally because such an individual recognizes his limitations and finite existence as opposed to the unlimited power of God and the infinity or everlasting existence of the Almighty. Jesus Christ is the light of the world and therefore the wisdom that we are all in search of, since unlike foolishness wisdom brings about light of life.

 Living the Mystery of Life
Our Lord Jesus Christ said, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”
How many of us have answered this call faithfully? When you declare for God, Jesus Christ did not promised that life will be easy and smooth sailing, on the contrary we become most vulnerable to both physical and spiritual attacks, because our lifestyle does not conform to that of the world! Our Lord is speaking to us and encouraging everyone with his blessed assurance that no matter what he has the power to help us carry our “cross”- the personification of the many problems, anxieties and troubles of this world in which we live in.

Without God, life is meaningless and mankind can never fulfill the purpose for which he was created, which is to be of service to the almighty God and to his fellow mankind. In order to live the mystery of life, we must make the conscious effort to place God above all things in our life. The two major ways that I have continued to try to live the mystery of life and therefore remain strong in the midst of life challenges are through the constant reception of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ and living the Gospel.
The Gospel
The words of God especially as manifested in the Good news or Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is our compass to living the mystery of life in a fashion that does not deprive us of all the blessings and bountiful gifts that we have been endowed with by our God.
The words of God admonished us to love our God with the whole of our heart, mind and strength and to love our neighbors as ourselves! Without doubt, if we do these, for sure life will be a lot easier to live and not for ourselves alone, but most importantly for the people we share this planet with!
The knowledge of the Gospel gives life and wisdom to those who follow it.
In the presence of God’s grace we are able to stand our ground even in the midst of the worst case scenario, because our strength does not come from our natural power, but rather from a supernatural source; Jesus Christ the Son of the living God.
Whenever God becomes our all and all and life is no longer just about life and death, poverty and wealth, wisdom and foolishness, humility and pride, hate and love, joy and sorrow, and war and peace, we survive no matter the circumstances we are subjected to!

In the midst of sorrow, we are happy

In the midst of war, we are at peace

In the midst of poverty, we have plenty

In the midst of doubt, we have faith

In the midst of despair, we are hopeful

In the midst of hatred, we are loved

In the midst of injustices, we are just

In the midst of death, we have life everlasting.

Bread of Life- The Holy Eucharist
The bread of offering is the personification of Jesus Christ’s offering of himself as the perfect “Bread of Life” which came down from heaven and anyone who ate of it shall have life and have it most abundantly. Explicitly speaking, we may be tempted to only dwell on the physical attributes of the bread of offering by focusing our attentions on the necessity of being fed. However the offering of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ goes beyond the physical and in fact transcend the ordinary, by opening our eyes to limitless possibilities whenever we hunger for God. Whenever we seek what are God’s desires and act upon them, we bring glory to God and become greatly satisfied in addition to experiencing the peacefulness that the world cannot give! St. Augustine will later put it this way; “The soul of man is restless until it rest in God.”
How can Jesus Christ give us his body to eat and his blood to drink? To man this may be impossible, however not for God! Saint Paul address the Corinthians about the Holy Eucharist when he wrote:

For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

Jesus Christ is present in our lives today through his words and also in the daily offering of his Body and Blood in the Holy Eucharist and furthermore in the Tabernacles of the Blessed Sacrament in the church.

Light of Life
Our lives can never be complete without God, and the peace that we so desperately search for in this world is unattainable because we have never deemed it necessary to search for the peace that comes from the almighty God. This kind of peace is rooted in love for God and mankind, in hope and faith in the divine providence of the almighty God, which the prophet Jeremiah eloquently prophesied in writing
“For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.”

Definitely every man will not become a Christian, however virtues such as hope, faith and love are not just religious practices and neither are justice, peace and humanity to be limited to followers of Jesus Christ alone! Nevertheless, Christians are uniquely positioned to make the world a better place if only we are able to live as Jesus Christ lived while on earth.

There are many saintly people that have tried in their own little way to become Jesus Christ to our neighbors, and one of the most recently recognized is St. Teresa of Kolkata, who was canonized on Sunday September 4, 2016 in Rome by Pope Francis. The likes of Mahatma Gandhi, Dalai Lama, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr., Mohammed Ali and millions of others past and present have one way or the other show some unique features of what kindness, love and compassion, justice, peace and mercy look like and the conglomeration of all these goodness is evident in Jesus Christ who by divinity he is the Son of God, the “Emmanuel” and through humanity is the son of Mary and as he said, ‘I am the light of the world.”

If we accept to be followers of Jesus Christ, we too must become the emblem of the “light’ of Jesus Christ in this world full of darkness from hatred, violence, discriminations, immorality, greed, murder, stealing, cheating, falsely condemning innocent people, lack of compassion, injustices, slavery, lynching, character assassination, political mediocrity, socio-economic dogmatism that denigrate humanity, the culture of death, racism and propagation of godlessness.

A Christian must be the custodian of what Jesus Christ represents and exemplified while on earth and which are ultimately the love of God- complete trust in divine providence, mercy and compassion and the love of our neighbors as ourselves- the deliberate effort to see God in every man irrespective of race, lifestyle and religion, socio-economic status, and to be willing to empathize, show mercy and compassion, reject outward condemnation and accept the responsibility of making the ‘other’ person better and useful to mankind.

Final caution
Ours is the world where countless problems abound and if we desire to live in peace, love and happiness, then we must be willing to explore our choices.
One of the veritable options is for us not to become overcome by our inability to solve all the nefarious trends that we see on a daily basis on our own or through our limited understanding.
The best approach will be to put our effort in perspective and in light of the fact that on our own alone we can do nothing, but if we offer our challenges to the almighty God, then heaven will once more come down to earth and help us make a difference. In other words, we need God in addition to our human efforts to become the light in the midst of the darkness we experiences everyday.

We must pray and act based on our faith in God and the in goodness resident in mankind.

Let us therefore live the mystery of life, rather than become overcome with the problems that choke the very essence of life out of us, knowing that what is impossible for man is possible for God. If we crave for peace, love and the best of what the world can offer, we must be willing to give to the world the same peace, love and our best. To make this dream a reality and sustainable we must turn to God, the creator of the universe and accept the teachings of his only begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the author and giver of the light of life and act on the gospel on a daily basis.
Life is therefore not a problem to be solve, at least not by our singular effort without regards to God but a mystery to be live, because it is beautiful and equally lovely to be alive and live in God!

Prayer:
Dear heavenly Father,
I am worried about so many things in life, yet I know that only one thing is needed; your words, which is life! Please help me to treasure your words and focus on them, so that no matter what may assail me in life, I will be equip to overcome them.Thank you so for your gift of love, hope and faith, and make me into your instrument of peace, so that I too may become Jesus Christ to my neighbor. Through the same Christ, our Lord who is your only begotten Son I have prayed. Amen!

Ref: Luke 6, Matthew 17, John 14, John 8, Psalm 90, Matthew 11, and 1 Corinthians 11, Jeremiah 29
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