THE ONE WHO FILLS ALL THINGS IN EVERY WAY
I
am sure you all have experienced feeling drained after meeting certain
people. After talking with such individuals, you feel the need to
replenish lost energies. You feel depleted. Their negativities, their
constant and consistent whining just leave you less than you were prior
to the encounter.
Therapists
make a distinction between life-enabling and life-disabling persons.
The former energize you, push you to greater heights, challenge you, and
fill you up. The latter empty you, put you down, and make you less
enthusiastic to face a world of challenges. They take, not your breath,
but your energy away. You feel like you are less of a person than
before.
Two
years ago, a certain lunchtime show got into a major controversy.
Without going into the juicy details, suffice it to say that it began,
precisely for the purported reason of its existence in the first place —
to help people, to give them a headstart in life, and to share with
them the largesse of wealthy companies and sponsors. But things got a
little too far. Its format did not actually help in lifting up the poor
and treating them as befits their dignity despite their poverty. Soon,
even their poverty and lack of education were capitalized and sacrificed
for the sake of the much-coveted “ratings.”
The
show glorified the progressive dehumanization of the Filipino people.
Contestants went home apparently happy with a few thousand pesos and
other goodies. While hundreds seemed to show contentment and utter
delight to be in the show, there were thousands of others vying for the
same privilege, at the cost of their humiliation and personal
degradation.
Paul
teaches us today what grace is all about, and what the author of this
grace wants for us. Grace is never life-draining but precisely
life-enabling. Grace is gift and this gift exalts, uplifts, fulfills and
glorifies the recipient. Grace does not make us less, but eminently
more, human. Grace enables us to become the best we can be, and it comes
from Him “who fills all things in every way.” Fr. Chito Dimaranan, SDB
REFLECTION QUESTIONS: Are
you a life-enabling person who lifts up other people? Or are you a
life-disabling person who sucks energy from people you encounter?
Lord
Jesus, mold me into the kind of person after Your own heart — someone
who inspires and encourages others to be the best they can be.
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