Be always in awe

IT MAY sound unrealistic and impracticable, but it happens to be the ideal condition for all of us to be in. If we truly believe in God, if we live fully by our faith, we would know that we have a tremendous treasure in our life and that the only proper way to correspond to that reality is to be always in awe.

Yes, we have to do our part in what we may call the game or the drama of our life, and it’s true that our part is no laughing matter. It is horribly serious! It would require of us nothing less than total detachment from earthly things, even from our very own life.

But then again, if we manage to do our part and place our life entirely in God’s hands, we have no reason whatsoever to fear or to worry. In fact, we have every reason to be cheerful, confident and in awe.

God has taken care of everything that can happen to us in this life. We just have to go along with his will and ways as revealed to us fully in Christ and as executed for us even up to now and till the end of time via the many instrumentalities that the Church now provides.

We have been left with God’s word, with the sacraments, with the ever moving testimonies of the heroic lives of saints. Every situation in our life, whether considered humanly speaking as good or bad, is given a way of how it can sanctified, of how it can be a means and an occasion to be with God, to give glory to him, to be occasions to develop and to show love.

God gives us his grace, a participation of his divine life even while we are still here. He is not sparing in giving that grace. Whenever we commit a mistake or even a grave sin, he is quick to forgive. As St. Paul once said, “Where sin has abounded, grace has abounded even more.” (Rom 5, 20)

We, of course, have to live this awe with naturalness. We should not flaunt it. The genuine awe that is based on our vital union with God will always be expressed in humility. And it is very much compatible with human suffering and that attitude of wanting to serve and not to be served. It is never arrogant, vain and self-absorbed.

Very seldom would it manifest itself in some extraordinary ways as in those cases of ecstasy, levitation, bilocation, transfiguration and the like that some saints experienced. Ordinarily, it is lived without grabbing attention from anyone. But definitely, it would be observed and seen by others one way or another.

We need to study and know more about what our faith tells us about God and us with the view of acquiring that conviction that God loves us so much as to effect in us that state of joy and awe.

When we notice that we are easily affected by the problems and difficulties we encounter in life, or when we seem to be always bored and feeling dry, it is a clear sign that we not living our faith, maybe because we have not studied it well and embodied it in our life adequately. The true life of piety is not yet developed. The state of joy, peace and awe is not yet achieved.

We have to realize that to be always in awe would enable us to have the proper attitude toward God and others. We would be thankful to God and we would show it by doing a lot of good without counting the cost nor expecting any reward. We would also be generous in our self-giving to others.

Let’s see to it that we are striving to attain this state of awe, joy and peace in our life./PN