The best security

We worry about all kinds of security. And it's all understandable. We need them for some peace of mind. We want to have security from physical harm, security in our job so that we can have steady source of income, security in some unavoidable conditions like old age, sickness, etc.

We cannot overemphasize the effort we exert to attain as much security as possible. And it's good that we already have some significant structures to provide all these kinds of security.

But we have to remember that the most fundamental and indispensable security we can and should have is that of maximizing as much as we can our faith, hope and charity in God and in others. This is the kind of security that underwrites all the others. Whatever happens, it's in our faith, hope, and charity that will bring us afloat to our final and definitive destination.

As St. Paul would put it, "I have learned, in whatever state I am, to be content. I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and want. I can do all things in him who strengthens me." (Phil 4,11-13)

Of course, this fundamental spiritual and supernatural sense of security should never be made to undermine all the effort we need to attain the necessary security in the temporal and worldly sense.

We have to guard ourselves from lapsing into some kind of superstitious and fideist attitude that precisely relies exclusively on one's so-called faith without the corresponding human effort to put that faith into practice. We qualify the word, faith, with "so-called," because a faith treated that way is no faith at all.

This anomaly can happen just as much as that of the other extreme, when we would just rely solely on our human powers without any recourse to faith, hope and charity. Yes, it's true that we should try our best to be selfreliant, but our self-reliance should not come at the expense of our absolute dependence on God.

We need both. The perfect balance is when we can truly say that we depend on God 100 percent and also depend on ourselves 100 percent. It's not a 50/50 proposition, nor any combination that divides the 100percent ideal.

Thus, both our spiritual and supernatural life, on one hand, and our natural life of work and human ingenuity, on the other, should be at their best state. Everything has to be done to achieve that ideal.

In the school where I work, this is the thrust I am pushing with the help of all the other teachers and mentors. The students have to be trained to be both spiritual and practical. And so far, my experience has been that the students have a deep stock of potentials in both the spiritual and the practical.

If dealt with properly, the students correspond well to the challenges not only in the school but most especially all the challenges in life in general. They possess a deep sense of security that is above the ups and downs of earthly life. No matter what happens, they can afford to be at peace and to be certain of where they are going.

‘Yes, it's true that we should try our best to be self-reliant, but our self-reliance should not come at the expense of our absolute dependence on God.’