When losing is winning

We need to be familiar with this phenomenon and eager to welcome it. This is how God treats us given our wounded condition which is prone to undue attachments to earthly things and other anomalies.

Divine logic many times baffles us because God's ways are different from our ways. St. Paul articulates this predicament when he said, “O, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and untraceable his ways. Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?” (Rom 11,33-34)

He wants us to lose in human terms so that we can win in the end in divine terms which is what really matters. This is made clear, for example, when Christ articulated the beatitudes that would somehow put us in the losing end in order to have the victory of being truly blessed. (cfr. Mt 5,3-12)

This is reiterated when he talked about the willingness to lose an eye, an arm, a foot, if these would cause us to sin. Better to lose them and enter heaven rather than to have them and get to hell. (cfr. Mt 5,29-31)

In another instance Christ clearly told us that for us to be his disciples, we should be willing to “hate” our father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even our own life. We should be willing to carry our cross. (cfr. Lk 14,26-27)

Of course, he means that nothing and no one should compete in our love for God. “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.” (Mt 6,33) He does not mean that we hate anyone, for he himself told us to love even our enemies.

St. Paul was willing to be regarded as scum and refuse of the world just to be with Christ. (cfr. 1 Cor 4,13) The ultimate example of all this is Christ himself when he offered his life for our salvation.

To be able to live by this divine logic, we of course would need first of all the grace of God. We have to ask for it with humility. And then we need to do our part, exerting the due effort to acquire the appropriate attitude and corresponding virtues.

We should have the attitude of willingly giving up everything else just to be with God. “Vale la pena,” it is all worthwhile, should somehow be like a slogan for us. In the gospel, the same spirit is expressed when Christ said, “The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking pearls, who when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.” (Mt 13,45-46)

We know that even in our daily affairs, we often have to give up certain things if only to get a greater good. Thus, we are willing, for example, to skip some moments of relaxation if only to attend to an emergency, etc.

Every day, we have to see to it that there is always something that we give up not only for some personal goal or interest, but also and mainly for the love of God and others. Let's hope that the little self-denials we do every day will prepare us for the ultimate self-detachment we have to make to enter into our definitive union with God.

Yes, the virtue of total detachment from oneself should be developed with gusto every day. Every time we suffer inconveniences, discomfort, misunderstanding, and all kinds of pain, we should somehow be happy in the sense that we are actually going through what is necessary in our life --detachment from self so we could have the attachment with God and others.

We should not be afraid to lose in order to win!

‘Every time we suffer inconveniences, discomfort, misunderstanding, and all kinds of pain, we should

somehow be happy.’