When my companion left for a vacation of six weeks, I need to carry some of the responsibilities for the school of communitarian spirituality in Tagaytay, Philippines.  Since, our spirituality is communitarian, decision making are made in consultation to make the life of those who are entrusted to us, go forward with, as we call, Jesus in the midst.  Love is the abiding principle, mutual love, and this love prompts each one to place concerns and plans in common, only out of love and to establish this divine-human harmony amongst us. This for me is gospel placed into a “formative-endeavor”.

But what happens when moments when there nobody with whom you could see together decisions, actions and schedules, come? 

Here I recall Psalm, as perhaps many of us, turn to: “You, Lord, are near to all who call upon You, to all who call upon You in truth.” (Ps 145:1 .

This has helped me on the one hand to be calm, to be always loving towards everybody.  The Lord God is the source of Love and those who call Him could not but be in touch with Love itself.  It is a consolation for me.  On the other hand, God is not a fantasy, that I could create and recreate then portray Him as I would like Him to be. 

It is in this the phrase “in truth” of the quoted psalm, in fact, that makes my feet stamped well on the ground of reality.  “In truth,” I realized means, the truth about myself and the truth about the others.  To call Him, makes me know who He is and makes me realize who am I.  The more I am with Him, the more that I know myself.  It is only in union with Him, my God that I could ever know myself, my true self and therefore act and decide accordingly.

I know in truth that I am a human being, that many times react in a human way, even very human.  Calling Him, makes me realize this and therefore in effect, it opens for me the truth about myself.  This makes me decide accordingly in these days.

When one of our formandees is not doing what he is suppose to do, calling Him, as I have experienced, makes me calm but at the same time, I realize this truth about my unredeemed humanity: being a kind of superior in the human sense, and therefore could react in a very human way of considering “authority”.  Calling Him, leads me to see the other way of looking at authority - service and love of neighbor, to see, and be one with our formandees and see in the perspective of the other.  In fact, I realized later that formandee was not present, because he is not feeling well.  A simple thing but makes a lot of difference for me.  What I perceive to be right, (in this case, a judgment that one is lazy) may actually be wrong if I see it in another perspective. 

At one time, I also like to suggest a change of schedule, to make them see a good film. I realize too that it should be seen in their perspective and therefore makes me rethink, if I have, in effect, suggest it or not.  The youth loves more action films rather than stories of saints.  And so, I decided to postpone the viewing of a film about a saint: Maria Goretti.

To call Him is for me to be with the Holy Spirit, the person of love and the Holy Spirit is Wisdom, guide, and He is the one that makes all of us holy.  He is the one that makes us one and this unity amongst us is the one that could lead us to sanctity since it is the presence of the Holy Spirit – the true sanctifier.

The Lord,  is “near to all who call” in truth.  He makes himself present not only in me but amongst us.