The need for transparency and sincerity

By Fr. Roy Cimagala *

          “There is nothing concealed that will not be revealed, nor

secret that will not be known.” (Lk 12,2) With these words, Christ is

clearly telling us that there is no point hiding things from God since

he knows everything. Neither should we be hiding things from others,

unless due to proper discretion we may have to withhold certain

things.

          To be sure, our life would be much lighter and happier that

way. We would unload ourselves from unnecessary burdens. What is more,

we would keep our good relations with God and with others. Our life

would be much simpler and properly focused on its true ultimate

purpose.

          We should really work on our need for transparency and

sincerity. We cannot deny that many are the elements nowadays that can

undermine that need. Signs and even structures of hypocrisy, deceit,

corruption and the like are all around us. Sad to say, they seem to be

the mainstream culture today.

          Consider again what benefits a good sense of transparency

can give us. It will help us develop and sustain our integrity in

life. It means that everything that we do is good, that is, morally

good. Of course, this sense of transparency can only take root when it

is based on our faith in God who sets all the laws in our life, and

therefore, all that is good for us.

          We have to realize more deeply that before God, nothing can

be hidden. We therefore have to adapt a lifestyle that would make us

do everything in his presence. In fact, we are not simply meant to do

things in his presence. It is more to do everything for God’s glory.

Thus, when we do things without God in mind, let us be warned that we

are already doing things wrongly.

          We should not base our sense of transparency on human,

natural and worldly criteria alone. These latter standards do not

capture all the good that is proper to us. At best, they may just be

silent about the finer nuances and consequences of what is generally

good for us. We have to remember that many mysteries shroud our

understanding of things.

          But what is bad nowadays is that our human laws and worldly

standards have started to go against God’s will. This, of course, can

be due to our limitations in truly understanding God’s law. But it can

also be due to our sinfulness and malice. Nowadays, I believe it is

the latter that has led us to make laws that are openly against God’s

law. We need to do something drastic about this predicament.

          And we can start by being sincere in our confessions and

spiritual direction. It is indeed necessary that we be brutally

sincere when we go to confession and to spiritual direction. We have

to learn to lay all our cards on the table so that the human

instruments used by God to help us in our spiritual life, can truly

help us.

          We should not be afraid or ashamed to do so, because in

these occasions, it is indeed God who is acting through the human

instrumentalities. We have to approach confession and spiritual

direction with a strong supernatural outlook, because it is only then

that we can deal with our misplaced sense of fear and shame.      To

be truly sincere is not only to say facts and data. It is to probe

into the motives of all our actions, especially our sins and misdeeds.

* Chaplain Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE), Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com