By Fr. Roy Cimagala *
TO be sure, a certain detachment from the things of this
world and even from people is required of us if we want to be a true
and effective disciple of Christ. He himself said it quite clearly:
“If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and
children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my
disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me
cannot be my disciple.” (Lk 14,26-17)
We obviously have to understand these words properly. We are
men and women with material and emotional needs. We cannot let go of
our loved ones if we want to retain our humanity, and of course, of
our Christianity. But we have to realize that meeting these human
needs should be animated by the proper spirit of love that Christ is
showing and giving us. It should not displace such spirit.
Again, let’s be reassured of what Christ promised us if we
observe the proper priorities in our life. “But seek ye first the
kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be
added unto you." (Mt 6,33) And, “Everyone who has left houses or
brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields
for the sake of My name will receive a hundredfold and will inherit
eternal life.” (Mt 19,29)
We need to have a certain detachment from persons and things
to be able to give our heart entirely to God, and with him, we
actually have everything else we need. As St. Teresa of Avila put it
graphically, with God we have enough—“solo Dios basta.”
So the detachment our Lord is asking of us actually does not
mean that we hate our life, our parents and others, and the things of
this world. Rather it is a detachment that asks of us to have
rectitude of intention, that everything that we do be for the glory of
God.
To be a disciple of Christ, we have to give everything of
ourselves to him and to the tasks such discipleship entails. This will
allow the very power of Christ to work on us. So instead of hindering
our apostolic work, that detachment that Christ requires of his
disciples would only enhance that work.
Detachment does not remove our involvement and engagement in
our human, earthly and temporal affairs. It simply puts them in the
right context and the right direction. It frees us from unnecessary
baggage. It improves our vision and understanding of things, and
predisposes our heart to the real love which can only be a sharing in
God’s love.
We should not be afraid to go through the required
sacrifices and self-denial that this proper sense of detachment would
involve, since these can only lead us to the joy and peace meant for
us. We need to do better than have a shallow and narrow view of our
earthly life, giving knee-jerk reactions to things.
We need to give due attention to this duty of rectifying and
purifying our intention, filling it with love, and expressing it with
generosity and heroism even. We should do away with any ulterior
motive we would be tempted to have. Our problem is precisely our
tendency to take this duty for granted, and so we open ourselves to
the subtle forces of pride, greed, lust, envy, anger, gluttony, sloth,
etc. Christian detachment protects and liberates us from these
dangers.
* Chaplain Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE), Talamban, Cebu City
Email: roycimagala@gmail.com
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