Let’s have proper focus in life

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

          CONSIDERING that our life here on earth offers us a lot of

things and options, plus the fact that we of course enjoy freedom, we

need to be reminded that we have to learn how to have proper focus in

life, especially because we have a lot of distractions in our world.

          Also we should be ready to leave everything behind when God

finally calls us. And, yes, we also have to know how to exercise our

freedom properly for a certain law governs it. It just cannot be used

in any which way. That would not be freedom, but rather its abuse.

          All these are somehow implied in that gospel episode where

Christ lamented about the loose lifestyle of some people then. “As it

was in the days of Noah, so it will be in the days of the Son of Man,”

he said. “They were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in

marriage up to the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came

and destroyed them all.” (Lk 17,26-27)

          To have the proper focus in life is a big challenge today.

At the moment, we can see a disturbing development involving many

people, especially the young. A big segment of the people is getting

addicted to games and the many other novelties played out in the

Internet and in the new technologies.

          They are now getting more self-centered and self-absorbed,

prone to idleness, laziness and comfort and pleasure seeking. God and

their relationship to others are all but blotted out of their

consciousness.

          We now have the huge challenge of how to make God the

be-all-and-end-all of our life. We need to present Christ’s words in

this regard in a way that would be attractive to the people of today

with their peculiar sensitivity and culture. Let’s remember that

Christ himself did everything to adapt himself to us to carry out his

redemptive mission.

          How can we present, for example, the following words of

Christ to the people of today without scaring them: “Seek first the

kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be

added unto you?” (Mt 6,33)

          We need to understand that our life here on earth is only a

training and testing ground God gives us to see if what he wants us to

be is also what we would like ourselves to be. We should be ready to

leave everything behind when God finally calls us to himself to render

account of what he has given us.

          Yes, to leave everything behind has been more than amply

taught and commanded by Christ himself. For example, to the rich young

man who wanted to be perfect, Christ told him in no unclear terms, “If

you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor,

and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” (Mt 19,21)

These words obviously would give us the impression that we should

possess nothing.

          In another instance, Christ specifies what is required to be

worthy of him. “He that loveth father or mother more than me is not

worthy of me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not

worthy of me.” (Mt 10,37)

          We also need to understand that the proper exercise of our

freedom is when we use our freedom to do the will of God for us.

That’s the law, and no other, that governs our freedom.

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

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com