By Fr. Roy Cimagala *
WE need to realize this more widely and deeply. If we want
to follow Christ, if we truly consider ourselves as real Christians
and not Christians in name only, we have to be like Christ, holy and
with the burning desire to save all men. Thus, we ought to make
sanctity and apostolate the most important, ultimate and abiding goal
of our life.
We are reminded of this truth about ourselves on the feast
of St. Andrew, the Apostle (November 30), where Christ simply would
pass by some men and then tell them to follow him. (cfr. Mt 4,18-22)
And, wonder of wonders, the persons called would just follow him too
without asking any question, willing to leave everything behind.
I guess the only plausible explanation to that phenomenon is
that Christ had all the right to do so, and the person called also had
the duty to respond accordingly, because in the final analysis, all of
us are actually meant to be an apostle. That is to say, to be some
kind of ambassador, a representative of Christ on earth.
At bottom, the answer is because we are supposed to be like
Christ, another Christ, if not Christ himself (“alter Christus,” and
even “ipse Christus”). All of us are patterned after Christ, and so we
cannot avoid being involved in the mission of Christ which is the
salvation of all mankind. Obviously, this business of making ourselves
like Christ, involved in apostolic work, would require a process and
would involve several stages.
But we have to realize that we are all meant to be apostles
of Christ with the lifelong concern for doing apostolate, taking
advantage of all the occasions and situations in life. Vatican II
spells it out very clearly. “The Christian vocation is by its very
nature a vocation to the apostolate.” (Apostolicam actuositatem, 2)
So, anyone who wants to be truly consistent to his Christian identity
and calling should realize ever deeply that he is called to help
others get closer to God. This is what apostolate is all about.
This duty actually springs first of all from our nature. We
are not only individual persons. We are also a social being. Our
sociability is not an optional feature. It is part of our essence,
violating which would be equivalent to violating our very own nature.
We can never live alone. We need to be with others. And
more, we need to care for one another. We have to be responsible for
one another. And while this caring and loving starts with the most
immediate material human needs like food, clothing, etc., it has to go
all the way to the spiritual and more important needs of ours.
That’s why we need to practice affection, compassion,
understanding, patience and mercy with everyone. We have to understand
though that all these can only take place if they spring and tend
towards God, “the source of all good things” for us.
We need to be familiar with this Christian duty. We have to
do apostolate, and we need to see to it that the zeal for it is always
nourished, stoked and fanned to its most intense degree.
We just have to be trusting of God’s will and ways, no
matter how hard and impossible they may appear to us, and that we have
to develop an apostolic concern that is universal in scope, unafraid
of the sacrifices involved.
* Chaplain Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE), Talamban, Cebu City
Email: roycimagala@gmail.com
