By Fr. Roy Cimagala*
“From the days of John the Baptist until now, the Kingdom of
heaven suffers violence, and the violent are taking it by force.” (Mt
11,12)
With these words, Christ is actually telling us that we have
to be forceful and determined in following the will of God who wants
us to be his image and likeness, children of his, and sharers of his
divine life.
And the season of Advent is a good time to develop this
burning desire to be with Christ. Actually, more than just being with
Christ, we are supposed to be like Christ, to be “another Christ”
himself. That’s what God wants us to be. That’s how we become God’s
image and likeness, children of his.
We have to develop an abiding and burning desire to fulfill
the real purpose of our life which is precisely for us to be “another
Christ.” We should be clear about this ultimate purpose of ours so we
can have the proper sense of direction and focus in our life, and the
corresponding urge to fulfill it.
Our problem is that we often take our life’s real and
ultimate purpose for granted, preferring to sway and dance according
to the music played simply by worldly conditions. We prefer to be
guided by our senses and emotions, or by our reasoning alone as
expressed in our man-made different ideologies, philosophies, sciences
and technologies, etc.
We ignore the guiding light of our Christian faith that
gives us not only a global picture of things but also the means to
attain our true goal of eternal life with God in heaven. We have to
remember that our Christian faith shows us the ultimate dimensions and
purpose of our life that definitely includes the spiritual and
supernatural realities.
We often fail to realize that our earthly life is a voyage
of faith in time that is heading towards the eternity of God. This
predicament has to be resolved, and the earlier the better—of course,
with due consideration to the readiness of each one of us to
appreciate the value of our Christian faith, something that has to be
worked on.
In this regard, the first thing to do is to look at the
example of Christ who is “the way, the truth and the life” for us. In
several occasions, Christ would say that what he was doing was in
fulfillment of what the prophets of old, the advance proclaimers of
God’s will for Christ and for all of us, said. (cfr. Mt 26,54.56; Mk
14,49; Lk 18,31; etc.)
For this, we need to exert some forcefulness. Not
destructive violence, not pervert obsession, but a certain
forcefulness that helps us to grow properly and love God and care for
one another. That´s what we need. This is clear in our human and
natural conditions, both in our personal and social aspects. And if we
have to consider our ultimate supernatural goal, then this
forcefulness becomes even more necessary.
We have to follow the example of Christ. In fact, we have to
assume the same mind and mission of Christ. It’s clear that Christ
already had in his mind that he has to follow and fulfill a purpose
and a mission already spelled out for him beforehand. This should also
be the mentality we ought to have. We have a purpose and mission
already spelled out for us beforehand, and we should do our best, with
God’s grace, to fulfill it.
* Chaplain Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE), Talamban, Cebu City
Email: roycimagala@gmail.com
