By Fr. Roy Cimagala *
THIS is, of course, not meant to scare us nor to have a
pessimistic view of life. Rather it is to be realistic, given the way
we are and the way the world in general is, what with all our
limitations and defects, even if we cannot deny that we are also full
of good potentials.
Christ already warned us about this. “If this day you only
knew what makes for peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes. For the
days are coming upon you when your enemies will raise a palisade
against you, they will encircle you and hem you in on all sides. They
will smash you to the ground and your children within you…” (Lk
19,42-44)
We have to learn to prepare for this eventuality. If Christ,
who is God made man and who is our Redeemer, could not help but had to
offer his life to save us, how can we think that our life and the
world in general would take a different path?
Remember Christ telling his disciples, “A servant is not
greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will persecute
you also.” (Jn 15,20) So we have to expect to have the same fate as
Christ. And that means that we have to prepare for the worst scenario.
The world will end badly. That’s already a given, a truth of our
faith.
What we have to do is to always have a proper focus in life.
Especially these days when we are easily carried away by many
distracting elements, what with all we can devour in the social media,
videos, etc., we need to remind ourselves quite strongly that we have
to be well focused on what is truly essential in our life.
We have to remind ourselves that our life here on earth is
actually a testing and training ground for what God, our Father and
Creator, wants us to be, that is, that we be his image and likeness,
adopted children of his, meant to share in his very own life in
eternity.
Everything that we are, we have and we do in this life
should be made as an occasion, material or reason for us to attain
that God-given goal for us. Everything should be related and referred
to him. Simply being on our own and doing things on our own, without
any reference to God, is an anomaly. It would surely end in tragedy
even if we feel we are having a good time in our life.
This fundamental truth about ourselves should be proclaimed
time and time again because we are notorious for taking it for
granted, if not for violating it. We have to remind everyone that we
have to take the necessary steps for us to be aware of this truth and
to live according to it.
Obviously, what is truly helpful in this regard is that
everyone learns really how to pray, how to engage God in a continuing
conversation, or at least to have an abiding awareness of his presence
and interventions in our life.
That is why prayer is indispensable in our life. It is what
would make us aware of who we really are, what the real purpose of our
life on earth is, how we ought to behave in the different situations
and circumstances of our life. It is what would help us to refer
everything to God, what would keep us in the proper focus.
* Chaplain Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE), Talamban, Cebu City
Email: roycimagala@gmail.com
