By Fr. Roy Cimagala *
THIS is what Christ is telling us and is doing so with his
own example. Being God, he emptied himself to become man and to bear
all the sins of men by dying on the cross, all for the purpose of
saving mankind. (cfr. Phil 2,7)
He reiterated this point when he lamented about the
domineering sense of entitlement of some of the leading Jews of his
time while praising the poor widow who put all that she had into the
temple treasury. (cfr. Mk 12,38-44)
While it’s true that we obviously are entitled to our
rights, we should not feel entitled to privileges and favors that are
above our rights and needs. If they come and we cannot avoid them,
then let’s be thankful.
But let’s be reminded that these privileges, favors and
blessings are meant for us to strengthen our desire to serve and not
to be served. But as it is, we should try to avoid them, since they
tend only to spoil and corrupt us.
We have to be most wary when we happen to enjoy some
privileged positions or status in life because we tend to think that
we deserve more entitlements. And not only would we expect them. We
may even demand them for us.
We should banish this temptation as soon as it makes its
appearance felt in us. On the contrary, we should follow the example
of Christ who, in spite of who he was, just wanted to serve.
Remember what Christ said once: “Be careful not to practice
your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do,
you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.” (Mt 6,1)
We need to acquire the mentality of a servant which is
actually the mentality of Christ himself. Let us readjust our human
standards to conform to what is actually proper to us as taught and
lived by Christ. We usually look down on the status of servants. This
has to change! We should be convinced that by becoming a servant we
would be making ourselves like Christ. Let’s say NO to entitlements.
In the meantime, let’s learn the precious lesson Christ
wants to impart to us in that episode where he praised the poor widow
who gave two small coins to the temple treasury more than the rich
ones who put a lot of money.
The lesson to learn is that generosity is not a matter of
how much we give but rather of total detachment from the things of
this world so that our heart can only be for God. We therefore have to
be wary of our strong, if often subtle, attachment to the things of
this world such that our heart would at best be a divided heart, which
is actually an impossibility.
That’s because in our relation with God, there is no middle
ground. It is either we are with him completely or not at all. We have
to overcome that strong tendency to think that we can be partly with
God and partly with our own selves, even if we can say that we are
giving God 99% of what we have and keep only 1% for us.
We have to give all. In fact, with God we have to give our
very own selves, and not only things, not only some possessions.
Remember Christ telling us that we have to love God with “all your
heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” (Mt 22,37)
* Chaplain Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE), Talamban, Cebu City
Email: roycimagala@gmail.com
