The need to continually refine our human laws

 

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

Chaplain

Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE)

Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com

WE obviously have to be governed by the rule of law. Without the law, we can only expect disorder and chaos, and all other forms of injustice. But we need to distinguish between the letter of the law and the spirit of the law, and know how to understand and apply the law properly.

Ideally, both the letter and the spirit of a certain law should be in perfect harmony. But that is hardly the case in real life. The problem, of course, is that the articulation of the law is conditioned and limited by our human powers that cannot fully capture the richness of human life, considering its spiritual and supernatural character that will always involve the intangibles and mysteries and the like.

That is the reason why we can go beyond but not against a particular law, when such law cannot fully express the concrete conditions of a particular case. Because of this condition, there is always the need to continually update and refine our human laws to capture better the true spirit that our laws should have.

In this regard, we have to realize more deeply that it is in Christ, in following his commandment of love, that we can move toward the perfection and true fulfillment of our human laws. 

Yes, that’s what St. Paul said in his Letter to the Romans. And if we believe that St. Paul was an apostle, a special vessel Christ chose to preach to the Gentiles, then his words ought to be believed. The complete passage is as follows:

“Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. The commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ ‘You shall not murder,’ ‘You shall not steal,’ ‘You shall not covet,’ and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law.” (13,8-10)

With these words, we are made to understand that it is love or charity that summarizes and fulfills all the laws there are—those that come directly from God and those that are man-made which are supposed to reflect God’s laws.

We just have to understand what this love or charity is, because we can also have all kinds of charity that may not exactly be the charity as it should be. We all know that we are notorious for doing this. Thus, we should first find where we can have the true essence of charity.

We know that charity is the very essence of God. St. John, in his first letter, said it clearly. “God is love.” (4,8) And that charity was lived and continues to be lived, shown and taught to us by Christ, who is the fullness of the revelation of God to us. 

Christ himself summarized and perfected all the divine commandments given to us by revealing to us a new commandment—that we love one another as he himself has loved us. (cfr. Jn 13,34) The question to ask is: How has Christ loved us and continues to do so?

We know that Christ is the Son of God who became man to save us. He went all the way to assume everything human, except sin, though he was made like sin, just to adapt himself to us for the sake of our salvation. (cfr. 2 Cor 5,21)

Our human laws should try to capture this law of love that comes from God. It’s love that knows how to blend truth, justice and mercy.

Love always asks for more

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

Chaplain

Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE)

Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com

THAT’S the very nature of love, if it’s true love, one that is a vital participation and reflection of the very essence of God which is also meant to be our own essence, since we are God’s image and likeness.

It’s a love that never says enough in spite of our obvious limitations and weaknesses. When we reach those limits, like Christ we would just commend ourselves to God’s own ways that go beyond our natural powers, making the impossible possible. As God’s image and likeness, the supernatural powers of God are also shared with us.

We are reminded of this truth of faith about love in that gospel episode where Christ had to deal with an increasing number of people seeking favors from him by curing them of their various illnesses. And yet, in spite of this challenge due to love’s demands, Christ never forgot to pray. He went to an isolated place to pray. (cfr. Mk 1,29-39)

This can only mean that while love can ask of us anything, it always follows a certain order. That love should always be based on God whose help and power we always have to implore. That’s why we should never forget to pray if we want our love to the true love.

This love should always be pursued and lived everywhere. And one area where it should be lived in a more aggressive way is in the area of politics which is a big challenge today. How are we going to humanize and Christianize our politics that now is assuming a clearly toxic character? How can we keep our politics from going to the dogs?

A cursory reading of the comments in social media immediately indicate a tone of bitterness and acrimony. There's so much bashing and mudslinging that an objective and fair consideration of the issues has become all but impossible.

Many people are making themselves instant political pundits who seem to know everything about the issues at hand. They shoot from the hips, voicing out their opinions as if they are infallible dogmas.

Some political commentators present themselves as if they have the monopoly of what is right and proper, flaunting their so-called encyclopedic knowledge of the issues involved. Any differing position is immediately branded as wrong. And they can come out with what may appear as brilliant arguments that are nothing other than sophistries.

They confuse bullying tactics for conviction and righteousness. And they justify their behavior by saying that this is the political reality of the times. In other words, if they don't act the way they are acting nowadays, they are not being realistic.

If they happen to have the upper hand in any issue, they usually gloat over their opponents who often are regarded as idiots, completely bereft of reason. They consider those in the other side as entirely no good.

This is now the challenge of love. How can we instill the real love in this kind of environment? How can we humanize and Christianize today’s politics? Politics is in urgent and constant need for evangelization. 

Aside from proclaiming what is absolutely moral and immoral, the evangelization of politics should foster an environment of frank and cordial dialogue among the different and even conflicting parties involved. It should foster among the different parties a keen desire with matching effort to pursue the common good. Moral principles should be followed on top of the adherence to agreed rules of engagement as articulated in our legal and judicial systems, etc.

True love goes all the way

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

Chaplain

Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE)

Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com

INDEED, that is how true love is. It never says enough in itself-giving. If it would cost one’s life, so be it. It would always take the initiative, never waiting for some favorable conditions to start loving. It may involve some episodes of anger, but it would always end with mercy.

We can learn these qualities of true love from the first reading of the Mass of Tuesday after Epiphany Sunday. (cfr. 1 Jn 4,7-10) “Let us love one another, for charity is of God. And every one that loves, is born of God, and knows God,” it says. 

And it describes the extent to which this love goes in this way: “In this is charity: not as though we had loved God, but because he has first loved us, and sent his Son to be a propitiation for our sins.”

It obviously would look impossible for us to have that kind of love which we are meant to have since we are supposed to be God's image and likeness, sharers of his life and nature. We should not waste time worrying about that apparent impossibility. We are told that as long as we do our part, imperfect as it is, it would be God himself who would do it for us and with us!

If we truly love God and everybody else, with a love that is nothing less than a participation of the love God has for us and as commanded by Christ to us, then we will never say enough in our self-giving. 

Even if such an attitude would already seem to be going beyond common sense, our reason and other human and worldly standards that we usually use to measure our love, we would still go on giving ourselves, never saying enough. We would just give and give, even if we seem to consume ourselves in death.

This is, of course, an overwhelming prospect, but that is what true love is. It is some kind of madness that knows no limits. It is given without measure, without cost, without any calculation.

And even if such total self-giving is not reciprocated, it would still go on loving. It is purely gratuitous. Even more, even if it is not only unreciprocated but is also violently resisted and rejected, it would still go on loving.

Obviously, if we are to rely only on our own powers, there is no way we can have this kind of self-giving. This can only take place if we are truly identified with Christ, if we have his grace and are corresponding to it with all that we have got.

It’s only in this condition that we can go beyond the limits of our natural self and above the usual drama in life. We of course have our limitations, physical, mental, emotional, etc. And yet, as long as we are truly with Christ, we can still manage to give ourselves unstintingly. The spiritual and supernatural in us through Christ would enable us to give ourselves despite our natural limitations and worldly conditions.

It is God’s grace that does the trick. It’s when we correspond sincerely to God’s love for us that we get a self-perpetuating energy to do our best in any given moment. It’s when we can manage to do the impossible.

We need to help each other to do and give our best in whatever task we have out of sheer love for God and neighbor. The appropriate training should be established in homes, schools and everywhere. The proper climate and environment should be created for this purpose.

“Today is born our Savior, Christ the Lord”

 

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

Chaplain

Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE)

Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com

THAT’S the Good News of great joy for all of us! Let us take time to savor the significance of Christmas so that whatever happens in our life, however the twists and turns of life may take us, we are assured that we have a Savior who will take care of us in all our conditions, whether good or bad.

In one of the readings of the Mass for Christmas, from the Letter of St. Paul to Titus, we read the following assurance: “The grace of God has appeared, saving all and training us to reject godless ways and worldly desires and to live temperately, justly, and devoutly in this age, as we await the blessed hope and appearance of the glory of our great God and savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to deliver us from all lawlessness and cleanse for himself a people as his own, eager to do what is good.” (2,11-14)

May we never give in to the subtle tricks of the enemies of our soul—our wounded flesh, the allurements of the world, and the devil himself—who would urge us to fall into discouragement, despair and hopelessness. We have everything that we need to be what God wants us to be, despite whatever failings we will always have.

But let’s go through some process of lifelong training under Christ’s guidance, if not with Christ himself, so that we would learn to live as true children of God as God wants us to be. In this regard, let us learn how to deal with our weaknesses, temptations and all evil and negative things we have to contend with in this life.

That Christ allowed himself to be tempted (cfr. Lk 4,1-13) means that he wants us to know how to deal with temptations. As we can see in that episode, the temptations the devil played on Christ involved good things but poisoned with a bad intention. Temptations are always like that—they will always be based on something good since evil cannot exist without being anchored on something good and true which it tries to distort and corrupt.

Like Christ, what we should do is to clarify the real intent and purpose of the good and the true that the devil and the tempter want to distort. This can only happen if we refer the temptation to God himself, and not just to ourselves and much less to the tempter himself. In the temptations of Christ, Christ clarified things to the devil.

Once we realize the real intent of the good and the true that the tempter uses with deception, let us make use of the very urgings and promptings that the temptation provokes in us to pursue the real intent of the good and the true as defined by God and described by the many instrumentalities we have in the Church.

Indeed, temptations can occasion a great good if we would only know how to see the good and the true that they try to distort, and then channel their urges to do the real good and the true as defined by our Christian faith.

To be sure, this way of reacting to temptations will give us peace and joy, and a drive and a zeal to do good. It will start to heal our spiritual and moral weaknesses. In a sense, temptations, if dealt properly, can be a great gift!

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!

God’s mysterious will and ways

 

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

Chaplain

Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE)

Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com

THAT otherwise amusing story of how the baby of Elizabeth and Zechariah was

to be called John instead of Zechariah as their neighbors expected (cfr. Lk 1,57-66)

somehow tells us that in our life we have to contend with certain mysteries that often

defy common sense, logic, tradition and our other human and natural ways.

We should just be humble enough to realize that our natural certainties can never

cope with all the mysteries of life. No matter how objective and scientific these

certainties are derived, no matter how deep and exhaustive our philosophies, theologies

and ideologies are made, our certainties just cannot take all the mysteries in our life.

Even in the world of nature where in theory we have the capacity to know things

conclusively, we often find ourselves in situations of tentativeness and even of outright

error. That is why we are always in the process of discoveries and we would not know

when we can end it, that is to say, when we can say that we have known everything to

be known in the world of nature.

This does not mean that our certainties can never know the truth, even the

absolute, and not just relative truths. Yes, we can, but the best that we can do is to

project ourselves to infinite possibilities, because even the absolute truths are not things

that are frozen. They are always dynamic, requiring us to always deepen and grow in

our understanding and appreciation of them.

The task we have is how to correspond to this tremendous reality of living our life

within the whole mystery of God’s life. Many of us still think that we are quite by

ourselves, and the decision to relate ourselves with God and others is purely optional.

No, sir. Our relationship with God, while an option—in fact, a fundamental

option—is never optional, something we can feel quite free to have or not to have. We

would be incomplete without God.

We need to be more aware of this marvelous truth. And from there, to start the

lifelong journey of conforming our life to that of God, overcoming first our initial human

awkwardness in the face of our supernatural goal, and then developing the virtues that

little by little would resemble us with God.

It’s a process of always conquering new frontiers and defending our fronts from

the enemies of God and of our soul.

May it be that our thoughts are also God’s thoughts. And may our words and

actions not be just our words and actions, but also God’s. That’s how we are meant to

be!

On God’s part, everything has been provided for us to reach the goal. He always

gives us his grace. He sends us the Holy Spirit, our sanctifier with his gifts and fruits, so

that we can concur with God’s actions and designs.

We’ve been given God’s word, a living and definite revelation so we can enter

into the mind of God. We have been given the sacraments and the Church itself, so that

God continues to be with us and in us in a very direct and abiding way while still

journeying in this earthly life.

So, we should just learn how to live with mysteries in our whole life. They make

our life assume the character of an adventure, a thriller, but a divine one, since it is

directed by God himself. He plays with us and we should just be sport about it and enjoy

it as much as possible even if contradictions can come along

The danger of getting used to the truths of our faith

 

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

Chaplain

Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE)

Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com

THIS was what Christ once lamented about while preaching to the crowd. “To what shall I compare this generation?” he asked. “It is like children who sit in marketplaces and call to one another, ‘We played the flute for you, but you did not dance, we sang a dirge but you did not mourn.’” (Mt 11,16-17

It’s a lamentation that continues to hold true even up to now. We cannot deny that there are many people, even those who can be considered as active in the Church, starting with our own selves, who do not live in a way that is consistent to the Christian faith we profess.

Our usual problem is precisely that we get easily over-familiar with the truths of our faith and the sacred things. We tend to take for granted the many blessings we have. Not only do we not count our blessings, we often complain that we do not have enough. We can then elicit those reproaching words of Christ to his townmates: “A prophet is not without honor, except in his own country.” 

This is a very common danger to all of us, and is at bottom a result of letting ourselves be simply guided by our senses, or feelings and our other ways of human estimation, without the guidance of our faith that should lead us to develop the appropriate piety.

We have to be more aware of this danger of familiarity and install the necessary defenses against it. More than that, we have to aggressively cultivate the art of always being amazed at God and at all his works. That should be the proper state for us to be in.

We have to understand, though, that this abiding state of amazement that we should try to develop is not simply a matter of sensations. Of course, it would be good if we can always feel amazed and in awe. But given the limitations of our bodily organisms, we cannot expect that to happen all the time.

The ideal abiding state of amazement is more a matter of conviction, of something spiritual, moral and supernatural. It should be the result of grace that is corresponded to generously and heroically by us.

It is a state of amazement that sooner or later, of course, will have some external manifestations like an aura of serenity and confidence even in the midst of great trials and suffering. It will most likely show itself in the lilt in one’s voice, optimism in his reactions to events, a smile, a warm word of praise and encouragement to others, etc.

To be sure, God will always give us this grace. The problematic area is our correspondence to that grace. In this regard, we should try to pray and meditate on God’s word. Let’s see to it that we get to relish the spirit behind the word of God as presented to us in Bible.

We have to be wary of our tendency to go through God’s word in a mechanical way. We can produce the sound, we can use the word in some sensible and intelligible way, but still miss the very spirit of the word. We can still miss God and ignore his will, because our heart is still not in God’s word.

Besides, we need to develop a deepening sense of total dependence on God. Let’s see to it that our talents, faculties and powers, our achievements do not blunt, but rather sharpen this sense of dependence.

Christian poverty more than just detachment from things

by Fr. Roy Cimagala

Chaplain

Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE)

Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com

THAT gospel episode where Christ praised a poor widow for giving all that she had to live on to the treasury of the temple (cfr. Lk 21,1-4) graphically reminds us that Christian poverty, which is what is required for true Christian love to reign in our hearts, is not so much a matter of how much, in terms of money and quantity, we are willing to be detached from as detaching ourselves from our very own selves, giving everything to God.

It’s actually the best deal that we can have, since as Christ said, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to have his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.” (Mt 16,24-25)

This is divine wisdom which we have to learn to live by. Moreover, it is something which we have to learn how to convince others, especially the young ones who are exposed today to so much materialism and egotistic ways, to believe in it.

This will, indeed, take a lot of time and effort, especially in the area of how to make this divine wisdom attractive and doable. In this regard, we have to learn to present Christ the way Christ presented himself to the people of his time.

He adapted himself to how the people were. He, of course, as St. Paul said, emptied himself by becoming man and went to the extent of offering his life on the cross, just to identify himself completely with us. (cfr. Phil 2,6-8)

In this preaching, he used literary devices, like the parables, so as to elicit interest and eventual understanding and appreciation of the redemptive messages and lessons he wanted to impart to the people.

This is something that we, in our own time with our distinctive cultures and mindsets, should also learn to do. We can only show and give Christ to others, we can only make Christ’s redemptive messages and lessons appreciated by us, if we learn how to connect the real Christ, both in spirit and in the flesh, and not a disembodied Christ, to the people of today.

The effort required here involves emptying ourselves so as to embody the real Christ in ourselves in the context of today’s world with all the good and the bad that it now has. That is why we always need to detach ourselves not only from things but also, and more importantly, from our own selves, so we can be filled with Christ’s spirit and enabled to show Christ in the flesh.

But given our human condition which allows us to learn things in stages, we have to understand that everyday we have to conquer our tendency to fall into some earthly attachments so that we can say we are giving ourselves more and more to God until we give ourselves completely to him.

This will require a constant reminder and self-reassurance that it is all worthwhile to give and to lose everything for God because we will in fact gain a lot more than what we give. Let’s always remember Christ telling us “to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added unto you.” (Mt 6,33)

We have to learn to let go of our possessions, our preferences, our opinions, etc., until we can say that we are letting go of our whole selves so as to give everything to God, and with God we are assured that we can have everything that is truly important to us!

Christian poverty more than just detachment from things

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

Chaplain

Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE)

Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com

THAT gospel episode where Christ praised a poor widow for giving all that she had to live on to the treasury of the temple (cfr. Lk 21,1-4) graphically reminds us that Christian poverty, which is what is required for true Christian love to reign in our hearts, is not so much a matter of how much, in terms of money and quantity, we are willing to be detached from as detaching ourselves from our very own selves, giving everything to God.

It’s actually the best deal that we can have, since as Christ said, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to have his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.” (Mt 16,24-25)

This is divine wisdom which we have to learn to live by. Moreover, it is something which we have to learn how to convince others, especially the young ones who are exposed today to so much materialism and egotistic ways, to believe in it.

This will, indeed, take a lot of time and effort, especially in the area of how to make this divine wisdom attractive and doable. In this regard, we have to learn to present Christ the way Christ presented himself to the people of his time.

He adapted himself to how the people were. He, of course, as St. Paul said, emptied himself by becoming man and went to the extent of offering his life on the cross, just to identify himself completely with us. (cfr. Phil 2,6-8)

In this preaching, he used literary devices, like the parables, so as to elicit interest and eventual understanding and appreciation of the redemptive messages and lessons he wanted to impart to the people.

This is something that we, in our own time with our distinctive cultures and mindsets, should also learn to do. We can only show and give Christ to others, we can only make Christ’s redemptive messages and lessons appreciated by us, if we learn how to connect the real Christ, both in spirit and in the flesh, and not a disembodied Christ, to the people of today.

The effort required here involves emptying ourselves so as to embody the real Christ in ourselves in the context of today’s world with all the good and the bad that it now has. That is why we always need to detach ourselves not only from things but also, and more importantly, from our own selves, so we can be filled with Christ’s spirit and enabled to show Christ in the flesh.

But given our human condition which allows us to learn things in stages, we have to understand that everyday we have to conquer our tendency to fall into some earthly attachments so that we can say we are giving ourselves more and more to God until we give ourselves completely to him.

This will require a constant reminder and self-reassurance that it is all worthwhile to give and to lose everything for God because we will in fact gain a lot more than what we give. Let’s always remember Christ telling us “to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added unto you.” (Mt 6,33)

We have to learn to let go of our possessions, our preferences, our opinions, etc., until we can say that we are letting go of our whole selves so as to give everything to God, and with God we are assured that we can have everything that is truly important to us!

Beware of secularism

 

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

Chaplain

Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE)

Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com

THE problem of secularism is that it promotes a social order this is neither connected to religion nor critical of it. It denies the influence of religion in our social order. It simply wants to be guided by a certain consensus derived from what is considered practical in the present life itself.

But religion is not simply a private affair. God is the author and ruler not only of individuals, but also of societies. While the relation of Church and State depends on a number of circumstances which cannot be determined by a general rule, truth is religion is a social as well as an individual and personal duty. It cannot and should not be ignored. 

The so-called separation of Church and State should not be understood in an absolute way. While it’s correct that the State should not have a state religion nor promote or condemn any particular religion or religious viewpoint, developing a relation between State and the different religions should be promoted. The State should also respect the views of non-believers.

But the Church cannot renounce her mission to teach the truths she has received from her Divine Founder. While fully recognizing the value of the present life, the Church cannot look upon it as an end in itself, but only as a movement toward a future life for which preparation must be made by compliance with the laws of nature and the laws of God.

For Catholics and Christians in general, their belief that the present life is a preparation if not a testing ground for an eternal life that is a supernatural sharing of the very life of God, should be respected. And because of that, their moral teachings should be respected too. The government cannot impose something that is considered immoral by their religion.

Secularism gives an opening to certain ideologies like Wokeism, neo-Marxism, etc. that actually are harmful to social justice and order. That is why we should be careful of secularism. Rather, we should intensify our religious and spiritual life, our relation with God, so that the proper social justice and order can be obtained.

Of course, the Church cannot impose its teachings on anyone, but it should be given a free space to be itself, to evangelize, to celebrate the sacraments, and to do the works of education, charity, mercy and justice without undue interference from the government.

Besides, the Church asks—and if necessary, demands—that the State respect the “sanctuary of conscience,” so that the Church’s people are not required by law to do things the Church teaches as immoral.

It’s unfortunate, for example, that in the US there was this “Contraceptive Mandate” issued in 2012 that turned the Catholic Church’s charitable and medical facilities into State agencies that facilitate practices that the Church believes are gravely evil.

Indeed, this delicate issue of Church and State relation should be thoroughly studied by our Church and State leaders, and appropriate agreements should be made. The separation of Church and State should not be understood as a mandate to ignore each other. There has to be constant communication and consultation between the two, because both work for the same people or constituents, though in different aspects of life.

Though there is autonomy in both of them, it should be acknowledged that “there is no realm of worldly affairs which can be withdrawn from the Creator and His dominion.” 

Concern for the lost

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

Chaplain

Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE)

Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com

THE lesson we can draw from the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin (cfr. Lk 15,1-10) is very clear. We need to give special attention and exert special effort to recover those who have lost their way toward God. This is the real test of discipleship.

We obviously need some special training for this. But let’s not forget that the first thing to do is to beg for that grace and power of God so we can carry out this duty that is clearly beyond our human powers and condition.

In our prayer, we should ask God to instill in us this strong urge to be concerned for those who have strayed from the proper way, those who for one reason or another are ostracized and alienated from God and from the rest of humanity.

With God’s grace, let’s embark on a plan to develop the appropriate attitude, virtues, skills and practices. Yes, we have to learn how to be “all things to all men to save at least some,” as St. Paul once said. (cfr. 1 Cor 9,22)

Definitely this would require of us a very open spirit that would enable us to adapt ourselves to everyone in the way they are, warts and all. Thus, we need to develop the qualities of adaptability, flexibility and versatility. With our increasingly complex times, we need to learn how to flow with the tide without losing our identity and real purpose in life. For this, we definitely need to look and closely follow the example of Christ.

Christ, being God, made himself man and went all the way to assume the sinfulness of men without committing any sin if only to identify himself with us in our wounded condition and to give us a way of how to deal with that condition.

In his preaching, he used parables to make his lessons more accessible to the people. He was always compassionate, quick to forgive, slow to anger. He was always thinking both of his Father and of the people. Remember him saying, “The one who sent me is true and what I heard from him I tell the world.” (Jn 8,26)

He gave preferential treatment to the children, the weak, the handicapped, the sick, the sinners. He was only allergic to the proud and self-righteous whose sense of right and wrong did not come from God, but rather from their own selves in their great variety of human consensus and other subtle forms of self-assertion. But on the cross, he asked forgiveness for everyone.

Obviously, to have this genuine concern for the lost, we need to be tough spiritually, not squeamish, much less, self-righteous. We should not be afraid to get the “smell,” as Pope Francis once said, of the lost sheep. If we are truly involved in the life of those who are lost and far from Church, we cannot avoid acquiring that “smell.”

Of course, without compromising our need to be tender and gentle, we have to learn how to be strong and tough with the strength and forcefulness of true charity that would enable us to bend, to understand and to forgive.

It’s a matter of discernment and prudence. They actually can and should go together—our toughness and gentleness. But their manifestations vary according to the situation, and we just have to learn how to show and live both anytime, or highlight one over the other given the circumstance or the need of the moment.

Total self-giving without expecting any return

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

Chaplain

Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE)

Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com

IT’S the call Christ addresses to us when he told his disciples: “When you hold a lunch or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or sisters or your relatives or your wealthy neighbors, in case they may invite you back and you have repayment. Rather, when you hold a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind; blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.” (Lk 14,12-14)

True generosity is attained when we completely gratuitously give ourselves to others, just like God who gives himself to us completely gratuitously. Never mind if our generosity is not reciprocated, which is unlikely since when we are generous with others the tendency is also for the others to be generous with us in their own way.

The crucial point in this business of generosity is the gratuitousness of our self-giving. This should be the attitude in our self-giving. It has to be done without counting the cost, without expecting any reward. We should not worry about anything, because God knows everything and gives us everything that we need. And he cannot be outdone in generosity. The more we give of ourselves, the more he will reward us.

We just have to do our self-giving very freely. As Christ himself told his apostles, “Freely you have received, freely give.” (Mt 10,8) And the first one to live by this principle is Christ himself. He gave himself freely to us, including his own life. He did not mind the sacrifices, the insults and mistreatment he underwent.

This is what true love is. It is total self-giving. But the mysterious part of it is that it actually generates more love and self-giving in others. It inspires others to give themselves in the way of true love. That is why true love has its own reward. It has the dynamic of being repaid also with love.

We should always be encouraged to give ourselves to others gratuitously without strings attached, without conditions. Even if instead of being reciprocated properly and requited, our love is misunderstood and rejected, we just have to go on loving. The only reason for loving is because that is what true love is. It is this love that is the real essence of God, of whom we are his image and likeness.

This truth of our faith about gratuitous generosity in our self-giving is also amply dramatized in that lesson Christ gave regarding the unprofitable servant. (cfr Lk 17,7-10) “When you have done all you have been commanded,” Christ said, “say, ‘We are unprofitable servants. We have done what we were obliged to do.’”

Loving and serving cannot and should not be quantified in terms of cost and reward. It is above all these considerations. It’s a purely spiritual operation that should not be spoiled by giving it some material and temporal value. It’s where we can approximate, keep and build up that dignity of being the image and likeness of God and adopted children of his. It’s how we become God-like.

This is how God serves and gives himself to us, with complete gratuitousness. He even goes all the way of still loving and serving us even if we do not reciprocate his love properly. This is how we should serve and give ourselves to others also!

Even Christ had to pray

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

Chaplain

Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE)

Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com

IT’S worthwhile noting that even Christ had to spend the night praying before he made that big decision of choosing his 12 apostles among the many disciples that he had at that time. (cfr. Lk 6,12-16) This could only mean that for Christ to be completely in union with the will of the Father, he had to pray.

There should be no doubt on our part that we too should learn how to pray not only from time to time but rather all the time, if we want to be completely in union with the will of God as we should. Christ is showing us the example, and we should just try our best to follow it. It’s what is proper to us.

Prayer should be like the breathing and the beating of the heart that we need to keep ourselves spiritually alive. It’s what would enable us to enter, start and keep sharing the very life of God as we are meant to do. Without prayer, we would put ourselves in an anomalous condition as we separate ourselves from the very source of our true identity and dignity.

We have to learn to pray all the time, converting everything into some form of prayer by doing it always with God and for God and not just by ourselves, motivated only by some earthly and temporal reasons. This is always possible and practicable because God has designed everything as a form to connect ourselves with him. It’s up to us to follow that design or not.

Ideally, everything should be an act of prayer, whether we are doing our sacred or mundane duties, whether things are good or bad for us, whether we are alone or in a crowd, etc.

Prayer should not be understood only in its sacred, solemn mode. It can lend itself to all the situations and circumstances of our life. It is practicable in any situation. We just have to develop the proper discipline which, of course, will require some training.

And just like any training, it at first has to be taught under a controlled environment. That is why, at the beginning we were taught as children to recite and put into memory some vocal prayers. We may not understand everything said there, but that at least initiates us to the practice of prayer.

Then further steps ought to be made. We have to learn how to exercise our faith, how to meditate and contemplate, how to find a proper place, time and even posture for it. And then how we can have presence of God the whole day, the rectitude of intention in all our actions, the habit of offering everything to God, and literally of conversing with God and discerning his will as we go on with our daily activities.

Let’s remember that without God who is our creator and source of all good things, we can only do evil. We would be like a branch cut off from the vine. We may manage to give an appearance of life and goodness, but without Him, we actually have and are nothing.

We have to be constantly aware that we cannot be simply on our own. We need God and we need to be with everybody and everything else. We have to overcome our tendency that we can afford to be isolated. We should never forget that we are always in communion and we need to make that communion alive and healthy. Prayer does that for us!

Pumping energy into our love

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

Chaplain

Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE)

Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com

THAT’S practically what Christ wants of us as he said: “I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing!” (Lk 12,49) Obviously, we can only manage to do that if we truly identify ourselves with Christ.

Let’s remember that Christ left us with a new commandment that summarized and perfected the previous commandments articulated earlier. And that is that we should love one another as he himself has loved us. (cfr. Jn 13,34)

And how did he love us and continue to love us? Not only did he empty himself who, being God, became man, nor did he simply preach the ultimate truths about ourselves and things in general, nor did he simply perform wonderful miracles. He went all the way to assuming our sins and conquering them by offering his life on the cross and by resurrecting!

To top it all, he makes himself present substantially for all time, especially through the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, offering himself as the Bread of Life so that even now we can have a taste of the eternal life.

We really need to level up our knowledge of this truth of faith, training our mind and heart to capture this wonderful reality that should fill us with joy and eagerness to correspond to his love, since love, by definition, automatically arouses in us to love also in return.

We need to train ourselves to love the way Christ loves us. It’s a tall order, of course, but we have our whole lifetime to learn how to love. We may not perfect it, and that’s understandable. What is needed is simply for us to try our best, since it will be God who will do the rest.

Remember St. Paul telling us, “He (God) who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Phil 1,6) We should not worry too much if our effort to imitate Christ in his love would sometimes be erratic. The important thing to do is simply to continue, to move on trying our best, never surrendering to the urges of our weaknesses and mistakes.

Yes, we are subject to certain conditionings that can slow down our self-giving. We have to contend with our temperament which will always have its erratic ways, our physical and health conditions, our surroundings, etc.

But we should never forget that whether we realize it or not we are all involved in the supernatural work of God here on earth, where his supernatural powers are also at play. In the worst scenarios in our life, we can always beg for some supernatural help from God to enable us to do what we are supposed to do.

Yes, there will be sacrifices and tremendous amounts of effort involved here. We should just train ourselves to develop, with God’s grace of course, the power to tackle the difficult situations in our life.

What can always help is that we avoid getting imprisoned in our own world and allow ourselves to simply be at the mercy of the state of our physical, emotional and mental condition. With our spiritual faculties of intelligence and will, plus of course God’s grace that will always be made abundantly available, we can transcend beyond these constraining elements.

So, we just have to use everything within our power to attain that ideal state of being always on the go, dynamic, eager to serve and to do things for everyone.

Why we can be hopeful

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

Chaplain

Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE)

Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com

THE simple reason is that Christ has done everything to assure us of our earthly victory so we can enter heaven where we are meant to be. We need to strengthen this truth of our faith so that whatever happens—and there will always be some kind of heavy drama involved in our life regardless of our best intentions and efforts—we can remain confident and hopeful, and focused on what is truly important to achieve in our life.

Let us make as our own these words of St. Paul in his Letter to the Romans: “If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” (8,31-32)

As to our ability to do what we are supposed to do despite the varying and even unfavorable circumstances, let us take these words of St. Paul to heart: “I can do all this through him who gives me strength.” (Phil 4,13)

We should just strengthen our hope that is based on what God shares with us. This is a crucial virtue to have. Given our condition as a pilgrim here on earth, we should make sure that we are always on the move toward our ultimate, spiritual and supernatural goal. 

We should not get distracted or entangled by our earthly affairs, whether good or bad, for as the Letter to Hebrews would put it: “For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come.” (13,14) Thus, we have to always strengthen our hope.

Hope is first of all not just a virtue that we produce, cultivate or keep ourselves. It is first of all a gift of God, given to us in abundance. It is the gift of Christ himself who, by the Holy Spirit, is made present in us through his words, his sacraments, his Church. All we have to do is to correspond to this wonderful reality as vigorously as possible.

That is why we need to be most mindful of the truths of our faith, giving time to meditate on them and to make them sink in our very consciousness. We have to be wary of our tendency to be carried away by our earthly concerns, no matter how legitimate they are. For again, as the gospel would say, “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” (Mk 8,36)

It’s important that just like in that management style called MBO (Management by objective), we have to have a clear vision of our ultimate goal and make it the strongest desire of our life, so that we don’t get entangled with the ups and downs and the drama of life.

This, of course, will require some significant effort, because nowadays people are getting too hooked in their earthly, temporal affairs. Some of them who are considered more in the successful side, get so immersed in them that they forget their spiritual and supernatural goal. Others, who are more on the losing side, eventually fall into discouragement and despair. They end up finding no meaning in life.

With this gift and virtue of hope, we are always given a sense of direction. Our goal is made clear. All the means are made available. Every event, whether humanly good or bad, always has a meaning and can be made use of to attain our eternal goal.

Training our mind and heart to be properly focused

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

Chaplain

Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE)

Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com

THIS is what we can gather as a lesson from that gospel episode about the two sisters, Martha and Mary, in their relation with Christ. (cfr. Lk 10,38-42) Both were good sisters and followers of Christ, but the former failed to take the proper priority regarding their relation with Christ.

While everything temporal and earthly plays an important role in our relation with God, they can be dangerous if they do not have God as their beginning and end, and are simply understood and treated as temporal and earthly.

We really need to train our mind and heart to be always anchored and focused on God. This will take a lifetime to achieve, and we may not be able to perfect it, but the point is simply for us to just try and try.

Especially these days when we are heavily bombarded with fantasies and fictions in novels and movies, we can easily be gaslighted to believe in them if our faith in God is not nourished regularly in our mind and heart.

We would fail to realize that these fantasies and fictions are just make-believe things that only serve as a temporary way of rest and recreation and should not be taken seriously. With a weak hold on our faith and on our spiritual life, we would fail to realize that we are just being tickled to play the game of self-indulgence that would slowly snuff out our relation with God and with others

These fantasies and fictions often appeal to our emotions and passions, leading us to be more carnal than spiritual, more animal-like than God-like as we should be. They usually play out the law of Talion in their storylines and narratives, making the eye-for-an -eye and tooth-for-a tooth behavior as the standard of our life.

It’s not a matter of considering these fantasies and fictions as bad. They can serve a legitimate purpose and can be truly helpful to us as long as we too take the necessary precautions and prudence in enjoying them.

We need to spend time and effort to make God truly present, acknowledged and responded to in our mind and heart. Thus, the need to spend time praying and meditating on the life of God, studying and internalizing the doctrine and teaching of Christ and of the Church, having recourse to the sacraments and other human devices that would help us live always in the presence of God.

When we notice that we are more attracted to the extraordinary happenings in these fantasies and fictions than to the miracles of Christ, we would already have an indication of the wrong priorities we have in life.

We have to remember that the miracles of Christ are real while those extraordinary happenings in those fantasies and fictions are not. The miracles of Christ are meant to draw us closer to God, to grow in our faith, to lead us to another conversion, to enter into the spiritual and supernatural world, etc., while those extraordinary happenings in those fantasies and fictions are a subtle way for us to indulge on ourselves and to trap us only in the here and now.

We should have a well-articulated plan of life that can foster true piety 24/7. Especially these days when the world is rapidly developing, causing a lot of confusion, if not error, this need for an effective plan of life should be considered as urgent.

We are vital cooperators of Christ’s mission

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

Chaplain

Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE)

Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com

WE need to realize this truth about ourselves more deeply and stably. We are meant to be living cooperators of Christ’s continuing mission of human redemption. And this is not only for a few, but actually for all of us. Of course, this truth of our faith can be acted on in stages. We cannot all of a sudden be active cooperators of Christ’s mission. It takes time, effort and, of course, God’s grace for us to achieve this ideal and dignity.

“The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so, ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest,” Christ told his disciples, and is now telling us. (Lk 10,2) Despite the limitations and inadequacies we think we have to carry out this mandate, we should just try our best to respond to it.

We cannot deny that especially these days, there is a great need for these “laborers for the master’s harvest.” Today’s mission lands are not so much those places and people who are far away from the mainstream, those who still are kind of primitive in their culture and deprived even of the basic material necessities, as those who are in developed countries but very far in their faith.

More than far from the faith and from God, many people today look more resistant and even against God and anything that has to do with religion. They are more challenging since the attention and evangelization to be given to them require a more complex strategy.

In a sense, these places and people can constitute as the new peripheries that Pope Francis likes to talk about. And when he said that the Christian missionaries as shepherds should be ready to acquire the smell of the sheep, to be sure it will be a different smell from what we usually expect from poor, underdeveloped places and people. But just the same, it will be the smell of the lost sheep, even if the smell is sweet to the senses.

We therefore have to make some drastic updating of our understanding of what a missionary is. We should not get stuck with the common textbook idea that a missionary is usually a priest or nun who goes to a far-away place, and literally starts a settlement there.

While this concept of a missionary is still valid—it will always be—it now cries to be expanded to reflect its true character, especially given today’s fast-moving and more complicated world. 

We have to understand that everyone, by virtue of his sheer humanity and much more, his Christianity, is called to be a missionary, and that he does not need to go to distant lands because his immediate environment already needs a more effective, down-to-earth evangelization.

Yes, even the ordinary guy in an office, the farmer, the businessman, the politician, the entertainers, artists and athletes, are called to be missionaries. That’s simply because as persons with a prominently social dimension in our life, we have to be responsible for one another.

And the biggest responsibility we can have for the others would be their moral and spiritual welfare, much more than just their economic or social wellbeing, though this latter concern is also very important. It is this responsibility that we have to learn how to be more serious about and more competent in fulfilling. This is the current situation and challenge to all of us.

Let’s always be childlike

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

Chaplain

Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE)

Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com

THAT’S what Christ wants us to be. In that gospel episode where the disciples were discussing who among them was the greatest, Christ jolted them by putting a child in their midst and said the following:

“Whoever receives this child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me. For the one who is least among all of you is the one who is the greatest.” (Lk 9,48)

And if we wonder why that is so, the only answer we can think of is that having the spirit of a child, who is always simple and trusting, would enable us to accept Christ without any difficulty and to accept everybody else as well irrespective of how they are.

We have to be wary of losing this spirit of a child, especially as we grow in age, knowledge and experience. The ideal condition should be that the older we get, the more knowledgeable and experienced in life we become, the more childlike we should also become. Otherwise, we would surely lose our touch with Christ.

Yes, it always pays to be simple, humble and childlike, because as St. Paul once reminded us: “God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.” (1 Cor 1,27-29) Of course, St. Peter said something similar: “God resists the proud, and gives grace to the humble.” (1 Pt 5,5)

Amid the complexities of our life today, we have to learn to stay humble and simple because that is the basic way to precisely handle these complexities well. When we are humble and simple, we would know how to blend openness, tolerance and versatility on the one hand, and to stick to the truth in charity on the other hand.

It is genuine humility and simplicity that would enable us to face the complexities of our life because these are the virtues that liken and identify us with Christ. And with Christ, we can manage to tackle anything.

That is why Christ said: “Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden light.” (Mt 11,29-30)

Of course, this is a mysterious and intriguing kind of reasoning that Christ is telling us. And that is simply because he is telling us something that is mainly spiritual and supernatural in character. He is not giving us an indication that is meant to tackle purely natural situations and predicaments.

We have to realize that our life does not only have material, temporal and natural dimensions. It has an eminently spiritual and supernatural character for which the spiritual and supernatural means are more important and necessary than the natural ones.

Humility and simplicity are the virtues that would make us acknowledge that we are nothing without God. They sort of open our soul for the grace of God to enter. And it is this grace that transforms us, irrespective of our human impotencies, mistakes and errors, into becoming children of God.

Let’s try our best to remain childlike always!

Guided by faith always

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

Chaplain

Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE)

Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com

GIVEN the fact that we are not meant to remain only in the natural level, relying simply on our human powers, but rather are meant to enter and share the supernatural life of God since we are his image and likeness, we have to be clear that we have to be guided by faith rather than simply our own reasoning and our other human ways of knowing.

Faith is God sharing his knowledge with us. It is how we begin to share the life of God. And he gives it to us very willingly. It just depends on us on whether we receive it or not, and to respond to it or not. 

Faith contains truths that go beyond the natural realities of our life. Thus, it has supernatural truths or mysteries which we have to learn to feel at home with. This means we have to learn not to stick to our natural reasoning alone, but to go beyond it.

To be sure, faith does not supplant our reasoning or intelligence. Rather, it makes full use of it, although its scope is far wider and deeper than what our intelligence can fully know and understand.

As the Catechism puts it, faith is first of all a gratuitous gift of God, it is grace. But it also requires the correspondence of our intelligence. It is also a human act. It asks us to do our best to understand it as much as we can. It seeks understanding.

Besides, though faith is above reason, there can never be any real discrepancy between faith and reason, since it is the same God who reveals mysteries and infuses faith in us and who also bestows the light of reason on the human mind. He cannot contradict himself. (cfr. CCC 156-159) Thus, faith and human science cannot contradict with each other, though the latter cannot cope with what the former teaches and shows.

We have to remember that since the reality that governs us transcends the natural order, our human faculty of intelligence and reasoning just cannot depend on the data provided by our senses and our own understanding of things. 

Otherwise, we will be trapped in our own world that does not jibe anymore with the reality meant for us. This is especially observable in the world of politics where partisan and ideological interests get so strong as to go to the extent of pushing all kinds of fallacies and blatant falsehoods, supported by so much rhetoric and theatrics, that even clear immoralities like divorce, abortion, atheism, etc. can be espoused and legalized.

Our reason needs to be guided by faith. In that regard, we need to be humble enough to acknowledge the need for our reason for the guidance of faith. That’s because no matter how perceptive and intelligent we are, we can always detect that there is another world that is beyond the sensible and the intelligible. This is the world where our senses and intelligence cannot anymore cope.

This is where we need to humble ourselves, a predicament that many of us find hard to resolve. We tend to hold on only to our own ideas and the facts and data that we can manage to gather, guided mainly by our senses and intellect. In short, we make our own selves, and to be more specific, our own senses and intellect, to be our own sole guide, our own god.

We have to do something drastic about this. And the first thing we should do is to feel the need for God from whom all of us and the entire creation come and to whom we all belong.

Training ourselves to have Christ’s compassionate heart

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

Chaplain

Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE)

Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com

THIS should be one goal we should try our best to pursue and train ourselves for. Given the human condition we have in this world, hounded by all sorts of challenges, trials and difficulties, we should just try our best, with God’s help, of course, to be of help to others despite the cost it may involve.

We should just have a strong faith in Christ’s ever-ready assistance in this regard. Let’s remember that we cannot be Christ-like as we should be if we do not have the very compassionate heart of Christ.

While it’s true that we have to be prudent in our actuations, we should not either forget that following Christ will always involve self-denial, carrying the cross, all of which can be translated into our willingness to give whatever we can even if in the process we ourselves and those with us—our family, especially—would suffer some loss.

Let’s always remember that Christ has given us the best deal, such that whatever may appear as a loss to us because of following and loving him will always redound to a much greater gain later on.

Compassion starts in the heart, in our thoughts and desires. At this level, there is no limit in what we can do. Obviously, when we try to translate these prayers, thoughts and desires into action and material things, we can be greatly limited. But insofar as prayers and sacrifices are involved, the possibilities are unlimited.

We need to examine ourselves more deeply to see if indeed we are always thinking, praying and wishing others well. We have to be wary of our tendency to let our thoughts and desires be dictated only by self-interest, usually done in a most subtle but effective way. For this, we have to do regular examinations of conscience.

We have to expand our hearts to make it more universal, as well as broaden our mind so we can understand different people and different things more deeply and extensively. And this even if those involved are very different from us.

Let’s examine ourselves more thoroughly so as to be more aware of our biases and preferences that can get in the way of our effort to adapt and our pursuit for a more universal compassion. Let’s train ourselves how to rise above our unavoidable biases and preferences if only to be of help to others.

We have to learn how to go through the process of changing, improving and growing in our spiritual life. This can be painful and tedious, but it is always worthwhile. Not only that. It is necessary, if we have to be realistic. We should just think of what Christ has promised us if we are willing to make sacrifices for others.

Compassion should not be exclusively associated with the sweet and tender moments of pity, sympathy and empathy. It demands sacrifice and self-denial which we should be willing to give. In fact, if there is no sacrifice involved, we should be suspicious if we are truly compassionate.

For this, we have to be willing to complicate our life. There surely will be some need for adjustments in our attitudes, in the way we understand things and view different kinds of people. We have to hone up our skills at versatility, which should not only be a matter of theatrical performance but rather that of genuine love for God and for souls.

Interceding for others

 

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

Chaplain

Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE)

Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com

WE should develop this practice. Given the truth of our faith that we all form a communion of saints in Christ and in the Church, we should realize that we are so connected with each other that we, with our prayers, sacrifices and good works—can always affect the lives of others hopefully for the good rather than for evil.

This truth of our faith is highlighted in that gospel episode where a centurion sent some people to ask Christ to heal his dying servant. (cfr. Lk 7,1-10) When Christ was approaching the centurion’s house, the centurion asked Christ not to bother to go to the house for he felt unworthy of Christ’s presence in his abode. Instead, he asked Christ just to say the word of healing, thereby expressing the power of faith in the word of Christ.

That’s when the famous lines, that inspired a prayer in the Holy Mass, were uttered: “Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof. Therefore, I did not consider myself worthy to come to you; but say the word and let my servant be healed.” To which Christ was so impressed that right there and then, the centurion’s servant was cured.

Yes, we should be eager and quick to help and intercede for others. We should never be indifferent to the needs of others even if we have our own needs and predicaments. Actually, our attitude of interceding for others has a way of resolving or at least giving some relief to our own problems and difficulties. 

Our own problems and difficulties should not be a hindrance in our eagerness to intercede for others. In fact, we should make use of our own predicaments to spur us to get more involved in the lives of others. By doing so, we would actually simplify our life, not complicate it.

We very likely would ask, how can that be when we already are burdened by our own problems? And the answer can be that this outlook in life and attitude to our problems can be the practical application of what Christ himself said and encouraged us to do: “Whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.” (Mt 16,25)

The same divine logic can be found in these other words of Christ: “Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.” (Lk 6,38)

Our eagerness to intercede for others should be based on our faith and love for God. It should never be just a product of mere human calculations. We have to follow what Christ has taught and shown us.

To be sure, we always have the capacity to intercede because even if we can be very limited in helping others materially, our capacity to help others spiritually is unlimited. We can always pray for them, offer sacrifices for them. That’s the least that we can do for others but also the most indispensable.

We need to train ourselves and form our mind and heart to immediately be mindful and thoughtful of them, getting to know them better, empathizing with them, helping them bear with their burdens, whatever they may be.