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By Fr. Roy Cimagala
Chaplain
Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE)
Talamban, Cebu City
Email: roycimagala@gmail.com
THIS is why we are here. It is the purpose of our lives, the meaning of our existence. We should never lose sight of that. Life places before us a decisive choice: to remain centered on ourselves or to live with Christ, who reveals what it truly means to be human. He is “the way, the truth and the life,” leading us to full communion with God.
The path is not easy. It demands effort, perseverance, sacrifice, and the willingness to struggle against our weaknesses. Yet we should never forget that God has already given us everything we need through Christ and in the Holy Spirit. He calls us to become his image and likeness, his adopted children, destined to share in his own life and divine nature.
To help us reach that goal, God pours out his grace. He strengthens us with faith, hope, and charity. He gives us the truths we need to understand and live by. He offers mercy whenever we stumble, knowing that failures and shortcomings are inevitable during our earthly journey. His generosity never runs dry, even when ours does.
Our task, then, is to detach ourselves little by little from our selfishness so that Christ may grow within us. We must steadily loosen the grip of self-centeredness and allow ourselves to be transformed into his image. The more we resemble Christ, the more we become the people we were created to be.
This lifelong mission is a partnership between God's grace and our cooperation. Grace always comes first, but it calls for a generous response. We must die to ourselves so that the life of God can flourish in us. We surrender our selfish desires not because we lose ourselves, but because we finally discover our true selves in Christ.
Christ himself makes this clear: “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?” (Mt 16:24-26).
These words challenge the way we usually think. They invite us to rethink success, happiness, and especially love. Real love is never about clinging to ourselves. It is about giving ourselves away. Paradoxically, when we let go of selfishness, we become filled with what truly belongs to us—the very love of God.
Christ is the perfect example. As St. Paul writes, although he was God, he did not cling to his divine status for his own advantage. Instead, he emptied himself, took the form of a servant, and became like us. (Phil 2:5-7). His greatness was revealed not by self-promotion but by complete self-giving.
That is why we must radically reshape our understanding of love. Authentic love always requires sacrifice. It means losing in order to gain, surrendering in order to receive something infinitely greater. Every genuine act of self-giving draws us closer to God and makes us more capable of loving as Christ loves.
Christ illustrated this truth in his parables of the treasure hidden in a field and the merchant searching for fine pearls. Those who discover what is truly valuable gladly give up everything else to possess it. We should never settle for what is merely good when God offers us what is best.
Christ asks us to lose by worldly standards so that we may win by God's standards. He calls us to move beyond simply living for ourselves and to become another Christ, reflecting his very life in the world every day.
