Are we taking God’s word seriously?

By Fr. Roy Cimagala*

WE are reminded of that question in the parable of the sower and the seed. (cfr. Mt 9,1-13) Yes, in that parable we are encouraged also to do a lot of sowing of God’s word, a responsibility that is incumbent on all of us. But we would not be a good and generous sower of God’s word if we don’t take God’s word seriously. We have to be a rich soil on which the seed of God’s word can flower a hundredfold.

Aside from the usual problems we have in this regard, like being lazy to study God’s word, treating God’s word in a routine and superficial manner, etc., we now have to contend with the danger of making our other man-made words coming from our philosophies, ideologies, sciences and technologies take precedence over God’s word or even replacing God’s word completely.

We have to protect ourselves from the thought that our man-made word is better, is more effective, or is more practical than God’s word. Nothing can be farther than the truth than that thought, but many of us actually succumb to it.

We need to understand that God’s word gives us the ultimate spiritual knowledge we need to return to God, from whom we came and to whom we go and spend our life in eternity. This character of God’s word is described in the following words in the Letter to the Hebrews:

“For the word of God is living and effectual, and more piercing than any two-edged sword, and reaching unto the division of the soul and the spirit, of the joints also and the marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” (4,12)

Its purely eternal, spiritual, sacred and transcendent nature is now subjected to the conditions of time, culture, history, etc., in view of how we are. But we should not forget that it is primarily purely eternal, spiritual, sacred and transcendent, which with our spiritual powers plus God’s grace we can manage to abstract from its temporal, material, mundane and prosaic condition.

Let’s remember that God became man. With his incarnation, the divine word assumes the nature of a human word. And just as God became man to bring man back to God, his divine word became the human word to bring and reconcile us with God.

Since God’s word is God himself and God is everything to us, we have to understand that it contains everything for our needs, especially our ultimate need to be with God. All things true, good and beautiful are contained in the word of God.

Thus, insofar as our philosophies, ideologies, sciences, arts and technologies contain truths, goodness and beauty, no matter how technical they are, we have to conclude that they also come from God’s word and belong there also. 

Anyone who does not acknowledge this truth about the human sources of our knowledge can be considered ungrateful and presumptuous. We need to overcome the dichotomy that detaches our sciences, arts and technologies from God’s word.

Our sciences, arts and technologies can only articulate the more mundane aspects of the Word of God. They should lead us to God. They should make us achieve a more intimate relationship with God, with everybody else and everything else in the whole universe.

We should make God’s word the primary and constant source of our knowledge! Everything else has to be animated by it.

* Chaplain Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE), Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com

What really is God’s word?

By Fr. Roy Cimagala *

          “HEAVEN and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass

away.” (Lk 21,33)

          With these words of Christ, we should feel the need to know

what exactly is God’s word. Why will it not pass away?

          The simple answer is that God’s word is not just an idea, a

doctrine, an ideology. It’s not just a strategy, a culture or a

lifestyle. Of course, God’s word involves all these, but unless we

understand God’s word as Christ himself, the God who became man to

reveal to us all that we need to know, all that we need to do to be

God’s image and likeness as God wants us to be, we will miss the real

essence and character of God’s word.

          We have to realize that the word of God cannot be separated

from God himself. That’s because God is so perfect as to be in

absolute simplicity. As such, God has no parts, no aspects, no quality

or property that are distinct from his very being. His word and his

being are just one. There is no distinction at all in him.

          Of course, from our point of view, we cannot help but to

describe God according to our own terms and ways that cannot help but

make distinctions between the essence of a being and its properties

and qualities. But in himself, God does not have distinction between

his essence and the properties that we attribute to him.

          Of course, this is a mystery, a supernatural truth that our

reason cannot fully fathom. That is why we need to have a strong faith

to be able to accept this truth. And once we accept by faith the

absolute unity between God and his word, then we will realize that

reading and meditating on the gospel is actually having a living

encounter with God through Christ.

          Thus, St. Jerome, a father of the Church, once said that to

read the Scripture is to converse with God—“If you pray, you speak

with the Spouse. If you read, it is he who speaks to you,” he said.

          Only when we realize that God’s word is Christ himself and

that reading it is like having an encounter with Christ can God’s word

truly be as the Letter to the Hebrews described it: “Alive and active.

Sharper than any double-edge sword, it penetrates even to dividing

soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges the thoughts and

attitudes of the heart.” (4,12)

          Of course, we have to be that good, rich soil referred to in

that parable for God’s word to take root in us and be fruitful.

Otherwise, no matter how powerfully effective God’s word is, if the

reader of that word does not have the right condition, that word would

have no effect. It would fail to produce fruit, “thirty, sixty and

even a hundredfold,” as Christ assured us.

          That means that we should handle the word of God with great

faith and piety. We should not just treat it as some literary or

historical or cultural reading. We have to realize that we are

listening to Christ and that what we hear from him should be taken

very seriously.

          That means that we have to involve our whole being when

reading God’s word. It should not just be an intellectual affair,

though we have to make full use of our intelligence and all our other

faculties when reading and meditating on it.

* Chaplain Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE), Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com

Our duty to spread God’s word

By Fr. Roy Cimagala*

        

  IN the gospel, we can notice that Christ was going from one

place to another, busy preaching and proclaiming the good news of the

Kingdom of God. (cfr. Lk 8,1-3) We need to realize that since we have

to be like Christ, we should also deeply feel the duty to preach and

proclaim this good news, especially these days when we are flooded

with all sorts of bad news.

          We really need to internalize this duty, making it a strong

and driving conviction by doing everything to make it so, studying,

meditating, writing, talking, using all the available means to spread

the living and saving word of God.

          We have to realize that preaching the Word of God is a task

entrusted to Christ’s apostles and shared by all of us in different

ways. The clergy, of course, takes a leading role in this affair. It’s

a serious business that involves our whole being, and not just our

talents and powers.

          First we need to examine our understanding and attitude

toward God’s word, especially the Gospel. On this basic understanding

would depend what we do with the Gospel and how we should handle it.

          Do we really know the true nature of the Gospel? Or do we

take it as just one more book, perhaps with certain importance, but

definitely not as the living word of God, in spite of its human

dimensions?

          The Gospel is actually the proclamation of Christ as the

Emmanuel, that is, God with us. This is an on-going affair that did

not stop with the death of Christ. Christ lives with us up to now, and

continues to do things with us.

          All these affirmations are captured in the last lines of the

Gospel of St. Matthew where our Lord said:

          “Go, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them…. And

behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world.”

(28,19-20)

          Our Catechism tells us that “We must continue to accomplish

in ourselves the stages of Jesus’ life and his mysteries and often to

beg him to perfect and realize them in us and in his whole Church”

(521)

          Obviously, to carry out this mission, we need to know our

Lord and his teachings. We have to go to him and read the Gospel.

Reading and meditating on it should be a regular practice for us, a

habit meant to keep us in touch with him.

          Thus, every time we read the Gospel, we have to understand

by our faith that we are engaging with our Lord in an actual and

living way. We are listening to him, and somehow seeing him. We can

use our imagination to make ourselves as one more character in any

scene depicted in any episode of the Gospel.

          For this, we need to look for the appropriate time and

place. We have to be wary of our tendency to be dominated by a

lifestyle of activism and pragmatism that would blunt our need for

recollection and immersion in the life of Christ.

          The drama of Christ’s life here on earth has to continue in

our own life. Thus, we need to continually conform our mind and heart

to the Gospel, an affair that demands everything from us.

          Preaching should reflect the condition of our heart as it

grapples with the living word of God. It should not just be a matter

of declaiming or orating, reduced to the art of public speaking and

stage performing, a mere play of our talents.

 

*Chaplain Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE)

Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com

Do you pray?

My column in Mindanao Daily News, Mindanao Daily Mirror and Businessweek Mindanao

When tragedy strikes, it's easy to harden our hearts and cry out, "God, why did you let this happen?" Maybe then, we started praying. Before, when everything goes smooth, we would not even think a minute about praying... .

"To be a Christian without prayer, "said Martin Luther, "is no more possible than to be alive without breathing." Prayer is the only way of becoming what God wants us to be. This is the reason, why Jesus spent many hours in praying.

Unquestionable, our needs bring us to a place of prayer. Confronted with danger or tragedies, as I mentioned earlier, we look for God's help. Difficult times always cause the hearts of men to turn to God into prayer. 

Let me ask you: How long has it been since your're brought your burdens to God? Since you asked His forgiveness for your shortcomings? 

In his very interesting book "People in Prayer", Dr. John White reminds us that prayer is a divine-human interaction and it is always God who takes the initiative. White write: "God speaks and we respond. God is always speaking. To hear his voice is not usually a mystical experience. It consists merely of a willingness to pay heed to God who lays a claim to our lives."

Yes, God always speaks. It is up to us whether we will listen and respond to Him. Many think we are the ones who initiate prayer. But prayers begin and end with God. 

There was a time, I wasn't in the mood to pray any more. It seemed that God didn't listen my prayer any more. I didn't get what I prayed for. Of course, not... ! That's not the meaning of praying to God. All my wishes will be granted? Heaven forbid!

Sometimes, after we have prayed, God's answers may puzzle us. But as time times goes by and as events unfold we see God's purpose in his answers. We might get a larger vision, what HE likes. Not what WE like... .

Think about it for a moment" How does the idea that prayer begins and ends with God affect me now? Do I have the habit of listening to god? How do I respond to Him? How do I usually pray?

I confess that long time ago I have been trying to persuade God to change other people in my surroundings or circumstances. Nothing changed. Of course not, what a fatal attraction? I got confused because God never granted my requests. Meanwhile I got God's answers to my prayers. Maybe very simple: I was willing to let God change me... .This is how each one of us should start. Happy endings. Because I prayed according to His will... .

Nowadays, I live a wonderful life in my second and last home, the Philippines. I never regretted to move here for good. I said this already many, many times. I have everything I could ask for. I can do everything I wish to do. Thank you Lord.

Journalists Told To Spread God’s Word

 

An interesting post. Check it out here:

 Journalists told to spread God’s word