“Where I’m coming from”

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

Chaplain

Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE)

Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com

THAT’S the usual line many people use when they want to justify their reaction and even their attitude and behavior of anger, if not of hatred or despair, toward a certain person or event.

They usually say that they were mistreated, misunderstood or prejudged, etc., and so they feel they are entitled to react that way. Things get worse when such reaction and behavior become extreme and permanent, forming all sorts of prejudices, biases and closed-mindedness. We have to be most wary of this danger.

We naturally have our initial and spontaneous reactions to anything that can happen in our life. We can hardly control them. They are quite raw. They are reflex reactions that definitely need to be purified and set in their proper context of our real dignity as persons and children of God.

We just have to realize that while our reactions are always shaped somehow by some immediate or proximate causes, in the end our reactions need to reflect that we all come from God and should reflect the attitude, reactions and behavior that God has toward all of us who have our share of defects, limitations and sins themselves.

That’s simply because we are God’s image and likeness. How God is, as shown to us and empowered in us by Christ in the Spirit, should also be how we ought to be. We are reminded of this important aspect of our life in that gospel episode where Peter asked Christ how many times he should forgive a brother who had offended him. (cfr. Mt 18,21-19,1)

Christ responded by talking about a certain servant-debtor whose huge debt was forgiven because he appealed to the king. The king eventually forgave his loan out of compassion. But when this servant-debtor could not forgive another servant of his loan, the king punished that servant-debtor severely.

“You wicked servant!” the king said, “I forgave you your entire debt because you begged me to. Should you not have had pity on your fellow servant, as I had pity on you?” We should learn how to be always forgiving of others just as we all need forgiveness from God.

Let’s remember that with God, mercy has the last word. It is the highest form of charity as shown very vividly by Christ who, while still hanging on the cross, offered forgiveness to those who crucified him.

We have to make a shout-out for the need to develop in us the virtue of mercy so we can be forgiving of everyone, irrespective of whether one deserves it or not. Christ gave a clear indication of this need: “Forgive and you shall be forgiven.” (Lk 6,37) He reiterated this injunction when he said: “For if you will forgive men their offences, you heavenly Father will forgive you also your offences. But if you do not forgive men, neither will your Father forgive your offences.” (Mt 6,14-14)

It’s clear therefore that we can only be forgiven if we also forgive others. This injunction is meant for everyone, and not only for a few whom we may consider to be religiously inclined. That’s why when asked how many times we should forgive, he said not only seven times, but seventy times seven, meaning always.

Being forgiving even to the most undeserving person is the highest form of charity precisely because charity is always a gift. The more gratuitously given it is, the more charity grows in us. The more we become Christ-like, God-like.

Blending the different aspects of our life

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

Chaplain

Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE)

Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com

IT’S a skill and art that we need to develop. We cannot deny that we have different aspects of our life that can be competing and conflicting, and we should just learn how to blend them as best that we could into some meaningful unity and consistency.

Our life involves both the material and the spiritual, the temporal and the eternal, the short-term and the long-term, the here-and-now and the last things, the biological, social, cultural, historical, economic, political aspects, etc. We have to learn how to orchestrate them together so as to lead us to our ultimate goal, which is to be with God in heaven.

We are reminded of this need in that gospel episode where Christ already talked about how he was going to end his life and complete his mission here on earth, and then later he was asked about whether he had to pay taxes. (cfr. Mt 17,22-27)

Pursuing this need for consistency and unity of life should be an abiding concern for all of us. Even if we have to contend with many aspects and dimensions of our life, it is only one life that each of us has, not two or three. And thus, to build and keep our unity of life is a daily task of ours. We can neglect it only to our own serious risk and damage.

We can manage to have this consistency and unity of life if we identify ourselves with Christ. Let’s remember what Christ said so clearly. He is the vine, we are the branches. We can only have life, let alone consistency and fruitfulness in our life, if we are united to him. Outside of him, we can only expect death, inconsistency and sterility.

Yes, only in and with Christ can we have the real principle of unity and fruitfulness in our life. We would be fooling ourselves if we fail to recognize this basic truth about ourselves.

This, of course, is a truth of faith, not so much of science. And that’s where the problem lies. There is a crisis of faith in the world, especially involving those who rely more on their human abilities than on belief in Christ.

We have to correct that predicament by realizing more deeply that our life is supposed to be a life with God since not only are we one of his creatures, but a creature that is meant to be his image and likeness. We are meant to be like God through Christ in the Holy Spirit. That’s how we can have consistency and unity of life.

We have to reiterate the truth that we need Christ who is our “way, truth and life” with God to have a solid, genuine unity of life and an unwavering focus even in the midst of so many things in our life.

We just have to learn how to strengthen our relation with Christ, overcoming our natural awkwardness and difficulties, knowing how to pray, studying and assimilating the doctrine, availing of the sacraments, rectifying our intentions, developing the virtues, observing proper priorities, etc.

We need to be more aware of our duty to establish, build up and strengthen the unity in our life. We only have one life, made up of many parts, aspects, stages and levels, and subject to all sorts of conditions, big and small, favorable and unfavorable, etc. The challenge is how to put all these things together in harmony.

Let’s always be hopeful

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

Chaplain

Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE)

Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com

THERE are times when we have to wait, desist from acting at the moment, and hope for a better time that will surely come, although in ways that may not be according to our expectations.

We are reminded of this act of prudence in that gospel parable about the good seed and the weeds. (cfr. Mt 13,36-43) The point of the parable is that there are situations in life when acting at the moment may cause more harm than good. And so, we just have to wait, be patient and hopeful.

In the meantime, what we can do is to continue doing a lot of good, praying, making sacrifices, generously fulfilling our duties and responsibilities, reaching out to others, growing in the virtues, etc.

We have to remember that due to the God-designed life of communion we enjoy among ourselves, we know that anything good we do will always have a good effect on the others. The awareness of this truth of our faith should prod us to be generous in doing a lot of good. We also know that good in itself is self-diffusive. It is in its nature to spread. So, we should just do a lot of good.

As can be seen, to wait, to be patient and hopeful, does not mean to do nothing. What we cannot do at the moment, out of prudence, should push us to do many other good things. Instead of feeling lethargic, we should feel very energetic.

Especially with our present condition that involves an increase of pressure, confusing knowledge overdrives, increasingly sophisticated challenges and difficulties, we need to seriously cultivate this virtue of hope. There’s no other way. It’s either that or we get into a free-fall toward disorder, chaos and desperation.

Our problem is that, as usual, we have a very limited idea of hope. And from that handicapped position, it’s obvious that all sorts of dangers, confusion and errors can ensue.

Among the anomalies besetting our understanding of hope is that it is a purely man-made virtue, with only earthly and natural dimensions and relying solely on human and material resources.

We seem to get stranded in the external properties of virtue, without entering into its real essence, significance and practicability. We need to recover the true nature and purpose of hope, and spread its knowledge and skill far and wide. That’s what we urgently need these days.

First, we need to understand that hope is a gift from God, one of what are called theological virtues. As such, it always goes in this life with the other pair of faith and charity.

The direct corollary of this reality is that the first thing we have to do about it is to ask for it, often kneeling and begging God our Father not only to grant it to us, which he actually does unstintingly, but also to increase it all the time.

We should never be casual about this fundamental and indispensable requirement of hope. Though we have to be discreet about it and natural in living it, we have to understand that without this condition met, no amount of human ingenuity can substitute it.

Of course, hope increases also to the extent that we deepen our faith and enrich our charity. In this life, these three theological virtues go together and mutually affect one another. 

The value of the little things in life

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

Chaplain

Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE)

Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com

THE parables Christ told his disciples that compared the Kingdom of heaven with a mustard seed and a pinch of yeast (cfr. Mt 13,31-35) obviously are meant to tell us that, yes, heaven and everything related to it can and should be found in the little and ordinary things in life which we tend to regard as insignificant. We can already have a taste of heaven while here on earth as long as we take care of the little things.

Those parables are like some breaking news meant to jolt us from our tendency to disparage these little things. As Christ said, he used parables to “announce what has lain hidden from the foundation of the world.” In other words, the little and ordinary things in our life have great value, and have been willed by God since the beginning.

We should then try to make the necessary changes in attitude and understanding regarding the little things. We have to realize that it is in them where true knowledge and love of God is developed and maintained. 

When we fail to see, know and love God in the little things, it is very likely that we also will fail to see, know and love God in the big things of our life. Let’s keep in mind what Christ said in this regard: “One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much.” (Lk 16,10)

In short, the point we should realize more deeply is that sanctity, our ticket to heaven, certainly requires heroism, even to the point of martyrdom. But we can be sure that by being consistently loving in doing the little things of life, especially when they are hidden and unappreciated humanly, we would already be very heroic indeed, even approaching the level of martyrdom.

What we have to do is to learn to find Christ in the little things which comprise most of our day, if not of our whole life. Another way of saying it is to learn to refer everything to Christ, no matter how little or insignificant it is.

We should always be with Christ at every moment of our day, offering things to him, asking him questions like, “Lord, how should I deal with this particular situation, be it an exciting work, a boring and tiring moment, etc.?” 

We should never dare to do things simply on our own. Especially when we find ourselves in difficulties, in a quandary, in moments of temptation, etc., we have to go to Christ as quickly as possible and cling to him as tightly as possible.

And we should never forget to thank him all the time, for such a gesture connects us with him in an abiding way. When we are with Christ especially in the little things of our day, how can we doubt about having heaven in us while still here on earth?

We therefore have to learn to find Christ in everything, doing so not in some generic, theoretical way, but in a specific, practical way, one that is abiding and active. This, of course, is a great challenge to all of us, but if we believe in this truth and we try to conform ourselves to it and to persevere in it, for sure we can achieve a certain degree of success.

Never let go of our faith

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

Chaplain

Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE)

Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com

TO be guided by our Christian faith should always be an abiding thing for us. We should never just rely on our own intelligence and the many ways and forms of human estimation. These can only do so much, but without faith, they cannot reach the ultimate goal meant for us.

We are somehow reminded of this reality in that gospel episode where some leading Jews approached Christ asking for a sign of who he really was. (cfr. Mt 12,38-42) That was when Christ told them about the many signs in the past that should answer their question. He told them about Jonah, the men of Nineveh, the Queen of the South and Solomon.

Faith, of course, is a difficult thing to deal with. And that’s mainly because it is something supernatural that contains truths that simply are mysterious to us. What makes us accept it is explained in the Catechism as follows:

“156 What moves us to believe is not the fact that revealed truths appear as true and intelligible in the light of our natural reason: we believe "because of the authority of God himself who reveals them, who can neither deceive nor be deceived". 

And it continues: “So that the submission of our faith might nevertheless be in accordance with reason, God willed that external proofs of his Revelation should be joined to the internal helps of the Holy Spirit.’

“Thus, the miracles of Christ and the saints, prophecies, the Church's growth and holiness, and her fruitfulness and stability ‘are the most certain signs of divine Revelation, adapted to the intelligence of all’; they are ‘motives of credibility’ (motiva credibilitatis), which show that the assent of faith is ‘by no means a blind impulse of the mind’.”

We should really be concerned about developing an operative faith. Our faith should not remain only at the theoretical, intellectual level. It has to be a functioning one, giving shape and direction to our thoughts and intentions, our words and deeds. In fact, it should shape our whole life. 

The ideal is that we feel it immediately and continually. Indeed, it should be like an instinct such that whatever we think, say or do, or whenever we have to react to something, it is our faith that should guide us before anything else.

We have to understand that it is our faith that gives us the global picture of things, since it is God’s gift to us, a gratuitous sharing of what God knows about himself and about the whole of creation. It is meant for our own good, for us to live out our true dignity as children of God.

It is a kind of knowledge that will lead us to our eternal life. It will make us relate everything in our earthly life, both the good and the bad, to this ultimate goal in life which is to be in heaven with God, a state that is supernatural. But it is a divine gift that we need to take care of. It is like a seed that has to grow until it becomes a big tree and bears fruit.

For this, we really need to have a living contact with Christ who is the fullness of God’s revelation to us. He is the substance, the content and the spirit of our faith. So, the first thing that we have to do is to always look for him in whatever thing we are thinking, saying or doing.

Our basic identity as apostles

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

Chaplain

Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE)

Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com

WHEN Christ chose his 12 apostles, (cfr. Mt 10,1-7) we have to realize that if we want to be true believers and followers of Christ, we too should feel called to be apostles of his. We too should feel the need to continue helping him in his work of human redemption all throughout time.

While this divine call for us to be his apostles will take time and effort to be effective in us, we on our part should try our best to realize that we are all given that call and that we have to correspond to it as early as possible.

That’s because if we are truly Christians, we should be involved in Christ’s mission here on earth. Christ’s mission and concerns should also be ours. We have to realize that Christ treats us the way he treats himself precisely because we are patterned after him.

That’s also why we have been endowed with intelligence and will which, together always with God’s grace, would enable us to know and love others the way Christ loves us. And in this regard, we know that Christ’s love goes all the way to offering his life for us. That’s how we should love one another. That’s how we as apostles of his should be willing to love everybody, including our enemies.

We have to realize that we just don’t do apostolate as if it is just one more task to be done on some parts of the day. We are first of all apostles, and our apostolic concern should be constant and abiding, even while we are asleep or doing all kinds of tasks during the day. We have to learn how to convert everything in our life as an occasion and material for doing apostolate.

To be an apostle is an integral and even essential part of our identity and dignity. Even on the basis of our being human persons, we cannot help but be apostles because we are supposed to be constantly concerned and responsible for everyone. We are all related by the mere fact that we are human beings with intelligence and will, enabled and mandated to know and love each other.

That fundamental reason is even reinforced when we consider that we are creatures of God, made in his image and likeness. The Trinitarian life of God, which is a life of total communion among the three persons and which we are supposed to reflect in our own lives, urges us to always sharpen our concern and love for one another.

Still more, if we are to consider that we believe in Christ and are followers of his, then we will realize that we ought to have the same desire Christ had, which is the salvation of all mankind. This should be the primary motive we ought to have in our relation with others. We should be most interested in their salvation and spiritual well-being. All other human and temporal motives only play a secondary and instrumental role.

Thus, our life can’t simply be a life in pursuit of personal sanctity without doing apostolate. These two go together inseparably, mutually affecting each other to put us in the right track in our life. We do apostolate as we breathe.

We need to keep that apostolic zeal burning, fueling it with prayers, sacrifices, apostolic plans and initiatives that should bank on some traditional means as well as the new things like the new technologies that can do a lot to foster our apostolic activities.

Just focus on doing a lot of good

 

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

Chaplain

Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE)

Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com

IN the gospel, there is a part where Christ drove out the demons from a possessed man but was accused by some leading Jews of driving out demons by the prince of demons, an obviously self-contradicting reasoning. (cfr. Mt 9,32-38)

On this occasion, Christ did not waste time defending himself. He proceeded instead to go around all the towns and villages, teaching in the synagogues, proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom, and curing every disease and illness.

This should also be our reaction when we encounter some contradictions in our efforts to do some good. We should just proceed to do a lot more of good. Let those who misunderstand us bear their own misunderstanding. Of course, if we have some time, we may do some gentle and charitable clarification or correction. But we should not lose sight of what is most important for us to do.

In the same gospel, it is said that when Christ saw the big crowd to be given attention to, he was moved with pity because he saw them like being troubled and abandoned, like a sheep without a shepherd.

That’s when he made this appeal to his disciples to “ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest,” because as he said, “the harvest is abundant but the laborers are few.”

Indeed, this is always the situation in our earthly life. It’s a big and continuing challenge. There are endless people to reach out to bring Christ to them, and those who have to do that very important task will always be few and limited.

We just have to realize that everyone of us, if we are to be consistently faithful to our Christian identity, is called to carry out this task. Thus, we have to realize more deeply that all of us actually have a vocation, since all are called to share in Christ’s mission to save all men.

We should all be concerned about this matter. We need to develop a sense of vocation, for the simple reason that everyone has a vocation. We come from God and we belong to him. He always calls us to himself and offers us a way to go to him. 

The way to go to him, peculiar to each one of us given our different situations in life and God’s specific plan for us, is the vocation God gives us. We therefore should try to discover that vocation as early as possible and correspond to it as fully as possible also.

To be sure, no one comes to existence by mere accident nor by pure chance and divine caprice. God does not create us at random. Even a person who is considered unwanted by his parents or is conceived through rape is already a person planned and loved by God from all eternity. This is a fundamental truth about ourselves that we should never take for granted.

Thus, we should try to develop this sense of vocation as early as possible. And this can mean as early as when one is still a child, already beginning to be aware of what and who he or she is. This normally should start in the family, with the parents playing a major role in this affair since they are our first teachers here on earth. 

The parents should be quick in sowing the seeds of this sense of vocation by making the child aware that he or she just did not come from them but from God. And that he or she also belongs to God. This basic truth should always be reinforced all throughout the process of bringing up and educating the child.

When in great difficulty

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

Chaplain

Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE)

Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com

 

WHEN we find ourselves in some extraordinary difficulty, we should not hesitate to go to Christ. Let’s beg him for help, but making sure that what should move us to do so is not so much to be rid of the difficulty as to be believe in him as our savior, as our God in whose image and likeness we have been created. In the end, we go to him to be like him, and not just for some self-interest or for some practical purposes.

We are reminded of this truth of our faith in that gospel episode where an official approached Christ begging him to raise the official’s just-recently dead daughter to life again. And when Christ was on his way to the official’s house, a woman suffering from hemorrhage for 12 years, exerted great effort to get near him if only to touch his cloak, convinced that by so doing she would be cured. (cfr. Mt 9,18-26)

In both cases, Christ praised their deep faith in him. We have to remember that it is faith that lets us enter into the spiritual and supernatural world. It brings us to share in God’s wisdom and power. Remember those stirring words of Christ: “If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain, Remove from there, and it shall remove, and nothing shall be impossible to you.” ((Mt 17,20)

Without faith, in spite of our keenest intelligence, we will miss much of the more important aspects of our life as we would only be restricted to the here and now, the material, practical and the temporal. We would miss the real purpose of our life, which is for us to be like God.

We need to exert effort to have the proper intention whenever we ask some extraordinary favors from God. That’s because very often we are moved to run to God only for some practical motives. We forget that in all our dealings with God, the main and constant reason is to adore him and to express our desire to be like him as he wants us to be.

We should be careful not to let our great difficulties set aside the main reason for asking favors from God. This is actually a big challenge for us, since with our tendency to consider only the here and now, we forget to pursue the real and ultimate purpose of our life.

This, of course, will require a certain discipline on our part. That’s why we need to avail of certain practices of piety that would constantly remind us of the main reason for any petitions we make from God.

This is a big challenge that would require us to be sober and to learn how to be contemplative even while we are in the midst of the ups and downs of our earthly life. We have to broaden our understanding of the character and purpose of our life here on earth, and know the purpose, the causes and the reason for our human predicaments.

We just have to remember what St. Paul once said: “To them that love God, all things work together unto good, to such as, according to his purpose, are called to be saints.” (Rom 8,28) These words of St. Paul should be at the very core of our attitude when we are faced with our difficulties in life.

The storms in our life

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

Chaplain

Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE)

Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com

THAT gospel episode where the apostles found themselves in a storm in the middle of the lake (cfr. Mt 8,23-27) teaches us a great lesson about absolute trust in God’s providence amid the twists and turns, the ups and downs in our life here on earth.

We cannot avoid storms and other forms of negative happenings in our life. But before this fact of life, what we have to do is to try our best to remain calm and just go to God to ask for help. He’s always around. He may appear asleep and oblivious of our predicaments, but he actually knows everything that happens in our life and is there to help us.

To be sure, the storms and the negative things in our life were not part of the original plan of God for us. They only came out as a consequence of sin, that of our first parents as well as those of ours which are still a continuing affair for us. God allows these things to happen to respect our freedom which we often misuse and abuse. But he also knows what to do with them.

On our part, whatever storms we encounter in life, whether material, temporal, or spiritual and moral, our attitude and reaction should be that we can precisely use these storms to approach our Lord, begging for help. It would be wrong and would make things worse if we choose to run away from him. God is all there to help.

No matter how guilty we may be with respect to the predicaments that befall us, God is not scandalized by any wrongdoing we do. He may be angry for a while, but his mercy will always prevail. And his anger and the punishment that may go with it are always meant for our own good.

And when problems and difficulties beyond our control take place, we should just trust God’s providence and be ready for wherever divine providence would take us. We have to be open to it all the time, developing a faith-guided adventurous outlook. 

Even as we make our plans and pursue them truly as our own, we should not forget that nothing in our life is actually outside the providence of God who can adapt himself to us, even in our worst situations and predicaments, and can still lead us to himself.

The only thing to remember is that God is always around and is actually intervening and directing our life to him. That is part of his omnipotence which he exercises both from all eternity and in time since our creation and all the way to the end of time.

There will be things in our life that will be beyond our human notice, and much less, our human control. We have to trust God’s providence even if things look terrible, impossible, or inhuman when judged simply by human standards.

Let’s again remember that episode of the apostles in a boat that was about to sink because of the big waves. (cfr. Mt 8,23-27) Christ reproached them for their lack of faith. And in that parable of the wheat and the weeds, (cfr. Mt 13,24-30) Christ was clearly telling them and us that we should just go on doing a lot of good even if we are disturbed by many evils, because in the end Christ would make the proper judgment.

He assures us that with him we will never work in vain and everything would just work out for the good. (cfr. Is 65,23; Rom 8,28) 

Always nourish the faith

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

Chaplain

Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE)

Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com

WE are familiar with the story of the doubting Thomas who later on turned to be a fervently believing Thomas. (cfr. Jn 20,24-29) It’s a story that can only remind us of our duty to always nourish our faith to such an extent that Christ’s words to Thomas can also be applied to us: “Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.”

We have to be wary of the danger of starving our faith by neglecting its abiding need for nourishment. Especially nowadays when we are bombarded with so many distracting elements that would lead us to ignore this responsibility, we need to make some special effort to truly nourish our faith by availing of the relevant means of ongoing formation.

We need to convince ourselves that giving priority to this need is all worthwhile. It does not at all undermine our other needs in life. In fact, giving priority to the nourishment of our faith would make sure that the attention we give to our other needs would be most proper and would be put on the right track.

For this we always are in need of constantly studying our faith, progressively translating what we learn from such study into appropriate attitudes, virtues, words and deeds to such an extent that whatever we do in life is always guided and inspired by our faith and not just by some sheer human wisdom and cleverness.

While faith is first of all a gift, and of the spiritual and supernatural kind that is given to us gratuitously, we have to realize that we also need to correspond to it. We just cannot and should not be casual about this duty to correspond properly to it. It’s a serious duty that once neglected can lead to disastrous consequences.

Especially to those who regard themselves quite gifted intellectually and in other aspects of human life, there is a need to be so humble as to always feel the need to be guided by faith first and always rather than simply by their human powers and other resources.

We have to follow the example of Our Lady whose faith was highly extolled once by her cousin Elizabeth who told her: “Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.” (Lk 1,45)

That’s because when she was told by the Archangel Gabriel that she was going to be the mother of the Son of God, she first asked how it could happen since she knew not man. But when the heavenly messenger told her that the Holy Spirit would overshadow her and that she would conceive a son in her womb, she immediately said, “Be it done to me,” even if what she was told cannot be explained humanly.

We have to understand that with respect to our faith, we are not expected to understand everything. We, of course, should try to understand the truths of our faith, but we should always realize that with faith, we can be dealing with supernatural truths and mysteries that are beyond our human capacity to understand. 

We should just say, yes, to it not because we understand it, but rather because of the one who told it to us, the one who cannot lie. Faith always involves trust, just like in our ordinary daily affairs when we would just do things without asking so much why we need to do them. We simply do them because we trust in the ones who ask us to do them.

When life gets tough

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

Chaplain

Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE)

Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com

GIVEN our human condition, marked always by all kinds of weaknesses, limitations, mistakes and other negative things, we should be ready to face and bear them, never by our lonesome, but always with Christ who is always around, ever ready to help us in many and often mysterious ways. We should develop the instinct to do this, training ourselves to always go to Christ especially when times get tough. 

We are somehow reminded of this piece of advice in that gospel episode where a leper, despite his condition and the big crowd he had to contend with, managed to approach Christ asking for healing. And true enough, without further ado, he was healed. (cfr. Mt 8,1-4)

There is just one thing we have to bear in mind when we carry out this advice. We should see to it that our plea for help from Christ should not just be in pursuit of some personal convenience or advantage. 

While that may be the immediate motive, the constant and ultimate motive should be that we would like to be like God, sharers of his life and nature, as he wants us to be. When God gives us what we ask, our sense of gratitude should make us progress in our pursuit to become like God.

We should always remember that every event and circumstance of our life, whether good or bad in human terms, is meant to test us if we want to be like God as we should or we would simply want to be by ourselves.

The same is true when we ask for forgiveness for our sins which in the end is more important than just healing of some health issues. The contrition or repentance we have to make for our sins should be the perfect one, not the imperfect type. 

In the latter, we would be sorry for our sins because of the ugliness of our sin. We would be sorry for our sins so we can feel good about ourselves. In the former, we would sorry for our sins out of love of God, out of our desire to be more and more like God as we should.

While we would always be forgiven even if our contrition is imperfect, that kind of repentance would sooner or later spoil us and would not give us the grace to avoid the same sins for which we are asking forgiveness. It may even lead us to a subtle kind of spiritual pride and vanity that is worse than the material or external one.

We should try our best to make a perfect contribution that will keep us humble and in need of God always, never daring to be simply on our own. With perfect contrition, we continue to make our journey toward heaven. With imperfect contrition, we somehow make a stop along the way which can open us to some dangers.

It’s important that we purify and rectify our intention when we ask for forgiveness for our sins. For this, we need to do some practical and relevant exercises, since we have to contend with subtle enemies that can undermine our desire to make a perfect contrition.

Nowadays, those of us who simply make imperfect contrition when we go to confession, cannot help but fall to the same sins again and again. That’s because the grace of real, deep and thorough conversion has not been received properly.

Our prophetic duty

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

Chaplain

Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE)

Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com

IN the gospel, there is a part where Christ warns us about false prophets. (cfr. Mt 7,15-20) “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but underneath are ravenous wolves,” he said. “By their fruits you will know them.”

We cannot deny that the world today is awash with false prophets and demagogues. It even looks like there is an infestation. Whether we look at the fields of politics, business, the sciences, sports and entertainment, and, worst of all, religion, we can readily find dishonest and corrupt leaders, false prophets and lying teachers.

It actually should be no surprise. Since time immemorial, and even during the time of Christ, these people proliferated. Our human condition, if not grounded on God, is vulnerable to it. We can't help it. Our world can easily produce the causative elements and factors. And we can never run out of potential materials. 

Such a sad phenomenon should remind us of our duty to take more seriously our prophetic duty. This duty is incumbent on everyone, obviously in varying ways. This is what the Catechism teaches regarding this duty:

“The holy People of God shares also in Christ's prophetic office," above all in the supernatural sense of faith that belongs to the whole People, lay and clergy, when it "unfailingly adheres to this faith . . . once for all delivered to the saints," and when it deepens its understanding and becomes Christ's witness in the midst of this world.” (785)

We therefore need to study seriously the doctrine of our Christian faith, making such doctrine flesh of our flesh in such a way that we can truly personify Christ himself. Let’s remember what Christ told his disciples which can be applied to us who believe in him: “He who hears you hears me, he who rejects you rejects me, and he who rejects me rejects him who sent me.” (Lk 10,16)

This is, of course, a test of faith for us, since we are always given the choice of either believing in what God through Christ in the Spirit and now in the Church teaches us, or sticking to our own views and personal beliefs.

Of course, that faith has to be translated into deeds and life itself. For this, we have to avail of some effective means and practices to keep that faith alive, that faith that should lead us to hope and charity. As much as possible, we have to be consistent in this way of life everyday.

These means and practices can be the frequent recourse to the sacraments, especially the Holy Eucharist, availing of some program of ongoing formation which should last till death, waging some ascetical struggle to continually develop virtues and fight off temptations and sin, coming up with a plan of life where we spend time for personal prayer and some devotions, especially that to our Lady.

It’s important that we put ourselves always in the presence of God, and see to it that our thoughts, desires and intentions, our feelings, words and actions, begin with God and end with him also. We have to be wary to give witness to Christ in our daily activities.

Let us always remember that everyday we should see to it that we are progressing in our lifelong journey to become more and more the image and likeness of God as God wants us to be. 

This is what our prophetic duty entails.

Some divine indications

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

Chaplain

Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE)

Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com

IN the gospel, there is a part where Christ tells us some indications meant to guide us in our earthly journey. (Mt 7,6.12-14) “Do not give what is holy to dogs, or throw your pearls before swine, lest they trample them underfoot, and turn and tear you to pieces.” (Mt 7,6)

These are words that clearly tell us that we need to develop an abiding sense of the sacred even as we immerse ourselves with the mundane things of the world. They are meant to remind us that our life is not simply a natural human life, but is also a supernatural life with God. 

As an image and likeness of God, our life cannot help but be also sacred as it is a shared life with God. We cannot help but also handle sacred things in our life, like the sacraments and the sacramentals. In fact, the natural moral law that governs our moral life should be regarded also as sacred. We just cannot treat it the way we treat the purely natural law of physics, chemistry, biology and the like.

And then, Christ continues to tell us about the Golden Rule. “Do to others whatever you would have them do to you. This is the Law and the Prophets.” (Mt 7,12) This is a basic ethical law that should govern the way we treat each other. It’s a way to achieve the basic peace and order in our social life.

This Golden Rule reminds me of the way we handle the traffic on the road which can be a good image of how our life actually is. There are many vehicles going in different directions. We just have to learn how to give and take so that each one can reach his destination safely. Especially in a heavy traffic situation, there should be a good sense of reciprocity, flexibility and adaptability.

This does not mean that there are no absolute truths that all should follow. We just have to learn how to live and uphold it in spite of our unavoidable differences and conflicts not only in matters of opinion but also in matters of belief. 

We need to remind ourselves that truth in the end can only be achieved if it is also lived, upheld and defended in charity. That is why, we should be ready to go through unavoidable suffering the way Christ suffered to live and defend the truth in charity. In fact, suffering can be the very touchstone of truth in charity.

Thus, Christ also said that to arrive at our proper destination, we need to enter by the narrow gate. “Enter through the narrow gate,” he said. “For the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction, and those who enter through it are many. How narrow the gate and constricted the road that leads to life. And those who find it are few.”

That is why he also said in another part of the gospel that for us to follow him, we need to deny ourselves and carry the cross. (cfr. Mt 16,24) We can readily see the wisdom of this divine indication when we realize how easy it is for us to be deceived, confused and trapped into some kind of a silo when we just follow what we want.

We always need to follow the will of God, not just our own will, for that in the end is what is proper to us.

Careful with our judgments

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

Chaplain

Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE)

Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com

YES, we really need to be more careful with our judgments, since it is very easy for us to fall into rash judgments. Given our personal weaknesses and the conditions around, that tendency to make rash judgments is always there. We need to be wary of it and do whatever we can to counter it.

We are reminded of this danger when Christ said, “Stop judging, that you may not be judged. For as you judge, so will you be judged, and the measure with which you measure will be measured out to you.” (Mt 7,1-2)

We need to understand these words of Christ well. To be sure, he does not mean that we should never make judgments, since in the first place we are by nature made to judge. The fact that we have intelligence and will, and that we are meant to know and to love, simply presumes that we are made to judge. We cannot know anything nor love anyone if we do not make a judgment.

Thus, in that gospel cited above, Christ said took it as a given that we are made to judge. “For as you judge, so will you be judged,” he said. What Christ wanted to tell us that we just have to make sure that our judgments are fair and prudent. And given the limitations of our human condition, we have to be most wary when we make judgments.

Nowadays, with all the “Mariteses” around and the pervading culture of spreading all kinds of spins and narratives in the areas of journalism, politics, etc., we need to make extra effort to be protected from the pressure of making rash judgments.

But more than just being protective and resistant to this tendency of making rash judgments, we should enhance our duty to take the initiative to make charitable judgments of everyone and everything.

That means that we should try to think well of everyone and of everything. Even if we see defects, mistakes and other forms of evil, our judgment should remain charitable rather than simply condemnatory. Of course, we should keep the distinction between what is right and wrong, good and evil.

When we are faced with any form of evil, let us remember that we actually are given a golden opportunity to grow in charity. That should be the attitude to have in that kind of situation. Obviously, we would initially feel bad and can fall into anger and the like when evil comes our way. But we should not stay long there. We have to convert that situation into an occasion to be more charitable.

For this to take place, we obviously need to identify ourselves more closely with Christ who is the personification of charity and sound judgments. He gives us the proper example of how to be charitable in our judgments and reactions to the various events and conditions of our life.

Let’s realize that we can only see, judge and know persons, events and things properly when we have a vibrant interior or spiritual life, a vital link not only with theories and principles, but with God himself.

Let’s never dare to emit judgments that are mere products of our own making. We have to make them always in the presence of God and motivated by nothing other than love for God and for everybody else. We have to continually check on the rectitude of our intention, and the correctness and timeliness of our words and deeds.

A most timely and important reminder

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

Chaplain

Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE)

Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com

“DO not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and decay destroy, and thieves break in and steal. But store up treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor decay destroys, nor thieves break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.” (Mt 6,19-21)

These words of Christ are a most timely and important reminder to all of us who are now immersed in the many new and highly irresistible developments in the world today. We have to make a shout-out of this reminder, proclaiming it loud and clear, broad and wide. We really need to make a serious campaign to warn people of the dangers of the new developments which obviously also give us a lot of advantages, etc.

We cannot deny that what we are having these days can easily swallow us up and trap us in a world of our own, detached from where we ought to be! The powerful technologies and other developments we are enjoying these days can be so tricky that we may not even realize that we are already falling into pure self-indulgence, the opposite of love which is what is proper to us.

To be able to abide by this reminder we need to learn how to be most prudent, discerning and discriminating in our ways. This can only happen if we are guided only by one principle—that everything we do should be done with God and for God, since in the end that is the real purpose of our life here on earth. In other words, while we busy ourselves with our temporal affairs, we should try our best to remain recollected.

That’s actually a big challenge, since we are easily fascinated by the charms of our modern technologies and the other new developments we have today. We need to realize that these very attractive developments require of us nothing less than a more solid grounding in our spiritual life. Without this strong spiritual foundation, there is no way we can put ourselves in the proper path toward our real destination.

That is why Christ told us that to follow him, we should learn to deny ourselves and carry cross. (cfr. Mt 16,24) I don’t think Christ wants us to disengage ourselves from the things of this world. He just wants us to practice a certain detachment from the things of this world. It’s a detachment that would enable us to do things with God and for God while going about our temporal activities.

For this we need to have the right intention in anything we do, and rectify and purify it whenever our intention goes somewhere else. We need to convince ourselves that it is all worthwhile to do everything for God and with God. We need to see the truth of how such intention would actually give us our true joy, our true perfection, even if pursuing it would involve certain sacrifices.

             We need to realize then that we have to take utmost care of our intention, making it as explicit as possible, and honing it to get engaged with its proper and ultimate object, who is God. 

We should try our best to shun being simply casual or cavalier about this responsibility. We can easily play around with it, since intentions are almost invariably hidden from public knowledge. We are urged to be most sincere in directing our intentions properly.

What is to pray properly

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

Chaplain

Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE)

Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com

CHRIST told us how to pray properly. “In praying, do not babble like the pagans, who think that they will be heard because of their many words,” he said. “Do not be like them. Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” (Mt 6,7-8)

In other words, we have to pray sincerely, avoiding just going through the motions of praying. We should see to it that when we pray, we get to have an intimate and direct conversation with God who is always with us and, like a father, treats us with love and solicitude. He actually is always eager to talk with us. Our problem is that we often ignore him, something that we should correct.

This will require faith, of course, since without it there is no way we can have a real conversation with God. Even if our faith is not that strong, we still can manage to strike a good conversation with God, precisely by asking with all humility and importance for that faith, echoing what a father of an epileptic son told Christ, “I believe, but help my unbelief.” (Mk 9,24)

And it’s interesting to note that after Christ told his disciples not to babble when praying, he told them the Lord’s Prayer which we usually refer to as the “Our Father.” “This is how you are to pray…,” (cfr. Mt 6,9-15) he said. It’s as if that prayer is the model prayer we have to follow in any personal prayer we do. We should express the same beliefs, attitude, intentions and petitions articulated in that prayer.

We therefore have to realize that prayer is how we maintain and nourish our relationship with God, and that relationship should be that of a father and a child. Prayer keeps alive our desire for God, a desire to be like God as we are meant to be.

We have to realize that praying is to our spiritual life what breathing and the beating of the heart are to our biological life. That is why St. Paul clearly said, “Pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” (1 Thes 5,17-18)

When we manage to truly pray, we can also manage to protect ourselves from all kinds of evil, and to heal whatever wounds and weaknesses we may have because of our sins. A sense of holy invulnerability can come to us. We can find peace and joy in spite of the drama of our life.

We have to be careful not to convert our prayer into something that is meant only to foster our pursuit for some self-interest that is separated from our desire to be like God. That is why in the Lord’s Prayer, we address God as our Father, and we express the desire that his kingdom come here on earth and that his will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

And while we have many things to ask because of our personal needs, we should not forget that the more important thing to ask is forgiveness of our sins which will always be given as long as we also forgive others.

We just cannot resort to prayer during special occasions when we are faced with some difficulty. Prayer is not meant to be the remedy of last resort. It is what we have to do always, both in good times and bad.

Called to pure love

 

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

Chaplain

Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE)

Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com

WE have to know what pure love is since we are called to it. Christ described it in this way: “You have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.” (Mt 5,43-45)

We have to understand that love is something that we do and give gratuitously, without counting the cost nor expecting any reward. And it is made greater when it is given to someone whom we consider to be unlikeable or unlovable.

We have to be ready to develop this kind of love since it definitely requires a lot of sacrifice and self-denial. It requires more than our human resources and reasons for loving. It requires nothing less than God’s grace, our total identification with Christ who is the pattern of our humanity and the savior of our damaged humanity. Yes, only with God can we have this kind of love.

True love 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 the language of love that was first initiated by God to us and that has generated an endless cycle of love, of gratuitous self-giving to God and to one another. It is important that we feel this tremendous love of God for us so that we can return love with love, with God as the first object of our love and all the others as a consequence.

Let’s remember that God’s love for us accounts for everything that is good in us—our life, our talents and the many other endowments and blessings that we may not even realize. And more than this, God has given us his own self by making us his image and likeness, children of his, sharers of his divine life.

And even if we have damaged that original gift, God has given us his own Son who became man to save us. In other words, God has given us the greatest gift, no less than his own Son who, aside from becoming man like us, had to offer his life on the cross as a ransom for our sins.

We have to learn how to be most aware of this reality of God’s gift to us so that we can learn also how to give ourselves as a gift to him and to everybody else. That’s why Christ told us, “freely you have received, freely give.” (Mt 10,8)

Christ concretely expressed this way of gratuitous self-giving in the new commandment he gave us that we have to love one another as he himself has loved us. It’s a love, a self-giving that is completely gratuitous without counting the cost nor expecting any reward. 

Everyday, we have to try to approximate this kind of love. We are actually given many opportunities to develop this kind of love in our daily routine as we meet all kinds of people and situations.

Outsmarting the know-it-all

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

Chaplain

Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE)

Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com

WE should never dare to deceive God. In the gospel, there is a part where some leading Jews dared to trap Christ in his speech. (cfr. Mk 12,13-17) They asked if it was lawful to pay census tax to Caesar. 

Of course, Christ knew what was behind that question. He therefore asked them to show him a denarius. And since the image of Caesar was in that coin, he just dismissed the whole issue by telling them, “Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.” So, their “gotcha” question completely backfired.

The same thing happened when they accused Christ of casting out demons by the power of the ruler of demons. (cfr. Mk 3,22) That’s when Christ pointed out the inconsistency in their logic. “How can Satan drive out Satan?” he asked. “If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand.” (Mk 3,23-25)

Clearly, when one is driven by unbelief and hatred, his reasoning can go off the rails, even the simplest of logic is thrown out. We need to do everything to always strengthen our belief in God, the very cause, origin and pattern of unity amid the vast and increasing diversity and variety of elements we can have in this world.

Nowadays, we are seeing the intriguing phenomenon of asserting what is right and moral as wrong and immoral, and vice-versa. What is clearly an expression of true freedom is now called slavery, and vice-versa. What should clearly be considered as taboo is now regarded as a human right. The forms of self-contradictions go on and on.

To correct this situation or, at least, to deal properly with it, we need to take care and strengthen our belief and our charity. We cannot take this duty for granted, especially now when the world is sinking in confusion and error as it distances itself farther from God.

            

            In many places in the world today, people are now legalizing and inculturating outright immoralities and perversions, rationalizing them as part of their human rights, their freedom, or as a gesture of tolerance on a multiplicity of preferences, etc.

            

            This is a big challenge for all Christian believers who want to be all-the-way consistent with their faith and with humanity itself, for the issues at hand are not just a matter of a particular religion but rather that of our common humanity.

            

            And the Christian faith is not meant only for a few. It is for all, though it obviously is not meant to be imposed on everyone. It has to be accepted knowingly, freely, lovingly, that is, with charity.

Instead of responding to evil with evil, hatred with hatred, we should rather respond to evil with good, hatred with love. That way we turn things around, rather than plunge into the spiral of evil and hatred.

This was specifically articulated by St. Paul in his Letter to the Romans where he said: “Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ says the Lord. On the contrary: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” (Rom 12,17-20)

We have to try our best to erase whatever disbelief, doubt or skepticism we can have as we consider this teaching, since most likely, our first and spontaneous reaction to it would precisely be those reactions.

Humility and greatness

 

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

Chaplain

Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE)

Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com

Humility and greatness

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

Chaplain

Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE)

Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com

THIS is the lesson we can learn from that episode of Mary visiting her cousin, Elizabeth. (cfr. Lk 1,39-56) Imagine our Lady, already knowing that she was going to be the mother of the Son of God, the highest honor and privilege a creature can have, offering her services to her cousin who was also conceiving a son who would turn out to be only the precursor of the one in Mary’s womb!

This is what the intimate and mutual relation between humility and greatness looks like. When one is truly humble, it can only show the greatness of his heart. And when one is great in stature and dignity, he knows he is there to serve more than anything else. True greatness is never shown in pride and vanity. It is proven and verified in humility.

Mary perfectly mirrors the humility and greatness of Christ himself who, as St. Paul said, “being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on cross!” (Phil 2,6-8)

This mutual relation between humility and greatness is expressed when we manage to value others, whoever and however they are, above ourselves and when we look after their interest instead of our own. (cfr. Phil 2,3-4)

This is what we clearly see in the life of Christ. Let’s call to mind that stunning example of his when he shocked his apostles when he started and insisted to wash their feet at the Last Supper.

For us to have this humility and greatness in our life, we need to be always with Christ and Mary. We need to be in constant conversation with Christ and Mary, referring everything to them, asking them for the answers to our questions, clarifications to the many issues we have to grapple with in life, strength for our weaknesses and temptations, contrition and conversion after our falls, etc.

We should do everything to keep this state of humility alive in us all the time. We know very well how easy it is for us to take this virtue for granted. We have to realize more vividly how vulnerable we are to the ways of pride, arrogance, self-centeredness, desire for power and domination, etc. Humility keeps us guarded against these dangers.

And when we happen to receive praises and honors from others because of our good works, let’s keep our feet firmly stuck to the ground, not allowing ourselves to be intoxicated. We should not allow these praises and honors to go to our head and cast some evil spell over us.

Instead, we have to thank God profusely. All praises and honors belong to him. What we should realize also is that those praises and honors given to us are actually a sign that we have to give ourselves more to God and to others. Our sense of duty and responsibility should become sharper.

Those praises and honors that we receive are actually some kind of a test to see if we would still remain with God or we would now choose ourselves as our own god. We have to know how to pass that test, and so we need to really grow and deepen our humility. That is how we can be truly great!