By Fr. Roy Cimagala *
THE Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed
Virgin Mary, celebrated annually on December 8, reminds us of that
most wonderful truth of our faith that we all are actually meant to be
immaculate, that is, sinless, completely holy which means we are truly
and entirely identified with Christ who is holiness himself.
Yes, we may not be conceived immaculate like what the
Blessed Virgin Mary enjoyed as a divine privilege given to her, but we
should strive, with God’s grace, to be sinless, always fighting
against sin and against anything that can lead us to sin. In a sense,
we have to develop a zeal to be immaculate, like Our Lady, which
definitely would involve constant struggle against sin and
temptations.
That may be an impossible pursuit, since we all know that we
are all sinners, but it should not prevent us from doing our best to
struggle to be as sinless as possible. In this regard, we should never
forget to develop and strengthen our personal skills in handling
temptations. This concern never goes passé, and it touches a basic,
indispensable aspect of our life in all levels.
These days, temptations can come to us in the subtlest and
trickiest of ways. This can be due, at least in part, to the increased
level of sophistication both in people’s thinking and in world
developments, especially in the area of technology and ideology.
With these developments, temptations can easily come
undetected, and sin can be committed in a most hidden way and can even
be easily rationalized. How important therefore it is for us to always
grow in humility and simplicity, aggressively finding practical ways
to achieve them! If not, we would just be lost.
As can be easily noted these days, the healthy fear of God
is disappearing. In its place, a most heinous sense of self-importance
is dominating. The criteria to determine what is good and bad have
become blurred. They have gone almost completely relativistic and
subjective, declaring total independence from any absolute and
objective rule or law that comes from God.
Truth is, we always need God in our battle against
temptations. We should disabuse ourselves from the thought that with
our good intentions and our best efforts alone, we can manage to tame
the urges of temptations.
We cannot! That’s the naked truth about it. We only can if
we are with God. And we have to be with him in a strong, determined
way, not in a passive or lukewarm way. Do flies flock on a hot soup?
No. But they do on a cold or lukewarm soup.
We need to do everything to be with God. Our mind and heart
should be fully and constantly engaged with him. We always have reason
to do so—at least, we can thank him for what we are having at the
moment: health, food, air, work, etc.
And to be with God can mean that we have to be actively
involved in the lives of others, since our relation with God always
passes through our relation with others. The more we get involved in
the lives of others, knowing them well, praying for them, helping them
in any we can, etc., the more we get to be with God. And the more we
are with God, the stronger we become to resist sin and temptations.
This is the way toward the ideal of becoming immaculate like our
Mother Mary.
* Chaplain Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE), Talamban, Cebu City
Email: roycimagala@gmail.com
