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!

Rash judgments, detraction, calumny

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

Chaplain

Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE)

Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com

THEY often go together and we are very much prone to them. Thus, we have to be properly guarded, training ourselves to practice restraint and to be quick to rectify once we fall into them.

We are reminded of this phenomenon in that gospel episode where the usual critics of Christ were observing closely whether Christ would cure a man with a withered hand. (cfr. Mk 6,6-11) They really did not know who Christ really was, and thus branded Christ as a violator of their man-made beliefs, laws and traditions.

Rash judgment is when one assumes as true without sufficient foundation, the moral fault of another person. Detraction is the unjust violation of the good reputation of another person by revealing something true but confidential about him. While calumny or slander is when what is imputed about a person is not true.

These moral anomalies usually come about when people indulge in what may be considered as a popular pastime, which is gossiping. To gossip is at least bad manners. If ever we have to talk about somebody with some of our friends, only nice, edifying things should be said.

We actually have no right to say negative things about others for the simple reason that the ones concerned would have no chance to explain and defend themselves and those talked to usually do not have any way to do anything about those negative things, since they have nothing to do with the persons gossiping about.

We have to be most careful when in a conversation the topic would touch on a certain person who is not there. If the tone is not positive, the most likely thing to happen is that the conversation will turn into backbiting and mudslinging. The temptation is usually strong, and many find it irresistible.

Even if the negative things said of a person are true, it is still wrong to gossip because that would be a form of detraction. It would still go against the commandment of charity which has as its finer points the demands of magnanimity, compassion, mercy, understanding, etc.

But what usually happens in that hush-hush tone of gossip is that the negative things said are not true or are already compromised, what with all the exaggerations and distortions and the voicing of biases and prejudices that are typical of gossip. In this case, one would commit calumny or slander which is a more serious offense against a person.

Gossips encourage rash judgments, silly loquacity and reckless considerations of persons. They actually dehumanize gossipers. They spoil the tongue by letting it have its way without the proper guidance of the right reason, let alone, charity.

Especially nowadays when we are into rapid communication, we have to be most careful with the words we are using. Words, which are a staple in our exchanges with one another and have great power of influence, need to be handled properly. 

Their quality both reflects and builds up the kind of person and society we are. We just have to make sure then that they do us what is truly good, that they contribute to the common good. We have to develop a keener sense of responsibility over them even as we grow in our sense of freedom in using them.

Sad to say, many now are the indications we are abusing the use of words. Gossips and idle talks are now going viral. All forms of defamation, whether of the detraction type or that of calumny, are spreading like wildfire. 

Loquacity seems to be the rule of the road nowadays, dumping us with all kinds of exaggerations, reckless words and stray insinuations. 

Hypocrisy, discretion and our inconsistencies

 

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

Chaplain

Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE)

Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com

WE are precisely reminded of these points in that gospel episode where Christ issued a series of “Woe to you’s” to some people of the time precisely for their hypocrisy and their very narrow, shallow and outright erroneous understanding of what is right and wrong in their practices. (cfr. Mt 23,13-22)

Hypocrisy, of course, is sinful and should be rejected, since it is an intentional break between what one believes and teaches, and what he practices. It is meant to deceive others and is often motivated by pride, envy, lust, laziness, etc.

Discretion is an act of prudence which allows us to hide certain things for these things ought not to be known. There is such thing as secrecy of office, for example, where confidential information should not be indiscriminately spread, or where some pieces of information are withheld since a person asking for them may have no right to know those pieces of information.

There is also the case of our inconsistencies that are due to our weaknesses, limitations, and sin. That’s when we fail to practice what we believe or preach. These inconsistencies are not necessarily sinful. They are a fact of life, part of our wounded condition here on earth, but we should learn how to handle them properly.

In all these, what is most important to remember is that we should try our best to develop a keen sense of transparency and accountability. These traits assure us that we are on the right path. That is to say, we have nothing bad to hide, and more, we are seeing to it that we are responsible for what God has given us, making these God-given gifts fruitful and productive.

A good sense of transparency will help us develop and sustain our integrity in life. It means that everything that we do is good, that is, morally good. This sense of transparency can only take root when it is based on our faith in God who sets all the laws in our life, and therefore, all that is good for us.

Besides, God actually sees everything. Before him, nothing can be hidden. We therefore have to adapt a lifestyle that would make us do everything in his presence. In fact, we are not simply meant to do things in his presence. It is more to do everything for God’s glory. Thus, when we do things without God in mind, let us be warned that we are already doing things wrongly.

We have to learn to be brutally sincere in everything that we do, and especially when we go to confession and to spiritual direction. We have to learn to lay all our cards on the table so that the human instruments used by God to help us in our spiritual life, can truly help us.

We should not be afraid or ashamed to do so, because in these occasions, it is indeed God who is acting through the human instrumentalities. We have to approach confession and spiritual direction with a strong supernatural outlook, because it is only then that we can go beyond our human respect.

To put it bluntly, we can only be in the truth and at the same time discreet and able to properly deal with our occasional inconsistencies when we are with God. Outside of him, let’s wish ourselves sheer luck, because the most likely thing to happen is to slip from the truth. It´s like chasing the wind. For all the excitement and advantages a Godless pursuit of truth gives, everything would just turn out to be vanity.

Going beyond our human standards

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

Chaplain

Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE)

Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com

WE should never forget that we are meant to live our life with God. Our life therefore should not simply be purely natural and human. It has to be supernatural and divine. The standards we use should not just be human. They should be, above all, divine.

We are reminded of this truth of our faith in that gospel reading of the Mass on Monday of the 4th Week of Easter (cfr. Mk 5,37-42) where Christ told his stunned disciples: “You have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil.”

And clarifying what that would mean, he said: “When someone strikes you on your right cheek, turn the other one to him as well. If anyone wants to go to law with you over your tunic, hand him your cloak as well. Should anyone press you into service for one mile, go with him for two miles…”

Definitely, if we are to consider these words according to our human standards, we would find them crazy. But precisely these words of Christ are an open invitation for us to enter into his supernatural and divine way of life. We can only observe them if we have faith in Christ and do our best to follow him and identify ourselves with him, who after all is the pattern of our humanity and the savior of our damaged humanity.

We have to learn how to drown evil with an abundance of good. That’s how things should be. 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. We can ask, even if done only interiorly, “Is Christ really serious about this? Can this thing that Christ and St. Paul are telling us, possible, doable?”

With God’s grace and our effort, let us learn to live with unavoidable evil in this world. “Let them grow together until harvest.” That was the answer of the master in one of the parables about the kingdom of heaven. (cfr Mt 13,24-43) He was telling the servants to let the weeds down by his enemy to grow together with the wheat. Pulling the weed out now would just endanger the wheat, he reasoned out.

This parable is an image of how our life now, with all its good and bad elements, is already the beginning of the kingdom of heaven. We have to learn how to live in this condition, where evil is unavoidable, without getting confused and lost.

Our true wealth

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

Chaplain

Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE)

Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com

WE should be clear about what our true wealth is. It definitely is not anything that comes from the world—money, fame, power, etc. Our true wealth is when we finally are with God, when our heart and mind and everything else in our life go along with the will and ways of God who is willing to share who he is and what he has with us! Nothing should replace God in our life. Replacing God would be the biggest stupidity we can get into.

This is made quite clear in that gospel episode about a man who asked Christ  what he ought to do to receive life everlasting. (cfr. Mk 10,17-27) We know how that story unfolded. It’s a pity that the man preferred to stick to his worldly riches over the real source of wealth meant for us.

We really should be most careful in our attitude toward our worldly wealth. While it’s true that we also need it, we should never consider it as our ultimate wealth. At best, it is only meant as a means and an occasion to pursue our true wealth. 

Let’s be strong in resisting the temptation to be possessed by our worldly wealth, because as Christ himself said: “It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.” (Mk 10,25)

We have to be most wary of this scenario in our life, which actually, and sadly, is quite common. There are good people who are not truly good enough, because when the ultimate test is made, they are not willing to give up all they have in order to have God.

They forget what St. Teresa once said, “Solo Dios basta,” (With God we have enough). They get too attached to the many good things in their life such that these blessings from God are converted into competitors of God themselves.

They prefer a life in this world that is without suffering, without self-denial, without the cross, as if a genuine Christian life can be exempted from all these. It is as if they have been born without original sin and have led their lives without committing any sin at all.

We have to be most careful with this most likely phenomenon happening in our lives. Yes, we have to be well-guarded against this temptation and do everything to combat it whenever, wherever and however it arises.

It would be a pity if after the many good things we may be doing, we fail to pass the final test. We have to remember that love is without measure. It is in its nature to give itself completely, convinced that what seems to be lost would actually be regained a hundredfold. In this, Christ has reassured us abundantly.

We have to be wary of the tricks of the devil and of our own wounded flesh that all try to block us in the last stretch in our pursuit of love. They will try to convince us that we already have given and done enough. We do not need to give more. They will try to trick us to be self-satisfied with what we already have been giving and doing.

To be sure, to give ourselves completely to God and to others is not easy. We need nothing less than the grace of God and our generous and prompt correspondence to it. Hard, yes, but it’s not impossible.

We are never alone

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

Chaplain

Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE)

Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com

“BEHOLD, the hour cometh, and it is now come, that you shall be scattered every man to his own, and shall leave me alone; and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me.” (Jn 16,32)

These words of Christ should remind us of what to expect when we truly follow him. We can expect to be misunderstood and abandoned, and yet we should never feel alone because, as Christ said of himself which can also be said of us if we follow him, we can never be alone, because the Father will always be with us.

We just have to train our human faculties—our intelligence and will, our emotions, memory and imagination, etc.—to align ourselves to this truth of our faith. Let’s remember that we are not meant to be guided only by our natural powers. Given the way God wants us to be, we should be guided by God’s supernatural powers—the faith he shares with us, and the many graces and blessings he gives us.

When we feel alone, we have to convince ourselves that we are not with God, and thus, should correct this anomaly that once was articulated by St. Augustine—that God is always with us but our problem is that we often are not with him. Thus, we can feel alone.

But, indeed, we are never alone. Even in our most solitary moments, we have no reason to feel alone. That’s simply because God is always with us, is always intervening in our life, is always pouring out his love and graces to us. 

And if we make the necessary effort, we will also realize that not only is God with us, but that with God we also are with everybody and everything else. We are actually and objectively in a state of communion with God and with everybody else. With our intelligence and will, plus God’s grace, we are wired for this. To feel alone is actually an anomaly and a magnet for all sorts of temptations and dangers to come and hound us.

Not even death nor distance can and should separate us from others, much less, from God. We should be able to echo St. Paul’s words in this regard with conviction: “Neither death nor life, neither angels nor principalities, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord…” (Rom 8,38-39)

Let’s never forget that it is only when we are in the company of God and of everybody else, regarding them in the way that our faith teaches us, that we can manage to be on the right path to our eternal destination. Temptations and sin can come only when we dare to be and to feel alone.

This reminder is timely especially for those who travel alone and find themselves in new, unfamiliar places, and who do not know the people of the locality. On occasions like this, we should make it a point to make extra effort to realize that we are never alone. 

Otherwise, we become easy prey to temptations and falling into sin would just be a moment or some steps away. Let’s remember that it is on these occasions that the devil pulls his most devious tricks. 

He can whisper that since anyway no one knows us here, we can do anything we like. He can induce us to give in to what our wounded flesh likes to do. He can easily lead us to act out our fantasies and our dormant immoral desires.

Be not afraid

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

Chaplain

Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE)

Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com

THE story of Paul and his companion, Silas, going to many places to preach and to convert many people, and in the process met severe opposition also and were, in fact, imprisoned and later released in a miraculous way, somehow tells us that we too, if we have to be consistent to our Christianity, should be bold in proclaiming Christ to the world, willing to face whatever difficulty we can meet along the way. (cfr. Acts 16,22-34)

We should not be afraid to do so, because in spite of whatever difficulties and contradictions we can meet along the way, God will always take care of everything. He has the last word. We may undergo a lot of suffering and can be martyred even, but the victory of Christ for us is always assured.

What we have to do is to always be bold and magnificent in carrying out this duty of spreading the Word of God far and wide. This task should give us the greatest joy since we would be truly following what Christ wants us to do.

It’s important that we set our mind and heart on this divine wisdom that tells us that our joy is in following the will of God as shown to us by Christ and the Holy Spirit. It’s important that this joy and its accompanying peace of mind is always felt even if we cannot avoid the most painful suffering along the way.

It would be good if everyday we set some apostolic goals and missions for us to accomplish. This would make our life dynamic, putting it in some adventure that should captivate all our faculties. These goals and missions may be big or small. What is important is that they should urge us to action in order to obey God’s will.

Even in terms of mental health, this duty to undertake apostolic goals and missions can be very helpful. It would put us in a positive and constructive frame of mind. It would fill us with a healthy sense of duty, keeping us away from the dangers of idleness, laziness and that state of just floating around aimlessly.

It would be good if at the end of the day, as we go to bed, even if there are still issues to resolve and mistakes to correct, we should feel happy and fulfilled, and at peace because of the apostolic goals and missions we carried out. This is the ideal way to end the day—happy and at peace, reconciled with our Lord because whatever mistakes and sins we commit, we can always ask for pardon and God will always be merciful.

We should avoid ending the day in a state of anxiety, apprehensions and the like. These are highly toxic to our spirit. They affect even our bodily health. What should prevail in our mind and heart is that of joy and peace, again in spite of things that we still need to work out.

Let’s hope that we can make these words of St. Paul our own also: “In all things we suffer tribulation, but we are not distressed. We are sore pressed, but we are not destitute. We endure persecution, but we are not forsaken. We are cast down, but we do not perish. We are always bearing in our body the dying of Jesus so that the life also of Jesus may be made manifest in our bodily frame.” (2 Cor 4,8-10)

Keeping our focus on God always strong

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

Chaplain

Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE)

Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com

IN the gospel of the Mass on Monday of the Third Week of Easter (cfr. Jn 6, 22-29), we are told about how more and more people, after learning about how Christ managed to feed 5 thousand people with a few loaves of bread, came looking for Christ. They were even willing to cross the water in boats just to find him.

This reaction of the people should also be our reaction to Christ. We should try our best to develop and keep our attraction to Christ as strong and abiding as possible. We have to convince ourselves that this is the ideal condition for us to be in, and thus, we have to be wary of the constant danger of being drawn and trapped in our earthly affairs only, with Christ regarded only peripherally, if at all.

For this, we first of all should ask for God’s grace which is actually given to us in abundance. And from there, let’s go through some systematic plan of life that will nourish and strengthen our constant and intimate relationship with God, a relationship that should involve our entire self—body and soul, feelings, emotions and passions down to our very instincts, as well as our mind and heart.

It should be a plan that should obviously include prayer in all its forms—vocal, liturgical, ejaculatory, mental, contemplative, etc. Our life of prayer should be such that even when we are immersed in the things of the world due to our work and our temporal duties, we would still be aware of God’s presence, and it is doing God’s will that should always motivate us. Our faith tells us that God is everywhere. It should not be hard to find him.

The plan definitely should include practices that will foster our spirit of sacrifice, penance and purification, given the obvious fact that no matter how much we try to be good, we would always be hounded by our weaknesses and the temptations around, and the possibility of falling into sin is high. This spirit of sacrifice would help us discipline ourselves in order to rally all our faculties for the service of God and of everybody else.

The plan should include a daily effort of ascetical struggle where, aside from fighting evil, we should aim at growing in our love for God and others, by developing the virtues as well as always strengthening them. It should help us to develop a growing concern for others, doing personal apostolates wherever we are and whatever the occasion and circumstance may be.

It should include the frequent recourse to the sacraments, especially the Holy Eucharist and confession. These spiritual and supernatural means are always effective, enabling us to be with Christ even if we do not feel his presence nor his interventions in our life. And it should also include some program of ongoing formation, knowing that our spiritual life would always need that.

It’s important to realize that the net effect of all these should be a strong and abiding feeling of intimacy with God, a strong attraction to him. We should not allow our attractions to stop at the level of some earthly and temporal goods only.  It should be God and his will and ways that should attract us most.

We should also be wary of the constant danger of getting distracted. We have to identify the usual sources of our distractions and plan an appropriate strategy to deal with them properly.

If we could only readily welcome God in our life

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

Chaplain

Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE)

Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com

WE should do everything to be able to readily welcome God in our life. When we manage to do so, we would be apt to share his power too, and like him we can do great things, even miraculous things.

We are reminded of this truth of our Christian faith in the first reading of the Mass of Wednesday of the Easter Octave. (cfr. Acts 3,1-10) Sts. Peter and John went to the temple area and met a crippled man who begged for some alms. But instead of giving alms, St. Peter, strongly invoking the name of Christ, told the fellow to rise and walk, and the cripple started to walk!

“I have neither silver nor gold,” St. Peter told the cripple, “but what I do have I give you: in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean, rise and walk.” And the miracle happened.

We should strengthen our belief that if we truly welcome in our life God who, in the first place, takes the initiative to share what he has with us, we too can do what God can. We would be apt to do great things. Obviously, what God shares with us can only be what is truly good for us. We cannot and should not invoke his name to do something that is evil or not in accordance to the will of God.

Let’s remind ourselves frequently, if not constantly, of this wonderful reality, so that we can truly say that we are doing things always with God and not simply by our own selves. It’s not presumptuous of us to remind ourselves of this truth of our faith. We really are meant to share our life with God.

This awareness and conviction of this truth of our faith is necessary for us, since we cannot deny that in our life we will encounter all sorts of challenges, difficulties and temptations and sin, and we should just know how to handle them properly.

When these challenges, difficulties, etc. come, we should immediately remind ourselves of this wonderful truth that God is always with us and is eager to help us, though in ways that may not be accordance to our expectations.

A healthy spirit of abandonment in God’s hands is necessary even as we exhaust all possible human means to achieve our goals or simply to tackle all the challenges, trials and predicaments of our life. We should never forget this truth of our faith.

In this life, we need to acquire a good, healthy sporting spirit, because life is actually like a game. Yes, life is like a game. We set out to pursue a goal, we have to follow certain rules, we are given some means, tools and instruments, we are primed to win and we do our best, but losses can come, and yet, we just have to move on.

Woe to us when we get stuck with our defeats and failures, developing a loser’s mentality. That would be the epic fail that puts a period and a finis in a hanging narrative, when a comma, a colon or semi-colon would have sufficed.

We need a sporting spirit because life’s true failure can come only when we choose not to have hope. That happens when our vision and understanding of things is narrow and limited, confined only to the here and now and ignorant of the transcendent reality of the spiritual and supernatural world.

Always give God priority

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

Chaplain

Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE)

Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com

WE can never overemphasize this need. When our relation with God is not strong, deep and abiding, there would be no other way than for us to get into some trouble sooner or later. We have to be wary of the clear and present danger of letting something else to replace God as the Number One priority in our life.

We have to do everything to fuel our need to put God always on top. The ideal that we should always try to pursue is that in our every thought, intention, word and deed, God should be the primary and ultimate object. This definitely will not be an exercise of fanaticism or rigidity as some people may suspect. Rather this how we would attain all the good that is meant for us.

We are reminded of this truth of our faith in the readings of the Mass for Wednesday of the 5th Week of Lent. (cfr. Dan 3,14-20.91-92.95 / Dan 3,5.53.54.55.56 / Jn 8,31-42) The first reading talks about how a king mocked the God of 3 young men who refused to worship his god, and threw them into a burning furnace only to observe that these young men were not burned. That was when the king realized their God was the true God.

The responsorial psalm presents a series of praises we ought to give God. We should make time to develop the habit of praising God because only then would we put ourselves in the proper frame of mind with respect to our abiding relationship with God. Let’s be wary of taking these exercises for granted.

The gospel simply reiterates the fact that only in God through Christ can we have the whole truth that brings us the real freedom and all the other good things meant for us. So, we should make no mistake about this. Only in Christ can we find true freedom. Everything else can only give us, at best, apparent freedom that in the end can only put us into some bondage, if not destroy us.

The reason for this is that Christ, as the son of God and the pattern of our humanity, is the fullness of everything that is objectively true, good and beautiful for us. He is also the one that provides us with the power to do what is good for us, since freedom is mainly about freedom to do what is good.

And since freedom is not only about freedom to do what is good but also freedom from whatever evil can hound and tie us down, Christ also perfectly fits that requirement because as our redeemer, Christ liberates us from all evil that can come to us, namely, our natural limitations, our weaknesses, temptations, sins and death itself.

We need to understand this truth of our faith well, because nowadays it is very easy to be confused about where to find freedom and how freedom should be. That’s because all sorts of ideas promoted by all kinds of ideologies and spread by powerful groups have been flooding the world.

We need to promote the real freedom that is offered to us by Christ. We have to preach about it, in season and out of season, and explain it thoroughly, using arguments that are adapted to the different mentalities and cultures of the people.

We need to make everyone understand that true freedom broadens our mind, expands our heart so as to accommodate everyone the way he is, without forgetting how he ought to be, as well as everything else in life. True freedom is what love is all about.

Truth, justice, mercy always prevail in the end

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

Chaplain

Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE)

Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com

WE have to build up our conviction in this truth of our faith. God always is in control of things, no matter how twisted things in our life can be. The truth that can only come from God, his justice and mercy will always prevail in the end. We may have to suffer for a while, but we should have no doubt as to how things will end.

This is what we can gather from the readings of the Mass for Monday of the 5th Week of Lent. The first reading (Daniel 13,1-9.15-17.19-30.33-62) presents to us the story of Susanna who was falsely accused by some malicious and lustful elders of cheating her spouse for having an illicit affair.

She almost got executed for that false accusation until the young Daniel managed to expose the ruse used by these elders. She was finally exonerated, and the accusers punished instead. The truth about the whole affair came out and justice was served on her.

The gospel (cfr. Jn 8,1-11) talks about a woman caught in adultery and presented to Christ by some scribes and Pharisees for due punishment which was that of stoning her. But Christ at first kept quiet, and when later he told the accusers that he who had not sinned may stone her, these accusers left one by one. Christ then just dismissed the woman with the admonition to sin no more. Here we can see Christ’s mercy dominating the whole incident.

These truths of our Christian—that is, that truth, justice and mercy always prevail in the end—are reiterated in the responsorial psalm, “Even though I walk in the dark valley I fear no evil; for you are at my side” (Ps 23,4) and in the verse before the gospel, “I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked man, says the Lord, but rather in his conversion, that he may live.” (Ez 33,11)

We should not waste time plunging ourselves in worries, sadness and depression whenever we are falsely accused or when we may commit a grave sin. No matter how complicated our problems may be, God will see to it that truth, justice and mercy will always prevail. We just have to strengthen our faith and to remain hopeful all the time, even oozing with confidence and peace.

We have to avoid brooding and focusing on the negative aspects and elements in our life. We should rather focus on the positive ones, because even if the negative things appear to be greater than the positive ones, if we believe in God and trust in his ways, we know that everything will always work out for the good. (cfr. Rom 8,28)

With all the pressures, challenges, trials, etc., that we have to face every day, all of them corrosive of our composure, we need to deliberately foster optimism if only to survive the day, if not to do well, what with all the possibilities that are actually staring at us also every day.

It’s really a matter of attitude, a matter of choice. We can choose to succumb to these negative elements, or to be hopeful, patient and optimistic, looking beyond the here and now and detaching ourselves from the unreliable play of our emotions, knowing that there is always meaning in everything that happens in life.

We need to build up our conviction of optimism and create its corresponding atmosphere and culture around, since we cannot deny that many people and a growing part of the world today are sinking into depression and despair.

With God we have every reason to be happy

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

Chaplain

Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE)

Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com

SINCE God takes care of everything, even in our worst conditions, we have no reason to worry for long and every reason to be happy instead. While we cannot avoid pains and sorrows, we also know, if we truly have God in our heart and we enter into an intimate relation with him, that everything will always work out for the good. (cfr. Rom 8,28)

We should just strengthen our faith in God who always takes care of us, especially in those situations when we would find ourselves already at wit’s end. For this to happen, we should see to it that we know how to be aware of God’s presence and constant interventions in our life.

In the gospel of the Mass for Monday of the 4th Week of Lent (cfr. Jn 4,43-54) we are presented with the example of the great faith of a certain ruler in Capernaum whose son was gravely sick. Even if Christ did not have to go to see the son, he simply believed what Christ told him—that if he had faith, his son would be cured.

This incident is proof of how God is most eager to help us. More than that, God is eager to share what he has with us, since we are supposed to share his life and nature. To be blunt about it, we can say that God shares even his very powers with us.

This, of course, would depend on how strong our faith is, on how receptive we are to what God wants to share with us. And knowing how God is all good, we have reason to conclude that God puts no limits on what he wants to share with us.

The real problem in this regard is us. Our faith and receptivity are not that strong and abiding. Before this reality about God’s loving concern for us, we behave like little children who just want to play around, unmindful of the many great things God is willing to share with us.

We, of course, as we grow more in knowledge and maturity, try to cooperate with God’s will and ways. But our cooperation is often erratic. That is why we have to come up with a certain plan where we grow in our awareness of God’s presence and interventions in our life. More than that, we should grow in our capacity to cooperate with God’s will and ways. This can only happen if our strong faith in God is translated into hope and charity.

We should see to it that as much as possible we always feel the joy of being in union with God. It should be a joy that would make us active and energetic to do a lot of good things. It should be a joy that would enable us to face any situation in our life.

When we feel sluggish, lazy or sad, it’s a clear sign that we are not with God as we should, that we are not corresponding to his will and ways. Let’s remember that more than us, it is God who actually directs and shapes our life. Ours is simply to follow him as knowingly, freely and lovingly as possible.

Again, we have to remind ourselves that Christian life is a happy life even if it also would involve a lot of suffering, challenges and difficulties, for which we just have to learn how to be patient the way Christ bore all the sufferings due to the sins of all men

Let’s learn to listen to God’s voice

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

Chaplain

Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE)

Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com

THIS is definitely a necessity for us. We have to learn to listen to the voice of God who actually intervenes in our life all the time, prompting us about what to think, desire, speak and do. And that’s simply because our life is supposed to be a life with God. We, as God’s image and likeness, are meant to share God’s life and nature, without erasing the distinction between God as Creator and us as creatures.

We need to realize that failing to listen to God’s voice in an abiding way undermines our humanity, and there’s no other way for us to go than to fall into some anomaly. About this truth we are reminded in the readings of the Mass for Thursday of the 3rd Week of Lent. (cfr. Jer 7,28-28 / Ps 95,1-2.6-7.8-9 / Lk 11,14-23)

In the first reading, we are told of how God begged the people to listen to him. “This thing I commanded them, saying: Hearken to my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people: and walk ye in all the way that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you.”

But they refused, and so the inevitable happened. “They hearkened not, nor inclined their ear: but walked in their own will, and in the perversity of their wicked heart: and went backward and not forward…”

The responsorial psalm presents to us God’s appeal to all of us, to which we should try our best to correspond the best way we can. “If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.”

The gospel spells to us in no uncertain terms what would happen to us if we are not with the Lord. “He that is not with me, is against me; and he that gathers not with me, scatters.” That’s simply the way the cookie crumbles.

We really need to learn how to listen to God’s voice, discerning his will and ways in an abiding way. In this we should not be sparing in our effort to pursue it. Definitely, it will require a lot of discipline, given the way we are, dominated as we are most of the time merely by what we can get through our senses, emotions and our very limited capacity to know and understand things.

We have to feel more and more at home with the truth that we are meant to be real contemplatives even as we immerse ourselves in our earthly and temporal affairs. It should be encouraged to pursue this effort when we realize more deeply that we are meant to share not only the knowledge of God but also, and more importantly, the very power of God as shown to us by Christ who was willing to bear everything just to save us.

We have to learn to be both active and contemplative in our life. Active in the sense that we immerse ourselves as deeply as possible in the dynamic of earthly and temporal affairs, while also contemplative in the sense that in all these affairs, we see God, we are driven by love for God and everybody else, we get to know, love and serve him and everybody else.

It’s an ideal that definitely is not easy to achieve. But we have our whole life to develop it, and we actually are also given all the means to attain it. It just depends on us as to whether we want to have that ideal or not. We are actually wired and equipped for that ideal, since that’s how God created us.

Faith should always guide our reason

 

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

Chaplain

Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE)

Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com

THAT Bible story about that Syrian general, Naaman, who was a leper, (2 Kings 5,1-15) and the gospel reading about Christ reproaching the people in the synagogue for not believing the prophets (cfr. Lk 4,24-30) remind us that while we have to make full use of our reason, it should always be guided by faith, it should always bow to faith when at a certain point we are made to choose between our faith and our reason. These are the readings of the Mass of Monday of the 3rd Week of Lent. 

As the Naaman story went, he was at first hesitant to believe what the prophet Eliseus told him, that is, for him to wash 7 times in the River Jordan. He expected that Eliseus would go to him and, invoking God, would heal him.

“Are not the Abana, and the Pharphar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel, that I may wash in them, and be made clean?,” Naaman complained. But his servants managed to convince him to follow what the prophet told him. And when he did, he was made clean.

The gospel story simply reiterates the same point. Christ told the people in the synagogue of their usual tendency when they would prefer to listen to their own reasoning and estimation of things than to what the prophets would tell them. “No prophet is accepted in his own country,” he lamented, and proceeded to tell them that only those who believed the prophet got their favors granted.

We have to realize very deeply that our reason always needs the light of faith. Being the human faculty we use to know and later to love, our reason just cannot be beholden to the data provided by our senses and our own understanding of things.

That would confine our reasoning to the world of the sensible and the intelligible, that is, to the world of matter and of ideas. Thus conditioned, our reason cannot go beyond those levels and would miss the world of the spiritual and the supernatural. It would get trapped in some subjective mode as opposed to what is entirely objective.

It’s important that we do some disciplining to our reasoning because it tends to get contented only with the sensible and the intelligible in the many forms that they come and attract us. It can willingly let itself be held hostage by these dimensions of reality.

We know that our reason does not create the truth. It does not create the reality. It can only apprehend, reflect, process and transmit the truth and reality. It will always depend on a reality that is outside and independent of itself.

And reality just cannot be sensible and intelligible. A lot more goes into it than what our senses can perceive and our intelligence can discern and understand. Our reason itself, if used properly, can acknowledge that at the limits of its capability, it can discern a world that is beyond the physical and the ideal.

This is where we need to humble ourselves, a predicament that many of us find hard to resolve. We tend to hold on 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.

Let our hope spring eternal

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

Chaplain

Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE)

Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com

WE all have reason to be always hopeful and even optimistic despite the ugliest fears and worries we may have in our life. And that reason can only be that we can always count on God who is all powerful. Not only that, he truly cares for us, though in ways that may escape our understanding and appreciation. 

This truth of our faith is highlighted in that episode where Christ drove out a legion of evil spirits that possessed a man. (cfr. Mk 5,1-20) Even in the worst scenario, when we inflict ourselves with the gravest of sin, there is still hope because as St. Paul said, “where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.” (Rom 5,20)

We have to reassure ourselves, based on what Christ has promised and has actually done for us, that there can be no crisis that is too big for the grace of God to handle.

We have to remember that nothing happens in this life without at least the knowledge and tolerance of God. And if God allows some really bad things to happen, it is because a greater good can always be derived from them. 

We just have to put ourselves in God’s side to tackle whatever crisis plagues us. That is the real challenge we have to face. And just like what Christ did and continues to do to redeem us, we have to follow the formula he once spelled out: deny ourselves, carry the cross and then follow him. (cfr. Mt 16,24)

If we are willing to do that, then we can even gain a lot more than what we appear to lose and to suffer. In other words, we can say that the bigger, the more serious the problem, the bigger, plentier and stronger also the grace God will give us. So, let us just be game and do our part of the bargain.

It’s not easy, of course. But neither is it impossible. It would really depend on how we see things. If we only consider the enormity of the problem, then we cannot help but feel overwhelmed and even get discouraged. But if we consider God’s abundant grace, even the impossible can be possible for us.

We need to educate ourselves to always remain calm and optimistic when faced with grave problems, and just try our best to discern what God is showing us with respect to resolving a crisis.

Yes, we have to learn to suffer. But let’s never forget that there is always the resurrection of Christ. Christ has already won for us the war against any form of evil. We just have to learn to be with him and not to be so stupid as to do things simply on our own.

We have to strengthen our conviction that every problem and crisis is an opportunity to grow in strength and quality in our spiritual life, in our love for God and others and the world in general. Yes, we need to develop a proper love for the world. We have to conquer the world that will always be beset with the effects of our sins.

Again, let’s do all this with a sporting spirit based on our faith, hope and charity. We may get dirty from time to time, but we can always get up and then move on. To repeat, there is no crisis too big for the grace of God to handle!

The parable of the sower

 

By Fr. Roy Cimagala *

WHAT lessons does the parable of the sower (cfr. Mk 4,1-20) teach us? I suppose there are many. But one of them, for sure, is that we have to be prudent in our efforts to do a lot of good in our life, and that this virtue of prudence in the end is a matter of carefully listening and following the will of God. 

That, in a sense, is the formula for a prodigious harvest at the end of our life, a harvest that goes beyond our natural limits, since it is a harvest that can give us some supernatural reward, nothing less than being united with God for all eternity in heaven!

We have to be clear about what is to be and to do good. Nowadays, we have all sorts of ideas about what can be considered good that in the end are actually not or at best a good that does not go all the way. Being and doing good is nothing other than being with God and doing the will of God. (cfr. James 1,17; Ps 16,2)

We should make the necessary effort to know God’s will thoroughly and abidingly, and to do that as promptly as possible. We have to understand that to be with God is to do his will. To be part of God’s family is to do his will. (cfr. Mt 12,50)

To be sure, this will require periods of study of our Christian faith, and the many other practices of piety that can truly help us to be in God’s presence all throughout the day even as we immerse in our mundane and temporal affairs. Such effort should give rise to many virtues, and prudence should be one of them.

In that parable of the sower, we are told about the many grounds the seed, which represents the word and the will of God, fell. We have to see to it that that seed falls on the proper ground which means that we, first of all, should put ourselves in the proper if not the best condition to follow God’s will.

We have to be wary of the danger of being carried away by some worldly forces, both the good and the bad ones, the favorable and the unfavorable ones, that would take us away from God. 

And in the world today, this danger is not only present in a passive way, but is active in affecting us. We should try our best not to be swept away by them, confused and lost. And again, this is a matter of being with God, strengthening our faith, hope and charity.

In this regard we cannot overemphasize the need to spend time for prayer and contemplation in a way that would help us keep a deeply spiritual and supernatural bearing. God should be the center and focus of our life. Everything that happens in our life should be referred to him, no matter how technical and temporal in nature only.

We should never forget that God is in everything and that everything has to be referred to him. Yes, even the devil and all forms of evil should be referred to God, because only then can we deal with them properly.

With this kind of prudence, we can expect, as the parable explains, a prodigious fruitfulness and harvest at the end of our life that leads us to our eternal life with God in heaven.

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

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com

I AM THE LIGHT

My column in BusinessWeek Mindanao, Mindanao Daily and The Metro Cagayan de Oro Times

The validity of Jesus' testimony has been explained in John 8:12-30: "I am the light of the world; whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."

As I look around, I find many of our so-called leaders, who demand us to follow them, and I hope we open our eyes and minds before we follow them blind. 

"I am the light of the world!" Admittedly, this sounds for many people a reconditioned exuberance while trembling to what might happen if they are not being able to pay the next electric bill. Did you observe yourself that electric bill amounts keep on rising and rising since staying in the home office because of the pandemic?

I am also pretty sure that also this year Christmas lights are not glowing as the previous years: I am not so much talking about the illuminated advertisements all over the city. I am referring to the private lightenings that usually brighten our homes during the Yuletide season. It's the deep sadness and depression feelings of the people around us. No, this Christmas celebration is not a celebration anymore in times of a new abnormality. 

If we managed to overcome the "Follow-me-I'm-the light"-phonies, and after we managed to find solutions in paying our electric bills, we then sit still in our houses and plan to light a candle for our prayers.

The other side of the season should make us remember that we should never hesitate to show our good hearts even amid a crisis by rendering services to others with passion and enthusiasm. There is nothing really stronger than from the heart of a volunteer - as several UP interns voiced out many years ago.

I am the light of the world. Let's try putting this concept into our minds, hearts and souls. I am pretty sure we'll not walk in darkness especially during this enlightening season and the dramatic cuts in our daily life because of this pandemic.

"Made His light shine in our hearts." (2 Co 4:6).