By Fr. Roy Cimagala *
“There is nothing concealed that will not be revealed, nor
secret that will not be known.” (Lk 12,2) With these words, Christ is
clearly telling us that there is no point hiding things from God since
he knows everything. Neither should we be hiding things from others,
unless due to proper discretion we may have to withhold certain
things.
To be sure, our life would be much lighter and happier that
way. We would unload ourselves from unnecessary burdens. What is more,
we would keep our good relations with God and with others. Our life
would be much simpler and properly focused on its true ultimate
purpose.
We should really work on our need for transparency and
sincerity. We cannot deny that many are the elements nowadays that can
undermine that need. Signs and even structures of hypocrisy, deceit,
corruption and the like are all around us. Sad to say, they seem to be
the mainstream culture today.
Consider again what benefits a good sense of transparency
can give us. It will help us develop and sustain our integrity in
life. It means that everything that we do is good, that is, morally
good. Of course, 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.
We have to realize more deeply that before God, 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 should not base our sense of transparency on human,
natural and worldly criteria alone. These latter standards do not
capture all the good that is proper to us. At best, they may just be
silent about the finer nuances and consequences of what is generally
good for us. We have to remember that many mysteries shroud our
understanding of things.
But what is bad nowadays is that our human laws and worldly
standards have started to go against God’s will. This, of course, can
be due to our limitations in truly understanding God’s law. But it can
also be due to our sinfulness and malice. Nowadays, I believe it is
the latter that has led us to make laws that are openly against God’s
law. We need to do something drastic about this predicament.
And we can start by being sincere in our confessions and
spiritual direction. It is indeed necessary that we be brutally
sincere 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 deal with our misplaced sense of fear and shame. To
be truly sincere is not only to say facts and data. It is to probe
into the motives of all our actions, especially our sins and misdeeds.
* Chaplain Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE), Talamban, Cebu City
Email: roycimagala@gmail.com
