.jpg)
By Fr. Roy Cimagala
Chaplain
Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE)
Talamban, Cebu City
Email: roycimagala@gmail.com
THAT is the proper condition of our life. Everything we do should have love as its principle and end. We should not just be content with some worldly motives and goals which, by the way, are also important to be taken care of. But we should not get stuck on that level alone.
We have to do everything out of love for God, and because of that love, it should also be done out of love for everybody else. This way of doing and working would enable us to enter the dynamic of real love which is the very essence of God and the essence that is also meant for us.
We should not be content with doing things and working only for some temporal and worldly goals, no matter how legitimate they are. We should not be content with gaining technical achievement, for example. Nor should we be ok only with some economic gains, some political power and things of that sort.
These motives can only give our dedication a short life-span. They often work only under favorable circumstances. And most likely, they tend to corrupt us. Without love for God and everybody else as the motive for all our actions, we would just get involved in some pursuits that in the end are simply fleeting, meaningless, and ultimately empty, like chasing the wind.
It is doing things with love for God and neighbor that would keep us going irrespective of the varying circumstances. It is this love that would unite us with the very power of God himself. We would not be depending solely on our human powers, even if also need to make full use of them.
That is why it is important that we be clear about the intention we have in everything we do. Let’s remember that nothing is good, true and beautiful, nothing is fair and just, nothing is perfect if it is not done with God and for God. In short, we need to refer all our acts to God. We have to make this affirmation very clear in our mind and do everything to make that ideal a reality.
And so, a lot depends on our intention, because our intention is the very expression of who and where in the end we want to be. Do we choose God, or do we simply choose ourselves, or the world, in general? It’s actually a choice between good and evil.
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.
We can easily fall into hypocrisy and deception, doing what can appear good externally but is not internally, since we could refuse giving glory to God, which is the proper intention to have, and instead feed and stir our vanity, pride, greed, lust, etc.
We need to actively purify our intentions, since we have to contend with many spoilers in this regard these days. In fact, we just have to look around and see how openly opposed many people are of directing their intentions to God.
To them, intentions are strictly personal and confidential matters that others do not have any right to meddle. While there is a certain truth to this claim, we have to remind ourselves that our intentions too are subject to a universal moral law.
