A certain immunization needed

Fr. Roy  Cimagala

WITH all the new and very vicious viruses spreading around these days, we need to have a certain immunization to tackle this disturbing fact of life. And more than having a kind of medical immunization, what is more needed is moral immunization.

We should learn, for example, not to be easily affected by pornographic and other inane pop-ups that would just suddenly appear on the computer screens when navigating in the Internet. These days, these pop-ups are unavoidable, and we cannot afford anymore to be too delicate or too sensitive. Otherwise, we end up isolating ourselves from the world improperly.

These days, many people, especially the young, get dangerously entangled in their work and study because of these unwelcome electronic guests. Given their vulnerable condition, they get easily collared and floored. Of course, other worse things can happen after that.

We actually are somehow endowed with a built-in defense mechanism in our bodily system. We have some natural antibodies to neutralize harmful bacteria and other poisonous elements that get into us.

In our spiritual and moral life, something similar takes place. With our conscience, we have some natural mechanisms to help us identify what is right and wrong, and to behave accordingly. It’s important that we give due attention to the care of our conscience. We just cannot leave it alone, growing and developing on its own.

We have to realize that our conscience needs to be trained and formed also. Due to our weakened condition, it may come out, at least in some instances, doubtful, perplexed, scrupulous, lax, or outright erroneous. It has to be given the proper moral principles and supported by virtues to facilitate its work.

But definitely, for our conscience to be properly formed, it has to have the mind and will of Christ himself. That is the only way we can consider our conscience to be the right condition.

Obviously, this will involve the study of the moral doctrine, the development of the proper virtues, especially those of prudence and temperance, etc.

But we should never forget that all that study and pursuit for the virtues should somehow reflect the things Christ himself did for him to go all the way of bearing all our sins without committing them.

And what do we see in him? First of all, he lived poverty and humility to the full. He was detached from human glory from birth to death even as he undertook the most ambitious and heroic task–the salvation of mankind.

He prayed a lot. He spent forty days and nights in the desert praying and fasting before beginning his public life. He became so spiritually strong that even the most vicious temptations hurled on him by the devil after those days did not affect him at all.

He was extremely obedient to his Father and to Mary and Joseph, and to all human authorities. He had no other business other than to do the will of his Father, even to the point of offering his life on the cross.

Here we get an idea of how to produce the necessary antibodies, the antigens and antidotes for the many kinds of moral viruses spreading around in the world today. We should never take for granted our extreme and inalienable need for prayer and sacrifice.

Christ himself spent hours and even entire nights in prayer. If he, being God and our redeemer, would need to pray so much, how can we ever think that our need for prayer can be less than his?

So we have a big problem to solve these days, because it is quite clear that we are not praying as much as Christ prayed.

E-mail: roycimagala@gmail.com