Despite our sinfulness

Fr. Roy Cimagala

“IN my distress I called upon the Lord, and he heard my voice.” (Ps 18,6)

These words should be carved deep and hard into our mind and heart, so we can always remain at peace and with great hope despite our weaknesses and sinfulness, and all the many other things that can cause us anguish–difficulties, trials, failures, setbacks, etc.

We should not delay in going immediately to God asking for help whenever we find ourselves in situations of distress. God is our Father who will always listen to us, who will always show compassion to us, who will never fail us.

We may fail him many times, but he will always be understanding to us. We should be careful not to be too overwhelmed by our weaknesses and sinfulness as to fall into despair and run away from God.

It’s precisely when we are down when God shows his greatest love for us. We should never doubt this truth which can be validated by the mere fact that God sent his Son to us, and Son became man and assumed all our sins by dying on the cross.

We obviously should not abuse the goodness and mercy of God, though we also know that somehow we cannot avoid abusing it. What we can do is to learn as quickly as possible the many precious lessons our weaknesses and sinfulness can occasion in us.

We have to remember that nothing happens in our life without the knowledge and at least the permission of God. So, if anything bad comes to us, we should always ask God: Lord, what is the purpose of all this? We know that everything happens for a reason. And the ultimate reason can only be found in God.

We have to be wary when our reaction to our errors, failures and sins would only be human, based simply on our feelings or some human consensus and other human estimation of things. These bases cannot capture the whole picture and can even distort things, aggravating things for us.

We have to learn to pray and engage God in an intimate conversation which can always be done if we have the proper disposition, that is, if we have faith and are humble enough to admit that we need to go to God.

God may be a mystery to us. His will, words and ways may not be immediately comprehensible to us. But if we show faith and humility, if we show genuine piety and sorrow for whatever weakness and sin we commit, God knows how to resolve things for us even beyond our perception.

So, we have to spread around those beautiful words of the psalm: “In my distress, I call upon the Lord, and he heard my voice.” Let us give everybody the good news of God’s constant mercy and compassion for us, and lift their sagging hearts.

Nowadays, in spite of the many material advantages and comforts people are enjoying, many are actually in anguish because they do not realize that God is always around, ever ready to give the joy and peace that the world cannot give.

E-mail: roycimagala@gmail.com