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Fr. Roy Cimagala

WE are now living in very exciting times. On the one hand, we have many developments taking place, offering us with increasing challenges and opportunities. If we are ready for them, we can actually take advantage of them.

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On the other hand, we are experiencing a growing number of disasters and calamities—storms of unusually elevated categories, earthquakes, fire, terrorism, etc. We should also be ready for them, and always have by our side what is known as a go-bag, that contains the bare necessities for survival during emergency situations.

But I would say that we should always have a more important kind of go-bag, one that is kept in our heart and soul and is filled not with material, perishable things, but with love, which is the only important thing in our life, the only imperishable item that can bring us to our ultimate and definitive home.

Make no mistake about it! This is the indispensable bag that we should carry wherever we are, including when we are on our bed sleeping. This should not be a problem, because this bag hardly weighs anything. It is as light as light itself, because in fact it is not something that we carry, but rather something that we truly are, that is, that it marks our ultimate identity.

Everyday, we have to see to it that this bag is not left behind, but rather becomes more and more united, if not identified with us. And that’s because it is not just a bag that carries something, but rather a bag that is each one of us, created and meant for charity, for loving God and everybody else the way Christ loves us. We are meant to be a bag of charity, and not just a bag of bones or of some material things.

In our daily affairs, let’s see to it that the things we handle, the concerns, challenges, issues and opportunities we face would not diminish, but rather would enhance our love for God and for others.

This is not something impossible to do. It is very doable, first of all because God will always give us the grace for it. And if we correspond to that grace, we will see that our worldly and temporal affairs, including our problems and failures, are the means and occasions for loving. Everything, as we are told by St. Paul in his Letter to the Romans, will always work for the good as long as we are with God always.

Every so often, let us examine ourselves if that go-bag filled with charity is truly what we have and who we are. In that way, we would not be afraid of anything, not even of death. And we can be in a better condition to do many more good things, which is really what matters in life. The goodness of our life is not measured by wealth, health, power, fame and the like. It is measured by love, period!

It is love that brings us to heaven. It is what goes beyond the limits of space and time and leads us to the eternal life with God. Again, we have to examine ourselves regularly if that go-bag is truly with us!

 

E-mail: roycimagala@gmail.com

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