Chill it out, take it slow

By Fr. Roy Cimagala .

THE expressions are part of the lyrics of a pop rock song entitled, Best of both worlds, as performed by Miley Cyrus. It talks of a small town girl who enjoys privacy and the status of an ordinary girl in her school but is a big-time phenom when performing on stage because of her extraordinary talent. She’s just cool about that condition.

The expressions can also be applied to what our attitude should be in these times of uncertainty and suspense due to this Covid-19 pandemic. We are quite aware that we are thrown into an ocean of mysteries and unknowns, and we are trying our best just to coast along if only to survive with a certain level of ease and comfort. As long as we continue to pray and be vigilant, I believe such attitude is the right thing to have.

Let’s be careful when we get carried away by our emotions, usually of fear and anxiety that often are manifestations of our over-reaction to what we have now. Let’s just take it easy, and as the song puts it, let’s just “chill it out, take it slow.” Otherwise, things would just be worse for us.

Thus, let’s not be rash in our thoughts, words and deeds in reacting to what we are having now. Let’s restrain ourselves from giving in to ideas and pieces of information that are thrown to us in abundance, thanks but no thanks to our modern communication technologies.

By now we should already be quite familiar with what are known as fake news. We should be properly guarded against them. They can come from different sources.

We know that there are people out there who, wittingly or unwittingly, are too focused on pushing their own agenda without due regard to other views. This usually happens with those with a political agenda. And there are people who simply come out with wild, completely baseless assertions, relying more on their biases and prejudices—yes, even religious biases.

But before all that, we cannot deny that there are things that still are up in the air as to their veracity. Like whether the virus is man-made or is something natural, whether it came from China or wherever, whether lockdown, ecq, gcq are the right thing to do, whether we have a real pandemic or a ‘plandemic,’ etc.

Of course, we should follow the exchanges of views, but let’s not be rash in making judgments. What we should not forget is that God is always in control of everything, and that while we have to do our part, we neither should worry too much nor over-react to the developments of this crisis.

Whether we end up right or wrong in our views or positions about these issues is not as important as whether we are with God or not in living out these trying times. Yes, we should try our best to get to the bottom of these issues, but we should never leave God behind. He is in the middle of all this, and the way we react to it would show how we are relating ourselves with God.

So, more than anything else, what is always needed are prayers, sacrifices, works of mercy and all the other spiritual and supernatural means that are still made available to us.

We should try our best to live and act in solidarity with others, which does not mean that we all have a uniform way of doing things. Solidarity involves the variety of the subsidiary ways to serve the common good. Let’s do what we can to help, and let’s do it in coordination with everyone else.

So, let’s just chill it out, take it slow. No need to be tense. We have to learn to smile and ride out this storm. This one will also pass, just like the previous one, though we are still held in suspense at the moment.

To be credible. I suppose that’s what everyone wants. We want to be credible when we speak, preach or teach. In all forms of communication, we want everyone to at least take us seriously. They may not believe everything that we say, but at least we are given some considerations. That, at least, would show we are credible enough.

There may be many and endless standards of credibility. For one, we have to have clear facts, those that at best should be beyond doubt. If we are not very certain about the facts, then we should be humble enough to say so even as we explain as convincingly as possible why we are citing them.

Yes, to be credible is about telling the truth which actually is not a walk in the park, since truth goes beyond objective realities and enters into the subjective world. This is where we are going to swim in some uncharted waters, full of mysteries and unknown factors. In the end, truth is being with God who is Truth himself.

For us, that means that we have to be vitally united to Christ who said he is “the way, the truth and the life.” It may be remembered that Christ was so credible in his preaching that practically everyone, except those who were bent not to believe him, “hung on his words.” (Lk 19,48)

As St. Mark noted in his gospel, he attracted so many people, that “when the people heard he was at home, they gathered in such large numbers that there was no more room, not even outside the door.” (2,2)

When we are vitally identified with Christ, we would know what, why and how to communicate. That is how credibility is developed and earned, even if we have to expect that not everyone would believe us. We should not be surprised by that disbelief of some people.

If Christ experienced that, we should somehow expect the same to happen to us. In fact, we can say that the resistance and even hostility that some people may have toward us when we communicate, is a sign that we are actually telling the truth, and thus, are credible. We should learn to be sport also in this department. Let’s not be oversensitive. This thing is part of the territory.

Ultimately, what should guide us in developing credibility is the duty to spread the truth of the gospel which we should learn to do “in season and out of season,” as St. Paul once said.

It might be good to remit here the pertinent text of St. Paul in his second Letter to Timothy: “Preach the word,” he said. “Be prepared in season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke, and encourage with every form of patient instruction. For the time will come when men will not tolerate sound doctrine, but with itching ears they will gather around themselves teachers to suit their own desires…” (4,2-3)

We should see to it that even if we are communicating very technical, mundane or secular matters, everything has to be done in the spirit of the gospel to be truly credible.

So, credibility is about preaching the truth of the gospel even as we try our best also to adapt our preaching and communication to the level of the people whom we are addressing. In this, we should make continuing effort to know the people well, so we would know how to approach and talk to them.

Indeed, to be able to read the mind and heart of the people, to know how to address them is a precious art and skill to have, and an even more precious gift to ask from God.

Just the same, we can be truly credible when our life and preaching, our deeds and words are consistent. This is when we would automatically generate a certain aura, or what some people call as charisma, that would act like a magnet attracting people to us. That’s what credibility is all about—people seeing Christ in us!

E-mail: roycimagala@gmail.com