Fr. Roy Cimagala is a Catholic priest and the Chaplain of the Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE) in Talamban, Cebu City. A prolific columnist and spiritual director, he provides daily theological insights and moral guidance for the modern believer. His writing bridges the gap between traditional Catholic doctrine and the complexities of contemporary Philippine life, offering a roadmap for spiritual maturity and "new creation" in Christ.
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He is actually showing us how to carry out a very important duty that is incumbent on all of us if we want to keep our humanity intact, let alone, our Christianity. It is the duty to pray always because that is our fundamental way of being in touch with God, our Creator, and Father. We need to be always with God. We will only have trouble when we lose touch with him.
This clarification is important and quite relevant these days as many of us are pressured, with all the challenges of our times, to go practical at the expense of our prayer and piety.
This is what familiarity is all about and what it produces. As an adage would put it, familiarity breeds contempt. It is the state of getting too accustomed to God and to his goodness such that we would not feel the urge anymore to thank and praise him for everything that we have and enjoy, since all these things come from him.
To practice both restraint and hope is indeed a big challenge for all of us, since, human as we are, we always tend to act spontaneously or instinctively to things that take place in our life here on earth, with hardly any consideration of the global picture provided by our Christian faith in which things, in general, ought to be seen.
But we have to understand well what the word of God really is. To be sure, God’s word is not just any word. Neither is God’s word just a brilliant idea, a practical doctrine, and an effective ideology. It’s not just a strategy, a culture, or a lifestyle.
We cannot overemphasize the fact that in this world, especially nowadays, good and evil can be so mixed up that we would find it hard to distinguish between the two. The good may appear like evil to us, and vice-versa. Also, what may start as good can turn out bad later on, and the other way around, what can start as bad can turn out good in the end.
As we all know, most of his disciples only had some general and vague idea of who Christ really is. “Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” It was Peter who hit it bull’s eye. “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Where there is charity, we would know how to be tough and strong and at the same time how to be nice, affectionate, compassionate, etc. But it should be a charity that is a vital expression of the charity of Christ himself.
But it’s also our responsibility, precisely because as God’s image and likeness, we have to learn how to cooperate with God’s work of continuing creation and redemption in our earthly sojourn. In fact, for this, we have to give our all, as can be adduced from what Christ said as the greatest commandment of God for us.
There are, of course, different ways and kinds of rest. But we should try to have a really good one that is fit to our dignity as persons and children of God. And this kind of rest can only be found in Christ who precisely said: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Mt 11,28)
Christ expressed this concern when he reproached some people for not repenting in spite of the many good things he had done for them. “Woe to you, Chorazine! Woe to you, Bethsaida!” he said. “For if the mighty deeds are done in your midst had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would long ago have repented in sackcloth and ashes.” (Mt 11,21)
He is actually telling us to wage precisely a war to bring about the real peace meant for us, a kind of war that is inspired by true love that comes from God himself. We cannot deny that with all the goodness God has done for his creatures, practically all of the latter have chosen to go against God. And among the enemies, we can be counted, together with the devil, as the primary ones.