Let’s build a beautiful world

Fr. Roy Cimagala .

THIS should be our burning desire. And we should put all our strength in this direction. To be sure, it is for the good of all.

Yes, we can and should build a beautiful world. But we have to start with our own selves, and then from us, let’s spread the fever around.

And by starting with our own selves, we mean that we have to make sure our spiritual life is first of all in order. That’s because failing in this, no matter what we do outside us, it is not going to be a beautiful world we will be building, no matter how we manage to project some signs of beauty in it.

We have to understand that beauty, the real beauty that can take on any condition we can find ourselves in this world, can only be found in God. And for his part, he is most willing to share that sense of beauty with us who are his image and likeness and children of his.

To build a beautiful world, we have to learn to connect the often hidden dots between the material and the spiritual, the temporal and the eternal, the mundane and the sacred, the inside and the outside. We have to learn to find meaning in every situation in our life, be it pleasant or unpleasant, joyful or sorrowful. The big problem we have today is precisely our failure to connect these dots.

As St. Paul would put it, “I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength.” (Phil 4,11-13)

We need to understand that beauty is a matter of love that comes from God and that brings us back to him, transforming us into his image and likeness. Beauty is not just mainly physical or mathematical. It’s not simply a matter of proportion, of texture, of feelings and the like. It’s a matter of love. It’s not meant to fade and die. It’s meant to last in eternity.

With this love, we would know how to derive good from evil, how to purify what is dirty, how to supernaturalize what is simply natural. We would know how to deal with our limitations and weaknesses, temptations and sins.

With this love, we would know how to handle the many differences that we can have among ourselves. These and even our unavoidable disagreements and conflicts would not compromise our charity towards others. We would be most understanding, compassionate and forgiving. In fact, we would try our best to be helpful to others without expecting any reward.

Yes, these are some ways we can build beauty in this world as we should, because the world itself comes from God and thus also belongs to him. We have a tremendous responsibility in bringing it back to God as he wants it to be.

The beauty of the world depends on the love-driven beauty of each one of us. We have to help one another in pursuing this goal of building a beautiful world. Thus, we have to do a lot of apostolate, mainly through friendship and confidence even as we take advantage of the many technologies now available that can facilitate our relation with others.

Let’s be sowers of goodness and love, for this is how we can truly build a beautiful world. In other words, we simply to have to become genuine saints, because that is the only way we can such sowers.

***

We are not just ‘dust in the wind.’ It was the 70’s. I was still in my early professional life and in the middle of some gripping spiritual discovery. At that time, I was battling in the area of humility. When in your growing years you are often regarded as very special by the family, relatives and friends, you cannot help but get swell-headed. That was my case. What was worse was that I managed to hide it, and so the anomaly festered until it was unbearable.

It was at this time that a song caught my attention as it did many of my generation. The title of the song was “Dust in the wind,” by the American band Kansas. The music and the lyrics of the soft rock just captivated me, since it offered me some answers and relief to the inner tension I was suffering then.

“All we are is just dust in the wind…,” it plaintively said. “All we do crumbles to the ground though we refuse to see… dust in the wind,” it continued. The words simply told me not to take myself too seriously. In my thoughts, I realized that in the end, we are nothing regardless of our many accomplishments. I found comfort in that thought.

Then fast forward. I have gone through a lot of drama in life, and yet I managed to stay afloat, thanks to what I considered as the strength that flows from the virtue of humility. I felt blessed!

Then I discovered something else. While it’s true that we are indeed nothing without God, we are actually something when we are with God. In fact, we are a great thing when we truly are with God, for we indeed are his children, his own image and likeness.

Of course, we have to continue being humble, since everything that we are and all the good things that we have come from God. There is no good thing that does not come from God. It would indeed by crazy if we expropriate as our own something that can only come from God.

With God, even the most insignificant thing that we are, or that we say and do, can acquire a tremendous eternal value. With God, everything that happens to us, no matter how small and ordinary, has the potential of bringing us to our eternal life.

A passage from the Book of Ecclesiastes is very apropos to this point. “To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck what is planted..” (3,1-2)

The same Book of Ecclesiastes says that in our life there seems to be a monotony, a sense of meaninglessness. “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again,” it says. “Thereis nothing new under the sun.” (1,9) But this is only apparent. We can fall into this thinking precisely when we fail to see things with faith, when we are not with God.

In the end, the happy conclusion that we can get is that we are not actually a mere ‘dust in the wind’ that will just be blown away into total insignificance. If we see things with faith, if we strive to be with God, we will realize that even the most insignificant things we have in this life, even the worst mistakes we can commit, do have the tremendous possibility of bringing us to God, and of enhancing our dignity.

That is why, in dealing with the drama in our life where good and evil co-exist, we should do our best to be with God, no matter how unworthy we feel we are with him. Let’s always go to him so we can see things properly and hopefully react accordingly. With God, everything will always work out for the good. (cfr. Rom 8,28)

E-mail: roycimagala@gmail.com