We need human devices

Fr. Roy Cimagala .

IN our relationship with God and with others, we need these human devices that would help us keep a lively awareness of our duties towards them and especially of our need to relate everything to God.

Yes, we have to use first the spiritual and supernatural means to keep that relationship going. They have priority always. But for these spiritual and supernatural means, like prayer, sacrifice, sacraments, etc., to be truly effective, we need those practical human devices also.

Without the latter, the former would be floating on air. The spiritual and supernatural means would remain in the world of theories and intentions. But of course, without the former, the human means can only mean nothing. They would be spiritless and vulnerable to be taken advantage of by unwelcome forces. These two means should go together.

The human means can be anything that we can see, touch, hear or feel, to which we attach some special spiritual and supernatural meaning. Of course, we can start with having some crucifixes, images of God, Christ, saints and angels in the places where we usually find ourselves, like our bedroom, office, car, etc.

They can easily elicit in us some spiritual and supernatural considerations every time we see, touch or kiss them.

But we have to be more inventive when it comes to all the other places and situations that we can be in. While in the street, for example, as we drive or walk or do some exercise, we should have appropriate human devices to keep us on the spiritual and supernatural track and not get swallowed up by merely mundane considerations.

For example, we can consider giving some spiritual meaning to objects we usually see in the streets. Like whenever we see a car, we can choose to say “Thank you, God, for this means of convenience,” instead of just looking at its brand, its color and shape, its beauty or its lack of it.

And whenever we see billboards, we either say “Thank, God,” or “Praise, God,” or “Sorry, Lord,” depending on whether the billboard is good or not so good. Same whenever we see buildings and the many people around.

We really should relate everything to God. That should be the first consideration before we start assessing the human and temporal value these things can have. Doing this should be like an instinct in us.

And in our work, we should also be quick to relate things to God, otherwise we can get carried away by merely earthly considerations, concerned only about the technicalities and failing to relate it to our proper ultimate goal.

The technicalities of our work should not be a problem or an obstacle in our relationship with God and with others. In fact, they can and should be converted into means and occasions to relate us to God, either praising God or thanking him or expiating for sins in general or asking for some favor from him.

It would truly be helpful if we are clear about what spiritual and supernatural considerations we can give to each technicality involved in our work. Our work, whatever it is, should somehow be a form of prayer since we use it to relate ourselves to God.

We really would have to pause and study things before we can make an appropriate plan or strategy to actualize this ideal of using human devices in our work. Whether our work is easy or hard, is completed or not, is something routine or involves something new and unfamiliar, we should know how to relate it to God or we should somehow see God in it.

In this way, the stress and tiredness that our work usually causes would not take us away from God but would rather strengthen our union with him, since it is in him that we can find our true rest. (cfr. Mt 11,28)

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Good and bad curiosity. We are by nature curious. That’s how we start our quest for knowledge. Let us just remember that there are two basic kinds of curiosity, the good one and the bad one, the healthy one and the unhealthy one, one that is inspired by love for God and others and another that is driven by self-love and self-indulgence.

We need to examine ourselves as to the kind of curiosity we have, and let us try to choose the right one. The good one will always bring us closer to God and to others. It will increase our love for them and our willingness to serve them, regardless of the effort and cost it may involve.

The bad one usually can give us instant perks but in the end traps us in a very subjective, self-indulgent world. It is prone to be simply idle, since it would lead us to be oblivious to our duty towards God and others. In a sense, it is like a sweet poison.

A sample of this bad curiosity can be that episode narrated in the gospel of St. John (21,20-25). Perhaps it is worthwhile to remit the whole story: “Peter turned and saw the disciple following whom Jesus loved, the one who had also reclined upon his chest during the supper and had said, ‘Master, who is the one who will betray you?’”

Peter was referring to the youngest apostle John, the author of the gospel itself, who out of delicacy, I imagine, did not identify himself in this episode. The gospel continues by saying that “when Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, ‘Lord, what about him?’ Jesus said to him, ‘What if I want him to remain until I come?’ What concern is it of yours? You follow me.”

Here, Peter is already told that his curiosity is misplaced. He should just focus on what is truly important, and that is that he follows Christ. But the story does not end there. From that incident, the “fake news” spread that John was not to die.

This part simply shows how easily we can misinterpret things. And not contented with that, we even spread that misinterpretation around. Of course, John corrected that. “But Jesus had not told him (Peter) that he (John) would not die, just ‘what if I want him to remain until I come? What concern is it of yours?’”

Anyway, the most important thing to remember is that our curiosities which start our quest for knowledge should begin with God and end with God. Otherwise we would just be building up our own fantasy world that can give us some excitement for a while but in the end would just lead us nowhere but our self-made troubles.

When our curiosity is inspired by love for God and for others, we would realize that there are limits to it even if in theory we are poised to know an infinity of things. We would realize that there will always be mysteries in our life that we cannot fully understand no matter how much we try. We should just learn to live with that reality and trust in the ever wise and powerful providence of God.

Our Christian faith assures us that God takes care of everything. Christ, the son of God who became man to save us, takes care of everything. Ours is simply to follow him as best we can, even if our best can always be made better. We are not expected to complete  and perfect everything. It is Christ who will do that for us.

Nowadays, there sadly are many instances when people follow their bad curiosities. Of course, sooner or later they will have their comeuppance. In the meantime, they may look like they are having a heyday and are leading the so-called progress in the world.

But its falsity will simply be uncovered one day…

E-mail: roycimagala@gmail.com