By Fr. Roy Cimagala
IF we want to be realistic in our life, we should always be prepared for Judgment Day which can surely come anytime. In fact, we should go through our daily lives in pursuit of this most important moment when our eternal destiny is determined.
This may sound sobering to us, but it is actually meant to put us in the right direction of our life, avoiding the usual pitfalls of being confused, trapped and lost in our earthly affairs.
We are reminded of this truth of our faith in that gospel parable where Christ compared the Kingdom of heaven with a net thrown into the sea, collecting fish of every kind. (cfr. Mt 13,47-53)
As the parable narrated, once the net is full of fish, then a separation between the good catch and the bad ones is made. That separation is precisely the image of that Judgment Day when God will determine which of us deserve heaven.
Obviously, to be properly prepared for Judgment Day, we need to know in an abiding way the real and ultimate purpose of our life here on earth. For this, we need to strengthen our faith that only in God can we have the ultimate purpose in life. St. Paul said so: “Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” (1 Cor 10,31)
This abiding sense of the ultimate purpose of our life will enable us to have a sense of unity and continuity among the different elements and the different occurrences in our life, be they good or bad, favorable or unfavorable to us, etc.
When we have love of God as our abiding sense of purpose in our life, we would find it easy to go from one thing to another, no matter disparate they are from each other. We would find meaning in everything, including what we consider to be human disasters in our life.
This effort to make God our abiding sense of purpose in life will identify us more closely with Christ who was also open to anything in his earthly life, including the worst possible things that happened to him, which was to die, and yet was consistent and ever faithful in doing the will of his Father. “I do not seek my own will,” he said, “but the will of Him who sent me.” (Jn 5,30)
We would know how to handle all kinds of situations, including the worst of them, like when we have deal with people who are full of malice and deceit, etc. There is nothing that cannot be taken care of by God when he becomes the abiding purpose in life.
That effort will always fill our life with hope and even excitement. There will never be a dull and boring moment, even when we are alone or confined and restricted by sickness and other factors. Even when we are resting or in solitude because of prayer or study, our spirit will continue to be active and still in touch with God and others.
We need to understand that our life here on earth is all about the ongoing creation of our own selves with God as the Creator and us as our own co-creator with God. That’s because God wants us to be like him, to be his image and likeness, to be his children, meant to share in his divine nature and life.
Let’s hope that on Judgment Day we can find ourselves as God’s true image and likeness!
Email: roycimagala@gmail.com
