By Fr. Roy Cimagala
THAT gospel episode about a blind man who immediately called on Christ when he learned that it was Christ who was passing by (cfr. Lk 18,35-43) should teach us the lesson that we should always go to Christ, being quick to do so in spite of the many obstacles we can encounter, because in the end it is Christ who will resolve all our problems and difficulties, and help us in achieving our real and ultimate goal in life.
We should, of course, do our part, just like what the blind man did, who was begging along the road. But knowing that we cannot cope with all the things we have to contend with—our natural necessities, not to mention our supernatural goal—we should have no doubt as to our need to be quick to go to Christ who is always passing by our side, since he is always around.
Truth to tell, we should never go through our life’s drama by our lonesome and using only our human powers and ways. Like an instinct, we should immediately go to Christ who assured us that his yoke is easy and his burden light. Everything would be quite bearable.
Just the same, we also have to learn how to suffer, but suffering always with Christ. That would make any suffering we can have most meaningful. Such suffering can acquire a redemptive, purifying and strengthening character. With Christ in our suffering, we can manage to remain meek and humble, as he told us.
Christ already warned us about how our life here on earth is going to be. But he also has assured us that everything would just be ok. We should just stick with him through thick and thin. “In the world, you will have trouble, but take courage, I have conquered the world,” he said. (Jn 16,33)
We should put these words into our mind and heart and make them the principle to follow whenever we find ourselves in some difficult situations. For this, we should just learn how to suffer, since suffering is inevitable in our earthly sojourn. We need to develop a certain kind of spiritual toughness that is based on our faith and vital identification with Christ.
With Christ, we can learn how to be tough when we are made to suffer. Our faith, the ultimate source of truth about ourselves, tells us that suffering is due to sin, to the misuse of our freedom, to our disobedience to the will of God who created us to be his image and likeness, to be children of his, sharing in his very own life.
Yet, in spite of that, God our Father, who is all goodness and the very fount of love, did not and does not cease to care for us. And while allowing us to suffer the consequences of our sin and disobedience, he also showed and continues to show us up to now how to tackle suffering in our earthly life
. Toward this end, God did nothing less than to send his son to us. The son became man and took on all our sinfulness, culminating this mission with his death on the cross. In so doing and in resurrecting, Christ converts our suffering due to sin into a way of our redemption.
Again, let’s develop the instinct to always go to Christ as quickly as possible in all our needs.
Email: roycimagala@gmail.com
