By Fr. Roy Cimagala
THE gospel of Friday of the 4th Week of Easter has that interesting passage where Christ tells in no unclear terms: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (Jn 14,6)
What should immediately come to mind is the thought of how we can be with Christ such that he and us can just be one, he in us and we in him, and thus, enabling us to be with our Father God who wants us to be with him, since we are his image and likeness, children of his, sharers of his divine life.
It’s a tough challenge, of course, but we are assured by Christ himself that all the means for this purpose have been given to us. If we would just use our Christian faith to the hilt, we know that we are not only given things as means to reach God. We are given Christ himself.
Perhaps, the problem we have is that we allow our faith to go in a passive, mute and remote mode. We need to activate it and put it in its loudest and most immediate condition in our life.
In this regard, we should realize that we would need to pray, giving it always priority such that all our activities are somehow turned into prayer, even while we are working or resting and going through all sorts of situations and predicaments in life. In other words, that we should make ourselves authentic contemplative souls who not only are aware of Christ’s presence everywhere but also are actively following him.
We have to understand that we will always need him, like a child will always need his father, except that in our relation with Christ, we can never outgrow that dependence on him, while a child can outgrow his dependence on his father, and will in fact, after a time, be the one to take care of his father.
Not so with us with respect to our dependence on Christ. In fact, the older we get and the more knowledge and experience we gain, the more dependent we ought to be on Christ. And that’s simply because our growth in stature, knowledge and experience will always lead us to more complicated situations that would need more guidance from Christ.
We cannot deny that we tend to lose our innocence, our goodness the more knowledge and experience we gain. We tend to fall into pride and vanity, to be self-seeking and self-absorbed the more we progress in life.
We have to remember that Christ has always something to say about anything in our life, be it good or bad, a victory or a defeat, a cause for joy or for sadness. Yes, even in the most mundane and technical things, and in the most social and political issues, Christ has something to say. Let’s never think that there is something in our life where Christ is irrelevant or is not needed.
It’s important that we be with him always. We may not understand or catch everything that he is showing us, but as long as we are with him, things will just turn out right. As St. Paul would put it:
“We know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose.” (Rom 8,28)
Email: roycimagala@gmail.com
