By Fr. Roy Cimagala
“THAT they may be one, as we also are one.” (Jn 17,11) Words of Christ just before he entered into the culminating act of human redemption, expressing his greatest desire for us. We have to realize that this is the ultimate goal of our life here on earth. Reaching this goal would constitute the fullness of our humanity.
How important and crucial it should be for all of us to realize as early as possible this ultimate goal of our life. That way, we can readily arrange the different aspects and elements of our life to pursue this goal. We need to help one another to make this realization clear and abidingly acted upon.
While it’s true that we are already human right at the moment of our conception in our mother’s womb, we know that our humanity needs to develop. We start as a zygote, then a fetus, then a baby at birth. We go through the stages of childhood, adolescence, adulthood and old age.
We grow physically, develop emotionally, psychologically, mentally. As a person, we realize that we need to relate ourselves to others. We just cannot be on our own, like an isolated island. We need a family, a community, a society.
There are many other things that we have to grow in and develop. But there is one thing we should not forget. With our intelligence and will, we are poised to enter into the world of ideas and reason, until we become aware of a spiritual world that later on would introduce us to the supernatural world.
This is where we become aware of a Supreme Being who definitely is above our nature and is therefore supernatural, and who is responsible for everything, creating them and giving each one its nature, order and purpose.
And if we believe in what our Christian faith teaches us about ourselves—that we are God’s image and likeness, meant to share God’s life and nature—then we should realize that we not meant only to be a natural man, ruled simply by the law of nature. We are meant to enter into the supernatural life of God.
In other words, we are not meant only to stay in the level of the natural. We are meant to live in the level of the supernatural, with God. This is where the fullness of our humanity is attained. It’s when we truly share God’s life and nature through our vital identification with Christ who offers us “the way, the truth and the life.”
This identification with Christ is possible with our intelligence and will. That’s when we become capable of receiving Christ in our life. For his part, Christ has already done everything so that he and us can be one.
He already paid for our sin through his passion, death and resurrection. He continues to give himself to us especially in the sacraments, and most especially through the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist where he makes himself the Bread of Life for us to eat so we can have eternal life even while here in this world. Christ shows us how to behave and to react to any situation and condition we can have in this life.
We should make everyone realize that the main purpose of our life here on earth is to pursue the fullness of our humanity. It is for us to become saints, to be holy, just as the heavenly father is holy, merciful and perfect.
Email: roycimagala@gmail.com
