By Fr. Roy Cimagala
THE gospel reading on the Feast of St. Luke, the Evangelist, celebrated on October 18, talks about Christ appointing 72 disciples and sending them in pairs to places where Christ intended to visit. (cfr. Lk 10,1-9)
What we can immediately gather from this gospel is that the main job of Christ’s disciples, which we also try to do, is to prepare people for the coming of Christ into their lives. They are intimately involved in the work and mission of Christ. Thus, they should have this purpose clear and strong in their mind and pursue it with the best of their abilities.
In that gospel, Christ warned his disciples that they would be like lambs among wolves. He also specified that they should not bring with them unnecessary luggage. But he tacitly reassured them that they would taken care of.
What should not be lost in the consideration of this truth of our Christian faith is that since we are involved in the work and mission of Christ which is definitely not only human but is, first of all, supernatural, we should be firm in our belief that the supernatural powers of Christ would be the first elements to be at play. Yes, we have to make full use of our natural, human powers, but it’s Christ’s divine power that takes the leading role.
We should just strengthen our belief in this truth of our Christian faith and train ourselves to play by God’s will and ways. In fact, we should strongly remind ourselves that in the end what truly matters in our life is to know and do God’s will. That is when we can also see supernatural things taking place through our hands.
Thus, in any endeavor that we undertake, we have to make sure that while we should make full use of all the natural and human means we can lay our hands on, we should not forget that we need to use, first of all, the spiritual and supernatural means also. In fact, between the two, the spiritual and supernatural means should take priority over the other.
And that’s because our tasks and endeavors do not only have a natural and human character. Given who we really are, we have to remember that our tasks and endeavors also have a highly spiritual and supernatural dimension.
Our work is not just a technical thing. As long as it is not a sinful, our work is always also a work of God. It is not simply ours. It’s in our work and in our ordinary duties that God engages us, and where we should have an encounter with him.
We have to realize more deeply and abidingly that whatever task or work we have just do not have a natural and human goal. Again, given who we truly are, i.e., that we are image and likeness of God and children of his, our work, no matter how small, always has a spiritual and supernatural purpose.
In fact, we should always be aware that whatever we do is done for God and with God also. We should not just be interested in the technical aspects of our work. We have to be wary of falling into what is called as technicalism or technologism. These isms, sad to say, appear to be getting common these days.
Email: roycimagala@gmail.com
