By Fr. Roy Cimagala
“SO, you also are now in anguish. But I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you. On that day, you will not question me about anything. Amen, amen, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you.” (Jn 16,22-23)
With these words of Christ, we have every reason to feel confident and at peace in our life even if we cannot help but get unavoidably involved in life’s complexities that can give rise to worries, anxieties and other forms of human suffering.
Let’s just strengthen our faith and keep our piety vibrant for only then can we manage to make these very reassuring words of Christ effective in our life. With this condition, we can afford to be hopeful and confident.
With this condition, we can be like a good sportsman who would always train himself for his sport and play the game bent on winning though losses can also take place, and yet would still go on playing his game.
With that attitude, marked by confidence and courage, we can continue becoming a better person who knows how to take advantage of our defects and defeats, our weaknesses and limitations as a launching pad to develop the needed virtues.
That way, our weaknesses get transformed into some newly developed strengths, validating what St. Paul once said that it is “when I am weak that I am strong.” (2 Cor 12,10) The secret, of course, is to make our weakness as the very motive to go to God who gives us all the strength.
In this regard, having a strong faith means that we follow Christ who pursued his redemptive work all the way to the end, that is, to death on the cross, without running away. Even if on the way to Calvary he fell at least three times, as Tradition tells us, he would just get up and drag himself toward his crucifixion.
We too should not be hindered by our stumbles and defeats in life. They should not separate us from God. Rather, like a little child who runs to the strong arms to his father when he falls, we should go to God as quickly as possible since he knows what to do with our failures.
We should assume the mind of Christ who, when he fell a number of times on his way to Calvary, never let go of the cross. We have to learn to take refuge in our dignity as children of God who are assured to God’s help. We have to strengthen our sense of being children of God who always takes care of us.
That’s where we can manage to be always confident in life even if we encounter the unavoidable falls and defeats. Let’s not stay long feeling bad and sad whenever we fall. That’s not a good condition for us. We are meant to be happy and at peace, full of confidence in the constant help and protection of our Father God, so we can continue to do a lot of good and to carry out our duties and responsibilities.
For this also, we have to learn how to abandon things that we cannot handle well on the hands of God our Father. He is all too willing to bear all things for our sake, if we ourselves are unable to bear them.
Email: roycimagala@gmail.com
