By Fr. Roy Cimagala
WE should have no doubt about this truth of our faith. Christ himself said, “Whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the gospel will save it.” (Mk 8,35) There is no greater loss we can have in this life than the loss of our life. But if we lose it for Christ’s sake, we are assured of saving it. In St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans, the same assurance is made. “If God is for us, who can be against us?” he said. (8,31)
It’s important that we develop this kind of confidence based on this assurance of Christ. We should feel strongly and constantly the presence and power of Christ in our mind and heart. It’s actually when we fail to feel that presence and power that we become easy target to our weaknesses and the temptations around.
Our problem is that we tend simply to rely on our own powers which are no match even to our own weaknesses, much less, to the evil spirits around. Remember St. Paul warning us: “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” (Eph 6,12)
But with Christ, we can conquer everything that is not good for us. Yes, we can conquer even death, as St. Paul himself assured us: “If we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.” (Rom 6,8)
Let us work on how we can have Christ’s presence and power strongly felt in us. That is the ideal condition for us to have since we have to deal with all sorts of difficulties, challenges, trials, temptations, weaknesses, etc. in this life.
When we are tempted, it only means that we have been giving an opening to this temptation since we have failed to be with Christ. Thus, when temptations come, we should enliven Christ’s presence and power in us, perhaps by making many acts of faith and other ejaculatory prayers. That way we will feel strong and ready to face temptations, eager even to do some hand-to-hand combat with the temptations, if needed.
We need to see to it that our union with Christ should, as much as possible, be abiding, completely sealed with no opening, no matter how minuscule, that can allow our weaknesses, the sinful allurements of the world and the devil himself to enter.
Only with Christ can we be keenly aware of the many dangers that lurk within us and around us. Only with him can we immediately and strongly resist the temptations and be unaffected by our weaknesses and the sins around.
In other words, we really need how to pray always. This means we have to know how to convert everything into prayer, always relating everything to Christ—our joys and sorrow, our work and rest, our successes and defeats, etc. Yes, everything can and should be a material and occasion to pray.
We should be in constant awareness of Christ’s presence in us and around us. And our relation with him should be driven by love, by our desire to be with him and to do his will. We have to feel the need for him. In fact, he should be our greatest need, without whom we should feel completely empty. Nothing should replace or substitute for him in our mind and heart. We need him more than we need air.
Email: roycimagala@gmail.com
