The mark of Christian perfection

THOUGHTS AND VIEWS

Fr. Roy Cimagala

“IF one strikes thee on thy right cheek, turn to him also the other: and if a man will contend with thee in judgment, and take away thy coat, let go thy cloak also unto him. And whosoever will force thee one mile, go with him other two.” (Mt 5,39-41)
    Scary words, no doubt. They surely run counter to what we may consider as common sense. But that is what Christ told his disciples and is also telling us now and always. To top it all, he also said: “Love your enemies: do good to them that hate you: and pray for them that persecute and calumniate you.” (Mt 5,44) Oh no! We mostly likely would react.
    But Christ was also quick to reassure his disciples, and us, that if we manage—with God’s grace, of course—to follow by this divine advice, we would truly be the children of God “who makes his sun to rise upon the good and bad, and rains upon the just and the unjust.” (Mt 5,45)
    And he concluded this particular episode by telling his disciples: “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect,” (Mt 5,48) somehow telling us that abiding by this teaching is the mark of Christian perfection.
    This is obviously a very intriguing part of our Christian faith. Not only should we love our enemies, as Christ taught us, but we also need to drown evil with an abundance of good. This was specifically articulated by St. Paul in his Letter to the Romans where he said:
    “Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ says the Lord. On the contrary: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” (Rom 12,17-20)
    We have to try our best to erase whatever disbelief, doubt or skepticism we can have as we consider this teaching, since most likely, our first and spontaneous reaction to it would precisely be those conditions. We can ask, even if done only interiorly, “Is Christ really serious about this? Can this thing that Christ and St. Paul are telling us, possible, doable?”
    When these reactions come to us, it is time to remind ourselves that we just have to follow our faith that definitely contains a lot of mysteries and things supernatural that we are not expected to understand fully. Like Our Lady and all the saints, we should just believe and do what we are told because it is Christ who said so, and because it is the Church that teaches us so.
    That’s what faith is all about. By believing first, then we can start to understand things that are hard to explain in human terms. We should not waste time trying to understand everything at once or at the beginning. Let’s be game enough to go through some kind of adventure that, no matter how the outcome would be, we know that God is in control of everything.
    In the meantime, guided by our faith, let’s begin to develop the appropriate attitudes, practices, habits and virtues. We have to learn the intricacies of charity, like being patient, magnanimous, compassionate and understanding, merciful, always friendly with everyone even if not everyone is friendly with us. We should be willing to suffer for the others and to bear their burdens.
    Email: roycimagala@gmail.com

 
Doing things well

Fr. Roy Cimagala

“HE has done all things well. He makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.” (Mk 7,37)
    We may not be able to make the deaf hear and the mute speak, but we should try our best that we can also gain the same reputation as that of Christ. We should be known for doing whatever we have to do, well.
    Obviously, the motive should never be one of pride or vanity, but rather the strong desire to be like Christ as we should. It should be a reputation that obviously would make us happy, but definitely it should make us more humble and eager to serve others, considering that everything that we achieve is actually a gift from God.
    We have to understand that our work, whatever it is, whether it is high or low, is our usual way to give praise and glory to God. It is actually our way of cooperating in the abiding providence of God. We should not underestimate the value of our work. It can and should be our path to heaven. It should be done well.
    That is why we should see to it first of all that our work is what God wants us to do. Our attitude toward our work should not be conditioned mainly, much less, solely, by the fact we like a particular kind of work or that we have the aptitude toward it, or the relevant qualities and skills for it. While these factors matter, they should not be the main criterion. Such attitude can only confine us to our own interest.
    What should guide us is what God and the others want and need from us, and how they want to be served. This attitude should determine the kind of work we do and the way we do it, and would bring us to tackle the objective requirements of the common good.
    Having determined that, we should love our work, doing it as best that we can. And this can mean that we carry it out very conscientiously, “squeezing” each hour for all it is worth. We should work in such a way that we would always be short of time for finishing what we would like to do.
    It can also mean that we look very carefully after the details in finishing well our daily work. We should lovingly exert the necessary effort for it and embrace the sacrifices involved—that is, the setbacks, the difficulties, the tiredness and fatigue, etc.
    These are normal occurrences in our daily work that we should not anymore be surprised about. We just have to be prepared for them, since they are occasions to grow in our love for God and others. In short, in our holiness.
    We should work in such a way that we can say that we bring them to the end. Our work should make us feel good as we go to bed. There should be peace and joy, the sensation that despite the drama of life, things are resolved somehow. We should feel the sensation that we have arrived home somehow, a sense of reaching our final goal.
    This can only happen if ending the day well is associated with reconciling ourselves with God regardless of how things in our life are at the end of the day. With God, everything is taken care of.
    That’s when we can truly say that we have done all things well!
    Email: roycimagala@gmail.com