A sense of the sublime

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

 

IT’S always good that we develop and keep a sense of the sublime. After all, if we are truly consistent to our Christian faith, we know that we meant to be God’s image and likeness, children of his, meant to share in his very own life in heaven. Ours is a dignity like no other.

And we should always be aware of it irrespective of how our life here on earth goes.

We are not meant for a dark, sad life, full of suffering only. We are meant for a sublime life with God.

To be sure, developing this sense of the sublime is not a baseless and gratuitous exercise. It is what God wants us to have, since we truly are children of his. It is not our invention. It is first of all, his will for us to which we have to correspond.

We should not feel uneasy about this truth, because on the part of God, he will do everything to make what he wants of us to be fully realized. All we have to do is simply to go along with his will and ways.

This sense of the sublime will do us a lot of good. Even psychologically speaking, it is a tremendous help. Imagine the calm, serenity and confidence it can give us! Imagine the joy it provides us even as we go through the drama of our earthly life that is often described as a vale of tears.

But the real good that it gives us far exceeds what it does to our psychological self. It is what shapes us into God’s children. It is a clear mark that our faith, hope and charity are strong and working. In short, that our spiritual life is healthy despite all the trials and challenges we will be facing in this life.

We should develop this sense of the sublime by often reminding ourselves of who we really are. That way, we would somehow be in a state of awe and amazement. We would somehow feel reassured that despite our limitations, weaknesses, failures and even sins, there is always hope to attain our original and ultimate dignity because God will always be on our side. We just have to put ourselves in his side too.

Perhaps as a concrete way of developing and keeping this sense of the sublime, we should cultivate the practice of thinking that we are entering heaven to be with God when we end the day and have our rest.

Irrespective of how the day went, whether it was good or bad, that is how we should think.

Anyway, we know by our faith that as long as we do our part, it is God our Father who will complete and perfect everything. There is really nothing to worry.

We should see to it that our sense of the sublime is not based on earthly things only, like health, wealth, power, fame, and much less, the sinful worldly allurements that can only give us a fake sense of joy. Sad to say, many people are driven mad mainly by these things.

What should drive us ‘crazy’ is the truth that we are children of God. It is a conviction that will give us all the good that is proper to us without falling into pride and conceit. On the

contrary, that truth would make us humble and simple, since we would be convinced that there is no need for us to be proud. We would have the best when we have the proper sense of the sublime.

This proper sense of the sublime would make us work only for the glory of God that in the end will redound to our own glory since we would be sharing the very glory of God. We would not be tempted to seek false glories!

E-mail: roycimagala@gmail.com